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33 .Latest Craig Kennedy D tectlv Story BY- ARTHUR B. REEVE. sFHE (Copyright, 1917, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) -With the treaty ratified, if the deal joesj through we'll all be rich." t Something about the remark which roiseovep the'- babel of voices arrested "Xeiwledy'i; attention. For one thing it ws , woman's voice and it was not ihe 8Dr$ of remark to be expected .from i woanj at least not in such a place. !'.. Craig had been working pretty hard ind began -to show the strain. We had tak'ea&n evening oft and now had dropped !!4n after the theatre at the Burridge, one of the most frequented midnight resorts on Broadway. I At th table next to us and the ta bles at 3be Burridge were so close that one , Almost- rubbed elbows with those at' thV next sat a party of 'our, two ladies in 'evening gowns and two men immaculate"" black ana white. I hop you are right, Leontine," re- turned one of the men, with an Eng lish accent. "The natural place for the Islands is under the American flag, anyway," !W nut In Vio rtVir- "thf nponle have? voted far it before. They want it.", ; 'v-- ITiltiVw at the time that the Ameri can and Danish governments were ne gotiating, about t he transfer of the Danish West - Indies, and quite evi dently they were discussing the islands. ThCTafct speaker seemed to be a Pane, ut the woman with him, evidently his wifeVwas not It was a curious group, -worth more than a passiing glance. 1 For g&J moment Craig watched them 'closely. "That woman in blue," he whispered, lis a typical promoter." i There were plenty of other types in the! brilliantly lighted dining-room, and we did not: dwell long on the study of our-neighbors. A few moments later Kennedy left me and was visiting an other table. It was a habit of his, for had hundreds of friends and ac quaintances, and the Burridge was the place to which every one came. ;This time I saw that he had stopped ? before' some one whom I recognised. ! It Was Captain Marlowe of the Ameri can Shipping Trust, to whom Kennedy had? been- of great assistance at the : time of the launching of his great ship, the Uson'a, and he was accompanied by :aj man .whose face was unfamiliar Ho' ine. Ah I recognized who it was to whom iKennedy was speakiing, I also rose and 'made, my way over to the table. As I approached, the captan turned from Kennendy and greeted me cordially. Mr. Whitson," he introduced , the ; man with him. "Mr: Whitson is sail " Ing tomorrow for St. Thomas on the f Arroyo We're preparing to extend our steamship lines to the islands as soon as the formalities of the purchase are completed,'" i Marlowe turned again to Kennedy (and went on with the remark he had evidently- been making, j "Of course," I heard him say. "you -know we have Mexieo practically blockaded as far as arms and ammu nition go. Yet. Kennedy, through a j secret channel I know that thousands ? of stand of arms and millions of rounds of ammunition are filtering in there, Jt's shameful. I can't imagine v anything more traitorous. Whoever is fat the bottom of it ought to swing. It ; isn't over the border that they are go ilnig. We know that. The troops are 'there How is it, then?" f A few moments later we shook hand and returned to our own table. We paid pur check and were about to 'leave. y "Hello'," greeted a familiar voice be' side us, "I've been looking all over town for you. They told me you had ': gone to the theatre and I though I l might' possibly find you here." ; ;We turned. It was our old friend Burke, of the Secret Serviee, accom panied by a stranger, j. "I'd like you to meet Mr. Sydney, the ... new, special consular agent whom the i government is sending to the Danish ' West Indies to investigate and report .' on trade conditions." He introduced. . We're off for St. Thomas on the Ar I royo, whieh sails tomorrow noon," "Great Scott!" ejaculated Kennedy. ; Is everybody daffy over those little 5 Islands? What takes you down there, Burke?'' Burke looked about hastily, - then drew us aside into a recess in the Slobby. ? i don't suppose you know," he ex .; ptalrted, lowering his voice, "but since i, thesejegotiations began, the consular service has been keenly interested in ; jthe ' possibilities on the islands. The ;s government sent - one ' special agent : there, named Dwight .Well he died a ' Sjfew days ago. It was very suspicious, -i so much so that the. authorities in the Islands investigated. r Tet the doctors hay found no evidence pf anything t wrong, no poison. . Still, it is very mysterious, and, you know," he hinted, ffthere are those who don't want us down there " The Secret Service man paused as ; though he had put the case ay briefly and pointedly as he could, then went on; '"I've been assigned to accompany the new consul down there and inves tigate, I've no particular orders and ; the chief will honor any reasonable ex- 1 pense account but " He hesitated and ' stopped, looking keenly at Ken nedy's face: I saw what he was driy- -ing'-at,? JWeU--to come to the point what I wanted to see you about. Kennedy, is to And but whether you would go with me, I think." he added, persuasively. "it would be quite worth your while besides, you look tired. You're work tear, tod hard." The change will do you rood. And your conscience needn't trouble you.- : You'll be working; all rlrht." - " Kennedy jmlle d as he - read the .... XI GUN-RUNNER other's enthusiasm. "I'd like to think the proposal over," he conceded, much to my surprise. "I'll let you know in the morning." "Mind," wheedled Burke, "I won't take no for an answer. We need you." I went to bed, tired, but through the night I knew Craig was tengaged on some work about whieh he seemed to be somewhat secretive. When I saw him again in the laboratory, in the morning, he had before him a large packing-case of stout wood bound with steel bands. - "What's that?" I asked, mystified. He opened the lid, a sort of door, on which was a strong lock, and I looked Inside. "My traveling laboratory," he re marked, with pride. y "Then you are going with Burke to St. Thomas?" I queried.- Kennedy nodded, "I've been think ing of what I would do if an important case even called me away. Burke's proposal hurried me, that!s all. And you are going, also," he added. "You have until noon to break the news to the Star." Thus it came about that Craig and I found ourselves in the forenoon in a taxicab, on the front of which was loaded the precious box as well as our other hastily packed luggage, and we were on our way to Brooklyn to the dock from which the Arroyo sailed. Already the clearance papers had been obtained, and there was' the usual last-moment confusion among the pas sengers as the hour for sailing ap proached. It seemed as if we had scarcely boarded the ship when Ken nedy wm as gay as a school-boy on an unexpected holiday. I realized at once what was the cause. The change of scene, the mere fact of cutting loose, were having their effect. As we steamed slowly down the bay, I ran my eye over the other passen gers at the rail, straining their eyes to catch the last glimpse of the towers of New York. There were Burke and Sydney, but they were not together, and, to all appearances, did not know each other. Sydney, of course, could not conceal his identity, nor did he wish to, no matter how beset with' unseen perils might be his mission. But Burke was down on the passenger list as, and had assumed the role of, a traveling salesman for a mythical novelty house In Chicago. That evi dently was part of the. plan they had agreed on between themselves. Ken nedy took the eue,, ? As I studied the various groups;' I paused suddenly surprised. There was the party which' had set at the table next to us at the Burridge the night before. Just then Craig jogged my elbow. He had caught sight of Whitson edg ing his way in our direction. I saw what it was that Craig meant. He wanted introductions to come ajout naturally as they do on shipboard if one only waits. On deck and in the lounging and smokiing rooms it did not take long for him to contrive ways of meeting and getting acquainted with those he wished to know, without exeiting sus picion. Thus, by the time we sat down to dinner in the saloon we were all getting fairly chummy. We had met Burke quite as natur ally as If we were total strangers. It was easy to make it appear that Whit son and Sydney were shipboard ac quaintances. Nor was it difficult to secure an 'introductioon to the other party of four. The girl whom we had heard addressed as Ijeontlne seemed to be- the leader of the group. Leontine Cowell was a striking personality. I was never quite sure whether she re membered seeing us at the Burridge, whether she penetrated the parts we were playing. She was none the Jess feminine because she had aspirations in a commercial way. Her companion, Barrett Burleigh, was a poplished, deferential English man', one of those who seem to be citizens of the world rather than sub- ects of any particular country. Jorgen Erickson was, as I had sur mised, a Dane. He prpved to be one of the largest planters in the island, already wealthy and destined to be wealthier if real estate advanced. The other woman, Nanette, was his wife. She was also a peculiarly interesting type, a Frenchwoman from Guade loupe. Younger and more vivacious than her husband, her snappy black eyes betokened an attractive person ality. Leontlne Cowell, it seemed, had' been in the islands not long before, had secured options on some score of plan tations at a low figure, and made ho secret of her business. When the American flag at last flew over the islands she stood to win out of the in crease of land values a considerable fortune. Erickson also, in addition to his own holdings, had been an agent for some otner planters and thus had met Pontine, who had been the means of interesting some American capital. as ior Burleigh, it seemed that he had made the acquaintance of Leon tine in Wall Street. He had been In tne Caribbean and the imnsnHino cnanges m tfte Danish West Indies had - -- - -- -K- C attracted his notice. Whether he had some money to invest in the BDecula. tlpn or hoped to profit by commissions aenvea rrom sales did not aDDnpar But at any rate some common bond had thrown the quartet together. It must have been the second day out that I observed keontine and Syd ney together on the promenade deck They seemed to be quite interested in each other, though I felt sure that Leontine was making a play for him. At any rate, Burleigh was jealous. Whatever might be the scheme, it' was apparent that the .young Englishman was head over heels in love with her. What did it mean? Was she playing with Sydney, seeking to secure his in fluence to further her schemes ? Or did it mask some deeper, more sinister motive? Busy with my speculations, I was astonished soon after to realize that the triangle had become a hexagon, so to speak. Whitson and Nanette Erick son seemed to be much in each other's company. But unlike Burleigh, Erlck son seemed to be either oblivious' or complacent. Whatever it might all portend, I found that it did not worry Kennedy, although he observed closely. Burke, however, .was considerably excited and even went, so far as to speak to Syd ney, over whom he felt a sort of guardianship. Sydney turned the mat ter off lightly. As for me, I determined to watch both of these Women closely. Kennedy spent much time not only in watching the passengers, but in going about the ship, talking to the captain and crew and every one who knew anything about the islands. In fact, he collected enough information in a few days to have satisfied any ordinary tourist for weeks. Even the cargo did not escape his attention, and I found that he was es pecially interested In the rather heavy shipments of agricultural imple ments that were consigned to various planters in the islands. It was the evening after one of Ken nedy's busy days scouting about that "H poured the contents of cocktail glasses. he quietly summoned both "Burke and Sydney to our cabin, "There's something queer going on," announced Craig, when he was sure that we were all together without be ing observed. "Frankly, I must con fess that I don't understand it yet." "You needn't worry about me," in terrupted Sydney, hastily. "I can take care of myself." Kennedy smiled quietly. We knew what Sydney meant. He ' seemed to resent Burke's solicitude over his ac-. quaintance with Leorttine and was evi dently warning us off. Kennedy, however, avoided the subject. "I may as well tell you," he re sumed, "that I was quite as much in fluenced' by a rumor that arms were somehow getting into Mexican ports as I was by your appeal, Burke, in coming down here. So far I've found nothing that proves my case. But, as I said, there is something under the surface which I don't understand. We have all got to stick together, trust no one but ourselves, and, above all, keep our eyes open!" It was all that was said, but I was relieved to note that Sydney seemed greatly impressed. ' Still, half an hour later, I saw him sitting in a steamer chair beside Leontine again, watching the beautiful play of -the moonlight on the now almost tropical ocean after we had emerged from the Gulf Stream. Seeking Kennedy, I found him at last in the smoking-room, to my surprise talking with Erickson. I joined, them, wondering how 1 1 was to convey to Craig what I hjkd just seep-without exciting suspicion. They were dis cussing the commerciaJ and agricul tural future of jthe Islands, under the American flag, especially the sugar in dustry, whieh had fallen into a low estate. " ,. "I suppose," remarked Kennedy, cas ually, "that you are already modern izing your plant and that others are doing the same, getting ready fo? revival." Erickson received the remark stolid ly. "No," he replied, , slowly. "Some of us may be doing so, but as for me, I shall be quite content to sell if I can get my-price." "The planters are not puttiing in modern machinery, then?" queried Kennedy, ' innocently' while there flashed over me. what he had disepv ere'd, about shipment of agricultural implements. ErickSjOn shook his head. ' "Some of them may be. But for one that is, I know twenty whose only thought is to sell out and take a profit." Th,e conversation trailed off on other subjects and I knew that Ken nedy had acquired the information which he sought. As neatly as I could I drew him apart from Erickson. "Strange he should tell me that," ruminated "Kennedy. ' 1 know that there is a lot of stuff consigned to planters in the Island, some even to himstelf." " , "He must be lying, then," I has tened. "Perhaps, these promoters are really plotters By the way, what I wanted to tell you was that I saw Sydney and Leontine together again." He was about to reply when the sound of someone approaching caused us to draw back farther into the shadow, It proved to be Whitson and Nanette. 'Then you do not like St. Thomas?" we heard Whitson remark, as if he were repeating something she had just said. "There is nothing there," she replied. "Why, there aren't a hundred milesof good roads and not a doaen automo biles. St. Croix, where we have the plantation, is just as bad. Part of the time we live there, part of the time at Charlotte Araalie in St. Thomas, But there is little difference. I hope Jorgen 4s able to sell. At least I ene of the should like to live a part of the year in the States." "Would he like that, too?" "Many of us would," she replied, quickly. "For many years things have been getting worise with us. Just now it seems a bit better beeause of the high price of sugar. But who knows how long that will last? Oh, I wish something would happen soon so that we might make enough money to live as I want to live. Think; here the best years of life are slipping away. Unless we do something soon, it will be too late! We must make our money soon," There wag an air of impatience in her tone, of restless dissatisfaction. I felt that there was an element of dan ger, too, in a woman just passing from youth making a confident of a man. It was a mixed eituatioon with the quartet whom we were watching. One thing was sufficiently evident. They were all desperately engaged In the pursuit of wealth. That was a com mon bond. Nor had I seen anything to indicate that they were over scrup ulous in that pursuit. Within half an hour I had seen Leontine with Syd ney and Nenette with Whitson. Both Sydney as consular agent and Whit son through his influence with the shipping trust possessed great in fluence. Had the party thought it out and were they now playing the game with the main chance in view? I looked inquiriingly at Kennedy aa the voices died way while the couple walked slowly down the deck. He said pothiing, "but he was evidently ponderiing deeply on some problem perhaps that whch the. trend of affairs had raised in my own mind. Our delay had not been long, but it had been sufficient to eause us to miss finding Leontine and Sydney, . We did, however, run across Burke, apparently much troubled. "I don't like this business," he con fessed, as we paused to compare ex periences. . "I've been thinking of that Mexican business you hinted at, Ken nedy. You know the islands would be an ideal, out-of-the-way spot from which to start gun-running ; ex peditions to Mexico. I don't like this Leontine and Burleigh. They want to hnake money too bad," Kennedy smiled. "Burleigh doesn't seem to approve of everything, though," he remarked, "Perhaps not. That's one reason why I think it may be more dangerous for Sydney than he realizes. I know she's a fascinating girl. All the .more rea son to watch out for her. But I can't talk to Sydney," he sighed. It was an enigma and I , had not solved it, though I felt much as Burke did. Kennedy seemed to have deter mined to "allow events to take their course, perhaps in the hope that de velopments would be quicker that way than by interfering with something which we did no understand. In -the smoking-room, after we left Burke, Kennedy and I came upon Erickson and Burleigh. They had just finished a game of poker with some of the other passengers, in which Bur leigh's usual run of luck and skill had been with him. "Lucky at cards, unlucky in love," remarked Burleigh as we approached. He said it with an air of banter, yet I could not help feeling that there was a note of seriousness at the bot tom of it. Had he known that Leon tine had been with Sydney on the deck? His very success at poker had its effect on me. I found myself eye ing him as if he had been one of the transatlantic card sharps, perhaps an international crook, yet I had nothing on which to base such a judgment. Erickson presented a different prob lem, to my mind. Either he had not been perfectly frank with us in regard to the improvement of his properties or he was coneealilng somethng much J 1 more sinister. Again and again my mind reverted to the hints that had been dropped by Marlowe, and I re called the close scrutiny. Whitson had given the four that night. So far, I had felt that in any such attempt we might count on Whitson playing a lone hand at all stages of the game. It was the morning of the last day of the voyage. Most of " the passen gers gathered on the deck for the first glimpse of the land to which we had been journeying. Before us lay the beautiful and Pic turesque harbor and town of Char lotte Amalie, one of the finest harbors in the West Indies, deep enough ito float the largest vessels, with ship yards, drydocks and repair shops. From the deck it was a strikingly beautiful picture, formed by three spurs of mountains covered with the greenest of tropical foliage. From the edge of the dancing blue waves the town itself rose on the hills, presenting an entrancing panorama, There was much to watch, but ! let nothing interfere with my observation of how the affair between Sydney and Leontine was progressing. To my sur prise, I saw that this morning she was bestowing the favor of her smile rather on Burleigh. Erickson was standing beside Syd ney, while we were not far away. Evidently he had been saving top a speech for the occasion and was now prepared to deliver it. "Mr.. Sydney." he began with a wave offals arm that seemed to Include us aiL ' is a pleasure to welcome you here to our Island. Last night it oc cured to me that we ought to do some thing to show that we appreciate it. You must come to dinner to-night at my Vila here in town. You are all In vited all of us who have become so enjoyably acquainted on xthis voyage, which I shall never forget. Believe me when I say that it will be even more a tribute to you personally than be cause of the official position you are to hold amoung us." It was a graceful invitation, more so than I had believed Erickson cap able of framing. ; Sydney , eoujd do nothing less than accept and thank him cordially; as we all did. '-While we were thanking Erickson-1 saw that Whitson had taken the oc casion also to thank Mrs., Erickson, with whom he had been talking, just a bit apart from the group. He made no secret of his attentions, though I thought she was a bit embarrassed by them at such a time. When she started to rejoin the group I noted that she had forgotten her handbag, which lay; near where she ..was sitting. ; I.pickedit up to restore.it. Some uncontrollable curiosity prompted me, as all were still looking at the town. to open" the bag. Inside was a little bottle of grayish liquid. Hastily I pulled off the cap of ray fountain pen and poured into it some of the liquid. Whether either sha or anyone else had observed me, I was not going to run any chances of- being seen. I called a passing steward, "Mrs. Erickson forgot her bag," I said; you'll find her over there with Mr. Whitson. She be trayed no anxiety as she received it. I lost no time in getting to Kennedy and telling him what I had found, and a few moments later he made an ex cuse to go to our stateroom, as eager as J to know what was in the bottle. First he poured a drop of the liquid from the cap of my fountain pen in some water. It did not dissolve. Suc cessively he tried alcohol, ether, then pepsin. None had any effect on it. Finallyhe dissolved it in ammonia. "Relatively high amount of sulphur," bo muttered, after a few moments more of study. "Keratin, I believe." "Poison?" I asked. Craig shook his head. "No, harmless." "Then what it is for?" He may have had some half-formed Idea, but all he did was to place the same in his traveling laboratory, close and lock it, and we were ready to be taken ashore. Nearly -every one had gone ashore by the time we returned to the deck. Whitson was there yet, talking to the captain, for the ship ping at the port interested him. Kennedy seemed eager now to get ashore, and we went, accompanied by Whitson, and after some difficulty es tablished ourselves at a small hotel. Burke was waiting for us, and in spite of his playing the role of travel ing salesman managed to direct us about so that we might as quickly as possible pick up the thread of the mysterious death of Dwight. It did not take us long to gather such meager information as there was about the autopsy that had followed the strange death of Sydney's predecessor. No trace of anything out of the way had been found, and there the matter had rested, except for suspicion. One of our first visits was to the American consulate, where Sydney, by virtue of his special commission, had established himself.' There seemed to be no clue to the mysterious death of Dwight. All that we, were able to discover, after some hours of "patient inquiry, was that Dwight had suffered from great prostration, marked cyanosis, convul sions and coma. Whether' the result of some strange disease or a poison no one was prepared to say. All that was known was that the blow, if blow it had been, was swift, sudden, sure. We ran across Whitson one or twice during the day, busily engaged renewing acquaintances with mer chants and planters he had known before; but I do not recall having seen either Burleigh or Leontine, "which I though rather strange, for the town was small and strangers few, J Erickson had, invited us to come late in the afternoon to the dinnef; and we did not. delay in getting there. His house -proved to be a veritable palace oh th side of one of the hills rising abruptly from the shore. The Erick sons were proud of their home, as well they raght be, in spite of the com plaints we had heard Nanette utter and the efforts of Erickson to sell his holdings, Mrs, Erickson proved to be a charming hostess, and the host ex tended a hospitality such as one hut rarely meets, Burleigh arrived proudly with Leon tine, followed closely by Sydney. Whit son came. Burke and ourselves com pleted the party. Kennedy and I were passing along a colonnade that opened from the large dining hall," when Craig paused and looked at the massive table set for the dinner. A servant had just completed setting iet cocktails at the various places, H&urinar them from a huge tankard wMeh had been on a sideboard. Guests had. been walking past through the colonnade since we arrived, but at the moment there was no one about, and even the servant had disappeared. Kennedy stepped lightly into the dining hall and looked about sharply. He pulled from his pocket a clean linen handkerchief. Into an - empty glass he poured the contents of -one of the cocketail glasses, straining the liquid through the handkerchief. Then he poured the flltt-ate. if I may call it such, back into the original glass. ,A second he treated in the same way, and a third. He had nearly completed the round of the table when I heard a light step. My warning came only just in time. It was Burleigh. He saw us, made some hasty remark and; walked on. Had it been interest in Leontine or In the dining room that had drawn, him thither? Kennedy was now looking closely at the handkerchief, and I looked also. In the glasses bad been innumerable little seeds. The fine meshes of the linen had extracted them. What were they? I took one in my fingers and crushed it. There was an unmistak albe odor of bitter almonds. What did it mean? , ,How I managed to get through that dinner I do not know. It was a brilliant affair. After the coffee Kennedy man aged to make some excuse for us to leave. In the secrecy of our room in the little hotel Craig was soon making, use of his traveling laboratory; "What about the little bottle of kera tin?" I asked eagerly. "Oh, yes," he replied, not looking Un from the tests he was makine- "rx-..? keratin, you know, is also called J" dermose. It is a selenoprotein present largly in cuticular structure 91101," hair, nails, horn. I believe it is uSUail iy prepared irom pieces of horn soaked in pepsin, hydrochloric acid and water for a long time. Then the resirh, dissolved in ammonia and acetic acid "The pepsin of the stomach wont digest it," he returned. "For that rea son it is used for coating what are known as 'enteric capsules.' Anythin coated with keratin is carried 0 through the stomach into the iniw ines." "What are the seeds? found out yet?" Have you "There seem to be two kinds fcome of them are quite harmless. But there are others that have been soaked in notro-benzol artificial oil pf bitter almonds.- Even a few dropg, such as might be soaked up in this way, might be fatal. They were all carefully coat ed with keratin. Really, they are keratin -coated enteric capsules 0f nitro-benzol a deadly poison." I looked at him, aghast at what some of us had been rescued from bv his prompt action. "You see," he went on, "that is why the autopsies probably showed noth ing. These doctors down here sought for a poison in the stomach; but if the poison had been in the stomach the odor alone would have detrayed it. You smelt it when you crushed a seed. But the poisoning had been devised to avoid just that chance of discovery. There was no poison in the stomach. Death was delayed long enough, also, to divert' suspicion from the , real poi soner. Some one has been diabolically clever in covering up the crimes." I could, only gasp my amazement. "Then," I blurted out, "you think the Ericksons -" Our door burst open. It was Burke "Look!" he exclaimed, pointing to the open window. For a moment I gazed at the sight blankly. Then I realized that sweeping on us was one of those sudden, deadly West Indian hurricanes. We hurried out on the street The Ericksons had just driven UP with Burleigh and Leontine, as well as Whitson and Sydney. On the horizon an ugly, dark cloud rose menacingly. In the strange, un earthly murkiness I could see people pouring out into the narrow streets. Leontine had hurried into the hotel. Suddenly, without further warning the storm broke. Trees were turned up by the roots, and buildings rocked as if they were houses of cards. "Leontine," I heard a voice mutter by my side. It was Burleigh. I-was literally deked un and hurled against an object in the darkness a man. "in the room more keratin more seeds!" It was Kennedy. He had made a search In the confusion which otherwise would have been more difficult. - Just then came a crash as the hotel crumpled under the fierce stress of the storm. Out of the doorVav strug gled a figure just in time to clear the falling walls. It was Burleigh, a huge gash from a beam. on his forehead. In his arms cungmg about his neck, jwas W" . A . .... pontine, no longer the suprusticatca but in the face of this primeval dan ger just a woman. "My God!", exclaimed a thick voice as an arm pointed toward the harbor There was the Arroyo,; tugging at every extra mooring that could be im pressed into service. The lighters had broken or been cut away, and were scudding squarely at the shore below us. A moment and they had, crashel on the beach, while the great wav tore open and flung about heavy cases as though they were mere toys. Then, almost as suddenly as it had come the storm began to abate, the air cleared, and nothing remained but the rury of the waves. "Look!" exclaimed Kenned v. noint ing down at the strange wreckage that strewed the beach. "Does that look like agricultural machinery?' We strained our eyes. Kennedy did not pause; "The moment I heard that arms were getting through into Mexico I suspect ed that somewhere here in the Carib bean munitions went hairier transhiD ped. Perhaps they have been sent to Aiiantie ports ostensibly for the Ai lies. They have rot down here dis guised. From this port, the key to the Vast IWflfiD of mainland T remsnned that they were taken over to secret points on the coast, where big ship could not safely go. It was here that blockade runners were refitted in our Civil War, It is here that this new-gun-running plot has been laid. "The only obstacle between th transfer of the arms and success was the activity of an American consulate. Those lighters were not to carry goods to other island: they were really des tined for Mexico. It was profitable. And the scheme for removing opposi tion was evidently safe." Kennedy was holding up anothe: bottle of keratin and some fruit seecte "I found these in a reom in the hotel," he added. T did not comprehend. "But," 1 cut In, "the handbag, the dinner what of them?" ' "A plant-a despicable trespass on hospitality; ail part of a scheme t throw guilt on some one else, worthy of a renegade and traitor!" Craig wheeled suddenly, then add "I suppose "you knew tt ther reputed to have been . Sn one of t' hills the headquarter of the old pira Teach the mildest manner'd man th ever scuttled a ship or cut a throat Kennedy paused, then added quicM "In. respect to covering up your grun runnlrig, Whitsfn. you are superior even to Teacfcl Thft tf nf thtf nArt'atnrv in this (series is 'The Sunken Treasure" 1 - - 'A " ,. : ' --. . i "
The Wilmington Dispatch (Wilmington, N.C.)
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