The Holly chieftain., 1899-07-21

always been our last stop, and al the
Agana stun Il in tie lower hold. But
II you can persuade him that there IL
chance OF glory and thanks in It, he
may feel IN better humor. You 70 talk
to Dias and Moreno; say that it'Il give
them ave or six hours more to get their
stun up, and work II In as . favor to
the church. Then i; they come to me
and say they'd like to take whack
at Santa Ross, I'll head her quarter
further east in the morning."
"Ah. captain, have the fear you are
nm hereje; you do make the Joke upon
the padres. But you are un benevolo.
50 you forgive. FL primero will see
and him absolve. Buenas noches."
When Padre Sebastisno was out Of
hearing Halstead and l looked at each
other. His expression must have been
reelection Of my own. for It said. as
plainly a. words;
swell. what do you think Of that p
! shook my head. It was little too
much for me. We smoked in silence
for several minutes. Then the captain
sauntered out on deck, to be sure there
was no ono near. and carefully closed
the door when he returned.
"What am trying to figure out"
he said, 'is whether that oily old duck
IL convinced that we are interested in
the reef, or whether his suspicious
have been so completely Iulled by the
accident that he thinks it safe to med
die with 1t on his own account"
"Your Impression is, then, that his
book on the islands il nothing but q
fake?"
"M'-blessed IL know what my i'm
preston In. II he were really plan
ming such q work, nothing would be
more natural than the questions he
asked, OF his anxiety to obtain all pos
sible information. These islands have
never been written up; there isn't
even cyclopedia that devotes more
than thousand words to them, most
ly relating to their discovery and N 9TH
ing else; and 1t would De natural ex.
PLANTATION of such trip undertaken
by man Of his position and learning.
On the other hand, every word and ac-
tion might easily be construed as In
dications Of . secret purpose connect.
ed with that reef. guess the only
safe thing il to accept the last suppo-
sition ane keep him from making any
thing out OF it. We fooled him on the
accident. anyhow"
"H'm-fooled ourselves . little. too,
didn't WEI You didn't count upon an
actual crack in that shaft. did your"
"WhatI Do you mean to say that,
knowing all about II, you Well,
PM That'A a compliment to Mac.
Why. man alive. he made that scratch
with Cape chisel while she was max.
ing DO turua. then filled 1t with lamp
black and oil. He took the screws ou,
| Of the tank brackets and fixed then
with wooden plugs. SOS 1t would fal
straight when she rolled TO leeward
and the hammer he used-that made !,
sound so hollow-had a wooden head
blackened with plumbago. The shaft
il as sound as new dollar, but wei
have to put few of those clamps on
It to carry out the deception"
| "Well. you fooled me completely.
For an impromptu accident, It was a
bowling success. Old Palacios won,
move six feet from life-preserver for
the rest of the voyage. But how abou,
those soundings7 Are you really 90.
ing to take them?"
"Well. ! rather guess am, as a pa r
ticular favor to my friend el Padre Sc.
bastiano. And, being quite interested
in his forthcoming book, / shall use
every endeavor. within the time that
can spare, to make thorough search
for 1t. But I'm very much afraid-very
that he'll be NO wiser than he wa. be.
fore. Why. Harry. I'd have steered
straight for the place myself. Il
Id dared. But further Irregularities
20 soon after the accident woildn't t do
Now I'm obliging the padre; and, by
thunder. I've got him just where
want him."
| fTo n coNIINuEpl