The Mena weekly star., 1910-07-14
CHAPTER XII.
The Lono Search.

Mir. Valentine Arthur Langford was
 wearily pacing the quarter deck of his magnificent yacht, the Southern Cross. | Mir Langford was an intensely dis
 appointed and embittered man. He
 had made two ventures which. by stretch of language ln one case at least, could be called matrimonial, and both of them had resulted in disaster Death | opportuneiy had relieved him of Ono wife; tho other who had stood in the | place of the former without the legal
 ceremony or the spiritual benedictlon
 had vanished under circumstances so
 mysterious that he had DO idea wheth- sr she was alive or dead. On a certain
 night some threa years ago he had | dim remem brance that he had be- baved like brute to woman His | remembrance was only dim as to de tails. k was entirely clear as to the | tact.
 What had happened as result of | his conduct he could not clearly state l The next morning the crew had found
 him lying insensible on the cabin floor 1 with fractured skull. The woman
 was gone, also the power boat which
 bad traiied astern Of the yacht in the
 pleasant weather. Such was his physk
 cal condition that when he was not
 unconscious. he was delirious. He had
 boen able to give no coherent account
 of affairs and equally unable to give
 any directions as to the future move
 ments of tho yacht, which had been
 bound nowhere in particular upon 6
 pleasure cruise.
 The old Eailing-master and captain
 much distressed by the situation and
 the emergency in which be found him
 self suddenly plunged. decided that
 his best coarse. fin fact, hts only
 course, was to get back to civilization
 and doctor as soon as possibfo. He
 had instantly put tho yacht about and
 headed for the nearest land where he
 might hope to get suitable care for his
 terribly i'll young eanpfoyey He
 pushed the yncht to the utmost speed
 and in three weeks dropped anchor in
 Honolulu. just in time to save the
 young mans life. Indeed. for long
 time 1t was touch and go es to wheth-
 or his life could be saved at all. and
 1t was not until nearly year had
 elapsed before the Southern Cross
 sailed for San Francisco with weak
 and ehaky. but convalescent owner. on
 her quarter dech
 The departure of Katharine Brenton
 with Valentine Langford had made a
 great sensation, but 1t was nothing to
 the sensation which ragged when 1t be-
 came known that Valentine Langford
 had returned without her. She was
 woman of too much importance, she
 had played too large a part fin the af-
 fairs of the world. civiliZation had
 manifested too much interest in her,
 10 allow her to drop out of it's sight
 without at least making an effort to
 find her. The position of Mir. Valen-
 line Langford became Interestingly
 difficult in the face of storm Of ip-
 ouiry. Mr. Langford's previous mar
 riago was, fortunately for him, un-
 known, but the world had had com
 plete and adequate idea of tho terms of the union which had been entered upon so blithely between Langford and Miss Brenton that the first question that met him when he came back alone was as to which one had repented. Had the woman come 70 her BenHeA mad the man grown tired of her. had hey parted, and where was the wom- my Those were queries which were put to him with the direct simplicity of he American public through its inpe- -lous representatives, the reporters. And to these questions MT. Langforo sould return no adequate answer what aver except the truth. which he could not bring himself to tell. He de- .lared that she had left the yacht i'll the South seas, that he did not know ner present whereabouts. and refused Q say anything further privately or in public. Miss Trenton had no near citations. what was everybody's husi- ness was nobody's, and presently pub ic interest in her declined. She and her philosophy were practically for. gotten by all but Langford himself. Fortune. which had done him some svil turns, here, however, interposed 10 4 nis advantage. The lady who legally pore his name departed this life and eft him a free man Brute though ne \ aad been, Iangford was not without I some strong idea of honor and de ,ency. Indeed he had enjoyed long N and undistrihuted hours of meditation upon his sins of omission and commiA' sion during his period or conTaies' cenco. and the calm consideration ol character and career had done him good. At heart. in spite of his brutal 4s.,,,.et for whicf. drink had largely