Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1910-10-13
CHAPTER discontinued.

"You will stay-eh, Nat?" he cried,
bobbing his head. Yes, you will stay,
and you will give me back the pack
age for day or two" He retreated
to the trap and slid down it as quick
ly as rat. Pleasant dreams to you,
Nat, and-O, walt minutel" Cap
tain Plum could hear him pattering
quickly over the floor below. In
moment he was back, thrusting his
white grimacing face through the
trap and tossed something upon the
bed, She left them last night, Nat.
Pleasant dreams, pleasant dreams"
and he was gone.
Nathaniel turned to the bed and
picked up faded bunch of lilacs.
Then he sat down, loaded his pipe,
and smoked until he could hardly see
the walls of his little room. From the
moment of his landing on the island
he turned the events of the day over
In his mind. Yet when he arrived at
the end of them he was no less mys-
titled than when he began. Who was
Obadiah Price? Who was the girl
that fate had so mysteriously asso-
ciated with his movements thus far?
What was the plot in9which he had
accidentally become involved? With
tireless tenacity he hung to these
questions for hours. That there was
a plot of some kind he had not the
least doubt The councillors strange
actions, the oath, the package. and
above all the scene in the kings house
convinced him Of that. And he was
sure that Obadiah's night visitor-the
girl with the lilacs-was playing a
vital part in 1t.
The lonoger he smoked the more his
old confidence and his old reckless
ness returned to him. He enjoyed his
adventure. The next day he would
end 1t. He would go openly into st.
James and have done his business
with Strang. Then he would return to
his ship. What had he, Captain Plum,
to do with Strang's wife?
But even after he had determined
on these things his brain refused to
rest He paced back and forth
across the narrow room, thinking of
the man whom he was to meet to-
lnOll0M--Oi dn5t Tic OilC-lllC
schoolmaster and temperance lecturer
who had made himself a king, who
for seven years had defied the state
and nation, and who had made of his
island stronghold hot-bed of polyg-
amy, of RIGHTEOUSNESS. of dissolute
power. Ills blood grew hot as he
thought again of the beautiful girl
who had appealed to him. Obadiah
:. had said that she was the kings wife.
Still
Thoughts flashed into his head
which for time made him forget his
mission on the island. In spite of his
resolution to keep to his own scheme
he found himself, after little, think
ing only of the Mormon king, and the
lovely face he had seen through the
castle window. He knew much about
the man with whom he was to deal
tomorrow. He knew that he had been
a rival of Brigham Young and that
when the exodus of the Mormons to
the deserts of the west came he had
led his own followers into the north,
and that each July, amid barbaric fes-
tivities, he was recrowned with a
circlet of gold But the girl! If she
was the kings wife why had her eyes
called to him for help?
The question crowded Nathaniel's
brain with a hundred thrilling pic
lures. With a shudder he thought of
the terrible power the Mormon king
held not only over his own people but
over the Gentiles of the mainlands as
well.
Was 1t possible that this girl
Captain Plum did not let himself
finish the thought. With powerful
effort he brought himself back to his
own business on the island. smoked
another pipe, and undressed. He went
. to bed with the withered lilacs on the
table close beside him. EIe fell asleep