The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-01-13

low, and see Eve Desmond's photograph
inside. Now you know why will give
fortune to find lout the crecret of this
yacht
Sir Peter Markham Still sat in the deck
chair in which he had slept, and dreamt
of his lost love. Dick knight stood near
him, with his back to the rail, facing the
millionaire and the broken cage. AS the
older man talked on, the Whiteness of the
dawn spread over, sea and sky, and the
cage behind Sir Peters chair seemed to
Dicks imagination to form a. dark back
ground for the strange story, as well for
the gray head Of the speaker. Always, as
Dicks mind challenged the secret, his
eyes were drawn to that broken cage.
Il see what you think, Sir Peter he
said. your idea is that she-Miss 'Des-
mond-was the lady on board this yacht"
Naturally that possibility has occurred
to me-fascinated me-thEilled me as
have not been thrilled for seven and
twenty years. It is maddening not to
know Heavens! feel as If could tear
the secret out of the very boards the
yachts built of, or drag it up out of the
sea. To think may have been so near
to her-that missed her, after all these
years of separation, for few hours! SO
near, and yet so far! For by the length Of
those few hours it is. too late-foreyei
too late, this time. Whatever the mys-
terry, the sea has got her now-and with
her all the secret Of the past" -~..
Remember, Sir Peter said Dick, as
soothingly as he knew how-for the We
hemence of the hard man was startling
| remember that it is twenty seven years
since she disappeared. Because you saw
her picture in watch, down below, and
because some woman was undoubtedly a
! guest on the yacht, that is not to say that
| She was on board. Besides, can you be
absolutely sure it was Miss Desmond s
photograph in the watch? After all these
| years, might YOU not be deceived by
striking resemblance -
"A thousand times not protested Sir
Peter. IF you are going to take that
! ground you can be of no use to me. There
/ was only one Eve Desmond in the world.
When she was made, the model was brok-
en-
"Granting you were not mistaken, then,
! what is to prove that the photograph you
saw in the watch was not taken before
! she Disappeared"
| Because the face is older, and the
! fashion Of the dress is later. Still, the
photograph is faded and old. Many years
i must have passed since she sat for it.
When I left you and went below, some
time ago. to have look through the
4 cabins, opened the watch again and took
u out the picture, to see II anything were
written on the back. But IT was blank
i No clue there or anywhere-except hel
s face in a watch which belonged to an
B other man. Somehow I had always fell
4 that she must be dead; and there was O
/ grim kind of consolation in the theory, FOL
4 at least, If she was not for me, she was
4 for no one else, and I could still believe
4 that she had not gone from me of her owr
Il free will. But now, to have had thai
4 peaceful idea uprooted-to think that al
Il these years she has been ION the same
& earth with me, firing her own life, happy
perhaps, loving and loved, while
mourned her! Heavens! don't know
i, myself. Get to the bottom Of this mys
/ terry quickly, knight, If you're going tt
8 do 1t at all. :
knight was a good deal moved, and fo
|. the .flrst time Sir Peter Markham seemed
!. to him human, man like himself. Hi