The St. Johns herald., 1922-06-01
CHEAPER xv-contlnusd.l


 Tony thereupon ordered the women to sit down on the ground in the shade and not move under penalty of get tin a wing clipped" We obeyed In silence and looked on while the pirates with wolfish voracity devOured the meal which had been meant for us. They had pocket-hasks with them, ana as they attacked them with frequency the talk grew louder and wilder. By degrees 1t was possible to comprehend the extraordinary disaster which had befallen us, al least in a sketchy out line of which the detail was filled in later. Tony, it appeared, was the mas- ter of a small power schooner which had been fitting out in San Francisco for filibustering trip to the Mexican coast, and his three hard companions were the crew. None was of the old hearty breed of sailors, but wharf-rats pure and simple, city-dregs whom chance had led to follow the sea. Tony, in whom one detected a certain rough force and ability, was an Ital- fan, an outlaw specimen of the breed which mans the fishing fleet putting forth from the harbOr of San Fran cisco. When and where he and Mag nus had been friends I do not know. But no sooner had the wisdom of Miss Browne imparted the great secret to hen chance acquaintance of the New York wharves, than he had communi- potnH Vrffh hfc al rol TnnV Tho pOwer-schOoner with her unlawful car go stole out through the gate. made her delivery in the Mexican port, took on fresh supplies, and stood away for Leeward island. The western anchor age had received and snugly hidden her Captain Magnus, meanwhile, by means of mirror flashed from Look out. had maintained communication with his friends, and even visited them under cover of the supposed shooting expedition. And now, while we had been striving to overcome the recall citrancy of Mfr Tubbs, Captain Mag nus had taken a short cut to the same end. You felt that the secret of Mir. Tubs would be extracted, if need be, by no delicate methods.
 But Mir. Tubbs' character possessed uOne of that unreasonable Obstinacy which would make harsh measures necessary under such conditions. His countenance. as the Illuminating con- versation of the pirates had proceed ed, lost the speckled appearance which had characterized 1t at the height of his terrors. Something like tis normal hue returned. He sat up straighter, moistened his dry lips, and looked around upon us, yes. even upon Aunt Jane and Miss HIggIesby-B Browne. with whom he had been so lately and so tenderiy reconciled. with a side long, calculating glance. After the pirates had eaten, the prisoners on the log were covered with a rifle and their hands united, while Cookie, in a lu- gubrious silence made eloquent by his rolling eyes, passed around among us the remnants of the food. Yet under all the terror was bedrock confidence that there was, there must be some how in the essence of things, an eter- nal rightness which would keep me safe. from Captain Magnus. And as I looked across at Dugald Shaw and met for an instant his steady, watch ful eyes, managed a swift little smile a rather wan smile, dare say, but still a smile.
 Cuthbert Vane caught, so to speak, the tail of it, and was electrified. l saw his lips form at Mir. Shaw's ear the words, Wonderful little sport, by JoveY
 A curious stiffening had come over Cuthbert Vane. For the first time in my knowledge of him he showed the con- ciousness-instead of only the sub cOnsciousness-of the difference be- tween Norman blood and the ordinary sanguine fluid. His shoulders squared: ne lost his habitual easy. lounge and sat erect and tall Something stern and aqulIine showed through the mOoth beauty of his face, so that you thought of efflgies of crusading knights stretched on their ancient tombs in High StauHton church. He was their true descendant, after all, this slow, calm, gentle-mannered Cuthbert. It was a young lion that had been play ing with, and the claws were there, strong and terrible In their velvet sheath.
 Captain Tony, having finished his
 AA