The Press., 1915-03-10

, one of the others. opened two doors i before located the sound. Then, try ing third, found it locked.
 I knocked but my doing so only seemed to increase the sobbing s.ithin. I've are friends" I said, "and wish to serve you
 "Then why have you locked me in here and left me without food or drink ?"
 The voice was that of woman. l told her that if she would open the door 1 would explain certain matters to her of which she might he igno- rant. She replied that she could not open the door. for she had not the key, whereupon I decided that if she could not open it l would.
 Look outr' I cried. I'm going to break down the dOor- Then, drawing back, put my heel against it. and it
 flew open.
 Inside was girl about nineteen years
 old. She was dressed. but had got into berth to avoid the opening door. Crouching back, she was evidently un-
 certain whether we were friends or coming to do her harm. She was very pale and weak. and I saw at once that she was starving. Before questioning her I sent for food, of which l gave her sparingly. Then I carried her up to the stateroom where 1 had found women's clothing.
 She told me that this had been her room and she had been taken from it by several members of the crew to the one in which I had found her.
 As soon as the girl was able to talk, fully expecting that the mystery of the Pelican was about to be solved, l ask ed for her story. I was doomed to dis appointment She knew very little more than did. Her father was or had been master of the Pelican. He
 had sailed from a small port in the States. He had told his daughter be- fore sailing that she might go on a trip with him, but nothing more. One morning when she had tried to leave her stateroom she found the door locked. The same evening she had been taken to the room in which 1 found her and was confined there. A supper had been given her and the next morning a breakfast. That was all she knew. She was much surprised to learn that the ship had been desert ed and greatly feared for her fathers safety, for she was sure that, if free to act, he would not have left her to perish.
 I cross questioned Miss Bradford Helen Bradford was her name-hoping to get some clew that would enable me at least to form a theory which would solve the mystery. I got nothing. She did not even know that the cargo con sisted of rifles. She was aware that a great war was being fought, and her father had told her that the ship was liable to be Overhauled by cruiser and searched, but whatever happened she would be in no danger. The only incident she mentioned bearing on the case was that the porthole in her state room had been darkened at night.
 Our voyage proved an exciting one, chased as we were on several occasions by cruisers. We always showed a neu- tral flag and at the same time clean pair of heels. The worst of it was that we were driven off our course several times, and thus kept wandering about in the Atlantic ocean. On one occasion, being chased by a gunboat, we would have been taken were it not for the fact that we could do about a knot more than she.
 I spent whatever time I could spare in trying to comfort Helen Bradford, and since pity is akin to love, 1 may have been in love without knowing it.. l certainly had enough on my mind to keep me from anything sentimental I found out afterward the nature of my feelings for the girl had been in- strumental in rescuing.
 During spell of bad weather we lost our reckoning, and one still morn ing, enveloped in a fog, we went ashore on the coast of Morocco. We had various visitors. among them an Italian trader, to whom I confided the secret of my cargo. He proved wealthy enough to buy it and paid me in gold. l went ashore with Miss Bradford and the crew, and the next night storm made kindling wood of the Pelican. married Miss Bradford, and we returned to America. l con- stituted myself a court of admiralty and divided the price for the Pelican's cargo as I considered just, my wife getting the principal part. We have not as yet heard from her father, and the mystery of the Pelican is still un- solved. My theory is that the crew mutinied; that, being chased by cruiser, they left the ship in the ships boats, taking the captain prisoner with them. His daughter may have been left in the hurry of departure.