Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-01-03

in nv theoretic chain snapped at the first
test. As he had not sailed with the 9TH
ers, he could have no direct connection
with the nameless ship, no nautical part
o. lot with her. But what was he, then?
! That | meant to know as soon as oppor-
tunity should serve.
Il have led you up, Strong, step by
step, through the details of this work to
this point. | am now about to move over
the ground more quickly. | will quit
Speza. and ask you to come with me,
after the interval of nigh a year, to Lon
don. where, in an hotel in Cecil street,
Strand, | was again the neighbor of the
man with the jewels. The day on which
the nameless ship left the dock this man
whom, | may say at once, | have al
ways met under the name OF captain
Black-quitted the town and reached
Paris. Thther | followed him. staying
one day in the French capital, but going
onward with him on the following morn
ing to Cherbourg. There he went aboard
a small yacht. and lost him in the Chan-
mel. | returned at once to italy, ana
wired to friends in the police force at
New York, at London and San Francisco
and at three ports in South America Tor
news (a) of a new warship lately COM
pleted at Speza for the Brazilian repub-
lie; (b) of man known as Captain
| Black, who left the port of CherDourg
in the cutter-yacht La France on the
morning of Oct. 80. For nearly twelve
months | waited for an answer to these
questions, but none came to me- 10 the
best of my knowledge, the nameess war
ship was never seen upon the high seas.
began to ask myself, if she existed, how
came it that a vessel, FURNISHED to the
beauty of gold. had been spoken of none
seen of none, reported in no harbor men
toned in no dispatch? Yet in the month
when the cruiser quilted Spezia three
ocean going steamers, each carrying specie
to the value Of more than one hundred
thousand pounds, went down in far
weather, and were paid for at Lloyds.
Il was much occupied making a list
as far as that We're possible, OF all the
gems and baubles which the dead men
| and women on the sunken steamers hao
owned. This was a paltry record OF
! bracelets, and rings, and taras, ana
clasps, such stuff as any fellow OF Jew
eer may sell unconvincing stuff, worth
no more than near relation for purposes
| of evidence. There was but one piece OF
the whole mass that did not come in my
category-a great box with fine paint
ing by Jean Petitot upon its lid and
curious circle of jasper all about the MIN
iatures. This was a historic piece men
toned as having once been the property
of Necker, the French tinancler; then
lost bv New York dealer, who was TAX
ID -, thn ct m
ship Catalania the ship supposed to have
| foundered, with the loss of all hands, OH
| the banks of Newfoundland sixteen days
after the nameless ship left Spezla. l
made a record of this trifle, and forgot it
| until, many months later, private com
munication from the head of the New
York secret service told me that the man
| wanted was in London; that he was an
American millionaire, who owned house
on the banks of the Hudson river, who
had great influence in many cities, who
came to Europe to buy precious stones
and miniature paintings, a man who was
considered eccentric by his friends.
took rooms in the hotel where Captain
Black was staying. Three days after
was disguised as you have seen me, SELL
| ing him miniatures. Within week, by
what steps l need not pause to say,
knew that the jasper box, lost, by report
in the steamer Catalania. was under lock
and key in his bedroom.
Il cannot tell you how that discovery
agitated me. Here, indeed, was my sec
ond direct link. The man had in his pos
session an historic and unmstakable cas-
ket which all the world believed to be
lost in a steamer from which no soul had
escaped How l treasured that knowl-
edge Three months the man remained in
London; during three months he was not
thirty hours out of my sight or knowl-
edge. | resigned my work for the gov
ernment, and henceforth gave myself
heart and soul to the pursuit of the man.
| followed him to Paris, to st. Peters
burg; | tracked him through France to
Marseilles | watched him embark, with
three of the ruffians l had seen at Spezia,
in his yacht again; and within month
the Yacht was in harbor at Cowes with
out him; while a steamer, bound from the
Cape to Cadz, and known to have specie
aboard her. went out of knowledge as the
others had done. Then was | sure that |
alone shared with that man and his crew
one of the most CHASTITY secrets that the
deep has kept within her.
81 had positively to connect the man
Black with the nameless ship, for this
had only done so far by pure circum-
stance. For many months | have made
no gain in this attempt. Last year in
Liverpool l sketched in yet another point
in my picture. | received tidings of the
man in that city, and there | did trade
with him in my old disguise but he was
not alone-the crew of ruffians you have
known by this time kept company with
him. | kept vigil there a week, but lost
him at the end of that time. When he
reappeared in the circles of civilization it
was in Paris, but two days ago, when
asked you to accompany me. You know
that | attempted to sail with him on his
cruise, and your instinct tells you why.
If | could, by being two days afoat in his
company, prove beyond doubt that he used
his yacht as a pretense; if | could prove
that when he left port in her he sailed
some miles out to sea, and was picked up
by the nameless ship, my chain was forg-
ed. my book complete, and | had but to
call the government to the work .
But | have failed, and the labor