The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-11-24
CHAPTER Iv-continued.

CHAPTER IV-Continued.
f.
Beyond drawing heavily on his Dank
and sending Drummond brief note,
Whitaker failed to renew communlca-
ton with his home. He sank into
state of semi-apathetic content. Inc
Adventures was five months out OF
mort before he began to be conscious
that he was truly accursed. Ihere
came a gradual thickening OF the
shadows that threatened to eclipse his
existence. And then, one day as they
dined with the lonely trader OF an
isolated station in the D'Entrecasteaux
Islands. he fell from his chair as II
noleaxed. He regained consciousness
only to shiver with the chill OF the
wind that's famed by the wings OF
death. It was impossible to move him.
The agonies of the damned were MS
when, with exquisite gentleneSs, they
lifted him to bed.
Stark sailed in the Adventures be-
fore sundown of the same day, purpos-
ing to fetch q surgeon from Port
Moresby. Whitaker said last fareWeH
to his friend, knowing in his soul that
they would never meet again. Then he
composed himself to die quietly. But
the following morning brought hap
chance trading schooner to the lsland'
and with it, in the estate of super
cargo, q crapulous Scotch gentleman
who had been famous specialist OF
London before drink laid him by the
heels. He performed a heroic oper-
alton upon Whitaker within an hour,
announced by nightfall that the pa
tient would recover, and the next day
sailed with his ship to end his days In
some abandoned Australian boozlng-
ken-as Whitaker learned in Sydney
several months later.
In the same place, and at the same
time, he received his first authentic
news of the fate of the Adventures.
The yacht had struck on an uncharted
reef, in heavy weather, and had foun-
dered almost Immediately. OF her
entire company, a solitary sailor man.
aged to cling to a life-raft until picked
up, week after the wreck, by tramp
steamship on whose decks he gasped
out his news and his life in the same
breaths.
Whitaker hunted up an account OF
the disaster in the files of local news
paper. He read that the owner, Peter
Stark, Esq, and his guest, 81. NJ. Whit
aker, Esq, both of New York, had
gone down with the vessel. There
was also a cable dispatch from New
York detailing Peter Stark's social
and financial prominence
that the news had been cabled home.
To all who knew him Whitaker was
as dead as Peter Stark.
There is a world outside the one you
know
To which for curiousness Ell can't
compare;
1t is the place where wilful musings
go,
as we can testify, for we are there"
kipling's lines buZzed through his
head more than once in the course of
the next few years; for he was
there" They were years of such
vagabondage as only the South Seas
countenance; neither unhappy nor
very strenuous, nor yet Scared by the
tooth of poverty. Whitaker had be-
tween four and five thousand dollars
in travellers checks which he convert
ed into cash while in Sydney. Me-
mory of the wreck of the Adventures
was already fading from the Australian
mind; no one dreamed of challenging
the signature of a man seven months
dead. And as certainly and as quietly
as the memory, Whitaker faded away !;
Hugh Morten took his place, and Sgd
ney knew him no more, nor did any
other parts wherein he had answered
to his rightful name.
The money stayed by him handsome
ly. Thanks to strong constitution III
Il tough body (now that its malignant
demon was exorcised) he found it easy
to pick up a living by one means or
another. Indeed, he played many parts
in as many fields before joining hands
with young Englishman he had
grown to like and entering upon what
seemed q forlorn bid for fortune.
Thereafter he prospered amazingly.
When at length he did make up his
mind to go home, he was in Melbourne
with Lynch, his partner. Whitaker
passed old friends in the street. They
were George Presbury and his wife
Anne Forsythe that was-self-evident
tourists, looking the town over between
steamers. Presbury, with no thought
in his bumptious head of meeting
Hugh Whitaker before the day of judg
ment. looked at and through him with
out hint of recognition; but his wife
was another person altogether. Whit
aker could not be blind to the surprise
and perlexity that shone in her eyes
even though he pretended to be blint
to her uncertain nod; long after his
back alone was visible to her he coulC
feel her inquiring stare boring into
1t.
The incident made him think; anC
he remembered that he was now {
man of Independent fortune and OF
idle hands as well. After prolonged
consideration he suddenly decided
told Lynch to look out for his inter
ests and expect him back when ht
should see him, and booked for LondOr
by a Royal Mail boat-all in half {
day. From London Mr.. Hugh Mortel
crossed Immediately to New York OF
the Olympic, landing in the month Of
April-nearly six years to day from
the time he had left his native fand.
He put up at the Ritz-Carlton. pre-
cisely US any foreigner might be ex
,cI NEnI.