Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-03-28
CHAPTER ".
Wlllful Missing.


persuaded; fatigue REINFORCED every
stubborn argument Of Peter Stark's to
overcome his resistance. "Oh. have
your own way" he said at length, un-
consciously iterating the words that
had won him bride. ''If 1t must
De
Beyond drawing heavily on his bank
and sending Drummond brief note,
Whitaker failed to renew communion
ton with his home. He sank into a
state of semi-apathetic content. The
Adventures was Ave, months out OF
port before he began TO be conscious
! that he was truly accursed. There
came gradual thickening of the
shadows that threatened to eclipse his
existence. And then. one day rs they
dined with the lonely trader of an
isolated station in the D'Entrecasteaux
Islands, he fell from his chair as If
poleaxed. He regained consciousness
only TO SILVER with the chill OF the
wind that's famed by the wings Of
death. 1t was impossible to move him.
| The agonies of the damned were his
when. with exquisite gentleness. they
| lifted him to bed.
Stark sailed In the Adventures be-
fore shutdown of the same day, pur:ios-
| ing TO fetch surgeon from Port
Moresby. Whitaker said last farewell
to his friend, knowing ii Ills soul tha:
! 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 1t, In the estate Of super.
cargo, crapulous Scotch gentleman
who had been a famous. specialist Of
| London before drink laid him by the
| heels. He performed heroic oper-
| alton upon Whitaker within an hour,
announced by nightfail that the pa
tent would recover, and the next day
! sailed with his ship to end his days In
some abandoned Australian boozing-
ken-as Whitaker learned In Sydney
| se7ers! months later.
In the same place, and ut 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. q solitary sailor man
aged to cling to Hfe-raft until picked
up, q week after the wreck. by tramp
steamship on whose decks he gasped
out his news and his LIE 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. n. 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-evidence
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
| 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.
n,ory of the wreck of the Adventures
was already fading from the Australian
mind; no one dreamed Of challenging
the signature Of man seven months
dead. And as certainly and ms 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. l.
| The money stayed by him handsome
fy. Thanks to strong constitution In
a tough body (now that its malignant
demon was exorcised) he found 1t easy
to pick up 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 forlorn bid for fortune.
Thereafter he prospered amazingly.
When at length he did make up his
mind to 90 home, he was in Melbourne
with Lynch, his partner. Whitaker
passed old friends In the street. They
were George fresDuT5 and Ills 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 tuds.
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 blind
to her uncertain nod; long after his
back alone was visible to her he could
feel her inquiring stare boring into
IT.
The incident made him think; and
he remembered that he was now {
man Of Independent fortune and Of
idle hands a. well. After prolonged
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