Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-08-10

old packets contraband2 Let down the lad
der again, Joe; it's the custom house officers"
There was, as he spoke, a hurried move
ment on Miss Burne's part. She seized Mr..
Brosser's hand and wrung 1t in startling
fashion, and then Immediately glided swiftly
away into the darkness. just as the men
from the custom house boat stepped on deck
there was bound, a splash and, although
boats we're lowered aud all the haroor alarm
ed, Miss Burne was seen no more
There had been altogether too much contu-
sion for me to be sent to bed, and was as
full of wide-eyed wonder as anybody else
when, an hour afterward the men returned
to the packet.
WAS it Miss Burne Have you found
herY' was the general cry
"Miss Burne be blessed ~ was the answer.
you've brought along ole of the cunuingost
smuggler5 on the coast and we've lost one Of
the prottiest hauls of the season. Now let's
see those portmanteaus. Nothing less than
lace and diamonds, If they haven't been strip
ped, I'll be bound" And when the portman
teaus were brought on deck, in half a minute
they we're torn open and found to be empty.
Just as l told you" said the officer turn.
ing one of the great bags wrong side out And
there, to be sure, was a tiny shred of thread
lace caught upon the stees. "Humph the
of this cobweb stuff wound about you. Bad
TO wet it they'd rather not. Sorry it had to
be done. Well, captain, suppose there's no
doubt, after our old acquaintance, that you're
as much surprised as we are. But this was
particular case, and we were on the lookout.
Rum party but we were up to his tricks.
Tried it on the minister, eh ? Mild Irritation,
read good books wanted more light, under
conviction, and all that? Ha ha! ha! hH
TNa,,, ,rlg II .t,,,- CUrts, ttrg Gah ar,1
pals all along the shore Live to give us plen-
ty more trouble YETI And after call upon
the captains locker the visitors retired over
the quarterback as they came, by which time
/ had long been sound asleep. But / heard
the affair talked over so thoroughly,o of course,
that dare say l remember quite vividly, Us
many another gossip does much more than l
saw.
What it all meant, however, exceeded my
power of conjecture that next day and l
must have driven the ships crew and passen-
gers and my own family wild with my inter
rogations Where was Miss Burne And
why had she jumped overheard How ter
rible that was it made shiyers run up my
back. Was she crazy? Was she walking in
her sleepY Naughty was she naughty
And was that what made Mr.. Brossier so sick
that he couldn't leave his berth Poor Miss
Burne Was she drowned If she had
jumped overheard, why wasn't she drowned?
l should be if l jumped overheard. And
what had Miss Burne been doing anyway
And what was there wrong about that Why
couldn't / understand Had she paid for the
lace Then what business had those men to
meddle? And why should they wish to take
it from her ? And what was smuggling, and
what made it wicked? And why shouldn't
people buy things where they could get them
cheapest? And wasn't Miss Burne Miss
Burne? And if she wasn't Miss Burne, who
was she What pestilent little inquisitor it
must have BEEN
None of these questions, admit, have ever
been answered quite to my contentment, even
to the present day, Notwithstanding the asser-
tions of older people and the loud suspicious
and laughter of the captain and his mates
And although in the passage of dozen or
more years had ceased to remember accu-
rately many of the circumstances that led to
the asking, still some sea breeze, some Whit
of tarred ropes, some sound of bells over wa
ter as l had heard them that evening, some
pale-faced minister some dark-browed young
woman, some contralto tone with thrill in
| it, would bring recollections of the affair to
me, and now and then l caught myself think
ing it over and doing my best to extract its
little flavor of romance. II Miss Burne was
not drowned, why did never come across
her, going about the world as 1 did Having
reached, from my own experience, the fixed
conclusion that once meeting person l was
never to escape that person, l confess used
often to look for the high-shouldered and
dark-eyed young woman of my memory-and
that, too, without allowing a great deal for
the changes of the intervening years. and l
felt with much of my childish interest and
| sympathy, and unexpressed reproach for my
| gay young guardians on that voyage that they
had not unbent more on shipboard, won con-
| fdence, and helped the handsome stranger
| into safe harborage with that importation.
What If it was smuggling? Il was lace Be-
ing woman, and having no voice in making
the laws, 1 failed to see why 1 should trouble
myself about other peoples obeying them too
literally, at any rate. For my own part,
knowing that if the woman who hesitates is
not lost, her bargain is apt to be, never hes
| itated myself to buy laces and gloves and per
fumes when yachting along the coast with
friends who were unfortunate enough to have
yacht on their hands and taking any oppor-
tunity Of going ashore in some town of the
| British provinces where l could buy them for
half what bcould at home.
It was one winter day, however, when my
thoughts were far removed from this incident
! of my long-vanished childhood, that entered
| a street-car on my uptown way, and after de-
! spatching a vain expression of thanks to the
| uulNtIbt -lLt luulN Nluuhl IchlB lButu Alh bCht
to me having hurried out upon the platform
with such an evident fear of catching my eye
that one would have supposed had the evil
! eye-and after wiping the dust off my drape
| ry from the soes of the shoes that the oppo-
| site gentleman offered to the contemplation of
the public, and after gathering my skirts up
so as not to interfere with the personal liber-
ty of the tobacco chewing gentleman on my
right, l began, according to my habit of old,
| -, F,l I'D
social deductions from their little peculiari-
ties.
There was nothing very absorbing about
them some tired shopping women like my
self some tired shop girls, too, with their
atiiuence of jewelry and cotton lace young
music teacher with her weary roll a fierce
school. girl, whose empty luncheon-boX fore.
told an immediate raid upon the pantry a
bank president, who, not to forget the day of
his small beginnings, still preferred public to
! private conveyance as he nodded upon his
cane foreign gentleman, whose slumbers
made the car balmy if they were not balmy
themselves-I soon exhausted them, and, shift
ing my position little, began to take account
of my left-hand neghbor, who had recently
entered-a dark, slender man, under rather
than over the average height, with keen eye
and quiet manner of his own.
1t was certainly some one l knew. How
| provoking that must needs forget the name !!
Aud was cudgelling my brain for some as
sociation with which l might fix him before
appeared to see him, when one of my furtive
glances suddenly struck a spot from which it
rcochetted like bullet from a stone.
1t was a spot where a tiny atom of my
neighbor's right nostril had been clipped out,
leaving the effect of that naughty curl whose
high bred outline by no means Injuries the
face, though not adding to any appearance of
amiability. / started involuntarily, but as the
person turned to see why, l pretended only
to have shivered and pulled my shawl more
closely about me. What a strange resem-
blance thought or was my INDUCED fancy
running wild? There was the straight black
brow, the white downcsst eyelid with its long
lash, aud, when l ventured to look again, the
somewhat sunken mouth with its thin red lip,
aud the corner of the front tooth gone, the
line of downy shadow developed, it is true,
iuto delicate moustache. Was it-oould it
How absurd l was always making moons OF
green cheese But indeed there was some
thing to 60 upon here, l said again, after g
new survey and fresh accession of impulses
and intuitions. Could it bet couldn't be
Miss Burne Was it Miss Burne's brother
! - II. Lny,a "a