Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-01-23
BY Charles Tenney Jackson
Copyright by The Bobbs-Merrill Company

swore he would yet sleep in old BOWS
bed! Turn in tot, Mad Johny
The jester raised an unsteady hand
as If ne would speak, and then thought
better OF it. 1t was plain he was trv-
ing to enact the part of a swaggering
frlgate captain and making an absurd
failure OF 1T by curious doleful hu-
manness. 1t appeared that the iester
was about to Speak, to make effort ar
leadership of the evil spew he had
evoked and then his gesture
died away. He, himself, turned away
ghost figure by the port quarter-rail
For the English woman had come
with Clark, the frightened English
boy. There was first a jeer and then
a crowding to see her.
What is this, then?" she cried
sharply.
we are taken, Mademoiselle." re-
turned the master quietly. "That is
all there is to it." He turned sternlv
TO John Crackley whose leer unon tba
English woman BODIED no good for her
i demand safety for this lady. Let
her return to her cabin. Do you I'M
derstand me-respect in all things?"
"EhY grunted the other. wen
see to that. Mates" he glanced uncer-
tainly at his fellows upon whom there
had come curious silence at the can
tains assumption of authority, even at
Inls pass: The woman-now-"
His voice was cut short by the ire
mendous explosion of a huge pistol
upon the poop-deck above them all
A single figure was there, an unkempt.
grotesque man who now was peering
curlously into the muzzle of his smok-
ing weapon. Every eye had been
drawn to him with a start.
Jarvis pale face, framed in his long.
matted black hair, turned down to
them.
"You see, missed it" he said
plaintively.
Jarvis" Burke, the deserter,
croaked, whats that?"
"The cabin skylight-at ten PAGES.
Name o. God! If I am to be commo-
dore, will need practice Some of
you kindly reload my pistol"
There was a shout Of amazed laugh
ter from them. The deck lamp showed
the English woman staring up at him !;
behind her. the prisoners Of the quar-
terdeck. He came to the low rail and
looked down.
Not at the lady who once looked
back at him on the Esplanade. She
might have been an unseen spectator
over the footlights, and he the chief
player at the center of the stage, TAX
Ing his cue from an invisible prompter.
Neither did his old friends of the
rue Royale, and of the smugglers'
wine-shops Of years agone appear to
exist in his eye. He shrugged, with
an open palm down to the conspir-
ators.
"Ho-Commodore!" They bawled
up at him. "The word, Jarvis!"
The eye Of Sazarac was coldly upon
him. But to this friend of his old
days, as irredeemable as these, he had
the same blank stare as he had for
Louise Lestron. AS If they were not
there-as If she was a mere ghost
and he looking through her to the
evil pack behind her.
Mademoiselle Lestron turned to the
man she knew as Gaspar Sazarac, the
gamester of Chartres street. "And
this has come to you because of me,
MonsieurT
"It is worth a thousand mutinies.
Never fear-the Spaniards hereabout
are not all cutthroats. You-the ward
Of Carr, who is the secret agent of
their king why, what have
you to fear from them, Mademoiselle
Lestron"
But old Beluche shook his head. 1t
might be well at the Spaniards' hands
for Mademoiselle Lestron of Quebec,
and for the Count de Almonaster of
New Orleans, descended from a line
of Castilian viceroys Of Louisiana;
but for Jean LATTE; for Beluche, of
the Cartagenian rebels; Johannes,
and the others who had harried the
Mexican trade routes for thirty years
there was quick death in any port
of New Spain for them all
But she could not know. When the
longboat was ready, and the crew
made way silently for her, she turned
to Sazarac with sudden timid soft
ness:
Monsieur, something is due you
from mel Could not appeal to them
could you not regain command and
sail with them-if was put adriftT'
HE smiled but 1t was as If he did
not care to look upon her. He was as
one who had been given to see beau
tiful vision, and before it had come
an evil Jester, a hooking voice to still
the faint good he had sought
De Almonaster had been watching.
He followed her as the captain LED
the way. Near the rail the girl put
her hand to Sazarac's sleeve.
az am bewildered, Monsieur 1t is
as If you had given up much for me +
.T have given much up for you" ne
answered quietly. '"rhe wreck o.
years-wild evil, infany, which-God