Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-08
THE MYSTERY
BY STEWART EDWARD HOPKINS ADAMS
THE

don, a grizzled and brief-spoken veteran
who had at his fingers tips all the lore Of
all the waters under the reign of the moon.
What does the information bureau of the
Seven Seas know about it?'
Lost three years ago-spring Of 1901-got
into the ice field off the tip of the Aleutians.
Some of the crew froze- Others got ashore.
Part of the survivors accounted for. Others
not. Say they've turned native. Don't
know myself
THE Aleutians"' exclaimed Billy Ed
wards. Great Cats, What a drift How
many thousand miles would that be-?
Not as far as many another derelict has
wandered in her time, son. said Barnett.
The talk washed back and forth across
the hulks of classic sea mysteries. new and
old; of the City of Boston. which went
down with all hands. leaving for record only
melancholy scrawl on a bit of board to
meet the wondering eyes of fisherman on
the far Cornish coast; of the Great Queens
land, which set out with 500 souls aboard,
bound by route unknown to a tragic end;
of the Naronic with her silent and empty
lifeboats alone left, drifting about the open
sea, to hint at the story of her fate; of the
Huronian, which, ten years later. on the
same day and date. and hailing from the
same port as the Naromic. went out into
the void, leaving no trace; of Newfoundland
captains who sailed, roaring with drink I'M
der the arches of cathedral bergs, only to
be prisoned, buried and embalmed in the
one icy embrace: of craft asSaled by the
Indian ocean, found days after, stone blind,
with their crews mady hauling at useless
sheets, while the officers clawed the COM
pass and shrieked; of burnings and piracies:
of pest ships and slave ships, and ships
mad for want of water; of whelming earth
quake waves and mysterious suctions.
drawing irresistibly against wind and steam
power upon unknown currents; of stout
hulks deserted in panic. although sound and
seaworthy; and of others so swiftly dragged
down that there was no time for any to
save himself; and of a hundred other
strange stirring and pitiful ventures such
as make up the inevitable peril and incor-
rigible romance of the ocean. In a pause
Billy Edwards said musingly:
Well there was the Laughing Lass"
How did you happen to hit on her?'
asked Barnett quickly.
why not, sir? 1t naturally came into my
head She was last seen somewhere about
this part of the world, wasn't she?" After
a moments hesitation he added: From
something l heard ashore | judge we've a
commission to keep a watch out for her as
well to destroy derelicts."
What about the Laughing Lass?" asked
Mcclure. the paymaster. a New Highlander
who had been in the service but a short
time.
Good Lord! don't you remember the
Laughing Lass mystery and the disappear
ance of DR.. Schermerhorn?"'
Karl Augustus Schermerhorn, the man
whose experiments to identify teepathy
with the Marconi wireless waves made such
a furore in the papers?"
''Oh, that was only a by-product Of his
mind. He was an original investigator in
every line of physics and chemistry, besides
most of the natural sciences" said Bar
nett. THE government is particularly in
terested in him because of his contributions
to aerial photography"
And he was lost with the Laughing
Lass?'
Nobody Knows said Edwards. He
left San Francisco two years ago on
hundred-foot schooner, with an assistant,
big brass-bound chest, and ragamuffln
crew. A newspaper man named Siade, who
dropped out Of the world about the same
time, is supposed to have gone along too.
Their schooner was last sighted about 45O
miles northeast of Oahu, in good shape,