The Secret of Lonesome Cove

water is denied; denied with a show of menacing teeth, when the sea curls its lips back, amid a swirl of angry currents, from its rocks and reefs, warning boats away. There

straggling pathways along the edge, worn by the feet of their herders, afford the only suggestion of human tra

ark object, a few yards within the flood-tide limit. Some scouted about, peering at the sand. Others pointed first to the sea, then to the cliffs

s scramble, possible only to a good climber, around the jutting elbow of the cliff to the northward. It was easily to be read in his face that he was both surprised

know you at first under them whiskers. You remember me, don

ned the other. "Still in the

ings you here

just here, I thought I'd have a look at them. Nobody really knows anything about coast curren

dn't have come at a better tim

to swim out to the eddy, and m

r, aghast. "Why, Perfessor, you must have turned foolish. Th

there would be no danger to an experienced swimmer. The conditions are i

? Another one's come in throug

, as he glanced toward the indica

p there, sure

at," answe

he

early this

of rocks over which the soft slow swell was barely breaking. "If

ey mostly come in at the

itive. "Unless my charts are wrong. But this-w

ght. "You got a theery? But I thought you didn't kno

the currents," sighed the other. "It ha

response, delivered with a jerk o

it then, if n

ad wo

dn't have come in on this s

in. Lonesome Cove has had some queer folks drift home to i

l rope. Everything about the body indicated wealth. The dress was expensively made. The shoes were of the best type, and the stockings were silk. The head was marred by a frightful bruise which had crushed in the right side and extended around behind the ear. Blood had clo

trange," he murmured. "

the hand!"

with the left arm extended. The left wrist was enclosed in a light rusted handcuff to which a chain was fastened. At the end of the chain was the companion cuff, shattered,

announced. "That kind ain't

e carryin' 'em nowadays?"

a formidable voice, which Kent, looking up, perceived to have come from am

, aren't you?"

of it, man an' boy, h

the duties of a self-appointed cicerone. "Not much abou

," confirmed

se lashings and tell me whether in your opini

ly. The old face puckered. J

The lashin's a passable job

's wrong wi

just that style of rope would be doin' on shipbo

t this grating,

runnin' this thing, anyhow? I'm sheriff here, an' thi

might be interested to see, Mr. Sheriff, whether a

e learning me my business," dec

rs of disappointment followed. In these Kent did not join. He had inserted a finger in a crevice of the splint

here?" demand

out his hand, disclosin

the cocoon of Ephestia k

a livin'?" inquired the

. It's a specie

lager. "You're a

e other, transferring

tance, he paced up and down the shore, whistling lively tunes, not always in perfect ac

e lift th

ost against the cliff's foot. His whistling became slow, lugubrious, minor. It sagged. It died away. When it rose again, it was in march time, whereto the virtuoso stepped briskly toward the crowd. By t

pocket," Kent heard one of the

e an envelope," h

ith; "paper would have been

hief, maybe," su

ger figured it out there was somethin' in it for hi

just like that when he brought in that half-wit pedler, th

r number one first, an' be sheriff

f which was lost upon him, Professor Kent

ted me special dep'ty till he comes back, and he says nobody is to lay

er. "Sheriff Schlager exhibits

he corpse?" suggested

, if he didn't,"

, th

you hear about his meetin' up wit

rvis. "How'd she come to be washed ashore from

?" countered Sailor Smith. "The' ain't been no storm for

ats me," adm

ennett?" asked

ttle plumbin' an' tinkerin' on the side. Just now he's

arly when he m

when she come out of the shrubbery-pop! He quizzed her. Trust the Elder for that. But he didn't get much o

es at the Nook. Is that Francis S

aints right purty pictures. Lives t

laughed loud an' kinder scornful. He seemed to be pointin' at a necklace of queer, fiery pink stones thet she wore, and tryin' to get somethin' out of her. She turned away, an' he started to follow, when all of a sudden she grabbed up a ro

't got no pink necklac

s gets robbed,"

in peering close. Then he straightened up and b

turned his face toward the cliff. His lips pursed. He began

have you, Perfessor?" inquired Temporary

"Seen anything? Nothing but wh

d the face of the cliff; all but Sailor Smi

hat's them queer little mark

e might suppose, such indentations as would be made in flesh by forc

wom-" began the old seaman

goes Le

peared on the brow of the cli

ith him?" in

im," answe

Indi

more Indian than anything else. Comes from d

en did h

trapesin' aro

see th

im hove in sight. Len went over to him quick, an' said somethin' to him. He

hin', only grunt,"

atch the body. Then he says, 'An' I'll need somebody to help me

h the racing currents, and he sighed. That sigh meant, in effect, "I wanted to play with my tides and ed

ted, don't he?" remar

anyway?" inq

ained Jarvis, with patronizing kindliness. "Comes from

red a little, thin, piping man. "

he scarified neck. "Well, I ain't any too dum sure thet he's as bi

gnosis, and there was some feeling against Sail

was somethin' queer about thet rope, an' he ast me about the knots, right off. He knows enough not to spit to wind'ard, a

of a small and quite unimportant insect. Perhaps the admiring Mr. Smith might even have come around to the majority opinion regarding Professor Kent's intellectual futility, could he have observed the absorbed interest with which the Washington