Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-02-09
CHAPTER x111-(continued.)

come, and left me to the instruments.
That which was in my mine I would
share with none Say that it was an
idea which might win or lose all by q
word and yOu will come near to Its
discovery. My purpose was to. send by
wireless telegraphy such a message to
the Diamond Ship as woul lead us to
the discovery boil of her present Sit
uation and her ultimate destination.
To do so. I needed u password to the
confidence of her commander.
password I believed that I possessed.
1t a been given to me years gone
when a dead sailor had been washed
ashore upon Failing Beach and n of
the most famous diamonds in Europe
had beer found upon his body. Judge
of my excitement when 1 sat down to
put this idea to the proof! There be-
fore me was the instrument, still tick
ing a message 1 could not decipher. /
sat down before our own keyboard n
deliberately raped out the words,
Captain Three Fingers" Again and
lonely seas. Captain Three Fingers"
that and nothing more AS a spirit
winging a human thought, it went to
the unknown, over the silent waters, Il
tremor OF the air. a voice of doom, an
awful, mysterious power of words
pregnant of discovery or wholly i'm
potent in the knocking 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 baffled me.
Faithful to my wish. neither Larry nor
'McShanus had interrupted me. ! could
hear. as a distant sound, the murmur
Of gentle seas beating Upon our bows.
The purr Of III engines was as hat
Of a living, sentient entity, awake to the
intervals Of action. My fingers had
erN0vOp, 80 n1,,11%in~ <Ioe4 {ll~
words. 1 sat back in my chair in a
bitterness of spirit foreign to me, and
reflected upon the faulty of impulse
n the mockery Of all human deduc-
ton. II there were q password to the
deck Of the Diamond Ship, I lacked
their just fate. The men aboard the
distant vessel had taken alarm and
signalled to me no more. What would
it profit them to continue this vain m
ployment? Answer. the obstinacy
prompted me. Doggedly, persistently,
The words were the only words. I
could imagine 10 others. In mockery
almost, I changed my key and, to prove
myself right, a hundred times I tapped
out the word "Fordibras'' Upon the
ready instrument. Once, twice, thrice
wastes. losing itself under the blue
heavens, a delusion upon q delusion,
the hooking Jest of q man who has no
%resource but jest. And how are Won
der and the sport of chance to be eX-
pressed when I say hat the word was
answered, Immediately, clearly, beyond
all question, in a message from the Df-
amond Ship and from those who COM
manded her?
I sat as one transixed. my hands
trembling with excitement, my ears
intent as though open to the story of
~ Sn~ ~ ~ - Ah~ NJ - ~ c-s~-1
at my side came that memorable an
swer, "How is old Five AS doing?"
Leaping to the lad Harry's story, I
answered them In the Romany tongue,
the first perhaps, that any student of
crime should begin to learn. And now
word. Their anxiety mastered them.
They were telling me their secrets
across the waste, those secrets l would
have paid half my fortune to learn.
We lie at 9 degrees Is seconds by
SO degrees Is minutes Is seconds.
Where are vou?"
I flashed back a false reply. two de-
,grees northward Of u true situation.
Quick as the instrument would trans
init the words I added this intelligence:
EVERY port watched: Fabos in
station safe: wait, coming"
Their reply was the impatient ques-
tion: Are you Ross or SYCAMORE"
I too 1t to mean that there were two
ships for which they waited, and tha
the captains thereof were named re-
s%pectively Ross and Sycamore. At a
waited for them to go on Never in all
this world did the flashing voice of
electricity mean so much to mortal
man
w are short Of coal and water"
the tidings went; hurry, for Gods
To this, my hands. hot with the fever
or discovery, I rejoined:
"Rio ~known-keep the seas-we reach
you tomorrow"
And then for a long while there was
silence. I 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 h
shore n that more terrible peril of
thirst. When h machine e licked
out its unconscious confession, 1t was
to bid me hasten, for Gods sake!
I am Valentine Imroth. What has
kept you ashore?"
1.-The police and Fabos."
"Then Fordibras is a traitor
you have his daughter with you.'
els that known in Europe?"
'It Is suspected"
"By the mouth Of Fabos. He has re-
ceived my message. Has Sycamore
sailed?"
!: HE 10 two davs behind me-"
What coal has he aboard?"
I Sat back from the instrument and
answered not a word. Be 1t said that
! while I had already convinced myself
that this mysterious, unknown d.
amOnd Ship was in realitv q vessel
hauled to. az It were, permanently in
mid Atlantic, the %corollary Of attend
ant steamers needed no demonstration.
Regularly from Europe OF America, I
Nuaou{roA tonAoYN NJ CnnoeHnNoh0~ -e.>