The Washington times., 1913-07-22

had suddenly overtaken him. HIS head
swayed aft as Paul looked down at him.
1t was but lending itself to the swing
Of the vessel. The motion was 80
natural that for the moment Lavelle
was deceived. A strange hope sprang
into his heart
Wake up, old man, Wake upi' he
called. He even shook him by the
shoulder. but the man at the desk was
sleeping sleep that knows no mortal
awakening.
Under the stiff arms Paul spied the
log book, which he had missed from the
mates room. He pulled II out and the
dead mans head rolled back and COM
PEELED his disturber to meet the gaze OF
his wide-open, staring blue eyes. A pen
rolled out from under his right hand
and dropped from the desk.
This undoubtedly was the Daphne's
skipper. He had been a man of power
full build, standing in life as tall as La
velle himself Even in the laxness of
death his Jaw bespoke indomitable de-
termination. The nose was of splen-
did aggressive type. Death had TAX en-
him in the beginning of his best years.
He could not have been more than forty
years of age.
A crimson splotch just below the
chest line told where the mans life
blood had gone out Measuring its To-
cation by sight with the height of the
.
duced how the Daphne's master had
been assassinated
He had been asleep, or, at any rate,
he had retired. His apparel. his dis
turOed berth, told that. He had heard
the shot which did for the mate, or,
door unsuspectingly to answer a knock
or summons. His hand turning the
door knob had been the signal to the
assassin on the other side of the door
to send bullet crashing through 1t into
his mIdriff.
But how the skipper had come to have
the log-book in his room 1t was not
possible to surmIse unless, after being
shot, he had had the strength to make
his way to the mates room and back
again. Again. he might have taken
the keeping Of the log into his own
charge. Could he and the mate have
Quarreled? Asking himself this ques-
ton, the searcher's eyes ran down the
pages at which the book had lain open,
and stopped with a shock at three
words:
The second mate
That was the final entry.
II was written in a hand which had
begun the formation OF the letters IN a
tight style and ended in the scrawling
of a school boy. a blot. and a splatter-
ed dash. Where this dash finished there
had death touched the fingers which
nelO the pen.
Whatever had happened aboard the
Daphne 1t was the second mate who
was responsible for II. Paul was con-
WINGED there was no escape from the in
dictment in those three words:
q 1t was p. m. entry under date of
March %. According TO Paul Lavelles
account of time, II was now March 81.
Some time during the night of two days
before muttny had lifted It's red hands
on the Daphne.
The log was written up to s o'clock
OF the evening of the 18th. 1t must
have been the last thing the fair-haired
boy. now lying cold forward. had done
before turning his lamp down for his
eternal watch below"
But. as startling as was the tragedy
which doomed so boldly out Of the three
simple words which have been quoted
noon Of that day: Latitude $3.50
north; longitude, 176.2s east!'
This instantly destroyed Paurs idea
of the islands position. The bark had
drifted up on the island out of the
southwest. Then. according to the most
the southwark of 1t when she was aban-
doned. That put the island between
800 and 400 miles to the northward OF
where the castaways had believed IL to
be all the time. Its drift must have
been to the north and east, instead of
the southwest.
This explained the absence of the
trades-the variable quality of the winds
which had prevailed. The island had
drifted across the spot. or within a
short distance of 1t. where the Cambo-
dia had found her grave
Paul decided to let the observation
which he planned to make at noon set-
tie the puzzle OF position. The moment
demanded that he should give his
thoughts to 1t and the living, and NOT
to the past and its dead Still, as he
laid the log down on the desk again. he
turned to the page which began II ard
read. in the style of the ancient sea
formula:
Log of the bark Daphne. 252 TONS
burden, OF Liverpool. England, David
McGavOck, master. on her VOYAGE from
Sydney. \. s. w. toward San Fran
cisco. L. S. A.
And with something of boyish bride
the keeper of the Iog-it was not the
skipper's writing-had posted his name
with boldness at the head of the list Of
the ships company: William EJston
chief officer" 1t was the imagfnatIon
OF youth gliding the rank. 1t seemed TO
speak of the Daphne had given the
boy his first berth as mate.
And they murdered you, william