Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-17

of by his own shot at the sun had shown
US that we were In about the latitude
and longitude Of the chart where We
might hope to sight land If the island of
our search was not purely an imaginar,
one. 1t had not been marked on any
chart, to be sure and ] had always felt
some doubt about il. The whole story
was so strange and unreal, something like
a story tellers romance, that the longer
L sailed on the voyage the less real the
whole undertaking seemed. With the
passing days and the passing leagues l
had changed my once confident opinion.
OF course these parts OF the ocean had
not been we'll charted. They were very
infreQuently visited, and there might well
be islands here. as well as in other parts
OF the South seas that no one knew any
thing at all about. l had thus sought 10
reassure myself, and. 10 and behold, there
II was. / was glad then that i had not
spoken of my growing doubts to my lady.
Somehow the sight Of that land set my
pulses beating. IL there was land there
why should not the rest OF the story be
true, why should there not be treasure"
My confidence came suddenly back to me
Yes. that must be the island, and the
treasure must be upon it. / had given up
all of my share to the crew for her
nevertheless, / was not insensfble to its
value IL II We're there. and made up my
mind If human strength. human wisdom.
human cunning and unbounded devotion
could work il out / would outwit the
crew and get all of 1t for her, although L
realized that riches would remove her at
once farther than ever from me. What
of It? / couldn't be farther from her
than / was. She had shown me my pre-
sumption and rebuked me properly fo-
ii, though. indeed. she had forgiven me-
She was born to be rich and happy, and
If 1 could make her the one her friends.
old and new, would doubtless make her
the other. AS for Newell, L could GO
off on some longer cruise even than this
and never come back. Nobody would
care. / didn't have much time to think
about these things but the resolution
came to my mind then as / set IL down
here.
The whole crew was on deck. l didn't
see any signs Of Capt. Matthews body.
although I looked hastily about for il.
learned later that they had tumbled him
overheard, without q prayer or word.
after they had knocked him on the head
He had shot one man before they got
him, and he had gone into the sea with
the same lack of ceremony, too-mur-
dered and murderer together. to wait the
final reckoning. Pimball. Glibby and one
or two others OF the older seamen were
on the quarterback. the rest being strung
along the lee rail in the waist. staring at
the island. Two hands were at the wheel.
The ship was pitching and laboring heav-
lily, and il required two hands to hold her
up to it.
During the night they had taken a sec
ond reef in the topsls A whole gale was
now blowing Everything above the tops
yards had been furled, Of course. The
Rose Of Devon was q Wet ship In q sea-
way, and she was making heavy weather
out Of 1t. Every once in a while a wave
would slap her on the weather bow and
send a cloud Of spray and a torrent OF
water flooding aft. Fortunately IL was
not cold. We were only a few degrees
south from the line, SO the water WAS
warm. and nobody minded an occasional
ducking.
1 noticed one thing with satisfaction.
They had evidently not thought ii worth
while to break open the arms chest or TO
force the key from me. which they could
easily have done, and none OF them was
armed. The desirability OF getting at the
arms had not occurred to them, or else.
they being SO many and ! but one.
they had not thought IL worth while. AT
any rate. save their sheath knives. weap
ons they had none Even Capt. Math-
thews' pistols had been thrown over with
the body in their hasty disposition OF IL.
WELL" began, as ] climbed over the
hatch combfng and turned aft.
II sent for you, Hampton" began PIN
ball, insoiently. and his failure to mis-
ter" me or to give me any title indicated
our present relations. because OF that.
and he pointed to the leeward toward the
island, which we We're now sufficiently
near to see easily in the growing light
and to which we were rapidly drawing
nearer.
1T looks like land" said.
1T is land. What land?''
How can tell?" answered: "I have
never been in these seas before"
well. you took an observation yester-
day. didn't your
Certainly"
And where were we?'
/ named a latitude and longitude not
exactly what 1 had worked out, but near
enough. / didn't want these ruftians to
know exactly where We were. He pulled
out the chart as I spoke and compared
it's figures with what / had given them.
He could read figures, IL not letters.
AT any rate" he said, after studying
over the map for a little time, that is
not far from the point We are making for.
is ft?'
(To be continued tomorrow