The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-12-30
CHAPTER III.
The kohinurs Charterer,

Is 1t to be wondered at that for the
rest of the night Tom remained in a
state of such feverish excitement that
he forgot to sleep? Here, in the most
amazing manner imaginable, he and
the Girl once more were thrown to-
gether-and, too, under circumstances
that not only promised the most de-
lightful sort of intimacy, but were not
likely soon to be terminated. An I'M
wonted light shone in his eyes, and his
tanned jaw settled into lines of deter
mination that were not without a de-
gree of grimness.
whats the use!" he morosely
growled. She'll have nothing to do
with me. l made seventeen different
kinds of fool of myself Monday night
when she got me out Of that dark
room. Unless she realizes
that a scrape like that is enough to
turn any fellows head"
And this led him to Eliminating on
the strangeness of his adventure. and
to consideration of the rest of the
party, which he INDUCED briefly only
because he remembered how inexplic-
ably their doings had become identi-
fed with Miss Carew's disappearance
for undoubtedly they were the same
people who had inhabited Number 1913
and how greatly Rudy was inter-
ested in their movements. This reflec-
ton sobered him completely.
Should he not at once notify Mr..
Flint? Did the allegiance he had only
today assumed outweigh the obliga-
tons of a lifelong friendship?
Here was problem that was a lit
tie too much for Tom to decide off
hand, and he began to be conscious of
a vague, growing sense of doubt and
misgiving. He began to perceive the
possibility of future complications that
| would keep him floundering helplessly
in all sorts of predicaments; either in
reference or non-interference by him
might be the occasion for any amount
of future regret and lasting remorse
and mental suffering, but he had ar
| rived at the decision before turning
| in, that, considering everything, he
should be filed with a sense of graft
tude for the fortuitous chance that
| had moved him to call on Brownlow.
Captain Phinney was again astir
| long before sunrise. He took it upon
| himself to see that the decks had such
| a scrubbing down, the brasswork and
glass such polishing, as, in all prob
ability, they had never before received
He had himself we'll in hand now, and
every man-jack aboard recognized in
the calm, forceful individual who di-
| rected SO concisely what was to be
done, skipper who thoroughly under
stood his business and whose orders
were to be obeyed with prompt thor
oughnesS.
| So, at four bells of the morning
watch-or six o'clock by land time
when he and the Girl came uneXpect-
edly face to face, outwardly Tom was
perfectly composed, though his heart
straightway commenced a mad pound
ing, and he was filed with conviction
that a sudden unaccountable difficulty
in his breathing was going to make
him speak as if a tremolo stop had
been pulled out in his vocal apparatus.
Every minute detail of his widest
imaginings respecting her beauty was
so much more than confirmed that for
moment he could only stand and
stare.
For one thing, she was younger than
he had believed; she could not have
been more than twenty-nineteen, he