The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-07
AFTER THREE
 HUNDRED YEARS.
Ry uERBERT l.. CoGGINS.

BY HERBERT l.. COr1INo. T lcopyright isoi; Sy Daily Story Pub @ J , queried, as we paused, spent and breath less, after our exertion.
 "Possibiy; but the chances are it's some one later We'll soon know, anyway. The doctor was already breaking the rotten thongs of the jacket preparatory to a search.
 A thorough sea -ch brought forth noth- ing which would tell of the dead, al, thought our hopes were greatly raiseu by the discovery of a., large gold locket and chain hidden by the overgrowth O., O. beard. This the doctor removed. put an examination proved the locket to De empty. Then, having done all that lay in our power. we replaced the body In It's ancient tomb.
 By the time we had reached the Polaris the great bleared sun had dipped below the horizon. As we stepped on deck, l looked back. A soft diffused light was poured over the ocean, and here and there brightening up as 1t fell upon the ice flores. The object of our visit was now several miles to the south. but to my imaginative eye it seemed larger than ever so far North?" I thought. As l won dered the idea grew upon me that the stranger was no ordinary person Surely: no one ever had a grander monument than yon stately pyramid. No, not even those old Egyptian kings. took my last below. By the next morning it had passed forever from our sight.
 Ali this was a generation ago. The dear old doctor has passed away, leav- ing only one thing to be regretted-thne unfinished volume of his great work; That l. his friend and co-worker, shoulo finish 1t was his last wish.
 It was in the preparation of this task while looking over his notes. that ran across q ragged brown leaf, torn rom some old forgotten volume. Curious 10 know the reason for preserving such fragment. I glanced over It..
 At the festival given by the East India Company, on board the ship The me Traders Increase, December 30, 1909. His Majesty. King James l., presented Sir Thomas Smythe. Governor of the Com, pany, with very faire necklace or goid bearing a locket wherein was his own portrait. :,
 A description followed. which, as l read, sent a hundred echoing visions through my brain. I had never seen the necklace. and yet how vividly the de- scription pictured itself In my mino' former friend, I thought of the locket which we had taken from that corpse Tn Boothia Bay. For months. ever since the doctors death it had been slowed away
 Probably then, the doctor also had been struck with the description, but his failing memory had doubtless prevented him from associating it with the locket in his possession. Still it was only a similarity. The trinket found in the Arc tic America bore no connection with SIT Thomas Smythe of three centuries back.
 Sir Thomas Smythe. Again am con fronted by that name. Is 1t not more than coincidence? l read on. It was that rare old volume. 'The Daring Navi- gators of the XVII Century"
 When Henry Hudson set forth on that 2f NIA ri to the Indies. Sir Thomas Smythe. then Governor of the company, did prese nt to him for talisman for a safe voyage the golden necklace which had been given first to Sir Thomas by His Ma jesty King James," ~
 I closed the book. Five minutes later I was once again gazing into the old locket for a clue whlc.. nowhere met nay eyes. In final disgust I dropped the trim ket from my fingers and it struck the stone tablet of my desk. I heard sound as of the action of a stiffened spring, and beheld false lining, which l had taken for the inner case, gaping open before me. Below this disk was miniature In oil. The porcelain was cracked and the colors faded, but the face was the race of James l.
 And so, while the genial ghost of old Henry Hudson bowls ninepins with hlS merry trolls far in the depths of the Catskills his mortal body. entombed in it's mighty mausoleum, now and forever sails the great Northern ocean, seeking, perchance, that open highway to the East.