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Show Nothing Except the Remembrance of the Women Afforded Me Strength and Courage to Remain. one only did I discover a body, that of a child of three or four years, flaxen-haired and bonny even in death. Upon the deck at the foot of the mast I discovered, the vessel's log-book lying ly-ing wide open, a quill pen beside it, exactly as it had been dropped. I did not take time to decipher the Spanish, inscribed in a scrawling hand, but my glance caught the date of that last entry "September 11, 1753." The date rang in my head crazily, as I stood there staring at them, totally unable to grasp or apprehend the truth. One hundred and twenty-six years! Merciful God! And all that time those men had been there at that table; all through those days and nights, those months and years, that frozen image of De Nova had been smiling, his cold fingers clutching the glass; al through those decades that woman had been lying on the couch, that flaxen-haired baby in the bunk! Theie, exactly as we found them, during a century of inky blackness, tossed about by the sea, cradled in the pitiless ice, smitten by the awful breath of eternal Winter, those bodies had remained rigid, motionless, even as the souls left them, for 126 years! It was unthinkable, inconceivable, miraculous, beyond all my power of apprehension. Blessed Mary! what changes the world had witnessed since these died! What wonders of discovery; what growth in faith; what widening of human knowledge; what generations of men and women had been born, lived, loved, and died since the deadly ice locked these into this floating tomb! Not until after I had explored the last empty room and returned to the group at the door did I regain my senses and feel myself again a living, responsible being upon whose strength of will depended the future of all on board. A glance into those horrified faces told me instantly that they were ready for a mad retreat to the boat; that the slightest exhibition of weakness weak-ness on my part would set them into a panic. I stiffened into resistance, all memory of the past blotted out utterly utter-ly by the demands of the present. "Men, we've come into a hard job here, but it is one which must be attended at-tended to," I said, gravely. "However, we'll wait until after breakfast before tackling the worst of it. Day is beginning be-ginning now, and we will need all the light it gives us. Dade, get out some provisions from the boat, start a fire in the galley, and prepare a hot meal. Sanchez, go along and help; you will probably have to cut away some ice before the fire will draw. Not a word to the women about what you have seen aft, my lads." The two started forward willingly enough, and I immediately turned to the others, marking their uneasy glances, and fully assured that I must keep them also busily employed, or else lose control altogether. "We have too much to, accomplish here to waste any time while those fellows are getting' a meal ready," I continued, quickly. "McKnight, you tackle these front shutters. Kelly, climb up on the poop and dig the ice off the skylight and out of the funnel. We've got to have daylight and a fire. Now, De Nova, I want you and Johnson John-son to help me. Come on, men; what are you two afraid of? These are all dead." I fairly drove them to it, but it did them both good, although the manner in which they advanced down the cabin, their faces blanched under the torch glare, their bodies shaking as with ague, made me nervous and irritable. irri-table. I put them at the after-ports, Johnson with the cleaver, and De Nova with his sheath-knife, and between the three of us we finally succeeded in wrenching both stern-ports free of their icy fetters. As we burst them open, through the wide apertures we looked forth into the gray dreariness of the dawn. Satisfied with what had thus been accomplished, we retraced our steps back through the cabin, observing ob-serving that Kelly had made some progress above, the faint daylight already al-ready beginning to tinge that grim interior. in-terior. (TO BE CONTINUED.) . a SYNOPSIS. The story opens with the introduction of John Stephens, adventurer, a Massachusetts Massa-chusetts man marooned by authorities at Valparaiso, Chile. Hehig interested in tnining operations in Uolivia, he was do-atounced do-atounced by Chile as an insurrectionist and as a consequence was hiding. At his ' Jiotol his attention was attracted by an lOirAlisiiinan ami a young woman, ytephens rescued the young woman from ,-l drunken officer. lie was thanked' by her. Admiral of the Peruvian navy confronted con-fronted Stephens, told him that war had been declared between Chile and Peru and offered him the ofliee of captain, lie desired that that night the Esmeralda, a Chilean vessel. should be captured. Stephens accepted the commission. Stephens met a motley crew, to which he was assigned. Me gave them tinal instructions. in-structions. They boarded the vessel. They successfully captured the vessel supposed to be the Esmeralda, through strategy. Ortrt. Stephens gave directions for the departure de-parture of the craft, lie entered the cabin cab-in and discovered the English woman : uiid her maid. Stephens quickly learned the wrong vessel had been captured. It was Lord Darlington's private yacht, tlie lord's wife and maid being aboard, .tie explained the situation to her ladyship. lady-ship. Then First Mate Tuttle laid bare the plot, saying that the Sea Queen had boon taken in order to go to the Antarctic Antarc-tic circle. Tuttle explained that on a former voyage he had learned that the Peiina Isabel was lost in 17d3. He had found it frozen in a huge case of ice on an island and contained much gold. Stephens consented to be the captain nf the expedition. He told Lady Darlington. She was greatly alarmed, hut expressed conlidence in him. The -Sea Queen encountered a vessel in tlie fog. Stephens attempted to communicate. This caused a fierce struggle and he was ovvTcome. Tuttle finally squaring the situation. sit-uation. Then the Sea Queen headed south again. Under 'Tuttle's guidance the vessel ves-sel made progress toward its goal. 1 Nova, the mate, told Stephens that he believed Tuttle, now acting as skipper, insane because of his iueer actions. Siephens was awakened by crashing of glass. He saw Tuttle in the grip of a spasm of religious mania and overcame rum. The sailor upon regaining his senses was taken ill. Tuttle committed suicide hv shooting. Upon vote of the crew Stephens assumed the leadership and the men decided to continue the treasure hunt, the islands being supposed to be only 200 miles distant. Tuttle was buried ;in the sea, Lady Darlington pronouncing the service. Stephens awaking from sleep saw the ghost, supposed to have formed the basis for Tuttle's religious mania. Upon advice of Lady Darlington, .Stephens started to probe the ghost. He came upon Lieut. Sanchez, the drunken drunk-en officer he had humbled in Chile. He found that at Sanchez' inspiration. Engineer En-gineer McKniglit played "ghost" to scare ittie men into giving up the quest. Stephens Steph-ens announced that the Sea Queen was at the spot where Tuttle's quest was supposed sup-posed to be. The crew was anxious to go on in further search. De Nova and Steph-ons Steph-ons conquered them in a fist fight. Lady Darlington thanked him. The Sea Queen started northward. She was wrecked in a tog. Stephens. De Nova, Lady Darlington and her maid being among those to set out in a life boat. Ten were rescued. Stephens saw only one chance in a thousand thou-sand for life. Ladv Darlington confessed 'her love to Stephens and he did likewise. 1,ady Darlington tol her life story; how she "had been bartered for a title, her learning for absent love. She revealed Vierself as the school chum of Stephens' sister. She expressed a wish to die in the sea rather than face her former friends ond go back to the old life. A ship was sighted. The craft proved to be a derelict. They boarded her. She was frozen tight with hundreds of years of ice. The vessel ves-sel was the Donna Isabel, lost in 1753, 126 years previous. .CHAPTER XXI 1.1 . Continued. I clenched my hands, my nerves throbbing, tramping from rail to rail in excitement as the men hacked, yet I was first to grasp the exposed latch, ana force the released wood backward back-ward in its groves. Through the nar-;how nar-;how opening thus attained there came whistling a blast so frigid as to drive us headlong back, gasping for breath. Cold as it was without there on the open deck, that cabin revealed a temperature tem-perature so awful in intensity as to make us recoil before it, our hands to tour faces. A hundred years of win-:ter win-:ter the black eternal winter, of the ; south pole smote us with icy breath, seeming fairly to sear the flesh' with its frozen touch. Dade dropped un-. un-. der it, and we dragged him aside, sob-i sob-i bing like a haby. It was several miu- utes before we could even draw near enough to hack away more of the ice . and, with the ax, drive the door f ar- ther back into its grooves. ft was intensely dark within, every window and porthole shrouded, only . the narrow door-opening permitting t.he slight glimmer of the moon to touch the edge of the black interior. 1 1 wrapped my muffler to the very eyes, and stepped across the threshold, feel- '.lng-as if the icy air grasped me with actual fingers, yet resolute to learn all, and confident no other there would ever venture it. I touched an overturned over-turned bench with my knee; my fin-explored fin-explored the back of a heavy "There are dead men in there," I explained, ex-plained, already ashamed of my display of terror. "I I touched one in the dark." ' They drew back from the open door, gazing with new horror into the blackness of the interior; but my own courage was rapidly returning, as I realized that I must lead and control: "Well, lads, it startled me, all right, but we cannot afford to give up this ship to dead men. De Nova, take Kelly with you, and try to discover something on board with which to make a flare. There ought to be plenty of dry stuff in the galley. Not a word to the women about what I found aft." The rest of us hacked away, while they were gone, at the ice concealing the front window shutters, and partly uncovered one. But we could get no purchase upon it from the outside and no one volunteered to venture within. I kept them all busy, however, the hard work and sense of command combining to restore my own nerves to a normal condition. The mate despairing de-spairing of doing better, finally brought back a table-leg of pitch pine which we contrived to ignite after several unsuccessful experiments, the yellowish-red flames circling the heavy end like so many coiling serpents, and sending forth a weird reflection through spirals of black smoke. It was a poor glim enough, yet it would serve; and I bore it inside, holding the torch well before me, the men clustering clus-tering about the door. The mottled flare cast mingled light and shadow over the horrors thus dimly revealed, rendering the ghastly sight one to chill the blood of any man. The cabin was a long one, extending ex-tending aft clear to the stern, the immense butt of the mizzen-mast almost al-most separating it into two apartments. apart-ments. About this was arranged a great arm-rack completely filled with a variety of weapons, many of them flashing back the glittering rays of the torch. At one time that had been a rare sea-parlor, but now it was a wreck, the walls and ceiling ding with smoke, the gilt defaced and bat- bottle half-filled, and some scraps of frozen food. The bodies of two men, one with a cloak over his shoulders, occupied the bench within three feet of me. The one nearest had fallen sideways, and hung there, his arm hooked across the back of the bench, his long, black hair dangling over his face; the other sat with head bowed on the table, his features hidden by his arms, but the gold rings in his ears plainly showing. Directly opposite oppo-site these two, sitting bolt upright in a chair, eyes wide open, staring straight at me, was a third. My God! it was De Nova! The same eyes, the same dark curly hair, the same little black mustache, the same, smile curling the thin lips. I could have sworn it was the mate, endeavoring to frighten and mock me. I even wheeled about angrily, flashing the light of my torch over that cluster of faces in the doorway. No! by heavens, the Creole stood behind, and this, this counterpart, was ,a dead man dead for a hundred years. No words can ever retell the struggle I made to control con-trol myself, the smoking torch shaking sha-king in my hand and casting its miserable mis-erable flicker over that charnel house, every limb trembling like aspens, my eyes staring into the shadows. My very violence of fear angered me; what had I to be afraid of? How could these poor frozen bodies injure me? Nerved to the endeavor I stepped forward around the end of the table, throwing the faint glare of the torch into the after space concealed by the huge r.iast-butt. A tall, thin man sat on the deck, braced against the wall, his long, gray beard almost concealing his 'ace: on a wide divan, nearly opposite, op-posite, lay a woman, her dark hair loosened, a large diamond glittering on the hand which hung rigid over the edge of the couch. Just below her fingers, as if dropped there in final weakness, lay a baby's well-worn shoe. I scarcely comprehend how I ever conquered the sickly horror that smote me as I gazed about upon this scene of death, rendered even more terrible chair having a carven top, and then ,came into contact with a bare table, heavily ridged along the edge. Seemingly Seem-ingly this stood crossways of the cab-In; cab-In; and I felt cautiously along it, a deeper cowardice gripping me with every hesitating step forward in the dark. Suddenly I touched hair and the gelid coldness of frozen flesh, and as instantly leaped backward, mad with nameless terror. The overturned bench tripped me, and I fell, grasping at the door casements, and thus dragged myself out of that hell-hole by .my arms. CHAPTER XXIV. In 'Which ! Explore the Cabin. De Nova assisted me to my feet, the yher me:i crowding about, their faces (illcd with wonderment. "Ft God's tered. Overturned furniture was everywhere; every-where; piles of clothing, and a perfect riffraff of articles strewed the deck floor; a violin lay almost at my feet, all but one string snapped; and some sort of an odd music-box rested against the bench over wrhich I had fallen. A great square box-stove stood just before the mast-butt, a huge pile of ashes all about. An immense lantern, its strange a looking contrivance contriv-ance as ever I saw, swung solemnly from a deck-beam, and just beyond, suspended by wires, was a gorgeously colered picture of the "Madonna and Child." I beheld all these details at a glance, although at the time I scarcely realized any of them, my entire horrified attention atten-tion being riveted upon the scene of death revealed. The table, which I had previously touched, extending crossways of the cabin, w-as uncovered but contained plates, cups, a large by the silence and the nickering, smoking torch that furnished the only light. Nothing except the sense of command, the remembrance of those women waiting outside in the cook's galley, ever afforded me strength and courage to remain. The task must be done; by some one it must be accomplished, ac-complished, and that some one, of necessity, ne-cessity, was myself. With clenched teeth, my face as white as those of the frozen def.d about me, I advanced from door to door down one side of that cabin, and up the other. Out from the staterooms that had remained closed there came the same awful breath of the frigid south, rendering even the icy air of the main cabin ten times colder, and causing me to breathe with (l:fnculty as I peered hastily within. These staterooms were all of fair size, the two situated farthest aft Leing unusually large and comfortably fitted, rlthough in great disorder. In |