The St. Johns herald., 1922-05-11
CHAPTER XIII.
-15-
Mr. Tubbs Interrupts.

to show a dOgged industry in the mat ter of the Island Queen. It would take me long while to get Cbwn through the sand to the chest, but resolved to accomplish 1t, and borrowed of Cookie. without his knowledge, a large iron spoon which I thought could wield more easily than a heavy spade.
 But that afternoon I was tired and hOt-it really called for grimmer resolve than mine to shovel sand through the languOr of a Leeward island afternoon. Instead, l slept In my hammock, and dreamed that l was queen of cannibal island, draped in necklaces made of the dOublOons now hidden under the sand in the cabin or the derelict.
 Later. the Wailing of Cookie was heard in the land, and had to restore the spoon to free Crusoe of the charge of having stolen it. I said had want ed to dig with 1t. But of course 1t Oc- cured to no one that 1t was the treas Ure l had expected to dig up with Cookies spoon.
 n plOratiOnS on the Island Queen pre- scented Itself next day. Instead of put ling to sea, MT. Shaw and Captain MagnuS hauled the boat up on the beach and set to work to repair 1t. The preceding day had been filled with hardship and danger-sO much so that my heart sank q little at the recOuntal of 1t. You saw the little boat threading its way among the reefs, tossed like seaweed by the white teeth of gnawing waves. screamed at by angry gulls whose homes were those clefts and caves which the boat invaded. And all this, poor little boat. on a hopeless quest flor no reward but peril and wounds. Cuthbert Vane had @pralned thumb which could not be ignored, and on the strength of which he was dis missed from tbe bOat-repairing con- tingent, and thrown on my hands to entertain. So Of course had to re- nOunce all thoughts of visiting the slOOp. I should not have dared to go there anyway. with Mir. Shaw and the captain able more or less to overlook my motions from the beach, for was quite mOrbidIy afraid of attracting at- tentiOn to the derelict. It seemed to me 0 happy miracle that no one but myself had taken any interest in her, or been inspired to ask by what chance so small a boat had come to be wrecked upon these desOlates shores. Fortunately in her position in the shadow of the cliff she was incon- spicuOus, so that she might easily have been taken for the half of a large boat instead of the whole of a small one, or she must before this have drawn the questioning notice of the ScOtchman. As to the captain. his at- tentiOn was all set on the effort to discover the cave, and his intelligence was not lively enough to start on an entirely new tack by itself. And the Honorable Cuthbert viewed derelicts as he viewed the planetary bodies i; somehow in the course of nature they happened.
 So, dISSembling my settlements and anxieties, swung placidly in my ham, mock, and nearby sat the beautiful youth with his thumb carried tenderly Tn a bandage. Was it merely my be- ing so distrait, or was it quite another reason that led him to open up so suddenly about his KentiSh home? Strange to say, instead of painting for the title, Cuthbert wanted his broth CT to go on living, though there was something queer about his spine, poor fellow, and the doctors said he couldn't possibly Of course I was surprised at Cuthbert's views, for I had always thought that If there were a title in your family your sentiments toward those who kept you out of 1t were necessarily murderOus, and your tears crocodile when you pretended to weep over their piers. But Cuthbert's feel ings were so human that I mentally apOlOgized to the nobility. As to High Staunton manor, adored 1t. It is mostly Jacobean, but with an an- cient Tudor wing, and 1t has a chapel and a ghost and a secret staircase and frightfully beautiful and wicked aRceStresS hanging In the hall-I mean a portrait of her-and quantities of oak paneling quite black with age, and silver that was hidden in the fam fly tOmbs when CrOmwell's soldiers came, and a chamber where Elizabeth once slept, and other romantic details too numerous to mention. It is little nit run down and shabby, for lack of money to keep itjup, and of course on that. account all the more entrancIng. The present Lord Grasmere lived up to hIs position % completely that hs