Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-09-06

IN the room as an idle spectator ana
was bit with the excitement and asked
a friend who was a member to act for
him. I'm going to play a hand in
| this" quoth Master Losing.
at that p~rice?" asked his friend.
when they get to SO guineas pre-
MUM"
Il suppose you know that makes you
liable for about e10,S00. There's
G540,000 underwritten."
Pm good for that" said Losing. 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 e10,800 salvage by Il
fuke out OF a ship that was totally
lost.
It began to dawn on Losing after
the event that he had made a fool Of
himself and that his luck was through,
bat he had the sense not to whine
aloud, and so his friends forgot the
matter in the excitement of other in
t~erests. 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 a means of making
4 more regular and steady livelihood.
AS dllcl ScN'rdl IilOIltilS vi SCdlIlA
this asst did not seem any appreciably
nearer, he was able to give full atten-
ton to a letter he received concerning
the Port Edes and her cargo. 1t was
unsigned and bore an American post
mark. 1t ran as follows:
Sir: / near that you are now legiti-
mate owner of the Port Edes and her
cargo. She was picked up at sea and
is now in the Everglades of Florida in
Ihprn followed tho ayart l1titlI6a and
lOngitude). The specie is taken out
of her, and you will find it by digging
(here came elaborate cross bearing n
directions). IL you are q wise man and
wish to enjoy what is now your own.
you will say as little about it to any
n as possible"
The communication was, to say the
least Of il, mysterious, but because
Losing was a fool he did not see so
many possibilities in it as a man with
more imagination might nave done. He
determined TO find out o h matter
lay with his own eyes, II with that
purpose ~journeyed to the hotel at Point
Sebastian, now rebuilt with new mag
n%ificence. 1t was the winter season,
and the place was crowded, n among
the crowd was Lossing's old friend
Kent-WilIiams, 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
sort Of employment or other. Messrs.
Kent-Williams Inc LOSING again re-
turn to view on board a royal mail
boa bound home from a port Of west
ern South America.
The pair of them watched the shores
sink under the sea-, n That's done
with" said Kent-Wiliams.
1T is returned LOSING" and I'm not
sorry, and l am satisfied. It's a bigger
puzzle than / shall ever make out in
this life. First a steamer that's sup
posed to be SUM 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 it
takes US six months to cut a canal to
the nearest river. Then someone paints
a different pattern on n smOkeStack
and leaves the other as it 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 We're. And
then the gold that's in her flies two
IL To NAlNl AP Al "AAu
twenty feet under the ground without
disturbing the network of mangrove
roots which are so matted above thas
we had to cut them with al AK"
Il think. dear boy, we've been wise
in selling the steamer with a different
name on her to a man who gave her
a low price and asked no questions
I'm sure Of it. But still I'd like to
know how it was all done. Do you think
that Cambel had a finger in it?"
DO o think" retorted Kent-Wil-
liams, that If Patrick Cambel had his
finger on half a million that no one
else knew about it wouldn't have been
his half Million? No, sir, that cock
won't fight. Besides he was s~pooning
the Kildar girl and that took up all
his time, | guess. He married her in
the early autumn, n they've gone
somewhere west, l fancy, and / don't
exactly know where. She'd a sister
near Point Sebastian, a Mrs. DIVER
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, e boy, | went up to her place
one evening and proposed 10 her, and.
by jove. d'you know she actually re-
fused me! She's got that fellow Cam
bel still in her head. I But
l shall go out n have a look at her
again. Honestly l was after $500 n
year at first, but now that, thanks to
you, I'm better off il won't look So
bad, and really / like her better than
| thought. She's a most awfully charm
ing woman
What did she ever marry that brute
Duvernay for?" asked LOSING.
All, that" replied Kent-Williams. lis
more than l can tell you"
r