The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1926-04-30

He answered me with a merry
scowl, but my father spun on his heel
"What mean you by that, Robert y
says he.
was nonplussed.
"Why. naught, sir. Darby Is daft
on pirates He"
Peter Corlaer shut the room-dool
upon the Irish boy and came toward
US, moving with the swift stealth that
was one of his most astonishing char
acteristics.
ga, he does not know" he said.
"What?" challenged my father.
"What you andt / know" returned
the Dutchman calmly.
$50 you know, too, PeterT
ia"
could restrain my Impotence nc
longer
"What is this mystery?" / demand.
ed. 81 thought l knew all the secrets
of the business; but sure, father,
never thought to hear that we were
concerned as q firm with pirates !"
"We are not" my father answered
CURLY. "This is a matter of which
you know nothing, Robert, because
until now there has been no occasion
for you to know of it."
He hesitated.
Peter" he went on, must we tell
the boy?"
"He is not boy !; he is a man." said
Peter
l flashed my gratitude to the fat
Dutchman in smile, but he paid no
attention. My father, too, seemed to
forget me- He strobe up and down
the counting room, hands under the
skirts of his coat, head bowed In
thought. Tags of phrases escaped his
lips:
II had thought him dead-strange
If he bobs up again-here is prob
lem l had never thought to face
mayhap l exaggerate-it cannot have
significance for us-Certes, Is must be
accident"
"Neen, he comes for a purpose" in
terrupted Peter.
My father stayed his walk in front
of Peter by the fireplace, wherein
blazed heap of elm logs.
"Who do you fancy this Captain
Rip-Rap to be, Peter? Speak up! You
were right when you said Robert is
no longer a boy. If there is danger
here, he deserves to know of it,
''He is Murray" replied Corlaer, his
squeaking voice an incongruous con-
trast with his immnse bulk.
Andrew Murray unused my ia
Their. "Aye, 'twould be he. / have
suspected it all these years-held it
for certainty. But made sure when
he failed to show himself after the last
war that Providence had attended to
him. 1t seems / was wrong"
whoever he is, this pirate can do
no harm to us in New York." l made
bold to say.
''Be not too sure, Robert" adjured
my father. He happens to be your
great-uncle."
He reached up to the rack over the
fireplace and selected long clay
pipe, which he stuffed with tobacco
the while was recovering from my
establishment
''Your uncle?" I gasped then.
mo; your mothers"
"But he was the great trader who
conducted the contraband trade with
Canadal" 1 cried. 81 have heard of
him. Twas he established the Doom
trail to enable him to supply the
French fur traders with goods to
wean the far savages from us! You
have told me of him yourself, as hath
Master Golden. Twas he whom you
and Ccrlaer and the Iroquois fought
when you broke down the barriers
Of the Doom trail and won back the
fur trade to our peoples Why, twas
then you-you-"
l knew the deep feeling my father
still had for my long-dead mother, and
1 scrupled to stir his memories. He
himself took the words from my lips.
Eyes, twas then came to love your
mother. She-she was not such as
you would expect to find allied by any
ties with so great a Scoundrel. But
she was his niece-past doubt, Robert.
She was a Kerr of Fernieside; her
mother had been Murray's sister.
Kerr and Murray were out together in
the '15; Kerr fell at Sheriffmuir. His
widow died not long afterward, and
Murray took poor waif Marjory.
He did well by her-theres no de-
nying that But he always intended
to use her to further his own designs.
Observation-Disclosures - ~