Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-11

trouble and having waited for the two
adventures to appear, had been con-
tent with sight of them? He could
hardly believe that of the woman; it
wasn't like her
Presently he told himself he under
stood. Dorothy was no longer of her
fathers party; he had a suspicion
that Mulready's attitude had made it
seem advisable to Calendar either to
leave the girl behind, in England, or
to segregate her from his associates
in Antwerp. If not lodged in another
quarter Of the city, or left behind she
was probably travelling on ahead, to
destination which he could by no
means guess And Mrs. Hallam was
looking for the girl; if there were
really jewels in that gladstone bag,
Calendar would naturally have no hes
itation about intrusting them to his
avowedly sought nothing else. How
the woman had found out that such
was the case, Kirkwood did not stop
to reckon; unless he explained it on
the proposition that she was a person
of remarkable address. 1t made no
matter one way or the other; he had
lost Mrs. Hallam; but Calendar and
Mulready he could put his finger on;
they had undoubtedly gone off to the
Alethea to confer again with Stryser
that was, unless they proposed sail
ing on the brigantine, possibly at turn
of tide that night
Panic gripped his soul and shook
it, as q terrier shakes a rat, when he
conceived this frightful proposition.
In his confusion of mind he evolved
spontaneously an entirely new hypo.
thesis. Dorothy had already been
spirited aboard the vessel; Calendar
and his confederate delaying to join
her from enigmatic motives, were now
aboard; and presently the word would
be, Up-anchor and away!
Were they again to elude him? Not,
he swore, if he had to swim for it.
And he had no wish to swim. The
clothes he stood in, with what was
left of his self-respect, were all that
he could call his own on that side OF
the North Sea. Not a boatman on the
Scheldt would so much as consider &C
cepting three English pennies in ex-
change for boat hire. In brief, it began
to look as if he were either to swim
or to steal q boat.
Upon such slender threads of cir
cumstance depends our boasted moral
health. In one fleeting minute Kirk
woods conception of the law Of meum
ct tuum, it's foundations already ins
siduously undermined by series OF
cumulative misfortunes, toppled
crashing in it's fall; and was not.
He was wholly unconscious of the
IN,
tween the quays bridged by the gang
way, number of rowboats, a puta-
tive score, lay moored for the night
and gently rubbing against each 9th
err with the soundless lift and fall of
the river. For all that Kirkwood
could determine to the contrary, the
lot lay at the mercy of the public;
nowhere about was he able to discern
a figure in anything resembling
Waterman.
Without a culver of hesitation -
moments were invaluable, If what he
feared were true - he strobe to the
gangway, passed down, and with alb
solute nonchalence dropped into the
nearest boat stepping from one to an
other until he had gained the outer
most. To his JOY he found pair of
oars slowed beneath the thwarts
If he had paused to moralize =
which he didn't upon the discovery;
he would have laid it all at the door
of his lucky star; and would have
been wrong We who have never
stopped to petty larceny know that
the oars had been placed there at the
direction of his evil genius bent upon
facilitating his descent into the aver
aus of crime. Let US, then. pity the
lroor young man without condoning
his offense.
Unhitching the painter, he set one
oar against the gunwale Of the next
boat, and With powerful thrust sent
his own, Clet us so call it for conven-
ience) stern first out upon the river;
shen sat him composedly down, fitted
the oars to their locks, and began to
/ pull straight across-stream, trusting
to the current to carry him down to
the Alethea. He had already marked
| down that vessels riding-light; and
that not without glow of gratitude
to see it still aloft and in proper iux-
Imposition to the river bank; proof
! that it had not moved