The evening world. Newspaper, March 23, 1914, Page 15

ul ekuMeeicaa ett pila da Slob th aod ae (Copyright, 1911, by Duffield & Co.) CHAPTER I. A Secret of the Sea. ee NM nt tals he ye — — ven Std se aad akan ta @ World: OV. 900 oO. HE sea lay blue to the far horizon. Blue—ah, blue fs but a name till you have seen the sea that breaks around the Bahamas and gives anchorage to the tall ships at Port Royal; that great sheet of blue water stretching from Cape Catoche to the Windward Talands, and from Yucatan banks and keys and reefs, the old sea to beyond the Bahamas, studded with of the Buccaneers shot over with the @oings of Kidd and Singleton and Horne. Gaspard Cadillac, ex-stoker of the Rhone, sat with his back against a palm tree cleaning an old tobacco pipe and absorbed in the Job. One man beneath the tree waa a Moco, The French navy is divided into two great classes, the men from the south and the men from the north, the Moco and the Ponantine, rd was a man from the south, fough way. wiry and vivid: Trea, hia way, wiry and v ves, beaom companion, also a stoker of the Rhone and the only survivor with Geepard of the wreck of that {Il-fated ghip, was a Ponantine, a big man from Bretagne with a blond beard. Yves was over awny at the other ald ef the jand now hunting for what he might find in the rock pools and creeks. Away out there in ri Une from where Gaspard was slitting beneath the palm trees, under the blinding dazzle of sea, the Rhone was lying with her bottom ripped out, her boilers burgt, her boats hanging @mashed at her davite; a horriblo travesty of a ship, knocked under the wea as if with the blow of a giant's fist, a raffle of ropes, machinery and @ wiry Provencal, courageous asa rat, had held Yves’s head above water till Yves felt the sea slapping him in the face and saw a great Ufting and dripping in the moon- ight: saw Gaspard seize the spar, a picture almost instantascous, a pic- ture that told him at onco the truth and made him strike out for enfety. ‘The set of the current had the spar to the islet. One might have fancied that the sea, repenting for that sin of hers, had determined to @ave these last survivors of the Mhone. ‘The two men in the fow days since the wreck had salved enough food to last them for months, there was a epring of water amidst the low bay cedar bushes that stretched from shore edgo to shore edge, the islet cumstances made them easy of mind and made a holiday of the episode. ,Gaspard having cleaned the pipe to his satisfaction, fillod it with tobacco and lit It. Back went his mind to the old days on the Marseilles wharves; to Amisette, the pale and undersized bar girl who had caught his fancy. Yves and Gaspard hed fallen in with her and she had favored Yvei Tho big, blond Yves had captured this little pirate who had sniled for years upharmed and harmful. Sho scorned Geerery who would have given his hand for a glance from her, and she had given herself wholly to Yves. Gaspard, the Moco, was a man who could never forgive that If there ign pier ee drink ee fing it alwa: ell to Yves—or a yet he, Gaspard, had eaved this man's life. A great crab fell with a thud on the sand beside Gaspard, who sprang halt erect to find himself face to face with Yves. The Ponantaise was laughing. Ho had caught the crab amidst the rocks; he had two more under his arm, their claws tied together with a string; he had found a boat sail from tho Rhone and a small spar, out of which ho in- tended to make a tent; he flung the Jot on the sand and then sat down be- xide his companion, took out his pipe, filled it, lit it, and began to smoke. “See here,” said Yves, “you know over there where I fetched these things Ee Bel =oves there I've something.” fone what ts it? You keep on like an old woman; {f you found anything fanni than yourself it would be r, ba led the way right across the islet to the north, it was scarcely a quarter of a mile wide, thin ilet, and covered from whore edge to shore edge with thick bay cedar bushes rising to the knees. ‘Tha omly trees upon it were the palms, seven palma gathered in the clump beneath whose shade the Moco been lying. “Here we are,” said Yvos, as he tramped his way out of the bushes and on to the northern beach, the Moco following. Yves, leaving the beach, began to clamber along a ledge of rock that went straight out from the shore like a natural pler; Gaspard followed him, treading the seaweed under foot. Yves led the way till they wera fifty yards from the shore; then ho stopped, turned, and pointed into the green clear water to the left. Twenty feet out from the reef lay what seemed at first a flat-topped, reed-grown rock. The Moto, who had flung himself down Jeaning over the reef ledge see better, gave a start. iJ after the first surprise, saw through the mystery of the rock grow- ing like a hideous flower on a colored stalk, The rock was the foretop of a ship, the column was the coral- crusted mast. But the mystery dispelled was as nothing to the mystery half-unveiled. 'To the Moco, who confbined in him- eelf the Imagination of the southern man and tho imagination of the sailor, this hint of a ship in the still and allent water appealed more forcibly than the full eight of @ wreck on a thunderous beach. 'The coral-crusted mast led the eye down till the sight found the pulo, fish-like form of the ship Itse! t. “Roufre,” cried the Moco; tia as thick as a funnel.” Then he was si- lent as was Yvew, and lying side by gide on the gray dead coral of the Teef, they contemplated the column of living coral that once had formed the m of a ship, The ship below unharmed as to her fore part, ele tho mast would not have been left standing; driven years by some great wa she must fave passed at one stride of the sea over the circling reef of the lagoon, te sink, the water pouring through her shattered timbers, and lie lost here forover. Or, in those past days there may have been a break in the reat, bulle long ago by the restless coral, “Mplignta of painted fishes flashed now and then through the water and van- ished, the seaweeds growing from the mast showed waving as wind, now like dark brown Bites ot abcaowenow like a drowned wo a aub- ¢ woman's hair powdered with spark- ling blossoms; now a tress of vivid green would be loosened by the fingers of the outgoing tide, catch a sunbeam and shew its beauty, or a tress of amber, As they watched and as the tide sank lower, inch by inch and foot by foot, the hidden portion of the mast Jewelled with coral and sea growths stole more clearly into view. “Look,” said Yves, pointing down to where the fantastically high Pp was humping itself into view, iw ‘fashion you ever a ship built in that floating on the sea? Why ‘om the time of Noah—In the church of Paimpol they have a model By like that; she was dedicated to the Virgin in the old days"— “Come,” said the Moco, toward the shore, “let's go back.” As they tramped their way through the brushwood they talked of the thing they had acen. When supper was finished they sat each with hie back against a palm tree, Tho work of the day was over. They had Tigged up a rough sort of tent with the boat sail and some broken spars, but the warm night held them in the open. “Sho had a@ lot of gold tn her for Havana,” satd Yves, breaking silence and nodding in the direction of the reef; “seems a pity that it should be lying there under the sca and no one to spend 1: “See here,” said Gaspard, “it's strange I waa thinking of that heoker lying tn the lagoon over there.” “Yes?” “I was thinking, maybe, there ts stuff worth looking for aboard her if one could get at it.’ Yyes laughed. ‘ee, If you could get at it—if you could get at it—and sho built over with coral foot thick; and If you could break through it what would you find? Dead men's bones.” Ho tapped the dottle out of his pipe, rose, stretched and turned toward the lit- tle tent, while Gaspard without a word continued smoking; he could hav® struck Yvea, He turned fn at last under the shel- ter of the tent where Yvea was al- Teady snoring, and he slept and dreamt of the do of Marseilles, of Anisette and of Y CHAPTER I. Spanish Gold. em OM the salt-white sand of the beach to eastward, and some two hundred yards from the palm-clump a ridge of coral rocks ran out into the sea like a natural pier, The water lay deep off these rocks and the fishing would have been food had the shipwrecked Ones pos- sessed lines and hooks, i Gaspard, next day, late in tho af- ternoon was standing at the end of this coral pier, the sea of an incredible blue, sailless, forlorn, came glassing shoreward in long fentle lines of swell, slobbering and aslghing by the rocks and breaking sadly on the sands, Suddenly, from behind, as Gaspard stood there gazing into the depths came a voice that made him turn. Yves far away amidst tho low bushes was beckoning and calling to him, capering, gesticulating, flinging his arms about. Yves seemed to have gone mad, and Gaspard, making along tho rocks, ran across the sand, and through the bushes towards him. Over the bushes the air was shakit with the heat, Yves was much farther off than he seemed from the rocks; he was almort at the centre of the islet, and now as Gaspard made his way through the bushes he w that his companion held some- in his hand. t ‘and #ee what I have found.” waved the thing in the air; it was a belt with a brass buckle and a pouch attached to it. He was laughing, one might havo fancied that he had fallen on some great good fortune, He had. “Look,” cried Yves. Ho opened the pouch; it was filled with big pieces of gold; they had been wrapped in ollakin, he had flung the oilskin away and hoe stood with his two great hands outspread clasping the pouch and the treasure bursting from it. Gaspard ot the sight gave a cry that rang across the islet and was vered by the ever-wheeling gulls. ola!’ erted Gaspard, seizing a pleca from the hand of Yves. He examined it, bit it, glanced at ft again, He seemed and had the look of a man who, long a prisoner in darkness, had been suddenly brought face to face with a powerful light, The piece of gold was Spanish, a “piece of eight,” heavy, and stamped with the stately effigies of a vanished king. “Look!” cried Yves, taking the coin back from the hand of Gaspard and replacing It in the pouch with the others. “Look!” As he buckled the pouch he pointed with his foot at something amidst the bushes, Just here the bushes were thinner than elsewhere and here the ground was raised in a little mound, Amidat the bushes, white and desolate, liy some bones, They were strewn hither and thither, One might have fancied that here once lay a skeleton, the embe a man that some wind had blown upon and scattered, A skele- ton, in fact, had once lain here, on or amongst the bushes, but so long ago that the bushes dying and growing again had cast the fragments apart. The skeleton of a man; the skull which Gaspard had picked up and was now holding in his hand told that, It was a strange skull, smail and deformed, hideously broad across the cheek-bgn the bones of the thigh inguished by even the un- ea of the watlors were un- » the shorter of them or broken, for if nlace }| THE SHIP OF CORAL showed the thickening where callus H had { “Paht ried Gaspard, flinging tho skull down. “He must have been beauty whoever he was—and look. He picked up an old pistol-barrel, eaten away by rust, the trigger plate thin as w leat dnd crumbling like a withered leaf to the touch, lying near. Many, many years of exposure it must have taken to eat the metal away like that, Yves glanced at the thing without interest. “Come,” sald he, and turning, he led the way to the southern beach. Here under the palm trees he sat down, opened the pouch, and rattled the gold pleces on the sand between his outspread legs. Gaspard, who bad followed him without a word, stood, without a word, looking on, Yves counted the pieces; there were twenty-one of them, and he was di appointed; there had seemed mo He began to recount them. He ha scarcely done 90 when Gaspard broke silence. “Look here," said Gaspard, “half of that falls to my share; half of that belongs to me by oll rights.” Yves stopped his counting and looked up. It was the tone of Gas- Pard’s voice rather than his words, perhaps, that caused the expression upon his broad, sunburnt face. A heavy, unfriendly expression, such as the face of a croupler might wear punter disputes the gany said Yves, “and who found “That's neither here nor there,” said the Moco, “you found them, it is true, vas only @ quéstion of luck, I might have found them jut as easily, and if 1 had I would have gone shares,” knew this to be a fact. pard was the soul of generosity. erosity was not predominant in the soul of Yves, He was a good-hearted man, but the Breton peasant was up- in his nature; he had made this great haul of golden fish en- trely with his own hand, and now he was called upon by a man more gen- erous than himself to share it, He said nothing for a moment, but went on counting the pieces; then, as if addressing them, “Yes, it's easy to talk of luck—but would I have found them if I had been lying lazy on the beach, or staring into the sea like some people? No, I was hunting for dead brushwood, doing something for my living, and I found them.” “Then keep them," cried Gaspard, and turning on his heel he walked down tot aedge, He walked for a bit along the sand; then, with his arma folded, he stood looking at the ea. His mind had left the subject of the money and was clinging to the true grievance he had against Yves, The poisonou® source of hatred, Anisette, But the grievance of the money was there as well, and all at once by some alchemy of Satan the hundred grudges, petty and large, that he had against his companion joined together and formed the figure of a monstrous Yves, a creature he hated, and who, so the devil whispered, hated him, The sun was now near {ts setting, and as Gaspard stood there with arms folded, looking at the sea, the eternal crying of the gulls took on a new meaning; they were saying a new word: “Y¥ves—Yvos—Y ves.” “All the same," sald Gaspard. as though he were continuing a conver- sation, “you are a thief, and a son of a thief—more fool I to chum with a dog of a Ponantaise.” Yves rose up; he was a slow man to wrath, but terrible when roused The belt and the pouch containing the money were lying at his feet; he kicked them aside as he faced tho Moco, say what I have suid." fter the fashion of the monkeys,’ replied Yves, “that say what they have said all day long—drop that!"’ The Moco had whipped the knifo from the sheath in his bolt. Both men wore knives, but the Ponantalse had not drawn his. He stood with his arma folded across his imme chest, literaily as though he were nursing his wrath, “It is well known,” sald Yves, his eye on the knife, “that 4 Moco and a woman can only fight with their claws and tongu: Gaspard dropped the knife; then he stooped and picked it up as if to re- 4t ip hie bait; he seemed halt LEA Bb: Nes a mad with rage and not to know what he was doing. That was the moment of his life; the next he might have replaced tho knife in its sheath and all would have been woll, had not Yves, whose anger had suddenly passed from his control, spat at the Moco a word, A word of one syllable, one of those dead rats of lan that these men fling at one another in . but when spoken in anger are worse than a blow. Tho Moco flung himself back as though a snake had struck at him, then the knife in his hand flashed through the air and Yves was on his back on the sand kicking and cough- ing and whistling at the radi The knife had just touched the jugu- Jar vein in his neck; tho air rushing into the vein made the whistling noise, but Gaspard knew nothing of this. He strode up to the body of hin companion with fists clenched, pre- pared for battle, and certain that his agtagonist would spring to his feet and face him. Then he saw that Yves was dying. Dying of nothing, apparently, for the knife was on the sand almost un- stained and the stricken man showed no wound to speak of, just a scratch on the neck from which the blaek blood oozed in froth. For a moment Gaspard stood, the last flery rays of tho sun casting bis shadow far away along the sand. Then he was kneeling by the body, shaking it by the arm, eailing upon it © 10 wake up-to come to life! After the first outburst of raving, impetuous grief, the grief of a child rather than the grief of a man, Gas- pard rose up from where ho had cast himself down by Yves. ‘The sun had long passed from the sky and the Star-smitten sea came in smoothly, rhythmically, breaking in foam on the starlit sands, and there on tho sand lay Yves, listening to what the pea wan saying. Me stood for a moment, his chin resting in his d, his eyes on the body beforo him. Grief rushed on him, driving all little and evil things from bis mi He stood looking at his handiwork. It had been an je dent; he had not meant to kill; he did not remember even flinging the knife. The act had been automatic and committed In blind rage--all the same, he had killed Yvon. ‘Then, loathing the business which had to be done, he seised the body of his dead companion by the shoulders and began to drag it toward the bushes, As he stepped from the bushes, his task accomplished, he cast his eyen over the beach, It lay white in the starlight, and there was nothing now to tell of tragedy but the knife lying there just as it hart fallen after its murderous work. Hie picked It up, dug it in the sand, and replaced it in Its sheath. The belt with the pouch of money lay under the trees;. ha nicked it up automatically and, car- rying it in his hand, turned to the little tent As he walked toward the tent two heavy hands seemed pressing down on unutterable weariness fallen upon him, robbing him of mind and almost of movement, so that when he reached the tent he was stag«ering like a drunken man, He crept under the shelter of the tent, and with the belt and the money beside him fell into a profound dreamless sleep, W CHAPTER III. Alone. DEN he awoke tt full day and the sands beyond the tent opening lay white and blazing in the sunlight down to the blue, lazy #ea, was He remembered everything at once. Tt would almost have seemed that his mind behind the veil of sleep had been reasoning the matter out, for he had awakened saying to himself out loud, and as if he were continuing a conversation, “Yes-and what ix more, [ saved his life It was at thin moment that Lonetl- ness seized his heart. ‘The fact of his utter isolation had not stood before him full square til just now. The gulls were explaining it to him, "You are alone!—alone!—alone! Hi!—Hi~Hi;—you there on the sands reasure Island” Story Of Southern Seas and Pirate Gold 3 day, night and day, who will you speak to—what will you do? You there on the sands alone!—alone!—alone!” He came along the reet forming the edge of the Jagoon; the tide was be- sinning flood and tho foretop of tl coral ship was standing stark and dry from the water; the ship herself wan clearly to be neen, in this light even more clearly than in the sunset glow. Never for a moment did Gaspard feel fear of the body lying ay there amid the bushes; not for the worth of the Rhone would he have gone through the bushes to look at it and see how it was faring the hands of corruption, yet he feit no fear of it; on the contrary, it was the bain! he dwelt on when he wished to allay fear. For fear, faint and ip- definable, was taking hold upon bim now. He had no Yon about had played in the death Tho thing was an accident jd himself; all the same, m who die suddenly and violently have @ habit of haunting the place where they die. You can run from @ haunted house, but you cannot run from a haunted island. Thin dread of no escapo wan jb formed the truo basis of his ‘ar, @ thing on which to build ter- rible and fantastic edifices. He lit @ pipe and, smoking it, he fel’ asleep, ‘akening in an hour or #o refren' a fearless, Sleep seemed to have wiped away loneill: superstition, and all their attendant evils. He felt hungry, and getting some tinned meat and biscuit from the store of provisions which lay close to the trees he dined after @ fashion, and then lit a pipe. Then one morning as he gazed dully out to sea his eyes fixed themsoives on an object ut a mile away to the southeast, something round and black that bobbed fm the sparkle and glitter of the water, It was like the head of a swimmer, and now it was like a drifting buoy. It was drawing neurer, the current Was sotting it toward tho island, and now—It was like a boat. Tt was a bon ‘There could be no mistake; it un- derwent alterations of shape as it twisted to the slap of the waves, now head on for the island, now nearly broadside on. A boat—release from the tslet and its dreams and terrors! The cry that escaped from Gaspard seemed echoed by the gulls. ‘The boat was now plainly In view dancing on the waves with the light- ness of a walnut shell on the ripple of a pond. It was empty and drifting toward the islet, but it would not touch the beach, it would pass by a few hundred yards; he saw that, and he prepared for the event by casting off his clothes It seemed @ amall boat midway be- tween a dingy and a ship's quarter boat, and never to Gaspard's en had anything appeared so gay in motion or so+friendly aw this tiny craft dancing upon the waves. At a distance it had seemed black, but now he saw that ft was painted white; it was clinker built, for, so clear was the air, he could sea the overlapping planks, and now he stood preparing to take to the water and awim to it, the terror of the islet which he had shaken off for a moment came behind him again, and at once held bim back and urged him forward. What if the Terror followed him tn- (o the sea? Behind him there seemed @ deadly enemy filled with wrath at attempt to escape, and, for a mo- ment, the want of power that comes to ua in nightmare held him shivering in the wind, the next he was in the sea, striking out for the bout. ‘He had to swim against the current that was carrying it, the waves hit him fn the face like wet hands trying fo drive him back; but the shock of the plunge had given him his courage, The boat was close now, beautiful and buoyant, and white as gull, smacking the sea an she came, shining with spray, the green water under her showing clear an an emerald, Ow, bhe was only an arm's length awa and now he was grasping the star board thwart. She heeled over alight- ly as he got his elbow on the thwart and peeped in, She waa empty of everything but the bottom boards and a pair of culls, clean scoured with spray. Tle worked hia way round to the atern, boarded her and stood upright. Hie was free of the taland at laat, but he would have to land to get his clothes and some provisiona_and water, CHAPTER IV. The Escape. j] i: stood for a moment Lalane- ing himself, his even awoep- ing the sky line to south. HN ward, which showed neither nall nor stain of amuke, and as he stood he beard the island call- ing to him. He got the sculls out and, rowing toward the strand, beached the boat cleverly. Jumping out knee deep, he hauled her nose a little highor on the , then, running like a man pur |, he made for the tent, seized the 1 the pouch of money, made heap of provisions, seized a bay of bixeutts and some tinned stuff, and with his arma filled returned to the bout At last, bleeding, panting, with shaking hands, he crossed the sharp reef and reached the clothes. He put on the boots and with the coat, shirt, and trousers under his left arm, came buck swiftly along the reef, sprang on to the yand, and, running, shouting, gesticulating with his free arm, made for the boat He tumbled inte her aod she came broadside on to the strand; but the waves were less than two feet hieh and with one of the sculls he man aged to pole her out, then, seizing both sculls, he re eo # © © © parsed nee: the sh paled by the ike a ring of to southward, w » the emerald passed into the living burning supphire of the sky, lay @ line of white clouga, swan-like awa painted out inate th sparkling © and like a flock of fying swans, dark- ening with their suggestion of snow the blueness of the water, deepening With their remoteness the distanc Two hours before sunset Gaspard, standing up to get a better horizon and shading his eyes with his hand, Saw, away on the eastern sea line, @ bright point burning like @ star. It was 0 rail, And, atill, as he watched, the eail grew. The vensei waa not nearly a r off as shoe appeared, for the t gave « low horizon. For thie reason, too, she seemed bigger than she really Was, That she was heading atraight for the boat he could not doubt, yet en torn by the fear that she would miss him, him By, not sight him. bed ae The un waa little more than an hour from Nis setting; would he cut the wea lino before the vosnel sighted bec Ho was a race between the sun and the ship. He knew quite well that though she was coming apparentl: dead on to hint, the chances were that she might pass him by a conalder- able distance, and, as though the thought had cnat a blight on her, for @ long time she hung, not seeming to alter in nize. Then, magically, she took distinctnean, mystery and beauty left her: in a short half hour she be- came clearly defined, a sinall vessel of perhaps 200 tons, at a distance of berhaps five miles, She would not be doing more than eight or nine knota, At last he turned his head. The sun WAS gone, just a trace of fire line Kered beneath the gold of the sunset, through which, like a dark blue wind, Was stealing the night, oe © © © ew As Ganrpard rowed he shouted. Scarcely a cable length away an making to ‘shim by half that dio- tance sho came, black as ebony, a barkentine, silent as a phantom, steaithy as a thief, Thon, as he hailed her again with a last despairing cry, sho burst into voice, A tern shot ite Heht over the uartor, a voice hatled him from ck port the “HA yl ow!” shrill as a bird, and at the cry, like a shaken beehive, the forecastle broke into life; the decks In @ moment wera a-swarm, chattering like a tree full of monkeys, sberher Jantern showed over the port OW, nd above the lantern a face the face of a devil with glit- tering eyebalin and white teeth grinned down on the boat below. Next moment something struck Gaspard across the chest. It was a rope. Seizing it, he held on, and the little boat came up grinding Againat the great washing wall of the vessel, carried with her on her slow way and Vight beneath the broad channel of the foremaat. He seized the rope’ end to the forward neat, caught up the belt with the pouch of gold and fantened it to his waist; then, reach- ing up, ho caught hold of a channel- plato and with the help of another rope flung by the chattering crowd above, swung himself on to the chan- bel. Next moment he was on dec The starlight lit the decks dimly fore and aft, ho waa surrounded with cero swarming and chattering like nkeya; a man in a Panama hat who had helped him over the side, and who, disregarding him, waa now shouting directions in shrill French to « black man who had allpped down into the boat, seemed the only white man on board, Having finished hin directions he turned, kicked a negro who stood in his way, caught up a lantern and, nink up to Gaspard, held the light mas if he wore a work of art he 1 to examine, French?" said the man in panama, speaking tn that langual and fixing Gaspard with a pair of heady unwinking black eyes. Tis face Ht up by the lantern light was stempered looking, the on bourgeoin—yet the eyes chilled Gaspard for a moment ere he replied: “Yea, French, shipwrecked and floating about im that curaed boat rly ran me down.” “What ship?" “The Lhone of Transatiantique.” “The T have seon her in f i Iw sho lost then?" her bottom ot ¢ with all on board. are the only one saved?" the Compagnie reef and ge “Yes, “Houfre!" said the other, betraying hin provence in the word. “A Moco, too, #0 was T tI ET became a man of my own. Well I have saved you and | take the boat! Tain Capt. Sagosse, and this te my barque La Belle Arie- sienne He solzed Gaspard by the coat lapel as he brought the words out with em- phasia, “The bont ix mine, you understand.” “Ob, the bowl: she is yours and welcome.” “She ta wort! and @ brush take the Rho five hundred trance, uli of white paint will a name off her, I found you on @ raft-—-no, on « hencoop—no, on a apar’-—- Ile allpped hin arm through Gaspard's and waa leading lim aft to the deckhouae on the poop. “You were floating on a spar, He Is the deckhouse, Come tn." the deckhouse door, ifortaly Gaspard haw of gold at on the table, dis yet his re hin hand on th side as, leaninir plied Hut, we long to wie man | ‘But you said" “Yea, but you haven 1 was wrecked from the enough, or island de floating im. on her that T have # 1 got r rowed away--that's all “Outre,” maid . pouring out two Klaskes of whilst Gaspard took a bineuit ittle man almost one might ha etted the lot the Compagnie Khor he Manama had pla whe, He turne sound Kthone right Away On a the h * has no 4 rum , Transatiantiane out of a t, then laue cigar from bia und With his elbow on the tuble bewan to talk and ask ques- tions He asked questions without waiting for an anewer, nay, he sometioes an ewered them himself, as Rhone, To have om oir na Hart what tonnage wa Ob, 1 ke en thousand she and the were sinte ships, The Rowel Med regularly at St. Pierre, Oh, yes, i ought to know her, Martinique bred as I am. Not born, nigd you. No, 1 was born et Arica, buf I have epent thirty a the years in these seds, One can make money in these seas, but one never can forget the old land, and you were born at Montpellier, you aay, ‘ta the game thing, and all Provencaia are brothers. Think you, if I picked up Dutehlander or an English, or even ® Ponantaine, I would be giving him rum ta my cabin" —— Thon mellowed by the rum and the Presence of another Provencal, he leaned his elbows further on the table and continued talking and asking questions wtihout seeming to hear the anewer, CHAPTER ¥ Rum. E had done big thin had Capt. Sagease, since the day thirty years and more ago when deserting from « French ship, he had taken up hie abode at St. Pierre, Begin- ning at the very bottom, he had worked his way up to comparative affluence, and white plying Gaspard with queatione he interpolated frag- ments of his own history. He told of how he worked the vessel entirely with blacks, Barbadians, and when he had exhausted his alight in- terest in Ga..rard and his history he returned to himself, talking as though { Goapard were an old friend just stopped aboard, the freemasonary of the south and a common birthplace giving him the familiarity of long ac- quaintanceship. There wae acarcoly a disreputable transaction in which a ship's keel could find @ piace, but it seemed thet Capt. Sageane and his bark, the Arlestonne, had been in it—gun run- ning in the Spaniah-American war, omuggling, and worse, He owned tho vessel, he owned property in Martinique and very questionable property in St. Pierre, and inspired now by rum and what seemed at firet blush a charming and natural naivete, he told about himself and hia doings, his possessions and as- Hirations with charctertatio force and in « nad got the better of govern- menta, men and women; wave neither names nor dates nor places, talking in hin loose way with noth- ing more definite than, “It was an inlet, it might have been fifty m th or Atty milea north of Rum Cay—but that doesn't matter,” or “Honorine, that might have been her name, but it waan't anyhow, I'll tell por! the tiie on Hersh ies Pierre Ha- wette, and then I'll tell you the ti he served her.” is ae All at once the brain of Gaspard, drowsed by the eventa of the day, cleared, perception became acute, sen- #ation beatified, two glasses of atror rum and the Martinique boat whic! the captain had gives him, had nwt for him the door of the dy Paradive; the deck house of ecomed palatial, of men, erty gener, 4 lo held out his glasm for more seum ? ity. “That alight, lay Belle Arlealenne Hagense the greatent Gaspard Cadillac, the equal of ter. ‘And mark you,” eaid fagense a he poured it out, “T got my hold on her in that way, because, mordiev, I remembered those two words she sald that night to the mate of the yonnaine. ‘They thought I was ink, but T have never been drunk @! my life, and t never forget.’ “Nor 1" said Gaspard, | “never been drunk and never forget.” The recollection of Aniaette and Yvea came up in his mind, and he thumped the table with hin fist, “T have served my man out, ‘0, I never forget. Now you listen jut Hagnene wan off on another tack, money business this time, “And it was worth seven thousand dollars American gold coin,” Sagease course of hie yarn, way One we dawn.” there? oth was saying in the when Gaspard, whipping the belt and Pouch from hia walat, brought them down on the table with a bang, #0 ta bn wold coinn rolled out. aqlook at that." cred Gi: . What you aay? Waen't tint on the thrust of a knife?” The coins danced before him as he sat rocking tn hin me An abstemious man as a rule, the weartneas and the strong old rum had done their work. Sigease stopped short in hia A atared at the belt and the gold and then at the man before him. Sagease, though he chattered of his own do- ings, never by any chance gave a man a handle to use against him; hia talon were an vague, all wave the vile Jainy of them, as clouds; hia one weaknesa was talking and he knew it and guarded augainat it. The vil- lainies he honated of were all apoc- ryphal; based they were on black deeds, Just aa clouds are based on mountaina, The scoundrel in him had to bonat, but to bring Sagease to book on one of hin stories would be like attempting to bring a bird to earth by grasping at itn shadow on the ground. Men had tried to blackmail thia raconteur on the #trength of lila atate- ments; to bring the vulture to earth by catching at hls mhadoew, only to And thesamelves in the ‘vulture's eluteh, Dlackinailed themselves most crueliy, And he never let go as long aa bia clutch held, and there was a feather on the victim, But though he he knew when to be of facts. He was ailent He laughed, but aaid nothing 4 moment, while Gaspard, guther- ing the coins together in a heap, re- iterated his question. “What you say—ian't that worth the thruat of a knife?—ziven in fair Aght, mind you, man to man, and the water; fintshed, belt abou your Gas THE AFTER-HOUSE By Mary Roberts Rinehart WILL BEGIN IN NEXT Monday's Evening World better man hia hand, took a coin, examt a handed it bi mies “Bon Dieu, but where did he get these thi from? They are not coins of t re Had he, then, been robbing a Gaspard nodded with drunken grave someone of them and wouldn't It was over there on the island, “Aha,” said Sagease, “Ho you 4 him on the istand. You are a - fter my own heart! The in id the name of your man you sald Yves.” Gaspard, exhausted, failing into third stage of intoxication, was ing now over the table, hi . drooping, elt loo er. 248 “Ho—but ho had another same—Re . War not only What y rousing slightly, Sagesse repeated his quest the man at the table did not comprehend, the he sank completely forward, his reat ri table, his right hand on ine oe the money. and barebreasted, tied up in little knots, made bis — at a gail a geen pointed to man table, and Jules with a broad but without a word, entered and the dreamer by the shoulders, F) Reese took him by the and ty tween them they carried him to starboard dog hole, which did for a mat on board. bunk, Sagesse placed the belt pouch of money in the bunk him, then they closed the door on Bim and left him to his slumbers, When Sagease found himself It on the table and ment filled htm at the extracrdiaary discipline amidst the hands, ané the night, sultry and cloudless with the Han Uke frosted the deck-houne, foun the table before a chart, It this ig Peta sald should sight Martinique Ho apoke with his eyes the chart, then, looking up: do you propos “Oh, an for me, I don’t ” Gaspard, taking a seat oppoaite te ‘Traneatianique—draw, Pagne Transatlantiq pay ie owing to me and try aad recompense for my kit.” 4 “Well,” said 2 your place I would let “And why Sagenso laughed. “' friend, it Ia not well to stir you infernal clerka with a pee hand, and he takes notes of may, you he ‘Yes, yea, that te Pensation, friend, prove yourself to be start om his forehead, laughed, ‘His namo la Yves, he escaped ine, we landed on an island, be ha@ & taining a number of coins which he had killed him and took the mone: would not sa tongue, give @ hint, or your manner, Hint might lead to « suspicion, and wusplcion have burned that body, . ard, staring at the man before him, fett a had’ been dri hin fleah crawled, then, to this man, and more than all, (To Be Continued.) wine.” Sagense held ck. So you killed tim It, you've hit it, he robbed ~ ‘ hare. the oor Psa no Y stricken with ant cheek down, on the cabin when @ mate Here they put bs Be? art from a iocker, island that morning, then island he porsibly could have left was © here marked on the chart, a tiny and feet beset to north, south east; eighty miles or so southeast Turk'e Island. CHAPTER VI. The Money-Changer. Ge though a man fale. J tal side of things, had atill in Bia nature very much of the child, But there was little of the child about Sagease and much of the mas- As day followed day, and the working of the vessel showed iteelf grown, and a man, more- over, who had paneed bia Iife in touch with the bru- ea more to Gaspard, astenish- worked them, breath- vr going tate) ast Gas bd all thet t before one of ask for compensa\ certainly, but “and you would not aay, his waist and a pouch con~ table You that, perhaps, with but your face fe i! a to 4 search--you though an ice-cold blade through his heart, He had told all, yt of H PF DAYS") with a mya © tery that the clevereat é reader Gy solve fj aa is until the final oi hid ter, “The “ieee = House” is not like any other my ster story or sea story have read. ?