The Cruise of the Jasper B.

of the cabin, where the cloth was laid, and a moment later lady Ag

sticated feminine art she had contrived that the dinner gown she chose for that evening should sound the keynote of her personality like a leitmotif in an opera. The costume was a creation of white satin, the folds caught here and there with strings of pearls. There was a single large rose of pink velvet among the draperies of the skirt; a looped girdle of blue velvet was the only other splash of color. But the fu

y Agatha. And she ate with a candid gusto that pleased Cleggett, w

she took up her own story again

r instructions. Two nights after they had been engaged they

itting-room and laid it on the floor befor

' I asked them,

Reginald Maltravers ACCORDING TO

floor, was absent temporarily, having taken Teddy out for an airing. I was d

m to do, and what was it that they did?" she mu

told your friends to do to him? And what was it

poke him. But these ginks tells th' little dame here they t'inks I

hey got him, Elmer d

en enough to see that it might be used as a lever with which to force more money from me. For when I demanded that they take the box away with them and dispose of it, they only laughed at me. They said that they had had enough of that box. They had delivered the

w only the weakness of my own position. I could not, at the moment, see the weak spots in theirs. Elmer might have ad

ished to open the box, having a vague idea that perhaps after all it did not really contain what they had sa

at once to some fictitious personage, an

as the first invention that came into my head. Newark I had heard of. I knew vaguely that it was west of New York, bu

opped and broken, and revealing everything. And then it occurred to me that even if I should get out of the country, the secret was bound to be discovered some

near New York. We took a taxicab at once, and were waiting at the freight depot in Ne

disposition myself. Elmer hired for me the vehicle in

m as odd. He offered to store it for me in the basement. I took alarm at once. Naturally, he questioned me more closely. I was unready in my answers. His inquiries excited and alarmed me. I felt that any instant I might do something to betray myself. I cut the manager short, paid my bill, got my luggage, and ordered the chauffeur to drive to the Gran

xpected, but when we arrived at Poughkeepsie and the chauffeur asked me again what disposition t

and now in the country-crossing rivers again and again on ferryboats-stopping at hotels, road houses and all manner of pla

had become more and more impudent in his attitude and outrageous in his charges, was now practically a spy upon us. The necessi

om whom I had claimed the box at the railway goods station in Newark confronted me. It appears, from what E

s pursuing me is-a Mi

d to a person in her name she had taken up the trail at once. Having somehow traced me to Long Island, she had actually made inquiries at this very road house some hours earlier. The railway employee, I am certain, would have denounced me

rsation between Elmer and me that I was running short

tha wearily supported her head in her hands. Her attitude acknowledged defeat. She was despairingly c

sper B. is at your service as long as you may require the ship. The c

unuttered-that the commander of the ship was he

lips. But at that instant the jarring roar

mor ran through the Jasper B.; the glasses leaped and rang upon the

tabbed and was gone in an instant was about halfway between the Jasper B. and Morris's. A second after, a missile-which Cleggett later learned was a piece of rock the size of a man's head-fell with a splintering c

. Lady Agatha, refusing to remain behind, went with them. Moving lights and a stir of activity at Morris's,

ments. A few pieces, like the one that came so near Cleggett, had been flung to a distance, but for the most part the shivered crowns and broken bulks had been served otherwise; the force of the blast had disintegrated them, but had not scattered them; the greater part of this newly-rent stone had toppled into the fissure in the ground, and lay there mixed with earth, almost filling the hole. It was impossible to determine just where a

ot indicated, saw upon the edge of this singular fracture in the earth a thing that sent a quick chill of horror and repulsion to his heart. It was a dead hand, roughly s

of something yellow. On one of t

leggett convulsively by the shoulder, "tha

epeated her words. Fighting down his repugnance, he took from

nd crumpled twe