Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-08-13
Continued His Examination.

Continued His Examination.
photograph, little faded, little old
fashioned, the photograph of very
beautiful woman. He turned it over.
On the back was written: elizabeth
Powers Wallen."
His mother! He had never known
his mother. He held the photograph
for long time in his hand, gazing at
the face that now somehow seemed to
smile back at him-then put it rever
emily aside.
There remained perhaps a dozen
documents mortgages in his fathers
favor, stock certificates and securities
of various sorts, the total running into
many thousands of dollars-sixty
thousand, he put it at guess, figuring
the certificates at par value. Lastly,
there was small sealed envelope.
He opened it with a curious sense of
excitement. Here, perhaps, was the
secret that had bound up his fathers
life so mysteriOusly, and-no-he
whistled again in that low, surprised
way. It was his fathers will, terSe,
short document, bequeathing every
thing ito my son, Stacey Wallen,
whom I charge with the care of my
faithful servant Gunga as long as the
latter shall live"
Wallen got up and began to pace the
little cabin. Gunga! The will was
dated at San Francisco two years ago.
Where was Gunga now?
Dead perhaps, since the two were
inseparable and Gunga had not come
aboard with his master at Honolulu
SO Captain Laynton had stated. Cap
tain Laynton! Wallen stared at the
articles that Uttered the bunk-the
conviction slowly dawning upon him
that he had wofully misjudged the
Monleigh's commander and mentally
owed the other an apology for jumping
SO hastily to conclusions.
There was not even a shadow Of
proof that his fathers death, after all,
had not been accidental. His sus-
picions had arisen naturally enough In
view Of the past, and his own recent
escape; but certainly it appeared to be
decidedly "far-fetched" now, and GER
tainly it was no deep-laid plot on the
part of Captain Laynton, such as, in
hazy, fantastical way, he had imagined
1t might have been.
What possible motive could LayntOn
have In carrying out the original pur-
pose for which he had been chartered,
except that he felt in honor bound to
do so? None!
And If the man had been dishonest
he could have put that eleven hundred
dollars lying there on the bunk into his
own pocket and no one would have
been the wiser! Even the matter of
the wireless, which in his suspicious
state Of mind had assumed perhaps ex-
aggerated proportions, had been shot
to pieces, so to speak, as far as 1t be-
ing there for any Interior purpose was
concerned-and by irrefutable evidence
Helen MacKay's!
And with vision of brown eyes and
gloriously truant hair before him and
the thought of tomorrow when the
vision should materialize into reality
again he turned into his bunk.
And the tomorrow" and the two
days that followed, not only dispelled
all final doubt from his mind but found
him responding frankly to the general
good-fellowship which he found exist
ing in the cabin.
They passed quickly those three
days-too quickly. And they were the
happiest days Wallen had ever known
because Helen MacKay had made
them happy days, and because q new
glad thing had come into his life.
Had she, too, come to care? He did
not know. Sometimes, in little init
mate ways, In smile or glance or
word or quick, trustful touch of the
hand, he read the answer to his I'M
spoken question as his soul wanted to
read the answer.
And so they had passed those days,
and it was the fourth night now since
he had come aboard-and tomorrow
they would be in Singapore.
He lay tossing in his bunk. A tumult
Of thought kept his brain active and
alert. Singapore! What would Singa-
pore bring him? Who was this Drink
House Sam?
1t mattered great deal nova
great deal more than 1t had mattered
before.
For before, with sort of berserk
rage, he had been willing to take
gamblers chance, and, win or lose,
stake his life against this devil, who
ever he might be. that had tried to