The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-22

word went forth that there was leak. The water gained fast The boats were ordered over and provision ed. Hazel looked after Miss Rolleston and gathered all the articles that he could think of as being of possible use in such an emergency. These he put into the cutter into which he helped Miss Rolleston. This boat contained, besides the two passengers six seamen.
 Wylie. the mate. and the rest of the crew got into the longboat Both craft set sail, and stood slowly along with the sinking Proserpine, waiting for the captain. When that worthy at last came on deck he was crazed with drink. He declared wildly. that he would not desert his ship. Suddenly the vessel 1urched. dipped her bow un- der and raised her huge stern clear from the sea.
 At that moment cry. "Scuttled. by Godv' broke from the boatswain. showed two great splintered holes in her run. just below the water line.
 The two boats circled around, but there was no sign of the drunken master. He evidently had been suck ed down with the ship. After a de- bate 1t was decided that the best
 
 although nobody knew just what the bearings were. The boats thereupon bore northeast and the cutter ran so all night. When morning same the long boat was nowheres in sight.
 Wylie had changed his mind during the night and decided to run for the sailing track. He. therefore, had ter fifteen days at sea. was picked up. He made his way to England as fast as he could.
 The, vessel that carried him reached the mouth of the Mersey at the same moment with a big ship. wylie look ed at her. She was the shannon.
 When wylie was landed at the pier the shannon was landing her passen- ger, a tall, noble-looking soldier, in whom Wylie did not recognize Miss Rolleston's father.
 A little while later, Arthur Wardlaw sitting in his office in London, received a telegram: Have arrived. Win reach London 2:s0. Rolleston."
 A smile of great joy came over his face and transhgured 1t. Whatever else might be his faults, he loved Helen Rolleston with a perfect and unseIfish devotion. He opened a little morocco case that was on h:s desk surrounded by a silver rail. The exquisite face of the girl smiled out at him. He stopped and kissed her reverently.
 The next moment Wylie was an nounced. For a second Wardlaw turn ed pale Then he recovered himself and ordered h:m admitted.
 The man lost no time. Well, sir" said he >"the jobs done. and nobody the wiser. The Prossrpine's at the bottom and them that might have suspected something, a clergyman and a young woman that was passengers aboard, is down at the bottom, too. by this time see the Shannon :s in, so your gold Is safe. had luck in that job. too. I managed to hide in the warehouse one evening. They locked me in and gave me the whole night to myself By the time morning came all the gold was in boxes marked for the Shannon and all the lead and copper was in the Pros perine's boxes"
 Then he went on to tell of the scut- tIing. When he got to the part here the boats parted company. he burst out, suddenly: "I tell you. sir, if you had to do 1t and see it and think of 1t afterward. you'd wish all the gold had been in ell before you put your hand to such work That f2,000 that you promised me for the job was more than I could resist. But for all the gold in Victoria l wouldn't do such a job againr'
 Wardlaw smiled coldly at his out burst. He had been playing a desper- ate game for too many months to care about anything except his own hide. Almost from the beginning he had mis- manag ged the affairs of Wardlaw & Son. He had gone into colossal speculation and had lost. This daring insurance swindle would put him on his feet again, and then, he swore, he would not speculate aga:n, but play a safe game.
 Whylie had scarcely finished his story before the door opened and disclosed General RolIeston. Wardlaw leaped up with a glad cry. Then he asked ''Why, where is Helen?"
 "Helen?" said the General in surprise Helen Is not with me. I followed her after she sailed because discovered that for years she had been hiding from me the fact that she had lung trouble