Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1916-12-02
CHAPTER V-contlnued.

and sending Drummond brief note,
Whitaker failed to renew cOmmunica-
tion with his home. He sank into a
state of semi-apathetic content. The
Adventures was five months out Of
port before he began to be CONSCIOUS
that he was truly accursed. There
came a gradual thickening of the
shadows that threatened to eclipse his
existence. And then, one day as they
dlned with the lonely trader of an
isolated station In the D'Entrecasteaux
Islands, he fell from his chair as If
Doleaxed. He regained consciousness
only to shiver with the chill of the
wind that's famed by the wings of
death. 1t was impossible to move him.
when, with exquisite gentleness, they
lifted him to a bed.
Stark sailed in the Adventures be-
fore shutdown of the same day, purpos-
ing to fetch a surgeon from Port
Moresby. Whitaker said last farewell
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 a hap
chance trading schooner to the island,
and with it, In the estate of super
cargo, a crapulous Scotch gentleman
who had been a 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, aad the next day
sailed with his ship to end his days in
some abandoned Australian boozing-
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 ulcharted
reef, in heavy weather, and had foun-
dersd almost Immediately. OF her
entire company, a solitary sailor man
aged to cling to life-raft until picked
up, d week after the wreck, by q 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, FL. NJ. Whit
aker, Esq, both of New York, had
gone down with the vessel. There
was also a cable dispatch from New
4aT
and financial prominence-evidence
that the news had been cabled home.
To all who knew him Whitaker was
as dead as Peter Stark.
''There is world outside the one you
know
To which for curiousness Ell can't
compare;
Il is the place where w1lful 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
Yagabondage 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
vas already fading from the Australian
hiho; no one dreamed Of challenging
me signature of man seven months
dead. And as certainly and as quietly
as the memory, Whitaker faded away;
hugh Morten took his place, and sgd
Aey knew him no more, nor did any
other parts wherein he had answered
20 MS rightful name.
The money stayed by him handsome
~ Thanks to strong constitution In
d tough body (now that its malignant
demon was exorcised) he found it easy
10 pick up living by one means or
another. Indeed, he played many parts
- as many fields before joining hands
Win young Englishman he lad
grown to Ike and entering upon what
seemed q forlorn bid for fortune.
hereafter he prospered amazingly.
When at length he did make up his
mihd to go home, he was in Melbourne
win Lynch. his partner. Whitaker
passed old friends in the street. They
we're George Presbury and his wife
anne Eorsythe that was-self-evident
tourists, looking the town over between
steamers. Presbury, with no thought
n his bumptlous head of meeting
augh Whitaker before the day of jrdg-
uelt looked at and through him with
Oa' mint of recognition; but his wife
AS another person altogether. Whit
4AeF could not be blind to the surprise
anu periexity that shone In her eyes,
even though he pretended to be blind
~ ner uncertain nod; long after his
eaCA alone was visible to her he could
:, "a her inQuiring stare boring into
NE Incident made him think; and