Connecticut western news., 1922-12-07

meant to apply; for 1t would enable him to find out more about old Burr.
 No berth on the ferry was vacant yet but one soon would be, and Alan was accepted in lieu of the man who was about to leave; his wages would not begin until the other man left, but in the meantime he could remain aboard.
 All that was known definitely about old Burr on the ferry, 1t appeared, was that he had joined the vessel in the early spring. Before that-they did not know he might be an old lakeman who, after spending years ashore, had returned to the lakes for livelihood.
 The next morning, Alan approached old Burr in the crews quarters and tried to draw him into conversation again about himself; but Burr only stared at him with his intent and odd ly introspective eyes and would not talk upon this subject. A week passed; Alan, established as lookout now on Number 25 and carrying on his duties, saw Burr daily and almost every hour; his watch coincided with Burr's watch at the wheel-they went on duty and were relieved together. Yet better acquaintance did not make the old man more communicative; a score of times Alan attempted to get him to tell more about himself but he evaded Alan's questions and, If Alan persisted, he avoided him.
 On deck, one night, listening while old Burr talked, excitement suddenly seized Alan. Burr claimed to be an Englishman born in Liverpool. He had been, he said, seaman in the British navy; he had been present at the shelling of Alexandria; later, because of some difficulty, which he glossed over, he had deserted and had come to "the States" he had been first a deck hand, then the mate of tramp schoon- CT on the lakes. Alan, gazing at the old man, felt exultation' leaping and throbbing within him. This life which old Burr was rehearsing to him as his own, was the actual life of Munro BurkhaIter one of the men on Cor vets list regarding whom Alan had been able to obtain full informationl !
 Alan sped below, when he was re- lieved from watch, and got out the clippings left by Corvet and the notes of what he himself had learned In his visits to the homes of these people His excitement grew greater as he bored over them; he found that he could account, with their aid, for all that old Burr had told him. Old Burr's stories were not, of course, true; yet neither were they fictitious. They their incidents. at least-were actuali- ties. They were woven from the lives of those upon Corvets list! Alan iest his skin prickling and the blood bAat- ing fast in his temples. How could Burr have known these incideI ts ? Who could he be to know them all? To what man, but one, could all of them be known? Was old Burr Ben- jamin Corvet?'
 Alan telegraphed that day to Sher- Till; but when the message had gone doubt seized him. Benjamin Corvet, when he went away, had tried to leave his place and power among lakemen to Alan; Alan. refusing to accept what Corvet had left until Corvet's reason should be known, had felt obliged also to refuse friendship with the Sherrills. 1 When revelation came, would it make l possible >Alan's acceptance of the place Corvet had prepared for him, or would | 1t leave him where he was? Would it | bring him nearer to Constance Sher- Till, or would it set him. forever away from her?
 (Continued Naxt Waakl