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Show m J htN AMtS WllllAMS . i'.T . -" I'll l'l t K UI I'olitimu-tt U ltT's tv.il in t'.u't drew nour; and N-i he s.iw them wau-hmg. IVter iMlK-il: "Well. Mary, vou saw sonu'llun; today!" She (.'It suddenly pity (or him, thinking how emslu-J ho wouM ho when ho knew the truth about his t.ithoi ho,yi, know himself ilisowiici tv I'ji'I.un Ira Corr. "That was tlno." she toUl him. "Wonderful!" "You have to know how to hin-.Ho hin-.Ho 'fin," ho said complacently. '"There's more to whaling than bull luck. Pick isn't the only man aboard can kill a whale. Whore is he?" "Cone to change his clothes," Mary said; and as the boat came alongside George added: "His arm's bruised. The flukes hit him." Fetor laughed. "Probably rubbing rub-bing liniment on it," he said. He swung up to the deck. George called v. '- to Corkran: "Great job you did!" Corkran shook his head apologetically. apologeti-cally. "I went in too high with the lance, sir. Over his shoulder blade. If I'd got him right he wouldn't have sunk." "Good job, just the same," George insisted. He and Mary went aft with Peter. Mary told George: "I'm worried about Richard. I'll see il he's all right" George nodded, and she went below. Richard was in the common room, by the desk; and he had stripped oft his shirt. When she appeared, he looked across at her in an abashed way. She saw his bewildered eyes, and then he said as though ashamed of his own weakness: "Darned arm's broken. Mary!" "Broken?" she echoed. He extended his left arm for her to see. She saw that it was swollen between be-tween elbow and wrist, already beginning be-ginning to show a dark, discolored bruise. Also it was twisted in an unnatural way, the hand in the wTong position, as if put on by an awkward workman. Her breath caught with pity, and she touched his arm lightly. His eyes followed her fingers as they approached; but when they touched his skin, his eyes leaped to meet hers, and for a long moment their glances held, as though each had been startled by some distant sound. She tried to speak, and shook her head without knowing she did so, and ran to the foot of the com-panionway com-panionway and called: "George! Peter! Pe-ter! Richard's arm's broken. Come quick! " George was beside her in an instant. in-stant. Richard was leaning against the desk, grinning in rueful apology. "Makes me kind of faint," he said. "Takes the pith out of me." His lips were white with pain. Peter came below, asked sharply: "What's the matter?" S George said: "His arm's broken." Richard tried to laugh. "Funny," he sai "Joke on me." Peter took the arm in both hands, feeling it, pressing with his fingers. "It's broken all right," he decided. "I can feel the ends scrape together." togeth-er." Richard drawled: "So can I. Don't play with them unless you get a special lot of fun out of it, Peter. It's no fun for me." They all smiled. Mary could not t speak. Richard was so strong and splendid, to stand thus weak and broken now. Her eyes burned with unshed tears. George reflected helplessly: "All I know about broken bones is to keep them quiet til you get a doctor." doc-tor." Mary whispered: "Can't we go into port, somewhere?" No one answered her. Their minds were dulled by this emergency. It was Richard who suggested calling Isaiah and Hiram. Isaiah volubly as- sured them that he had set more broken arms than you could shake a stick at "You go make a splint, Hiram," h tnlrt thp rarnpntpr. "What wp want is a couple flat pieces of cedar, ce-dar, 'bout so long and 'bout so wide." Hiram went to obey, and Mary to tear some of her own garments into bandages. When they set the broken bone, she bit her lip, watching Richard's Rich-ard's mouth twitch as they tugged at his arm. Isaiah and Peter held the arm stretched in position while Hiram laid on the splints and bound them in place; and when the thing was done, Isaiah nodded in satisfied satis-fied approval of his own work. "There ye be!" he said. "Month from now, Cap'n, you won't know it ever happened." Richard protested: "A month?" "A month anyways. Yes, sure." Mary asked: "Shouldn't he have a sling?" Isaiah shook his head. Richard grinned at his own plight ! "Well, a fine lot of use I'll be around here for a while," he said. "Peter, you're going to have to handle han-dle things." Peter nodded carelessly. "Sure," he agreed. "I'll look out for you." Before noon they sighted whales again; and Peter lowered, and Cork-ran Cork-ran got two irons home handsomely. handsome-ly. Peter himself lanced this whale as easily as killing a chicken, and he came back to the ship drunk with swaggering with a new sense of power. The blubber and the bone were safe aboard by d.uk that night; and a great moon ro.ro to silver the slippery, stained docks and pale the glare of the tiros under the try puts. They had buoyed the whale which sank, and while they wore cutting in and trying out this now kill, they stayed near the buoy. On the second sec-ond morning they saw the dead whale atloal. swollen with gases. They brought it alongside too. Despite De-spite the steady work, everyone aboard was in good humor; for one more whale. Richard said, would till their last casks. They finished trying try-ing out, stowed the oil, scrubbed ship, cruised daily to and fro. But their luck did not repeat itself; it-self; they wont day after day vigilant vigi-lant and yet without success. On a steady westerly they moved down again toward Juan Fernandez, working work-ing offshore for a while; and Inaction Inac-tion began to weary them and fret the patience of every man aboard, till at last Richard decided to put in to Talcahuano. "We might strike oil at the Cape Vcrdes," he said. "And if we don't, we've done well enough. It's time to be getting home." There was, Mary would And. a surprising lot to be done by way of refitting. Richard warned her that rounding Cape Horn they were sure of cold weather; and she saw the sailors in their spare time on deck busy with mending and patching, preparing warm clothing for the high latitudes. And In the landlocked land-locked harbor of Talcahuano the ship herself put on a new dress. Her old sails, patched and repatched and dingy with smoke, were unbent The rigging was tested and repaired where repairs were needed, and freshly tarred. Richard bought beef Peter laughed. "Secret? Yon can't keep a secret aboard ship." cattle and had them butchered and the meat salted down; he bought biscuit and molasses, tea and coffee; cof-fee; and fruits and vegetables were brought aboard. Richard himself went to physician, who found it necessary to break his arm afresh and reset it to prevent a malformation; malfor-mation; and in the reaction from that ordeal, and in a rising impatience im-patience to be at home, he decided to forego the chance of another whale. So the bricks of the try-works try-works were thrown overboard, the pots stowed below, the sheathing on deck and at the gangway removed; and early in December, stripped and fit the Venturer was ready. Feik and Barbo left them at Talcahuano. Tal-cahuano. Feik's illness had passed within a few days; but the two islanders is-landers found a chance to sign on the Nancy Drake, a bark bound westward, which had put in here for repairs after a rough time off the Horn. So Richard paid them off, and he did not fill their places. To work ship he had men enough. Soon after noon one day the Venturer put to sea. The next morning Mary rose and went on deck to view the day as though it were something new and beautiful, never seen before. She was completely happy; but before the day ended, her world had changed. She was in her cabin alone, George and the others all on deck; and she began to put her things in order, as though it were already time to pack to go ashore. So doing, do-ing, she remembered the pearls Ja-rambo Ja-rambo had given her. And looking for them, found they were gone. CHAPTER XIV The los? of the pearls did not in itself grieve Mary; but the manner of their going had alarming implications. implica-tions. Whoever had stolen them was by the very fact of his guilt made potentially dangerous to the ship and to them all. Peter knew of the existence ex-istence of the pearls, knew they were somewhere aboard; and he could not be surely crossed off the list of suspects. Certainly he held himself him-self to no strict rule of honorable conduct since Mary came aboard the Venturer he had wooed her who was George's wife. Yet this consideration, which might have damned him, actually persuaded Mary at last that he was innocent. She was woman enough to understand that l'otor or any other man might love her; mul she was woman enough to forgive l'otor. Hut she was sure ut last that, loving her, ho would never have stolon her pearls. Who, then? Feik might have taken the pearls before he and Umbo left the ship at TalcahuaiKi; and Mary hoped he had! If he had them, they and the thief were gone. Hut of the hut) still aboard, there remained only Runnels. Mat Forbes' harpooner was u fat young man, with a deceptive decep-tive fatness that had strength behind be-hind it. There was something shifty about Runnels. Thinking of Runnels mnele her suddenly afraid, and as much to reassure re-assure herself as from any real conviction, she decided that Teter had found the pearls and had put them in some place of greater security. se-curity. But when she asked him whether this were true, he shook his head. i'Tvt never seen them since you showed them to me." he declared. "Where were they hidden?" She told him. and he listened, frowning soberly. "I'd have thought they'd be safe there," he admitted. "Did Richard know about them?" "He knew I had them, but not where they were." She added: "I hope It was Feik. I hope he's got them, hope they're gone." Peter chuckled. "I don't," he protested. pro-tested. "I liked the look of them. If anybody gets them, I'd like to be the one. I'm betting they're still aboard." "I think we ought to tell Richard." Rich-ard." she decided. "If they're aboard, whoever has them, It might mean trouble. But I don't want George to know about them unless he has to." Later she reported the disappearance disappear-ance of the pearls to Richard. He said good-humoredly: "Shucks, you probably took them yourself, hid them somewhere else; and now you've forgotten where." "You must think I'm an Idiot!" She was at once hurt and angry. "Sure you didn't?" "Of course I'm sure." "Then it was probably Feik." he decided. He frowned. "Now. I'm wondering if that barrel of ambergris amber-gris is still in the cabin stores. I'll have a look and see." The ambergris was safe, and nothing noth-ing new happened to alarm them; but there was after that day an added vigilance in Richard's manner. man-ner. He kept a more watchful eye upon the men, and went out of his way and outside any real need to keep them busy. He was forever shifting sails, trying this way and that to get greater speed out of the Venturer. In the end It became necessary to tell George about the pearls. Mary and Richard and Peter were apt to discuss the pearls whenever two or all three of them were together and out of reach of other ears; and a man less sensitive than George must have seen that he was excluded from some secret which they shared. He was for a while too proud to confess that he saw this. But in the end he questioned Peter. Pe-ter. "I've had an idea you, Mary and Richard have a secret between you." Peter laughed. "Secret? You can't keep a secret aboardship. No. Don't you worry, George!" he urged. "Richard's all right and so's Mary. Of course, it would go to any man's head the way she looks at him; but they'll be all right once we're ashore." George said after a moment: "I trust Mary, and Richard too, of course. Only I've wondered, sometimes." some-times." "Here, I'll show you you're wrong." Peter spoke easily; he took George by the arm, led him across to the other side of the deck and forward, so that they would approach ap-proach Richard and Mary unseen, from behind. "We'll get near enough to hear what they're saying," he i' But George stopped. "No," he said curtly. "I'm not a spy!" Before Be-fore Peter could urge him, he called to Mary, still some distance from them. He called her name, and there was a note of warning in his voice. That call startled her, made her turn with guilty cheeks; for when she had followed Richard forward, she was thinking of his forbearance toward Peter, and when they were alone, on sudden impulse she said: "Isaiah told me Peter's not really your brother, Richard." He said in a low tone: "I'd have Isaiah whipped for that, if he weren't old enough to be my grandfather." grand-father." "Everyone will know when we get home." Richard shook his head. "No, they won't! Not even Peter, if Isaiah and Hiram keep their mouths shut I'm going to have the lawyers tear up Father's will, or else I'll take Peter in as partner. He can run things ashore." "I haven't even told George." "Don't," he urged. "If Peter knew about it, it would knock him all to pieces, Mary." "I won't of course. I noticed in the log one night that your father never called Peter his son; but he always did you. He was pretty proud of you, of course." (TO BE CONTINUED) |