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diff --git a/old/69065-0.txt b/old/69065-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3d9b8c7..0000000 --- a/old/69065-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5342 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The isle of dead ships, by Crittenden -Marriott - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The isle of dead ships - -Author: Crittenden Marriott - -Illustrator: Frank McKernan - -Release Date: September 28, 2022 [eBook #69065] - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by the - Library of Congress) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS *** - - - - - -THE ISLE _of_ DEAD SHIPS - - -[Illustration: “NO,” HE MURMURED, SADLY. “IT IS NOT LAND. IT IS -WRECKAGE.” _Page 74._] - - - - - The - Isle _of_ Dead Ships - - By - CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT - - _With illustrations by_ - FRANK McKERNAN - - [Illustration] - - Philadelphia & London - J. B. Lippincott Company - 1909 - - - - - Copyright, 1908 - BY CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT - - Copyright, 1909 - BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - - Published September, 1909 - - _Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company - The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A._ - - - - -PROLOGUE - - -THERE is a floating island in the sea where no explorer has set foot, -or, setting foot, has returned to tell of what he saw. Lying at our -very doors, in the direct path of every steamer from the Gulf of Mexico -to Europe, it is less known than is the frozen pole. Encyclopedias pass -over it lightly; atlases dismiss it with but a slight mention; maps -do not attempt to portray its ever-shifting outlines; even the Sunday -newspapers, so keen to grasp everything of interest, ignore it. - -But on the decks of great ships in the long watches of the night, when -the trade-wind snores through the rigging and the waves purr about the -bows, the sailor tells strange tales of the spot where ruined ships, -raked derelict from all the square miles of ocean, form a great -island, ever changing, ever wasting, yet ever lasting; where, in the -ballroom of the Atlantic, draped round with encircling weed, they drone -away their lives, balancing slowly in a mighty tourbillion to the -rhythm of the Gulf Stream. - -Fanciful? Sailors’ tales? Stories fit only for the marines? Perhaps! -Yet be not too sure! Jack Tar, slow of speech, fearful of ridicule, -knows more of the sea than he will tell to the newspapers. Perhaps more -than one has drifted to the isle of dead ships, and escaped only to be -disbelieved in the maelstroms that await him in all the seaports of the -world. - -Facts are facts, none the less because passed on only by word of mouth, -and this tale, based on matter gleaned beneath the tropic stars, may be -truer than men are wont to think. Remember Longfellow’s words: - - “Wouldst thou,” thus the steersman answered, - “Learn the secret of the sea? - Only those that brave its dangers - Comprehend its mystery.” - - - - -THE - -ISLE _of_ DEAD SHIPS - - - - -I - - -AS the prisoner and Officer Jackson, handcuffed together, came up the -gang-plank, Renfrew, the attorney, standing on the promenade deck -above, turned from his contemplation of the city of San Juan as it lay -green and white in the afternoon sun, and bent forward. - -“By George,” he cried, exultingly, “that’s Frank Howard! He’s caught! -Caught here, of all places in the world!” - -With hands tight gripped on the rail he watched the two men until they -disappeared below; then, eager to share his discovery of the ending of -a quest that had extended over two continents, he turned and hurried -along the deck to where two ladies stood leaning against the taffrail. - -“Yes, my dear,” the elder was saying, “Porto Rico is pretty enough for -any one. It looked pretty when I came, and it looks prettier as I go. -But when you say it’s pretty, you exhaust its excellences. I, for one, -shall be glad to see the last of it. And, considering the errand that -takes you home, I imagine that you don’t regret leaving, either.” - -“The errand! I don’t understand, Mrs. Renfrew.” - -“Why! Your--but here comes Philip, evidently with something on his -mind. Do listen to him patiently, if you can, my dear. He hasn’t had -a jury at his mercy for a month. Unless somebody lets him talk, I’m -afraid his bottled-up eloquence will strike in and prove fatal. Well, -Philip!” - -Mr. Renfrew was close at hand. - -“Miss Fairfax! Maria!” he cried. “Who do you think is on board, a -prisoner? Frank Howard! I just saw him brought over the gang-plank. He -escaped two months ago, and the police have been looking for him ever -since. They must have just caught him, or I should have heard of it. -Who in the world can I ask?” - -He gazed around questioningly. - -“Now, Philip, wait a moment. Who is Frank Howard? and what has the poor -man done?” - -Mr. Renfrew snorted. - -“The poor man, Maria,” he retorted, “is one of the biggest scoundrels -unhung. As state’s attorney it was my duty to prosecute him, and I may -say that I have seldom taken more pleasure in any task. I have spoken -to you of the case often enough, Maria, for you to know something about -it. I should really be glad if you would take some interest in your -husband’s affairs.” - -Mrs. Renfrew clapped her hands. - -“Of course! I remember now,” she said, soothingly. “It was only his -name I forgot. Mr. Howard is that swindler who robbed so many poor -people, isn’t he, Philip?” - -“Nothing of the sort, madam,” thundered the lawyer. “Frank Howard was -an officer of the United States Navy. While stationed at this very -island of Porto Rico he secretly married an ignorant but very beautiful -girl, and then deserted her. She followed him to New York, and wrote -him a letter telling him where she was. He went to her address -and murdered her--strangled her with his own hands. He was caught -red-handed, convicted, and would have been put to death before now if -he hadn’t escaped. - -“I am telling this for your benefit, Miss Fairfax. There is no use in -talking to Mrs. Renfrew; details of my affairs go in one of her ears -and out the other.” - -“That may not be as uncommon as you think, Mr. Renfrew,” consoled the -girl, laughing. “But, as it happens, I am especially interested in the -Howard case. I am very well acquainted with one of the officers who was -on his ship when he met the girl.” - -Mrs. Renfrew clapped her hands. - -“Oh! of course,” she bubbled. “Of course! I remember all about it now. -It was Mr. Loving, of course! I had forgotten that he was on the same -ship. Philip, you didn’t know that Miss Fairfax was going to marry -Lieutenant Loving, did you?” - -Mr. Renfrew turned his eye-glasses on the girl, who flushed with -mingled anger and amusement. - -“Are you a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Mrs. Renfrew,” she -inquired, “that you can read the future? I assure you that I have had -no advance information on the matter. Mr. Loving hasn’t even asked me -yet. But, of course, if you know----” - -“Good gracious! Isn’t it true? Why, I got a paper from New York to-day -that spoke of it as all settled. The paper is in my state-room now. If -you’d like to see it, we’ll go down. Philip, find out all you can about -Mr. Howard, and tell us just as soon as you can.” - -Mr. Renfrew nodded. - -“I’ll go and ask the captain,” he promised, as the two ladies turned -away. - -The captain, however, proved not to be communicative. Not only was -he too busy with the preparations for departure, but he was nettled -because the presence of the convict on board had become known. Convicts -are not welcome passengers on ships, like the Queen, whose chief office -is to carry presumably timid pleasure passengers, and their presence is -always carefully concealed. - -“I know nothing at all about it, Mr. Renfrew,” he asserted, gruffly. -“You had better ask the purser.” - -The purser was no more pleased at the inquiry than his chief had been, -but he hid his vexation better. - -“Yes,” he admitted, with apparent readiness, “Mr. Howard is on -board. He was caught here last week. He was up at a village called -Lagonitas----” - -“That’s where his wife lived--the one he murdered.” - -“Is it? I didn’t know. Well, they caught him. He surrendered -quietly--didn’t try to fight or run. He hadn’t anywhere to run to, you -know.” - -“And where is he confined?” - -“Amidships--in one of the second-class cabins. We have plenty vacant -this trip. Officer Jackson is with him, where he can keep close watch. -You tell your ladies not to be uneasy. He can’t possibly get out. -Jackson has got a hundred weight of iron, more or less, on him.” - -“Jackson, is it? I thought I recognized him. One of those bulldog -fellows that never lets go. I’m interested in Howard because it was I -who conducted the prosecution at his trial.” - -“Gee! Is that so? It must have been exciting. He confessed, didn’t he?” - -“Confessed? Not he! Took the stand as brazen as you please, and -swore he had never seen the woman before he went to her room that -day in response to a letter and found her dead. It was nothing less -than barefaced impudence, you know. The proof against him was simply -overwhelming.” - -“He denied having married her, then?” - -“He denied everything. Swore it was a case of mistaken identity. I -demolished that quickly enough. Dozens of people had seen him up at -Lagonitas with the girl. We even sent for the minister who performed -the marriage ceremony, but he never arrived--lost at sea on the way to -New York. But there was plenty of proof, anyway. The jury found him -guilty without leaving their seats.” - - - - -II - - -WHEN Dorothy Fairfax came on deck again the sun was dropping fast -toward the horizon. A gusty breeze was blowing and the steamer was -pitching slightly in the short, choppy seas that characterize West -Indian waters. Movement had become unpleasant to those inclined to -seasickness and this, combined with the comparative lightness of the -passenger list, caused the deck of the Queen to be nearly deserted. - -Dorothy was glad of it. She wanted solitude in order to think in peace, -and there was seldom solitude for her when young men--or old men, for -that matter--were near. They seemed to gravitate naturally to her side. - -Mrs. Renfrew’s words, and especially the paragraph in the New York -paper, were troubling her. She could see the words now, published -under a San Juan date-line: - - “Miss Dorothy Fairfax, daughter of the multimillionaire railroader, - John Fairfax, will sail next week for New York to order her trousseau - for her coming marriage with Lieutenant Loving, U. S. N. Mr. Fairfax, - who is financing the railroad here, will follow in about three weeks.” - -That was all; the whole thing taken for granted! Evidently the -writer had supposed that the engagement had been already announced, -or he would either have made some inquiry or--supposing that he was -determined to publish--would have “spread” himself on the subject. Miss -Fairfax had been written up enough to know that her engagement would be -worth at least a column to the society editors of the New York papers. -Yes, she concluded, the item must have emanated from some chance -correspondent who had picked up a stray bit of gossip. - -She had known Mr. Loving for two years or more, and had liked him. -Three months before, at the close of the Howard trial, she had become -convinced that he intended to ask her to marry him, and she had slipped -away to join her father in Porto Rico in order to gain time to think -before deciding on her answer. And here she was, returning home, no -more resolved than when she had left. - -It was odd that her ship should also bear Lieutenant Howard, of whom -Mr. Loving had been so fond, standing by him all through his trial -when everybody else fell away. She had had a glimpse of Mr. Howard -once, and vaguely recalled him, wondering what combination of desperate -circumstances could have brought a man like him to the commission of -such a crime. - -The judge, she remembered, in sentencing him to death had declared that -no mercy should be shown to one who, with everything to keep him in the -straight path, had deliberately gone wrong. - -The soft pad of footsteps on the deck roused her from her musings, and -she turned to see the purser drawing near. - -“Ah! Good evening, Miss Fairfax!” he ventured. “We missed you at tea. -Feeling the motion a bit? It is a little rough, ain’t it?” - -Miss Fairfax did not like the purser, but she found it difficult to -snub any one. Therefore she answered the man pleasantly, though not -with any especial enthusiasm. - -“Why! no, Mr. Sprigg. I don’t consider this rough; I’m rather a good -sailor, you know. I simply wasn’t hungry at tea-time.” - -Mr. Sprigg came closer. - -“By the way, Miss Fairfax,” he insinuated. “You know Lieutenant Howard -is on board. If you’d like to have a peep at him, just say the word -and I’ll manage. Oh!” he added, hastily, as a slight frown marred Miss -Fairfax’s pretty brows, “I know you must be interested in his case. -He’s a friend of Lieutenant Loving, and I read the notice in the paper -to-day, you know.” - -The look the girl gave him drove the smirk in haste from his face. - -“The notice in the paper was entirely without foundation, Mr. Sprigg,” -she declared, coldly. “As for seeing Mr. Howard, I’m afraid my tastes -do not run in that direction. Besides, he probably would not like to be -stared at. He was a gentleman once, you know.” - -She turned impatiently away and looked eastward. Then she uttered an -exclamation. - -“Why! Whatever’s happened to the water?” she cried. - -The question was not surprising. In the last hour the sea had changed. -From a smiling playfellow, lightly buffeting the ship, it had grown -cold and sullen. The sparkles had died from the waves, giving place to -a metallic lustre. Long, slow undulations swelled out of the southeast, -chasing each other sluggishly up in the wake of the ship. - -It did not need a sailor’s eye to tell that something was brewing. Miss -Fairfax shivered slightly and drew her light wrap closer around her. - -“Makes you feel cold, don’t it?” asked Mr. Sprigg cheerfully. “Lord -bless you, that’s nothing to the way you’ll feel before it’s over. -Funny the weather bureau didn’t give us any storm warnings before we -sailed.” - -The weather bureau had, but the warnings had been thrown away, -unposted, by a sapient native official of San Juan, who considered the -efforts of the Americans to foretell the weather to be immoral. - -“Will there be any danger?” - -“Danger? Naw! Not a bit of it. If you stay below, you won’t even know -that there’s been anything doing. Even if we run into a hurricane, -which ain’t likely, we’ll be just as safe as if we were ashore. The -Queen don’t need to worry about anything short of an island or a -derelict.” - -“A derelict?” - -“Sure. A ship that has been abandoned at sea for some reason or other, -but that ain’t been broken up or sunk. Derelicts are real terrors, all -right.” - -“Some of ’em float high; they ain’t so bad, because you can usually see -’em in time to dodge, and because they ain’t likely to be solid enough -to do you much damage even if you do run into them. But some of ’em -float low--just awash--and they’re just-- Well, they’re mighty bad. -They ain’t really ships any more; they’re solid bulks of wood.” - -“I suppose they are all destroyed sooner or later?” - -The little purser unconsciously struck an attitude. “A good deal later, -sometimes,” he qualified. “Derelicts have been known to float for three -years in the Atlantic, and to travel for thousands of miles. Generally, -however, in the North Atlantic, they either break up in a storm within -a few months, or else they drift into the Sargasso Sea and stay there -till they sink.” - -“The Sargasso Sea? Where is that? I suppose I used to know when I went -to school, but I’ve forgotten.” - -Mr. Sprigg waved his hand toward the east and north. “Yonder,” he -generalized vaguely. “We are on the western edge of it now. See the -weed floating in the water there? Farther north and east it gets -thicker until it collects into a solid mass that stretches five hundred -miles in every direction. - -“Nobody knows just what it looks like in the middle, for nobody has -ever been there; or, rather, nobody has ever been there and come back -to tell about it. Old sailors say that there’s thousands of derelicts -collected there.” - -“The Gulf Stream encircles the whole ocean in a mighty whirlpool, you -know, and sooner or later everything floating in the North Atlantic -is caught in it. They may be carried away up to the North Pole, but -they’re bound to come south again with the icebergs and back into the -main stream, and some day they get into the west-wind drift and are -carried down the Canary current, until the north equatorial current -catches them, and sweeps them into the sea over yonder.” - -“For four hundred years and more--ever since Columbus--derelicts -must have been gathering there. Millions of them must have sunk, but -thousands must have been washed into the center. Once there, they must -float for a long time. There are storms there, of course, but they’re -only wind-storms--there can’t be any waves; the weed is too thick.” - -“I guess there are ships still afloat there that were built hundreds of -years ago. Maybe Columbus’s lost caravels are there; maybe people are -imprisoned there! Gee! but it’s fascinating.” - -Miss Fairfax stared at the little man in amazement. He was the last -person she would ever have suspected of imagination or romance; and -here he was, with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, declaiming away -like one inspired. Most men can talk well on some one subject, and this -subject was Mr. Sprigg’s own. For years he had been reading and talking -and thinking about it. - -Miss Fairfax rose from her steamer-chair and looked around her, then -paused, awestruck. Down in the southeast a mass of black clouds -darkened the day as they spread. Puffs of wind ran before them, each -carrying sheets of spray torn from the tops of the waves; one stronger -than the rest dashed its burden into Miss Fairfax’s face with little -stinging cuts. The cry of the stewards, “All passengers below!” was -not needed to tell her that the deck was rapidly becoming no place for -women. - - - - -III - - -AN hour later the deck had grown dangerous, even for men. The Queen -drove diagonally through the waves, rolling far to right and to left; -and at each roll a miniature torrent swept aboard her, hammered on her -tightly-fastened doors, and passed, cataract-wise, back into the deep. -Scarcely could the officers, high on the bridge, clinging to stanchions -and shielded by strong sheets of canvas, keep their footing. Overhead -hooted the gale. - -It grew dark. To the gloom of the storm had been added the blackness of -the night. Literally, no man could see his hand before his face; even -the white foam that broke upon the decks or against the sides passed -invisibly. - -Still, the ship drove on, held relentlessly to her course. For it -was necessary to pass the western line of the weed-bound sea before -turning to the north; and, until this was done, the Queen could not -turn tail to the storm. - -Toward morning Captain Bostwick struggled to the chart-house and, for -the twentieth time, bent over the sheet, figuring and measuring. Then, -with careful precision, he punched a dot in the surface and drew a long -breath. - -“We are all right now,” he announced. “We can bear away north with -safety. Nothing can harm us, unless----” - -He opened the last chart of the Hydrographic Office and noted some -lines drawn in red. His brow grew anxious again and he drew his breath. - -“Confound that derelict!” he muttered. “Allowing for drift, she should -be close to this very spot. If we should strike her----” - -The sentence was never finished. With a shivering shock like that of a -railroad train in a head-on collision, the Queen stopped dead, hurling -the captain violently over the rail to the deck below. - -The first officer was clutching the rope of the siren when the crash -came. The slight support it afforded before it gave way saved him from -following his commander, and at the same time sent a raucous warning -through the ship to close the collision bulkheads. - -As he clung desperately to the rail, the Queen rose in the air and came -down with another crash; then went forward over something that grated -and tore at her hull as she passed. But her bows were buried in the -waves, while her screw lashed the air madly. - -Had not the involuntary warning of the siren sounded, and had it -not been obeyed instantly, the Queen would have plunged in that -heart-breaking moment to the bottom. As it was, her shrift seemed short. - -The force of her impact on the lumber-laden, water-logged derelict had -shattered her bows, and only the forward bulkhead, strained, split, -gaping in a hundred seams where the rivets had been wrenched loose, -kept out the sea. A hurried inspection showed that even that frail -protection would probably not long suffice. - -“It’s only an hour to dawn,” gasped the first officer. “If she can last -till then----” - -She lasted, but dawn showed a desperate state of affairs. The Queen had -swung round, until her submerged bow pointed to windward and her high -stern, catching the gale, plunged dully northward. The seas, rushing -up from the southeast, broke on the shelving deck like rollers on a -beach, and sent the salt spume writhing up the planks and into the deck -state-rooms. - -The engine and all the forward part of the ship were drowned, but -the great dining-saloon and the staircase leading to the social hall -above were still comparatively dry. In the latter and on the deck -just outside of it the passengers were huddled. The captain had -disappeared, licked away by the first tongue of sea that had followed -the collision. - -With the earliest streak of light the first officer decided to take to -the boats. Only three remained, and these had already been fitted out -with provisions. - -As the crew and passengers filed into the first, Officer Jackson, who -had several times come on deck, only to wander restlessly below again, -once more plunged down into the darkness. - -Rapidly yet cautiously he lowered himself down the sloping passageway, -clutching at the jambs of empty state-rooms to keep himself from -sliding down against the bulkhead, on the other side of which the sea -muttered angrily. At last he gained the door he sought, and clung to it -while he fitted a key into the lock. - -The electric lights had gone out when the engine stopped, and not a -thing could be seen in the blackness, but a stir within told that the -room was tenanted. Some one was there, staring toward the door. - -Jackson lost no time. - -“Here you!” he blustered, in a voice into which there crept a quiver -in spite of him. “Last call! The ship’s sinking and they’re taking to -the boats. You gotter decide mighty quick if you’re going to come. Just -gimme your parole and I’ll turn you loose to fight for your life.” - -A voice answered promptly: - -“I’ll give no parole. I’d a deal sooner drown here than hang on shore. -You can do just as you please about releasing me. It’s a matter of -indifference to me.” - -The officer tried to protest. - -“I don’t want your death on my shoulders, Mr. Howard,” he muttered. -“Don’t put me to it.” - -Howard laughed sardonically. - -“What the devil do I care about your shoulders?” he demanded. “Turn -me loose, quick, or get out. Your company isn’t exhilarating, my good -Jackson.” - -Both men had raised their voices so as to be heard above the boom of -the storm. As Howard ceased, there came an impact heavier than before, -followed by faint, despairing shrieks. - -With an oath, Jackson felt his way to the voice and bent over the berth -in which his prisoner was lying. “Curse you!” he snarled. “For two -cents I’d take you at your word and let you drown. But I can’t. Here!” - -The clink of a key and the rattle of metal told that the handcuffs fell -away. - -“You’re loose now,” continued the officer. “But, by Heaven, if you try -to escape, I’ll see that you don’t miss the death you say is welcome. -Come on.” - -Howard swung his legs over the edge of the berth. - -“That’s fair,” he said. “Go ahead. I’ll follow.” - -Hastily, Jackson led the way up the slanting passage to the topsy-turvy -stairway, and so to the deck. A single glance about him and he turned -on the other in fury. “Curse you,” he roared, “you’ve drowned us both -with your infernal palavering!” - -The decks were deserted; not a human being remained on them. Tossing on -the waves, just visible in the glowing light, were two of the ship’s -boats, crowded with passengers. The nearest was already a hundred yards -away, and rapidly increasing its distance. The guard stared at it -hungrily. - -“There goes our last chance!” he muttered. - -Howard eyed the tiny craft dispassionately. - -“Oh! I don’t know,” he said. “If that boat was your best chance, it was -a slim one. Never mind, Jackson; take comfort from me. Nobody doomed -to hang was ever drowned. I’ll send you home to your wife and babies -yet--I suppose you have a wife and babies; people like you always do.” - -“Here! Don’t you take my wife’s name on your lips!” - -“Look! I thought so.” - -The boat, poised for an instant on the crest of a great wave, suddenly -lunged forward, raced madly down a watery slope, and thrust its nose -deep into an opposite swelling wave. It did not come up. Long did the -two men on the steamer watch, but nothing, living or dead, appeared -amid the heaving waves. - -At last Howard’s tense features relaxed. - -“Well,” he remarked, carelessly. “That’s a mark to my credit, anyhow. -I’ve saved your life, Jackson. Please see that you do me no discredit -in the ten minutes that you will retain it.” - -The other glared at him stupidly. - -“Susan didn’t want me to come,” he mumbled. “She said I’d never come -back----” - -His voice died away into incoherent murmurs. - -Howard looked at the man, and his lip curled contemptuously. He said -nothing, however, but turned in silence toward where the boat had sunk. - -The next instant he started and glanced swiftly around him. His eyes -fell on a life-preserver lodged in the broken doorway by the last wave -that had retreated from his feet. He snatched it up and buckled it -round him; then fastened one end of a rope beneath his arms and thrust -the other into the hands of the stupefied officer. - -“There! Wake up, man!” he ordered. “Wake up and stand by!” - -Jackson stared at him. “Where? What? How?” he mumbled. - -“Wake up, man! Don’t you see it’s a woman?” - -As he saw the returning intelligence dawn in Jackson’s eyes, Howard -slipped to the toppling brink of the bulwarks and stood watching -for the next heave of the sea. As it came, with a white rag sopping -foolishly on its crest, he waved his hand to the other. - -“Give my love to Susan!” he cried, and plunged downward. - -Chaos! The sea into which he dived was without form and void. Like a -grain of corn in a popper, he was tossed hither and thither, twisted, -wrenched at--all sense of direction stripped from him. - -There was not one chance in a thousand that he would reach the woman; -not one in a million that he could give her the least help if he did -reach her; the very attempt became preposterous the moment he touched -the water. Only blind chance could avail. - -The incredible happened. His arm, striking out, caught the girl fairly -round the waist and fastened there. He did not try to get back to the -ship; he made no reasoned effort at all; reason was impossible in that -turmoil. - -He struggled, no doubt, but the struggle was unconscious--a mere -automatic battle for life. But he clung to the woman, gasping, with -oblivion pressing hard upon his reeling brain. - -Something seemed to grasp him around the waist and drag him backward, -and unconsciously he tightened his arm on the waist he held, meeting -the wrench as the sea withdrew its support. - -Crash! Something had struck him cruelly, but struck realization back -into his brain. Before he could act, the sea swelled around him again; -but when it withdrew once more, he knew what had happened. Jackson was -dragging him back to the wreck, and he had struck against its side or -on its submerged deck. - -It was the deck! By favor of Providence it was the deck! Aided by the -drag of the rope, the last wave washed Howard and his prize almost to -the feet of the police officer, who braced himself to withstand the -backtow as the water retreated; then reached down and dragged both up -to momentary safety. - -Howard opened his eyes for one instant. - -“Didn’t I tell you I would have a drier death on shore?” he gasped -before unconsciousness claimed him. - - - - -IV - - -CONSCIOUSNESS came slowly back to Frank Howard. He raised his head, but -otherwise lay still, painfully reconstructing the world around him. -So tightly was he wedged between a broken ventilator and a skylight -coamings that it was only with considerable difficulty that he finally -managed to lift himself to a sitting position and stare dizzily around. - -He was alone on the deck, which had become much steeper than he -remembered it in the gray dawn. Evidently another bulkhead forward had -given way, allowing another compartment to become filled with water and -causing the bow of the steamer to sink deeper. - -In compensation the stern had risen somewhat higher, so that the waves -broke against the deck, but no longer rushed violently up it. The sea, -too, had gone down, curbed perhaps by the thick mantle of yellow weed -that floated all about. - -With much difficulty he scrambled to his feet, clinging desperately the -while to the ventilator. - -“Steady! Steady!” he muttered. “If I tobogganed down into that water I -shouldn’t get up again in a hurry.” He held out his hand and noted its -tremulousness. “By Jove! I’m weak as a cat.” - -Rapidly his brain grew clearer. Ship and sea and sky ceased their -momentary whirlings and settled into their proper places. He looked up -at the zenith, to which the sun, though still veiled, had indubitably -climbed. - -“Six hours at least,” he soliloquized. “Heavens, I must have been -pounded hard to lie unconscious for that long! If the old tub has -floated six hours she may float indefinitely. But----” - -He stared curiously around him. As far as his eye could reach stretched -the yellow gulf-weed, blanketing the blue of the sea. So thick was it -that it held the Queen comparatively stationary, despite the strong -breeze that pressed against her. - -Howard uttered a cry of dismay. - -“The Sargasso Sea,” he groaned. “We’re inside it--far inside it. Great -Scott!” His brain reeled again. “Where the deuce is Jackson?” he -muttered irritably. “And where’s that woman?” - -Pat to the moment, Jackson thrust his head out of the doorway of the -social hall. His dark face was pallid now, and he glared around him -wildly. When he saw Howard standing, his expression brightened. - -“So you’re alive,” he rumbled, surlily. “It takes a devil of a lot to -kill some people.” - -Howard stared at the man curiously. It was hardly the way he had -expected to be greeted. - -“Yes,” he answered, slowly, “it takes a good deal--sometimes. It -didn’t take much for those poor devils in that boat you wanted to go -in. Where’s the girl?” - -Jackson jerked his hand over his right shoulder. - -“She’s in there,” he responded. Then he hesitated for an instant. “It -was a brave thing you did,” he finished, grudgingly. - -Howard shrugged his shoulders. - -“Merely a choice of deaths,” he answered. “I expected the ship to sink -any minute, and, personally, I preferred to die fighting. How is she?” - -“She’s breathing, but that’s all. She hasn’t moved since I got her -aboard.” - -“No wonder. She really hasn’t any right to be alive after what she went -through. Have you done anything for her?” - -“I didn’t know what to do. I took her into the social hall and laid -her on the sofa and got some whiskey for her, but I couldn’t get her -to take it, and she looked so horrible and----” He paused, evidently -shaken. - -Howard stretched up his hand. - -“I must see her,” he declared. “I’m pretty shaky still, but if you’ll -give me a lift I’ll try to scramble up beside you and then we’ll see -what we can do.” He took the hand that Jackson offered. “Now brace -yourself,” he warned. “All set?” - -Jackson nodded, and Howard, after an experimental tug or two, put forth -all his strength and drew himself up to the other’s side. - -“That’s good,” he remarked. “I guess we’re both worth a dozen dead men -yet. By the way, how did you get the girl up here?” - -Jackson showed more animation than he had yet done. - -“The deck wasn’t so steep when I moved her,” he explained. “It tilted -worse just as I got her inside. I thought at first we were going down, -but we didn’t.” - -Howard stepped inside the social hall--which had never before so belied -its name--and looked around him. After the bright light of the deck, -the room seemed dark, and for a moment he could see nothing. Then he -caught a glimpse of something lying on the big athwartship sofa, and -scrambled over to it. - -A girl lay there in a crumpled heap. In her rich golden brown hair -alone was any touch of color. Her eyes were closed and her lips blue. -Her cheeks were so bloodless that it seemed impossible that she still -lived. - -Once she might have been pretty--even beautiful--but the sea had robbed -her of all charm, leaving only the pitifulness of youth and womanhood. -Howard drew a long breath as he looked at her, and a sudden rage rose -within him. She should not die! He had torn her from the sea. She -should not die! - -Fragmentary ideas as to the proper thing to do came back to him. He -bent down, chafing her wrists and temples; and then, raising her head, -touched Jackson’s bottle to her lips. A long, shuddering sigh shook -the girl’s body, and Howard saw a pair of brown eyes open and stare -up at him; then close wearily. Again he raised her head. “Drink,” he -commanded, as he poured the spirit between her parted lips. - -As the strangling liquor went down, the eyes flashed open again, and -the girl shook from head to foot with a coughing--so violent and so -prolonged that Howard feared that he had overdone his task. - -But it soon passed, leaving her conscious. - -For a moment she lay still, vaguely puzzling over her situation. Then -recollection returned with a jerk, and she sat up. - -“I remember,” she gasped. “Oh, that dreadful wave! To see it come down, -down, down---- Where am I?” - -“You’re back on the Queen. It’s all right. Try to keep cool. You’ll be -better in a moment.” - -The wonder grew in the girl’s eyes. “The Queen!” she murmured. -“The--Queen! How did I get back?” - -“The waves washed you back and we managed to pull you on board. You had -better rest a while. You have been unconscious a long time.” - -The girl looked from one to the other. - -“Thank you! Thank you both,” she murmured. “I can’t find words now, -but--the others! Were any of them----?” Her lips moved, but no sound -followed. - -Howard bowed his head, but he answered unflinchingly--better the clean, -sharp cut of certainty than dragging suspense. - -“You were the only one in your boat who was saved,” he answered -quietly. “I know nothing of the other boats.” - -The girl covered her face with her hands. “Oh, poor people!” she -moaned. “Poor, poor people!” Then she dashed the tears from her eyes -and dragged herself to her feet, holding fast to the back of the sofa. - -“I am Miss Dorothy Fairfax,” she said, with a pretty access of dignity. -“And you?” Her eye traveled from one man to the other. - -If Howard hesitated, it was for so short a time that it passed -unobserved. - -“This is Detective Jackson, of the New York police,” he answered -steadily, “and I am Frank Howard, his prisoner.” - -“Frank Howard! Not--not----” - -“Yes.” - -“My God!” For the first time in her life, Dorothy Fairfax fainted dead -away. - - - - -V - - -AS Dorothy fell Howard caught her in his arms and laid her upon the -sofa. Then he faced Jackson. - -“Nice thing, this!” he remarked, grimly. “A very nice thing, -considering the state of affairs. No!” he interjected, as he saw -Jackson’s eyes wander to the girl. “Don’t worry about her just now. -She’s exhausted, anyway, and she’ll sleep it off and be all the better -when she rouses. Meanwhile, there’s work for us. We all need food, and -it’s imperative that we should find some at once. Come.” - -The angle of the ship’s deck made examination both difficult and -dangerous; but when, by the exercise of care, it had been safely -carried out, it was evident that the voyagers need not fear either -starvation or thirst for a long time to come. The store-rooms of the -Queen were above, though only just above, the new waterline, and in -them there was food for months to come. - -It was good food, too, intended for the consumption of passengers -who paid well. In addition to canned goods, of which the stock was -large and varied, there was a quantity of ice and fresh meat, fresh -vegetables, flour, biscuits, sauces, breakfast foods, and so forth, to -say nothing of wines, liquors, and tobacco. - -With water the ship was equally well supplied. Not only was the saloon -scuttle-butt full, but, after some search, Howard found two large tanks -whose contents had not even been touched. In the pantry, just forward -of the saloon, was a refrigerator with cooked food enough for two or -three days. - -All these things were not found in an instant. As it chanced, the -pantry came last; and the moment the cooked food was discovered, -further investigation was promptly suspended and preparations made to -comfort the inner man. A plentiful supply was quickly transferred to -the big saloon-table, where it was held in place by the fiddles, which -had been put on the night before at dinner and had not been removed. - -Leaving Jackson to brew the coffee, an art in which he asserted that he -was proficient, Howard went to see after Miss Fairfax. - -As he had expected, he found her sleeping, her swoon having quietly -passed into slumber. A little color had come back to her cheeks and to -her lips, and her breathing was regular. - -For several moments he stood looking down at her, noting the sweep of -her long lashes on her cheeks, the delicate penciling of her eyebrows, -and the pure curve of her parted lips. She was of his own class in life -and---- He checked his thoughts shortly. - -From this girl and all connected with her he had been cut off by his -trial and his sentence. Had it not been for the storm and the wreck, he -would never have spoken to one of her kind again. - -Suddenly he realized that her eyes were open and that she was regarding -him curiously. The next instant she blushed furiously and struggled to -her feet. Howard did not offer to help her; he did not dare to. - -“Oh!” she begged. “Please forgive me.” - -Howard mumbled something indistinct. He was too much surprised to speak -clearly. Miss Fairfax, however, did not accept his presumably polite -disclaimer. - -“No, but really,” she reiterated, “I owe you an apology. It was very -silly of me to faint. I was exhausted, and the discovery----” - -“The discovery that you were alone at sea with a detective and a -convicted murderer appalled you--as well it might. Do not blame -yourself, Miss Fairfax, and do not think that I am sensitive. No man -can go through an experience such as mine and fail to have his cuticle -thickened. Give yourself no uneasiness about me.” - -Dorothy began to reply, when suddenly the dinner-gong rang out -imperatively. - -“What’s that?” she gasped. - -Howard smiled. “That’s Jackson,” he explained, “and he’s hungry. Will -you come to dinner?” - -But Dorothy did not come to dinner at once. When she did, ten minutes -later, after a visit to her state-room, which luckily was far aft -and consequently above water, Howard noted with amused surprise that -in those few minutes she had managed to bind up her tangled hair -and change her dress for another. She glanced at the table as she -approached and flushed at Jackson’s glum looks. - -“Oh!” she cried. “Why did you wait? I told you not to.” She slipped -into her seat. “I’m so hungry!” she sighed. - -The hot coffee and the abundant meal lightened the spirits of the trio -in spite of the predicament in which they found themselves. With a -ship, albeit a crippled one, under their feet and with plenty of food -and water at hand, it was not in human nature to despair, especially as -the sea had gone down so much that it no longer threatened them. - -To both Jackson and Miss Fairfax the worst seemed to be over; in a day -or two some one would pick them up, they thought, and all would be -well. Howard alone, wiser in the ways of the sea, doubted. He listened -to the others’ hopeful prognostications, but said little. - -“I must study the situation before I can say anything,” was as far as -he would commit himself, even in answer to a direct question. - -When they had finished their meal, Dorothy rose. - -“I’ll clear away these dishes,” she announced. “I’m sure you two have -more important things to attend to. Later, when Mr. Howard has studied -the situation, as he wishes, we will hold a council of war.” - -Howard bowed and went on deck. His first glance assured him that his -worst fears were true. The Queen was evidently far within the Sargasso -Sea, and under the impulse of a strong breeze from the west was -steadily driving eastward, into ever-thickening fields of weeds. - -Wreckage was floating here and there, mute evidence of disasters that -had occurred, perhaps close at hand, perhaps thousands of miles away. -The passages of open water that had trellised the sea an hour before -had disappeared, and with them had gone whatever faint hope Howard -might have had of rescue. - -No skipper would venture into that tangle; no boat could move through -it; almost it seemed that one could walk on it; yet Howard knew that -any one trusting to that deceptive firmness would drown, and drown -without even a chance to swim. The weeds would coil round him, soft, -slimy, but strong, and drag him down. - -Like all who have sailed these waters, Howard had heard many tales of -the great Sargasso Sea, and had whiled away many an hour listening to -the sailors’ yarns of the haven of dead ships buried far within those -tangled confines--a haven in the middle of the ocean, a haven without -a harbor, a haven where the ships, dropping to pieces at last by slow -decay, must sink for two miles or more before they reached the floor of -the ocean. - -And into this haven the Queen was drifting, slowly but surely. Nothing -but sinking could prevent her from moving onward till she reached the -innermost haven. - -What would it be like? he wondered. Would the wrecks really be crowded -together so that one could pass from one to the other? That there had -been plenty of them borne in to make a very continent of ships he did -not doubt, but had they floated long enough to accumulate to any great -extent? - -The sailors declared that the sea was as large as Europe; that the weed -was impenetrable over an area larger than France; that there might well -be an area of massed wreckage two or three hundred miles in diameter. -But these were sailors’ tales. Would they prove true? - -“Well?” - -Howard turned around. Dorothy and Jackson had come up behind him and -were staring curiously over the weedy sea. “Well?” reiterated the -latter. - -Howard hesitated. - -“I fear it is not well,” he answered at last. “Our chances of escape -for the present seem practically nil.” - -Miss Fairfax paled, but Jackson flushed darkly. - -“What are you givin’ us?” he demanded, roughly. “The ship ain’t going -to sink, is she?” - -“No. That is not the danger. Look around you.” He waved his hand to the -weed-strewn horizon. - -Jackson looked again. “Well! What of it?” he demanded. - -“This! You see how thick the weed is--thicker even than it was an hour -ago. I’ve sailed these seas long enough to know what that means. It -means that we have been blown a long way inside the Sargasso Sea.” - -“No ships come here; sailing ships would lose nearly all their speed, -and steamers would lose all of it, for their screws would soon be -hopelessly fouled. No vessel will come to rescue us. If we are ever to -leave the Queen, it must be by our own efforts.” - -“What can we do?” asked Dorothy, quietly. - -“That is it exactly. What _can_ we do? Frankly, I don’t see that we -can do anything at present. We have no boats, and nothing but a boat, -and a sharp-edged one at that, could make any way through this morass. -And every minute we are getting deeper in. The current below catches -our sunken bow, and the wind above catches our uplifted stern, and -both sweep us eastward--toward the center of the weed. If we took to -a raft we would move much more slowly--but we would starve much more -quickly--and our chances of being picked up would not be improved.” - -“But what will become of us?” - -“I don’t know. It seems likely that we will be swept into the center -of the sea, where there are supposed to be thousands of derelicts, the -combings of the North Atlantic for four hundred years--I say ‘supposed’ -because nobody has ever seen them, but there isn’t much doubt about it.” - -Jackson laughed scornfully. - -“What are you givin’ us?” he demanded incredulously. - -Dorothy turned to him. - -“It’s all true,” she corroborated, with a catch in her voice. “Only -yesterday Mr. Sprigg told me about it. He was wishing for a chance to -explore the place, poor fellow. And now----” She broke off and turned -to Howard. “Isn’t there any chance at all of our being picked up?” she -asked. - -Howard shook his head. - -“None, I fear,” he answered, gently. “I am sorry, Miss Fairfax, more -sorry than I can say; but I fear we shall be on this wreck or on -another for weeks and months to come. So far as I can see now we can do -nothing till we reach the central wreckage. There we may find a boat or -the tools to build one--ours are far under water--or some other way to -escape.” - -“It will be desperately hard to wait; to drift deeper and deeper into -this tangle day after day, hoping that things will change when they -come to the worst; but it’s all we can do. Meanwhile we can thank God -that we have food, drink, and comfortable shelter, and we are on our -way to see what no one has ever seen before and returned to tell it. -Let’s make the best of it.” - -“The best of it!” Jackson’s face was flushed and his eyes distended. -“The best of it!” he vociferated. “By Heaven, it’s well for you to yap! -You’re all right here. You’re safe from the electric chair here. You -can afford to wait and wait. But how about us? How about me? How about -my wife and children?” - -“It’s hard,” Howard assented. “It’s bitter hard, but----” - -“Bah! You’re lying to us! You’re a sailor and can get us out of this, -if you will. You don’t want to get out. You hope that you’ll get a -chance to escape, but, by Heaven, you shan’t! I’ll kill you first! By -God, I will!” - -“It’s your duty to do so!” Howard spoke quietly, but a spot of red -glowed on each cheek. “It is your duty to kill me rather than let me -escape. But it is not your duty to insult me. I permit no man to do -that, and I warn you not to repeat your offense. - -“For the rest, Miss Fairfax, there is some reason in what this -man says. The catastrophe which has brought death to so many, and -suffering, both past and future, to you, has saved me. I am safe from -the electric chair. Anywhere else in the wide world I would have to -shrink from every casual glance; would have to lie in answer to every -wanton question. But no extradition runs to the heart of the Sargasso -Sea. So it might seem natural that I should wish to stay here. In so -far, our excitable friend is right. But I give you my word of honor, -not as a jailbird, but as the gentleman I once was, that I am even more -anxious to get out of here than yourself. I have still a task to do in -the world; my view is not entirely bounded by the electric chair. If -any faintest chance offers for us to escape, be sure that I will seize -it. But I am helpless until we reach the central wrecks and see what -aid they have to offer. Then I will do what a man may.” - -“I do not promise to go on to New York with Jackson, but I do promise -to get you and him safely out of this place, if it is within my power -to do so--and I believe it will be. Say that you believe me.” - -It was impossible not to believe this clear-eyed, straight-spoken -gentleman, convicted murderer though he were. Dorothy held out her hand. - -“I believe you,” she said, “and I trust you.” - -Howard looked at the hand doubtfully. - -“That is not nominated in the bond,” he suggested. - -“Then we’ll put it in,” returned the girl. “As for what you have done -in the past--I have forgotten it. We will all forget it--till then.” - -“So be it--till then!” - -The hands of the two met. But Jackson, standing aside, grunted -scornfully. - -“I’ll not forget it,” he growled. “Not for a single minute; not till I -get you to New York. I’ve known your smooth-spoken sort before.” - - - - -VI - - -TWO weeks passed without change in the situation, except that their end -saw the Queen still deeper in the tangle. The breeze from the west had -continued, but day by day had grown fainter, until at last it barely -cooled the faces of the weary passengers. Day by day, too, the weed -and the wreckage in the tangle grew thicker. Here and there floated -broken spars, fragments of shattered deck-houses, moss-grown planks, -Jacob’s-ladders, and all the fugitive spoil of the sea. Broken boats, -bottom upward; rafts with tumbled fragments of canvas screening perhaps -some terrible burden; a red buoy wrenched from some coast harbor; -a bottle with a little flag bobbing above it--these appeared, grew -nearer, and dropped astern, sometimes just out of reach of the Queen. - -Several times abandoned ships appeared; one with a patch of sail gave -Jackson some agonizing alternations of hope and despair before its -final nearness forced him to admit that it, like their own vessel, was -a derelict, bound for the port of dead ships. None of this wreckage, -however, kept pace with the Queen. The tallest caught the wind and the -deepest caught the current, but the Queen caught both, and moved ahead -accordingly. - -The marvel of it all affected the voyagers according to their several -natures. Jackson took it hardest. Used to the roar of New York and -to the electric contagion of great crowds, and without resources -within himself, the comparative solitude and the uncertainty drove him -frantic. Had he been alone, he would never have lived so long; despair -would have robbed him of his wits altogether and have driven him to end -it all by a plunge over the side. Even as it was, his state caused his -companions grave alarm. Howard took care never to let him be very long -out of his sight by day. Fortunately, he slept like a log at night, -and Howard was able to lock him in his room late and release him early -without his ever discovering that he had been confined. - -This state of affairs, however, could not continue. Day by day the -detective grew more and more surly, until Howard began to long for the -open conflict that was sure to come. Had they two been alone together, -he would have speedily brought affairs to a crisis, but the misery of -Dorothy’s position should anything happen to himself made him hold off, -hoping that Jackson’s mood might pass. The worst of it all was the man -had a revolver--the only one on board. - -For the rest, Howard seemed to be not at all troubled. In fact, so far -as Jackson knew, the situation worried him not at all. Only Dorothy, -who, light-footed, had once come upon him unheard and found him on -his knees with bowed head and shaking shoulders, suspected that his -lightheartedness was assumed. On that occasion she had stolen away as -silently as she had come. - -As a matter of fact, Howard, though wild to get back to the task -of which he had spoken to the others, was yet not anxious to go to -execution. Moreover, the wonder of the situation appealed to him -mightily, and he tried to be content to grasp the hours as they came, -and not to worry over the future. After he had thoroughly explored the -reachable portions of the vessel and had worked out their position as -well as it was possible with such makeshift instruments as he could -devise, he had devoted himself to the study of the myriad life that -swarmed among the weeds. A scoop, trailed overboard for a few minutes, -invariably brought aboard hundreds of living forms. - -Something of a naturalist already, he took delight in studying the sea -creatures, and in noting the marvellous protective resemblances by -which they hid from foes or crept upon enemies, themselves similarly -equipped. - -In this study he was enthusiastically joined by Dorothy. No past record -of crime could prevent the intimacy that sprang up between these two, -so like in tastes and training, thus thrown upon each other for human -companionship. Again and again Dorothy told herself that she ought to -shrink from Howard and confine their intercourse to the needs of bare -civility, and, accordingly, for a time she would devote herself to -Jackson and let Howard go. But Jackson, blameless police officer as he -was, had no resources within himself to long content an educated girl -like Dorothy, and soon she would drift back to Howard’s side--much, it -must be owned, to Jackson’s relief. - -Curiously enough, the girl was not unhappy. The situation, as yet, was -too novel for that. The fact that she could see no possible means for -rescue did not greatly trouble her. With the natural resilience of -youth, she threw off her anxiety; with the natural trust of woman in -man, she was content to leave everything to Howard, and to put implicit -faith in his promise, vague and unsubstantial though it was, to do what -he could to save her. This was the more surprising as he had as yet had -no chance to prove himself capable. Nevertheless, Dorothy threw all -responsibility on his shoulders and concerned herself no more about the -outcome. If sometimes uneasy questions assailed her, she drove them -away. There was nothing to do but to trust him. After she had attended -to the meals--a duty which she insisted upon taking on herself after -the first day--she would join him at his nets, and together they would -pass away the hours. They grew very friendly in those days, especially -in the long silences of sympathetic understanding that ever bind heart -to heart. - -One day, the fifteenth since the storm, after one of these silences, -Dorothy turned to the man impulsively. “Mr. Howard,” she exploded. “You -say you are not thin-skinned. Won’t you tell me something about your -case?” - -Howard flushed. “To what end, Miss Fairfax?” he asked quietly. “I can -say that I am innocent, of course; but that is what every convict in -the land says. I could not convince the jury. Is it not better that I -keep silence till I can get the proof?” - -“Nevertheless, tell me.” - -“Certainly; if you really wish it.” Howard’s tones were coolly -impersonal. “On May 8 of last year, I received a letter in a woman’s -writing. It was short and I remember every word of it. ‘Dear Frank,’ -it said, ‘I am here. Come to see me at once. Dolores.’ Then followed -the address. Perhaps I was foolish to go, but I did go--to a cheap -lodging-house, where the landlady told me to ‘go right up’ to the third -floor and knock on the door marked 8. The door was ajar, however, -and as I got no answer to my knock, I pushed it open and looked in. A -woman’s body was lying on the floor. Again I was foolish. I should have -summoned aid at once. Instead, I went in, and stooped over the body. -Immediately I saw that the woman was dead; strangled apparently. As I -rose to call for help, the landlady appeared at the door. Probably the -inference she drew was justified; at any rate, she tried to blackmail -me, and when I refused to submit she shrieked and summoned assistance. -She declared that she had seen me choking the woman, and I was -arrested. Later it developed that some one passing under my name had -married the girl--for she was nothing more--in a little village near -San Juan at the very time my ship was stationed there.” - -“That, of course, furnished the motive for the crime. I had, so it was -charged, married the girl and deserted her. Later, when she followed -me to New York, I had sought her out and murdered her. There were -plenty of people to swear to the marriage and to send in affidavits -identifying my photograph as that of the bridegroom--though, as it -seems, none of them had seen very much of him. Only the minister who -performed the ceremony was doubtful, and him my lawyers arranged to -bring to New York. He started, but his ship was wrecked and he was -drowned on the way. All I could say was that I had never seen the girl -until I looked on her dead body, and that went for little.” - -“Evidently, the girl thought that she had married Frank Howard. Perhaps -she did marry a Frank Howard; the name is not uncommon. Perhaps she -married some one deliberately masquerading under my name. I do not -know. At all events, the case was complete against me, and the jury -found me guilty without leaving their seats. I escaped and went to -Porto Rico to look for evidence, but I was captured before I could find -it. That is all, Miss Fairfax. I cannot blame you if you agree with the -jury.” - -“But I don’t----” - -The sentence was never finished. Jackson, who for two hours had been -standing by the rail, staring northward, suddenly whirled around and -came toward the two, pistol in hand. - -“Put your fists up,” he ordered Howard tensely. “Up! Quick! Hang you!” - -Taken by surprise, Howard could do nothing but obey. - -Jackson laughed madly. “You’ve run things just about long enough,” he -grated. “We’ve been driftin’ in this wreck for two weeks now and I’m -dog tired of it. I ain’t no sailor, but I know when a man’s givin’ me -the double cross, and you’re doin’ it. You’ve got to get us out of -this.” - -Howard’s face grew dark. “Kindly specify?” he said. - -The other glared at him. “Don’t you try to bluff me with your big -words,” he shouted. “I won’t have it. You’ve been lettin’ on that you -wanted to get us out of this and all the time you’ve been lettin’ us -drift deeper in. You don’t want us to get away at all, for all your -smooth talk.” - -“I told you that I was helpless until we reached the central mass of -wrecks and----” - -“Yah! You and your mass of wrecks! I ain’t no come-on. You can’t work -no con game on me. I never took no stock in those fairy tales, but I -thought I’d let you play your game out. Now I’m tired of it, and it’s -up to you to do something quick!” - -Howard shrugged his shoulders. “With pleasure,” he agreed, “if you’ll -kindly tell me what to do.” - -“How do I know? I ain’t no sailor. You are! And you’re going straight -back to your state-room and stay there till you study out some plan to -get us out of this. You belong in quod, anyway, and you’re going to -stay there--with the bracelets on, too, until you get us out of this. -March, now.” - -But Howard shook his head. “I’ll never wear irons again,” he declared. -“Never! You’re armed and I’m not. You can kill me, but you can’t jail -me. Make up your mind to that. As for the central mass of wrecks, it -must exist; it’s impossible that it should not exist. The only question -is as to the area it covers. If you can---- By Jove!” - -His eyes left the detective’s face and travelled into space. “Fool,” he -cried, “look yonder.” - -Jackson laughed scornfully. “Not good enough,” he cried. “You can’t -fool----” - -But Dorothy broke in. “Land! Land!” she cried. - -In spite of himself the detective looked around. Through the haze -before them loomed what seemed to be the bulk of an island, set with -lofty tiers and dark beaches on which white houses gleamed in the -setting sun. So real it seemed that the happy tears streamed from -Dorothy’s eyes. “Oh!” she sobbed, “it’s land! land! land!” - -Howard’s voice came to her from afar off. “No,” he murmured, sadly. “It -is not land. It is wreckage. We have reached our destination.” - -Moved by a slight breeze, the haze shredded away and there, on the -waters before them, stretching away to right and to left, lay an -interminable mass of wrecks of every shape and description, banked -together so thickly that they seemed to touch--and did touch--each -other. Dead! all of them. Some newly dead; others long dead; but all -unburied, waiting in the haven of dead ships for the long-deferred -end. The trees were not trees, but masts hung with ravelled cordage; -the beaches were the black hulls of ships; and the white houses were -deck-houses or patches of canvas. - -For a moment no one spoke. Dorothy stood staring, every muscle tense, -while the tears dripped slowly from her distended eyes. Jackson’s mouth -fell open; his pistol hand fell nerveless to his side. For the first -time he realized the situation. - -As they gazed, the sun with tropic suddenness dropped below the horizon -and hid the scene. - -Howard’s voice broke the silence. “Now,” he encouraged, “we can get to -work.” - - - - -VII - - -IT was late that night before the voyagers dropped into uneasy slumber. -The wonder of their situation, suddenly brought home to them, had -roused them all to unusual volubility. In the excitement consequent on -the discovery of the massed wrecks even Jackson forgot his suspicions, -and the three talked together freely. Howard had promised that they -should join the wrecks, and they had done so. Now he would have a -chance to keep his other promise to get them out; in the first flush of -arrival they did not doubt that he would do so. - -But Jackson, at least, changed his opinion the next morning when he -came on deck and viewed the scene before him. - -During the night the Queen, drawn by the same natural attraction -that holds the planets in their sphere and brings floating chips -together in a basin, had taken its place with the dead ships. Under -her counter lay a water-logged schooner; beside her rubbed a dismasted -sailing-ship; over her submerged bow hung a tramp steamer, whose -blackened masts, bare of cordage, gave evidence of the flames that had -ravaged her. Beyond, stretched a mass of wreckage, ship pressing upon -ship, in an endless iteration of ruin. Only to the west the view was -open, and there stretched the weed in slimy convolutions. - -Over all screamed the sea-birds. - -Each of these countless wrecks had once sailed the sea, new and strong, -and each had come here at last to slumber peacefully until the deep -should open and receive it. No more would they ride out the hurricane -or take with frolic welcome the buffetings of the waves; no more would -they visit the great ports of men and groan beneath the heavy cargoes -placed upon them. Their days of turmoil were over. Here, in this quiet -haven, in the great calm of the tropics, with only the faintest -breezes to whisper into their ears tales of the open sea, and with the -birds to nest in their deserted rigging, they dreamed their old age -away. - -To Dorothy the sight was solemn, but not sad; to Howard it was amazing; -to Jackson it was maddening. - -Less than ever did he believe that he was hopelessly trapped far out on -the ocean; more than ever was he convinced that Howard was deceiving -him for his own ends. He saw the ships rocking gently on the swells, -noted white patches of sails showing here and there, heard the cries of -the gulls, and told himself afresh that he could easily walk ashore if -he only knew how; and when a flock of parrots lighted in the rigging -and demanded crackers, and a monkey poised on the end of a near-by mast -and gibbered, he was convinced beyond peradventure that Howard had -lied to them and was only watching his chance to desert them. He did -not even listen to that officer when he explained that both birds and -beasts must have drifted in on wrecks and had probably thriven. - -“The birds will feed on the roaches on the old rattle-trap wrecks,” he -explained, “and the monkeys will live on the birds’ eggs. Perhaps, too, -both catch shell-fish in the weeds.” - -Breakfast was a silent meal. Dorothy was awed and frightened by the -sight of the wrecks, and Jackson was glum. In vain Howard strove to -rouse them. Finally he gave up and finished his breakfast in silence. -Then he pushed away his plate. - -“Listen to me, please,” he said coldly. “We have arrived at our -destination and must now take steps to help ourselves. Two things are -necessary: first, to explore the ships around us; second, not to get -lost. Make no mistake; the danger of this last is very great. These -ships will not look the same as we leave them and as we return to -them; where we climb down a ship’s side in going away, we must climb -up it in coming back, and _vice versa_. Often this may be difficult; -sometimes it may be impossible. Yet, if we try to vary our route, we -may lose ourselves; and once lost the chances are a thousand to one -against our ever finding our way back to the Queen again. Not that we -shall stay by the Queen long; probably we shall soon find some ship -better suited for a base of operations. But we must remember that this -continent of ships is a desert except around its edges. New wrecks -arriving will bring food and water, but a few hundred yards inside the -borders neither can remain. It may seem to you that it would be easy to -get back to the border again, but I assure you that it would not be. -Without a compass, we would not know which way to go, and might easily -be plunging deeper and deeper into the mass.” - -He paused, waiting for comment, but none was made. He was leader, -however grudgingly so, and it was for him to map out their course of -action. No one dreamed of disputing it--Jackson, no less than Dorothy, -realized his helplessness and his ignorance. - -“I beg you, therefore, to be very careful,” resumed Howard, seeing -that the others waited. “I am particularly insistent, because we -must explore first of all. To-day the danger is not great, because -we are not likely to get far away, but we might as well start right. -First, we must run up all the signal-flags we can find; they will be -conspicuous for a long ways off. Next, we must light a fire in the -galley range; its smoke will be visible still farther away. Third, we -must never go out of sight of our base--the Queen, at present--under -any circumstances; when we climb to each new ship we must look back and -make sure that we can still see the flags or the smoke. Fourth, we -must each carry a hatchet and mark our way just as a woodman blazes a -path through a forest; the hatchet will come in handy, anyhow. Later, -if we do not find what we want, we can shift our base to some other -vessel along the ‘coast,’ and explore farther with that as a new -center. Do I make myself clear?” - -Dorothy nodded. “Shall we all go together?” she asked. - -Howard shook his head. “No, I think not,” he answered gently. “I hope -you will be willing to stay here for the present and keep the galley -fire alight; I’ll show you how to make it smoke. Jackson and I will -do the exploring for to-day, anyway. He can go to the north along the -coast, and I will go to the south, and----” - -“Not much!” The policeman was shaking his head doggedly. “Not much, -you don’t. I don’t leave you out of my sight. I’ve got my orders from -headquarters and----” - -Howard stifled an exclamation. “Very well,” he said coldly. “As you -please! Perhaps it is better anyway. Two can do things that one could -not. Come! Let’s get ready.” - -“But----” Dorothy looked very dubious. - -Howard turned to her. “I know what you would say, Miss Fairfax. You -would like to go, of course. But, believe me, it is best not. Moving -about these wrecks will be difficult and even dangerous for any one -hampered by skirts. You would be exhausted very soon. Besides, we may -meet unpleasant sights. Later, when we know our ground better, we will -take you for a sight-seeing tour. You will be perfectly safe on the -Queen. You are not afraid to be left alone, are you?” - -“Oh! No! It will be lonely, of course, but isn’t there some way that I -can signal to you if anything should happen?” - -Howard considered a while; then plunged down into the vitals of the -Queen, returning shortly with a double armful of straw dug from a -hogshead once filled with crockery. - -“There,” he said, dropping it at the entrance of the galley. “If -anything happens, wet some of that and put it on the fire; it will make -a thick black smoke. By alternately closing and opening the draft, you -can let it go up and cut it off altogether. We’ll watch for it.” - -Howard and Jackson climbed down the Jacob’s-ladder that still swung -at the Queen’s counter, and dropped lightly to the deck of the -water-logged schooner that lay there. Of this, nothing but a few inches -of the deck and the stumps of the masts were above water; whatever -deck-houses there might have been had been carried away, together with -the entire rail. Consequently there was nothing to investigate, nothing -that could help the castaways in their efforts to escape, and the two -men crossed over her with merely a glance, using her as a bridge to -reach a ship floating high in the water just beyond. - -The second vessel had a gangway lowered down her side, evidently to -help her passengers to reach the boats. Her masts were gone, but -otherwise she seemed intact. - -“Crew and passengers taken off by another ship,” explained Howard, -“probably in fair weather after a storm. Most likely another storm was -brewing and the crew expected their own vessel to sink.” - -A rapid search showed that the ship had nothing of value to offer. Her -boats were gone; her compasses, charts, chronometers, and sextants -all were gone. Some tools remained, but were so rusted as to be of -little value. Howard soon led the way to her taffrail, whence he could -clutch the shrouds of a full-rigged ship which had evidently been in a -collision. - -As he stepped on the deck of this craft, there was a scurry of feet, -and a dozen huge rats bolted across the deck and disappeared under the -poop. - -“Confound the brutes,” he muttered. “I hate them! Wonder what they have -been eating.” - -The answer was not far to seek. Close beside the davits of the -quarter-boat lay two skeletons; one with a smooth, round hole drilled -through the fleshless skull, the other with a broken backbone. Howard -looked at them and nodded. - -“Probably the crew made a rush for the boats,” he suggested. -“Somebody--one of the officers, I suppose--tried to stop them. He shot -one, but the others ran over him and broke his back. Then came the -rats. Well, it was a man’s death. If you can find a couple of bags, -Jackson, we will commit the bones to the sea.” - -From the ship the two men descended to a steamer, much down by the -stern, with a gaping hole in her port counter, where something must -have driven deep into her vitals. From this they climbed upon a small -yacht, floating just awash. (“Held up by water-tight compartments,” -explained Howard.) Thence they passed to another vessel, and to -another, and another, each bearing mute record to the manner of its -ruin. - -But on none did the explorers find what they sought. The boats were -invariably gone; the tools were always rusty; the compasses had all -been snatched from the binnacle and from the cabin; the charts had -mostly been torn from the racks and tables, often so roughly that the -thumb-tacks that had held their corners were left in the board, each -holding a triangular scrap of torn paper. In the few instances where -any did remain, they were rotten with mildew, and charted regions far -distant from the Sargasso Sea. - -It was noon when Howard gave the word to return to the Queen. “Don’t -be downcast, Jackson,” he consoled. “What we have found to-day is only -what we had to expect. The boats would, of course, be taken, even if -everything else was left. The compasses, and charts, and sextants, and -so on, would naturally be taken next, for those who went in the boats -would need them to shape their course. The tools and engines would have -almost invariably been left exposed to the weather and would be badly -rusted. It would have been by mere chance had we found what we wanted -on the very first day. At least we have learned that there is plenty -of food and water and clothing and coal to be had for the taking. -To-morrow we will search in another direction. Now, let’s go home.” - -But return was not so easy as the two men expected. As Howard had -foretold, there was an important difference between climbing up and -climbing down, and this difference was accentuated by the fact that in -leaving the Queen they had chosen the easiest route. When they could -have gone from one ship to any one of two or three others, they had -naturally moved to the one that appeared the least difficult of access. - -Taking the route in reverse, this small detail of choice often meant -that they must return to the one that was the most difficult to board. - -To this expected obstacle was added another that was unexpected. In -more than one instance they found that their morning route, as shown by -their blazed marks, was absolutely impracticable. The ships had moved, -slightly perhaps, but yet enough to bar their passage, ten feet of -water being often as impassable as ten hundred. Howard struck his brow -with his hand when he realized this. - -“I was a fool not to foresee this!” he exclaimed. “Of course, these -ships are not absolutely stationary. Even far inside they must be -somewhat subject to currents and to winds, and must move slightly, -while here, on the outskirts, they must move considerably. As a matter -of fact, the whole mass must be swinging around and around in a vast -circle, moved by the same current that brought them here in the first -place. Well, we must simply abandon our blazes, and go home by the -flags and the smoke.” - -Jackson peered into the distance. “I can’t see no flags,” he objected. - -“Can’t you? I can, but they are undoubtedly hard to make out in this -mass of frayed cordage and flapping streamers. However, we can see the -smoke clearly enough, and must set our course by it.” - -Ten minutes later the first accident of the day occurred. In stepping -from one ship to another, Jackson missed his footing, caught wildly at -a ratline, which broke in his grasp, and shot downward with a yell into -the water. - -By the time he had risen to the surface, Howard, who had been a little -in advance, was back, peering down at him. - -“Can you climb out?” he demanded. “No! I guess you can’t without help. -Hook your fingers into that port-hole--there, just behind you. That’s -right! Can you hang on for a while? It may take some time to find a -rope sound enough to bear your weight.” - -Jackson clawed the weed from off his face. “Yes! I can hang on all -right,” he returned, savagely. Evidently his involuntary bath had -ruffled his temper. “I can swim, too,” he added. - -Howard disappeared, and the policeman settled himself to wait. He had -learned to swim in the North River, and had no difficulty in keeping -afloat, even without the adventitious aid of the bull’s-eye in the -steamer’s side just above him. If he had fallen in almost anywhere else -he could have gotten out himself, but, as it chanced, this particular -bit of water was shut in by the sides of three ships, none of which -offered a foothold by which to climb. The bull’s-eye by which he hung -was the only orifice that broke the smoothness of the overhanging sides. - -Time passed, however, and Howard did not return, and a vague uneasiness -began to work in the policeman’s mind. There were ropes everywhere. -Surely, it did not take so long to find one. He called, but received no -answer. Could Howard have lost the place? Or could some accident have -befallen him? Or, could--good God! Did the man mean to leave him to -drown? - -The suggestion, once offered, would not down. It was, he told himself, -the very thing to be expected. With him out of the way, Howard would be -freed from the shadow of the gallows. He alone--except Miss Fairfax, -and what was a girl’s life--he alone knew that Howard had survived the -wreck of the Queen. With him dead, Howard--supposing that he could -regain dry land--could live out his life in safety. And what was a -policeman’s life to one whose hands were already stained with the blood -of his own wife? - -Jackson drew a long breath as conviction forced itself upon him. It was -characteristic of the man that he did not whimper. He had been dealing -with criminals for twenty years, and conceded them the right to fight -for their own hand. He had always declared that he would take his dose -when it came without doing the baby act; and, by George, he would keep -his word. - -Hope had vanished when Howard reappeared. In his hand was a boat’s -tackle, which he proceeded to hitch to a davit that projected over -Jackson’s head. But, instead of dropping down the other end, he quietly -seated himself on the bulwarks and stared thoughtfully at the man below. - -“Well, Jackson,” he remarked, deliberately, “our positions seem to be -reversed.” - -The policeman scowled. “Damn you, yes,” he responded, truculently. - -An expression of admiration floated over Howard’s face. “By Jove, -Jackson!” he cried. “You’re all right. I didn’t think you had the nerve -to speak up like that under the circumstances. ‘What dam of lances -brought you forth to jest at the dawn with death?’ That’s from Kipling, -Jackson, if you do not recognize it.” - -“G’wan. If you’re goin’ to murder me, do it. You’ve had experience, all -right.” - -“Fie! fie! Jackson! Call things by their proper names. This wouldn’t -be any murder. But, there”--Howard’s voice grew stern--“enough of -this. I see you realize the situation. All I have to do is to leave -you where you are, and to-morrow I will be a free man. But I am not -going to do it; I am going to pull you up in a minute. But I want you -to realize that I have deliberately put aside the best chance possible -to free myself from your surveillance, and I want you to cease dogging -my footsteps and watching me everywhere I go. I don’t ask you to -let me escape or anything like that, but I do ask you to act on my -suggestions without any talk of not letting me out of your sight. Our -escape from this wreckage may any day depend on your prompt obedience, -and I want you to obey. In return, I reiterate my assertion--which you -did not believe--that I am even more anxious than you are to get back -to dry land; and in addition I promise you, on the word of an officer -and a gentleman, that if I do get back, you and Miss Fairfax shall go, -too. I will not desert you, even though I know you will arrest me the -moment you have force enough at hand to do it. Now, put your foot in -the hook on this block, and I’ll haul you up.” - -Jackson caught the block that Howard dropped, and put his foot in it -mechanically. He was a slow thinker, and Howard’s words bewildered him -for the moment; later he would realize their import. Anyhow, now was -the time to act; the time to think would come later. So he grasped the -rope and waited while his former prisoner hoisted him up to the deck. - -Once there he turned to Howard and opened his mouth. But that -individual checked him with a smile. - -“After a while! After a while!” he counselled. “Let’s get back to the -Queen now. Where’s that smoke?” - -He turned and gazed around the horizon; then he started. - -“Something’s wrong on the Queen,” he cried. “Miss Fairfax is signalling -for us!” - - - - -VIII - - -WHEN the two men left Dorothy alone in the Queen, she was not uneasy, -although she did not welcome being alone in that desolate place. She -had so grown to depend on Howard’s companionship, and to take comfort -even in Jackson’s bear-like presence about the ship, that she felt a -queer sinking at heart when they left her. Still, she realized that it -was necessary that some one who understood thoroughly what was wanted -should explore, and she knew that Howard was the only one possessed of -that information. If Jackson felt it his duty to go along, she would -not for worlds ask him to stay with her, although she was entirely -convinced that Howard would not desert them. She had accepted without -reservation Howard’s story of the crime for which he had been tried, -and she put implicit trust in him. - -The fire in the galley was burning well when the two men left, and -Dorothy decided to postpone her dishwashing and tidying up, and to -remain on deck and watch their progress. Several times before the -tangled masts and hulls, torn canvas, and frayed cordage hid them from -her view, Howard turned to wave his hand to her and shake his head -in token that the search had as yet brought them nothing. When they -disappeared at last behind a big, high-floating steamer, she went below -to attend to her duties, which included the preparation of what she -told herself should be an extra fine dinner, in celebration of the -completion of the first stage of their journey. - -Time passed rapidly in accompaniment to the cheerful clink of the pans -and the rattle of the dishes with which she set the table. At last she -paused and looked at her watch. - -“Twelve o’clock,” she murmured. “He ought to be coming back now.” It -was noticeable that she said “he,” not “they.” “I’ll go on deck and -look.” - -She started up the companionway, then paused, as a faint shout was -borne to her ears. “There they are now,” she thought, happily. “I -wonder what they have found.” She hurried up the stairway. - -The call was repeated as she went, and was unmistakable now. “Ahoy, the -ship!” it came again and again. - -Dorothy stopped short. “That’s not Mr. Howard’s voice--nor Mr. -Jackson’s,” she gasped. “Who----” - -Cautiously she peered from the door and looked around anxiously. Two -unknown sailors were standing on the deck of the fire-blackened steamer -that lay across the bows of the Queen. As she stared, one of them -hailed again. “Ahoy, the steamer!” he shouted. - -Dorothy’s first feeling was one of delight. There were people then in -this place of desolation, and people, to Dorothy, meant civilization -and all that it connotes--including facilities of communication with -the world. She was about to answer the hail when something made her -hesitate. It might be all right, but she was alone. She turned, and, -slipping back to the galley fire, rapidly thrust into it an armful of -wet straw. An exclamation outside, faintly heard, showed that the smoke -had changed accordingly. Twice she repeated the signal with an interval -between; then warned by the thump of feet on the deck overhead, she -thrust in a last armful and hurried toward the companionway. - -As she reached its top, the sailors appeared at the door. Dorothy bowed. - -“Good morning, gentlemen!” she cried. The men started back with one -accord; their hands flew to their caps and pulled them from their -heads. One seemed too amazed for speech, but the other was somewhat -bolder. - -“Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am,” he stammered. “I--we--Bill an’ me hailed, -but--I hopes you’re well, ma’am.” - -Dorothy smiled. “Yes! I’m well,” she returned, “and very glad to see -you. Tell me, do you live here?” - -“On this ship, ma’am? No, ma’am.” - -“Oh, no, I know you don’t live on this ship, for we have just drifted -in on it. I mean here.” - -She waved her hand comprehensively. - -Bill had recovered somewhat by now. “No, ma’am,” he declared -positively. “Joe and me live in little old New York. But we’ve been -here ten years!” - -“Ten years!” Dorothy’s cheeks paled. “Ten years! Oh! can’t you get -away? Don’t tell me you can’t get away!” - -“No, ma’am, we can’t get away. We’d go like a shot if we could. You -see, ma’am, nothing but wrecks ever come in here, and there ain’t no -way of getting out.” - -“Can’t you build a boat?” - -“We might, ma’am, but how could we get it through the weed. Nobody ever -has. Everybody who’s ever come in here is here yet.” - -“Everybody! How many are there of you?” - -“Twenty-two--not countin’ the women and the child.” - -“Women! Are there women here? I’m so glad! Oh! poor creatures! Have -they--But, there! Come up here and sit down. We drifted in here only -yesterday--three of us. The men have gone to explore, but they will be -back soon. While we are waiting for them, you must tell me all about -everything.” - -Dorothy led the way aft, reaching the taffrail just in time to see -Howard and Jackson speeding toward her over the wrecks. She waved her -hand at them; assured of their safety she felt more secure. - -“There comes the rest of our party,” she explained. - -The story told by Bill and Joe over the dinner-table was long and -involved with many interruptions and many repetitions. According to -them, there had always been people living on the assembled wreckage. -The one of their number who had been there longest--for twenty-five -years--knew personally others before him who had been there for as long -again, and declared that these in turn knew of still others who had -been there before them. It seemed very probable that the colony--if -such a name could be applied to it--had existed for centuries. - -The people, like the ships, had always come and never gone; once on -the wrecks, they had stayed there till they died. Several of those now -there had been born on the wrecks, and had lived there all their lives. -Fresh wrecks brought them food, water, clothing, and many luxuries, and -if these failed, there were abundant rain, birds’ eggs, and fish to -fall back upon. Mostly sailors, trained to handiness, the castaways -had developed many lines of industry, and, on the whole, lived very -contentedly. - -“Some of us is willing to live here always,” said Joe, “an’ some -ain’t--especially at first. But, Lord love ye, they comes round to it -after a while, seein’ they’ve got to.” - -The castaways, it seemed, had developed a sort of government, under a -former ship captain named Peter Forbes, whose ascendency rested partly -on the fact that his strength enabled him to overcome everyone who -contested the leadership with him, and partly on his native ability. -Under his rule, stores were collected from the newly arrived ships -and carried, sometimes from miles away, to what may be called the -village--the central point where the castaways lived. A patrol--Joe and -Bill, at present--was maintained, which made regular trips for fifty -miles in each direction, investigating such new wrecks as might come -in. The patrol only went as far as fifty miles in order to pick up any -new arrivals, it being impracticable to transport stores more than a -few miles over the ragged surface of the wreckage, even by swinging -them on an aerial trolley from mast to mast. - -Forbes divided up the work, and saw that each individual did his -share. He also acted as a fount of justice, settling disputes in a -rough-and-ready fashion, and, on occasion, dealing out punishments, -more or less severe, for infractions of the rules he had laid down. -Altogether, he seemed such an exceptional sort of man that Howard could -not understand why he had made no effort to escape to shore. - -Bill tried to make things clear. “You see, sir,” he explained, “it’s -like this: This here weed stretches out for two hundred miles and more. -We’d first have to build a boat, and then cut our way through it inch -by inch. We couldn’t get grub or water enough in the boat to last us -till we got out. An’ if we did get out, where’d we be? At sea without -a compass or nothin’! We all wanted to try at first, but Forbes, he -explains things to us so plain that we sees how impossible it is. Two -or three times coves have tried to get out, but they allus got stuck -in the weed, an’ mighty glad they was to get back to where there was -plenty to eat and drink.” - -Howard nodded. “I see the difficulty,” he conceded. “But have you no -instruments? Of course there are not likely to be many, but I should -think you would have found a few in all these years.” - -Joe hesitated. “The cap’n allers looks out for them things,” he -declared at last. “Nobody knows how to use ’em but him.” - -“Ah! I see.” - -To himself Howard added that it was tolerably evident that Forbes -was not over-anxious to escape; probably he agreed with Cæsar that -he “would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second -in Rome”; and, contented with his little realm and sway, threw his -influence against any attempt of the others to deplete it. Howard felt -that he and Forbes might come to a clash later on. - -Dorothy changed the subject by asking about the women. There were two, -it appeared, one old and one young. The older one, of whom the sailors -spoke affectionately as Mother Joyce, was nearly sixty years old; she -and her husband had been on the wrecks for fifteen years. The younger -had been there only two years; she had been a widow, but had married -one Gallegher, Forbes’s right-hand man, some time before. The only -child in the community was hers. - -“So you marry here, just as you do elsewhere?” interjected Dorothy, -lightly, at this point. “Who performs the ceremonies?” - -Joe hesitated. “Cap’n Forbes used to up to last year,” he answered at -last. “Then Mr. Willoughby floated in on a wreck. He’s a regular gospel -sharp, an’ he’s done it since.” - -“Gallegher ain’t pretty,” continued Joe, thoughtfully. “An’ I guess -Mrs. Strother that was wasn’t over-anxious to marry him. But women -is awful skearce here, and they generally gits married right off.” -He paused and looked from Dorothy to Howard. “Your wife, sir?” he -questioned. - -Dorothy flushed hotly, but Howard did not seem to notice it. - -“No,” he said. “This is Miss Fairfax. I am Lieutenant Howard, of the -navy. This is Mr. Jackson, of the New York police force.” - -The men ducked their heads awkwardly. “We did have another lady here,” -remarked Bill, abstractedly. “She was the cap’n’s wife, but she died a -month or two ago. The cap’n is mighty anxious to marry again--mighty -anxious.” - -“Ah! indeed.” Howard rose from the table. “Come,” he continued, “let’s -go on deck. I want you to point out something to me!” - -As Dorothy led the way, followed by Bill and Joe, Howard turned to -Jackson, who had been listening to the sailors in dazed silence. - -“If you want to get away from here, Jackson,” he counselled hurriedly, -“for God’s sake keep quiet about me. If you don’t, Forbes is likely to -keep us here for the rest of our lives. The chances are he will try to -do it anyway.” - - - - -IX - - -SHORTLY after dinner the entire party set out for the village, which -was, it seemed, only half a mile away, and would have been reached by -Jackson and Howard had they chanced to go in the right direction. - -Bill and Joe knew all the easiest routes across the wreckage, and led -the newcomers by one, which, though not quite direct, yet involved -the minimum of effort on Dorothy’s part. Nevertheless, progress was -necessarily slow, and it took nearly an hour to go the so-called half -mile. - -When the village was sighted, it was evident that considerable pains -had been taken to make it comfortable. A score of modern vessels, -mostly steamers, of about the same phase of flotation had been pulled -into place and so bound together as to constitute a solid mass. -Over what had once been the interstices between them, planking had -been laid, making it possible to go anywhere about the place without -difficulty. Awnings, spread from mast to mast, gave promise of cool -shade. - -“The cap’n fixed this up about a year after he came,” explained Bill -to Howard. “Before then we just pigged around any which-a-ways. But he -says that what with new ships drifting in continual, we’re gettin’ too -far from the coast and we’ll have to move soon. Yonder he is, sir.” - -As Bill spoke, a tall, thickset man came hurriedly on deck, ran to the -edge of the platform, cast a quick glance at the newcomers as they -scrambled over the wreckage toward him, and then turned and beat a -rapid tattoo on a ship’s bell that hung close at hand. - -“That’s the signal that something’s doing,” explained Joe. - -The village awoke to life. Half a dozen hatchways gave out figures -in every style of costume, and when the newcomers reached the deck, -practically the entire population was waiting to welcome them. - -Forbes was first, the rest holding back respectfully to give him -precedence. - -“Welcome! Welcome!” he called, holding out both hands. “Seldom indeed -has any one been so welcome. And a special welcome to you, fair lady,” -he added, as he bent low over Dorothy’s slender fingers. Then he turned -to the villagers behind him. “Come, all of you,” he commanded. “Come -and make our new friends feel at home.” - -They came, all of them, crowding round the newcomers with a babble -of greetings and questionings as to the world from which they had -been so long cut off. So rapid was the fire of interrogation, and so -multifarious the questions, that they fairly swept Jackson off his -feet, and left the other two in little better case. - -When the hubbub was at its height, there came, from behind the rest, -a hearty, bustling sort of a voice. “Arrah! arrah! boys,” it pleaded. -“Don’t you see you’re crowding the young lady? Make room for old Mother -Joyce. How are you, me darlint? It’s terrible glad I am to see you; -gladder than you are to see any of us, I’ll venture. There! deary! -don’t cry. It’s all right.” - -The old woman’s voice dropped to a soothing note. For Dorothy, all the -experiences of the past two weeks coming on her afresh at sight of a -woman’s face, had broken down completely, and was sobbing on Mother -Joyce’s ample bosom. - -“Oh!” she wailed, “I didn’t know how awful it has been until I saw you. -All these dead ships----” Her voice died away. - -“I know! I know! It was fifteen years agone that I--but I remimber. -There, mavourneen, be aisy. Come along down to Mother Joyce’s cabin and -have your cry out.” - -She took Dorothy down a hatchway some distance from the babbling -throng, into a cool and airy cabin. - -“Sit down wid yees,” she commanded. “Sit down with Mother Joyce and -wape it all out. I understand, dear heart; I understand.” - -Dorothy’s curiosity soon mastered her tears, and before long the two -women were exchanging confidences like old friends. Belonging to two -different social worlds, elsewhere they would never have known each -other. But adventure makes strange companions. - -After a while Joe tapped at the door. - -“Cap’n Forbes says, Mother Joyce,” he explained, “as how he hopes you -an’ the young lady will take supper with him.” - -Mother Joyce looked at Dorothy, who responded promptly. - -“I’ll be glad to do so, of course,” she answered. - -“All right, Joe. We’ll come.” Then, as the sailor’s footsteps -died away, the old lady turned to Dorothy. “My dear,” she essayed -diffidently. “It’s cautioning you a bit I must be. It’s a bad state of -things for a pretty young woman like yourself we’re after having here, -so it is. Will you be goin’ to marry that young man who saved your life -and who’s been so kind to you ever since the wreck?” - -Dorothy sat up very straight, and her cheeks flamed. - -“Indeed, I am not,” she exclaimed. - -Mother Joyce looked more troubled than ever. “It’s not for idle -curiosity I’m asking,” she continued, “but because---- Are you quite -certain you don’t want to marry him? It’s good and true he looks -and--maybe it’s not another chance you’ll be getting.” - -Dorothy’s cheeks still burned, but uneasiness tugged at her -heart-strings. Clearly there was something behind the old woman’s -words--something of grave import, too. Joe and Bill had also hinted -something she did not quite understand. - -“Marriage between me and Mr. Howard is entirely out of the question,” -she replied quietly. “There are reasons that I can’t go into now. But I -wish you would tell me exactly what the trouble is, dear Mother Joyce; -for I am sure there is something dreadfully wrong.” - -Mother Joyce studied the girl for a moment. - -“Faith and I will,” she acquiesced. “Maybe it’s all right it is--if -you’re certain you don’t want to marry that young man of yours. The -trouble is the plentiful lack of females we have here in the sea. You -haven’t seen Prudence Gallegher yet. She’s the one other woman here. -She drifted in alone and half crazy on the ship Swan two years ago. Her -husband and everybody else had been drowned. In the two years she’s -been here she’s been married four times.” - -“Four times! How horrible! How could she----” - -“It’s no choice she had. There were twenty odd men here and only two -women besides her. It’s not much about men in the rough you’ll be -knowing, I think. Prudence had to make her choice and make it quick. -She _had_ to, or--well, she did the best she could, and she married -two days after she got here. Six months later the poor creature was a -widow--her husband killed by a block fallin’ from aloft and knocking -his brains out. The morning after she married again. She had to, -you’ll understand. Six or eight months afterward her second husband -disappeared, and Cap’n Forbes declared it’s dead he must be, and -that she must many once more. So marry she did. Three months ago Mr. -Gallegher’s wife died--Mr. Gallegher is the mate--and within a week -Prudence was a widow once more. It was a big snake that Captain Forbes -keeps as a pet that did the worruk that time; it got loose and crushed -poor Strother to death. The very next day Prudence was forced to -marry Gallegher--and her with a two-months’-old baby. Captain Forbes, -you’ll understand, had a wife of his own all this time, but she died -a week ago, and it’s myself that’s looking for somethin’ to happen to -Gallegher any day.” - -Dorothy gasped. “You mean----” she cried. - -“I mane that Cap’n Forbes wants a wife mighty bad, and that Gallegher -wants even worse to find one for him. I mane that you’d better be -considerin’ whether you’d rather marry your young man--or Cap’n Forbes.” - -Dorothy listened with strained attention. This thing was too horrible -to be true. That she, Dorothy Fairfax, ran the slightest danger of -being forced to marry anybody was simply unthinkable. Mother Joyce -was exaggerating. This Prudence Gallegher must be a weak sort of a -woman--not one by whom to measure herself. - -She turned to Mrs. Joyce. “Have--have _you_ been married more than -once?” she asked. - -A grim look banished the kindly lines from Mother Joyce’s face. “Only -once, mavourneen,” she answered. “I gave them all to understand long -ago that if they did away with Tim, it’s follow him I would--after I -had killed all of them I could. And they belaved me. Besides, it’s an -old woman I am--not a pretty young colleen like you. You’d better be -after takin’ my advice; marry your young man quick if you want him and -stay on your own ship till he can get you away from here.” - -“But they all say we can’t get away.” - -“Arrah! Go way wid you! Tell me twinty men can’t get away from anywhere -if it’s any sinse they’ve got. Cap’n Forbes could have got us ashore -long ago if he’d been wantin’ to. It’s talk he does about gittin’ stuck -in the weed! What’s a lot of weed? You can cut through it, can’t you? -Faith, the rale trouble is Cap’n Forbes ain’t wantin’ to go, an’ he’s -the only wan here with any seafarin’ since and any git up and git about -him--unless your young man is after havin’ some.” - -“Mr. Howard said we could get away if we could get a boat and compass -and----” - -“Oh! Sure, you’ll have to be havin’ a boat and some instruments to -guide her, an’ it’s none so aisy to foind boats here. It’s me own -opinion that the cap’n has destroyed all he found, so it is. As for -compasses and such like, sure the cap’n has thim right enough locked -away in his storehouse, even though he kapes them mighty secret. He -don’t want to go himself and, be the same token, he don’t want any wan -else to go. He moightn’t be such a big man if he was ashore, so he -moightn’t! But you and your friends can get away--if Cap’n Forbes don’t -prevent.” - -Freed from the restraint of Dorothy’s presence, the conversation on -deck had grown even more animated than before. Howard and Jackson could -scarcely answer one question before half a dozen more were plumped at -them. Evidently, thirst for news of the world had not died out in the -members of the colony. - -Howard noticed, however, that Forbes himself soon drew aside from -the rest and engaged in earnest talk with Joe and Bill, evidently -questioning them in regard to the Queen and her passengers, and that -later he devoted himself particularly to drawing out Jackson. Finally -he came toward Howard. - -“I guess your throat’s pretty dry, Mr. Howard,” he said, “and if you’ll -come down to my cabin, I’ll see if I can’t find something to irrigate -it with.” - -Howard willingly accepted the invitation. From all he had heard it -was obvious to him that this puppet king had resolutely set his face -against any member of his colony leaving the wreck-pack, and it was -highly necessary to discover whether he would go so far as to oppose -any attempts of the newcomers in that direction. If a contest was to -come, the sooner Howard knew it, the better. - -Forbes led the way to his cabin and pushed forward a chair. - -“Choose your own poison, Mr. Howard,” he offered hospitably, indicating -a sideboard loaded with bottles. “We have pretty nearly everything -there is. A single steamer last month brought us more than we could -drink in a lifetime. What I have here doesn’t represent half her -selection. There is beer in the ice-box over in that corner, if you -prefer it.” - -Upon Howard’s accepting the beer, his host set half a dozen bottles on -the table, adding one of whiskey for himself. - -“Bourbon is good enough for me,” he observed. “I sample the fancy -drinks once in a while, but always come back to the straight stuff. I’m -surprised that you don’t also. You are a naval officer, aren’t you? I -hope you are better up in other details of your profession.” - -Howard laughed. “Hard drinking isn’t exactly compulsory in the -service,” he observed, lightly. - -“Oh, no offense! I was only joking, of course. I suppose you have -specialists in that line as well as in others. From what I read in -the papers that drift in to us here, I take it that everything is -being specialized nowadays. What’s your particular line--navigating, -engineering, submarining?” - -Howard laughed again. “This is an age of specialization, all right, -captain,” he returned, “but it hasn’t struck the navy yet. Quite the -contrary! Only a year or two ago, Congress wiped out all special lines -and insisted that all officers should know everything. Perhaps it was -right, but----” - -“But you don’t think so. Well, it’s a good thing to know all about your -own job if you can. I suppose, however, you can’t help specializing -more or less. For instance, you must have special men who manage your -submarines.” - -“Not exactly. Still, only a few men have had any experience in that -line yet. The boats are too new and too few to give everybody a chance -yet. Personally, I have been lucky enough to have had a good deal of -experience with them, but comparatively few others have as yet.” - -Forbes threw himself back in his chair with a look of intense -satisfaction on his face. “That’s good,” he said heartily. “Humph! By -the way, Howard, this party of yours is a curiously mixed one.” - -“You think so?” - -“Oh, it’s evident on the face of it!-- Have a cigarette?-- A navy -officer, a New York policeman, and a girl; that’s odd enough, isn’t it? -Not that sailors and girls are antipathetic--quite the contrary--but -where does the policeman come in? I don’t quite place him in the -picture.” - -Howard lighted his cigarette with a steady hand. “I believe he had been -to Porto Rico to bring a convict back to New York,” he returned. - -“A convict. Humph! Too bad he didn’t bring him here. ‘There’s never -a law of God or man runs in the Sargasso Sea.’ I’m up in the modern -poets, you’ll observe, Howard. We have no extradition here. Well, as I -was saying, Neptune makes some queer bed-fellows, especially here. Who -is the lady, by the way?” - -“Miss Dorothy Fairfax, daughter of Colonel John Fairfax, a millionaire -railroad man who has been building lines in Porto Rico of late. His -daughter was on her way home after visiting him on the island.” - -Forbes’s eyes glittered. “Colonel John Fairfax’s daughter, eh! I was -reading an article in the paper about him the other day that said he -owned about half the railroads in the United States. His daughter will -be quite a catch for a poor man. Eh, Howard!” - -Howard made a slight movement. “I would rather not discuss Miss -Fairfax, captain,” he returned, quietly. “When and how can we get away -from here?” - -Forbes held his glass to the light and squinted at it. “Well, Howard,” -he remarked reflectively. “I’ve been kind of expecting you to ask me -that. In fact, I brought you down here to give you a chance to ask me. -The truth is, you can’t get away at all unless you come to terms with -me.” - -“What are your terms?” - -“Well--I’ll come to that after a while. Look here, Howard, I’ve been -here ten years and I never was so comfortable in my life before. I’ve -lived easy and slept soft, and never had a minute’s worry about grocery -bills or taxes, or any of the other plagues of civilization. And my men -have been in the same case. They’ve had just work enough to keep them -healthy, and just drink enough to keep them happy. If they were out of -this, they’d either be working like dogs or drunk--also like dogs. Why -in thunder should either they or I want to go back to that old damnable -life?” - -“No reason at all, captain, if you’re content here.” - -“That’s the devil of it. I’m not content. I’m just fool enough to ache -to get back. But I don’t want to go back empty-handed. I don’t want to -go back poor. I want to go back rich, with influential connections, -social relations, and all the rest of it.” - -Howard smiled. “You’re not the only one who wants all that, captain,” -he observed. “There are others.” - -“So I suppose. But the difference between them and me is that since you -got here I’ve got all this right in my fist. This morning it was far -away; now it is close at hand. As I said, I’ve been here for ten years. -In that time I have been over about five thousand wrecks, old and -new. Nearly every one of them has had money on her. Some have had very -large sums. Large or small, I have collected them all. It makes a great -fortune for one; it is enough for two; but it isn’t a hill of beans -among a score.” - -“I am beginning to see.” - -“I couldn’t take this money away secretly by boat--it’s too bulky. I -couldn’t take it openly without sharing it with a dozen others--and it -would need about a dozen to cut a way through this damnable weed. I’ve -been ready to go for six months, but I didn’t see my way. Now I do.” - -“Well.” - -“Recently I found a safe, quick, and easy way for a man with the right -technical knowledge to get away from here with two or three people--and -my money. But I didn’t have the technical knowledge. Of all the ships -that have floated in with libraries on them, not one has had a book -that told me what to do. Now you have come especially trained in the -very line I want. Can you guess what my terms are now?” - -“Humph! Perhaps. What is your way?” - -“Don’t worry about that now. It’s all right, and that’s enough. I’m -telling you a good deal, because I want your help, but I’m not giving -myself away altogether. But about those terms. If you’ll help me get -ashore with my money, I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars.” - -Howard lay back in his chair and stared at his host thoughtfully. The -conversation had proceeded far otherwise from what he had expected. The -man whose opposition to his leaving he had feared, was actually asking -his aid. Yet this assistance was asked not slavishly, but as if the -asker could compel it if he liked, but preferred to request. Howard -felt that he must choose his words warily. - -“Such a question is hardly worth asking, captain,” he returned. “Of -course, I shall be glad to accept. I take it for granted that my -friends are included in your invitation!” - -“Your friends!” Forbes burst into a roar of laughter. “Your friends! -That’s good! That’s very good! One of your friends--Mr. Jackson--I -intend to leave behind as a special favor to you.” - -For an instant Howard saw red. Then the fit passed, and he answered -quietly, “You astonish me, captain.” - -“Oh, no, I don’t! Look here, I’m on to you, Howard. You are the convict -that Jackson went to Porto Rico for. You are now supposed to be dead. -Leave Jackson here, and you can change your name and live anywhere in -the world you like in perfect safety.” - -“And Miss Fairfax?” Howard almost choked as he uttered the words, but -the necessity of dissembling was strong upon him. - -“Miss Fairfax will go with us--as my wife!” - -“What!” - -“Sit down, Howard, and keep your shirt on. What’s the use of getting -worked up. I know I’m not exactly in Miss Fairfax’s line, but she won’t -be the only woman who has married out of her class. I’ll make good with -her father, all right.” - -“You think you can get Miss Fairfax to marry you?” - -In spite of himself the scorn that Howard tried to hide showed in his -voice. Forbes did not notice it. - -“She can’t help herself,” he declared. “I’ve got her dead to rights. -Besides, I’ve got the law--our law--on my side. You don’t suppose -ordinary rules govern here, do you? Not much! The sexes are too -frightfully disproportionate. Counting your party, there are just -twenty-four men and only three women here. The coming of a new woman -has always been the signal for trouble. Bad blood, quarrels, and -murders have followed inevitably. So we made a law some years ago that -every woman must marry within twenty-four hours after her arrival. -Under that law I intend to marry Miss Fairfax. What have you to say -about it?” - -With the last word Captain Forbes put his elbows on the table and -leaned forward, staring into Howard’s face. Huge, shaggy, and evidently -immensely powerful, he towered menacingly above the smaller naval -officer. - -Howard wanted to say a good deal, but forbore. Clearly Forbes took him -for an ordinary scoundrel who had his price like other scoundrels. If -he was to help Dorothy, the obvious thing was to appear to fall in with -the plan until opportunity offered to defeat it, or until action could -no longer be deferred. That is, he must gain time, and the only way to -gain time was to dissimulate. - -“I don’t believe I have anything to say about it just now, captain,” he -returned, mildly, “except that I think you could make a better bargain -with Colonel Fairfax if you merely returned his daughter to him safely. -She’ll hate you forever, you know.” - -Forbes’s brows relaxed. “Not much she won’t,” he returned. “She’ll come -to time, all right, and mighty soon, too. I know how to handle the sex. -She’ll be too proud to confess the truth, and she’ll praise me up to -the skies. You’ll see! Besides, I don’t want the old man’s money; I’ll -have enough of my own. I want his social help. Well! is it a bargain?” - -Howard hesitated. “I must think about it for a while, captain,” he -returned. - -“What do you want to think about? Oh! I guess I see! You’ve got an idea -of marrying the girl yourself, I reckon. Humph! Son-in-law saves girl, -and rich daddy saves son-in-law. I don’t blame you, but I guess I’ll -just have to queer that game once for all. Gallegher!” - -The last word came like a pistol-shot. Howard leaped to his feet, only -to find three armed men standing behind him. - -Forbes threw himself back in his chair and laughed. - -“Stung!” he remarked lightly. “You might as well go quietly, -Howard. There’s no use of committing suicide, you know. We won’t -hurt you--you’re too valuable. And we’ll turn you loose--after the -ceremony.” - - - - -X - - -FOR one moment, as the men closed in on him, Howard struggled with a -furious desire to wrest a cutlass from one of them, and with it exact -terms from the others. The odds, though great, were not necessarily -overwhelming, and victory would mean much. Had he stood on equal terms -before the law, he would have risked everything in an immediate fight. - -But he did not stand even. Against him as a convict fighting for -freedom, Forbes could throw the entire population of his colony; even -Jackson might join in the unequal odds. The result of a struggle on -that basis must be inevitable; Dorothy would lose her only defender. -Later, when the time came, if it did come, to shift the fight to the -defense of womanhood, he would have a better cause and might win -allies. So he surrendered. - -“Take him to the Chester,” ordered Forbes, “and lock him up. Give him -anything he wants to make him comfortable, and see after his meals. If -he makes any trouble, put him in irons. Off with you.” - -Sick at heart, Howard marched away between his captors. The way led -to the edge of the wide platform that constituted the village, down a -gang-plank, and away for some distance across the wrecks. Finally it -led through a rent in the side of a big iron steamer, and up to what -had evidently once been the captain’s cabin. Into this he was thrust. - -Gallegher paused, with his hand on the lock. “You heard what the cap’n -said,” he growled. “You behave yourself and nobody’ll hurt you. And, -remember, there ain’t a mite of use tryin’ to escape, because there -ain’t nowhere to escape to.” - -The door slammed and Howard was left to his own reflections. - -His first act was, of course, to inspect his prison. It was not -uncomfortable. Large, airy, and well furnished, it had evidently been -selected because all its sides were of iron, three of them being formed -by the sides of the vessel, and the fourth by one of her bulkheads. -Numerous port-holes admitted air and light, but were too small for a -man’s body to pass through them. A skylight overhead had been closed -with heavy timbers. Altogether it was a strong place. - -Before he had had much more than time enough to familiarize himself -with his surroundings, the key grated in the lock, and one of his -captors entered with a tray, which he placed on a table built around -the mizzenmast of the ship. - -“Here’s your dinner, sor,” he announced. - -Howard came over and sat down. As he did so, his eyes fell on some -curious-looking mechanism which the man had pushed aside in making room -for the tray. A question sprang to his lips, but he choked it back as -the other bent suddenly forward. - -“I heard of what you said to Bill and Joe, sor,” he breathed. “Is it -true that you could get away from here if you had the chance, sor?” - -“True? Of course it’s true. Give me a boat, two or three men, and a -compass, and I’d start away at an hour’s notice. I wonder that you men -don’t see that.” - -“And will you take me and Kathleen with you when you go, sor? -Kathleen’s my wife--Joyce they call her, sor, though its nather chick -nor child we’re after having, sor.” - -“I’ll take anybody. But I’ve got to be free in order to prepare----” - -“Whist! That’ll be all right, sor. Kape a stiff upper lip and -everything will come right. The young lady and you have friends here, -sor. I don’t dare to stop now, but it’s back again I’ll be later on.” - -Howard made no effort to detain the man. He was in a fever of -impatience to examine the instruments on the table, and the moment he -heard the key turn in the lock, he pushed aside his dinner and began to -finger them. - -“It isn’t possible,” he muttered. “It isn’t possible! Forbes would know -better. But, by George, he doesn’t. It’s true! It’s true! _He’s locked -me up with a wireless outfit._ If it’s only in working order.” He -pressed the key and a rumble and a crash gave answer. “It is! It is!” -he exulted. “By Heaven! It is!” - -“Now to raise somebody before Forbes finds me out,” he continued. “If -the wireless only sent as silently as it received, it would be all -right. But--well! maybe no one will notice. It’s pretty noisy here! -Anyhow, there’s nothing to do but try.” - -He placed his finger on the key. “Let’s see!” he soliloquized. “The -naval station at Guantanamo is nearest, but I don’t know its call. I’ll -have to try C Q D--the emergency signal.” - -Again and again he pressed the key, and again and again the apparatus -roared, sending the cry for help broadcast over the sea. No -interruption came. The village was some distance away, and the noise -passed unheard or unheeded. “C Q D! C Q D!” he called. - -At last the answer came, faint but distinct, whispering in through the -microphone on his head. “Hello! Hello! Hello!” it sounded. “Who’s this?” - -“Survivor of the wrecked steamer Queen, now on board an unknown steamer -in the middle of the Sargasso Sea. Is this Guantanamo?” - -Sharply the answer came: “Yes. What did you say? Survivors of the -Queen? Good Heavens, you were given up for lost. How many are you?” - -“Three! Miss Fairfax--” - -“Great Scott! Colonel Fairfax has been wild. Who else?” - -“Police Officer Jackson!” - -“Yes.” - -“And Frank Howard.” - -“What! The murderer?” - -“No. The convict. This is he talking.” - -“Oh! Beg pardon! Didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Where did you say -you were?” - -“We drifted into the Sargasso Sea on the Queen, and brought up finally -against the wreck-pack in the middle. Then we changed to another ship. -It’s a long story. You’d better note it down carefully. I may be cut -off any minute.” - -“Oh! I’ll note it down all right. Go ahead. But first about the others -on the Queen. Two boats got to port all right. How about the third?” - -“Capsized! All lost except Miss Fairfax, who was washed back to the -Queen, and pulled aboard by Jackson and Howard, who had been left there -by accident. Now listen. This is urgent. We are in great danger here, -and need aid at the first possible moment----” - -“In danger? What’s the matter?” - -“Listen, and I’ll tell you.” - -Hurriedly, but concisely, Howard narrated their adventures, describing -the wreck-pack and its queer colony, and pointing out the danger -to which Miss Fairfax was subjected. Toward the end of the story, -Guantanamo evidently became restless, for he broke in. - -“Say!” he clicked, disgustedly. “Do you expect me to believe all that?” - -“Surely. Why not?” - -“Because it’s nonsense. Say, friend, you are wasted at sea. You ought -to be a New York yellow-journal reporter. Now, who the devil are you, -really?” - -“I’ve told you.” - -“You’ve told me a pack of lies--begging your pardon. I’d got into a -pretty fix if I reported this nonsense; now, wouldn’t I?” - -“You’ll get into a worse one if you don’t. For God’s sake, man, don’t -be a skeptical fool. As I’ve told you, I’m a prisoner, and am only -able to talk to you because this man Forbes apparently knows nothing of -the wireless. My jail may be changed any minute, and I may never get -another chance. This thing is very serious. There are about twenty-five -people hopelessly confined here on these wrecks, and aid should be sent -them at once.” - -“Bah! You mean to tell me that people have been living there for years -and years, and nobody has ever found it out?” - -“Lots of people have found it out, but nobody has ever gone back to -tell. If you never heard of the wreck-pack, ask any old sailor, and -he’ll tell you of it--though he’s never seen it or known any one who -has. Why shouldn’t there be people on it?” - -“Well, suppose there are. How can we help you?” - -“A ship can get to us if it tries hard enough. The weed can be cut -through, though with difficulty. A sort of steam-saw projecting over -the bow will do the work. The propeller will have to be screened to -prevent fouling. Perhaps a paddle-wheel steamer would get along best. -When it is once in, it should skirt the edge of the wreckage till -it finds us. The latitude and longitude I have given you are only -approximate. I have no proper instruments.” - -“Who shall I notify?” - -“Notify Colonel Fairfax, first of all. This Forbes may keep his threat -and marry Miss Fairfax by force, or he may not. He shall not if I can -help it. But I’m a prisoner and helpless just at present, though I have -made at least one friend and hope for some others. Anyway, Colonel -Fairfax will want to rescue his daughter. Then notify the government; -there must be ships at Guantanamo now that could start for here very -soon. Then notify the newspapers; if no one else will help us, they -will. Notify anybody and everybody you like. Stop! Somebody’s coming. -Keep out till I call you again.” - -It was only the Irishman who came to take away the tray. He must have -heard the rumbling of the wireless, for only a deaf man could have -failed to do so, but he asked no questions about it, though he looked -sharply at the instruments that Howard had thrust aside. - -Howard in fact gave him little chance, plying him with questions as to -Forbes’s probable course of action. After he had gone, Howard talked -with Guantanamo until late in the night. - -The next morning the man came again. “Can you foight, sor?” he demanded. - -“Fighting is my trade, Joyce. Why?” - -“Well, sor, the captain’s going to marry the young lady at four o’clock -the day, unless somebody stops him. And the only way to stop him is to -foight him. It’s a big man an’ a bad man he is, sor. Are ye game for -it?” - -Howard smiled. “Oh! yes. I’m game,” he declared. - -“Then I’ll get ye out in good time. Tare and ’oun’s, but it’ll be a -grand foight entoirely.” - - - - -XI - - -IN accepting Captain Forbes’s invitation to supper Dorothy had taken it -for granted that the other two survivors of the Queen were included, -and was somewhat startled to find that they were not. - -“Gallegher insisted on your friends eating with him,” explained Forbes, -with a smile. “He declared that I might have the best, but that I -shouldn’t hog everything, and I had to give in.” - -Dorothy accepted the explanation, but her heart beat anxiously. Nor -was her anxiety lessened by Captain Forbes’s attitude. Had she not -been warned of his probable designs, she might have passed over his -behavior as merely the would-be gallantry of an uncultivated man, and -even then would have found it sufficiently offensive. But, in view of -all she had been told, its import quickly became portentous. Between -extravagant compliments, often so pointed as to cause her considerable -embarrassment, Forbes sandwiched encomiums of the life on the wreckage, -for support of which he appealed to Mother Joyce, declaring that -Dorothy would soon submit to the inevitable, and settle down to remain -there for life. All suggestions as to the possibility of escape he -pushed aside. - -“Our known history of life here goes back for more than fifty years,” -he declared, “and in that time nobody has escaped. Nobody ever will. -It’s impossible. You will fight against the idea for awhile, and then -settle down to enjoy yourself.” - -“Enjoy myself!” - -“Why not? We have everything here that any one needs--all the -necessaries, and far more of the luxuries than any except a very few -favored people enjoy anywhere. We have a storehouse full of everything -that delights a woman, and if it was destroyed to-morrow, we could -easily fill it again. Duplicates of all its contents will drift in to -us again sooner or later on some ship. Ask what you will, and it will -be my delight to lay it at your feet.” - -Dorothy tried to smile. “Very well, then,” she particularized, “just -give me a telegraph-office.” - -“With pleasure. We have a complete outfit. I’m sorry to say, though, -that the wires are not strung yet.” - -“Then give me a boat and a--compass, isn’t it, that we need?” - -“Those are about the only things we cannot furnish, Miss Fairfax. When -sailors are forced to leave their ships, they invariably take the boats -and the compasses with them. But why do you wish to leave us? It will -be our constant study to make you happy. You shall have the best of -everything, and your lightest wish shall be law.” - -“My only wish is to get back to dry land. If my wish is law, help me -to do so.” - -“I cannot! And I would not if I could. I have waited long for a woman -as fair and sweet as you to drift in to me, and now that you have come, -I will not give you up lightly. The wrecks and their contents are ours -by right of salvage. You, too, are salvage--and the fairest salvage I -have ever known.” - -This was forcing the game with a vengeance. Dorothy’s lip quivered, and -she cast a frightened glance at Mother Joyce. But that lady was eating -her supper stolidly, and made no sign. Evidently, for the moment at -least, she intended to let Dorothy play her own hand. - -Forbes continued: “No, you are here for life, Miss Fairfax. I regret it -for your sake, but I rejoice in it for my own. You are here for life, -and you must make up your mind to it, choose a husband, and settle -down.” - -“I shall never marry.” - -“You must consider a moment. There are twenty-two of us men here -and only two women. Under such circumstances, how can we afford to -permit any woman to remain single. We used to do it years ago, when -the disproportion was not quite so great, and what was the result? -Decimation of our numbers, no less! The men quarreled and fought and -murdered each other, exactly as wild beasts do, all for the sake of -one woman. Well do I remember the last time this happened! In a week -five men had been killed, and bad blood stirred up that did not subside -for years. We could not chance a repetition of this sort of thing, -and we made a law that every woman who arrived here must marry within -twenty-four hours. She could choose any one she liked, but choose she -must.” - -“But no such rule can apply to me.” - -“Why not? You are a lady, of course, and far above the level of -nine-tenths of the men here. But there is the remaining tenth to -choose from. Of course, none of us are worthy of you, but--we will make -good husbands.” - -Dorothy tried to laugh the words away, but could not. She told herself -that all this was some horrible dream from which she would presently -awake, but all the while she knew it was terribly real. The toils -were closing round her fast. Her thoughts flew to Howard. He, she -felt, would save her, if man could; but he was one, and Forbes and -his followers were many. If it came to a struggle the result would be -inevitable. What could she do? What _could_ she do? - -Forbes was watching her keenly. “You realize the situation now?” he -continued. “For our own welfare we cannot permit you to remain single. -You could not get away, and we would not permit you to do so if you -could. You must marry--in twenty-four hours. And since you must marry, -let me advise you to choose one who can provide for you--and there -is no one here who can do that so well as I. I won’t talk about -love--that is for boys, and I am a man; but if you will marry me, you -shall be queen here. Come! what do you say?” - -Dorothy pushed back her chair and rose. “I say that this is utterly -preposterous. I will not marry any one on compulsion. Certainly I will -not marry you. I wish you good day, Captain Forbes.” - -She turned toward the door, but Forbes stepped before her. - -“One moment, Miss Fairfax,” he said. “I know how you feel, and I do not -wish to turn you against me by undue persistency. If you want to go -now, go! But think over what I have said. I believe that you will come -to see that it is the best thing you can possibly do. Talk it over with -your friends, I think they will advise you to consent. At all events, -you have twenty-four hours--till four o’clock to-morrow, to get used to -the idea. Take my advice and wait calmly till then.” - -Dorothy bowed haughtily. “Very well,” she returned. “I will wait. Now, -will you kindly summon my friends. I wish to return to my ship.” - -Forbes’ lips curved in a cruel smile. “_Your_ ship, Miss Fairfax,” he -echoed. “You have no ship. You and your companions abandoned the Queen -of your own accord, and by the law of the sea she and everything on -her became the property of any one who salvaged her. My men have taken -possession of everything, including your abandoned trunks--which are -now mine. You have no place to lay your head, and nothing in the world -except what you have on your person. However, I am not unkind. For -twenty-four hours I will give you food and shelter. At the end of that -time--well, we will see. Now you may go with Mother Joyce, who will -care for you. And think over my proposition.” - - - - -XII - - -DOROTHY’S hours of grace passed all too quickly. The girl’s natural -impulse was to turn at once to Howard for aid, and when the moments -sped by without bringing him, she turned to Mrs. Joyce and learned of -his imprisonment. - -“But don’t you be worryin’ about that, miss,” said the kindly -Irishwoman. “It’s safe and sound he is. The cap’n is just kapin’ him -locked up till after the wedding.” - -“There’ll be no wedding,” flashed Dorothy. - -“An’ why not? It’s worse you might do, my dear. All men are -cantankerous, but Cap’n Forbes ain’t a bad sort, if you take him the -right way; an’ he’ll make a good husband--the best here, anyway. An’ -you’ve got to remember that while a smart man might get out of here, -if he was free, even the smartest man--let alone a woman--couldn’t if -the cap’n didn’t want him to; and sure it is the cap’n don’t want you -to go. I know it’s hard, but I don’t see but what it’s the best thing -you can do--seein’ you wouldn’t marry your friend, Mr. Howard, under -any circumstances.” And Mother Joyce glanced quizzically into Dorothy’s -face. - -The girl blushed; then hid her face. “Oh! Mrs. Joyce,” she sobbed. -“I--he--things were different when I said that.” - -“Oh! indade! Now, were they? You nad’n’t say any more, miss. A nod’s as -good as a wink to a blind horse. It’s a fine, upstandin’ young fellow -he is, and I don’t blame you. Joyce and I’ll do what we can for you and -him. And you’ll not be lavin’ us behind when you sail away?” - -“Leave you! Never!” - -Fortunate it was that this understanding had been reached so quickly, -for little further opportunity for talk was offered later. All that -evening and all the next morning the members of the community visited -Dorothy, one by one, each with tales to tell of the pleasures of life -in the Sea and with praises of Captain Forbes. Not one seemed disposed -to help the girl. - -Even Mr. Willoughby, the minister, could give her little comfort. When -she appealed to him directly to help her, he squirmed uncomfortably. - -“Captain Forbes is a man of wrath,” he mumbled; “hard to resist. My -sacred calling is of little import in his eyes. If you decide to refuse -him, I trust I shall find strength to offer you such support as I may. -But you must remember that I am only one--and a man of peace besides.” - -Clearly there was little hope to be placed in the minister. But Dorothy -made one more appeal. - -“You could refuse to perform the ceremony,” she suggested, tearfully. - -“And so I shall,” promised Mr. Willoughby. “If I must,” he added, with -quickly following repentance. “But to what end? Captain Forbes is a -sea-captain, and as such can perform marriages at sea. Whether he can -marry himself is doubtful. But I know him; he will settle the doubt in -his own favor and marry you willy-nilly. I--I really think that you had -best submit. Since you have to stay here, you cannot occupy a better -place than as Captain Forbes’s wife.” - -“But I don’t have to stay. I won’t stay. Mr. Howard promised----” She -stopped and bit her lip. “I see you cannot help me, Mr. Willoughby,” -she finished. “Good morning.” - -The minister sneaked away, and Prudence Gallegher crept in, weak, -ill, and frightened, to add her mite to the weight that was crushing -Dorothy’s heart. - -“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, glancing fearfully behind her from time -to time. “Oh, I’m so sorry. But--but hadn’t you better marry Cap’n -Forbes? Nobody will dare to hurt him, and--and--you won’t be handed on -from one to another as I was.” - -This sort of thing, kept up almost without cessation for twenty-four -hours, drove Dorothy almost to distraction. As four o’clock drew near, -her condition grew pitiful. In vain she looked for a means of escape. -If any had offered she would have taken it instantly, facing without -hesitation the terrors of the foodless desert in the heart of the -wreckage. But none did offer. Always she was surrounded by jailers. She -could see no hope anywhere--nothing to do but resist till the last, and -then---- What then? What should she do then? What could she do? One -weak girl beset by a score of men. Her brain reeled at the thought. - -Eight bells rang out, and Joe appeared at the door. - -“Cap’n Forbes says as how will you an’ Mother Joyce please step on -deck, miss,” he petitioned. - - - - -XIII - - -THE deck had been decorated as for a gala occasion. Bright-colored -flags were twined everywhere under the cool, airy awnings; canaries, in -gilded cages, hung about, each carolling at the top of its tiny throat; -the members of the colony were all standing about, each dressed in -garments which, though perhaps lacking somewhat in taste and style, at -least left nothing to be desired in the way of color or ornament. The -scene, though odd, was undoubtedly bright and cheerful. - -Mother Joyce led Dorothy to a slightly raised platform, in front of -which were ranged chairs, in which, at her approach, the sailors -hurriedly seated themselves. Dorothy looked eagerly among them for a -sight of Howard, and her last hope vanished when she knew he was not -there. - -As she stepped upon the platform, Forbes came up from below. Clean -shaven, and well and correctly dressed, he furnished a strong contrast -to the others with their motley attire. - -He bowed courteously to Dorothy, and greeted her as though their -relations were of the pleasantest. “Please sit down for a moment,” -he concluded, and turned away without waiting to see whether the -invitation was accepted. - -“Men,” he said, stepping to the edge of the platform and looking them -over, “by our laws every unmarried woman coming into this community -must, within twenty-four hours, choose a husband from those who come -forward to offer themselves. The one she chooses must defend his right -against all others, and, if conquered, must give way to his conqueror. -So she will wed the best man, and all smoldering quarrels that might -disrupt our community will be avoided.” - -He paused a moment and then went on: - -“As you all know, Miss Fairfax joined us yesterday. She is so far -above all of us in beauty, grace, and culture that it is presumptuous -for any of us to aspire to her hand. Yet, the law is the law, and we -must all bow to it. So I call on all candidates for her hand to speak -out that she may choose. I offer, for one. Who else comes forward?” - -He stopped and looked around inquiringly, but no one moved. Evidently -all knew what was planned, and had no wish to interpose. Even if not -awed by his ascendency, his significant assertion that the favored -suitor must defend his right against all comers was enough to give them -pause. For Forbes was six feet high, broad and strong in proportion. - -After a moment, seeing that no one spoke, Forbes turned to Dorothy. “It -seems, fair lady,” he began, “that I am the only suitor for your hand. -I beg you to believe, however, that this is rather from the desire of -my men not to oppose the dearest hope of their captain, whom they so -love, than from any lack of appreciation of your charms. But it comes -to the same thing. I am the only candidate. Does it please you to -accept me?” - -Dorothy rose and faced him. “Sir,” she said, with a break in her voice. -“I am only a girl, alone, unprotected, far from all her friends. I beg -you, I implore you, to be merciful. Do not do this thing. Let me go.” - -Forbes shook his head. “Your presence here, single, must cause strife,” -he began, “and----” - -“Then let me go away. Let me wander away by myself. You nor your men -shall ever see me again. I will lose myself in the wreckage, and----” - -“You are salvage, and I cannot surrender you.” - -“Think! Think! My father is rich--a multimillionaire. In his name I -promise you a million dollars if you will spare me and get me back to -him. Think! A million dollars.” - -“Even if I would, it is impossible. We are all alike helpless here.” - -“You will not spare me?” - -“I love you too much to do so.” - -With a quick movement Dorothy pushed by him and faced the others. -“Men,” she cried, “will you let this thing be done? Will you let me be -forced into marriage with a man I loathe. For God’s sake have pity on -me, and say to this man that he shall not do this thing.” - -The men shifted uneasily in their seats, but no one spoke. Dorothy’s -eyes flashed. - -“Cowards!” she cried. “Is there not one of you who dares face this man. -Come! I offer you a bargain. If any man will save me, to him will I -give myself in all wifely humility. Any man! _Any_ man! Speak! What! -Does no one speak? Am I so poor a prize?” - -“I speak!” - -Absorbed in the scene, no one had noted Howard’s approach, but at the -sound of his voice all faced him. His sea-stained clothes were torn, -and there was a fleck of blood on his lip, but his glance was high. - -“I speak,” he repeated. “Not for the prize, but for the honor of -womanhood.” He turned to Forbes, who had flushed furiously at his -appearance. “Ah! you craven,” he flared. “You thought you had me safe -while you worked your coward will. Look better to your shackles next -time.” - -Three or four of the men had risen and were closing in on Howard, -but Forbes waved them back. “Since you are here,” he remarked, -nonchalantly, “do I understand that you offer as a candidate for the -lady’s hand? If not, you have no standing.” - -“I offer for anything that will save this lady from your insults.” - -“Ah! So you _do_ offer. That is well. That is in line with the very -object of this ceremony and shows the wisdom of our laws. You and I -will fight this out and bury all ill-feeling--in your grave. Kindly -choose some one as second, and let’s get to work.” - -Howard looked around him. “I’ll take my companion, Jackson,” he -decided. “I suppose you’ve got him locked up somewhere.” - -“Bring him,” ordered Forbes, calmly. He turned to Howard and began to -take off his coat. “Get ready,” he ordered. - -“You’ll give me fair play?” - -“Surely. And marry you to the lady--if you win.” - -In the revulsion of feeling consequent on the appearance of her -champion, Dorothy’s limbs had given way, and she would have fallen had -not Mother Joyce caught her and helped her to a chair, where she leaned -back, white and dazed. When she recovered enough to note what was -going on, Howard and Forbes, stripped to the waist, stood facing each -other before her, the latter towering, giant-like, above his smaller -adversary. - -With a cry she sought to struggle up, but Mother Joyce restrained her. -“Don’t interfere,” she whispered. “It’s your only chance.” - -“But he’ll kill him.” - -The older woman seemed to have no difficulty in assigning the confused -pronouns correctly. “I’m not so sure,” she muttered consolingly. “I -fancy the captain has his work cut out for him. Anyhow, it’s for you to -kape still.” - -Jackson’s eyes had lighted up when he had reached Howard’s side and -understood what game was on. “It’s many a fight I had in the ring -myself before I went on the force,” he whispered, with something very -nearly approaching enthusiasm. “It’s a big fellow he is. Can you do -him?” - -Howard smiled grimly. “I’ve got to,” he answered. - -“Well, take the tip from me and tire him out. He’s too big to rush, and -if he hits you square once, he’ll knock you out of the ring. Sprint -all you can. Get him mad. He’s got a wicked temper, if I know anything -of men; and when he loses it, he’ll forget to guard, and you can slug -him.” - -Under other circumstances Howard would have smiled at the detective’s -unaccustomed volubility, but at the moment he had other things to think -about. With a nod to show that he understood, he stepped forward to -face his adversary. - -The disproportion between the two men was very marked. Howard was not -a small man, but Forbes was several inches taller, and at least forty -pounds heavier. His corded arms looked capable of felling an ox. On -the other hand, he was twenty years older, and presumably, slower in -his movements than the naval officer, who was in the prime of the late -twenties. - -Forbes wasted no time in preliminaries. Evidently he meant to show his -power by crushing his adversary without delay. The moment that Howard -faced him he sprang forward and launched a right-hand swing that would -have ended the fight then and there had it connected with Howard’s -body. But it did not connect. Howard sprang back, just out of reach, -and returned a half-arm jolt that brought the big man up standing. - -“Ugh!” he exclaimed, stepping back. Then he grinned viciously. “You -know something, do you,” he half soliloquized. “So much the better. -There’ll be some sport in it.” - -He rushed in again, striking furiously. - -Howard gave ground slowly under the attack, dodging when he could, -parrying as he might, every nerve alert to save himself from being -crushed by the sheer weight of his adversary. In vain Forbes tried to -beat down his guard. Dorothy’s frightened face was ever before his -eyes, and he fought on breathless, but unharmed, until the first fury -of the attack had spent itself; until the passing moments told him -that the struggle would not be so uneven as it had seemed. Exultation -swelled in him when at last he could stand steady and give back blow -for blow. - -Gradually his opponent’s mood changed. From coolness to anger; from -anger to baffled fury. Howard watched the changes as they mirrored -themselves in the other’s face. And when, with the recklessness of -utter rage, Forbes dropped his guard and threw all his weight into one -smashing blow, Howard ducked beneath it, swung his right with deadly -force against the bull neck and beat the devil’s tattoo on the thick -ribs before him. - -Then the round ended. - -But Howard knew that there was still plenty of fight in the big man. He -had shaken him, but had accomplished nothing more. Indeed, the fury of -the attack in the second round was little less than that of the first, -and Howard again had to give ground. Had Forbes been able to regain his -temper as he had regained his strength, there would still have been -little doubt as to the result. - -But this the captain could not do. So often had he fought and won in -the past, so invariably had his bull strength served him well, that he -could not believe that he had at last met one who could withstand him. -Wild with rage, he spent himself against the impenetrable defense of -the naval officer until the second round ended with the odds of the -fight in favor of the latter. - -So plain was this that Gallegher urged treachery, only to be repelled; -not yet would Forbes admit the possibility of defeat. “Naw! I’ll kill -him myself,” he muttered hoarsely, as, red-eyed, he stumbled forward -once more to the attack. - -Howard met him with changed tactics. Jackson’s trained eye had read the -signs, and he had counselled the officer wisely. “Rush him,” he had -said. “Rush him. He’s all in. Don’t give him time to get his second -wind. Rush him.” - -And Howard obeyed, drawing on some fount of nervous energy for a fury -of attack almost as violent as Forbes’s had been. The fighting rage was -on him at last, and bubbled over in words. - -“So you’ll persecute a helpless woman, will you,” he jeered, as he -handed a jolt on the captain’s cheek. “How do you like to face a man? -Oh! never mind that eye; you’ve got one left. Don’t worry about your -nose; it’ll straighten out again. Here’s one for your solar plexus. Why -don’t you guard better? And here’s the end of the show.” - -With every ounce of his weight behind it, he drove his left against -the point of the captain’s chin, and that individual went down like a -pole-axed ox and lay still. - -As he fell Gallegher sprang forward, belaying-pin in hand, but shrank -back again as Jackson shoved his revolver into his face. - -“Hold hard!” cried the policeman. “Fair play, ain’t it, mates?” - -For an instant the situation hung in the wind as the sailors hesitated. -Then Joyce sang out: - -“Fair play!” he cried. “The cap’n said he should have fair play. And -hurrah for Lootenant Howard, says I.” - -Sailors are like children; a straw will turn them. With one accord -they burst into a cheer. “It was a good fight,” they cried. “The -lieutenant’s won the girl fair.” - -While they had hesitated Howard had acted. He was under no illusions -as to the permanency of their mood, and, even as they cheered him, he -turned to Dorothy. - -“Quick!” he whispered. “Don’t lose a moment. Come, Jackson! Get Miss -Fairfax out of this and back to the Queen. I’ll cover your retreat.” - -But escape was not to be so easy. As Howard turned to face the sailors, -Forbes struggled to his feet. His face was gray with rage and his words -came thick. - -“You’ve won,” he gritted. “You’ve won. Take your prize.” Then his eyes -fell on Dorothy and Jackson, now close to the edge of the deck. “Stop -those two!” he yelled. “By Heaven, no one shall say Peter Forbes does -not play fair. She’s chosen you, you infernal convict, and marry you -she shall, here and now.” - -Howard faced him. “I refuse,” he declared. “Miss Fairfax owes me -nothing. I give her back her promise.” - -“You do! Then she shall marry me. Me or you! The captain or the -jailbird. We’ll have a wedding before we part.” - -The man’s face was a mass of cuts and bruises, and his words came -gaspingly; but there was no doubt that he was in earnest, and none that -he had the men behind him. - -Fickle as the wind, they veered back to his side. “A wedding. Let’s -have a wedding!” they cried. - -Howard looked despairingly around, then darted to the mainmast, caught -up a handspike, and swung Dorothy behind him. The fight would be -hopeless, but it was for her! - -“Come on,” he challenged. - -Grimly the men drew near, but before a blow could be struck, Dorothy’s -voice rang out. - -“Wait!” she cried. Then she turned to Howard. “If you will have me, I -will marry you,” she murmured, gently. - - - - -XIV - - -NIGHT was falling fast as Howard and Dorothy, with Jackson close -behind, made their way slowly back to the Queen over the tangled -wreckage, following the trail blazed by Howard two days before. The -Joyces had promised to join them later. - -Except for necessary help and caution about the road, the three walked -and climbed for the most part in silence, each immersed in thought. -Only once did Dorothy speak. - -“Captain Forbes said that his men had taken possession of the Queen and -were removing her stores,” she warned. “Do you think he was telling the -truth?” - -Howard shook his head. “Probably not,” he answered. “But we shall see.” - -The Queen came in view at last, and each of the three thrilled at sight -of her familiar form. Wrecked, ruined, half-sunken, nevertheless she -stood to all three as a home and place of refuge, however insecure. -Glad as they had been to leave her, they were far gladder to return and -find her untouched. For Forbes had been lying. - -With the touch of the deck beneath their feet, a feeling of -embarrassment descended on the three. On the way over they had been -silent because they were thinking; now they were silent because of the -strange new relation in which they stood to each other. Even Jackson -was conscious of it, and stammered and hesitated when he tried to -speak; while Dorothy’s flushed cheeks and quivering lips showed that -the nerves which had so well sustained her while necessity lasted, were -on the verge of giving way. - -Fortunately supper had to be prepared and served and eaten, and these -familiar tasks relieved the tension somewhat. Even then no one dared -to speak of what had occurred, though no one thought of anything -else. The thing lay too close to their hearts to be lightly or easily -broached. At last Jackson, with glances at his two companions, threw -down his knife and fork and slouched out of the saloon without a word. - -Left alone, the girl and the man looked at each other, she with -trembling lips and lovely, frightened eyes, and he with an infinite -compassion in his face. - -“You want to say something to me?” he questioned, gently. “Say it. -Don’t be afraid. You will find that I can understand.” - -Tears welled in Dorothy’s eyes. “To-day,” she murmured, brokenly, “I -made a bargain. I saw myself trapped, driven into marriage with a -man whom I loathed--oh, God only knows how I had come to loathe him! -Anything was better than he--anything! So I made my offer. I would be -a loyal wife to any man who would save me from Captain Forbes. You -answered.” - -“I answered.” - -“You are a much smaller man than Captain Forbes. No one would have -thought you a match for him, least of all himself. He meant to kill -you. There was murder in his eye. You must have seen it. Yet you faced -him. Why did you do it?” - -Howard shrugged his shoulders. “You make too much of the affair,” he -said, lightly. “The man was strong, but he was past his first youth and -moved slowly. After the first two minutes I had no fear of the result. -But you ask me why I came forward. What else could any gentleman -do--and, in spite of my trial and conviction, I trust I am still a -gentleman. I came forward because I had to.” - -“Then you did not fight for the poor prize I offered?” - -Howard smiled. “Assuredly not,” he answered. “Why, you yourself saw -that I was ready to fight again a moment later to avoid taking it!” - -“But you took it.” - -“Yes--I took it.” - -“And now I ask you to give it up again. I--I--Mr. Howard, I have heard -of you for two years. You have been painted very black in my eyes. I -have known you two weeks, and they have reversed the picture. I should -not have looked for generosity in the man I once thought you to be, -but I beg it from the man I have found you to be. I am your wife. I -have promised before God to be loyal, loving, and obedient to you. I -made that promise with my eyes open, and if you ask it I shall try to -keep it. I am not of those who take their marriage vows lightly. I am -your wife and I am wholly at your mercy. But--but--you do not love me -nor I you. We are mere acquaintances. Do not--oh, it is hard for me -to say this. Have pity on me. Hold me, not as your wife, as I must -hold myself, but as only a poor girl in distress, and--see, I kneel to -you----” - -Howard caught her hands and drew her to her feet again. “Poor little -girl,” he murmured gently. “So that is what is troubling you! Do not -fear. You are my wife--yes. But it is a tie that can easily be sundered -when once we get back to dry land. A marriage like this is no marriage -without the after-consent of the parties. Any court in the land would -dissolve it--or, more likely, declare it null and void from the -beginning. Do not fear. You are quite safe with me.” - -Dorothy’s breath came fast, but she did not speak. She tottered and put -her hand out for support. Howard guided her to a chair. - -“Sit quietly for a moment,” he ordered gently. “I must see Jackson -about something, but I will soon be back and help you to your -state-room. You must be worn out.” - -With the last word he turned and went up the companionway, more to give -the girl time to recover herself than because of any desire to see -Jackson. As he reached the top of the stairs his foot struck something, -and he stooped and picked up a pistol wrapped round with a half-sheet -of paper. - -Wonderingly he took it to the lamp. He read: - - I know where Forbes keeps his rifles. Mrs. Joyce is going to get some - of them for us. I’m going back to help. I leave my pistol in case I - don’t get back. Anyhow, I guess you’d rather be alone to-night. - - JACKSON. - - P.S.--That was a great match.--J. - -Howard laughed bitterly. Then he turned and descended the stairs. - -“Jackson has gone on an errand to Mrs. Joyce,” he said. “He left his -pistol for you. After what has happened, he thinks, and I think, that -you had better be armed. If any man--if _any_ man molests you do not -hesitate to use it. I believe you told me once that you were rather a -good shot.” - -It had been no part of Howard’s intention to spend the night upon the -Queen. He had no faith in Forbes’s protestations of fair play, and -felt certain that he would hear from that individual very shortly and -in unpleasant fashion. Although he scarcely expected any attack that -night, doubting Forbes’s ability to bring his men to the fighting point -so speedily, he intended to take no chances, and to seek sleeping -quarters on some near-by vessel. But Dorothy’s fear of himself and her -very evident nearness to collapse, taken with Jackson’s unexpected -departure, had knocked his plans completely on the head. - -After Dorothy had retired, he sat up for some time considering the -situation. He was terribly sore and wearied from the heart-breaking -struggle of the afternoon, which had been nothing like so easy as -he had portrayed it to Dorothy. Coming on top of the anxiety of his -confinement, in ignorance of what was happening to the girl he had -promised to restore to her home, it had nearly worn him out. The -question that presented itself to him was whether he should trust to -his belief in Forbes’s inability to resume the struggle so quickly, and -take his much-needed rest so as to be ready for the probable stress of -the morrow, or whether he should remain on watch all night and thereby -be less efficient the next day, supposing the contest were put off till -then. - -Doubts and difficulties lay in each alternative, but he finally decided -to sleep while he could, trusting to his life-long ability to awake -fully and instantly at the slightest unaccustomed sound. He did not -believe that Forbes and his men could steal upon him without waking -him; and, in any event, he could not hope, alone and unarmed, to keep -them off the ship. - -So, after stringing several ropes across the gangway in the deepest -shadows of the Queen’s deck, he slipped into his state-room, just -across the corridor from Dorothy’s, and lay down, fully dressed, -with an axe--his sole weapon, since he had given Dorothy Jackson’s -pistol--close beside him. In an instant he was fast asleep. - -He was aroused several hours later by a sound whose cause he had no -difficulty in interpreting. Somebody had tripped over one of the ropes -he had stretched, and had fallen. Instantly he was on his feet, axe in -hand, and was cautiously opening his door. Stillness now reigned, but -Howard had no doubt that murder was stalking close at hand. - -With infinite precaution he stole from the room, noted that Dorothy’s -door was still fast, and slipped like a shadow along the corridor. It -took him half an hour to gain the other deck, scarcely fifty feet from -where he had slept. But when he had done so, he was certain that no -foes lurked in his rear. - -The moon loomed huge in the cloudless sky as he peered from the door -of the social hall. Before him the deck stretched away, silvery-white -except where criss-crossed by the black shadows cast by the stanchions -that supported the half-furled awnings, and by the narrow border of -shadow cast by the awnings themselves. - -Slowly he crept out into the black border and made his way forward, -eager to front the danger, whatever it might be. - -But all was still save for a very faint, rustling sound impossible to -locate--a sound like dry leaves whisking through a November night; a -sound that made Howard’s hair stir upon his head. At two o’clock in the -morning courage is rare, and never perfect. - -Still Howard crept on until he reached a spot where a broken boat-davit -was twisted across a stanchion. By this he paused and stood listening. - -Then, without warning, the attack came. From the cross-beam overhead -something fell upon him with cruel force--something heavy, crushing, -deadly; some live thing that wrapped him round and round. - -[Illustration: THE END COULD NOT BE LONG DEFERRED; YET THE MAN FOUGHT -ON.] - -With a half-strangled shriek of terror he caught himself back -against the crossed davit and the stanchion, just in time to involve -them in the coiling horror. His right arm, instinctly thrown aloft, -grasped vainly at the throat of a huge serpent whose darting head cut -fantastic silhouettes against the Milky Way, while its body tightened -swiftly about his middle. - -Had it not been for the iron rods that shielded him, Howard’s first cry -would have been his last. To the great snake the resistance of a man’s -body was as nothing. One unhampered constriction of its mighty coils -would have crushed an ox. But the davit and the stanchion stood firm; -not for nothing had they been planned to withstand the assaults of the -sea. They held firm, while Howard, with starting eyeballs and slowly -crushing chest, strove to beat back the forked death that flicked about -his face. - -The end could not be long deferred; yet the man fought on, as living -things will fight for life--life so common, life so cheap, yet so -desperately clung to. He fought and shrieked until the ever-tightening -constriction stopped the inflation of his lungs; till the roaring in -his ears swelled to thunder; till the driven blood burst from his ears -and nostrils. - -Then came a flash and a louder roar; the gleaming eyes that confronted -him grew suddenly dull; the great coils relaxed and fell away; dimly he -saw Dorothy’s face; her gown white in the moonlight; the smoking pistol -in her hand. - -Then girl and snake and moon and sky blended in one common blur of -blackness. For the first time in his life Frank Howard fainted. - -When he came to, he was lying on the deck, with his head in Dorothy’s -lap. On his face her tears dropped slowly, one by one. As, dazed, he -lay still for an instant, he heard her pray: - -“Oh, God! God!” she sobbed, “give him back to me! Give my darling back -to me.” - -A mad throb of exultation crossed through Howard’s veins to be followed -by a quicker revulsion. “Not yet, oh, God!” he implored in his turn -silently. “Not until----” - -He opened his eyes and looked up into hers. - -The moonlight was white and bright as day, and for one moment each -looked deep into the other’s heart. - -“Thank God! Oh, thank God!” sobbed the girl. “You’re alive! Alive! -Alive!” - -Howard tried to smile. “Thanks to you,” he answered. “It was the -bravest act I have ever known. I don’t see how----” - -But Dorothy threw up her hand. “Please! Please, don’t speak of it!” she -implored. “I can’t bear it. I can’t bear it.” - -Howard struggled to his feet. He longed to take her in his arms and -comfort her, but honor held him back. Perhaps she loved him--yes, but -she was overwrought. He could not take advantage of her emotion--nor -of her position. Later, when she was restored to her friends--the light -died from his eyes as he remembered his own doom. - -“Thank you,” he said softly. “It is all that I can say. Thank you.” - -Dorothy’s bosom heaved. “No,” she said, “it is not all. You said more -while you were unconscious. You were about to say more an instant ago. -Then you stopped. Why?” - -“I--I----” - -“I could read your heart in your eyes. Say what you had in it. Say it! -Say it!” - -“I am not worthy. I am----” - -“Hush! Not that! You are not guilty. You could not be guilty. You! so -brave, so tender, so sacrificing! You! to murder a woman. It is not -true. Since the day I first met you I have never believed it. Since you -told me the story, I have wanted no other testimony. Now, will you say -what was in your heart a moment ago?” - -“I cannot. I----” - -“Listen. To-night I said that we were mere acquaintances. I said I did -not love you. I lied! I do love you. With all my heart and soul I love -you.” - -“Dorothy!” - -“Frank! Husband!” - - - - -XV - - -DESPITE the nerve and body-racking experiences of the day before, -Howard was up and on deck the next morning at the first peep of day, -straining his eyes for sight of Jackson and the Joyces. - -The need for instant action was strong upon him. He did not doubt -that Forbes had sent the snake upon him, just as (judging from Mother -Joyce’s tale to Dorothy) he had before sent it against one of Prudence -Gallegher’s ill-fated husbands, and he only wondered that the doughty -captain had not followed up the attack. - -“I suppose the fellow didn’t know how devilish near he came to -succeeding,” he muttered to himself grimly. “But he’ll bring his men -next time, and we must fight or get out of his reach in a hurry. If -Jackson and the others were only here!” - -But neither Jackson nor the Joyces were there. Strain his eyes as he -might, Howard could see no moving figures anywhere on the wreck-pack, -and, with an anxious sigh, he turned away to inspect the scene of the -last night’s encounter. - -Half submerged in the weed at the foot of the sloping deck he made out -the great body of the snake, terrible even in death, and shuddered as -he thought of what would inevitably have been his fate had Dorothy been -less courageous or the iron stanchions been less honestly wrought; -these last, bent almost double, gave mute but effective evidence of the -mighty power of the reptile. - -Wishing to save Dorothy, as far as he could, from all reminders of the -contest, Howard lowered himself to the water’s edge and poked the snake -down beneath the weed; then he climbed back to the taffrail and again -searched the horizon for sight of Jackson. - -This time his quest was successful. Approaching over the wreckage, -quite near at hand, were four figures. As they drew nearer he -recognized Jackson, the minister who had married him the day before, -Mother Joyce, and his jailer of the day before. Each of the men carried -several rifles over his shoulder, and was girt about with belts of -cartridges. Mother Joyce bore a less and indeterminable weight. - -At Howard’s call, Dorothy came on deck to greet the newcomers. Rosy and -smiling, with head erect and sparkling eyes, she looked little like the -woebegone maiden who had answered Forbes’s call the day before. - -Mother Joyce’s sharp eyes quickly spied the difference. “Holy mither! -What’s this?” she cried. “And was it you, miss, that didn’t want to -marry at all, at all? And was it you that was so sure that you and Mr. -Howard could niver be anything to each other? Faith, look at the bright -eyes and the blushing cheeks of her! Sure, Tim, man, it carries me -back forty years, so it does!” With a fond look she turned to the man -beside her. - -“Thrue for you, Kathleen, darlint,” he replied. “The top of the mornin’ -to you, ma’am, and may you live a million years and have a hundred----” - -“Arrah! Be still with your foolishness, Tim. Sure, you make the young -lady blush.” - -Meanwhile Jackson was explaining matters to Howard. He had, he said, -circled round to the other side of the village and lurked there for -several hours, waiting his chance. Then he had slipped up on the deck -and run directly into Mother Joyce, who promptly whisked him below. -“Cap’n Forbes’s big snake had got away, and he had gone after it,” -continued the policeman, “and----” - -Howard held up his hand. “It won’t get away again,” he interjected. “It -came here.” - -“Here?” - -Howard nodded. “Yes, it came here,” he repeated. “Came here and -attacked me. It was a very intelligent snake--from Forbes’s standpoint. -It would have killed me, beyond a doubt, but for Miss Fair--but for my -wife. She shot it with your pistol, Jackson. But we haven’t time to -talk about it now,” he concluded with some impatience. “Go on with your -story.” - -Jackson, however, had little more to tell. In Forbes’s absence, it -seems, he and the others had had no difficulty in getting at the rifles -and ammunition. Further, under Mother Joyce’s direction, he had broken -open the captain’s private storeroom and procured a compass, sextant, -and a chronometer, which Mother Joyce had declared would enable them to -navigate a boat as soon as they found one. “An’,” concluded Jackson, “I -think we’d better be findin’ it soon, for Gallegher has gotten out a -Gatling gun, and is making every preparation to do us up for fair.” - -“I expected something of the sort,” said Howard, nodding. “We shall be -ready to leave the Queen the moment we have had breakfast. So, now, if -you’ll come below----” - -At the breakfast-table Howard unfolded his plan. - -“None of us want to fight if we can help it,” he declared. “We haven’t -anything to gain by it, and everything to lose. And we don’t want to -stay near here. From all I can learn, Forbes has destroyed all the -boats within fifty miles or so, and we must go at least that far away -to have any chance of finding one. Now, what I propose is this: We will -leave now in a few minutes, but instead of going north along the coast, -which is what Forbes will expect us to do, we will go east straight -into the pack, make a detour around the village, and come back to the -coast to the south. By this means I think we will outwit him, and -can make our preparations in peace. Without a compass, I might have -hesitated to go into the depths of the pack, but since Mother Joyce -has brought us one, we can afford to risk it. As there will probably -be nothing to eat there, we must take food and water enough to carry -us through. I have already made up three bundles of these, and it will -take only a few moments to prepare three more. Then we can be off.” - -Ten minutes later the party left the Queen forever. Dorothy’s eyes were -streaming wet as she looked at the vessel for the last time. - -“Frank! Frank!” she murmured. “We’ve been happy on her, after all. -Shall we be equally happy elsewhere? I--I would be glad to stay here -with you if-- Oh! I know it’s impossible, of course. We must go back to -the world and clear your name. Yes, we will! We must! God is good. I -have confidence in His justice. He would not have let me love you so -much if He didn’t mean to clear you.” - -Hand in hand the two followed the others, already well ahead, plunging -straight into the wreck-pack. Howard drew a long breath when they were -well away without having seen any sign of Forbes or his companions. -Unfortunately, though he saw no one, he did not go unseen. As the -little party vanished among the tangle of masts and sails, a man rose -from behind a deckhouse, where he had been lurking, and peered after it -till certain of its course, then he set off for the village as fast as -he could go. - - - - -XVI - - -IT is one thing to lay a course even in the open sea, and it is quite -another to follow it. Wind, waves, and currents often drive a vessel -from the way she wishes to go; and all of these had acted on the -wreck-path, seemingly conspiring to make difficult the line of progress -that Howard had mapped out. Again and again he had to make long detours -to pass some insurmountable wreck that lay across his path, and -finally he had to turn aside from it altogether to skirt a narrow but -impassable channel of weed-grown water that corkscrewed unexpectedly -across his path. - -“It’s that hurricane we had a month agone,” explained Joyce. “It isn’t -often they come here, but when they do, faith it’s the foine mix-up -they make! I moind one of thim ten years agone! It split the pack -for miles back, and filled the hole up again with wrecks that would -have made the fortune of a dime-museum man, so they would. The most of -them were fair rotten with age, and sank as soon as they began to rub -up against the strong new ships. The last storm wasn’t so bad, and, -belike, it only split the pack here and there.” - -Howard nodded. The explanation seemed very probable, as in no other -way could he account for the open channel in the midst of the -vessel-wrecks. Mere mutual attraction ought to have closed it up years -before. It made him anxious, for the channel had already led him a mile -deeper into the pack than he had intended to go, and still showed no -signs of ending. - -It might go on even to the heart of the wreckage, where lay the ancient -ships on which all food had rotted away centuries before. If a former -storm had opened up a channel that far, so might a later one. - -That the cases were parallel was soon exhibited with startling -proof. For some moments Howard had been noticing a great grey hull, -banded with tarnished gold, that loomed across the pack two or three -ships ahead. As he drew nearer, he saw, with wonder, its strange -architecture. Huge, round-bellied, with castle-like structures reared -at stem and stern, it rose about the other wrecks, tier above tier, -with lines of frowning ports from which protruded the mouths of old -fashioned cannon. No such ship had sailed the ocean for years--not -since the days when Spain was in her glory and her rich fleets bore -the riches of America to fill her already overflowing coffers. It must -have lain screened in the heart of the ship-continent for at least two -centuries, to be at last spewed forth in time to meet the curious gaze -of an alien race. - -From the topgallant poop of a modern sailing-ship, Howard studied -it curiously, while behind him the rest of the party looked on with -amazement. - -“Sure, and that’s the very spirit and image of them I was spakin’ -about,” remarked Joyce, triumphantly. “An’ what sort of a ship do you -suppose she is, sor?” - -“She’s a Spanish galleon, beyond doubt,” rejoined Howard. “She’s the -very type of those old treasure-ships. And there are more of the same -kind behind her. Look!” - -Along the open channel, far away to the sunset, stretched a file of -ancient vessels, now in single file, now in double. Not all were -galleons, but all plainly belonged to dead and gone ages. While the -others of their kind had long ago perished from human sight, here, in -this lost corner of the world, these had lingered on, slowly decaying, -like the once mighty nation that sent them forth. Howard stared at them -in wondering amaze. - -But Joyce recalled him to himself. “Did you say treasure, sor?” he -insinuated. - -Howard laughed. “Oh, yes,” he answered, indifferently. “She’s a -treasure-ship, all right, though that isn’t to say that she has -treasure aboard. Still, it’s not unlikely. There may be a million -apiece for all of us on her--if we could only carry it away. Hold on! -Where are you going?” - -Joyce was already climbing through one of the open ports of the -galleon, but at Howard’s call he paused. “Sure, an’ I’m going to look -after that million,” he returned, defiantly. - -Howard hesitated. Then he noticed a restless movement of the missionary -and eager glances by the two women and laughed. “Go ahead and look for -it,” he said. “But be careful. Remember the ship must be rotten through -and through; I doubt whether her decks will bear your weight.” - -Joyce disappeared, but a moment later stuck his head out of the port -again. “She’s better nor she looks, sor,” he averred. “The planks are -rotten, but I think they’ll hold. Perhaps your good lady would like to -come aboard.” - -Howard glanced at Dorothy. - -“His good lady certainly would,” she smiled back. A moment later all -stood on one of the galleon’s many decks. - -Joyce was right. The deck, though rotted, seemed to be reasonably -sound, and the stairway leading upward did not give way when Jackson -mounted it. As he was the heaviest in the party, the rest felt safe in -following him. - -Once on the upper deck, the cause of the ship’s plight was evident. -All about her, tumbled in inextricable confusion, lay the bones of -men mingled with the rust-eaten remains of guns and pikes and sabres. -In some places, doubtless where the nameless fight had raged most -fiercely, the skeletons were heaped high upon each other. Flesh and -clothing alike had long since disappeared, but parts of belts and -buckles and fragments of the tinsel of war remained to tell of the -bitterness of the fight. - -“Probably the work of buccaneers,” explained Howard. “They did not -hesitate to attack ten times their number, and often won by the very -fury of their assault. Evidently they did this time. Joyce, I’m afraid -your million went to make a pirate holiday centuries ago.” - -“Bad cess to thim, whoiver they were. But where would it be, sor, if it -was on board?” - -“I really don’t know. And yet--the hold under the captain’s cabin, aft -there, would be a likely place. Suppose you look there.” - -Joyce and Jackson hurried away, and soon the sound of dull hammering -and the tear of rending wood came to the ears of the others, followed -a moment later by a series of triumphant yells. Then Joyce appeared, -fairly mad with excitement. - -“Hurroush! Hurroush!” he screamed. “We’ve found it! We’ve found it! -Tons and tons of solid gold! Kathleen, _mavourneen_, we’re rich--we’re -rich! We’ll go back to Galway and buy the little place beyant the hill, -and----” - -“Whist! Whist! Tim, man! An’ will you first be tellin’ me how you’re -going to get yerself away, let alone your tons of gold?” - -So absorbed was the party in the discovery of the gold that they forgot -everything else--the danger from Forbes, the utter uselessness of the -treasure, the necessity of crossing the channel and making their way to -the southern coast. Even Dorothy, used to wealth as she was, caught the -infection, and babbled away as excitedly as a child. - -Howard was the first to recover his poise and to plan for the future. -It was, he knew, utterly hopeless to try to tear Joyce and Jackson, -or even the missionary away from the galleon until their excitement -had spent itself. Indeed, he himself felt positively ill at thought -of abandoning the gold, unavoidable as such action undoubtedly was. -By rough calculation, he estimated that there were twelve tons of the -treasure, worth about six million dollars, under their very feet, free -for them to carry away, and yet as utterly unavailable as so much sand. -Indeed, in so far as unwillingness to leave it should delay movements -of the party, it was a positive detriment. - -He turned and looked at the others. Joyce, Jackson, the missionary, -and even Mother Joyce, were working as they had never worked before, -taking from the hold the golden bars, each a load for a strong man, -and staggering on deck with them in their arms. In vain, Howard tried -to check them; they only glared at him, cursed, and hurried back for -another load. Joyce and his wife, too old for such labor, soon had to -give way, crying like children as they did so; but the others toiled -on, hot, black with the grime of ages, half ill from the smells of the -shut, musty hold. Their muscles cracked; their backs ached; the sweat -streamed down their faces, but still they kept on. - -Sick at heart, Howard turned from the scene and wandered to the side of -the galleon, where he stood, looking east, hoping the end of the zigzag -channel might be somewhere in sight. In vain! As far as his eyes could -serve, it stretched away. - -Disappointed, his glance dropped to the open water of the channel close -at hand, and he stood transfixed. Close beside the galleon, moored -strongly fore and aft, lay a slender, queer-shaped boat about sixty -feet long. It needed not the trained knowledge of the naval officer to -tell that it was a submarine. - -Intensely modern in its lines, it was as much out of place in -that ancient company as would be a rifle in the hands of Cæsar’s -legionaries. Howard’s mouth fairly dropped open as he gazed at it. - -But in a moment understanding came. This was the means of escape that -Forbes had spoken of: safe, quick, and easy for one with the necessary -technical knowledge; the gold on the galleon was part of the fortune -that he wanted to get home in safety. No wonder he had been eager to -enlist Howard’s aid; and he could have had it--had it all, if he had -not presumed on his power to grasp the girl, too! Now he would lose all. - -Dorothy had tired of the gold and was standing on the deck, looking -wonderingly around. Howard called her, and together they descended -to the lower deck of the galleon, and, slipping out through a port -opposite to that by which they had entered, stepped easily out upon the -deck of the submarine, which floated high in the water. With trembling -fingers, Howard pushed back the bolts that held the manhole cover in -place, lifted it off, and peered into the darkness of the interior. -“I’ll be back in a moment,” he promised, glancing up at Dorothy as he -swung himself downward. - -Soon he was back again with radiant features. “She’s in perfect -condition, so far as I can tell without starting the engines,” he -announced, “and I guess they are all right. She’s almost the latest -type in submarines--gas-engine for running at the surface, and an -electric motor for use below. Her oil-tanks are full, and she has an -extra supply in glass jars and plenty of other necessary stores. Unless -there’s something wrong about her that I can’t see, she’ll get us all -to land without the least difficulty.” - -“Where did she come from?” - -“Straight from heaven, I guess. At least, I can’t imagine how else she -got into the sea. No, stop! I believe-- Yes, by George, that’s it. -Maybe you remember that a Spanish cruiser was lost at sea two or three -years ago--disappeared in a big storm and was never heard of again? -If I remember rightly, she had a submarine on board. This may be it. -Yes! See! Here’s its name--Tiburon; that’s Spanish for Seashark. That -cruiser must have drifted in here with it on board.” - -“But where is she? How did this boat get here--to this very place?” - -“I don’t know, but I can guess. Forbes must have brought it here. He -threw out hints about such a boat the first time I talked with him. -Yes, he must have brought it here. How he managed it I don’t know, and -I don’t much care. The boat is ours now by that same law of salvage by -which he claimed the Queen and her contents. What’s sauce for the goose -will do for the gander. But think how marvellous it is that we should -have come here, straight as a homingbird--to here! the exact place -where he had left his gold and his boat. And, yet, after all, it is not -quite so marvellous as it seems, since he could hardly have kept her -anywhere except up this channel, and we have been following the line of -it for miles.” - -“Can we get away on her?” - -“Certainly! All of us, and more, too, if necessary.” - -“But how will we get through the weed?” - -“We won’t go through it. We’ll go under it. The weed isn’t thick, you -know--only a few feet at most; it grows on top of the water, which is -two miles deep here, and we’ll simply dive under it.” - -Dorothy shuddered. “Go under the water, you mean?” she questioned. “Oh! -Frank, is it safe?” - -“Safe? Surely! I have been down many a time in boats much like this. Of -course--I won’t deceive you--accidents are always possible, but there -is really little risk, if the machinery works well. And we can’t tell -about that till we try. Don’t be afraid, dear. God has been too good to -us to let it all come to naught now.” - -“I’m not afraid, Frank. I’m not afraid anywhere with you, my king of -men.” - -Howard had something to say to this, but it is scarcely worth setting -down; lovers’ confidences seldom are. By and by he started up. “I’m -afraid we’re as mad one way as those people on the galleon are in -another,” he smiled. “I’m wasting valuable time that should be used in -getting you out of this before Forbes finds us. He’s sure to be looking -up this place very soon.” - -A thought struck Dorothy. “Oh, those poor people!” she exclaimed. -“Can’t you take some of their gold for them, Frank? A little money -will mean so much to the Joyces. They are too old to go to work again, -and----” - -“It would come in rather handy with me, too. But I don’t see-- By -George! Yes, I think I do! Let’s look.” He dived down again into the -body of the submarine and soon reappeared, his face radiant. - -“There is about five tons of detachable lead ballast in the bottom,” he -cried, joyously. “We can take it out, and put gold in its place--two -million dollars’ worth. If you will wait here. I’ll go and tell the -others. Maybe they are tired enough to listen to reason now.” - -They were! Howard found them all sitting glumly on the deck of the -galleon, glaring despairingly at the great pile of gold bars they -had extracted from the hold. One by one they had dropped their loads -and sank down where they stood, when, with increasing weariness, the -situation had at last dawned upon them. When Howard approached, they -did not heed him further than to cast savage glances in his direction. -Then they returned to contemplation of the gold. - -Howard understood the situation without words. “You oughtn’t to -have worked so hard,” he observed, in a matter-of-fact tone. “You, -especially, Joyce. And you, Mrs. Joyce. You’ll feel this to-morrow. But -now that you have gotten all the gold up here, I’m glad to tell you -that I’ve got a boat outside that will carry us, and just about this -much gold besides--say a third of a million for each of us. The rest, -I’m afraid, we’ll have to abandon.” - -[Illustration: IT TOOK ONLY ABOUT TWO HOURS TO DUMP THE LEAD OUT OF THE -SUBMARINE AND REPLACE IT WITH THE GOLD.] - - - - -XVII - - -FIVE tons of gold, worth about three million dollars, is not near so -hard to move as five tons of coal, for instance, especially when it is -put in seventy-five pound bars and there is plenty of tackle handy. -It took Jackson, Joyce, and Willoughby only about two hours to dump -the lead out of the submarine and replace it with the gold--surely the -richest ballast the world ever saw. - -Meanwhile Howard, after stationing Dorothy and Mother Joyce in elevated -positions where they could watch for the possible approach of Forbes -and his men, had set to work to get the submarine into order, oiling -the machinery, testing the engines and all the various pumps and -motors, and finally starting the gas-engine, which discharged the -double duty of driving the boat while on the surface, and of charging -the electric accumulators for use below. All this took time, and was -not finished until after the last bar of gold had been stored away in -place. - -Then Howard called the others around him. “Before we start,” he said, -“I have something to tell you. Until now I have kept it to myself, -because I did not want to rouse any false hopes. Joyce, did you ever -hear of wireless telegraphy?” - -Joyce scratched his head. “And what’s that, sor?” he demanded. - -“Telegraphy without the aid of wires. I didn’t suppose any of you here -had ever heard of it, else Captain Forbes would certainly not have shut -me in the operating-room of a steamer that had a full outfit in perfect -working order. During the time I was confined there I was in constant -communication with the naval station at Guantanamo. I told them of our -plight, and I will venture to say that the papers of the country are -ringing with the story of the Sargasso Sea colony and with our personal -adventures. Toward the end--just before Joyce set me free--I got into -communication with your father, Dorothy. He was wild with delight to -know that you were alive and was about to start to rescue you. In -fact, half a dozen vessels are probably now making an effort to break -a way through the weed to aid us. If we can get back to the coast and -wait, we are tolerably sure to be taken off sooner or later. Now, the -question is whether we shall wait or not?” - -Joyce and his wife had listened in dazed silence. “Do you mane, sor,” -demanded the former, “that you can talk through the air with those -quare instruments in that little room?” - -“That’s it exactly, Joyce. I can, and I did. But let me get back to -the point. I could give our friends only a very doubtful approximation -of our latitude and longitude, so that it may take them a long -time to find us, if they ever do. Not hearing further from us, they -may conclude that the whole thing is a fake and give up the search. -They will certainly have a long and tedious battle with the weed. -Altogether, if they get anywhere near the right spot in less than a -month it will be most surprising. Certainly they will not in less -than two weeks. Now, what can we do during the interval? If we decide -to wait for them, we must run down the coast and establish a camp -somewhere--as far from the village as we can get. Perhaps I can find -another wireless outfit and get into communication with Guantanamo -again. Certainly, we can find food and shelter, and all we will have -to do will be to wait--supposing that Forbes doesn’t find us, which he -will move heaven and earth to do when he finds we have his gold and his -boat. - -“That is one alternative open to us. The other, of course, is to dive -under the weed and start for home at once. If we meet one of the -searching steamers, all right; if we don’t, we can get to port under -our own power. There is a risk about such an attempt, of course, but -I don’t think it’s a very great one. Now, this is the situation: what -shall we do?” - -Howard paused, and the others looked at each other doubtfully. -Finally, Mr. Willoughby cleared his throat. “I confess,” he observed -hesitatingly, “that I fear the depths of the sea. I should much prefer -to remain on top of it and go home in a steamer. May we not run down -this--er--river on the surface and talk it over as we go?” - -“Surely. That’s good sense. We’ll do it. Joyce, suppose you run up -on the galleon and take a last look for Captain Forbes. Meanwhile, -everybody else get aboard. Hurry, Joyce!” - -Joyce hurried. In five minutes he came racing back as fast as his legs -would carry him. “The cap’n’s comin’,” he cried. “Coming with his -whole force. He isn’t three ships away.” - -Howard smiled grimly. “Just too late,” he exclaimed. “On board with -you, Joyce! Quick! Off we go!” With the word, he cast loose the last -mooring, and the Seashark moved slowly away. - -As, with gathering headway she rounded the galleon’s high-decked -poop, she came in view of a dozen or more armed men, who were rapidly -clambering over the wrecks, and who burst into excited babble as they -spied the little vessel. An instant later Forbes appeared. - -“Curse you!” he shrieked. “I’ll get you yet.” He threw his rifle to his -shoulder and fired, his men following suit with a scattering volley. - -But at the first sign of hostilities, Howard, who was alone on deck, -dropped nimbly down inside the body of the Seashark, and remained, -steering by aid of the camera lucida put there for the purpose, until a -curve in the channel sheltered the little vessel from the bullets that -had pattered harmlessly around her. - -For an hour the Seashark dropped swiftly down the slowly widening -channel between ever-changing banks of massed ships. In that hour -she passed in review the shipping of more than two centuries. -Squat-bellied, round-bowed Dutchmen, high-pooped Spaniards, clippers -that had made the American flag famous, frigates shot-torn and -shattered in the American Civil War, deep-water ships still bearing -the indelible imprint of the Chinese trade, steamers old and new--one -by one they passed in a progression constantly growing more and more -modern. Howard, alone in the conning-tower, glanced at them with -wonder; never before had they so impressed him. Until then, nearness -had obscured the vastness of the ruin, and only now had the full -meaning of it all been hammered into his mind. - -But he resolutely threw off the spell, and concentrated his entire -attention on the navigation of his little vessel. It was very -necessary. The channel, being newly formed, was reasonably clear of -weed, but it was impossible to guess how soon its character might -change. The smallest patch of vegetation might foul the screw of the -Seashark, or might conceal a water-logged spar, floating just awash, -that would rip a plate from her bow and send her to the bottom, ending -at once the lives of the castaways and their dreams of fortune. In some -ways it would be safer beneath the water; yet Howard knew that every -turn of the gas-engines was aiding to store up power in the electric -accumulators, on which alone they must depend when the time came to -dive. He did not dare to go below an instant sooner than he must. - -After an hour the channel opened more rapidly, and the weed began -to thicken, showing that the edge of the wreck-pack was near. Soon -the accumulation grew so thick that it was no longer safe to push -through it. Howard glanced at the indicators that measured the power -accumulated. “Enough to run us three and a half hours,” he murmured, -“or perhaps four. At eight knots, that means about twenty-five miles of -distance. Twenty-five miles! Humph! I guess it’s safe.” - -He brought the boat to a stop, and spoke to those in the semi-darkness -below. - -“Well,” he queried, “have you decided? Is it go ahead, or land and -wait?” - -No one answered, and in the stillness he heard up-channel the far-off -chug-chug of a boat rapidly driven. “Humph!” he exclaimed, bending down -again. “Forbes seems to have been well supplied with boats. He’s after -us in a steam-launch. That settles the question definitely. We’ve got -to dive. If any one wants to take a last look at this marvellous place, -now is the time.” - -No one spoke. - -Howard laughed. “What!” he exclaimed. “Nobody? Joyce, don’t you want -to see the last of your old home?” - -Joyce shook his head. “Faith,” he answered, “I’ve seen enough of it to -do me for the rest of my life.” - -“Jackson?” - -“New York’s good enough for me.” - -“Mr. Willoughby?” - -The missionary looked up. “Man! Man!” he cried. “How can you think of -such things when we are about to plunge into uttermost peril of our -lives? Rather, let us pray.” - -“Pray by all means, Mr. Willoughby. More things are wrought by prayer -than this world dreams of, you know. Dorothy, don’t you want to look?” - -But Dorothy, too, shook her head. “No, Frank,” she answered. “I never -want to see the horrible place again.” - -“Then down we go. Here comes Forbes, by the way.” - -Around a curve, up-channel, appeared a steam-launch, still far off, but -rapidly approaching. Howard stood up and waved his hand sarcastically; -then, with rapid motions, snapped on the manhole cover, cut off the -gas-engine, and threw on the electric starting-lever. Then, as the -little vessel started forward, he turned the diving-rudder downward. - -Instantly the Seashark slid gracefully down beneath the ripples. From -her little turret sprang out a sword of white light that pierced the -water before her, while within a score of tiny bulbs illumined the -darkness. Down she went; down, down, till the gage at Howard’s hand -showed that a depth of fifty feet had been attained; then slowly he -shifted the diving rudders until the boat held steadily to her depth, -the rudders just balancing her tendency to rise to the surface. “All -set,” he called down cheerily, but without moving his gaze from the -front. “Nothing to do now but go ahead. Make yourselves comfortable. We -won’t come to the surface for three hours, and perhaps longer.” - -No one answered. The experience, utterly new to them all, was -sufficiently terrifying to destroy the desire for conversation. Shut -up in this tiny shell which might any moment prove their tomb, fifty -feet below the surface of the ocean, driving forward blindly into -the unknown, it would have taken one braver--or more callous--than -any there to make merry. Howard, used as he was to submarine work, -might have cheered them up, had he not been compelled to give all his -attention to driving the vessel. - -For the dangers, though not what the rest vaguely conceived, were by -no means imaginary. Let the Seashark rise a few feet above the level -at which she ran, and she might easily smash herself against a more -than ordinarily deeply sunken wreck. Let her plunge too deeply, and -the increased pressure of the water might force its way in at some -weak spot, and crush her like an egg-shell. Let her power give out -too soon, at a spot where she could not come to the surface to run -her gas-engine, and so replenish her accumulators, and they would all -perish miserably. On Howard rested all the responsibility, and he had -no time to give to anything else. - - - - -XVIII - - -ONE, two, three hours slid by, and, at last, Howard, his eyes fixed on -the gage of the accumulators, saw that the power was getting low, and -began to watch anxiously for some gleam of light that, striking down -through the water, might show a break in the mantle of weed overhead. -In vain! Everywhere blackness ruled. Several times he slowed down and -turned off the headlight, hoping that, with its effulgence removed, -he might see the longed-for gap. After each attempt he went back to -driving the Seashark along at her maximum eight miles an hour. - -This could not last forever. Rapidly his anxiety grew. The Seashark had -been beneath the water for four hours, and his accumulators were nearly -bare. To try to break through the weed was dangerous, but not more so -than to remain below until all the power was gone. At all risks they -must reach the surface. - -For a scant ten minutes longer Howard held on, now very close beneath -the mantle of weed, then stopped altogether, and waited for the reserve -buoyancy of the Seashark to carry her upward. - -Slowly she rose again, and then into the weed. Howard could see its -slimy fronds through the thick glass of the conning-tower. Slowly and -more slowly it seemed to brush downward as the Seashark worked herself -upward. Slowly and more slowly until all motion ceased, leaving the -vessel still far below the surface. - -With a shrug of his shoulders, Howard pulled a lever, and in quick -response came the throb of the pumps beneath him as with powerful -strokes they drove out the water-ballast and made the Seashark lighter. - -Under this new impulse she rose once more, little by little, until at -last the pumps sucked dry and motion ceased once more. Howard, peering -upward, saw the light faintly gleaming through the interstices of the -weed. The surface could be scarcely a yard overhead. - -“Only a yard.” Howard muttered the words bitterly. “Only a yard! Might -as well be a thousand!” Gently he started the propeller; half a dozen -revolutions he knew would hopelessly foul it; but little difference -that would make if the Seashark could work her way upward by its aid. -Now forward, now backward he drove it, with his heart in his mouth. - -Not for long, for the drag on the shaft soon warned him that to go on -would shatter the machinery and, even if they reached the surface, -leave them helpless far within the bounds of the weedy sea. With a -sudden impulse he stopped the engine, and waited to see whether time -might not do what machinery had failed to accomplish. - -Half an hour passed, and the same frond of weed that had lain across -his view at its beginning still held its place. The Seashark was -stationary. - -One desperate recourse remained, and Howard prepared to take it. He -swung down into the cabin where sat the rest of the party forlornly -waiting. Long before they had realized that something was desperately -wrong; but none of them, except perhaps the missionary, were of the -weak-kneed type, and none had moved to question Howard, even during the -age-long interval when he had sat in silence. - -Howard looked at them one by one, his eyes lingering fondly on -Dorothy’s flower-like face. “Friends all,” he said, quietly, “our -situation is most serious. I knew when we dived that in about four -hours we must come to the surface to run our gas-engine and recharge -our electric batteries. I hoped and believed that in four hours we -would come to a place where there were breaks in the weed, or where it -was so thin that we could rise through it. Neither has turned out to be -true. There are no breaks, and the weed is so thick that it holds us -down. I have expelled all the water-ballast, and the Seashark is now -very buoyant; yet it cannot rise to the surface. We are scarcely a foot -below it, but we can rise no higher. - -“The explanation is evident. The Seashark is nearly fifty feet long. -Probably she intercepted a score of cables of weed as she rose. No -doubt there is now a whaleback of sargassum standing above the water -just over her. Its weight must be very great--too great for even our -increased buoyancy to lift farther; while the cables across us prevent -the weed from slipping off. The only way to get to the surface--that is -to say, the only way to save all our lives, is to cut away the cables -that hold us down.” - -Howard ceased speaking, but no one moved. With the failing power, the -electric lights had grown perceptibly dimmer, and the _voyageurs_ could -barely see each other’s faces. Soon, it was evident, the lights would -go out altogether. - -“Obviously,” Howard resumed, “we cannot cut the cables from inside the -ship. They can only be reached from the outside by some one who will -leave the boat. - -“Fortunately, this last is not difficult. On the open sea it is even -easy. The Seashark is a torpedo boat, fitted to discharge torpedoes -under water. Time and again the crew of an injured submarine have -escaped--all but one--by getting into the torpedo tube and being fired -out by a moderate charge of compressed air. Here in the weed it will -be more difficult, of course, but not especially dangerous. So”--the -speaker paused and looked around him--“so if one of you will come and -touch me off, I’ll see what I can do toward cutting those confounded -cables.” - -As Howard’s voice died away, the electric lights went suddenly out, -and a gasp of sheer horror ran through the tiny cabin. For a moment -no one spoke; then Dorothy groped her way through the blackness to -Howard’s side. - -“Not you! not you, my husband!” she murmured. “Not you. Let me go.” - -Howard laughed gently as he caressed the unseen face. “Not likely, -dear,” he answered. - -The strident voice of the missionary broke through the gloom. “And -if you are drowned in the attempt, what will the rest of us do?” he -demanded. - -“If I fail, another must try. But I won’t fail.” - -“Even if that other succeed, what good will it do us? No one but you -can run this boat, and we would only exchange death down here for death -on the surface. No, Mr. Howard, you must not go. I will go.” - -“You.” - -“Yes! I.” If the missionary smiled bitterly, no one saw it in the -darkness. “Oh! I know you all think I am a coward, and perhaps I -am. Certainly, I did not dare to oppose Captain Forbes, nor to---- -But never mind. I can swim like a fish almost. It is my one manly -accomplishment. I can get through the weed if any man can--and if I -fail, you will have lost nothing. Come! show me what to do.” - -Howard groped his way to the missionary, and wrung his hand. “I beg -your pardon. Mr. Willoughby,” he said, simply, “I misunderstood you. I -accept your offer. Come.” - -“Wait a moment.” Dorothy’s soft voice sounded. “I want to thank you, -Mr. Willoughby, and tell you that I never thought hard of you about -Captain Forbes. He was a terrible man. Can--can I do anything in--in -case you don’t come back?” Her voice trailed sobbingly off. - -“Nothing. I haven’t a chick or a child in the world, and--God bless -you, my dear.” With a last pressure of her hand he turned away. “Come, -Mr. Howard,” he commanded. - -In Cimmerian gloom the two men felt their way to the torpedo port. -“Better take off all your clothes,” counselled Howard. “The least thing -may serve to hold you in the weed. Strap this knife tightly to your arm -so you will be sure not to lose it. Carry this smaller one between your -teeth. Don’t lose your head; if you get entangled, keep cool and cut -yourself free. When you get to the surface look for the lump of weed -above us; it will be conspicuous enough. Cut first at one end of the -boat, and then at the other, so that we can rise on an even keel. Now, -if you are ready, climb in head-first.” - - * * * * * - -The ten minutes that elapsed after Howard had “fired off” the -missionary were the longest that any of the party had ever known. -Beneath the water, beneath the weed, in darkness so intense that it -positively weighed, each waited in silence the results of the venture -on which, in all human probability, depended his or her chance for -life. For if Mr. Willoughby, comparatively small, agile, and a good -swimmer, could not get through the interlacing weed, the chances were -that none of the others could do so. - -Bearing Mr. Willoughby’s clothes, Howard had groped his way back to the -conning-tower, and to Dorothy’s side, and had found her on her knees. -“Oh! Frank! Frank!” she sobbed. “Let us pray for him. Frank! Frank!” -Howard sank beside her, and no more fervent petition than his was ever -wafted to the throne of grace. - -Slowly the minutes ticked themselves away. Then, just as hope seemed -gone, the Seashark gave a sudden lurch, and a gasp of relief arose. It -required no expert to tell her passengers that something was happening -above the water--a something that could have but one cause. - -Howard explained it: “Mr. Willoughby has cut one of the cables that are -holding us down--there goes another--and another.” A faint light showed -through the grass-filled peep-holes of the conning-tower; promise of -the glorious burst to come. “We are rising. We are tearing free.” - -Rapidly the light grew, until a tiny beam from the westering sun shot -straight through a window, and danced gaily about as the Seashark -rocked to and fro on the smooth surface. At sight of it the women -sobbed aloud. What the men did in the darkness can only be guessed. - -Rapidly Howard threw back the cover of the manhole, and let the blessed -air of heaven in. Instantly Mr. Willoughby’s head appeared. “Have you -got my clothes there?” he demanded in a stage whisper. - -With a snicker of relief, Howard passed up the clothes and, when the -missionary was properly arrayed, called all the rest to come on deck. - -The Seashark was floating in the familiar ocean of weed. No open water -was in sight; if any was near it was not visible from a point so low in -the water. Wreckage floated here and there; not a hundred yards away -was the hulk of a dismasted water-logged lumber schooner, and a little -farther off were the tangled spars of a huge ship. - -Howard looked around him and shook his head. “It’s farther to clear -water than I had thought,” he told Dorothy. “Not that it matters. We’ll -be out to-morrow morning.” He turned to the rest. “Joyce! if you and -Jackson will cut away the weed from around our propeller, I’ll do the -rest. Mr. Willoughby will give you his knives. By the way, don’t lay -them down on the water, or they’ll be a mile or so deep when we want -them again.” - -Joyce turned to Willoughby, who blushed. “I--I’m afraid that’s just -what I did do, Mr. Howard,” he explained, confusedly. “Anyway, I’ve -lost one of the two you gave me.” - -“No matter, sir, I’ve got another,” interjected Joyce, as he and -Jackson turned to their allotted task. - -Left to himself, Howard threw the screw-shaft out of connection, and -turned the full power of the gas-engine to recharging the electric -accumulators. When all was running smoothly, he turned to the rest. - -“It will be several hours, at best, before we can start, and I think, -on the whole, we had better not do so until toward daylight, so as to -be sure of plenty of light when we come up again. If you girls will get -supper ready, we might as well dine.” - -Dinner--or supper--began light-heartedly enough on the part of most -of the party. Civilization seemed very near, and the spirits of the -majority were high accordingly. Only Howard, to whom rescue meant -something very different from what it did to the others, and Dorothy, -who grieved in sympathy with him, were silent and distrait. Toward the -end of the meal, Jackson, who had been unwontedly talkative, suddenly -awoke to the realization that the time was rapidly approaching when he -must again become the jailer of the man who had saved his life and his -happiness. Under this incubus he suddenly shut up. - -The other three did not understand Howard’s situation. For some reason -Forbes, it seemed, had not told his information (or suspicions), about -the naval officer, and his single reference to them, at the time of -the wedding, had passed over the heads of both the Joyces and of Mr. -Willoughby. So they chattered on light-heartedly enough, until the meal -was over, and Howard dismissed them to sleep. - -A little later that night, when all the rest were sleeping, worn out -by the excitement and arduous labors of the day, Dorothy slipped up on -deck, where Howard was watching the dials of his accumulators as they -slowly crept toward the maximum. - -There was no moon, but the phosphorescence of the weed filled the air -with a weird witch-light, in which the Seashark and floating wreckage -bulked black. So strong was the gleam that Howard could see the dark -circles under Dorothy’s eyes as she sank down by his side. - -“There, there! sweetheart,” he whispered, gently. “You ought to be -getting your beauty sleep. We’ll probably be picked up to-morrow, and -you must look your best.” - -But Dorothy refused to heed the badinage. “Oh! Frank, Frank,” she -murmured, miserably. “I don’t want to be picked up. Can’t--can’t we put -the rest ashore somewhere, and slip away--just you and I. When I think -of what will happen---- Oh, Frank, I can’t bear it!” - -Howard drew her toward him, and tilted up her face until he could look -down into her troubled eyes. “Don’t be afraid, dear,” he murmured, -“everything is going to come out right. It will take a little time -perhaps, but it will all come right in the end. The Providence that has -watched over us and brought us through so much will not fail us now.” - -“But--but--to have you in prison, even for a day! Oh, Frank, I can’t -bear it! You have saved Mr. Jackson’s life, rescued him, made him -rich--surely he will not be cruel enough to----” - -“Hush! Hush! dear. Jackson must do his duty. I wouldn’t have him -fail in it on my account for the world. Besides, I must surrender -in order to prove my innocence. Before, I did not have the money to -send to Porto Rico for witnesses; now I have. There must be plenty of -people down there who have seen the real husband of that poor Dolores -Montoro. Money will bring them to New York. Once they see me they -will know that I am not he--even though they may have identified my -photograph. I ran away before only because I knew of no other way to -reach them. Now that I have another way, I must take it.” - -Dorothy was thoughtful for a moment. Then she nodded slowly. “You are -right, Frank,” she murmured. “You always are. It will break my heart, -but--it is the only way. I see that. It isn’t only your liberty I want; -your honor must be cleared as well.” - -“There’s my brave girl!” - -Soon Dorothy spoke again. “Frank,” she said, “tell me! How did you -escape from prison? I don’t understand.” - -Howard hesitated. Then: “I can’t tell you very much about it, dear. But -this I will say: An officer on my last ship--one, too, for whom I am -ashamed to say I had never cared much--stood my friend all through the -trial, and at the end aided me to get away. He----” - -“It was Mr. Loving! I know it was Mr. Loving!” - -“Hush! Even the sea-weed has ears. You must never say anything about -it, or it would get him into terrible trouble. Yes, it was Loving. Do -you know him?” - -Dorothy twisted and untwisted her fingers. “Yes,” she murmured, “I know -him. It--it was on his account that I went to Porto Rico.” - -“On his account?” - -“Yes. He--he wanted to marry me, and father wanted me to accept -him, and I couldn’t. I couldn’t! I knew you must exist somewhere, -Frank--you--the only man in the world for me--and I ran away from New -York to avoid him. You are not angry, are you, Frank?” - -“Angry! At what? But I’m afraid I’ve made a terrible botch of things; -saddled a convict husband on you, and robbed my best friend of his -bride.” - -Dorothy raised her hand to his lips. “Hush! dear,” she said. “I -wouldn’t exchange my husband for any man in the wide world; and as for -Mr. Loving--well, he couldn’t be robbed of what he never had, and never -could have had.” - -The note of the engines suddenly changed, and Howard, bending over, -glanced at the accumulator dial. “The battery is fully charged, dear,” -he said, as he shut off the engine. “And it is certainly time to rest.” - - - - -XIX - - -LONG before dawn Howard was astir. Possessing in an eminent degree the -not very rare faculty of being able to awake at any hour desired, he -had set his mental alarm-clock for four o’clock, and, in spite of his -fatigue, had awakened within fifteen minutes of that time. - -Without disturbing any of the others, who lay stretched in more or less -uneasy postures on the comfortless floor of the Seashark, he made his -way first to the conning-tower for a last examination of the fixtures -there; then to the deck, where a brief inspection showed that the -propeller was still clear; and, at last, to the pilot’s seat, where, -taking his place, he pulled the lever that let the water into the -ballast tanks. - -Swiftly the tanks filled, and silently and smoothly the Seashark sank -down through the water. For a time the weed scraped against her sides, -but soon this ceased, and the electric beam showed only black water -before the tiny windows of her conning-tower. When fifty feet of depth -was registered on the gage, Howard turned on the power and, gathering -way, the Seashark drove along beneath the sea. - -Three hours later, when the weary sleepers began to stir, he was still -at his post, tirelessly staring before him. As the day waxed, a faint -light, interspersed with occasional stronger beams, filtered down from -above, giving token that the canopy of weed had grown thin, and was -broken here and there by channels of open water. Soon it would be safe -to go to the surface. - -Suddenly, with terrifying swiftness, came a sound and a shock that -shook the Seashark from stem to stern. Simultaneously the black hull of -a great ship showed across the path, not a hundred feet away. There -was no time to stop; no time to check the speed; scarcely time to -deflect the course. But quicker than thought, quicker than lightning, -automatically, Howard’s trained brain and hand met the danger. - -The horizontal rudders sent the Seashark diving down, down, down, in a -desperate endeavor to pass beneath the obstruction--down till Howard -saw clear water in front of him. - -Under the keel of the ship sped the Seashark, still diving desperately. -For one agonizing instant she touched, scraped, shrieked; then tore -free. - -But the danger was not passed; though, with reversed rudders, the -Seashark strove to beat her way upward. A glance at the dials showed -that the depth was increasing--not diminishing; a glance behind showed -that the black hull was ominously close. The slant of the Seashark -grew steeper, steeper; almost it stood on end. The rumble of falling -objects came from below, followed by startled shrieks, as the sleepers, -rudely awakened, slid in a tangled heap to the after-end of the boat. -Howard clung wildly to the steering-wheel to save himself from being -hurled down upon the rest. As he clung, confused, not understanding, -the tiny vessel was shaken like a rat in a dog’s jaws. Her machinery -began to tear loose from its bed. Mere peas in a pod, her passengers -tumbled right and left as willed by the mighty power that grasped them. - -After turmoil peace. Howard pulled his dazed wits together to the -realization that the Seashark was lying quiescent on the surface of the -water, though by no means on an even keel. Her engines had stopped, and -her lights were out. Only a faint glimmer through the windows of the -conning-tower illumined the scene of wreckage around him. Wild with -anxiety, he lowered himself into the blackness of the sleeping room, -and called Dorothy’s name. - -“Here I am, Frank,” came the answer. - -Howard groped his way toward the sound. “Are you hurt?” he asked in -trembling accents. - -“No! I think not--certainly not seriously.” The girl’s tones were -broken, but brave as ever. - -“The rest of you? Is everybody alive? Answer as I call. Joyce?” - -“I’m alive, sor, and so is Kathleen.” - -“Jackson?” - -“Here.” - -“Mr. Willoughby?” - -“I, too, have escaped.” - -Howard drew a long breath. “Thank God! We seem to have our lives, at -any rate.” - -“What was it, sor?” - -“I’m not certain. But I think a wreck must have chosen the very moment -of our passage to sink, and must have drawn us down into her vortex. We -escaped at last, and are now at the surface. But I fear our machinery -is ruined. I’ll open the manhole.” - -Turning, Howard clambered back to his perch, and tried to push back -the bolts. They were badly jammed, and it took him some time to loosen -them; but at last they gave way, and he shoved back the cover and -thrust out his head. - -The Seashark was rolling gently on smooth weed-clear water. A quarter -of a mile away lay a white cruiser, and not a hundred yards distant was -a boat rapidly approaching. - -Howard rubbed his eyes. “Ahoy, the boat,” he called. - -The officer in charge gasped. “Way enough,” he ordered. “Ahoy, the -submarine. Where in heaven did you come from?” - -“From mighty near the other place,” answered Howard grimly. “Did you -torpedo that wreck?” - -“That’s what we did. We’re destroying derelicts, and hunting for a -party of castaways from the Queen. Do you know anything about them?” - -[Illustration: “THIS IS, OR, RATHER, WAS--MISS FAIRFAX,” HE EXPLAINED. -“AND YOU----”] - -Howard nodded affirmatively in answer to the officer’s question. “Yes,” -he answered. “We are the castaways--we and three others who escaped -with us in this submarine from the little king of the Sargasso Sea. I -suppose you know the story that I sent by wireless?” - -The boat scraped along. “Know it! I should say so,” exclaimed the -startled officer. “The whole country knows it. I suppose you are----” - -“Frank Howard. Come, Dorothy,” Howard climbed to the deck, and helped -the girl to follow him. “This is, or, rather, was--Miss Fairfax,” he -explained. “And you----” - -The officer suppressed a whistle of admiration at sight of Dorothy’s -flower-like face. “I’m McCully!” he answered, as he stood up and took -off his cap. “I say! This is awfully lucky. Colonel Fairfax will be -wild with delight.” - -“My father! Where is he?” - -“On board the Duluth, yonder. The navy department ordered us to look -for you, and he came along. There are a dozen searching for you.” - -Dorothy’s head swam. The month of stress was over, and the revulsion of -feeling was too great not to affect her. Tears started to her eyes as -she turned to Howard. “Oh! Frank!” she cried. “Father is here.” - -“Yes. He’s here, sure,” interjected Mr. McCully, “and if you’ll get -into this boat we’ll take you to him in a jiffy.” - -Dorothy looked at Howard inquiringly, and he nodded. “Yes, you’d better -go,” he assented. “You and Mrs. Joyce and Willoughby, perhaps. The rest -of us will stay here for the present. Mr. McCully, will you kindly -ask your captain if he cannot come alongside us? The Seashark, though -damaged by your torpedo, is still valuable, and, besides, we have about -two million dollars in gold bars on board of her.” - -The lieutenant looked his astonishment. What manner of man was this who -carried two millions of gold about in a submarine. “Two millions?” he -gasped. - -“Yes! We found an old Spanish galleon with five or six millions on -her, and brought away all we could. Look! There’s another boat coming. -Is that your father on her, Dorothy? And--why, yes, it’s Loving, too, -isn’t it? How frightfully ill he is looking.” - -Another boat was close at hand. Dorothy looked at her, and clasped her -hands with excitement. “Oh! It is!” she cried. “Father! Father! Don’t -you know me?” - -The gray-bearded civilian stood up. “Dorothy! Dorothy!” he trumpeted. -“Is it you! Is it really you?” - -“Yes! Yes!” As the boat touched the Seashark, the girl fairly sprang -into her father’s arms. “Oh! father! father!” she cried. “How good it -is to see you.” - -Meanwhile, Lieutenant McCully had turned to Howard and the others, who -had now climbed up on the deck. “The Duluth is moving,” he explained. -“Captain Morehouse probably intends to come alongside without being -asked. Hadn’t you all better get into this boat, and let my men fasten -your manhole down? The waves from the Duluth might swamp her, you know.” - -“Thank you. If you’ll be so kind. But first let me present my fellow -travelers.” - -In a few moments the Seashark was made safe against swamping, and her -former passengers were about to enter the cutter, when Dorothy called -to Howard: “Frank, dear, I want you.” - -Everybody started. Not one there was ignorant of Howard’s record, and -the use of his Christian name by the girl was somewhat surprising. - -“Frank, dear!” cried the girl, alive with excitement. “This is my -father. Father, this is Lieutenant Frank Howard, who saved me from -death and from worse than death. See, I wear his ring.” - -She held up her hand, and, at the sight of the plain gold band, Colonel -Fairfax’s outstretched hand dropped heavily to his side. “A wedding -ring,” he gasped. - -“Yes, father. I am not Dorothy Fairfax any more. I am Dorothy Howard -now. Mr. Willoughby married us day before yesterday.” - -All Colonel Fairfax’s coolness; all the aplomb that had made him a -master of men; all his traditional self-possession dropped from him, -and he stood stammering like any schoolboy. - -Dorothy’s eyes sparkled. “It’s all right, father,” she declared. “Frank -married me to save me from that horrible Forbes. He didn’t want to do -so because of that ridiculous accusation against him, but he couldn’t -help it. I insisted on it. Shake hands with him. You and I are going to -find the real murderer, and clear his name.” - -“But--but--Mr. Loving----” - -Loving, his face pale, but with a forced smile on his lips, struck in. -“Hallo, Howard, old man,” he said, holding out his hand. “I was just -waiting my chance to speak to you. Frank Howard is all right, colonel,” -he continued earnestly, turning to the elder man. “I’ve told you so -before, you know.” - -Colonel Fairfax had recovered his poise somewhat. “Well,” he said, -“this isn’t the time or place to talk about it, though it is the time -to thank you, Mr. Howard, for saving my girl’s life. It nearly killed -me when I lost her. Come, let’s get on board--Good Heavens! Loving! -What’s the matter?” - -Loving’s face had grown white as death, and his distended eyes seemed -popping from their sockets. Following his gaze, the others saw Mr. -Willoughby picking his way along the Seashark toward them. - -“Ah! Mr. Howard,” he said, holding out his hand to Loving, “I’m glad -to see you here, for, of course, it means that you must have cleared -yourself of that terrible charge. Quite a coincidence having another of -the same name in our little party, isn’t it? I had meant to speak to -him about you, but we have been in such a turmoil that I haven’t had -the chance.” - -The changing expressions in the faces of his listeners suddenly caught -the good man’s attention. “Why! What is the matter?” he explained. -“I--I hope I don’t---- Surely you have cleared yourself of that charge, -Mr. Howard?” - -Loving’s dry lips moved, but no sound came. The other men, too, were -stricken dumb. Only Dorothy found breath. - -“This gentleman is Mr. Loving, Mr. Willoughby,” she gasped. “Why do you -call him Howard?” - -The missionary turned a bewildered face to the girl. “I don’t -understand,” he stammered. “I knew this gentleman as Mr. Howard in -Porto Rico, where I married him to Dolores Montoro. Later she followed -him to New York, and he was reported to have murdered her. I was -coming to testify when I was wrecked, and----” - -Loving burst suddenly into a fit of jarring laughter. “You needn’t say -any more, Mr. Willoughby,” he cackled. “You’ve put the noose around my -neck all right. Yes, I did it, I did it. I married that she-devil under -your name, Howard, and when she followed me to New York I killed her. I -didn’t mean to get you into it, but you got a letter she intended for -me, and butted in just in time to get accused. You’ll bear me witness -that I tried to save you; and I would have done it, too, if those fools -in Porto Rico hadn’t identified your photograph as the man who married -Dolores. All smooth-faced men in uniform look alike to them, I suppose. -Well, it’s all up now, and I’m glad of it. Maybe you won’t believe me, -but I haven’t had a happy moment since you were arrested. I’m not so -bad as you think; that woman was a fiend and--but there’s the ship. -I’ll go on board and write out a formal confession.” - -Unseen, the Duluth had approached and, as she ran smoothly alongside, -Loving caught a Jacob’s-ladder swinging from a boom, and ran up it to -the deck. - -Before any one could follow, the Duluth swung past, and, when a -moment later her reversed screw brought her to a halt, the sound of a -pistol-shot in her ward-room told that Loving had signed his confession -with his blood. - - - - -EPILOGUE - - -The Sargasso Sea will soon be robbed of half its terrors. The Seashark -Wrecking Company, with Howard at its head, and all his party as -share-holders, has been formed to recover the great wealth still -existing on the derelicts in the sea. It has opened communication with -the wreck-pack by a paddle-wheel steamer that is expected to maintain a -reasonably clear channel through the weed. The company is projecting a -series of relief stations, and will keep up a constant patrol all round -the wreck-pack. The expense, of course, will be enormous, but there -is no doubt that the enterprise will meet it and will pay an enormous -profit besides, even if not a single other treasure-ship is found. - -A message just received by wireless from the sea says that the first -steamer of the company is about to start back to New York with a -tremendously valuable cargo of salvage. It adds that Forbes and all -his men have begged for passage, and that it will be granted them. -The money left on the galleon, which Forbes was forced to divide, has -made them all comparatively rich, and they are anxious to get back to -civilization to spend their money. Their departure leaves Howard and -his friends with an undisputed title to the salvage of the Isle of Dead -Ships. - - -THE END. - - - - -_DELIGHTFULLY FASCINATING_ - - The Princess Dehra - - By JOHN REED SCOTT - -In which we meet again the characters of his dashing success, “_The -Colonel of the Red Huzzars_” (Eleven editions). - -Mr. Scott displays uncommon dramatic skill in the handling of his -characters--the same, by the way, as those who were met in his “Colonel -of the Red Huzzars.” It is a continuation of that former dashing -romance of an American army officer who turns out to have royal blood -in his veins which eventually wins for him a throne and enthrones him -in the heart of a charming princess; mystery, intrigue, plot, and -counterplot, all are here, and the reader will find his attention held -until the very last page, when loyalty and the wit of a woman triumph -in the face of even “the Book of Laws” and a clever rascal. - - “Here is a new story to set the pulses tingling.”--_Philadelphia - Press._ - - “Since Hope’s ‘Prisoner of Zenda,’ nothing better has been done - than this new story by the author of ‘The Colonel of the Red - Huzzars.’”--_Cincinnati Enquirer._ - - “There are situations involving the principal characters which - are ingenious in conception and cleverly woven into the story by - essential and natural sequence, and at these situations the reader - feels a desire to continue the story, even if the house be burning. - He has produced a story that is interesting and exciting without - being overdrawn.”--_Boston Evening Transcript._ - - _Four Full-Page Illustrations in Color by Clarence F. Underwood. 12 - mo. Decorated Cloth, $1.50._ - - J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA - - - - -_THE DASHING NOVEL_ - - THE - COLONEL - OF THE - RED HUZZARS - - By - JOHN REED SCOTT - -Stirring adventures, courtly intrigue, and fencing both of sword and -wit, fill the pages of this story. The plot is built upon a wager -between Major Dalberg, U. S. A., and a friend that within a certain -time both would be dining with the king and dancing with the princess -royal of Valeria. Strangely enough, Dalberg proves to be of the blood -royal of Valeria, is reinstated into his ancestral rights, and when -matters are about to reach a climax, the pretender steps in, and there -ensues an encounter between American pluck and unscrupulous cleverness. - - “There’s not a dull page in it.”--_The Index, Pittsburg._ - - “A slap-dashing vacation-day romance.”--_Evening Sun, New York._ - - “So naïvely fresh in its handling, so plausible through its - naturalness, that it comes like a mountain breeze across the - far-spreading desert of similar romances.”--_Gazette-Times, - Pittsburg._ - -Illustrations in Colors by CLARENCE F. UNDERWOOD - -12mo. Decorated cloth, $1.50 - - J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Philadelphia - - - - -BEAU BROCADE - -_By BARONESS ORCZY_ - -_Author of “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” “I Will Repay,” etc._ - -A captivating romance of love and chivalry--the adventures of a -charming highwayman of the days of the English Pretender. - - “Faith and courage make the story of ‘Beau Brocade’ a very - interesting one. The hero is delightfully fascinating--bubbling over - with exuberance of youth; nothing is a hardship for him. He reminds - one of Dumas’s famous D’Artagnan, and most especially in his fighting - escapades. Gloriously dramatic is the fight in the forge, when, by - his prowess, Beau Brocade holds at bay a lot of redcoats, escaping on - his steed ‘Jack O’Lantern.’”--_N. Y. American Book Review Contest._ - - “The story is so well told, so full of life and action, that one - never loses interest from start to finish.”--_Pittsburgh Dispatch._ - - “Let no one begin reading this tale late in the evening, for there is - no stopping-place till the end, and the end is worth reaching.”--_The - Congregationalist, Boston._ - - “The illustrations in color are unusually attractive.”--_Chicago - Tribune._ - -FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY CLARENCE F. UNDERWOOD. - -12mo. Cloth, $1.50. - - J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA - - - - -When Kings Go Forth to Battle - -By WILLIAM WALLACE WHITELOCK - -_Author of “The Literary Guillotine,” etc._ - -A small German principality is the seat of exciting warfare. An -unscrupulous king and a conniving “minister of interior improvements” -find their match in two invincible Americans who keep the secret of a -young prince’s hiding-place, and with characteristic American energy -join in a revolutionary plot to unseat the reigning monarch and place -the prince upon the throne. - - “A story that grasps our interest with its first chapter and causes - us to follow breathlessly until the climax.”--_Baltimore Sun._ - - “The prettily tinted illustrations by Frank H. Desch are particularly - praiseworthy.”--_Philadelphia Press._ - - “Told with energy and color, and it is well worth reading.”--_San - Francisco Argonaut._ - - “Some excellent illustrations in color add to the beauty of the - volume.”--_Nashville American._ - - THREE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY - FRANK H. DESCH. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. - - J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - PUBLISHERS :: :: :: PHILADELPHIA - - - - -THE SMUGGLER - -By ELLA MIDDLETON TYBOUT - -_Author of “The Wife of the Secretary of State” and “Poketown People.”_ - -This is not, as the title might suggest, a tale of daring deeds on -the deep, but a blithesome story of the adventures of three American -girls while spending their summer vacation on a Canadian island. They -become involved in a series of strange happenings by a band of clever -smugglers who pose as their friends, using them as a blind in their -smuggling operations. There is a pretty love story interwoven with -mystery, adventure, and humor, that holds the reader’s interest from -cover to cover. - - “The characters are mightily convincing, and the rapid-action plot - makes the most indifferent reader ‘sit up’ until he has devoured the - last word.”--_Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va._ - - “A happy blending of Stocktonesque humor and Anna Katherine Green - mystery.”--_New York Globe._ - - “A brightly written story for those who like light and agreeable - fiction that is free from coarseness.”--_Boston Budget and Beacon._ - - ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR BY HOWARD EVERETT SMITH. - 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. - - J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY - PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA - - - - -The Affair at Pine Court - -By NELSON RUST GILBERT - -A truly American novel of love and mystery, taking place at the -Adirondack lodge of a New York millionaire. It is a story of living -people set against a background of October-painted forests, azure -lakes, and limpid trout-streams. - -The reader lives through such exciting days in the depths of this great -forest, with characters so well drawn and so intensely human as to -seem alive. The arrival of a German count gives direction and impetus -to incipient love affairs. He arouses the greed of the humble natives -by exhibiting the wonderful “Lens of the Gau” in the presence of his -host’s butler. These envious enemies of the rich pleasure-seekers at -the court put the house in a stage of siege, during which each guest -displays his or her real character. The many incidents of the forest -war are told with admirable skill, and a happily ending love affair -keeps the reader’s attention taut and eager. - - “A tale of mystery, crisply and briskly told.”--_Leader, Cleveland._ - - “An unusual story in which the author has pictured real men, who ring - true in the time of danger.”--_Buffalo Express._ - - “A book whose plot is well conceived and wrought out, whose - craftsmanship is excellent, and whose ability to hold the interest to - the last page is undisputed.”--_The Interior, Chicago._ - - “A book to be read not only for its strong human interest, but - for its true picture of life in the Adirondacks.”--_Argonaut, San - Francisco._ - - THREE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR - BY FRANK H. DESCH. - - 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. - - J. B. 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