The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1916-07-06

CHAPTER XIV
Wrecked on the Reef
At five o'clock next morning there
were sounds of revelry in the little
habitation. 1t was Jim Carteret at the
piano trying an opening chorus he
had dreamed out during the long voy-
age from San Francisco.
Snoring ceased at once and from
four cots came muffled protests. Hem
enway sat on the edge Of his bed and
rubbed his eyes.
"You certainly al punish. that pi-
ano in true artistic style, Jim, but is
this to be the program every morn
ing?"
why not?" replied Jim. GAIL hands
on deck at five o'clock and finish
breakfast at six. Then George and I
will keep busy with our work and you
fellows can amuse yourselves as you
see fit.'
After breakfast Hemenway, Lent,
and Mcdonald started along the beach
to make a circuit of the island. In
doing so they discovered why John
| Morgan called it Little North Amer,
lea. The island was a regular vest
pocket edition of it's big namesake-if
one cut out Hudson Bay, cut Panama
at the canal and bent the end close
around to Florida.
The lagoon in the little island rep
resented the Gulf of Mexico and the
| little river was Florida TStraights,
| The island was in truth a little North
America upside down; that is to say.
| what was north in the real North
| America was south in the little imita-
tion of it.
The three men walked around the
island, starting from the narrow beach
that lay not four hundred feet to the
east of their house. Palms grew al
most to the waters edge. They fig
| rured the island to be less than a mile
in circumference.
In the cool of the evening they
brought buckets from the yacht and
carried out enough water to fill the
tank of the vessel. It was we'll to be
prepared for any emergency.
That night Hemenway moved his
cot to the porch and announced his
intention of sleeping in the open air.
When the others were sound asleep ne
carefully slipped out of bed, drew on
his sneakers and trousers. and noise
1essly made his way to the lagoon.
He launched the dingy and silently
padded out to the yacht. He worked
steadily all night, making two trips
to the shore and being careful to make
NJ noise. It was evident he did not
want his companions to know what he
was doing. AS dawn vas breaking
he slipped back to his cot.
The twins were busy with their
opera as the days passed. Lent and
Mcdonald developed a mania for crib
bage and the gum shoe mar sat for
hours opposite his erstwhile prey.
Hemenway soon grew tired of fishing.
1t was too easy. 1t was no trick at
all to catch in ten minutes time
enough fish for a dozen meals
He spent long hours in the neigh
borhood of the reefs, watching the
surf break INCREASINGLY over the black
and jagged coral. All day long,
whether the ocean was as smooth as
glass or whether the trade wind ruff
fled the surface of the water, the ele-
ment boiled and churned among the
reefs.
The whole thing had a fascination
for Hemenway. There in the shade
of the palms he developed plans for
the disposal Of his stolen riches
But why dispose of ready cash?
Hemenway had figured all that out.
While he was as safe where he was
as though he were in another world,
he knew the authorities were moving
heaven and earth to down the per-
petrator Of such a gigantic robbery.
His plan was to up: to sell
his gold for a commodity, and sell the
commodity for other gold. Being IN
experienced in South Sea trading he
Figured he would lose by the trans
action, but he decided he could afford
to stand the loss.
Two weeks passed. One afternoon
Hemenway slowly retraced his steps
along the stretch of beach that sepa.
rated the bungalow rom the reefs.
The twins had the big table out on
the porch and were making funny lit.
tie dots and lines and curlicues on
sheets Of ruled music paper. Lent and
Mcdonald separated by . box Of
canned goods sat facing each other