Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-08-19
By GUY THORNE.
CHAPTER xIl-Continued.

The passengers by the midnight
{ swung the luggage aboard. The mails
went in the hold The thirty or forty
passengers, one and all, seemed to
have disappeared below. There was
the welcome clang Of the engine-room
bell. the slow throbbing of the propel-
\ Ter, and the quay was already three
yards away The streak Of moonlit
water between the ship and the tide
wall widened and widened. The pas
4 sage had begun.
The two young men climbed to the
upper deck and paced slowly up and
down, arm in arm, talking of what
lay before them
The turbine slid away into the night
on the long four and half hours pas
sage. The white cliffs of England
glimmered for little space, and then
b sea-fog got up and hid them. The
steady ttrob, felt rather than heard,
of the mighty engines pervaded the
still air. A mile or two out from land
the harbour wind ceased, but there
was an oily swell. which made the
s Prfncesse Henriette roll little
Grant was a good sailor, however,
and Basil Marriott was, OF course, more
at home upon a deck than the floor
y of q room.
They were quite alone upon the up
4 per deck. All the seats were deserted.
The great tunnels rose amidships
white and ghost-like, and the only
sound of life came from the bridge
above them, where the captain and
the mate were pacing. They could
+ see the red lights of their cigars, as
they epassed and repassed each other,
and now and then they heard the cap
tain give an order to the man at the
wheel. and the hoarse reply: Port
\ 1t is! Starboard it Is!
Well, old chap" Grant, said, Eve
are fairly In for it now, and / hope
you don't feel you have come upon a
wild-goose chase. At least, don't
quite mean that. What / mean is, that
you don't regret having thrown in
your lot with us upon this business"
Regret, my dear fellow" the sailor
answered; regret? You don't know
what II means to me. Why, have
met my sweetheart on this voyage.
That Is fact, only it's a fact you
need not expatiate upon.
Do you know Grant answered, q
thought there was something of the
sort. and it was | who proposed to
the Duchess that Miss Hobson should
3 accompany her 4 thought don't you
zee III was my artfulness that I'd
get You more easily
oh. come, Grant. !" the other an
i swered .yon could not have known
much about 1T didn't know much
shout II myself until 1t actually hap
pened. Its astonishing, by the way,
how rapidly these things do happen
sometimes
oh, Grant replied, time is nothing
to men like you and me. 1t. Ii what
\ we feel, not how long we have felt 1t,
Il that really matters.
That Ii Just what have thought .
Marriott replied. Halloa! What's
this ?o he broke of short.
Someone came stumbling up the
ladder to the upper deck
The two men were forward, and
40 the moonlight they saw tall, thin
figure 90 rolling away and plump
q down upon q seat on the port side.
Then, quite distinctly In the still air
Sof the summer night. they heard a
groan. ~
Grant and Marriott bent over the
valet and looked III his face. The
/ mans breathing was thick and ster-
sstOrous. There was something about
his face they did not like
Grant lifted up one eyelid with his
thumb. The cornea was turned up
wards. The edge OF the pupil, which
I they could see, was strangely dilated.
ny, the man 10 In q at. Grant
+ said, Ia q sharp. frightened voice.
ksasil bent down towards tho wallets
face He sniffed.
Va. II is not that he said. Then,
IA 4 curl lousy hurried voice, 81 us not
that at All The man ID drugged.
YoN know. Grant. as one Of Percy
Scott. Naval Brigade III the Boer
ana some OF our chaps were
rounded. and went to them In hos
sspital M fact, saw 81 good deal Of
Held doctoring Someone has dosed
our man With q sleeping draught. ~
but thlt is impossible 81 Michael
Il answered. have been on deck
IN the time Nobody has been. i'm e
Baeil thong ht for a
iood heavens hes said. my
J, dark SEINE bod must have put
- Is :. ~ - !,