The Minneapolis journal., 1903-01-30

+ two others can divide the search below.''
| If you would let US take that part OF
the work" suggested one of the men,
I'VE should be obliged to you, sir. =. I'd
rather do anything than stop here by the
side Of that 80 49,
This arrangement happened to suit
Dick very we'll, as he was anxious t6
make a private search for the stolen
papers. He agreed readily to the pro+
| posal, therefore, and the two men went
off, vowing that they would not leave .
corner of the Xenia unsearched. If the
murderer were found, and attempted tp
escape by rushing up on deck, Dick was
to deal with him.
! Somehow, Dick had a strong impression
| that t>this search would end as more than
one other had ended before IT was ;cer?- +
tain now that some one was hiding on
board, and had been hiding since- first the
xenia became derelict. "a little woman,
in a long, hooded cloak; a little sobbing,
crouching thing, that moaned and hid her
face in her hands," had been Browns de-
scription of the ghost that had walked THE
deck last night; and to Dick the descrip-
tion had seemed ridiculous-the wild eX-
aggerations of frightened mans fancy
He had not even been willing to credit THE
| story told by his own senses. He himself
had thought that he heard rustling, had
thought that he touched something living,
which Wr1thed away from under his hand
and fled into darkness. But he had tried
to account nationally for these impress
sions; and SO much had happened in every
hour since then that he had dismissed the
events of last night into the limbo Of in
significance. Now he began to compre-
hend that poor Browns imagination might
have had something to build upon. He,
too, had seen a little gray figure in a long,
flying cloak; it seemed to him that he
should never be able to erase the picture
of that brief, strange struggle from the
mental canvas where it had been SO rap
idly, yet vividly sketched In years to
come, he told himself, he would dream of
| it and hear the scream, and start into
waking with his forehead damp. Ghosts
did not leave prints of clawlike fingers ard
sharp teeth in human flesh; ghosts did
not commit murders; therefore it was Iio
spirit, but something living and evil, which
hid itself by day and walked by night on
the derelict; yet. somehow, Dick did not
expect to hear a cry Of triumph from the
searchers and shout that what they
sought was found. The mystery which
, had baffed him would not yield itself 4p
to them. .r-.
He. had not engaged to take the watf
hunt, however. AS soon as the men had
left him he nerved himself to examine the
long sblaek cloak with which the woman
had replaced her white haick. Without
the lantern he could see only the outside
of the huddled figure lying where. it had
fallen: i'm front of the open case-the
strange, broken cage which, II he :Shhd
thought, might: tell q secret II its bars
could speak; but he did not trust to His
eyes to find what he desired. Passing his
, hand down the, front of the heavy cloth
cloak, he touched a deep, pocket which
:: bulged disproportionately. In an instant
he had emptied it, and had in his posses
sion once more the three packets Of letters
, and the two little padlocked volumes which
he had given up as lost. Hastily he trans
ferred them all to his own pockets, and
l resolved not to part with them for a MO
ment until he had made their secrets his
: Now that this woman was dead, the BAR
!, gain that he had made with her had also
|, ceased to exist, he told himself, unlessI il
.aEshould turn out that she had arranged by
sEtelegraph or letter for Ewes return to he1
) father. >He determined ito wire to Sil
y Peter as early possible in the morning
! the news which might change the situa.
: tion of affairs If the girl had not beer
t sent back to her father by the Afternoon
it must be taken as sign that the woman
v had left all arrangements to be made after
! her return to Tangier, and that the othe1
/. persons in the plot were ignorant Of 4hel
i intentions. In that case Dick would ibt
y free from his promise-free to continue his
:. investigations as he would, and for as leins
as he would; but as his thoughts went 4u
+ across the dark water to the girl he loIet
! a voice within him prophesied that |ht
would leave his search even in the h1u1
j of success, and give up all his hopes fol
: the future, because of her call to him fo1
r help. I.
, Dicks presentiment was fulfilled. The
E men returned, having looked everywhert
7 and found no one. Not square foot o
7 space had they passed over. in theil
e search; no. q corner. not q Granny has
]; been forgotten. Nowhere had they ever
t Iseen signs Of q struggle; nothing appar
T fently was out Of place, except In the la.
: dy's stateroom where the wardrobe dpol
t was open, and several dresses lay on ths
3 floor; but this disorder might have beer
S made by the woman before she was at.
tackled. The new men who had laugllet
8 in the evening at"Brown's ghost as the,
E called it then, did not laugh now. OI