Ensign Merrill — page 41: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- / ‘ be . - * . . AN P ; - ed - . ' : : » j ; ae 4 Sans aaa ee aaa THE EXPLOSION. --wenderful gyrations i the ‘mednbine:: He was elose? at his heels when the latter started below, and saw him — _ pick up the object, but did not know what it was until — Mark returned to the deck. ‘Then while the ensign was — bending over it, Patrick threw up both hands in dis-— may and puckered his mouth in a comical attempt at a et whistle. The pantomime was all over, however, in an instant, and all Mark saw was an innocent face with the twink- ling gray eyes looking at him in mild inquiry. ‘*T presume this belongs to you, Pat?’’ asked Merrill carelessly, extending the handkerchief. ‘““Yis; yerhonor. Oi must have dhropped it bechune yisternight an’ this marnin’ while walkin’ me rounds,” He reached for it, but the ensign stepped back a couple of paces and pointed’ to the monogram in the corner. | ‘You lying scoundrel!’’ exclaimed Mark sternly. ‘*Do you mean to tell me this is yours? How long is it since you have commenced using fine cambric hand- — kerchiefs with monograms on them?”’ | Patrick lowered his eyes before Merrill’s indignant - gaze, and did not reply for a moment; then with a ludicrous expression of mingled entreaty and appre-— hension, he said: “Raith, an’ Oi thought it was mine, commodore. But me ould eyes must have desaved me. It’s quare — how it got aboard. There’s been a shtrong wind a- blowin’ from th’ beach an’ it might have kim from some laddibuck’s hands, a-walkin’ wid his girrul.”? ~ While the wily Irishman was trying to blarney his — way out of the scrape, Mark had been rapidly thinking. His suspicions, aroused from the first, were becoming a — certainty with each passing moment. The finding ee : the handkerchief indicated that some one having 1 no 1%. ad 3 bay hy 4 + ‘ nes “co n icbooks.c co 7m