OCR Text |
Show i"12umSly- '4 a:; rK2$XJ COPYRIGHT WG. CHAPMAN V '0;'; DV ON THE ISLAND SYNOPSIS Fishing, in Idle fashion, from a private dock, Dick Van Ness watches a ship, the Pelican, which he recognizes 1 . as th ebeacon, his father's yacht PS before his death and financial q-; reverses forced him to part with u it. A man whom he hears a girl H' who accompanies him address as Mr. Blake, lands from the yacht: The girl drops her handbag in the stream, and Dick recovers it. :- Thanking him, .she gives him her visiting card. She is Alice 7: Cutler, niece of Stephen Cutler, -' successful business rival of the elder Van Ness. Dick overhears a conversation between Blake and Captain Brent of the Peii- . can which tells him the yacht r Is bound on a voyage of adventure. adven-ture. Dick determines to con-0".; con-0".; ceal himself and sail a stow-away stow-away with the party. Stephen s Cutler, inva lid, comes aboard, with his niece, and the ship : sails. In his retreat Dick over-- hears conversations between ... Blake and Captain Brent which appear to denote something sinister. i. - "T'","i" ' ..' ' " CHAPTER IV Continued M 4 "Yes, If nothing happens. The barometer's falling u little, but I guess 'we'll get ahead ot any storm. It seems cto be breaking behind us instead of -ahead." There was a second or two of sl--lence. Then Blake added: p. "You understand just what to do? :::When I give the signal you must sail 'away. Don't stop to ask questions, .and don't mind what others say. Get iioff at once, and hang around Marsh dnlet until you get a wireless from me." ;: "Suppose your wireless ashore don't j-work?" "It wtll work. I'll see to that. I'm something of an expert. If anything's wrong with It, I'll soon repair it. Don't -worry about that." .. "You think you can keep the old man quiet?" 'I "He won't bother me any," was the -quiet reply, accompanied, Dick t imagined, by a smile of confidence. I "Well, good night I We don't want I to be seen together alone. I shan't speak to you again unless the others I are around." Dick heard them move across the ii cabin in opposite directions. Captain ' Iirent went outside on the deck, and E Mr. Blake crept back to his state-i state-i room. f Dick forgot his cigarette and per- - mltted the light to go out. He was pondering the words of the two men. ' Tlioy puzzled him. and awakened in - his mind the old suspicion that there was something in the cruise not put down in the itinerary of Steve Cutler. "I guess I'll sleep over it," he decided, de-cided, smiling. "Maybe I won't show myself quite yet. Blake's a slick chap, and Brent looks like a prize fighter." ' He slept fitfully until morning, and . with tlie dawn of a new day came a ,. new resolution. He would see the ad-". ad-". venture through as planned, and not ". expose his hand until they landed. In : the hope that lie would overhear more conversation to enlighten him he kept his ears open every time anyone entered en-tered the cabin ; but as it was a beiui- tlful day most of the passengers remained re-mained on the deck, and nothing of consequence happened. It was late In the afternoon when a commotion on deck aroused him. From the I ramp of many feet he concluded that something unusual had happened; but ho was a little disappointed when Alice Cutler passed through the cabin and said to her maid : "Oct my things ready, Mario We'll land before dark." Cine again the desire to step out of his hiding place surged up In Dick, but he suppressed it. Now that relief from his Intolerable position was In sight he didn't want to make a had break. If the family landed before dark the yacht would be partly deserted, and the opportunity of stealing forth unobserved un-observed would cmue to him. Half tin hour Inter the screw of the yacht slowed Its revolutions. Dick Judged they were approaching hind or pnssin ; through some crooked channel chan-nel that required caution. The engine-room hell clanged repeatedly, and the ym'ht varied its speed accordingly. Tliri came a slight Jar and vibration. vibra-tion. Sharp orders from Brent, another an-other ti and then the propeller ceased its activity. They were at Valhalla, Val-halla, and the voyagers were landing. Pick listened 'Impatiently to the hustling hus-tling commotion outside until it subsided, sub-sided, lie waited a full hair hour after that to make sure they were ashore. Then he quietly touched the spring that -ontrolled tlie secret panel, and lis the latter tlo. open he craned his head forward. The cabin was empty. -'i'.h a .smile of relief he stepped out. due foot had scarcely touched the carpeted hoor when a shriek that filled the cah.'.i who eohoeir. startled Mm. ir. i the way from him. with her iack to the onpo:to wa'l. crowing her-t.d. her-t.d. vit!t h.rli ha!'d. stood Marie, her .yi- liclsins '"h fear she had seen him emerge from the dusty compartment, compart-ment, materializing out of a blank wall, as it were, and ail the superstition supersti-tion of her nature was aroused. Shriek after shriek filled the cabin. Dick's first Impulse was to step back and hide again, but the girl's discovery of him made that course impracticable. He closed the panel with a touch of the spring, and sprang back Into the gloom of the cabin. The door of a stateroom stood open, and through It he plunged without looking around. At almost the same Instant Captain Brent appeared in the cabin, and demanded de-manded of the maid, "What's the matter? mat-ter? What're you yelling for?" Marie was unable for a few seconds to recover her wits. She kept on shrieking and crossing herself until the skipper shook her by the arm. "Quit that 1" he commanded. "Shut up, and tell me what's the matter." "A ghost, captain," she stammered between chattering teeth. "It come right out of the wall come come " "Ghost, your grandmother!" growled Brent. "Now" Dick waited to hear no more. The stateroom he was In opened directly upon the deck. He slipped the catch noiselessly and stepped out. It was dark, and there was no one on that side of the yacht. In flu- gloom he saw the dark outlines of trees and rocks, with the land rising abruptly from the water to a sort of peak, topped ff by a low, rambling structure, struc-ture, witose chimneys stood silhouetted against the sky like gaunt fingers. Lights twinkled here and there In the distance, some stationary, others moving, and voices broke the stillness occasionally as one called to another. At his left the phosphorescence of the ocean gleamed fitfully In the half light. The yacht had landed at a dock that jutted far out Into the water. Dick glanced at the end, measured the distance to the island, and decided that his safest way would be to drop overboard and swim ashore. The commotion com-motion In the cabin, caused by Marie's screams, had extended to the dock, and running feet could be heard approaching: ap-proaching: Climbing over the rail he lowered himself with a rope until his feet touched the water. He shivered a little lit-tle at the chill, and then dropped noiselessly in the cold brine and began swimming quietly toward the shore. Marie's alarm, after all, helped him, for It drew the attention of the whole crew to the cabin, and by the time anyone any-one thought of searching the outside of it Dick was pulling himself upon a rock completely sheltered from view. He sat there wringing his clothes when Marie, accompanied by Brent, crossed the gangplank and landed on the dock. Site was still protesting that she had seen a ghost. "He came right through the wall, Cap'n Brent," she moaned. "I nearly , fainted when I saw him." "You'd better not tell Mr. Cutler you saw a ghost on his yacht, if you don't want to be fired," replied Brent. "Now get up to the house or Miss Cutler will-" "Captain," Interrupted a voice out of the darkness, "what's all this noise about? Mr. Cutler sent me down to inquire." Dick recognized the voice of Mr. Blake. "Nothing hut a hysterical woman." growled Brent. "She thought she saw something a ghost and she let out a shriek like a fog whistle. Hustle het-up het-up to her mistress. 1 got enough to do without looking after her." "Oh. Mr. Blake," wailed Marie, "on my word and honor I saw something a man " "Thought you said It was a ghost." jeered Brent. "Well, sir. it was a man ghost a tall young man, with dark hair and black eyes, with with a white face." Bretit laughed hoarsely. "We got n lot of dark men in tlie crew, Marie good-lookers, too." "But' 1 never saw him before: he was not in the crew. He was different differ-ent a gentleman." Blake and the captain exchanged glances, and the latter finally said: "Well, if he's aboard, Marie. I'll find him. and when I do I'll bring him up for you to identify. If he's a gemle-niiitl gemle-niiitl he won't try to frighten you again; but between you and me and the fishes. I don't believe there was anybody. If there was It was one of the crew." Brent turned and walked away Marie shuddered, and murmured. "Oh. no. sir, he wasn't one of the crew. I know all of them." "Go up to the house. Marie." Blake interrupted sharply. "Your mistress is waiting for you." CHAPTER V In the darkness Diek had little opportunity op-portunity to explore his surroundings with any decree of satisfaction, and rather than risk discovery through blundering he contented himself with ! watching the yacht tied up at the dock, until the moon came up. Then I ! with its rays making everything as t clear as day he climbed the rocks and j cautiously made his way In the di- J rection of the bouse. It was a big rambling affair In the moonlight,' low of roof, but spread out over so much ground that it bulked large and formidable. It blended so well with the rocks and trees that It seemed a part of the landscape, growing grow-ing naturally like a huge mushroom from the ground itself. Lights twinkled in different windows, win-dows, but a portentous silence seemed to brood over it. There were no voices to break the silence; no laughter, no music, nothing of human origin. Dick concluded that the occupants were so tired with their long sea trip that rest and sleep were demanding their attention. This conclusion seemed corroborated when the lights in the windows began to go out, one at a time, until the great building was wrapped In gloom. The last light to be extinguished was on the upper floor in the front of the building. When it disappeared Dick shivered slightly as if left suddenly in the cold. But almost immediately it flared up again, brighter than before. It seemed for an instant that an increase of its candlepower had been miraculously given to it. It twinkled brilliantly for a moment, and then went out again. This did not startle Dick; but when it appeared again snd went out as before be-fore he blinked. He stared at the window, win-dow, watching for its reappearance. It came In time, twinkling an instant as before and then went out for the last time. "Looks like a signal of some kind," he mused. Then recalling the words of Blake to Captain Brent, he swung around and glanced down at the dock. A peculiarly bright light was shining f-om the masthead of the yacht, and a,i Dick looked it dipped three times, J then remained motionless. "That's Erent answering," he said. ( First up at the window and then down at the yacht he glanced, watching watch-ing for a renewal of the signals, but they were not repeated. The house was wrapped in darkness, and the lights on the yacht stationary. But the latter did not remain so for long. While Dick looked they began be-gan moving seaward, gliding through the darkness with an almost Imperceptible Imper-ceptible motion. Captain Brent evidently evi-dently had received his signal from Mr. Blake, and was leaving with the yacht for Marsh Inlet, there to wait for further orders by wireless. "I wonder what It all means," Dick mused. "I suppose I ought to arouse old man Cutler, and tell him" He was suddenly cut short by two shadows moving across the moonlit way in his direction. He had barely time to duck behind a clump of bushes before they were upon him. Dick caught sight of a man and woman, but their identity was uncertain until they began to talk. "I tell you, Marie," Mr. Blake was saying, a little irritably, "you must be careful or you'll spoil the whole plan for us. If you appear too familiar with me, Miss Alice will take notice. It was risky for you to call me out. Suppose she'd caught you at my door?" "What difference does it make if she did !" was the quick retort. "You love me, don't you? Then what else matters? Miss Cutler has her lovers. I don't see why I can't have mine, too." "Don't talk that way, Marie," interrupted in-terrupted Blake harshly. "We can't be ordinary lovers not here!" "Why not? We were, In the city Why is it different down here? Isn't the moonlight beautiful?" "Yes," replied Blake moodily. "It's a good night for sailing. Captain Brent will be' out of sight long before morning." morn-ing." "Where 1b he going? not back home?" "No, he'll hang around until I want til in out of sight, of course. I'll Instruct' In-struct' him by wireless." He stopped suddenly, and asked : "How does Miss Alice take it? She doesn't suspect anything, of course, does she?" "No. Why should she? But in the morning" shrugging her shoulders--"it may be different. She was furious when she found the servants weren't here." Now the scene is transferred to the mysterious island. What's the plot? (TO BE CONTINUED.) |