The L'Anse sentinel., 1922-07-21
CHAPTER XVII
Mr. spearman Goes North.

upon the flimsy tissue paper of q car
bon copy-that message which had
brought tension to the offices of Cor
vet, Sheriff. and Spearman and had
called Constance Sheriff. and her
mother downtown where further infor-
nation could be more quickly OBJ
tained-was handed to Constance by
clerk as soon as she entered her ia
theirs office. She reread 1t +; it already
had been repeated to her over the tele-
phone.
"4:05 a. m. Frankfort Wireless sta
ti0n has received following message
from Number 25: We have Benjamin
Corvet, of Chicago, aboard"
you've received nothing later than
this?" she asked.
Nothing regarding Mr.. Corvet, Miss
Sheriff." the clerk replied.
.The crew.
'Yes; we have just got the names of
the crew. He took another copied
sheet from among the pages and hand
ed II TO her, and she looked swiftly
down the list of names until SHE found
that Of Alan Conrad
Her eyes filed, binding he-. as she
put the paper down, and began TO take
off her things. She had been clinging
determinedly in her thought to the
belief that Alan might not have been
aboard the ferry. Alan's message,
which had sent her father north to
meet the ship, had implied plainly
that some one whom Alan believed
might be Uncle Benny was on Number
%; she had been fighting, these last
few hours, against conviction that
therefore Alan must be on the ferry,
too.
She stood by the desk, as the clerk
went out, looking through the papers
which ne had left with her. What she
was reading was the carbon Of the
report prepared that morning and sent,
at his rooms, to Henry, who was not
yet down.
The last message read: $40 Pc
toskey is calling Manitowoc, 4. Signals
from Number % after becoming In
distinct failed entirely about 5 AS,
probably by failure Of ships power
to supply current. Operator appears
to have remained at key. From 5 :25
70 5 :43 we received disconnected mes
sages as follows: Have cleared an
II down there engine-room
crew Is also sticking /. hell on
car deck everything smashed
they won't give up =.
sinking now were going
good-by stuck to end
all they could know
that hand 1t to them Z.
have cleared another car sink
S. o. Signals then en-
tirely ceased"
Constance had not realized, until the
reports of the wireless messages told
her that he was gone, what compan-
ionship with Alan had come to mean
to her. She had accepted 1t as al
ways to be existent, somehow--a COM
panionship which might be interrupted
often but always to be formed again.
II amazed her to find how firm place
ne had found In her world Of those
close to her with whom she must al
ways be intimately concerned.
The telephone switchboard beside
Constance suddenly buzzed. and the
operator, plugging In connection,
said: "Yes, sir at once" and through
the partitions Of the private office on
the other side, a mans heavy tones
came to Constance. That was Henry's
office, and In timbre, the voice was his,
but 1t was so strange in other charac-
teristics of expression that she waited
an instant before saying to the clerk,
'Mr. Spearman has come int"
The clerk hesitated, hut the con-
tinuance of the tone from the other
side of the partition made reply su-
perfluous. "Yes. Miss Sheriff."
Constance went to Henry's door and
raped. He made no answer and no
move to open the door; so, after walt
ing a moment, she turned the knob and
went In.
Henry was seated at his desk, facing
her, his big hands before him; one
OF them held the telephone receiver.
He lifted It slowly and put 1t upon the
hook beside the transmitter as. he
watched her with steady, silent, ag-
gressive scrutiny. He did not rise ;
only after moment he recollected that
he had not done so and came to his
feet. "Good morning, Connie" he said.
sCome In. What's the news?"
The Impulse which had brought her
into his Office went from her. She had
not seen nor heard from Henry direct
~ since before Alans telegram had
come late yesterday afternoon; she
had heard from her father only that
he had Informed Henry; that was all.
"Tve no news. Henry" she said.
sHave your She closed the door be-
hind her, moving closer to him.
"H0w did you happen to be here.
CONNER, he asked.
She made no reply, but gazed at him.
studying him. The agitation which ne
was trying to conceal was not entirely
consequent to her coming in upon him ;
It had been ruling him before. 1t had
underlain the loudness and abuse OF
his words which she had overheard.
That was NO capricious outourst Of
temper or Irritation; 1t had come from
something which had seized and held
him in suspense. In dread--in dread |;
there wa no other way to define her
a.