Mexico Missouri message., 1910-08-25

] an . lutot were Qutlltb hhlNh "NlN
put to him with the direct simplicity Of
the American public through it's impe-
| rious representatives, the reporters.
| And 20 these questions Mr.. Langford
| could return no adequate answer what
| ever except the truth, which he could
not bring himself to tell. He de-
/ clared that she had left the yacht in
the South seas, that he did not know
/ her present whereabouts, and refused
to say anything further privately or
in public. Miss Brenton had no near
relations; what was everybody's bust
ness was nobody's. and presently pub
| lie interest in her declined She and
her philosophy were practically for
gotten by all but Langford himself.
Fortune, which had done him some
evil turns, here, however, interposed to
bore his name departed this life and
I left him free man. Brute though he
| had been. Langford was not without
some strong idea of honor and de-
cency Indeed, he had enjoyed long
| and undistributed hours Of meditation
upon his sins of omission and commits
sion during his period Of GONZALES
cence, and the calm consideration Of
! character and career had done him
good. At heart, in spite Of his brutal
conduct, for which drink had largely
! been responsible, he was a gentleman,
| and capable of things fine and high
| under the stimulus of some really
/ great emotion. He had come to real.
i2e, to put it mildly, what an awful
/ fool he had been to say nothing of his
villainy. What had led him to this
realization had been the remembrance
of the hours he had passed with Kath.
| arine Brenton before the clouds had
| arisen which had eliminated in that
/ awful storm, the recollection of which
fairly made him shudder. However,
he had deceived her by professed ad-
! herence to her wild theories and i'm
] possible philosophers, he had honestly
loved her, and association with her
had been of benefit to him. If he
only had not given away to his tenn
per and his appetite! If it had not
been for his former obligation!
He had married his wife in a mo-
ment Of boyish infatuatlon. The union
had been impossible almost from the
first. She was little more than an
adventures, much older than he, who
had entrapped him for his money.
There had been a separation on lib.
eral financial basis, to which the wom-
an had readily, even cheerfully,
agreed, and he had no lingering re-
mains of affection to hold him back
Her death was only a relief to him.
He felt that he owed repaTation to
Katherine Brenton, and he was more
willing to pay the debt because he was
honestly and genuinely in love with
| her so far as a man of his tempera-
ment could be in love with a woman.
| He wanted to make amends for his
| treatment. He would have given any
thing he possessed to have been able
to say how ashamed he was of all that
he had done, and to beg her to forgive
him and marry him.
The death of his father and the ne.
cessty for the administration of the
vast interests of the bonanza kings
estate prevented him from at once
! engaging upon the search which he
promised himself he would make, but
he expedited matters, sometimes to
his own loss, as rapidly as he could,
and after nearly years stay in San
Francisco, he found himself in posi-
tion to undertake his quest. For a
year thereafter he and the Southern
Cross traversed the unexplored, unvis-
tied waters Of the South seas. He
had landed upon island after island
which he had examined with minute
particularly. Some he had found in
habited by natives, whom, through in
teTpreters he had procured, he ques-
toned unavailingly. He ran across
stray vessels trading among the is
lands, and through them with con-
stantly increasing, ever widening me-
diums, he carried on his search, but
without result. In thus sweeping the
Pacific, he visited everything that was
charted, and all that he could find
that was not and was now homeward
bound, convinced that the launch must
have foundered and that he would
never solve the mystery Of her disap.
pearance.
So assiduously had he prosecuted
his search that the crew of the South.
ern Cross, who knew nothing as to the
cause of the eagerness, with the ex.
ception of the ship master, looked
upon him as a harmless visionary
They had been away so long and had
visited so many islands with so much
hardship. oftentimes with so much
danger from uncharted reefs in the UNI
known seas that they were one and all
wildly anxious to return from the, to
them, aimless wandering. If he had
, communicated to them at the first his
quest, they would have shared his
eagerness, but he kept 1t to himself
as he had kept his own counsel IN
San Francisco, and he straitly charged
his sailing master TO say nothing Of It
Consequently the lookout on the
fore-topmast cross-tree on a certain