Daily British Whig (1850), 14 Nov 1914, p. 16

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wy Ment when they were congratulating PAGE SIXTEEN "CHAPTER IX. 1 Forewarned. The thing was managed with'an fo- | ity that Alan termed devilish--it | indisputably Machiavellian. ! The lovers had come down from the WNorth in hot haste and the shadow of Meath. Two days of steady traveling canoe, by woods trail, by lake Steamer--forty-eight hours. of fatigue and strain eased by not one instant's from the high tension of vigilance upon which thelr very lives depended -- wore to a culmination through thie tedious afternoon 'on the | train from Moosehead--a trap of phys- Seal torment only made possible by Alan's luck in securing, through sheer acecldent, two parlor-car reservations turned back at the last moment be- fore leaving Kineo station. No matter--the longest afternoon | must have iis evening: the pokiest ot trains comes the more surely to its destination; in. another hour or two they would be fn Portland--free at | * last to draw breath of ease in a land | of law, ordep and sane living. i As if in answer to this thought, the 'grain slowed down with whistling i brakes to the last hill-station. and as | i | I the trucks groaned and moved anew, & lout of a boy came galloping down 'the alele, brandishing two yellow en velopes and blatting like a stray calf: "Mista Lawr! Mista Lawr! Tel- grams for Mista Lawr!" Alan had been expecting at every | station a prepaid reply to his wire for | reservations on the night express from Portland to New York. But why two envelopes stiperzeribed "Mr. A. Law, Kineo train southbound, Oakland Sta. *" He tore one open, unfolded the in- closure, and grunted disgust with ite curt advice, opemed the other and caught his breath sharply as he with drew--part way only--a playing card, | 8 trey of hearts: Thrusting it back quitkly, he clapped | both envelopes together, tore into a hundred fragments, and scat tered them from the window, But the fiendish wind whisked one small | scrap back---and only one!---into the | lap of the woman he loved. Vainly he prayed that she might be asleep. The silken lashes trembled on her cheeks and lifted slightly, dis- closing the dark glimmer of question: | ing eyes, And as shéd clipped lie scrap] of cardboard between thumb and fore- | finger he bent forward and silently Rook it from her-one corner of the trey of hearts, but Inevitably a corner | bearing the figure "3" above a heart. "The Pullman agent at Portland wires no reservations available on any New York train In the next thirty-six hours," he sald with lowered voice. " "Couldn't we possibly catch the New York boat tonight 7 He shook a glum head. "No--I looked that up first. It leaves hefore we get in." She sald, "Too bad," abstractedly, reclosed her eyes, and apparently lapsed anew Into. semi-somnolence-- but without decetving him who could well guess what poignant anxiety gnawed at her heart. He could have ground his teeth in exasperation--the impish insolence of that warning, timed so precisely to set their nerves on edge at the very mo- T them He Could Have Ground His Testh in Exasperation. themselves upon the approach of a respite! » The sheer insanity of the whole damnable business! | The grim, wild absurdity of it! x ! To think that this was America, thie the twentieth century, the apéx of the Riighest form of civilization the world had ever known--and still a man be hunted from pillar to post, haunted with threats, « { lic lobby and office, he washed up, ' friend," { where | could find a seawarthy boat cell of silence and shadows In New York, day after day, eating his heart out with impatience for the word that his vengeance had been consummated by the daughter whom he had Inspired £0 execute it. An hour late, In dusk of evening, the train lumbered into Portland sta tion; and, heart fn mouth, Alan helped Rose from the steps, shouldered a way for her through the crowd, and almost lifted .her into a taxicab. "Best hotel tn town," he demanded. "And be quick about it--for a double tip" -- He comm d his one d ate #cheme to the girl en route, receiving her indorsement of it. So, having reg- istered for her and seen her safely to the door of the best available room In the house within ready call of the pub- 7 #ulped a hasty meal--which Rose had declined to share, pleading fatigue-- and hurried away into the night with only the negro driver of a public hack, picked up haphazard at some distance' from the hotel, for his guide. CHAPTER X. Fortuity. He wasted the better part of an hour in fruitless and perhaps {ll- advised Inquiries; then his luck, such as It was, led him on suspicion down © poorly lighted wharf, at the ex- treme end of which he discovered a lonely young man perched atop a pile, hands in pockets, gaze turned to a tide whereon, now black night had fallen, paHid wraiths of vachts swung Just visibly beneath uneasy riding- lights. "Pardon me," fLlau ventured, perhapk you can help me out--' "You've come to the wrong shop, my the young man interposed with morose elvility; "I couldn't help anyhody out of anything --the way 1 am now." "I'm sorry," thought possibly "but Alan, might "but I know sald you to charter." The "young man slipped €magly down from his perch. "If you don't look sharp," he said ominously, "you'll charter the Seaventure." He waved his hand toward a vessél moored alongside the wharf: "There she is, and a better boat you won't find any schooner-rigged, fifty feét over all, twediy-five horsepgwer, motor aux- iliary, two staterooms--all ready for as long a coastwise cruise ae you care to take. Come aboard." He led briskly across the wharf down 2 gangplank, then aft along the deck to a companionway, by which the two men gained a comfortable and where enamel Here the light -of the cabin lamp re- vealed to Alan's searching scrutiny a person of sturdy bulld and independent carriage, with 'a roughly - modeled, good-humored face, reddish hair, and steady though twinkling blue eyes. y Name, Barcuf® the young man in- | troduced himealf cheerfully; "chris- | tensed Thomas. Nativity, American. | State of life, flat broke. That's the | rub," he laughed, and shrugged, shame- | faced. "I found myself hard up this ' Zz with this bpoat-on my hands, ' sunk every cent | had --and then some ; --fitting out on an oral charter with | a moneyed. blighter in New York, who | was to have met me here a fortnight | since. He didn't--and here I am, in! pawn to the ship chandler, desperate ' enough for anything." i "How much do you owe?" | "Upwards of a Hundred." : "Say I advanced that amount--when | can we sail?" The young man reflected briefly, ! "There's something so engagingly idi- otic about this proceeding." he ob: served wistfully. "I've got the strang- { eat kind of a hunch it's going to go through. Pay my bills, and we can be off inside anhour. That fe" He checked with an exclamation of | dismay, chapfallen. "I may have sce trouble scaring up a crew at short notice. 1 had two men engaged, but last week they got tired doing noth. ing for nothing and left me flat * "Then that'd settled," Alan said. "I know boats; I'll be your crew--and the | better satisfied to have nobody else aboard." The eyes of Mr. Barcus clouded. | "See here, my headlong friend, what's Your little game, anyway? I don't mind playing the fool on the high seas, but I'll ba no party to a kidnaping or--" % "It's an elopement," Alan interrupt- ed on Inspiration. "We've simply got fo get clear of Portland by midnight." | "You're on!" Barcus agreed prompt- | Irv, his face clearing. "God only knows why I believe you, but I do----and here's | my band!" | CHAPTER XI. Blue Water. Anxiety ate like an acid at Alan's heart. Tf this shift to the sea might be thought a desperate venture, he | was a weathered salt-water man and | undismayed; nothing would have been | more to his liking than a brisk coast: wise cruise in an able boat--under auspices less forbidding. But when he re-entered the hotel one surprising thing happened that gave him new heart--momentarily it seemed almost as if his luck' had turned. For, as he paused by the desk of the cashier to demand his bill, the elevator gate opened and Rose came roomy cabin, bright with fresh white | §« ___ THE DAILY BRITISH WHIG, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14 1014, See The Motion Pictures Of This Story At The HE TREY 0° HEARTS He acquainted her briefly with his fortune, But she seemed unable to echo his confidence or evem to overcome the heaviness of her spirits when their cab,- without misadventure, set them down at the wharf. Here, Alan had feared, was the cru- cial point of danger--if the influence f the trey of hearts was to bring faster upon them it would be here, n the hush and darkness of this de- #erted water front. And he bore him- elf most warily as he helped the girl from the car and to the gangplank of Lingered Watchfully on Deck. the Sesaventure. But nothing hap- pened; while AM: Barcus was as good as his word. Alan had barely set foot on deck. following the girl, When the gangplank came abpard with a clatter, ard the Seaventure swung away from the whart Until the distance was too great for even a flying leap Alan lingered watch- fully on deck At length, satisfied that all was well, he returned to the cabin "All right," he nodded; "we're clear of that lot, apparently; nobody but the "had come up into the wind, and now | | | This time misguided consideration induced Barcus to let his crew sleep through the first afternoon watch. Six belle were ringing, when, ih drowsy ap- prehension that something had gone suddenly and radically wrong, Alan waked. He was on deck again almost before hé rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes, emerging abruptly from the half- light of the cabin to a dasslé of sun- light that filled the cup of day with rarefied gold, even as he passed from conviction of security to realization of immediate and extraordinary 'peril. His first glance discovered the wheel deserted, the woman with back to him standing at the' taffrail, Barcus--no- where to be seen. The second eon- firmed his surmise that the Seaventure was yawing off wildly into the trough of a stiff if not heavy sea. A third showed him, to his amazément, 'the Gloucester fisherman --- overhauled with such esse that morning and now, by rights, well down the northern hori- Zon--not two miles distant, and stand- lug squarely for the smaller vessel. Bewildered, he darted to the girl's side, with a shout, demanding to know what was the matter. She turned to him a face he hardly recog- nized--but still he didn't understand. The {inevitable inference seemed a thing unthinkable; hie brain faltered when asked to credit it. Only when he saw her tearing frantically at the painter, striving to cast it off and with it the dory towing a hundred feet or 80 astern, and when another wonder ing glance had discovered the head and shoulders of Mr. Barcus rising over the stern of the dory as he strove to lift himeelf out of the water--only then did Alan begin to appreciate what had happened, Even so, it was with the feeling that all the world and himself as well had gone stark, raving mad, that he seized the girl and, despite her struggles, fore her away from the rail before she had eucceeded in unknotting the painter, "Rose!" he cried stupidly. "Rose! What's the matter with you? Don't you see what you're doing?" Deflance inflamed her countenance and accents; "Can't you ever say any- thing but 'Rose! Rose! Rose!' 1s there no other name that means any- t'¥mg/to you? Can't you understand how intolerable it is to me? 1 love you uo less than she--better than she She Whips Out a Gun as Big as a Cannon. | three of us aboard. Now you'd best turn in. This is evidently to be youl £tateroom, this one to port, and you'll Lave a long night's sleep to make up for. what you've gone through---dear- est" He drew nearer, dropping his voice tenderly. And of a sudden, with a little low ery, the girl came into his arms and clung pasionatély to him. "But you?" she murmured. "You need rest as much as I! What about you? "Oh, no 1 don't" he contended. "Be- sides I'll have plenty of time to rest up once we're fairly at sea. Barcus and 1 stand watch and watch, of course. There's nothing for you to do but be completely at vour ease. But----you must let me go." Eyes half-closed, her head thrown back, she seemed to suffer his kiss rather than to respond, them turned hastily away to her stateroom--Ileav- | Ing him staring with wonder at her | strangeness, By midnight the Seaventure was spinning swiftly south-southeast, close reefed to a snoring sou'west wind the fixed white eye of Portland head light fast falling astern. CHAPTER Xil. Down the Cape. At four o'clock, or shortly after, Alan was awakened by boot-heels pounding imperstively overhead, and went on deck again, to stand both dog- watches--saw the sun lift up smiling over a world of tumbled bins water, crossed the wake of a Cunard liner in- bound for Boston, raises and over hauled a graceful but businesslike fish- (from Gloucester, at eight) and saw it a mile or two astern wh aching with fatigue ~he was free to return to his | (eame in a blinding flash. ever dreamed of loving you--beeause i hate you, too! What is love that is no more than love? Can't you unm derstamd "Judith!" he cried in a voice of stu. pefaction. "But--Good Lord!--how did you get aboard? Where's Rose?" "Where youll not find her easily again," the woman angrily retorted. "Trust me for that!" ! "What do you mean?" Tlumifnation | "Do you mean it was you--you whom I brought aboard last night?™ "Who else?" . "You waylaid her there in the hotel, substituted yourself for her, deceived me Into thinking you--I" "Of course," she said simply. "Why not? When I saw her sleeping there--- the mirror of myself, com at my: mercy--what else should 1 think of than to take her place with the mau loved? 1 knew you'd never know the difference--at least I was fool enough for the moment to Jelleve could stand being loved by you in her name! It was only today, when I'd Nad time to, think, that I realized how 'impos sible that wae!" : 23 A sudden slap of the mainsail boom ¥ . bloody-minded vizen is your blushing bride-to-be?" . Alan' 'shook a helpless head. The thiyg defled reasonable explanation. He made a feeble stagger at:it with- out much satisfaction either to him- &elf or to the outraged Barcus. "No--it's all a damnable mistake! She's her sister--I mean, the right girl's sister--and her precise doubie-- fooled me--not quite right in the bead, I'm afraid." "Yop may well be afraid, you poor flat!" Mr. Barcus snapped. "D'youn know what she did? Threw me over board! Fact! Came on degk a while Ag0, sweet as peaches--n 32 . sudden whips out a gun 8 a cannon, points it at my heud and" or ders me to luff into the wind. Before I could make sure I wasnig, ing. se had fired twice--~In the sig nal to that blessed fisherman astern there--at least, they answered with two toots of 'a power whistle and changed course to run.up to us. Look how she's gained already!" "But how did she happen to throw You overboard?" "Happen nothing!" Barcus snapped, getting to, hie feet. "She did it a burpose--flew at me like a wildcat, and before 1 knew what was up--1 was slammed backwards over the rajl." "I can't tél you "how sorry -% oil" Alan responded gravely. "There's more to tell--but one thing to be done first" "And that? Mr. Barcus inquired suspiciously : "To get rid of the lady," Alan an- nounced firmly. "Make that fisher nan a present of the woman in the case. You don't mind parting with the dory in a good cause--If I pay for iter 'Take it for nothing," Barcus grumbled. "Cheap at the price!" He took Alan's place, watching him with a sardonic eye as he drew the tender in under the leeward quarter, made it fast, and reopened the com- panionway. As the out other girl came on deck with invitation, in a sllen Tage that only heightened her wonderful loveliness, Alan noted that her first look was for him, of untempered ma' lignity; her second, for Barcus, with a curling lip; her third, astern, with a glimmer of satisfaction as she rec ognized how well the fisherman had drawn up on the Seaventure, "Friends of yours, 1 infer Alan inquired civilly. Judith nodded. * "Then it would save us some trouble ----yourself included--4if you'll be good enough to step Into the dory without a struggle." Without a word, Judith stepped to the rail and, as Barcus luffed, swung herself overside into the dory. Immediately Alan cast off, and as the 'little boat sheered off, 'Baslils, with a sigh of relief, brought the Sea- venture once more back. upon her course, For some few minutes thepg wae si- lence between the two men, 'while the tender dropped swiftly - astern, the woman plying a brisk pair of oars. Then, suddenly elevating his nose, Barcus sniffed audibly. ' "Here," he eald sharply, "relieve me for 2 mip ute, will you? I want to go forward and have a look at that motor." nthe time that he remained invis- ible between decks the Misherman luffed. picked up the dory and its occupant, and came rdund agaln in open chase of the Seaventure. When Barcus reappeared With 4 grave face. ~*~" "The devil and the desp She," he ob- served obscurely, coming aft, "from all their works, good Lord deliver us!" "What's the trouble now?" "Nothing much--only your playful little friend has been up to another of her light-hearted tricks. If you should happen to want a smoke or anything to eat when you go below. just find a mirror and kiss, yourself §00d-by . before striking the match. The drain-coeks of both fuel tanks have been opened, and there are up- wards of a hundred and fifty gallons of highly explosive i loshi round in the blige!" 1 it was - CHAPTER xin. No Quarter, ° "Yes, yes," said Mr. Barcus indul gently, breaking a long silence. "Very interesting, Very interesting, infeed. | I'va seldom listened to a more enter taining life-history, my poor young: friend. Rut. tell you candidly, as man_to man, I don't believe one. word of it, It's all d----n foolishness!" His volcé took ona plaintive ac- cent, "Particularly this!" be expos: tulated, and waved an indignast band, compassing their plight. J "The rest of your adventures aré reasonable enough," he said, "t won my credulity---and I'th & native of IDEAL THEATRE On Mondays And Tuesdays as it grew still more dark she lowered & small boat that theretofore hdd Swyung in davits. A Mttle later a faint humming noise drifted across the tide. "Power tender," the owner of the Seaventure interpreted. "Coming to all, I presume. Sociableciot What 1 can't make out is why theéy seem to think it necessary to tow our dory back. Uneasy conscience, maybe-- what?" TS He lowered the binoculars and glanced inquiringly at his employer; who grunted his disgust, snd said no more, $k "Don't take 1t go hard, oid top," Bar cus advieed with a changé eof note "from irony to sympathy. Then he rose and dived down the companionway, presently to reappear with a mega phone and a double-barreled shotgun. "No outting-out parties in this ous. fit," he explained, grinning smiably. "Nene of that old stuff, revised to sult your infatuated female 'friend---once aboard the lugger and 'the map is mine!" / Stationing himself at the seaward rail, where his figure would show in sharp silhouette against the glowing sunset sky, he brandished the shot- gun at arm's length above his, head, and bellowed stertorously through the megaphone: "Keep off! Keep off! This means you! Come within gunshot and I'll blow your fool heads off!" Putting aside the megaphone, he sat down again. "Not that I'd dare fire this blunderbuss," he confided, "with Flames Licked Out All Over the Schooner. 7 this reek of' gasoline; but just for moral effect. Phew-w! Pd give a dal lar for a' breath of clean air; Fve in haléd . so 'much gas in the last few hours Fm drycleansd down. to my silly old toes!" | . Gaining no response from Alan, 'he observed critically: "Chatty lttle cus. tomer, your are," and resumed the bimoculats, Faia For thirty minutes nothing hap- pened, other than that the sound of the fisherman's launch was stilled; It rested - moveless in: the Waters, two figures mysteriously busy in the cock pit, the Seaventure's dary trailing be- hind it on a long painter. Gradually these details ' became blurred, and wese blotted Bit' by, the closing shadows. The afterglow in the west grew cool and faint. ~The crimson «waters darkened, to mauve, to violet, to a translucent green, to blackness. Far up the coast two white eyes, peel over the hotizon, stared steadfastly the dark. "Chatham lights," Barcus sald they were, - Abruptly he dropped the gldshe and jumped up. "Hear that!™ ha gried! * Now the humming of the motor was again audible and growing louder with every instant; and Alan, gettisig to his feet in turn, infected with the excite- ment of Barcus, could 'just make otit #® some distance a dark shadow be: neath the dim, spluttering glimmer of light, that moved swiftly and steadily toward the Seaventure. "What the devil!" he demanded, .Jpugzied. "You uttered a mouthful when you said 'devil'! Barcus commented, grasping his arm and hurrying him to the landward side of the vessel. "Quick--kick off your shoes--get sat for a miledong swim! Devil's work, all ight!" he panted, hastily divest- ing himself of shoes and outer gar ie." *"1 ldn't made out what they were up ®~ till 1 saw them lash the wheel, ght the. fuse, start the motor, and take to the dory. 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