Pittston Gazette

              established 1850. ( TOL. XL.IXNu.4S. ) Oldest Newspaper in the Wvomin? Vallev PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY, PA., FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1899. A Weekly Local and Family Journal. I ll.DO m Year : is IdruM. CHAPTER XVI. CAIN LAVKHSHA GOES POACHING. ciare tne in m trim to weatner an Atlantic blow, so we'll make it four bells, doctor and all bands to take their watch below. We shall make an early start tomorrow." then added in a tone which only Dolly could hear: "Confound Henrietta! But we'll try to lose her." ing sea fowl, there was not another living thing in sight. CHAPTER XVIII. THE CAVE OF GREEN LIGHT. "Better traveling, this, Henrietta," exclaimed Guthrie thankfully, "and more to otir heavy friend's taste, I should fancy I Perhaps he's so charmed with it that he has made np bis mind to stay here permanently sooner than toil over those abominable rocks again, or perhaps he's come across an attractive mermaid and fallen in love with her and so taken to a fish diet and a damp bed for the rest of his days." edge of this path were four negroesone with a gun In his hand, which 1m still kept leveled at the two involuntary bathers, the others with theif bands stuck deep into the pockets of their white cotton breeches. None oI the quartet had offered the slightest help while Guthrie and the womu were struggling in the water, and indeed it seemed to the young nun as hi looked a? their faces that they had watched the scene oat quietly in the hope, perhape, that one or both of the bathers would get conveniently drown* ed. Their attitude of contemptuous noninterference suggested this idea irresistibly and the look of disappointment Away out farther was the calm blue water of the lagoon, dotted here and there with points of black and shimmering white, where the reefs cropped out and broke the seas from the outside, and beyond this again was the great sweep of the ocean, unbroken to the horizon. Except where the Eureka's people made patches in the solitude, the place was deserted by man and beast alike. By the time that Dolly and the an- Sergraduate had picked their way ont of the long rock gallery which led to Nick's snuggery it was almost dark, and there was still the better part of an hour's hard scrambling to be done before they could hope to reach the Eureka again. Indeed, the journey took them considerably longer than an hour, for the rocky gullies and thorny knolls which they had to traverse needed careful walking even in the daytime, and now, in the rapidly growing darkness, they were doubly dangerous. Fortunately there was a moon, but moonbeams are not tho most reliable'light in which to go rock climbing, even if one Is quite sure of the track. The undergraduate and the manlike sailor woman started off briskly enough for the roct gully which Dr. Tring had bidden them explore. But very soon the nature of the ground compelled thefii to lessen their pace. CHAPTER XVII. A BLOOD HARKED OAR. But, as ilt proved, the general overhaul of the ketch was not destined to begin on that next day, after all, for in the morning at breakfast Tom Jelly made a statement that gave the whole crew other work to do. The one armed sailor arrived at the foot of the companion with a very embarrassed grin peeping from among the jungle of black hair on his face. He kneaded bis cap nervously in his band and did not seem to be able to speak at all till the captain had twice exclaimed, "Come, out with it, Tom 1" When Guthrie announced to Miss Colepepper his intention of managing to lose Henrietta, he was no doubt perfectly serious, but be reckoned without the sailor woman's natural instinct of faithfulness to the spoken order of her captain. Henrietta had been told to nursery maid the two young people, and, inasmuch as she was a sailor, she stuck grimly to her duty; but, inasmuch as she was at the same time a woman, she had a kindly feeling for the lovers, and therefore trudged stolidly along as far behind them as was consistent with the duty demands of her conscience. And by this compromise she succeeded in the difficult task of carrying out her orders to the satisfaction both of herself and of her charges. The fine beach of coral debris first gave place to rough shingle; then small rocKs Degan to crop out nere ana mere, and then the fore shore grew to be nothing but one huge jumbled tangle of honeycombed stone. They worked their way painfully along about half a mile of this, scrambling and clambering, and then Guthrie had to stop and wipe the perspiration from his brow. "No," retorted Henrietta with a smile, "he wouldn't do that, I'm thinking; he'd be afraid of Zusan Pierce getting to bear of it, you see, sir I" "No sign of the farmer anywhere," pronounced Guthrie at length, after a long and careful scrutiny. By this time they had reached the angle of the cliff and a new prospect opened out before them. Some 20 yards in front lay the entrance of a cave, into which the low swell of the lagoon ran backward and forward unceasingly, with a gentle soughing whisper. The narrow path they were following seemed to run far away np into the cool depths of the cave. Had the farmer gone along it? Yes, for there on the stone were the grobvings from the hobnails and a faint red streak from the copper toe cap. "No." said Dolly, "but there's a thing down there which puzzles me— down on the beach near that big black bowlder. What do yon make of it?" CHAPTER XV. ••ion re tne cleverest gin in au creation, Dolly I" cried the young man enthusiastically.on their faces confirmed the grewsotn# suggestion of the six ostentations!/ pocketed hands. JAIL. At last, with a loud introductory "H'ml" the man began his explanation.Dolly took the bad news quietly enough. She heard what Guthrie had lo tell her about the hopelessness of trying to escape via the roof. Then she remarked philosophically that it could not be helped. They must just discover some other way out "Am I really?" asked Dolly with a demure courtesy. "Well, we'll take that for settled. And now, in the language of the doctor, 'Dry up, and get to work!' " She pointed to the place, about half a mile away, where the gleaming, white fore shore was nearest to them. Guthrie made a telescope of his hands to avoid tbe blinding glare from above, and stared for some time at tbe thing which had attracted Dolly's attention. "Not much use going farther, is there, Henrietta?" said he. "Cain Laversha would never have given himself the trouble of climbing over ground like this. Even the heat of the poaching fever in his blood couldn't work such a miracle." The ketch's riding lamp served as a beacon to lead them in the right direction, and without its help it is most certain that they would more than once have gone very fur astray indeed in their efforts to retrace the path which they had taken in the morning, for in the moonlight the shadows gave deceptive appearances of easy gullies where there were in reality nothing but ugly holes and of gentle slopes which a closer approach showed to be aheer precipices. Every step had to be picked, and carefully picked too. Guthrie shuddered inwardly as thi* conclusion was borne in upon his understanding, but none the leak, with a quick flash of prudence, he determined to disguise his suspicion and put a bold face on the situation. "Why, cap'n, it's that lubber Cain I" And there he fetched up short. "Well?" said the skipper, with a trifle of impatience. "What's the matter with him ? He hasn't been running away; has he?" Age bad rendered Nicholas the First's bedclothes uncommonly brittle, and the manufacture of a rope was a work of time. The sheets were found to serve the purpose best, for they were of linen, doubtless the loot of some luxurious hidalgo. They tore easily into narrow strips, and these the two prisoners plaited and then plaited again into a nine strand cord. But when this was done the rope was still too short. So they had to make out the rest with blankets, and these were by no means so satisfactory. They found the cave in which Nicholas tbe First had established his inhospitable snuggery in exactly the same condition in which they had left it. So it was obvious that the burly farmer hpd not been there. "What the mischief do yon mean by standing qnieuy up mere to watefc two fellow creatures drown before your eyes?" be demanded indignantly. A chuckle ran through the groap, and after a pause of a few ascoads the man with the gun replied. He wn a tall, lean negro, with a face so sallow and fleahleas that it looked almost lilm a skull. However, a pair of boning black eyes, goggling amid perfect laksa of white, showed that he was very considerably alive, and, standing in the eerie green light of the cave in that attitude of menace, he' looked, to his questioner, a sufficiently ugly i minis is to have to tackle. "The question rather is. What are yon doing in our cave?" said he in perfect English and with a parity of aecent which Guthrie bad not si|iiiC ted to hear from a man of his color. "We've missed one of oar ship's company," answered the yoong man. Again the three others, who aaened to act as a sort of chorus to the lean man, indulged in an amused laugh. But the spokesman kept his grim stare unrelaxed "There's no earthly use in oar staying here any longer, you know," she added. "We've discussed Nicholas the First and his doings with the most comprehensive fullness, and as be hasn't left me any legacy worth carrying away I admit that my interest in the sinful old filibuster has quite evaporated Besides, bow long is it since you had your last meal, Alanf" "It looks like an oar," be declared presently. "No, I don't think he'd do it—not willing, that is," returned the woman promptly. "But he might have been forced to do it. Them as left the blood mark on that oar we found might— see here, sir," she broke off. "What's that?" "Why, cap'n," replied Jelly, "I believe you've about hit it. You see, it was this a-ways: Cain and me was ashore with the jolly las' thing las' night, and Cain, he says, 'Tom,' says he, 'I bin a poacher, I bin.' "That's exactly what I thought," replied the girl. "Suppose we go-nearer and make certain." "Run to earth at lastl Cain ahoy I" shouted the undergraduate, as he hurried forward beneath the archway. "Bnt I don't think," pronounced Dolly, "that there's the least likelihood of bis having followed the shore roate at all. There's far too much climbing hereabout to suit his taste. He'd be sure to take the easiest path he could find. So we ought to stand the beat chance of finding him bj following his example and picking oat the smooth bits." So on they trudged again and found that half mile to the shore the worst bit of going they had come across so far. The long echoes of the cave howled the words back to him. She was pointing to a huge gray bowlder in front of her. There were three or four unmistakably new scorings on it, where a hobnailed boot had slipped, straggled to recover and then brought its owner down l$y the ran. Guthrie examined the marks. They were plain reading. The wearer of the boot had stepped on an inch wide ledge. Under his weight the film of stone which formed the substance of the ledge had scaled off clean and sharp like a knife cut. When they reached to within a quarter of a mile of the Eureka, the rest was easy, for they were now upon the sandy, level beach once mora And here they came upon Dr. Tring. " 'Oh I' says I. 'Have you reely now?' "Cain Laversha aho-o-o-o-y I" he repeated." 'A dasprit poacher,' says he, 'afore Znsan Pierce took me in band, and the longing's coming on me again now. If I doan't go poach ttiie night, I's'lbnst.' "It is an oar!" exclaimed Dolly triumphantly, when at last tbey came out on to the open beach. "Breakfast," retained the undergraduate promptly. "About eight boon, isn't itT" "Aho-o-o-o-y I" boomed the stone walls again, but no human voice answered."And look-ee there I" cried Henrietta. "See that blood on the handle of it, scarcely hard yet I This oar's been used by a chap wi' a blister on's hand. Look-ee, the blood chips away when I scratch it with my naiL There's been no rain fallen on this 'ere, and we had rain only two days agone." At last a sufficient length was completed, and the ropemakers tested it fathom by fathom by taking a hitch ronnd a post of the heavy mahogany bedstead and pulling at the length to be tried with all their combined Strength. It stretched, bnt it did not break. Guthrie thought that it would bear the strain of his weight. So, bending the old brass bound pistol butt at one end, he passed the coil up through the hatch and went after it. "Poor cbapl He's mebbe knocked himself senseless and doesn't hear us," suggested Henrietta, as she hurried along the narrow causeway of the cavern."Quite. Well, that's longer than I'm accustomed to. Therefore I'm developing a most nnladylike appetite. Therefore I mean to return to the Eureka to satisfy that same appetite. Therefore, to put the situation tersely, I mean U lea re .Nick's snuggery immediately Q. E. D. I" The doctor was striding along qnickly, a gaunt, black shadow in the moonbeams. At a bail from Gnthrie he ■topped. " 'Surely not,' says I, shifting to wind'ard of him a trifle. " yes,' says he. 'Znsan Pierce not being 'ere, 'tis poach or bust.' " "What do you think, Henrietta ?" asked Guthrie "Gnthrie ahoy I" be cried. "Are you all right V "Well, you see," said the woman, "he told that muddling fool, Tom Jelly, that he was going poaching, and he nat'rally wouldn't expect to find hia game along the coast So most likely he's gone inland." Once the archway at the entrance was passed direct daylight ceased and the cave was filled instead with a curious soft, green glow. The effect was ghastly ; there were fantastic green shapes in stone on all sides; there were greeiy phantomlike fish swimming in the cleat "What's the use of telling us all this rigmarole T" broke in the doctor impatiently."All right it is I** answered the nndergradoate."Oarsdon't grow out of coral sand," pronounced Dolly excitedly, "nor do they drop from the clouds, that I've ever heard, nor do ghosts carry them about, or, if they do, they don't leave freeh blood stains on them I Alan, I think it's allowable to suppose that a boat has been in here, and under the circumstances we might even take it for granted that Cain went off in that boat" "And see," cried Henrietta, "there's the mark where his other toe slipped t There aren't any hobnail scorings there, but there's a shiny red line, made by a copper toe cap!" "Perhaps the others will contrive to find ns," suggested the undergraduate, bat with little enthusiasm. "I'm sure Captain Colepepper and Dr. Tring wiU both do their beet as soon as they know we're missing, and they'll root np halt the island sooner than not find us." "Both of yon?" "With due respect," said the voice of Tom from behind the black jungle, "you'd better hear the whole yarn. Well, I says to him, I says, 'Cain, when'11 you have done?' "Bothof us I" shouted Dolly. "Rather tired and fearfully hungry. That's all. Where's father?" "So you think we'd better strike inland toot" However, they were by no means ont of the wood yet. for to shy the missile with its dangling bnrden of rope over the projecting rungs of the ladder was no easy task. Again and again it missed and came clattering down about the young man's ears. And what with the heat and the dnst he was somewhat out of breath and just about tired of the exercise before the broken pistol butt deigned to effect a lodgment on one of the projecting ladder rungs. Then a good deal of maneuvering was necessary before it could be persuaded to slip down on the other. side. But by cautiously "snaking" the bight which be had in his hand he coaxed it down little by little, till with a vigorous jump he reached it with his fingers and brought both ends of the rope together."Yes, sir and miss, I do," said Mrs. Jelly. "It's our friend Cain's spoor, right enough I" exclaimed Guthrie. "We must push on and find him. Ten to one those lumbering brogues of his have brought him to bad grief over a slippery bowlder somewhere" The doctor shifted his helm and bore down upon them. About a fathom away from them be stopped, fiddled his glass and put it in his eye, and then he crammed both his fists deep into his pockets and stared hard at the truants. He said nothing. His leathery featnrea were screwed up as if be were going to whistle, but no sound came out from between the puckered lips. " 'Sunup,' sayshe, 'sees me standing where us ia now.' They took her advice and struck up into the country, but they found the going very disagreeable, for the ground was for the moet part covered with a dense scrub of clinging bastard palm. Single plants of this growing in flowerpots make graceful enough ornamenta for an English drawing room, no doubt but when they are packed into a thick jungle and fostered by tropical heat they form a most unpleasant medium through which to be compelled to press a way. The stalk of each fan leaf is furnished on either side with sharp hooks, which point down the hill, and these have a way of taking toll from the flesh and wearing apparel of the climber which ia to say the least, irritating.Dolly sat on the edge of the table and swnng a shoe. "Then says I, always being wishful to do the kind to a shipmate, though be be but a cook with the clay still yaller on his heels: 'Here goes, then, for shoving off wi'out you. But sun up Cain La-what'a-un'fl-name or I'll bte getting into trouble.' "Are there any more besides 70a two?" he aaked. "No," said Guthrie "Don't lie now, " replied the man tmpicioualy."Now, Alan," she said quietly, "you know as well as I do that it's nonsense to expect either dad or Dr. Tring to find na down here. They might perhaps have just a bare chance ot doing so if they gave np about a month to the job and were lucky. Bat I don't think we can wait quite all that time without considerable inconvenience. No, if we don't find some wsy out of the booby trsp by ourselves we shall be starved to death. That was the fate. 70a remember, which we agreed would probably overtake the members of the Pry family who poked their noses in here." "It looks like it certainly, but where on earth could a boat come from T" Now the fact that the farmer should have been wearing such uncouth footgear needs a word of explanation. "Best call the doctor, hadn't you, sirt" suggested Mrs. Jelly. "The captain said as how we was to give tongue if we found anything." To Dr. Tring's amusement and Captain Colepepper's wrath, he had come aboard the ketch at Bristol in precisely the same bucolic attire in which be had first made his appearance at the little house in Shaftoe street—hobnailed boota, yellow gaiters, tight overcoat and hard, square bowler hat, all complete When this unseamanlike rig out caught the skipper's eye, he had nearly exploded. "You haymaking ox I" he had roared. "D'you think I'm going to have my decks knocked into sieves by those infernal stubble mashers? Take them off your feet, sharp, or take yourself off the Eureka! And I'm hanged if I care much which you do!" And so Cain had to ship a pair of smooth soled shoes instead, and the headgear difficulty was satisfactorily settled by a callous squall, which took charge of his stiff hat in the Bristol channel. The undergraduate retorted hotly that be waa not in the habit at lying and asked again if they had nan hie shipmate. "What sort of man ia bet" queried the spokesman. "Fat chap? Stolid net af party, eht" Guthrie admitted with a smile that that sounded like him. "Then Mr. Wbaterer's-yoor-name, you needn't hnnt around any longer. Your man's here, and I'll tell yon another thing, he abowed more pluck than Ton when he got a gun barrel poked at ilm. He didn't even wink—stood like "Weill" he remarked presently. "Aren't you ashamed of yourselvee?" " 'Sun up, Tom Jehy,' says 'ee, an starts off into the scrub, leaving me to scull the jolly aboard by myself. Now, cap'n. that waa bow it began, but, though sun ujj see me ashore again and though I waited a matter of two hours, no Cain hove in view. So off I sculls again to the ketch and tells the whole business to 'Enrietta, 'er bein fust person to hear it "Right, Henrietta! You go to the top of that rock and wave to him. He's not more than a couple of hundred yards off, for I saw him just now." Under that stare Guthrie had begun to feel uncomfortable. Dolly, as usual, took matters coolly. She knew how to manage most people and among them, of course. Dr. Tring. The woman went, and the others ran down to Jkhe water's edge to look for footsteps or the impress of a keel or some other trace which might confirm their guess about a boat, but, though they searched high and low for some distance along the shore in both directions from the oar, they found nothing. If there had been any such marks, the waveleta had completely washed them away. "We're very sorry for outstaying our leave," ahe said demurely. "But we Couldn't help it. WeCwere boxed up and couldn't get out. We've had a very tiring day, and we've missed two meals." " 'Tom Jelly,' says she, 'you be a blamed fool!' Them's the very words, cap'n—'blamed fool!' 'And,' says she, 'get below, you black aviBed swab, and tell the skipper at once!' Terrible clever woman 'Enrietta be, gentlemen all and miss." "Oh, Dolly," broke ont the undergraduate with a sadden burst of self reproach, "what an idiot I was to let you get into this scrape at all I" He waited a minute to rerovwr bia breath and then reported progress to Dolly, who had remained below. The part of the island which they were now exploring wan made up of low hillocks and (hallow gullies, and on all the upper ground this rank scrub flourished luxuriantly. In the hollows there was less of it, and ita place waa taken by a tall, coarse grass which often grew shoulder high. To force a passage through this and through the palm scrub, wboee graceful fronds not infrequently arched completely arer the searchers' heads, waa sultry work enough, and the burly farmer who had made it necessary was at the moment in danger of becoming distinctly unpopular."Bless my soult" ejaculated the doctor, letting his eyeglass topple down and his features smooth themselves out again. "So you have I What a fool 1 was not to do the St Bernard dog trick —brandy bottle and Bath bun. However, come along at once." \i r "I'll come and see yon climb," said she, snd Guthrie helped her through the hatch. He gave an involuntary start and stepped a pace backward. water, and there were green sea shrubs trailing np to its surface. Guthrie held out his own brown fist in front of him. It was pale as a dead man's. There was an atmosphere of eerinees about the cave which made both of its explorers shiver involuntarily, and at the same time their first eager trot became insensibly reduced to a sober walk. But that .indeed the failing green light made necessary. »tree."  "I believe yon," returned the young man lightly. "He isn't the east at men yon could frighten easily. He'a not excitable, yon see—I am—that's just the difference. Bnt I aay, whoever yon are, I wish you'd bear a hand and help na np on to dry land again. It's precious cold standing here between wind and water, and the lady can't swim, or I wouldn't ask yon." "The lady T" exclaimed the lean negro in surprise. "Why, ao it is a woman! I'm sure I beg ber pardon, bnt, in her man's clothes and in dint religions light, I confess I hadn't tumbled to the fact that we'd got female company. You hear that, boyst Off with four toppers I We've got a lady paying • a, •*— •• The girl laughed with a gayety which was qnite genuine. "As if," she exclaimed with a fine scorn, "as if you bad anything to do with it I I like that. Do you really mean to imply, Mr. Guthrie, that you imagine you could have stopped me if I wanted to cornel Don't you know that red haired people •re always obstinate T" "Will it bear?" she asked, looking upward at the clumsy cord on which so much depended. "I haven't tried yet," was the reply. "But here goes!" And, gripping the rope aa far np as beconld reach, Guthrie cautiously drew his weight on to it Doily watcbed breathlessly and then gave a little gasp of dismay.  - wuennww young man s toes were nearly off the ground, and there were only a few more pounds of his weight unsupported, the ladder moved. Its inner end was being tilted up. The man was going on, but Captain Colepepper cut his rambling short with a "That'll dot" whereupon be saluted with his solitary fiat and tumbled up the ladder. "H'ml" said Dr. Tring when he was shown the oar, with its fresh blood marks. "I tell you what, young people, I don't half like this." "Where's the dad!" asked Dolly. "As the Yankees would say, Tearing around. He began to get anxious about yoa a couple of honrs ago. and I dare say he's fully convinced by this time that one if not both of yon will W8 to be rarrit*A bavk 13ureka on » str^fber." "What is it, doctor—piratest" asked Dolly, with a thrill of awe. For amid these surf guarded solitudes such a thing did not seem to her to be impossible even at the end of the nineteenth century. There was an atmosphere about Piper's cay which suggested mystery and crime But to the rest of his attire he stuck like a man on the surface and beneath it Indeed report said that he waa so much attached to the yellow leather gaiters that he invariably slept in them at night With these trifles, however, the captain did not interfere. "Might as well try to make a sewing machine into a sailor fellow Cain," he declared resignedly. "So let him stick to his rig, and then Jonea'll know to stow him in the regular landsmen'a locker, if he gets down there" "What does this mean, Colepepper ?" the doctor asked, nicking bis wis un from a locker and clapping it on ma bare sconce "The fellow can't have ticoa trying to desert, can hot" "Your hair's auburn, Dolly!" said the young man. log, for obstinacy. But never mind my hair now. We're wasting time. I'm just horribly hungry already, and aa I don't want to get mnch hungrier, I'm going to leave thii ancestral cabin with the smallest possible delay." :'s a "I say, doctor." "Well?" "I don't see that there's anywhere to desert to," replied the captain perplexedly.The West Indian eon was biasing in a cloudless sky up above them like a great farnace of brass, and the gentle breese was not strong enough to penetrate the dense, leafy covers and give them relief. However, occasionally they came across a projecting knoll of barren rock, so smooth that the raina allowed no sol] to collect upon its surface, and at such places as these they fonnd that they coo Id get a refreshing breath of purer, cooler air. The wat*r channel carved somewhat, and the lazy impulses from the low swell of the lagoon did not penetrate far beyond the entrance of the cavern. In 20 yards their influence bad ceased entirely and the quiet dark water looked like ice. There was a chill, too, in the air which added to this effect, and, coming straight from the hot glare without, both Gnthrie and the woman felt it keenly. "Go and tell him, do, and save us the wigging. We couldn't help it really. Yoti see, it was this way"— "No; hardly so bad as that," replied Dr. Tring, with a laugh, "but I didn't look for company of any sort in the island, and, now that yon have come across this irrefutable evidence that we may have callers popping in upon ns presently, I confess I should like to have some testimonial to their honesty before I make ready to receive them with open arms. Yoa see, I can't think of any reason for their presence here at all, or rather there's no reason which is at the same timeobvions and lawful. There are plenty of unlawful ones, of course, without going so far as actual piracy." Guthrie let go of the rope and leaned back against the rocky side of the well with a groan. "Caves and booby traps," suggested Dolly. "Ah," said the doctor, "of course! I fancy that's more to the point. Colepepper. It seems likely enough that this infernal island fairly bristles with pleasant surprises of that kind. That great lumbering fool evidently went off j under the impression that he was going to lay hands on black game or red deer, as he was probably accustomed to do on Dartmoor, when he carried less flesh on his bones. I've heard of men getting a touch of that sort of madness when they find themselves ashore after a long spell at sea. The only thing which surprises uie is that this plethoric clod 1 should have had enough imagination or energy for such an adventure." "Never mind th« yarn now," interrupted Dr. Tring. "Here we are at the boat. Henrietta will pat yon on board, and I'll go and find yonr father and tell him you're all right Afterward yon can give us the whole yarn." 08 an afternoon call I" Guthrie looked at the girl admiringly. - Her courage waa magnificent, and it waa, moreover, of that quality which, la straits of thia kind, baa a wav ol working impossibilities. The young man, seeing it, felt the infection and waa ashamed of hia own perfectly natural misgivings. * "It waa a good idea, Dolly," said he quietly, after a little, "but my beaatly weight has spoiled everything. Perhaps, though," he added, with a thin, unenthusiastic smile, "after a couple of daya without grub, I may be just about light enough." Now, Cain was not an emotional man. but the separation from those inch soled boots touched him, for it was like losing a part of himself. And so, as he was not allowed to wear them on board, he hung them up in the caboose and there anointed them daily with copious libations of grease with all the devotion of a nigger to a fetich, and when the Eureka ran into the anchorage at Piper's cay and word was given for all hands to gu ashore the farmer replaced his feet in their favorite coverings again, mounted (he tightly buttoned fawn colored overcoat and, with a borrowed felt hat of Tom Jelly's to replace the one he had lost, was in all outward respects the same individual who bad fled from the unkindness of that "tarrible hard man Abel" at the instigation of Zuean Pierce. 8uch attire in such a climate was provocative of laughter, but the wearer was not sensitive, and the shower of chaff which was rained on him seemed only to have the effect of confirming him in his love for the uncouth habiliments. Like a child's headless and armless doll, they were all the dearer for being despised. Again the three negroes chuckled, and one of them made a remark In a low tone which called a smile from their leader. The oppression of the cavern's eeriness increased as the light grew dimmer, and an inclination, almost overpowering, to tarn tail seised upon the undergraduate. With a great effort he thrust it back and led the way on through the green, ghastly twilight, rubbing bis hands together for warmth. A little way ahead the cave seemed to turn abruptly at right angles or perhaps to come to an end altogether, for at any rate it went no farther in its present direction. And yet there was no sign to be seen of the missing farmer. "Here, bear a hand I" cried Guthrie, impatiently. "Don't I tell yon we're cold?" "Not so fast, young gentleman," replied the man with the gun. "On the whole I don't know why yon shouldn't stay where you are. By your own showing your companion can't swim, and - if I put a bullet through one of yoor fins you won't be able to help her or yourself either. It really strikes me as a very neat trap, yon know." "Coma. I say. don't be a brute," . retorted Guthrie, bat he shivered slightly, for the lean man looked quite capable of being as good as his word. "Exactly, my dear sir. That's jo* what I wish to avoid." explained the negro with a grin. "If I help you across here, I shall have to be a brnteto one of my men by making him stand sentry over yon to see that you don't bolt" "Mind you explain to the dad that we couldn't help it," insisted the girL "There doesn't seem to be much in the way of sport for friend Cain," observed Guthrie during one of the breathing halts. "Barring sea gulls and small green parrots, we haven't seen a living thing." "H'm!" commented Dolly. "I don't admire the prospect of two daya' more •tarvation. I've had quite enough of it already. Don't you remember, Alan, that you were heavier than I was by over a stone when we got weighed at Bristol? I don't think I've got much plumper since then, although the doctor waa chaffing me about it only yesterday. However, we will aoon see." "H'm I I'll tell him that you say you couldn't, but you've still got to prove that, you know, miss," answered the doctor, with a very feeble pretense at severity. "I'm with you in that, Dolly," ht cried heartily. "Tell me what to do, and I'lldo it." "Then go and inspect that automatic letter box thing which dropped na in here, and aee if the return journey by the aame route isn't possible. 1'llclimt op through the skylight, meanwhile, and admire the prospect up there." Dolly gave her cheek a hasty smack. "Do you think they've got hold of friend Cain ?" asked Guthrie. "Looks very like it,doesn't it?" was the answer. He turned away inland again, and the others went down to the boat. Henrietta squeaked a curt greeting, and as she was ehoving off remarked that the "cap'n bad tock on bad about Miss Dolly." "You forget the mosquitoes," she said. "I'm sure they're very much alive. What with them and the sand flies and the other abominations, I'm just being walked away with piecemeal. Can't we get out of thiB place of torment?" "He'll have found some cozy niche, I expect// said the captain, "and have tumbled off to sleep. We shall hear him bawling, like one of his brother Abel's bulls, from the shore there in the course of the morning, asking to b6 taken off again. If he'd only screw his voice up into some sort of a decent set hail, I believe I'd let him off without a wigging. Now, on deck, all hands, and set to getting the work done I Thanks to my scurry round yesterday after you two youngsters, I've found the place where Piper or my scoundrelly ancestor or some of the other blackguards of the old days used to heave their craft down. It'll fit the Eureka as though it had been built for her." "But whst on earth could they want with him?" exclaimed Dclly. Guthrie helped her up through tht little manhole, and. then dropping bach on to the floor of the dusty den, set about piece of exploration which aba had commanded. He opened the lost door which bora the insulting inacription, "Ye Bobo, Hya Trappe," and carefully inspected, for the second time, tlx wooden slide and ita surroundings. Hia survey waa no cursory one. Hf examined every nook and cranny, be pulled up the heap of moldering ruahet which lay at the foot of the sloping boards, in the hope of finding a vague something hidden beneath it He tried to pull away one of the planks of tb€ shoot, thinking that perhaps, be might be able to swarm up the edge of ita neighbor. But without tools he found that be could not even start the boards, and, if be had been able to do so, it would still have been useleas, for above the upper edge of the planking was a sheer drop of at least ten feet beneath that fatal swinging door, and the rock which guarded it sloped outward. Nicholas the First's ingenuity bad been little short of fiendish wben be schemed that safeguard to hiaanuggery. Having finished bis survey unsuccessfully, Gutbris returned to the little room, threw himself down upon the lid of the sea chest, and. moodily dramming bis foot against ita aide, waited for Dolly to reappear. She grasped the rope and cautiously raised herself up by it. The ladder bore her weight without a Movement. "Don't know, miss," returned the doctor, "and that's another thing which rouses my suspicions. They wouldn't have detained him without a purpose of "Poor old dad," remarked Miss Colepepper ten minutes afterward, when ahe and Guthrie bad taken the keenest edge off their appetites—"he's always fussy and nervous about me. Alan, do you consider we've wasted this day T" A deep taned "Hist I" close at band made the young man turn sharply. "But, Dolly," exclaimed the-undergraduate, "you can't go up tbat beastlj thing!" "It seems all much of a muchness," said Guthrie, "but over there, to the left a bit, there's a knoll which, from what one may judge from here, should be about the highest point of the island. I vote we go up there and prospect. We may find, at least, a paradise moderately free from mosquitoes." D The dark muszle of a gun barrel hung steadily, like a round spot of ink in the green gloom, not ten inches away from his eyes. "Why not?" "Oh, it may break, or you may fall, or—anything I And even if you did get to the top all right, it would be awfully dangerous fgr you to haul yourself up into the cave without help from above." "Now, Alan," retorted the girl sharp- Now it ao happened that cold beef He gave an involuntary start and itepped a pace backward. Henrietta was close behind him, and he bumped against her. The woman lost her footing and made a grab at him to save herself from falling into the water. As her fingers clutched him Guthrie felt himself being carried helplessly backward by ber weight, and the next moment there was a splash as the pair of them met the cold water below. The undergrowth thinned a little as they neared this slight upland, as though the soil were poorer and would not support such rank herbage as grew on the lower slopes and in the bosky hollows between them, and when the climbers gained the creet their way was impeded by nothing worBe than sparse tufts of grass which rarely reached to the knee. "Ton want to keep as, then f What for, pray t" asked Guthrie in a tone of surprise, which was, it moat be admitted, to a great extent simulated "That's a trifle we won't discuss," said the other coolly. "Let it suffice that as you have poind yoor meddling noses in here unasked yoa've got to swallow the consequences. Too didn't choose to drown one another when yoa had a decent chance pat in yoar way. So now yoa must understand that yoa are prisoners. The only question is, Do yoa prefer to stay where yoa ate, like a couple of seals with their flappers cat off, or would you rather eome np here high and dry and give a promise to cause no further trouble t" Thus it was therefore that the red copper streak and the parallel scorings told a plain tale to the two people from the Eureka, and with the certain knowledge that the farmer had gone before tbem they hurried on over the bowlders at their best pace. They got the anchor up and, putting the ketch under jib and mizzen, worked her into the miniature bay which the captain had noted. It was rather deli- ] cate work getting in, as the whole place was not bigger than a dock basin, but the captain had the boat out to get warps ashore, and before he piped down to dinner the Eureka was snugly moor- j ed by shore fasts at stern and bow. One of the sides of this tiny harbor was steep to, and by getting out a couple of springs and slacking up a trifle on the other warps they were able to heave her cloee in, and then, after slipping out the gangway, a bridge of planks put them in directeommunication with land. ! As the green wave closed in gurgling bubbles over his head the young man heard a harsh laugh burst out and clang discordantly among the echoes of the cavern. With a flash of angry recollection be thought of his boast and realized that he had allowed himself to be trapped by tbe man with the bloody blister, after all. "Hello I" exclaimed Guthrie, as he stumbled and nearly fell over something lying in the cover just below the topmost curve of the summit "What have we here?" The going was still very bad, and it got worse as they proceeded. Indeed as Guthrie, nimble footed though he was, stumbled and floundered aiuong the rocks, he wondered how the clumsy Somersetshire man bad managed to get over the ground at all. The reason of his absence seemed in the light of the rock scorings clear as daylight now. He had slipped somewhere and disabled himself. His shipmates were sorrv for bim, of oourse, but at the same time they confessed to one another that it served him right. A man of his build, they agreed, ought never to have gone trapesing over Such an abominable obstacle track. A fine brown dust which had spurted out under the influence of the young man's involuntary kick said "wood," and a further examination showed that the wood had once been dressed by putting tools. "H'm!" wild. Dr. frtng. some sort, and. without being able to guess what that purpose could be, I admit that I none the less doubt its honesty."Then tbe frantic clutch of an arm about bis neck reminded him of a more pressing danger of the moment, for tbe woman's fingers had closed with the frenzy of a drowning grip upon bis throat, and Guthrie knew that she could not swim a stroke. • "You're pinning me rather unfairly," said Guthrie. ♦'It's a spar of some kind," pronounced Henrietta, who had come up behind him. "Look here, yonng man," retained the negro savagely, "I'm not going to stay here palavering. Are yon going to come or are yon going to atayf Settle quickly or maybe my gn» oi before made • "Oh, but"—cried Dolly—"isn't it possible that poor Cain may have met with an accident—fallen, for instance, and broken his arm T The people with the boat may have rescued him and may be looking after hiinl" "Come, out with U, Tom I" And when all this was done, still no Cain Laversha had returned. Tbey examined it cnrionsly. It was, they found, several spare, fished together into one piece, which could not have been less than 100 feet in length. At the end of it were the remains of a platform or "top." Evidently the thing bad been upreared on end at one time and held in position by shrouds an^guys— indeed. Henrietta actually fotrod its "step." The summit had been a lookout station, perhaps belonging to the mvsterious Piuer. Derhaw even to Nicholas the First himself. His thoughts were not pleasant Tom Jelly had once told bim what starvation wall like, far tbe one armed maq bad tried it, some ten years ago, in an open boat It was the solitary snbject opoo wbicb he con Id be anything like eloquent. In the memory of the horrors of that terrible cruise bis generally torpid intelligence would waken, and tb« tale that be then told waa not pretty bearing. ana pickles prevented tlia undergraduate from giving an articulate reply to Dolly's question at that particular moment. But he shook his head most vigorously.. . - maygt /ouDe ap your mind.' "11 join 70a np there, thanks I' I thought yon would I Then i Continued on page four. ruggle in r£ [rheumatism! instincts ■ Mil BATATA I reacn- and prsparsd oatar ths «rtag«t HEIIULUVS^ hough Hk —BribsdbreMla—tafcydrfaawJ^B shake K5CV DR. RICHTER'8 IB his nr/ £: yAunD^Q "% [PAIN EXPELLERI and ■ WwMi w«!HiMMtilil| sail! i»fCH ■ -S (..iLflePAB* J ShOOk B UMHM. WnlalMMWIfl. up nuia a rn:i, m u«a above  J riTTiTOl, PA. •ered tjlj VUCHTOfS I **AWCTOK» BTOMACKAlt bmk for I ACTiyK BOLICITOB8 WANTED YKBY'* where for "The Story of the Philippines," by Marat Halstead. commissioned by ton Government as Official Historian to the War Department. The book was written in army camps at San Francisco, on the Pacific with Oen. Merritt, in the hospitals at Honolula. In Hong Kong, in the American trenches at Manila, in tne insurgent camps with AgnlnaMo, on the deck of the Olytnpia with Dewey, and in the roar of batti»at the fall of Manila. Boaanta for agents. Brimful at original piotarea tta by governn sat photographers on tk» Cr«t L*rgebook. lowprlose. Bia profits. Freight at ' her. Bee*!. Bla» la—raaae fWrta^ "I'm afraid, Colepepper," said the doctor anxiously, "that your sleep theory is a wrong one, after all. I fear the fellow has got pitted like the young people were." "We shall not be able to carry him back the way he came," declared Henrietta. "We couldn't tote Miss Dolly herself over them rocks, let alone Cain Laversha, and she isn't half his weight or near it. We shall just have to drag him down to the water's edge somehow and then bring the boat round from the Eureka for' But what's this, CHAPTER XIX. THE FOUR NEGROES. "We' "Ah. Dr. Tring smiled. "You want to make out a good character for the man with the blistered hand, eh, Dolly?" he said dryly. "Quite right I He may be all that you suppose him, but I'm rather afraid that the chances are the other way. In the meantime, till we know better what sort of people we shall have to deal with, I don't propose to leave the Eureka without an anchor watch any longer. The £5,000 worth of Spanish treasure which she has on board  too much temptation to put in the  of the saints of the West Indies, so ym going straight back to her  you'd better come with me.'y' There was a brief moment beneath the waters during which the gatea of death seemed to swing wide open for the two members of the Enreka's crew It was the sharp, agonized et' which a strong swimmer flgb lease himself from the foolish of another who cannot swim anC with the blind, unreasoning of self preservation, hampers his er'e efforts to save them both. Shs raised her knees and hauled herself a foot farther up the rope. "We haven't found the spring of fresh water we were sent to seek, you know," suggested Dolly slyly. ly, "don't be foolish, please I If you want to stay here till you've starved off two stone of your weight, I'll openly confess that I don't" "It looks as if you might be right, doctor," admitted the captain, with some irritation. "Confound the lout! I don't suppose he'd have the sense to find us in our new moorings, either, if he did come down to the shore and found that the ketch wasn't exactly where he'd seen her last. I wish I'd left her where she was and gone to look for the man this morning." "I don't care if we haven't," replied the young man unblushingly. "I'm glad, in fact because we can spend another day like this in looking for it." She raised her knees and hauled herself a foot farther up the rope. Then ibe stopped and, having convinced berlelf that ber weight could not move the ladder, lowered herself on to the woodwork again. Guthrie remembered something of what the man bad said and shuddered with a horror of loathing fear. And must Dolly— Tbe apple ia bis throat got glned tight somehow and refused to move either up or down. ""Hfe seem Mme to the end of the road!" They had reached a turp in the path. The steep cliff walls of the gully drew together from either side and wet one another, and the tumbled, honeycombed fragments at their foot ran no farther. The arm of the sea which bad followed the windings of the gaily so far lapped the foot of a 40 foot precipice. iave "Oh!" murmured Miss Colepepper quietly and dropped tbe subject "There bave been some rum sights viewed from the top of this before it wan blown down," opined Guthrie. There was, however, as it turned out. no necessity for another day to be spent in tbe search for the needed fresh water, because Captain Colepepper had found it himself. The spring was only about 100 yards from the part of the beach where the Eureka was lying, and the captain had lit upon the spot accidentally, while he was engaged in turning the island of Piper's cay upside down to find the two authorized water searchers. "Very probably," replied Dolly, "but as the top of it showed the seas all around, surely the foot of It should show ns mostjf the island." "Well?" For a moment it seemed at Guthrie would Dot be able to off the grip of Henrietta round neck, but fortunately for them boi straggles to do so bronght him ly into the shallows. In one of hit vnlsive throws he felt the bottom fonnd f there was a flat bowlder btneath him, with leec fonr feet of water covering it. ' his feet planted on this he first the woman off and then drew her beside him and raised her head the water. As soon as she felt gronnd under her Henrietta reeo her presence of mind, shook her shonlders like a retriever to get the water out of her bair and eyes and then began to look calmly and cnriously about her to see what it was that had cansed the undergraduate to back so suddenly down upon her and throw them both headlong into the brine. "Alan." she aaid. "go below." "We must have volunteers for a search party," said Dr. Tring. Miss Colepepper let herself dowq through tbe manhole and stood beside bim. "Whatever fort No, Dolly, let me be at band here in case anything happens. You may falL Perhapa I oould tatch you, or"— "No, I'll take all hands," replied the captain. "We shall be more likely to fintHiim quickly if we spread well, and po harm can come to the ketch where she is lying now." "Yes," said the girl, "I jwi 11. I confess to being tired." "Well, if Cain's on the surface, we ought to see him if we look bard enough." "Now, Alan," sbe aaid cheerfully, "it you are quite reedy, we may as yrell begin weparing to go without fuf» ther delay." "Then Guthrie," continued the doctor, "you and Henrietta may as well explore those rocks ahead there. Dolly's potion that the farmer may bave met with an accident is quite a possible one; the man's fool enough for anything. It's quite on the cards that he's lying somewhere lamed, and that the boat people have nothing to do with his disappearance at all. Be back at the ketch by dark and look out for possible traps." "As the worthy Cain is not a fly," observed Guthrie, "I don't see that he can have got along there. He must have tnrned back again. Perhaps he's got jammed in some cranny and we've passed him on the road. We must keep a better lookout on the way back and give tongue as we go." "Alan I" "Yeet" "Go." Five minutes after this the whole crew was ashore, with instructions to advance straight across the island and pot to be afraid of giving topgue as Boon as they saw any sign which might lead them to the missing farmer. "80 we ought, miss!" exclaimed Henrietta, "and if we do, mayhap we needn't tramp through any more of them nasty palms." "What!" cried Guthrie, unable te believe that be bad heard ber rightly. ~ Alan went, and Dolly slid on the batch above him. "No more shore leave for anybody at present" he declared thut evening, therefore, when he had heard his daughter's tale. "It doesn't seem to be safe, and, besides, we've got plenty of work for all hands, without wasting our time in playing hide and seek all over the island. Tomorrow we'll set about the fill- "I said that we might start getting ready to move ketch ward," repeated Dolly. "Bat, of course, if you htven't finished admiring old Nick's sanctum"—Down below tbe young man listened with straining, anxious attention. He beard a little squeak from her shoes as the took off from the bosrding, and then a gentle panting as sbe worked ber way upward. The sounds grew fainter, till he could bear them no longer. There was a minute's awful suspense, in which bis feet tingled to be up on the itool and through the skylight again. Be imagined all sorts of possibilities— if tbe girl should fall, or if one C * tbe knots should come undone— "If it does that, it's worth the effort" declared the undergraduate with conviction. "Half a minute, Guthrie, my lad," added the captain, as the underKraduate was setting off with Miss Colepepper. "I don't think you and Dolly had better go together, or you'll be getting one another into mischief again." But Henrietta had pulled herself up on to a little spire and was peering eagerly forward. They settled themselves down therefore on a big bowlder and commenced scrutinizing the greenery below carefully and methodically. On one side of them, away down by the coast, could be seen Hans Bpiedernicbel and the doctor toiling through the scrub about a quarter of a mile apart, and near th« opposite shore a blue cloud rising from a patch of tall gram showed where Captain Colepepper was waging by means of smoke an unequal war with th« mosquitoes. Half way between them and the captain was Tom Jelly sitting 00 a bowlder and fanning himself with bis cap, and. «xc«Btiae tor a tnr vtWal "Do you actually mean to say you've found a way oatT" he interrupted. "No fear of them," returned the young pian with a laugh. "Henrietta and I will take care not to step on any more swinging booby snares." "We haven't got to the end yet, sir, after all," she reported. "There's a path down below there that seems to lead round a bend." "Of course I have!" tbe girl answered gayly. "Didn't I say I wouldn't stay much longer T Didn't I tell you J was getting abominably hungry t New }oot here I A rope made of thoee ancient bedclothes, a weight at the end to throw over that projecting ladder; a bit of a climb, and there you are I No, Alan, don't I Mr. Gothrie, remember pur contract I There, jaa'v* rumpled ing of the water casks and tbe other jobs that brought us to Piper's cay. I don't want to stay here a day longer than is necessary to put tbe ketch into proper trim for another attempt on the Santa Catarina's money box. We've got through a fairish bit of tbe repairing work today, while you two youngsters have been amusing yourselves by tumbling into my piratical ancestor's mantraps. But there's still three days' work good to be done before 1 shall de- "Send Henrietta to look after them," suggested Dr. Tring, with a grip. "Mind you do," said the doctor, "but that was not exactly what I meant. I was thinking more of the possibility that the man with the blister jiight prove dangerous." "Right. I will. Thanks for the idea, doctor. Here, Henrietta, go as nursery maid with my daughter and Guthrie and see that they don't break their owp necks or yours. Try the pirate's snuggery first, Guthrie. That fool of a farmer may have tumbled into the very same trap aa you did. " About a yard or so from the water's edge there was a break in the cliff which offered a three foot path, at any rate, round the next angle. What lay beyonc they could not of course tell, but they resolved to find out. A convenient fissure helped them down, and in another couple of minutea they were stepping briskly along a bard, level footoath.Then for the first time Gnthrie bad leisure to remember the gun episode nnd looked np to see what sort of man it might be who was at the bntt end of the barrel which had startled him. There was a slight jar on the boarding overhead and then a gleeful hail from the climber: "Oh, I seel Well, I'll be on my guard against him, too," said the young mau confidently. "He shan't catch me napping I" "Ahoy, below there I The ladder ■alia. jom aamttnicj." The path they bad tumbled from was at the other side of the water channel from the submerged rock on which "At* aja. sir I" n4 Qothria. a»4 Bat ha did. wore bow perched, ao4