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Show CAPTAIN SAZARAC to her I llo refuses to ho anything more. . . . My friend, .larvls, Is very wise. Monsieur Snznrac can go no further than the gallows In the l'hice d'Annes, and there smile down at her regretting he Is not himself." "Ah, Weill" the young man started up bitterly. "1 can male nothing of It I I hive her, Monsieur Lafitte and she lows (he magic of Sazarac I" He arose and paced the wet deck, wincing us tho swordthrust through his left arm cut him under tho dressing dress-ing her hands had made for It. She saw him from hir cushioned perch by the steersman. Dominique had taken the trick again, and sent the lud, Chirk, to the lookout. A line hot youth Kuoul de Almonnster had come to be under the press of the eventful fortnight since the Seraphlne lied from the liver's mouth; the languid aristocrat of the sugar plantations had Hung against the steel of Monsieur Mon-sieur Sazarac and tempered to a man. She would have called him nnd tried to win hi in from Ills moods, but she fenred the (lame of him . . . she could hurdly fall to guess why Ills By Charles Tenney Jackaon Copyright by The Dobbi'Merrtll Company arisen he looked about at her from under his gray bushy brows and smiled. "1 want to lie T you a moment, and look at the flying tops. You will need to shorten sail, and I rage that I cannot can-not spring to the tops again. Name o' O d ! a seaman on his back and loose blocks clattering I . . . Is the Kngllsh woman gone?" "She Is well away with Monsieur do Ahnonaster." "Good 1 Now, you are Lafltto, and not this woman's Sazarac. It Is this, Jean. In my shrimper's camp back at La Canilnada there Is a packet In my sea chest. It tells of plunder that Crump and De JonviUe and I burled on Cozumel twenty years ago. Some gold, some silver and a handful of Jewels. The two others have been dead long since; and I wish the stuff for you " "I can never return to Louisiana, Johanness," said the leader gently. "Eh? Well, Unit Is so!" The old man's voice was breaking lower. He turned his face to watch the white spume arise along the weather rail, the highest glitter of It striking id's face. "Weil, let me be, my captain 1 I wish to lie alone staring at the dizzy tops. Naught but them against the blue and the sea weathering up at me. Now let be, Jean!" The master put his hand hack on his breast and walked aft. The weary group by the steersman looked ques-tionlngly ques-tionlngly up. "Let no one go near him. It Is his wish. I shall roll him from the chains. That, too. Is his wish. I alone!" And again the girl looked wonder-Ingly wonder-Ingly at him. "What are you to them all. Monsieur? That rough men turn to you In this fashion, as I have seen them die the priest, the brother and the comrade?" "A name," he said, and smiled; and then would say no more. Louise had bound up De Almonaster's sorely-wounded arm. Now they all lay. In the shelter of the after-housing, save the lad, Clark, who had taken the wheel. Old Dominique, Monsieur Sazarac and Count de Almonaster with the English woman. The creak and haul of the gear In the freshening wind was all the sound, and Dominique croaked his misgivings. "A sore wild nljht for us all, hearties, If It keeps on. And another mystery there may be for the coffeehouses, coffee-houses, and that Is the end of the Seraphlne and the yelling bullies who stole her from the Place d'ArmesI I trust the Mayor Roulffignac will put flowers on my desk In the council chamber." They tried to smile for the sake of Mademoiselle. Now and then, with a curious little frowning fear, she had glanced down the raised skylight to the cabin of the emperor. It was, indeed, as If she was watching there for an apparition. ap-parition. At times she would have asked of the ragged man she saw there in the chair of honor with the scalp wound that had given him something the appearance of one who wore a red coronet and jauntily ; but always the two gentlemen had courteously evaded her. The two gentlemen had conferred apart, now and then ; reservedly, perhaps, per-haps, but with common honesty. "You would make the Mississippi passes with this ship, -Monsieur?" Inquired In-quired De Almonaster. "It appears quite Impossible that we should I" "What Is in your mind, Monsieur?" retorted Sazarac dryly. "Your life again. Granting this shorthanded vessel can be brought to the Mississippi, there is an answer we CHAPTER XV Continued. 20 "A-Uuratarla I" he howled. "I.n " The Seraphlne suddenly heeled lth a puff of wind that came as she cleared the shoals. It shook the wounded buccaneer from his falling grasp on the rigging. Hut even In midair, mid-air, Gorglo, the Catalan, repeated his rail of the old days; then his body heaved out and plunged to the opalescent opales-cent waters, streaking like a comet to the depths. "D n I" growled Dominique. "Is this a dead ship? Where are the hnl-lles hnl-lles that I raise not a man? Monsieur Mon-sieur do Almonnster I Captain Sazarac! Saz-arac! I lay a course now have this hip worked 1" "Lay her as she is, old gabbler," retorted Sazarac. "Starboard a bit the mist Is closing on the Spaniard, , and he cannot stir In tho air that moves this beauty! A long trick at your wheel, Dominique !" Still the rotund politician would not understand. "Our lads " be fumed. "If I take the deck I want something to work with, Monsieur Sazarac!" De Almonaster was holding his arm through whose sleeve the blood would jpout despite his efforts. Louise Les-$tron Les-$tron stared in a wikl disbelief from the shadowy disorder forward on the schooner to the master. When Sazarac spoke, It appeared to be to her: "There are none left you have seen the last men of a vanished race. You have seen men die In honesty. hon-esty. For you. Mademoiselle for a woman, at which they would have laughed; for the peace of the world, which they would have scorned ! It is a strange thing you see I and old Dominique alone, on this bloody deck alone more than any human heart can know !" The two gentlemen took her to the cabin, while the crippled schooner fled on a blinded path, anywhere to be out from the guns of the king o' Spain. They took her to the emperor's suite; and Monsieur de Almonaster found bread and meat for her; and Monsieur Mon-sieur Sazarac held wine to her lips. There, also, the gentlemen discovered discov-ered a thing which they did not report re-port to Mademoiselle. They closed the door softly to the cabin, and tried to make a jest of all the terrors that came with the taking of the Seraphlne. Sera-phlne. In the tapestry-hung stateroom, with his boots on and his blood-stained head deep in the pillow, the Emperor of the Bottle lay upon Bonaparte's bed once more. He might be sleeping, or he might be dead . . . the gentlemen gen-tlemen could not take time to discover discov-er with so many other grim questions mounting to the eyes of each across the emperor's board. Be that as It may, ihe Emperor, having hav-ing reached the privacy of his chamber, cham-ber, flatly refused to leave it again, even though his lady ot the camellia was now just outside the paneled door. CHAPTER XVI The Loot of a Buccaneer. The shortened sail was snapping In a clear morning breeze which worried Dominique, still at his trick with the wheel, which was all that a rotund alderman, his knees too much sagged with fat living, might attempt. A fair morning, and a following sea ; with not a sail In sight. Pursuit, even from the heavy-footed Spanish troopship might have gone badly with the two hundred-ton hundred-ton schooner, short-handed as she scampered on. The two gentlemen who had been gravely washing down the decks, came about the low housing to where the bo'sun lay. The deck was wet, the "One .Can Love a Mask a Woman Can Go On Forever Loving the Illusion Illu-sion She Deems a Man to Bel" sword had leaped from Its sheath on Campeche reef; and surely the Seraphlne Sera-phlne had seen enough of men's passions pas-sions and their blood. And Monsieur Sazarac, too, had his moods again. He found affairs to keep him busied, as. Indeed, well a sailor might on this man-crippled schooner; but once, happening to glance down the cabin skylight, with her incessant curiosity, she saw him there. He stood In deep thought, It appeared. Then be went to the door of the emperor's stateroom, and rapped upon It with his silver sword hilt. She thought he laughed slightly, as a man who had thought upon a serious seri-ous matter until It became amusing. The door opened. She could not tell by whom, but Monsieur Sazarac bowed with an accentuated flourish. There was a sardonic smoothness to this bow; and Sazarac entered the emperor's emper-or's chamber. The door closed, and for an hour nothing happened In the cabin. It Irritated Mademoiselle Les-tron. Les-tron. A mystery with grim laughter In It . . . about all the blood and death and fire of the weeks there had seemed grimacing mirth. Even the dying, wounded fellows, overwhelmed by the boarding Span-lards Span-lards on the port bow last night; that, too, was a jest, for If the king's men had made one more assault the Seraphlne Sera-phlne would have been theirs again. The swords of Monsieur de Almonaster Almonas-ter and Monsieur Sazarac were the only ones against them when they broke back to their boats. The last dead of the Seraphine lay In a close row before the fo'cas'le hood Belu-che, Belu-che, the admiral ; Nez Coupe, the riven-faced; Bohon, the smuggler; Joe Rlgo of Isle Grande; Frenlere and two others; a fallen rank to which, presently, she saw Monsieur Sazarac carry the last the bo'sun, Johanness. Then the master stood bareheaded in the sun and looked them over. He seemed satisfied; he took a deck-broom deck-broom and swept around them carefully, care-fully, as If these were a treasure heaped on the schooner's spray-lashed bow ; and then he came aft. Mademoiselle Made-moiselle Lestron saw that he carried a number of shabby things. A drenched velvet cap, a broken pistol, a faded sash, a cutlass and a gold earring ear-ring from the bo'sun's head. With these he went down the main com-panlonway com-panlonway to the emperor's cabin, knocked on the door and then entered. The door closed. She glanced at Alderman Dominique drowsing at the wheel. The flapping canvas, as the schooner wore off a bit, brought his eyes open. "Monsieur Dominique! What Is going go-ing on?" she cried. "Eh? On? I trust my head Is still on and remains so? What" "What Is this play for me?" she broke in passionately. (TO BE CONTINUED.) it! must make for this affair." "There Is the answer I made to Mademoiselle Lestron." "True true!" The younger man shrugged. "There Is, In addition, my honor that the Seraphine yet sail on the mission for the emperor. There are gentlemen in New Orleans with money in this venture. If a crew could be shipped by any means " Monsieur Sazarac laughed aloud. At the end it amused him this punctilious punc-tilious regard each had for honor his own and the other man's, and each for the other's life and future. That was what Mademoiselle Lestron had put upon them, this meticulous notion to stand aside rather than overreach. "Come," he said good-humoredly. "Is there a quarrel In us, Monsieur?" "1ft the end she will know you are Jean Lafitte," went on De Almonaster evenly. "But It Is not I who should tell her. Is not that fair?" "I will bow to her from the gallows the governor will erect In the Place d'Armes, and announce myself, If needs be," said Monsieur Sazarac. "Jean !" the younger man sprang up hotly. "This Is no jesting! She loves you !" "A ghost Sazarac," smiled the other. oth-er. ' "Ah, Indeed, this Is worthy of the man who lies below In the suite of Napoleon, babbling a glory which Is compounded of fever and cognac ! What Is there to love In Sazarac, once the mask Is torn from him?" "That is the point of it," retorted the other soberly. "One can love a mask ... a woman can go on forever for-ever loving the Illusion she deems a man to be !" "The irons she will see upon Monsieur Mon-sieur Lafitte in New Orleans will not be an Illusion." The master smiled again detachedly: "This romantic fancy of hers for Sazarac! Go below be-low ask Monsieur Jarvis who has suffered for her, bled for her, saved her life and refuses to be anything but the veriest mystery and illusion "He WHI Not Be Moved, Messieurs!" dying buccaneer was wet ; Mademoiselle Mademoi-selle Lestron looked up, the shaggy head with Its huge, gold earrings, pillowed pil-lowed on her lap; and her face was wet also a sparkle lent by the sea and the fountains of her woman's compassion. She turned from her ministrations with a wan smile: "He will not be moved, Messieurs!" v "Old robber " muttered Sazarac; "stubborn to the end, eh?" "It is my place here In the weather. I am no quarter-deck gentry nor mewling mew-ling 'prentice to be laid below In the doctor's room for all a thrust or two." "Johanness, you are going soon," answered an-swered the chief gravely. "That Is what I wanted of you. Send away the English woman " and though he growled this, when she had |