Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-12-13
CHAPTER WV

l had sprung up the ladder before Dan
| had gathered his scattered wits to re-
member that it was there. 1t was worth
much to watch that honest fellow as he
gripped my hand in his two great paws.
I asked him if Roderick and Mary were
aboard.
They're down below, as I'm alive. and
the hands is ashore, but they'll come
aboard for this. Shall l tell 'em as you've
called in passing like? 1 can hardly see
out Of my eyes for looking at you, SIR
Poor old Dan did not quite know what
he was doing. l left him in the midst Of
his strange talk and walked softly down
| the companion way to the door of the sa-
| loon, and l opened it and stood, l doubt
not, before them as one come from the
| dead. Mary, whose childish face looked
very drawn, was sitting before a book,
| open upon the table, her head resting up
! on her hands, and a strange expression of
| melancholy in her great dark eyes. But
Roderick lay upon sofa bunk, and was
| fast asleep, with the novel which he had
been reading lying crumpled upon the
| floor.
l had opened the door so gently that
neither of them moved as l entered the
room. 1t was to me the best moment of
my life to be looking again upon them,
| and L waited for one minute until Mary
raised her head and our eyes met. Then
| l bent over the cabin table and kissed
her, and l felt her clinging to me, and
though she never spoke, her eyes were wet
| with hot tears: and when she smiled
through them. it was as a glimpse of
bright sunlight shining through a rain
shower. In another moment there was
nothing but the expression of great child
ish joy on her face, and the old Mary
spoke.
| Mark, 1 can't believe it, she said,
holding me close lest 1 might go away
again, land 1 always guessed you'd come
| But Roderick awoke with a yawn, and
when he saw me he rubbed his eyes, and
said as one in dream:
''Oh, is that your
The tea which Mary made was very
! fragrant. 1t was a long story, and 1
could give them but the outline of it. or,
| in turn, hear but a tenth part of their
| own anxieties and ceaseless efforts in my
| behalf. 1t appeared that when 1 had
| failed to return to the hotel on that night
when l followed Paolo to the den in the
| Bowery, Roderick had gone at once TO the
yacht, and there had learned from Dan
| of my intention. He did not lose an in
| slant in seeking the aid of the police, but
l was even then astern of the Labrador,
and the keen search which the New York
detectives had made was fruitless even in
| cleaning tidings of me. Paolo was fol-
lowed night and day for twenty-four
hours; but he was shot in drinking den
before the detectives laid hands on him,
| and lived long enough only to send Mary
message, telling her that her pretty eyes
| had saved the Celsis from disaster in the
Atlantic. On the next day, both the skip
per and Roderick made public all they
knew of Black and his crew, and greater
sensation was never made in any city.
The news was cabled to Europe over half
dozen wires, was hurried to the Pacific
to japanese seas-it shook the navies of
| the world with an excitement rarely
known, and for some weeks it paralyzed
all traffic on the Atlantic. Cruisers of
many nations were sent in the course of
the great ocean-going steamers: arms
were carried by some of the largest of the
passenger ships, and the question was
! asked daily before all other questions, us
| the nameless ship taken?"
Meanwhile Roderick and Mary. who
suffered all the anguish of suspense, re-
turned to London. there to hear the whole