Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-06
One ofm Especially Selected Group of
the Best Stories Of the Year-a Tale Of
Mystery in the South Seas-Written by
an Author Whose Wmk Has Been Widely
Published

when enc reflected how out of touch with the
world he had been: to my establishment, Maj.
StanleighS Clew was right, for he had at last
stumbled upon man who had known Farqu-
harSon we'll
He spoke with precision and authority, for
he had shared with Farquharson his bungalow
there in Muloa-a period of about six months,
it Seemed-and there Farquharson had con-
tracted tropic fever and died.
We'll at last We have got all the facts" Maj.
Stanlegh sighed with satisfaction when the
Sylph was heading back to Port Charlotte
The evidence is conclusive, don't you think?
the grave, Farquharson's personal effects,
those pages Of the poor devils diary"
I nodded assent. In my capacity as owner OF
the Sylph had merely undertaken to furnish
Maj. Stanleigh with passage to Muloa and back.
but the events of the last three days had made
me party to the many conferences, and was
now on terms of something like intimacy with
the rather stiff and pompous English gentleman.
How far was from sharing his real confidence
I was to discover when Eleanor Stanleigh gave
me hers that evening, while sat smoking In
the shadowy garden of the Marine Hotel.
T WAS startled to hear her addressing me by
name, and then calmly begging me to re-
sumo my seat on the bench under the arbor.
She was the soul of directness and candor, and
after a thoughtful, searching look into my face
she came to the point at once. She wanted to
hear about Experimentation me.
"Of course, my uncle has given me q very
full account of what he learned from Mr..
Leavitt, and yet many things puzzle me-this
Mr.. Leavitt most of ALL
"A queer chap" I.epitomized him.
why does he stay there?"
explained about the volcano. "You can
have no idea what en- obsession 1t Is with him.
There isn't square foot of its steaming treach-
erous surface that Ia hasn't been over, mapping
new assures, poking into old lava beds, delving
into the crater itself on favorable days"
Isn't it dangerous?"
I'm way, yes. The volcano itself is harmless
enough He goes poking into the very crater.
half strangling himself in its poisonous fumes,
Scorching the shoes off his feet and once, be-
ieve he lost NEST of his hair and eyebrows
narrow squeak He throws his head back and
laughs at any word of caution. To my notion,
it's foolhardy to push scientific curiosity to
that extreme"
us it, then just scientific curiosity?" unused
Miss Stanleigh.
Something in her tone made me stop short
Her eyes had lifted to mine-almost appealing
ly, fancied. felt impelled to sudden burst
of confidence.
AT times I wonder. I've caught look in
his eyes, when he's been down on his hands
and knees staring into some internal vent
hole-a look that well uncanny, as If he
were peering for something quite outside the
conceptions of science"
Did you get the impression that the two
men had very much in common?"
quite the contrary" answered "But Maj.
Stanleigh should know"
my uncle never met Mr.. Farquharson."
Miss Stanleigh remained lost in thought
while her fingers toyed with the pendant of the
chain that she wore. In the darkness caught
the glitter of a small gold cross.
"Mr Barnaby," she finally broke the silence.
and paused. 81 have decided to tell you some
thing. This Mr.. Farquharson was my hus-
band.
II did not see him for four years-dd not
wish to -. And he vanished completely ..
Four years!-just welcome blank!'
Her shoulders lifted and little shiver went
over her.
Eyes, and during the past month have ac-
tually prayed that he might be dead =. I
shall be punished for it"
I ventured no rejoinder to these words of self
condemnation. Joyce, I reflected, mundanely,
had clearly swept her off her feet in the ardor
of their first meeting and instant love.
'It must be great relief to you," I muir
INJURED at length, ito have it all definitely set
tied at last
IF could only feel that it WASH
why surely, Miss Stanleigh," burst forth,
there can't be any reasonable doubt. Leavitt's
mind may be little flighty-he may have en-
broidered his story with a few gratuitous de-
tails; but Farquharson's books and things-the
material evidence of his having lived there"
and having died there?"
Surely Leavitt wouldn't have fabricated
that! If you had talked with him"
II should not care to talk with Mr.. Leavitt," "
Miss Stanleigh cut me short Il want only to