In Search of an Unknown Race — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

re VAN. ‘Tt is the strangest thing I ever heard in all my life,” he exclaimed. ‘‘ But what do_you think, Captain Peter- son?” ‘‘What can I think otherwise than to believe the whole thing is just as you've heard it?” was the grave reply. ‘<The letter is in your uncle’s own handwriting, which I could swear to anywhere, while everything it con- tains confirms Martin’s story.” But despite the captain’s assertion, no less than the written proof, Van’s practical, matter of fact nature could not take in all at once anything that bordered so closely upon the marvelous. ‘‘T’m not going to urge this thing, Van,” said Cap- tain Peterson, who seemed rather disappointed at the short silence that had followed his reply ; ‘‘but between now and our arrival at Para I want you to think it over seriously, for it looks to me as though a fortune lies within your reach. But we won't say any more to- night, for it’s getting late and we must be on deck bright and early.” Very soon Van found himself in his comfortable berth, but it was some time before slumber visited his eyelids. The singular revelation to which he had listened— the knowledge that his only relative, so long regarded as dead, was not only living but was a denizen of a mysterious country not unlike the fairyland of which he had read in boyhood, and the possibilities thus sug- gested, filled his mind to overflowing. Finally he fell asleep, to be roused at daybreak by Captain Peterson. ‘‘ Now, then, Mr. Briscoe! ” he said, and realizing that with his new prefix of ‘‘ Mr.” his CORNICE OO KS.