The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1906-08-01

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confidence 0 N the part of Tyars; but he
waited in vain.
"Of course" he said, II nave no desire
to NEEDLE with your affairs. l ask no
questions, and / look for no spontaneous
condolences. 1t will be better for you to
lose sight altogether of the coincidence
that l amber BROTHER
Tyars had seated himself on the corner
of the cabin table, with his back half
turned toward his companion. He had
picked up a piece of straw, of which there
was a quantity lying on table and floor,
and this he was biting meditatively. 1t
was as yet entirely a puzzle to him, and
this was only a new complication. He
could not understand il, just as better
men than Claud Tyars have failed to un-
derstand it all through. For no one, /
take it, does understand love, and no man
can say whittier it will lead.
There need" continued Oswin Grace,
perforating a series of small holes in his
blotting paper with the point of a cedar
wood pencil, "be no nonsense of that sort.
| am going to take il upon myself to
watch over Helen's interests; they are
much safer in your hands than in mine"
Still Tyars said nothing, and after a
little pause, Grace went on, in measured,
thoughtful tones, carrying with them the
weight of elaboration.
There is one point" he said, upon
which l think there must be an under
standing"
"Yes," said Tyars anxiously.
ANY risks-extra risks, such as boat
work, night-work up aloft-these must be
mine. From what you have said, l gath
er that your intention was to be skipper,
and yet do the rough work as well. When
anything hazardous is to be done, l shall
do it. You must stick to the ship"
II nave no doubt" said Tyars, seating
himself at the table and beginning to
open his letters, that we are all con-
structing a very fine mountain out of ma
~terials intended for a molehill. I, for
one, have no intention of leaving my
bones in the far North. There is no rea-
son why we should not all be back home
by this time next year."
None at ALL" agreed Oswin somewhat
~perfunctorily, adding. with a suspicion of
doubt the next minute: Suppose we
succeed?"
well, what then?"
Suppose we get there all right, rescue
the men and go on safely; we get over
the elemental danger, and then we have
to face the political, which is worse"
Il do not see it." replied Tyars. 1--WE
sell the ship at San Francisco. Half
the crew expect to be paid off there, the
other half will dispense with their passage
money in their pockets, and very few of
them will find their way back to England.
Our doctor is a German socialist, with
several aliases our second mate a sim
ple-minded Norwegian whaling skipper.
The eXiles do not know a word of Eng
lish, or pretend they do not, and none
Of the crew speaks Russian. There will
be absolutely no intercourse on board,
and only you, the doctor and myself will
ever know who the rescued men really
are. The crew will imagine that they
are the survivors of a Russian ivory hunt
ing expedition, and if the truth ever
comes out, it will be impossible to prove
that you and l knew better"
"But 1t will not be easy to keep the
newspapers quiet"
quiet. 1t will only be a local matter.
The San Francisco papers will publish
libelous woodcuts of our c~ountenances and
a column or two purporting to be bio
graphical, but the world will be little the
wiser. In America such matters are in
teresting only in so much as they are per-
sonal, and there is in reality nothing
easier than the suppression of ones per-
sonality. There is no difficulty in kick
ing an interviewer out of the room, Just
as one would kick GU. any intruder; and
we are quite indifferent as to whether
the American newspapers abuse us or not
after having been kicked. AS to the de-
tails of the voyage, l shall withhold those
with the view of publishing a book, which
is quite the correct thing nowadays. The
book shall always be in course of prepara-
ton. and will never appear"
In this wise the two men continued
talking, planning, scheming all the morn
ing, while they worked methodically and
prosaically.
The eleventh of March was fixed for
the sailing of the Argo, exploring vessel,
and Easton's chief thought on the sub
ject was a vague wonder as to what he
would do with himself after she had gone.
The Argo was TO pass out of the tidal
basin into the river at one o'clock, and
at half-past twelve Easton drove up to
the dock gates. He brought with him the
last items Of the ships outfit in the shape
Of a pile of newspapers, and a bunch of
dollhouse roses for the cabin table, for
there was to be a luncheon party on board
while steaming down the river.
He found Admiral Grace strolling
about the deck with Tyars, conversing in
quite a friendly way, and e~ndeavoring
honestly to suppress his contempt for
~seamanship of so young a growth as that
of his companion. The ladies were below,
inspecting the ship under Oswin's guild
ance.
"She is" he said, addressing himself to
the admiral, with transatlantic courtesy,