The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1911-02-02
CHATTER xIII-(Continued.)

CHATTER XIII-(Continued.)
He went away as quietly as he had
|come. and left me to the instruments.
That which was in my mind I would
share with none. Say that 1t was an
idea which might win or lose all by
word and you will come near to It's
discovery. My purpose was to send by
wireless telegraphy such a message to
the Diamond Ship as would lead us TO
the discovery both OF her present SIT
uation and her ultimate destination
To do so. I needed a password to the
| confidence Of her commander. That
password / believed that ! possessed.
1t had been given to me years gone
when a dead sailor had been washed
| ashore upon Falling Beach and one OF
the most famous diamonds in Europe
had been found upon his body. Judge
Of my excitement when ! sat down to
put this idea to the proof! There be-
| fore me was the instrument, still tick
ing q message I could not decipher.
sat down before our own keyboard ana
deliberately raped out the words,
Captain Three Fingers" Again and
again sent the words speeding across
lonely seas. Captain Three Fingers
that and nothing more. AS spirit
winging human thought, 1t went 10
the unknown, over the silent waters,
tremor of the air, voice OF doom, an
awful, mysterious power of words
| pregnant of discovery or wholly I'M
potent in the mocking. ether:
| An hour passed and found me still
alone. There had been no response to
my message, no further agitation of the
receiver whose message baff1ed me.
Faithful to my wish. neither Larry nor
McShanus had interrupted me. could
hear, as distant sound, the murmur
of gentle seas beating upon our bows.
The purr of our engines was as that
OF living, sentient entity, awake to the
| intervals Of action. My fingers had
grown weary Of repeating those idle
words. / sat back In my chair In q
bitterness Of spirit foreign to me, and
reflected upon the faulty Of impulse
and the mockery of all human deduc-
ton. If there were password to the
deck of the Diamond Ship, l lacked
1t. Ny hasty conclusions had met
their just fate. The men aboard the
distant vessel had taken alarm and
signalled to me no more. What would
ployment? Answer. the obstinacy
prompted me. Doggedly, persistently,
reason would repeat that was right.
! The words were the only words. l
could imagine no others. In mockery
almost, / changed my key and, to prove
myself right, hundred times tapped
out the word 'Fordibras" upon the
ready instrument. Once, twice, thrice
thus it went speeding into the aerial
wastes, losing itself under the blue
heavens, deluSion upon deluSion,
the hooking Jest of a man who has no
resource but Jest. And how are Won
der and the sport of chance to be ex-
pressed when i say that the word was
answered, Immediately, clearly, beyond
all question, in a message from the Dr.
almond Ship and from those who COM
manded her?
I / sat as one transfixed, my hands
trembling with excitement, my ears
intent as though open to the story OF
O miracle. Plain as the talk or friend
at my side came that memorable an
swer, "How Is old Five AS doing"
Leaping to the lad Harry's story, l
answered them in the Romany tongue,
the first perhaps, that any student Of
crime should begin to learn. And now
ii became no longer question Of the
They were telling me their secrets
across the waste, those secrets would
have paid half my fortune to learn.
I'VE lie at 8 degrees Is seconds by
33 degrees Is minutes Is seconds.
Where are your"
| l flashed back false reply, two de-
grees northward OF our true situation.
Quick as the instrument would trans
NIT the words 1 added this intelligence:
EVERY port watched. Fabos in
Paris; white ensign off st. Michaels;
station safe: wait, coming"
Their reply was the impatient ques-
ton: Are you Ross or Sycamore?'
took 1t to mean that there were two
ships for which they waited, and that
the captains thereof were named re-
spectively Ross and Sycamore. At
hazard I chose the first name. and
waited for them to go on. Never in all
this world did the flashing voice of
man.
1--WE are short of coal and water"
the tidings went; hurry, for Gods
sake, or we are driven into Rio!"
To this. my hands, hot with the fever
of discovery, / rejoined:
"Rio known--keep the seas-we reach
you tomorrow"
And then for long while there was
silence. imagined that unknown crew
debating my words as though they
had been a message of their salvation.
A relief ship was coming to them.
they were saved from the perils of the
shore and that more terrible peril of
thirst When the machine next licked
out its unconscious confession, 1t was
to bid me hasten. for Gods sake!
I am Valentine Imroth. What has
kept you ashore?"
1 line DOllCt duu II dUOS.
'Then Fordibras is a traitor"
"You have his daughter with YOU"
''Is that known in Europe?'
1T is suspected"
| "By the mouth of Fabos. He has re-
ceived my message Has Sycamore
| sailed?"
HE is two davs behind me-
| what coal has he aboarde"
sat back from the instrument and
answered not a word. Be 1t said that
| while I had already convinced myself
| that this mysterious, unknown Dr.
almond Ship was In reality vessel
hauled to, as 1t were, permanently in
mid Atlantic, the corollary of attend
liant steamers needed no demonstration.
Regularly from Europe or America,
| Imagined, tenders Of considerable size
set out to water, provision, and to coal
the great receiving hulk wherein I'm
roth hid his booty and harbored his
| outcasts. There would be a great 60
ing to and fro Of rascals, of course,
| relief crews, and very system OF
changing duties. But the great ship
would never make the shore unless
driven thereto by ultimate necessity;
and the very fact of those equatorial
ATTITUDES being chosen for her cruis-
ing ground, ATTITUDES of profound
calm and void of winds, contributed to
the probability of my Surmise. SO
much was plain; but the moment the
arch-rogue asked me what coal the
tender carried, then, instantly, / real
lied my peril and Quilted the instrIl-