Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-12-17

what about turning hack?"
You're owner. SIR" said Kettle
stiffly. Its for you to give orders"
What do you say. Violet?"
Il agree with you that It's acutely
glanced out OF
the tail of her eye at Captain Kettle
'in more ways than one. But don't
think you ought to give the thing up
so long as there's a chance left. 1t
isn't as If you were a rich man,
George, now. If you found the ship
and realized on her, you'd be put nice
ly on your financial feet again, while
II you don't, should say You'll find
yourself badly dipped. This trip must
have cost you tidy penny, one way
and another"
"And is continuing to cost SO much
a day. I'm beginning to think poor
Fred wrote that letter when he was
and that he never really
saw the steamer again, once he had
left her,
81 don't agree with you bit. Re-
member I knew Fred as we'll or better
than you did and he hadn't particle
of Imagination In the whole Of his
composition. He was the most literal
mater-of-fact sort of person that ever
medical practice. He prided
himself on Unconditional observation.
and if he says there were islands and
a steamer behind them islands there
are and steamer there Is. Don't
you agreed with me. captain"
Miss" said Captain Kettle, "I'm a
man without imagination myself. Sir
George showed me the letter. and
read 1t eight times over, and saw moth
ing in it but plain straightforward
statement Of fact. We may, through
my want of skill and eyesight, fail to
find the spot he speaks about, or he
may have gone badly adrift In his
but I'll stake my ticket on
it that he saw what he says he saw"
Amusement flickered in Sir Georges
tired eyes. You're quite an enthus-
last, skipper Well, Violet, II you can
stick it for another week, suppose
can, too. The skipper must try and
It,"
81 quite agree to the last proviso,"
said Miss Chesterman mischievously.
Mile by mile to the northward, the
Kangaroo searched during the hours
of daylight, lying-to at night so as not
to overrun her ground In the dark,
and one blazing day succeeded another
without tangible result. But in the
cool of one evening, success arrived at
last. A hail came from the crows
nest which was perched up higher IN
der the fore truck. THE bridge there"
aye"
"D'ye see hummock broad on the
starboard bow, sir-just on the edge OF
the coast? Seems to me two colors.
sir-mustard-yellow and blue"
"That'll be the sunset, you fool"
said the elderly second mate from the
bridge. II can't see it myself. Wait
till get the glasses
The lookout man in the crows nest
on the main-mast took up the tale,
and the pair bawled down their news
ding-dong.
There's water in at the back of
that land, sir"
River mouth, SIR
Looks to me lagoon, sir.
There's water on beyond again,
sir. l just then got glimpse Of 1t
as she rolled
That's an island of the coast, or a
row of them"
What you see is not the coast. sir
or, at any rate. there's big river
in at the back Of it."
There's a lagoon stretching right
along. You can pick out points of it
where the sun catches the water"
The old second mate stared through
his glasses, but naturally could make
out nothing, as the lower edge of the
shore-line was we'll below his horizon,
and so in the end he contented him
self with the curt, AYE, aye of ac-
He was stupid man, and prided
himself on his stupidity. He was
hired (according to his theory to act
as second mate of seven hundred
fifty ton steamboat and not to make
discoveries.
But Captain Kettle at the first note
of news had walked briskly along the
immaculate decks, had swung himself
into the fore rigging, and had run
nimbly aloft, and presently, passing
outside the barrel which formed the
crows nest, stood on the upper edges
of 1t with an arm round the masthead
just beneath the truck.
Those on deck saw him there, a
small white-clad figure, saving back
ward and forward against the evening
sky, and peering dexterously through
a long telescope at the shore and
what lay beyond. Voices stopped. The
Kangaroo slipped through the swel1s
in silence, except for the dull inter-
nal rumble of her engines. All owned
afterward to having felt curious
premonitory thrill.
To those who watched, Kettle seem
ed maddeningly slow. They watched
his long telescope saw up and down
in constant arc as the steamer rolled,
they watched him pick up the invis-
ible ground beyond their horizon and
examine It,, as it seemed, foot by foot.
and then he swung back and COM
menced the search all over again.
Sir George tried to break the ten
sion. "Well, skipper he hailed. us
that the placer"
Couldn't say, sir" came the chilly
reply and again the audience watched
the telescope plod slowly over the
coast-line. The sun. in a ball of scar
let fire, was sinking in visible inches
ho1ar, +bo unsforn horizon ond Copt