The Lamar register., 1919-09-17

down on the counter suddenly no
back of the store"
"A person?" l interrupted.
Yes! Suppose we say "a pock-
marked person; : was 1t your"
what a memory you have for de
tails" parried; land thenT
"Well I took my change and man
aged to whisper word to Sweeney
good friend, remember-and came
out. l took II short cut back, but the
person that had stood In the back of
the store seemed to know the way
almost better than $50 well that he
got ahead of me. He was walking qui-
etly this way and SO slowly that had
at last to overtnke him. He said moth
ing. Just watched me as II Interested
in the way l was going-but, I'm
ashamed to say, he rather frightened
me! And here am"
"Well, then" / said. "let's hurry
home and talk 1t over with the king"
The "king," as had realized. was
a practical romantic" and at once
took the matter seriously. leaving
as might have surprised some of those
who had only heard him talk-his con-
versational fantasies on the theme to
come later.
Calypso. however, had the first
word.
81 always told you. dad" she said
and the word dad" on the lips OF that
statuesqur girl-who always seemed
ready to take that Inspired frame
work of rags and bones and talking
music into her protecting arms
seemed quite the quaintest of para
doIes-"I always told you. dad. what
would heppen. with your fairy tales of
the doubloons."
"Quite true. my dear" he answered,
but isn't fairy tale worth paying
f0r7-worth q little trouble? And re-
member. II you Will allow me. two
things about fairy tales: there must
always be some evil fairy In them.
some dragon or such like; and there
is always-a happy ending. Now the
dragon enters ut last-in the form of
Tobias; and We should be happy on
that very account. II shows that the
race Of dragons is not. as / feared. ex-
tinct. And as for the happy ending.
we will arrange II. after lunch-for
which. by the way. you are somewhat
late"
After lunch the "king' resumed. but
in q brief and entirely practical vein
"We are about to be besieged," he
said. "The woods. probably. are al
ready thick with spies. For the mo-
ment we must suspend operations on
our Golconda"-his name for the ru-
ins that we were to excavate-"and,
As our present purpose--yours no
less than ours. friend Ulyssss-is
to confuse Tobias. my suggestion Is
this: that you walk with me s mile
or two to the nor'ard. There Is an
entertaining mangrove swamp should
like to show you. and also you can
give me your opinion of an idea OF
mine that you will understand all the
better when have taken you over the
ground"
| So we walked beyond the pines.
down onto a long. internInable fiat
land Of mari marshes and mangrove
trees-so like that In which Charlie
Webster had shot the snake and the
wild duck-that only Charlie could
have seen any difference.
"Now." said the ''king." do you see
a sort of river there. overgrown with
mangroves and palmettosr
"Yes." answered. almost
though It's SO choked up it's almost
impossible to say"
"well," said the king" "that's the
idea: you haven't forgotten those old
ruins we are going to explore. You
remember how choked up they are.
Well. this was the covered waterway,
the secret creek. by which the pi-
rates-John Teach. or whoever II was
perhaps John p. Tobias himself
used to land their loot. It's so over
grown nowadays that no one can find
the entrance but myself and friend
or two; do you underestimate
Continued next week