Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-06-16

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
ize, 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 adj
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 infatuation. The union
had been impossible almost from the
first. She was little than an
adventures, much older than he, who
had entrapped him for his money.
There had been a separation on a lib
eral financial basis, to which the wom-
an had readily, even c%heerfully,
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 reparation 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
cessity for the administration of the
vast interests of the bonanza king
estate prevented him from at once
engaging upon the search which he
promised himself he would make, but
he expedited matters, sometimes t.
his own loss, as rapidly as he could
and after nearly a years stay in Sar
Francisco, he found himself in posi-
ton to undertake his quest. For
year thereafter he and the Southern
Cross traversed the UNEMPLOYED, unvis
tied waters of the South seas. HI
had landed upon island after islant
which he had examined with minute
particularly. Some he had found in
habited by natives, whom, through in
terpreters he had procured, he ques
toned unavailingly. He ran acros
stray vessels trading among the Is
lands, and through them with cor
stantly increasing, ever widening me
diums. he carried on his search, blu
without result. In thus sweeping th
Pacific, he visited everything that wa
charted, and all that he could fin
that was not, and was now homewar
bound, convinced that the launch mus
have foundered and that he woul
! never solve the mystery of her disal
pearance.
{ So assiduously had he prosecute
his search that the crew Of the Soutl
ern Cross, who knew nothing as to th
! cause of the eagerness, with the e,
ception of the ship master, locke
upon him as a harmless ~visionar.
!, They had been away so long and ha
visited so many islands with SO muc
! hardship, oftentimes with so muc
T danger from uncharted reefs in the u
Y known seas that they were one and a
wildly anxious to return from the,
9 them, aimless wandering. If he he
communicated to them at the first b
9 quest. they would have shared h
$ eagerness, but he kept It'll to himseI
g as he had kept his own counsel
! San Francisco, and he straitly charge
q his sailing master to say nothing Of
: Consequently the lookout on Il
fore-topmast cross-tree on a certa
!, summer morning, catching sight Of
: dim, blue haze on the horizon far {
Y to starboard, made NO report Of
? What was the use? 1t would only d
I lay matters and they were within
! few weeks of Honolulu now, and a
other fortnight beyond Hawaii wou
! bring them back to the United State
9 for which they all longed with the d
= sire of men who had been away fro
:. home and confined to the Mario
I decks of a cruising ship for over
Z year.
! Something's to whether 1t W
:, Providence or not he was somewh
: doubtful in his mind afterward
i brought Langford on deck before /
: usual time for rising. The watch W
!, In charge Of a rather sleepy, stur
!, second officer, unimaginative and Y
I observant. He had not noticed 7
I land which 1t was difficult to see frc
, the deck at any rate, especially as
/ did not lie between the yacht and t
! sun, and as it had not been report
from the masthead, he knew nothi>
u Of it.
Langford had found sleep impt
sible. The year of search, the consta
disappointment, the pressing sense
d, mystery, the feeling that his condu
ID was indeed irreparable had prey
D. upon him. He wal thin, worn, nervo
Re and irritable. He walked up and dov
the deck In the cool Of the mofni