Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-09

THE BI ACK BAG
BY LOUIS JOSEPH VANCE.
Copyight-By Bobbs, Merrill Co.
CHAPTER xI1-(continued.)

SiSaSsAt4>es1O@&
endar and Mrs. Hallam. Kirkwood had
not only the testimony of his sense to
assure him that the ships name,
Alethea (not a common one, by tne
bye). had been mentioned by both
Calendar and Mulready during their
alteration on Bermondsey Old Stairs,
but he had the conirmatory testimony
of the sleepy waterman, William, who
had directed Old Bob and Young Will
lam to the anchorage off Bow creek.
That there should have been two YES
sells of the same unusual name at
one and the same time in the Port OF
London, was a coincidence too pre-
posterous altogether to find place in
his calculations.
His second impregnable conclusion
was that those whom he sought had
boarded the Alethea, but had left her
before she tripped her anchor. That
they were not slowed away aboard her
seemed unquestionable. The brigan-
tire was hardly large enough for the
presence of three persons aboard her
to be long kept a secret from an in
uuisitive fourth-unless, indeed, they
lay in hiding in the hold; for which,
once the ship got under way, there
could be scant excuse. And Kirkwood
did not believe himself person OF
sufficient Importance in Calendars
eyes, to make that worthy endure the
discomforts of a 'tween-decks I'M
prisonment throughout the voyage,
even TO escape recognition.
With every second, then, he was
travelling farther from her to whose
aid he had rushed, impelled by mo-
tives so hot-headed, so innately
chivalric. so unthinkingly gallant, SO
exceptionally idiotic!
Idiot. Kirkwood groaned with des-
pair of his inability to fathom the
abyss Of his self-contempt. There
seemed to be positively no excuse for
him. Stryker had befriended him in
deed, had he permitted him to drown.
Yet he had acted for the best. as he
saw it, The fault lay in himself: all
admirable fault, that of harboring and
nurturing generous and compassionate
instincts. But OF course, kirkwood
couldn't see it that way.
What else could I do?" he defend
ed himself against the Indictment Of
common sense Il couldn't leave her
to the mercies of that set of rogues!
- And Heaven knows was given
aboard this ship! Why, she herself
Told me that she was sailing
Heaven knew, too, that this folly
of his had cost him pretty penny,
first and last. His watch was gone
beyond recovery, his homeward pas
sage forfeited he no longer harbored
Illusions as to the steamship company
presenting him with another berth in
lieu of that called for by that water
soaked slip of paper then in his pocket
courtesy of Stryker. He had sold
for a pittance, 1.-THE of it's value, his
personal jewelry, and had spent every
penny he could call his own. with
the money Stryker was to give him he
would be able to get back to London
and his third-rate hostelry, but not
with enough over to pay that one
weeks room-rent, or y
ooh, the devil" he groaned, head
in hands.
The future doomed wrapped in up
speakable darkness, lightened by no
enough to lose a comfortable living
through a gigantic convulsion of Ma
ture; but to think that he had lost all
else through his own egregious folly,
to find himself reduced to the ken
nels--!
So Care found him again in those
weary hours-came and sat by his
side, slipping grisly hand in his and
tightening it's grip until he could have
cried out with the torment of it: the
while whispering insidiously subtitle,
evil things in his ear And he had
not even Hope to comfort him; at
any previous stage he had been able
to distil a sort Of bitter-sweet salts
faction from the thought that he was
suffering for the love of his life. But
noW-now Dorothy was lost, gone like
the glamour of Romance in the search
ing light of day.
Stryker, emerging from his room for
, breakfast, found the passenger with
hostile look in his eye and jaw set
in ugly fashion. His eyes, too, we're
the abiding-place of smoldering devils;
and the captain, recognizing them, con-
siderately forbore to stir them up with
any untimely pleasantries. To be
sure, he was autocrat in his own ship,
and Kirkwoods standing aboard was
nil; but then there was just enough
yellow in the complexion of Stryker's
soul to incline him to sidestep trouble
whenever feasible. And besides, he
entertained dark suspicious of his
guest-suspions he scarce dared voice
event to his Utmost heart
The morning meal therefore, passed
off in constrained silence. The captain
ate voraciously and vociferously, push
ed back his chair, and went on deck
to relieve the mate The latter, a
stunted little Cockney with wizened
countenance and mind as foul as his
tongue, got small change of his at
tempts to engage the passenger in
conversation on topics that he con-
sidered fit for discussion. After the
sixth or eighth snubbing he rose in
sdudgeon, discharged a poisonous bit Of
insolence, and retired to his berth,
leaving Kirkwood to finish his break
fast in peace; which the latter did
literally, to the last visible scrap of
food and the ultimate drop of coffee,