The Tupelo journal., 1912-09-20

tor. How d'you DOR He contrived
to keep his tone costly respectful and
im~personal. but his eyes were plead-
ing With her, and hs hung upon the
issue u her response AZ q condsmAsd
man lives In the hope Of . rspfteIe.
She knew him now; his action IN
discovering, his features had but
fastened slightly the confirmation Of
her most dread premonition. And Of .
sudden her face was a mask of chalk
set with eyes that blazed with cold
fires Of terror. Coast saw her sway.
but though he feared she vas about
to faint, dared LOT move to her as
sistance. Indeed, there was no need;
she was fashioned Of sterner stun:
though every atom Of her being shud-
dered, she remained mistress Of her
self. An instant's delay would. have
been damning; she knew that . /.
and her answer fell pat 80 he ceased
to speak.
Good evening"" she said SO admira-
bly, that there was even a hint of IAN
guild indifference In her voice. You
have surprised US, Mr.. Handyside."
Lord, yes!" Blackstock broke in.
Its hard to believe. D'you mean to
tell me you made the u through this
Storm"
The blood flowed back into Coasts
heart. He flashed the woman a look
of thanks, but her gaze was blank as
it met his, and he knew that as yet
she existed and guided her actions au-
tomatically. The real awakening to
the situation was yet to come-nor
with her would it be long delayed.
The crisis was not yet past.
Well" he said, with a careless
a blow, that's a fact. Had me
frightened; I've seen some storms
but they were from the decks OF
steamships" He began to unfasten
the oilskin~ coat. Lucky to get here
at all, l guess"
That's true, or I'm no judge OF
weather. / wonder you managed to
get Finn and Hecksher to take the
chance"
They didn't want to-" Coast Of
fered up a fervent prayer OF gratitude
for the fortuitous turn of the CONVEX
sation that had supplied him with the
names Of Mr.. Handyside's travelling
companions. But I was told to hustle
because Power was leaving you prac-
tically without notice, so | insisted.
Of course the fog held us up all morn
ing; and then we had to have an &C
cident?"
"How's that?" Blackstock sat down
heavily, still with his staring eyes
turned toward Coast, his face clouded
with thoughtfulness. Where are
they, anyway" he continued without
pause, as one reminded of an over
sight. Enthusiastically aren't
they with your
"Oh, they're all right" Coast par
ried, making time for Katherine.
whose struggle to retain her poise
and comprehend just what 1t all meant
was engaging his attention to such a
degree that he had to force himself
to give heed to Blackstock. "You
don't need to worry about them"
Blackstock leaned forward, scowling
intently. What d'you mean by that?
Didn't they bring you here?"
Only part way; you see this acct.
dent | mentioned"
What sort of an accident? Hang
-
1t, If they didn't bring you Where'd
you leave them?"
Safe enough-high and dry
aground in Quick's Hole"
The devil you say! How'd Finn
come to run the Corsair aground?
Why, he knows more about this
coast"
Not his fault. 1t came about kind
ness of some amateur asses-beg
pardon, Mrs. Black; I'm quoting Mr..
Ffnn-in a catboat. They al
most ran us down when we were
about midway through the Hole
didn't seem to know what they were
doing; and in trying to avoid a col
lision we piled up on a shOal on the
lefthand side of the channel-forget
the name of the island it makes off
from"
Coast hesitated in assumed perplex-