Evening star., 1924-12-20

certainty-and pick them up from
one OF the ships boats.
Lord Almeric appeared with his
secretary. and she-well----
II I had thought of the secretary
at all, 1 had thought Of her as one
! of those efficient women, hard. COM
! petent-the sort of woman one can
admire for qualities one would rather
see in men. But Miss Torrance was
! just sheer girl. The littlest thing.
| until you got good look at her. and
then you saw that II was her ways
rather than her size that gave the
! impression. She had the same clean
look as my Merlin-silver and blue
only her hair was gold-and there
was nothing the least bit cold about
her. I was willing to bet that she
was as competent as any he-woman
alive, for when 1 took hold OF her
neat little hand on Lord Almeric's
Introduction, 1 was reminded some
! how Of Mil1iken's clever fist
I spoke to Lord AImeric about
taking off.
II take It that you don't think
you'll come a purler?" he asked.
There's a good chance that we
may" said l. Il shouldn't like to
have lady aboard"
You will make me feel extreme
Torrance interposed, III you don't
treat me exactly as you would a man.
We won't sink, If we do capslze?"
"Oh, no."
Then II seems to me that We ought
to risk It. Sir Peter has been de-
layed enough without having to put
off a boat for me. Please don't con-
slider me-
I looked into her eyes. She was
| as genuine as the Koh-i-noor.
Thank YOU" 1 said. viii you
please step aboard, then?'
We said our good-byes, and we all
climbed aboard save Mil1iken, who
stood on a float to swing the propel-
Ter and to give the signal for release.
The score of men took hold OF her
wherever they could. AIilliken swung
tie! The Merlin gathered strength
and began to slide. l waited until
the ship began to rise on our side,
| then dropped my hand to Milliken--
and we shot out over the water. Next
| moment we were circling the Parnas-
| sic to cheer that was led by Sir
Peter Weatherly himself, who stood
sturdily on his damaged awning, and
waved his braided cap in hearty fare
well. The great ship began to gather
| way as we sped ahead Of her.
Milliken climbed through the hatch
with his usual air of complete calm,
and began to be busy with hampers
Of food. Presently, eating a sand
! wich the while, he silently ousted me
from the pilots seat so tnat I might
break my fast.
Naturally the main topic OF conver-
sation as we ate sandwiches and
| drank hot coffee was the piratical
raid on the liner. but we soon ex-
hausted the subject for lack OF ex-
| planation Of the mysterious sleep. and
Miss Torrance then wanted to know
what everything on the Merlin was
| for. Old Milliken, with a grin all
| over his ferocious mug, nodded at
the wireless set. 1t was a bright IDEA
and, having lowered the aerial,
| fixed the receivers over her ears,
| switching into the phone attachment.
| Il can hear some one talking" she
| laughed delightedly, "and he's got the
loveliest gruff voice! Oh. take this
| quick. omebody-something has hap
pened to another shipi"
! I stopped her from taking off the
cap, and switched into the open re-
| ceiver.
Yes. sirT' came the harsh voice,
/ with an unmistakable New England
| twang. ~. 8. oil-carrying steamer,
| Westbury. We were slowed down by
red riding-light floating ahead Of
| oS, duu d. HcsEdBc came from the
battleship Argonne, telling us to
heave to because of danger ahead
At eight bells Of the middle watch,
sir. Since then we don't know a.
dern thing OF anything, except that
| our forrard tank Is short Of three
| thousand liters of the highest grade
aviation spirit by the gauge. Yes,
sir. And there amt a man on the
ship, sir, that can say what was doin'
in the last two hours. An what I
wanna know, sir, is-what the roustin'
hell's bells Of Jeeroosalum the UNITED
States Nays playin' at with one Of
the United States oil-freighters? I
| wanna know what prinked-up, bull
lion -ornamented, e-juice-weaned
sonofagun in skin-tight u-nifo'm m
has had the sass"
The rest was verbiage. I dissed
the radio and looked at Dan and
Lord Almeric, who were sitting side
by side. open-mouthed. HE lordship
was the first to speak.
"Farragut, by Jove!" he said. "Pi-
racy plus the knowledge Of the TWEEN
tieth century,"
CONTINUED In Tomorrow's star.)