The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-09-05


was bit with the excitement and asked
q friend who was a member TO act for
him. I'm going to play q hand in
this" quoth Master Lossing.
Eat that price7" asked his friend.
When they get TO 9S guineas pre-
mium" {
Il suppose you know that makes you
liable for about elO,sOO. There's
e640.000 underwritten."
I'm good for that" said Lossing. and
an hour afterward proved himself so.
as he had to pay. To this day many
Lloyds men who were interested In
that scene congratulate themselves on
having made R10.800 salvage by q
fiuke out of a ship that was totally
lost
1t began to dawn on Lessing after
the event that he had made q fool Of
himself and that his luck was through;
but he had the sense, not to whine
aloud, and so his friends forgot the
matter In the excitement of other in
terests. Losing did not forget, because
the bank had written to him that his
account was overdrawn, and he had
several bills which much wanted pay
ing. Unostentatiously he began to
look about him for means of making
a more regular and steady livelihood.
AS after several months of search
this last did not seem any appreciably
ton to q letter he received concerning
the Port Edes and her cargo 1t was
unsigned and bore an American post
mark. 1t ran as follows:
Sir: hear that you are now legiti-
mate owner OF the Port Edes and her
is now in the Everglades of Florida in
there followed the exact latitude and
longttude). The specie is taken out
OF her, and you will find 1t by digging
(here came elaborate cross bearing and
directions). IL you are wise man and
wish to enjoy what is now your own,
you will say as little about 1t to any
one as possible"
The Communication was, to say the
least of It, mysterious, but because
Lossing was fool he did not see so
many possibilities in ii as a man with
more imagination might have done. He
determined to find out how the matter
lay with his own eyes. and with that
purpose journeyed to the hotel at Point
niflcence. 1t was The winter season,
and the place was crowded, and among
the crowd was Lossing's old friend
Kent Williams, again at the end OF
his new quarters allowance. The pair
had several cocktails together and
some talk, and finally set off into the
Everglades under the guidance of an
ancient alligator hunter The saga of
their doings for the next six months
does not appear, but it Is known that
other men Joined them, including sew
eral in the nautical interest, so that
there must have been quite a colony
of them out there, presumably at some
Kent Williams and Lossing again re-
turn to view on board royal mail
boat bound home from a port of west
ern South America.
The pair of them watched the shores
sink under the sea, and That's done
with" said Kent-Williams.
'It is returned Losing" and I'm not
sorry and / am satisfied. It's bigger
puzzle than / shall ever make out in
this life. First steamer that's sup
posed to be sunk gets up and goes
overland and plants herself in the mid
die of a forest. as though she wanted
to grow. She's so tight there that 1t
takes us six months to cut e canal to
the nearest river. Then someone paints
a different pattern on one smokestack
and leaves the other as 1t was and al
ters some OF the name plates on her en-
gines and fittings and leaves the names
on the life buoys as they were. And
then the gold that's in her flies two
miles farther up country and dives
twenty feet under the ground without
disturbing the network of mangrove
we had to cut them with an AK
Il think, dear boy, we've been wise
In selling the steamer with different
name on her to man who gave her
a low price and asked no questions"
TIN sure of It, But still ia like to
know how 1t was all done. DO you think
that Cambel had finger in it?"
'tDo you think" retorted Kent-Wil-
liams, that If Patrick Cambel had his
finger on half million that no one
else knew about II wouldn't have been
his half million? No, sir, that cock
won't fight. Besides he was spooning
the Kildar girl and that took up all
his time, guess. He married her in
the early autumn, and they've gone
somewhere west, fancy, and don't
exactly know where. She'd sister
near Point Sebastian, Mrs. Duver-
nay, a deuced niced looking woman,
that Cambel was spoons on himself one
time"
"Oh. you've spoken about her before"
II know. Between ourselves Loss
ing, dear boy. went up to her place
one evening and proposed to her. and,
by jove. d'you know she actually re-
fused me! She's got that fellow Cam
bel still In her head. suppose. But
/ shall go out and have a look at her
again. Honestly / was after $500 q
year at first, but now that, thanks to
you, I'm better off it won't look SO
bad, and really 1 like her better than
/ thought. She's most awfully charm
ing woman"
what did she ever marry that brute
Duvernay for?" asked LOSING.
''Ah, that" replied Kent williams. "is
more than can tell your
THE END H