The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-04-02
G5e
MYSTERY
BY Stewart Edward White
And Samuel Hopkins Adams
Copyright, 1907, by Mcclure, Phillips & Co.


chemy, dressing modern facts in tn
garments of medieval thought unit
they We're scarcely TO be recognized.
And so he say dat he fine him. IL
philosopher stone, and he keep him Il
dat heavy box We see him carr,
aboard. and he don have to make gol
with 1.-THE can make diamon's- dia
mon's-he say II too easy TO fill da
box plum full of dlamons.'
They gesticulated and exclaimed ant
breathed hard, full of the marvel o
such a thought. Then abruptly III,
Iclamor died TO nothing. felt sly
ieyes bent on me. six unwinking eyes
moving restless IN motionlcss figures
suspicious deadly as cobras
| Up TO now my standing with the
men had been well enough. Now they
drew frankly apart. One of the most
Significant Publications Of this was thu
increased respect they paid my office
Ii was as though by prompt obcdi
ence. instant Difference and the EN-
phasizing of ships etiquette they In
tended to draw sharply the line DE
tween themselves and me. There was
much whispering apart. many private
talks and consultations In which | had
no part Ordinarily they talked free
" enough before me. Even the read
ing during the Cog watch was inter.
mitted-at least II was ,ol such days
as ] happened To he in the watch be
low. But twice | caught the Niger
and Handy Solomon consulting to-
eether over the volume on alchemy
was IN two minds whether 10 re-
port the whole matter TO Captain Sci
over. The only thing that restrained
me WAS the vagucncss of the inten.
ton and the fact that the aftcrguaul
was armed AMI was -four TO the crews
five An incident. however, decided
me. One evening / was awakened
by sound OF violent voices. Cap
tain Selover occasionally jugeled the
watches for varietys sake. and now
had Handy solomon and Perdosa.
The Niger. being cook. stood no watch.
"You drunken greaser swab"' snarl
ed Handy solomon. you son OF n
Yalui! I'll learn you to step ON n
seaman's foot. ana you can kiss the
book on that! I'll cut your heart out
and feed IT to the sharks!'
"Pothar' sneered Perdosa. "You
cut heem you finger wild your knife"
They wrangled. At first | thought
the quarrel genuine, but after a mo
ment or so | could not avoid sort OF
Int Of h..
melodrama. IL seemed incredible, but
soon | could not dodge the conclusion
that IL was q makeup quarrel designed
TO impress me.
Why should they desire 10 do so? |
had to give II up, but the fact itself
was obvious enough. laughed to see
them. The affair did not come to
blows. but 1t did come to black looks
on meeting. muttered oaths, growls of
enmity every time they happened TO
pass each other on the deck. Perdosa
was not so bad. His Mexican blood
Mexican cast lent itself well to evil
looks. But Handy Solomon for the
first time In my acquaintance with
him was ridiculous.
About this time we crossed into fire.
quent thunders. One evening just at
dark we made out heavy black
squat. Not knowing exactly what
weight lay behind it, / called up all
hands. We ducked the staysail and
foresail. lowered the peak OF the main
sail and waited TO feel of It, rough
and ready seamanship often used in
these little California wind TANNERS
was pretty busy. but | heard dis
tinctly Handy Solomon's voice behind
me:
I'm kill you sure, you greaser, as
soon as my hands are free!'
And some muttered reply from the
Mexican.
The wind hit us hard, held on a few
moments and moderated to stiff pun.
There followed the rain, SO of course |
knew IL would amount to nothing. /
was just STOPPING to throw the stops
off the staysail when l felt myself
seized from behind and forced rapidly
toward the side Of the ship.
OF course struggled. The Japa-
nese have a little trick to fool man
who catches you around the waist
from behind. 1t is part Of the jiu Jitsu
taught the Samurai. quite a different
proposition from the ordinary police
man jiu jitsu." l picked 1t up from
friend in the nobility. II came In very
handy now, and by good luck a roll Of
the ship helped me. In a moment l
stood free, and Perdosa was picking
himself out of the scuppers.
The expression of establishment was
fairly well done-I will say that for
him-but l was prepared for hlstrion-
les.
"Senorw he gasped. "Eet Is you
Sacrosanta Maria! thought you was
dat Solomon. Pardon me, senior! Par
don! Have hurt your
He approached me almost wheedllng.
could have laughed at the villain.
1t was all 80 transparent. He no more
mistook me for Handy Solomon then
he felt any real enmity for that person.
But. being angry and perhaps little
scared, beat him to his quarters with
n Delaying pin.
On thinking the matter over. how
ever, failed to see all the ms and
outs Of 1t. could understand a desire