Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-02-10
cHAPTER SHORTCOMINGS

llphshWOTu 1 DetleVeQ LnaL L pOS5SSSSu'
IL had been given TO me years gone
when a dead sailor had been washed
ashore upon Failing Beach and one OF
the most famous diamonds in Europe
had been found upon his body. Judge
OF my excitement when / sat down TO
Iput this Idea TO the proof! There be-
fore me was the instrument, still tick
ing a message / could not d~ecipher. |
sat down before our " keyboard and
deliberately raped out the words,
H"Captain Three Fingers" Again and
again I sent the words speeding across
lonely seas. Captain Three Fingers
that and nothing more. AS a spirit
wingtng q human thought, 1t went to
the unknown, over the silent waters, a
tremor Of the air, a 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 bafiled me.
Faithful TO my wish, neither Larry nor
McShanus had interrupted me. / could
hear. as q distant sound, the murmur
OF gentle seas beating upon our bows.
THE purr Of cur engines was as that
OF a living, sentient entity, awake TO the
intervals Of action. My fingers had
grown weary OF repeating those idle
words. I sat back In my chair in a
bitterness OF spirit foreign to me, and
reflected upon the faulty of impulse
and the mockery OF all human deduc-
tion. If there were n password to the
deck OF the Diamond Ship, / lacked
II. My hasty conclusions had met
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 EN-
ployment? Answer, the obstinacy
prompted me. Doggedly, persistently,
reason would repeat that l was right.
The words were the only words. /
could imagine no others. In mockery
alnest I changed my key and, 10 prove
myself right, a hundred times l tapped
out he word ''Fordibras' Upon the
ready instrument. once, twice, thrice
thus 1t went speeding into the aerial
wastes, losing itself under the blue
heavens, q delusion upon a 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 X
pressed when say that the word was
answered, Immediately, clearly, beyond
all question, in a message from the Di-
amond Ship and from those who COM
manded her?
I sat as n transflxed, my hands
trembling with excitement, my ears
intent as though open to the story of
a miracle. Plain as the talk of a friend
at my side came that memorable an
swer, How Is old Five AS doing?"
- :ea ntrS 2 nc sd .iaTIss ssoIs. 1
answered them IN the Romany tongue,
the first perhaps, that any student OF
crime should begin to learn. And now
1t became no longer a question OF the
word. Their anxiety mastered them.
They were telling me their secrets
across the waste, those secrets I would
have paid half my fortune to learn.
we lie at 9 degrees Is seconds by
SO degrees Is minutes Is seconds.
Where are YOUR
/ flashed back a false reply, two de-
grees northward of our true situation.
Quick as the instrument would trans
mit the words I 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 Svcamora2"
I took 1t to mean that there were two
ships for which they waited, and tina
the captains thereof were named re-
spectively Ross and Sycamore. AT a
hazard l chose the first NAME, and
waited for them to go on. Never in all
this world did the flashing voice OF
electricity mean so much to mortal
man.
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:
THO knewn-seer TIC scSs-wo reach
you tomorrow"
And then for q lone 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 pcrils OF the
shore and that more terrible peril of
thirst. When the machine next licked
out It's unconscious confession, 1t was
to bid me hasten, for Gods sake.
7 am Valentine Imroth. What has
kept you ashore?'
1.-THE police and Fabos."
Then Fordiprus is a traitor
You have his daughter with you"
as that known IN Europe? ~
ut is suspected"
.By the mouth Of Fabos. He has re-
ceived my message. n Sycamore
saiIedYa
"He Is two davs behind me-"
"sWhat coa has he aboard?"
/ sat back from the instrument and
answered not a word. Be ii said that
while / had already convinced myself
that this mysterious, unknown Oi-
almond Ship was IN reality a vessel
hauled 10. as IT were, permanently In
mid-Atlantic, the corollary OF attend
ant steamers needed no demonstration.
Regularly from Europe on. America, I
Imagined, tenders OF considerable size
set out TO- water, provision, and to coal
the great receiving hulk wherein Inn
roth hid HIS booty and harbored his
outrasts There would be a great GO
ing to and fro OF rascals, of course.
relief crews. and q very system OF
| changing duties. But the great ship
would never make the shore unless
| driven thereto BY ultimate necessity;
| mi the very fact OF those equatorial
latitudes being chosen for her cruis
Ing ground, ATTITUDES of profound
calm and void OF winds, contributed to
the probability OF my surmige. So
much was plain: but the moment tho
arch-roGue asked me what coal the
tender carried. then, instantly. / real
1zed my peril and Quilted the instru-
ment abruptly. or the tender knew
nothing. A false word might undo ali
that accident had done for me SO nobly.
! had wisdom enough 10 draw back
from II.
They win set Il down either 10 pru-
dence or q bad receiver" I said to my
i6elf az = quilted the cabin, In d greafer
statc of mental agitation than I had
know u since sailed fr6m England. eTt
could not be better. Let them nash