Pittston Gazette

              ESTABLISHED! SftO. I VOL. XLV1. NO. 35 f Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY. APRIL M, 1896. A Weekly local and Family Journal. \91-82SZIX: • "My Gc2, how did yoc know all this?" just now an earthquake or a revolution or something like that would occur to shuffle matters lip. Then if I got killed I should be spared a great deal of worry, and if I didn't, why, I've got large hands, and I believe I could grab enough in the general scramble to suit even her. "Couldn't the steamer be lost somehow in the gulf of Mexico and a boat containing the boxes of specie find its way through this channel of yours Into tho Interior of Florida?" "Captojn Owon Kettle—yes. He was the man who lost the Doge of Venice, and since then ho's never had another ship." "Do you remember objecting to take a sheaf of obviously spurious notes, and there was a row, and somebody whipped out ft knife, and somebody else floored tba knifeman with a chair?" and he loved the hulo which he wore among the improving young men. And, moreover, that howl of execration from every class of society which would make up his pteau of defeat was an opera Which he very naturally shrank from silting through. suranco of this sort which will comtortably see him through future efforts. But in Kettle's mind shipowners were a vastly different class of beings, and so it never occurred to him that the same might apply to them. Fairfax laughed and went into the outer offices, and Patrick Cambel turned to the shipowner with a couple of questions. "To begin with," he said, "why did you offer freight to Norfolk and Pensacola and Mobile and those places? If you call in there, the natural thing would be to get the specie ashore and express it by railroad direct to New Orleans. If you miss that chance and start carrying it round bjr sea, the thing looks fishy at once. Now, fishiness isan aspect which we can't afford in the very least degree. The swindle will call up quite enough sensation in its most honest and straightforward dress." "My dear Mr. Cambel, please give ma credit for a little more finesse. 1 see tha objection to Intermediate ports as much aa you do, but I merely mentioned them to Fairfax as a blind. To begin with, it is a hundred to one chance against our getting any cargo consigned to them at this season of the year at all, even If we offered to carry it gratis. In the second place, If it was offered I could easily get out of It In 60 ways. Afterward, when the deplorable accident takes place, an inquiry into this will help to draw off attention from your Floridian peninsula. Any one inclined to carp will instantly be told that we were equally read* to put the specie ashore on -the Virginia coast if our other cargo had led us there. What do you think of that now?" "Poor wretch—yes, I know. That Doge of Venice case was an awful scandal. Owners filled up the board of trade surveyor to the teeth with champagne, or she'd never have been passed to sea. As it was, she'd such an unholy reputation that two crews ran from her before they could get her manned. She was as rotten as rust and tumbled rivets could make her, and she was sent to sea as a coffin ship to earn her dividends out of Lloyds. Kettle had been out of a job for some time. He was a desperate man, with a family depending on him, and he went as skipper fully conscious of what was expected of him. He did it like a man. He let the Doge of Venice founder in a North sea gale, and by a marvelous chance managed to save his ship's company. At the inquiry, of course, he was madp scapegoat, and he didn't contrive to save his ticket. They suspended his master's certificate for a year. On the strength of that he applied to owners for maintenance, putting it on tho reasonable claims of services rendered. Owners, being upright merchants and sensible men, naturally repudiated all knowledge or liability; said he was a blackmailing scoundrel as well as an unskillful seaman and threatened him with an action for libel. Kettle, not having a solitary proof to show, did the only thing left for him to do, and that was eat dirt or subside. But the incident and the subsequent starvation haven't to sweeten his temper. Latterly he's been serving as mate on a Pacific ship, and he was just a holy terror with his men. He simply kept alive by carrying his fist on a revolver butt. There wasn't a man who's served with Red Kettle three weeks that wouldn't have cheerfully swung for the enjoyment of murdering him." '.'How lost?" "After which you very sensibly bolted. Well, sonor, I had only just that moment ooiue In, but I saw you were a fellow Islander, and that's why I handled the chair. You don't remember me, and I didn't know your name, but I recognized you the moment your wife Introduced us here, because I never forget a face." "Yes—no." "As it is, however, with neither earthquake nor revolution probable, I'm a desperate man, ready to take any desperate chance of commercial salvation." Mr. Shelf mopped his forehead ngnin. "Don't steamers, " he asked, "don't they Bomotimes have sad accidents which— which oause them to blow lip?" In this attitude Captain Kettle listened to the sermon which was reeled out to him and rather gathered that the project he was exhorted to take part in was In some obscure manner a missionary enterprise promoted solely in the honor and glory of Mr. Theodore Shelf's own particular narrow little deity, and had Mr. Shelf made any appreciable pause between his sonorous periods Kettle would have felt it his respectful duty to slip in a humble • amen." But the dictator of the great shipping firm was too fearful of interruptions from his partner to give any opening for a syllable of comment. As he thought of these things he hugged closer to him the wire haired fox terrier Which sat upon his lap. J'George, old friend," said Mr. Shelf, "ir things do go wrong, I believe you're the only thing living in England which won't turn against mo." "Such things have been known. But it's rather rough on the crew, don't you think?" CHAPTER IV. BIMETALLISM. "Oh, poor fellows, yes. But a sailor's life is always hazardous. Indeed, what can he expect with wages at their present ruinous rate? Shipowners must live." "You're mistaken. I never was in suoh n place in my life, sir. Think of the position I occupy. Why, the thing's absurd." George slid out a red tongue and licked the angle of Mr. Shelf's square chin. Then ho retired within himself again and looked sulky. The door hud opened, and Mrs. Shelf stood on the mat. There was a profound mutual dislike between George and Mrs. Theodore Shelf. It was late In the evening when Patrick Cambel again found himself en tete-a-tete with his host. There had been people in to dinner at the house in Park lane, but these had gone, and Mrs. Shelf and Amy Rivers followed them to parties elsewhere. Mrs. Shelf lad wished to oarry "Now, my good sir, don't play Peter here. I'm not going to give you away. No fear. Why should If It would probably ruin you, and I should stand self convicted of having been In the lowest and most desperate gambling hell in Europe without being made a sixpence richer by the transaction. Only you didn't know me, and you thought I didn't know you, and I fanoied it would be handler if we were open about one another's little ways at once before we went on any further. Who knows but what we might stand In at some profitable business together? Oh, see that! Bad fluke and an eight shot." "Oh, you beauty!" said Patrick Cambel. "I must ask you to refrain from these comments, sir. But, tell me, before I go any further in this confidence, am I to count upon your assistance?" (UK. IH( AM I FRKFACR. turn up tomorrow to arrest mm tor sticslng up a two button mandarin beyond the great wall, nobody would be a bit surprised, or if he were to tell the city this afternoon that he'd a concession for a silver mine in Paraquay which he wished todispose of at reasonable rates we'd take it *ith pleased equanimity. Now, you know, Amy, there's a fearful joy in entertaining a man of that stamp." "It mom to me," said a philosopher once, "that there nre no entirely good men in the world and none oomplotely bad. Single out your best man, and you will find that he lacks perfection in some part of hire, and examine your worst, and you will s«e that he has at least one redeeming quality." In this book the men mostly verge toward bad, but some are better than others. Because they are merely human they act aocording to their lights. Yoq may meet others like them any day if you go out and about, and most of them give extremely good dinners. Till they arc found out yon consider them amusing. Afterward, being better than they, you naturally set tbem down as most pernicious scoundrels and ■bake bands with yourselt and write to your tailor and order more noticeable phylacteries on the next new suit. This Is oalled "keeping up a healthy moral tone" and does agreatde&l of good In the world. The author Scalloway, Shetland Islands, 1804. '••You alone, Theodore? I thought Mr. Cambel was here. However, so much the better. I have wanted to speak with you all the morning. Do turn that nasty dog Cambel also in her train, but that person staid behind by a request which he could not very well refuse. " You will favor me »ery much by remaining here for the rest Df tho evening, Mr. Cambol," Shelf had 6aid in his pompous way. "I havo matters of tha greatest moment I wish to discuss with you." But if Captain Owen Kettle was unversed in the finer niceties of the art of hypocrisy he was a man of angular common sense, and by degrees it dawned upon him that Mr. Shelf's project, when removed of its top dressing of religion, was in its naked self something very different from what he had at first been drawn to believe. As this idea'grew upon him the devo: ional droop faded from, the corners of hie lips, and bis mouth drew toa-hwd. "That depends upon many things. To begin with, there'll have to be modifications before I dabble. I'm not obtrusively squeamish about human life—my own or other people's. On occasion I bagged my man beoauso he had twice shot at me. Still piracy, complicated with what practically amounts to murder, is an art which 1 haven't trafficked in as yet, and, curious to relate, I don't intend to begin. Yoiy: scheme is delicious Id its cold blooded ness, but it would look better if it were toned down a trifle. By the way, better help yourself to a drink. Your nerves are in suoh a joggle that I fancy you'll faint if you don't. I notice there's no blue ribbon on your evening dress. Humph! That's a second mate's nip—four fingers if it's a drop. Apparently you're used to this. By the way, what honorarium do you propose I should take for engineering this piece of rasoality in your favor?" uway." George was not evicted as Mr. Shelf inquired curtly what his wife was pleased to want. She seldom -invaded this business room of his, and when she did it was for a purpose which he was beginning to abhor."Especially when he's as entirely fascinating as Mr. Cambel can be when he chooses. And such a waltzer! But you ■peak as if he were a savage from some back settlement oorne into decent society for the first time. He Isn't that in the least He's a gentleman distinctly." "I hardly know how to begin," Shelf confessed uneasily when they were alone. "Then let me makeja suggestion," said Cambel, with if" laugh. "Come to the point at once. Let's have tho plot without any introductory chapters. You've told mo you've got a scheme on hand for turning my discovery into currency, and you've rather hinted It's a dirty scheme. The only question is how dirty. Thanks to pressure of circumstances, I'm not an overparticular person. But on points I'm very squeamish, or, in other words, I draw the line somewhere. Unless I'm vory vastly mistuken, your nl(in will involve one in downright knavery, which is a thing all sensible men avoid if possible. Now, In my ignorance I fancied the find might h«n turned to account without climbing down to that." She oame to the point at once by hanging him a letter which was mostly in copper plato. He read It through with brief, sour comment. straight line soaroely to be distinguished among the curving bristles of hair which surrounded it. But he made no interruption and drank in every word till the speaker had delivered the whole of his say. Then he uttered his decision. Mr. Theodore Shelf stood before theflreplaoe and drew a handkerchief across his forehead with trembling fingers. "Beg your pandon. That's clear sighted enough and should work correctly. But I fancy my other objection is better founded. What in the name of plague did you go and economize overinsuranoe for? Why didn't you get the stuff underwritten slap up to the strongroom of the bank?" " My dear girl, I never meant to suggest that be was not. There's no particular secret about his raising. He comes of a good west oounty family, was an Eton boy and played In their eleven, went through Cambridge and afterward found a berth In the diplomatic service. Then by way of variety he got engaged to be married to a girl who jilted him, on the strength of which he began to run wild. He started on six months' leave for a trip into Tibet, but he staid beyond the limits of the postal system for two years and a half, and when he got back to England the diplomatic corps found that they oould get on very well without him. So he continued bis rambles. He doesn't seem able to settle down." "What business did you refer to?" he asked at length. '•H'm! Bank! Your private account overdrawn. That's the third time this year, Laura. Warning seems to be no use. You are determined to know what ruiii tastes like." "None whatever. I'm not a business man. I make discoveries and don't know how to use them. You're a business man and may be able to see where the money profit comes in. If you ean, why, then We'll share the plunder. If you can't, we're neither of us worse off than before." "So, gentlemen, you are standing in partners over this precious business? And because you know me to be a poor, broke man, with a wife and family, you naturally think you can buy me to work for you off the straight. Well, perhaps that's possible, but there are two ways of doing it, and of the two I like Mr. Gambol's best. When a man's a blackguard, it don't make him swallow any the sweeter for setting up to tie a little tin saint. And I don't mind who I say that to." "Buin, pshaw! You don't put me off with that silly tale. To begin with, I don't believe it for an Instant, and even if it were true I'd rather tie ruined than retrench. You and I can afford to bo candid between ourselves, Theodore. You know perfectly well that we have gained our position in society purely and solely by purchase." * "To save £500. If you aren't going put the midjjle of the Mexican gulf, what la the use of wasting money by insuring furtkert" * "Five hundred pounds in a deal at £500,0001 A mere sAiw In a cartload!" "That, my dear Mr. Cambel, is buslnesa. As I often assure my young frlenda commencing life, If one takes care of the pennies, the pounds take care of themselves. It Is by looking after what you are pleased to consider trivial sums like these that the firm of Marmaduke Rivera & Shelf has risen to its present eminence." "But this is vague. What sort of disooverles? Have you found a mine?" '•I will give you £500." ''Now, would you really? Not even guineas?" CHAPTER I. "No, sir, In thepresent Instance a channel.""Mr. Cambel, I'll make it a thousand, There!" "You appear to know a good deal about this mdn." THE ANTECEDENTS OF PATRICK CAMBEL. "A channel? I don't take you." "When it suits my purpose," returned Cambel dryly, "I mostly oontrlveto know something about anybody. However, it's no use discussing the poor beggar any longer. What's amiss with having him in here?" "He has," said Fairfax, "a genial insolence of manner which seems rather taking with some ifeople. But I confess I shouldn't have thought him the man you would have cared to see twice, Amy." "A deep water channel leading up to a ooast and in beyond it, where everybody else supposes there is nothing but shallow water. The government charts put down the place as partly unsurvcyed, but all impossible for navigation. The upgrowth of coral, they say, is turning part of the sea into dry land. In a large measure this is true, but at one point, which I have discovered, a river conies down from the interior, and the scour of this river has cut a deep narrow channel out through the reefs to the deep sea water beyond." "To my cost I do know it. But, having paid your entrance fee at loast eight timet) over, I think you might be content with an ordinary subscription. That ball last night (or instance"— "Oh," sold Shelf eagerly, "then you had a scheme in your head before you came to me?" "Mr. Theodore Shelf, when a monkey wants a oat to pull chestnuts for him out of the fire, he first has to be stronger than the cat. You don't occupy that enviable position. In fact, I have the whiphand of you in every way. We need not particularise, but you can sum the items for yourself. Now, I'll make you an offer— half of all the plunder and entire control of everything." "My good man," snarled Shelf, "doyou mean to threaten me?" The other shrugged his shouldors and lit a cigar. "No, I don't I just gave you my own opinion, as from man toman, just because I respect myself. But I'm not going round to your chapel to shout it out to them that sit under you Sundays. They wouldn't believe me if J did, not now at any rate. Besides it wouldn't do me any good, and I couldn't afford it. I'm a needy man, Mr. Shelf, as you have guessed, and that's why I'm going to accept your offer. But don't lot us have any misunderstanding between ourselves as to what it foots up to. "That's because be oan't forget the girl who threw him over," exclaimed Miss Rivers. "How awfully romantic! I wonder who she was. She couldn't have been anybody nioe, or she wouldn't have done it, because he's a regular dear. And fancy his remembering ber all this time. I just love him for it." "You're prejudiced obviously, and I've • good mind to say maliciously prejudiced. I don't know bow muoh you saw of him, because I oan't be Invited to a Wanderers' club dinner. You don't know bow much I saw of him because you missed some distant train and didn't oome here to the ball last night. But I'll tell you. I saw all I oould. He's perfectly and entirely charming He's been everywhere, done everything, and he isn't a bit blase." "Was necessary. And I couldn't afford to do the thing otherwise than gorgeously.""Just a dim outline—nothing more. Yon see the Interior of the Everglades is absolutely untouched by the white man's weapons. It was vaguely supposed to be one vast Jake, with oases of slime and mangroves. The lake was reported as too shallow for boats and abounding with fevers, agues and mosquitoes. Consequently it remained unexplored, and on the end of the Florida peninsula today no white man, barring myself and one or two others, has ever got farther thau five or eight miles in from the coast. Shelf touched ODe of the electric buttons which studded the edge of his table, and a clerk nppeared, who went away again and shortly returned. With faiin was a shriveled up little man of about 40, with a red head and a peaked red beard, who made a stiff, nervous salaam to Mr. Theodore Shelf and then turned to stare at Cambel with puckered amazement. Cambel nodded and laughed. "Been carrying any more pilgrims from Port Said to the Morocco coast on iron decks?" he said. "I never did that," snapped Captain "Oh, windl" retorted Cambel. "Don't tell me." "Gorgeously! Do you think I'm Croesus, Lourd, to pay for gearing one room with rea rote*, ana anotiier room who pinR anu another room with Marshal Nlels for fools to flit In during one short night? This morning's paper informs me that those flowers came by sp«olal express from Nice and cost *500." "My God, do you want to ruin me?" " Well, If you will have It, the eminenoe appears to be uncommon tottery, and because of your infernal meanness you're doing your best to bring it over. It's just trifles like this that tell. Consider what'll happen after the catastrophe. There'll be an inquiry that'll lay everything bare down to the very bed plates. Do you think they won't jump on thia point at once? The stuff's fully Insured up to New Orleans. It isn't Insured on the levee and in the streets where tha thefts are notorious. Doesn't this drop an Instantaneous hint that it was never In* tended to get so far?" "Strl" exclaimed Shelf. ''I don't oare in the least if I do. Your welfare doesn't Interest me. My services are on the market with a prix fixe. You can take 'em or leave 'em. That's final." "Some fellows," remarked Fairfax ju diciously, "would get jealous if the girl they were going to marry talked about another man this way." "In confidence, oould you toll me where this place is?" "In confidence, I'll tell you it Is on the west coast of Florida—on the Mexican gulf coast. The interior of southern Florida is called the Everglades. It's partly lake, partly swamp, built up of many groves, saw grass, cypress trees and water, tenanted by snakes, alligators, wild beasts and a few Seminole Indians. Only one expedition of whites lias been across It—or rather only one exepdition known to history. But I've been there, right Into the heart of the Everglades—in fact, I've just come from there, and I netted £1,000 out of the trip." Shelf burst into a torrent of expostulations, exciting himself more and more as he went on, till at last ho stood before the other, with gripped fists and the veins ridged down his neck, inarticulate with fury. "I heard," said Fairfax, "that Mrs. Shelf was trotting him round last night as the great traveler. Is he of the advertising variety of globe trotter? Did ha sit in a side room and hold a small audience spellbound with a selection from his adventures?"Miss Rivers reassured him first practically and then In word. "You goose, "said she, "If I cared for him In that way, don't you see I shouldn't have spoken about blm to you at allT' "And yet you twit me with extravagance! All the papers have got in that paragraph, as I took care they should, and everybody will read it. Yet the flowers only cost a paltry £800, so that in credit I am £200 to the good, because I have clearly given the ball of the season. Theodore, you are shortsighted. You are a fool to your own profit. By myself I shall make you a baronet this year, and if you had only worked in your own Interests half as hard as 1 have done you could have gone into the house of lords. "What I'm going to sign on for directly, when you hand me the papers, is a spell of piracy on the high seas, neither more nor less. And I'm going to have money all paid down in advance before I ring an engine bell on your blasted tramp of a steamer. I guess that's fair enough. My family'll want something to go on with if I'm caught, and if one's found out at this game It's just a common ordinary hanging matter—yes, sir, swing by the neck till I'm dead as an ax, and may the Lord have mercy on your miserable tag of a soul. That's what this tea party means, and for your dirty £500 you're buying a live hnmni mun " "Now, as I've told you, I was lucky enough to hit upon a fine deep ship channel going in as far as the center line, and I don't know how far behind Inside. There is good, fertile country, a healthy climate and the best game preserve on this earth. For the first coiners that interior will be just a sportsman's paradise. Kettle. Cambel heard him out with a contemptous smile, but when the man had stormed himself into silence then he spoke. . "Ah, one's memory falls at I dare say also you forget a water famine when the condenser broke down, and a' trifling affray with knuckle dusters and' other toys, and a dash of cholera, and nine dead bodies of Hadjis which went overboard? Perhaps, too, you don't remember fudging a clean bill of health and blacksheeshing certain officials of his Shereefian majesty?" Fairfax did not answer directly. Ha kissed ber thoughtfully, and after awhile be said: "I'm not superstitious, dear, as a general thing. Work In a shipping office tends to make one painfully matter of faot. But for all that I wish this fellow Cambel would either marry the queen, or get crushed up In a cab accident, or have himself safely fastened down out of harm's way somewhere. I've got- a foreboding, Amy, that he's going to do a bad turn either to you or to me, which means both of us. I know It's absurd, but I oan't get rid of It." Miss Rivers shrugged ber shoulders. "Not he, but you know what Mrs. Shelf la when she gets any show person at one of ber functions. He had to stand it far awhile because she beld on to him as though be might have been her fan. But he escaped as soon as he deoently oould by saying be wanted to dance. He asked me to give blm the fourth waltz. I did it out of sheer pity beoause I saw Mrs. Shelf's thumbscrews were making him writhe." "When one trades in life and death, the brokerage is heavy. You have heard my offor. If you don't like it, say so without further palaver, and I'll leave you now— with your conscience, if you have a rag of such n commodity loft." "No," said Shelf sourly, that it does." "I don't sea "My Idea is twowise. First sell the cream off the sport. Some men will give anything for shooting, and in this case there will also be the glamour of being pioneers. Each one will start determined to write a book of his opinions and doings when he gets back. By chartering a steamer and treating them well on board they would have sporting de luxe. One ought to get quite five and twenty chaps at 500 guineas apiece. "Then," retorted Cambel, "I differ from you entirely, and as I'm to be tha active agent in this affair and have to take the first and gravest physical risk I do not choose to have my retreat unnecessarily hampered. I must insist upon your recalling Fairfax for additional instructions. That extra Insurance has got to be paid." "Then pay it yourself." "How?"' asked Shelf. "Never mind exactly liow. That's partly another man's business. Shall we say the other man gave me a commission there, and 1 carried it out and got duly paid? Anyway that's sufficient explanation. But what about this channel I've found. If one gives it to the chart people, they'll simply say thank you and publish your name in one number of a professional magazine which nobody reads. I don't banker after fame of that kind. I've the sordid taste to much prefer dollars." "Titles," said Shelf grimly, "for people of our stamp are only given for direct cash outlay In almshouses or picture galleries or political clubs. Before they are bestowed a crown oensor satisfies himself that one's financial position is bruad and absolutely sound. There are reasons connected with those matters which block you further and further from being 'milady' every day." "'You may sit where yon are," replied Shelf sullenly. "No," said Captain Kettle sourly, "I don't remember." CHAPTER VI. "Well and good. That means to say my terms are accepted. I'll pin you to them later. But for the present let mo observe to you something else, so that there may be no misunderstanding between us. I've been rambling up and down the world half my life, and I've met blackguards of most descriptions in every iniquitous plaoe from Cailao to Port Said—forgers, thieves, murderers of nearly every grade of proficiency — but they say that the prime of everything gets to London, and I verily believe now that It does, for, by Jove, you are the most pernicious scoundrel of all the collection." "I'm going to forget it .also, if you'll prove yourself a sensible man and deal amicably with Mr. Sholf and myself. I'm also going to forget that when you were shipping rice for Calcutta in 1882 you rentod mats you called your own to the consignor and made a tidy ponny out of that, and I shall similarly let slip from my memory » trifling squeeze of $800 which you made out of a stevedore in New Orleans before you let him touch yaur ship in the fall of 1887." riVE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS IN GOLD. "8b«ws bow little a man may know about the girl he's engaged to. Now, I bad always Imagined that, having the pick of the men, you invariably wrote down the best danoers and never saddled yourself with a stranger who was a very possible duffer." The little red bearded man had gone, slamming the door noisily behind him. Shelf mopped his large white face with a scented pocket handkerchief "Do you think," he said nervously, "do you think we may trust bim?" "How creepy!" said Amy Rivers. "Bat what nonsense, Hamilton I" "That gives the flr»t crop. For the second buy up an enormous tract of the land, which can be g&t for half nothing— say, 10 or 15 cents an acre—boom it and resell it in lots to Jugginses. They'll fancy they'll grow orangey, as all Englishmen do who try Floridy Perhaps they may grow 'em, who if they keep off whisky and put in work? But that won't be the promoter's concern. They don't advertise that the land will produce oranges. They only guarantee that It would if it was given a chance, and that's all correct. "That's outside the bargain. Working expenses are your contribution to the partnership. And besides, for another thing, 1 couldn't plank down that money if I wished. I haven't it in the world." CHAPTER IL A FORTUNE FOR THE PAIS. Mrs. Shelf shrugged hp shoulders In ut ter unbelief. "Your preaching tendencies cover you like a second skin, Theodore. It seems as if you never drop the conven tide and the pleasure of pointing a moral at one. Believe me, it isn't a paying speculation, this cant of yours. At the most they will only give you a trumpery knighthood for it. But go jour own way and I'll go mine—you shall be made in spite of yourself." "To begin with, we've got to know, whether we like it or not. He's nothing to gain by playing traitor." Amy Rivers laughed. "That's generalising. Bat It was different last night because I am, so to speak, a member of the household hers. A ward counts as a sort of niece, doosn't she, or between that and an adopted daughter? But anyhow It was oat of sheer pity for Mr. Cambel in the first instanoe, and it was with distinct qualms that I let him take me doVrn to danoe. I quite Intended after half a round to say the room was too crowded and go and sit somewhere. That is to say, I made up my mind to do this when he asked me. "However, when I dropped my fingers on his arm to go down stairs, I bad my doubts. You know after two seasons one gots instinctively to know by the first touch how a man will dance. And when tie pat his arm around me and we moved to the muaio 1 felt like going on forever. Waltslng is bard just now because it's in • transition state between two styles, but Us dancing was something to dream ftboat. We started off with the newest qnlok waits. Hamilton, it was just lovely. He was so perfect that just for experiment I altered my step—hy degrees, you know. Automatically, without anything being seen, be changed, too, and we were Mr. Theodore Shelf's carriage and pair drew up at his bouse In Park lane, and Mr. Theodore Shelf went up the steps and entered the door wbicb a manservant opened for him. He was a stoat, middle aged man, with a clean shaven faoe and a short frock ooat of black broadcloth. He allowed himself to be eased of his hat and umbrella and then passed through the gorgeous hall to the rosewood billiard room at the back. There he found his guest, Mr. Patrick Cambel, in shirt sloeves, practicing push cannons by himself. "Mr. Cambel, I believe you. Will yon extend tho same courtesy to me when I tell you that if I were to attempt raising ever such a trivial sum as £500 today It would precipitate me into bankruptcy tomorrow."Shelf strode forward and seized Cambel by the arm. ''If your channel and your everglades will answer a purpose I want, there's half a million of English sovereigns to be made out of it." "But would he betray us in case of auooess?""You can't make anything out of those," said Kettle. "They're the ordinary customs of the trade." "Perhaps," said Camhel, "he won't have the chance. Other hands on that steamer will have to share the secret in whole or in part. „ Perhaps they won't all of them com# through it alive. If you remember that we are plotting deliberate piracy on the high seas, you will recognize that there is precedent for a considerable percentage of casualties." "Five hundred thousand pounds! Phew!" "Sir," thundered Shelf, "am I to listen to these foul insults in my own house?" "Ship masters' perquisites for which owners pay. Exactly. I know skippers consider these trifles to be lawful right, but a court of law might tie ignorant enough to set them down as robbery." "Whewl Are yon nipped as badly aa all that?" "Hush! There's somebody coming. But Cb a iooo una u you ere not airaid ot u little rKk." "Oh, I quite understand the obligations of bread and salt, but you are beyond the pale of that. You are a noxious beast who ought to be stamped out. But you oan be UBelul to me, so I shall hire myself out to be useful to you. But I have brought these unpleasant facts under your notice to let you thoroughly understand that I have summed you up from horns to hoofs, and to point out to you that I wouldn't give a piastre for your most sacred word of honor. We shall be bound to one another in this precious scheme by community of Interests alone, and if you can swindle me you may. Only look out for the consequences if you do try it on. I never yet left a score unpaid." "I MTve a remorseless drain on me which drinks up the profits of this business like a great sponge. It is a domestic drain, and I cannot resist it." Mrs. Shelf noticed that at this point her husband's eyes were beginning to glow with dull fury. She objected to scenes, and dropping the subject reverted once more to her present needs. "Perhaps this is rough on the Jugginses, but as they crowd tbe British islands In droves, and are always on the lookout for some one to shear them, I don't see why an Everglades company shouldn't have their fleeces as well as anybody else. They're mostly wasters and wouldn't do any good anywhere, and It's • patriotic deed to cart thom over our boundary ditch awny from local mischief. Besides, even if the worst comes to the worst and the orange industry of Florida still refuses to make headway, the would be growers needn't starve. Nor noed «hey even do what they'll probably hate more, and that's work. There's always sweet potatoes and mullet and tobacco to be got, and, if that diet doesn't cloy, a man can have it there for mighty little exertion. "I fear nothing on this earlh," Raid Cambel, "when It's to my interest not to fear. Moreover, though I'm not a saint, my standard of morality Is probably a shade higher than yours. I don't mind doing some sorts of dirty things, but them are shades In dirtiness, and at some tint.-* I draw the line. It's dangerous to—er— have the tips of these cues glneCl on so badly. They fly off and hit people." "I should like to know where've you got all these things from," Captain Kettle r.emnnded, faC lug Cambel with his lean, scraggy neck thrust forth nearly a foot from its stepping. "I should liketoknow, too, howyou're-here? I'd a fancy you were dead." "You poor devil," said Cambel, with the first scrap of sympathy be had yet shown to his partner. "I believe I understand, and it tones down your dingy color. You aren't quite all black. I believe by your own painting you're among a moderate sort of gray. And if I've been beastly rude and hard with you, because I've considered you a soapy scoundrel playing entirely for your own hand, I'll apologize to you. That isn't in the least polite, but I think it's plain, and perhape we shall get on together better now. But about this bankruptcy. It'll be rather a mess if you go smash before our Florida operation realizes its profits. It will thloken the inquiry down to a very unpleasant keenness. "What, alone, Mr. Cambel?" The city man shuddered. Through the double windows came the sullen roar of a London street, and in imagination he seemed to distinguish the howl of the crowd joined in execration against him. "Why, yes. I did have a hundred up with your niece earlier on, but some one same for ber." "However, let us drop this wrangle and come to business. I wish you to see to that impertinent circular from the bank. I have several checks out and unpresentcd. I absolutely must draw others today for trifles which will add up to about • thousand. You must see that they are honored. It Is all your own fault, this trumpery worry about nothings. You should not try to screw me down to such a nigganlly allowance." • "Niece? Oh, Amy, you mean—Miss Rivers. Ah, my dear sir, from the love we have for her in this household and the way we treat her,you naturally fancy she is a blood relation. It is a graceful compliment for you to pay, Mr. Cambel, but it is my duty to correct yoa. Miss Rivers Is legally only my ward." "Other people have labored under that Impression. But I've an awkward knack of keeping alive. You've the same. The faculty may prove useful to us both in the course of the next month if you're not ass enough to refuse £500." His eye fell upon a paper on the desk. It was the formal notice from her bankers that bis wife's account was heavily overdrawn. He lifted the paper and tore it with his teeth, then smote the table so that geysers flow from the ink wells. But his pussion found no outlet in words. He spoke In his platform voice and said nothing about the prime compelling force. The billiard room door had opened, and Amy Rivers had come in, with Fairfax at her heels, whence Combel's digression. The matter had not been put in so many words, but he felt sure that the commission of a great robbery had been proposed to him, and ho had more than half a mind to drive his knuckles into Theodore Shelf's lying, hypocritical face there and then on the spot. "Ho! That's the game we've got about, is it? What old wind jammer do you want me to lose now?" "Ward, ohl See that' Red hard against the cushion and white being over the bottom pooket. Neat cannon, wasn't it, considering the long time since I've handled k cue?" Shelf stood up, and the dog on his lap leaped hurriedly to the ground, growling. "Woman," he said passionately, "if you won't believe me, if you will go on in this mad extravagance, you will soon learn for yourself that I am not lying, perhaps very soon—perhaps tomorrow. When a shameful bankruptcy does come, then you can play your hand as you please. I shall not be here to hinder you any longer. Whero I shall go to, how I shall lead my new life, who will be my partner, are matters which you will be allowed no "We're Arcades ambo, rascals both, only we're different varieties of rascal. I know you pretty thoroughly, and if you don't know me as well possibly you will before we've done with one another. "Sir!" thundered Shelf, lifting his voice for the first time. "This is pretty language. I would have you remember that Dut a short time ago you were In my employ."'•We will not talk of these unpleasant details, if you please, Mr. Cambel. I—my heart is weak, I think, and they turn me sick. But, at whatever cost, we must go through with the affair. It is necessary that I make a heavy coup within the next month, or the consequences may be disastrous.""The only ohild of my late partner. You know the firm still stands as Mannaduke Rivers & Shelf. We call ourselves on the billheads, 'Agents to the Oceanlo Steam Transport company,' though of course we really own the whole line. You see our flag, sir, in every sea." "I know. Nagasaki to Buenos Ayres; gin and gospel on the west coast; coals and cotton at New Orleans." "Come, now. That's the pemmlcan of the plan. What do you think of it?" "And now, if it please you, we'll go into the minuter details of this piece of villainy and sketch out definitely how we are to steal this half a million in specie and this valuable steamer without committing more murder than is absolutely essential to success." "Much capital would be needed." "I think I shall keep on my feet, Mr. Cambel. I trust, I pray, I shall, and, moreover, I thank you for what you have said. I do confess that your manner of speech has wounded me much at times." CHAPTER III. REQUIREMENTS OF MR. SHELF. Cambel shrugged his shoulders. "Some, naturally, or I shouldn't have oome to you. If I'd seem any way to pouching all the plunder single handed, you may bet your little life, Mr. Theodore Shelf, I shouldn't have invited you Into partnership." uAnd a fat lot of good it did me," retorted the sailor. "But," he added, with the sudden recollection that it is never wise of a master mariner to irritate any shipowner, "but, sir, I wasn't talking to you. I fancied it was Mr. Cambel here who was wanting to deal with me." Mr. Theodore Shelf wanted to drag Cambel off there and then to his own business room on the first floor to discuss further this great project which he bad in his head, but Cambel thought fit to remain where he was. Mr. Shelf nodded significantly toward the newcomers, as much as to hint that a third person with them would be distinctly an inconvenient third. Cambel turned to them, cue in hand, and proposed a game of snooker. "Marmaduke Rivera & Shelf will go down? Quite bo. I also am at the end of my cash balance, so that money seems to be the impelling power for each of us. And, after all, I suppose it's natural. Out of fiction men don't gamble with their necks for the sheer amusement of the thing. They either do £t for the love of place, or tho love of woman, or the love of gold, and of the three the last is the best prize to win, because with it you can buy the others. But come, now, wake up, sir, and let's get on with the business. I'm not so sweet on this city atmosphere of yours that I care to spend another morning down here if it can be avoided. How are you going to raise the speolef" "Oh, as to that," returned Cambel, "I say 'spade' when I mean it, and 1 don't care to mix religion with theft when I'm talking with a coconspirator. But I fancy we understand one another more comfortably now, and I'll leave you to make the rest of the arrangements here in London. This afternoon I'll pick up Kettle and run down to Liverpool and get things in hand there. They'll require care. To begin with, there's a suitable armament to be smuggled on board without advertisement. And there are the nefarious preparations to be made. Piracy on the high seas is not a thing to be undertaken lightly nowadays. Nor is murder!" "Returns, too, would be very slow." CHAPTER V. "Not necessarily. Float the oompany and then turn it over to another company for cash down." THK TEMPTING OF CAPTAIN OWEN KETTLE. "Then your fancy carried you astray, captain," said Shelf. "Come, come, don't let us get angry with one another. As I repeatedly impress on all who come In contact with me, there is never any good born out of words voiced in anger. Mr. Cambel has seen fit to mention a few of your—shall I suy—eccentricities, just to show—er—that we underetaltd one another.""And we do not send our steamers for the businessTDf trade alone, Mr. Cambel. We pick our captains and officers with an eye to a boiler purpose. We trust that they spread a Christian Influence in all their ports of call." "If one might judge from the lacquered majesty of your office appointments," said Patrick Cambel, taking one of the big chairs in Shelf's inner sanoti.in, "your firm Is doing a roaring fine business." "Moreovef, when the—er—tbe young men you spoke about found that the orange groves did not produce at onoe in paying quantities, they would write home, and their parents would denounoe me In the papers as a swindler." "Yes, I saw them at work once at Axlm on a tramp you sent down there. They were taking Kroobovs on boned The skipper feoeivut. D..» - j ... . D bi. deck ladders with a knuckle duster and kicked 'em along. The chief stood by with a monkey wrenoh and baptised 'em with that as they passed down the lower deck aft. They mentioned .it the time that thiD4 prooess bad a rarely christianizing influence. Prevented the boys from being uppish. Showed 'em what the white man oould do when he spread himself, taught 'em humility, In fact—I say, there's a poll.toward this bottom pocket. People have been sitting on the table." "That's precisely what we came up for," said Amy Rivers promptly. "Hamilton, get out the balls. Mr. Cambel, will you put the billiard balls away, so that they don't get mixed?" Mr. Theodore Shelf seated himself before his desk and began sorting out some papers. "The turnover," he said evasively, "Is enormous. Our operations are most ►xtensive." "No, not you, tho other company—the one you 6old it to. But then apologists would arise to show that the Jugginses— don't shy at the word, sir—ware lazy and Ignorant, and also that they abaorbod the corn whisky of the country in exoossive quantities. And then that oompany could smile smugly and pose as a misunderstood benefactor. So its profits wouldn't be smirched in the least. Grasp that?" "Yes, yes, I dare say you have worked it all out to yourself and thought out tho details so many times that the wholo scheme seems entirely plausible. But, looking at it from the vlow of a business man, 1 cannot say that it appears to be an enterprise I should care to embark in. You see, it is so very much beyond tho scope of my general operations that I—e.- —hesitate—er—you understand I hesitate"—They played and talked merrily. Their conversation turned on the wretched show at the recent Academy, which they agreed was a disgrace to a civilized country, and Cambel made himself interesting over the art of painting in Paiis, mural, facial and on canvas. When ho chose, he could be very Interesting, this man London had nicknamed the great traveler, and he generally chose, not being ill natured. "Extensive and peculiar," commented Cambel. "To show he's got his knife in me, Mr Shelf, and can wraggle it if he chooses." "What a fractious pepper box it Is," said Cambel, with a laugh. ''Man, dear, if I've got to be shipmates with you for a solid month, d'ye think I'd put your back more up titan's necessary? If you remember me at all, you must know I'm the "Oh, my God!" cried Shelf. "Don't speak of these horrors." "You gQoae," mid. »hc. "But I rogret to say that during the last 18 months the firm's profits have seriously decreased and the scope of its operations been much hampered. I take credit to myself that this diminution could have been prevented by no action on my part It Is entirely the outcome of the times—the lazy greed of the working .classes, fomented by the frotliings of paid agitators. The series of strikes which we have had to contend against is unprecedented." "I'll proceed about it at once," said Shelf, pressing another of the  his desk. " You may as well witness every step of the process.'' dancing the old slow glide before I knew. And his steering was perfect. In that whirling, teeming, tangled mob be never bumped me mice. I gave him two more legal waltzes and eut another couple in his laror." "I speak of them," replied Cambel grimly, "because it is right that you should understand what will probably be done. I don't intend to redden my fingers if It can be pvoided, but as 1 put my neck in jeopardy, failure or no failure, I naturally don't Intend to hesitate at any action which will bring unqualified success. In answer to the bell Fairfax came into the room, nodded rather stiffly to Cambel and turned to Shelf with an expectant "Yes, sir." • in terse businesslike phrase his prinoi pal touched upon the silver crisis in America and the gold famine in the southern states. Then be explained the external view of his projected enterprise. "The PoYt Edes," he said, "is in the Hereulaneum dock, returned on our hands today. Wire Liverpool at once asking for freights to Norfolk, Va.; Pensaoola, Fla.; Mobile, Ala., or New Orleans at lowest rates. New Orleans is her final port, and offer that at 15 per cent less. Captain Owen Kettle will be in command, and be sails In four days from now. "Which raakeaflreIn all,"saidFairfax rather stiffly. Mr. Theodore Shelf left the billiard room with a feeling beneath his waistcoat much akin to seasickness. First of all that plain spoken Patrick Cambel had not overpolitely hinted that ho was a canting hypocrite and had showed cause for arriving at this conclusion. This was true, but that didn't make IX any the more digestive. And, secondly, he himself in a moment of excitement hud let drop to this same pernicious Cambel (who, after all, was a comparative stranger) a proposal to make the sum of £500,000 at one coup. True, he had not mentioned the means, but Cambel had at once concluded it was to be gained by robbery, and he, Theodore Shelf, had not denied the impeachment. "Only understand fully, Mr. Theodore Shelf, that piracy you are already an aotive sharer in, and if there's murder done to boot you will be as guilty as the worst, even though you sit here in your snug London offices while other rougher men are handling pistol and knife in the gulf or in a Florida mangrove swamp." Amy Rivers took his hand and patted It. "Don't be cross, dear. You know how I love a good dance, and one doesn't meetapartner like Mr. Cambel every day. 1 suppose he's done his waltzing in Vienna and Paris and Yorkshire and New Orleans as well as here In London, and by averaging them all up hecan't help but be good." "Mr. Cambel, Mr. Cambel, yon are making a very aerious accusation against one of my ships' companies." "Is it? Well, I don't know. There have been labor bothers all down through history, and I fancy they'll oontlnue to tho end of time. If you'll recollect, there was a certain Egyptian king who onoe had troubles with his bricklayers, and I fancy there have been similar difficulties trotting through the centuries in pretty quick succession ever sinoe Of course each man thinks his own employees the most unreasonable and grasping that have evor uttered opinion since the record began. That's only natural, but I might point out to you that in definite results you aren't in the worst box yet. Your chariot hasn't been upset in the Red sea so far, and it may be that a certain operation in the Mexican gulf will piece up the wheels and set it running on triumphantly. Grumble if you like, Mr. Shelf, but don't make yourself out to bo the worst used man in history. Pharaoh hadn't half your opportunities." "Accusation? II Never a bit of it. The fellows only acted according to their lights. That's the only way sailormen know of getting Krooboys to work, and it was a case of getting them to work or having the natural saok from you. And so as they didn't know another method they fell back on knuckle duster and monkey wrenoh. I'll play you 60 up." a look of forced contempt. fingers in. So long as things last here 1 shall observe all the conventionalities, and if you appreciate those you will find it wise to reconsider your present ways. I tell you candidly that If tbe firm does go down not only England, but half the world will ring with Its transactions. Marmaduke Rivers & Shelf," ho went on, with scowling fury, "were honest, prosperous tradesmen once, before their ways were fouled to find moDey for your cursed ambition." She drew herself up and stared him with "Yes," said Patrick Cambel quietly, "you hesitate because you've got something ten times more profitable up your sleeve." To be Continued. "Is It from going to those places that Mrs. Shelf called him the great traveler?" A Fortune "Of course not. Hnmilton, how stupid you are about him! Why, he's rummaged about In every back corner of the world, •o they say." Shelf started and shivered slightly. " You may as well be candid and open with me," Cambel continued, "and tell me what you are driving at. If it suits me, I'll say so, and if it doesn't I'll let you know with surprising promptness. And, again, if we don't trade,'you may rely on me not to gossip about what you suggest. I'm not the stone throwing variety of animal. You see, I live in a sort of semigreenhouse myself." [« within reach of young people who go to Wood's Baetneee C Dllege, Scran ton. Oar 'erms are lower than at acme colleges having fewer students, bnt our faculty Is an 'h larger and onr oonrse of study more variad «nd thorongb. The new president for leveofsen years taught, lectured on law tnd elvlos, and has written bnsinees colteg« text books now In use all over the jountry fie baa educated sooree of business college teachers, and 10 000 young oeople for business. Be was sent to Prance as Ualted States Oonsnl for four years, and now teaches and lectures days «nd evenings at S nan ton. The oollege Has now 665 students and last year located '334 of its students in good paying situations. In thorough work and in aid to •tadents, it Is the leadlrg business oollege of Pennsylvania Setld for illustrated journal O. F. William*, President. Mr. Shelf pat up a large white hand. "No, no, I don't plaj billiards myself. So many young men have been ruined by the pursuit that I refrain from it by way of setting any example. But my friends who visit here are not so scrupulous, and I have the table for them." "When you have deputed your clerks to (Jo this, go yourself to the bank and negotiate for half a million in gold to be delivered on board the Port Edes in dock. The Insurance policy on the money will be de posited with tke bank to secure them in full for the loan itself, and for their other charges the credit of the house will easily suffice. That clearf" "So they say, yes. Teheran to Timbuktu. But what does he say himself about bis wanderings beyond the tram lines? Shuffles mostly, doesn't he? And who's met him anywhere? Not a soul who will oome forward to speak. I tell you, Amy, there's something uncanny about this Patrick Cambel. He turns up here periodically In London after some vague exploring trip to a place which isn't mapped, and von can never pin blm to tell exactly "where he's been. He coines with money, spends It en prlnoe and tftn goes oil again, nominally perhaps to the Gobi desert, and returns with another cargo." Consequently Mr. Shelf went direct to his own room, locked the door and fortified his nerves with a liberal two fingers of brandy. Then ho munched a coffee bean in to the blue ribbon on his coat lapel, replaced the cognac botth In the inner drawer of his inner safe and sat down to think. "Bea-utlful!" said Cambel. He might bave been referring to bis own billiard ■hot or to Mr. Shelf's improving sentimentThere was a new look on the clean shaven face which she had never seen before and an evil glint in the eyes whloh scared her. Irresolutely she moved toward the door and put her Augers upon the handle. Then she drew herself up and stared him up and down with a look of forced contempt. "You will be good enough," she said coldly, ''to attend to the business which brought me here. I am going now to draw the checks I spoke about." "Ho! 'lltat's the game, Is itt" deuce of a stickler for my own personal comfort and convenience. You can bet I haven't been tnlking at you through gratuitous cruelty. But Mr. Shelf and I have got n yarn to bring out directly, which is a bit of a coarse, tough fibered yarn, and we didn't want you to give it a top dressing of varnish. So, by way of safeguard, I pointed out to you that if wo show outselves to be sinners you needn't sing out that you find yourself In evil company for the first time." "Perfectly," said Fairfax, "but I should like to remind you of one thing—wharf thefts at New Orleans are notorious, and you'll have to pay heavily to insure against them." "Too see, Mr. Cambel, from my position, so many people look up to me that it is nothing short of my bounden duty to deprive myself of certain things and be, so far as possible, a humble model for tbem to form themselves by. Long before a constituency sent me to parliament I devoted my best energies to christianizing the lower classes, and I hope not without sucoese. If appreciation Is any criterion, I may say that I was elected president of do lees than 13 improvement societies. It took me much time and thought to attend to them. Yet I wish I could have giveD more " '•That pocket does pull. There's a regular tram line toward it. H'ml Mighty good work of yours. But doesn't it sour on you sometimes? Don't you want a day off occasionally? A run down to Monte Carlo, for instance?" If only he had understood Cambel, and,, better still, knew whether he might trust him I There was a fortune to be bad. Yes. a fortune. And it wits wanted badly. The great firm of Marniaduke Hi vers & Shelf, which called Itself "Agents to the Oceanic Steam Transport company," but whicli really ran the line of steamers which traded under the flag, might work prosperous to the outer eye and might still rear its head haughtily among the first shipping firms of London port. But the man who bragged aloud that he owned it all, from offices to engine oil, knew otherwise. He bad mortgages out in every direction, mortgages so cunningly hidden that only ho himself was aware of their vast total. He knew that the firm was rotten, lock, stock and barrel. He knew that through any one of 20 channels a breakup might come any day, and following on the heels of that, a smash which would be none the pleasanter because from its size and devastating effects it would live down into history.There was a minute's pause, during which Theodore Shelf shifted about a* though his chair was uneven rock beneath him. Then he jerked out his tale sentenoe by sentence, squint ng sideways at bla companion between each period. "Yes, yes," said Shelf, who didn't relish this kind of conversation, "but we will como to business, if you please." "I know, more heavily than for risks across the ooean and the run of the river. Underwriters are justly nervous about those all nation thieves. But in this instance I propose to save myself that fee and insure in a different way. Mr. Cainbel is going out on the Port Edes expressly as my representative, and I faiyjy that he and the captain together will be capable of seeing to safe delivery. The ship's ar rival will be reported by telegraph from the pass at Mississippi mouth, and my New Orleans agent can calculate her appearance alongside the to a quarter of an hour. He will meet her with vehicles and a strong escort of deputy sheriffs as she brings in to her berth and take the specie boxes off by tbo first gangway which is put ashore, and carry thorn straight to a bank. Does this strike you as a sound course?" "KItfht you are. Let's finish floating the swindle." "You know, I'm a shipowner Id a large way of business?" "How romantic!" said Miss Rivers. Shelf looked at her very curiously. "Go," he'said, "and do as you please. You are a determined woman, and because I am determined myself I admire your strength of will; but, for all that, I think I shall murder you before I leave England."Cambel nodded. "Mr. Cambel," exclaimed theother passionately, '• will you never learn to moderate your language? There area hundred clerks within a hundred feet of you through that door, and sometimes even walls can listen and repeat. Besides 1 object altogether M your phraseology. Wo engage id no such things as swindles in the city. Our operations are all commercial enterprise." "Yes, isn't it?" sr.ld her fiance dryly. * "If he'd lived a century earlier, one would "Ships are occasionally lost at wa— steamers, even new steamers, straight ofl the builders' slip and well found In every particular." Mr. Theodore Shelf had been shuffling his feet uneasily for some time. Cambel's method of speech jarred him to the vergo of profanity. His own saintliness was a garb which he never threw entirely away at any moment His voice had always the oily drone of the conventicle. His smug hypocrisy was a perennial source of pride and comfort to him, without whloh ho would have felt very lonely and abandoned. Fn* Pills. have said he'd got a sound business con-0 section as a pirate somewhere West Indies way. As this year is 18U3 and that explanation's barred, one simply lias to accept him as an uncomfortable mystery." "Hamilton, how absurd youarel Wher- Send yonr address to fi. E. Bucklen & Co., Chicago, and get a free sample of Dr. King's New Life Pills. ▲ trial will oonvlnoe you of their merits These pills are easy in action and are particularly effective in the cure of constlpi'lon and sick headi he. For malaria and liver troubles they tave Dean pr Dved Invaluable. Tbey are Cu«ranteed to be perfectly free from every inleterloQs substwoe acd to be purely vegetable. They do not weaken by their *attont bat by giving tone to st mtoh and bowela greatly invigorate the system. Regular sCeD per box. Sold at the drag stores of G. D Strob, Weet Plttston, and W. 0. Price, Plttston. "So I've read In the newspapers." Mrs. Shelf laughed derisively, but with pale lips, and then she opened the door. The dog advanced toward her slowly, stiff legged, muttering. "And every shipowner insures his vessels to the full of their value." "Except when he has a foreboding that they will come to grief on a voyage. Then, so rumor says, he usually has the forethought to overinsure." ever did all this rigmarole oome from?" "Very well," said Cambel, shrugging his shoulders, •'don't, let's squabble over it. You call your* spado what you like, only I reserve ft right to slap 011 a plainer brand. We're built differently, Mr. Shelf. I prefer to lie honest in my dishonesty. And now, as I've said, let's, get to birsi ness. You say the charter of this steamer of yours, the Port Kdes, has expired and she's back 011 your hands. She's 2,000 tons, built under Lloyds' survey and classed 100 A1. She's well engined and has just been dry docked. She'll insure for every sixpence of her value without comment, and there's nothing more natural than to send out your specie In such a sound bottom. Remains to pick a suitable complement." "From the club and London gossiping „ generally. I suppose we ought to Ge indebted to Cambel for providing us aometbing to talk about." "But tell me, If his antecedents are so queer, liow la It he goes about so much here? He's apparently asked everywhere —at least so Mrs. Shelf says—and he knows "What fine heroics!" she said. "But thanks for seeing after my balance. It is a written thing that I must have that money." Mr. Theodore Shelf passed a handkerchief over his forehead and started what was apparently a now topic: "There 1« a silver crisis on just now In the United States, and bv this mornlna's wiper the uonar is aown at bo cents. American golu Is not to be had. English gold Is always worth Its face value. What more natural financial operation could there be than to ship out sovereigns and profit by the discrepancy?"At this poli\£ he drew the conversation into his own hands. It had been said of him that he always addressed the house of commons as though it were the congregation of his own tin tabernaole, and he preached out his scheme of plunder, violence and other moral uncleanness with similar fervent unction. Cambel was openly amused and once broke out into a mocking laugh. He was never at any pains to conceal his contempt for Mr. Theodore Shelf, which was more honest than judicious on his part. Kettle, 011 the other hand, wore the puckered face of a puzzled man. The combination of cant and orimlnality was not altogether new to ihm. Men of his own profession arc very apt to behave like devils u 111100ted at sea and then grovel in clamorous piety among the pews of some obscure dissenting chapel the moment they get ashore. It is a peculiar trait, but the average sea oaptain believes that he can lav.UD a stock of Are ln- "Monte Carlol You horrify me, Mr. Cambel. You are my guest, and I cannot speak strongly, but this Is a very poor jest of yours." She passod through the door, closing it gently behind her, and Shelf returned to his armchair. "George," he said as the fox terrier stood up against his knee, "if that woman were only struok dead today, there are 2,000 families in England who would rejoice madly If they only knew one-tenth part of what I know. Poor beggars, they have trusted me to the hilt, and she makes me behave to them like a devil. Yes, little dog, she makes me, whether I wish It or not. For this at times I more than hate her. " ¥es," said Fairfax thoughtfully. '*1 see no undue risks. By the way, as the Port Kdes is merely a cargo tramp and doesn't bold a certificate for passengers, I'm afraid the board of trade wouldn't let Mr. Cambel travel by her simply as the firm's representative. But that could be easily overcome." "Well, perhaps you know best about that place. Monte Carlo Is risky at the best of time for some folks, because you're bound to meet crowds of people you know, and if they aren't on the razzle dazzle, too, and pinned to diplomatic silence through their own iniquities some of tbem are apt? to split u hen they get home again. But» I don't know why you should be horrified/ seeing that we are eatre quatre yeux here and not on one of your pious example platforms. You know, you've been In a far hotter shop than M on te Carlo— W atch me pocket that red. Ah, rouge perd—Barcelona to wit. If you remember, you were staying at the Quatro Naoiones, and at nights jou used to croaa the Rhamhln, everybody who's worth Jknowing." Fairfax laughed. "Why doea. London joelety take up with an ex-bushrangor from Australia or a glorified advertising Ho, Theodore Shelf, would assuredly not be Id England to face It Since his commercial barometer hud reached "stormy" and still showed signs of steady descent he had been transmitting carefully "modulated doles to certain South American banks and had even gone so far as to purchase—under a nom d'escroc—a ploturesquely situated hacienda on the upper waters of the Rio Paraguay. Weed a Pretty Mantle f cowboy from the wild, wild west? Simply London society Is extremely parochial and gets desperately bored with its little self undiluted. Now, Cambel «•«—' tans undoubtedly wandered about outside parish, and occasionally he lets drop jljrj, which makes one guess he's seen queerlsh rough and tumbles In IT.Ices where polite society doesn't go, f!*3, ln fact, preserves a good humored ret?27Ve about most of his doings. This people thoughtful and speculative. U V Chinese extradition warrant was to "The new and valuable steamer which, though ovrrlnsured, is likely to be reportrd lost is evidently to have a consignment of specie on board. Five hundred thousand pounds I fancy you mentioned as the figure In the billiard room this morning. Well, If one is going in for robbery—or piracy, I suppose it would turn out to be In this Instance—there's nothing like a large coup. It's yournlggler who usually falls and gets laid by the heels. Drive on, and be a little more explicit."  P. Q. Carpenter 6c Co., Wilkes bar re, show an endless variety, and the prices are lea than yon may expect. Everything In house furnishing hardwares. Colombia bicycles, too. "Oh," said Cambel, "I'll sign on articles in the usual way as one of the ship's company—as fourth mate, say, or doctor with salary of a shilling for the run. 'Tisn't the first time that pleasing Action has been palmed upon a shipping master. It doesn't deceive any one, you know, because the rate of wages gives one away at the outset, but the oountry's mutton headed paternal shipping laws are obeyed, end NO avarvhndv'a nlauad "  "I've got a master waiting here now by appointment. His name's Kettle. I have him to a certain extent under my thumb, and I fancy he'll prove a reliable man. He was once in our Arm's employment" "Owen Kettle, by any chance?" Mr. Shelf referred to a paper on his writing table. There, In case the cyclone broke, the extradition treaties would cease from troubling, and the weary swindler would be at well fed rest. "At timeewhen I clog this ferocious ambition of hers she must almost hate me. Yet I know something about women, and I believe that nearly always she lovea me. It's a curious mixture, Isn't It, George? But It Isn't a comfortable one. D'you know, mi small animal. I wish verv much The beneficent influences of the newly ont pine are oondenaed and refined In Dr. Wood's Norway Pine Syrnp, nature's own remedy (or ooagha and oolds. But Mr. Theodore Shelf bad no lust for this tropical retirement. He liked the nnwrn n* bit Mwiniit nlnnaala In thm nltt | !