, 1910-01-20
CHAPTER XIII.
The Iona Search.

The Long Search.
Mr.. Valentine Arthur Langford was
YEARLY pacing the quarter deck of his
magnificent yacht, the Southern Cross.
Mr.. Langford was an intensely dis
appointed and embittered man. He
had made two ventures which, by a
stretch of language in one case at least,
could be called matrimonial, and both
of them had resulted in disaster. Death
opportunity had relieved him of n
wife; the other who had stood in the
place of the former without the legal
ceremony or the spiritual benediction
had vanished under circumstances so
mysterious that he had no idea wheth-
err she was alive or dead. On a certain
night some three years 6 he had a
dim remembrance that he had be-
haved like a brute to a woman. His
remembrance was only dim as to de-
tails. 1t was entirely clear as to the
fact.
What had happened as a result of
his conduct he could not clearly state.
The mex morning the crew had found
him lying insensible on the cabin floor
with a fractured skull. The woman
was gone. also the power boat which
had trailed astern of the yacht in the
pleasant weather. Such was his physi-
cal condition that when he was not
unconscious, he was delirious. He had
been able to give no coherent account
of affairs and equally unable to give
any directions as to the future move
ments OF the yacht. which had been
bound nowhere in particular upon a
pleasure cruise.
The old sailing-master and captain,
much distressed by the situation and
the emergency in which he found him
self suddenly plunged, decided that
his best course, in fact, his only
course. was to get back to civilization
and a doctor as soon as possible. He
had instantly put the yacht about and
headed for the nearest land where he
might hope to get suitable care for his
terribly i'll young employer. He
pushed h yacht TO the utmost speed,
and in three weeks dropped anchor in
Honolulu, just in time to save the
young mans life. Indeed, for a long
time 1t was touch n go as to wheth-
er his life could be saved at all, and
1t was no until nearly q year had
elapsed before the Southern Cross
sailed for San Francisco with a weak
and shaky. but ~convalescent owner. on
her quarter deck.
The departure of Katharine Brenton
with Valentine Langford had made a
great sensation, but it was nothing to
the sensation which ragged when 1t be-
came known that Valentine Langford
had returned without her. She was
q woman OF too much Importance, she
had played too large a part In the ef-
fairs of the world, civilization had
manifested too much interest in her,
to allow her to drop out of its sight
without at least making an effor to
md her. The position of Mr.. Valen-
tine Langford became Interestingly
difficult in the face of a storm of in.
curry. Mr.. Langford's previous mar
riage was, fortunately for him, un-
known, but the world had had a COM
plete n adequate idea of the terms
Of the union which had peer entered
npon so blithely between Langford and
Miss Brenton that the first question
that met him wher he came back alone
was as to which n had repented
Had the woman come to her senses
mad the man grown tired of her. had
they parted, and where was the wom-
an! These were queries which were
put to him with the direct simplicity of
the American public through its impe-
rlous representatives, the reporters.
anu 10 these questions Mr.. Langford
could return no adequate answer what
ever except the truth, which he could
not prlng himself to tell. He de-
eiared that h had left the yacht in
the south seas. that he did not know
her present whereabouts, N refused
10 say anything further privately or
IN nnoiie Mas trenton had NO near