The Argosy — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

THE BUNKEL MYSTERY. 351 without being conscious of what he was doing, and was not, therefore, entitled to any credit. . The only thing that troubled the machinist’s son was the consciousness that his usual dinner time had passed without the observation of the cus- tomary services at this hour. More vulgarly, his stomach was grumbling for the want of his rations. He had eaten his breakfast at six o’clock, and it must be two by this time. But there was no restaurant at hand, and there was not the remotest possibility, so far as he had been able to reason it out, for him to get anything to eat before the gale subsided. There was plenty of provisionsin the upper grotto ; and so there was in Montoban ; and the food was as available in one place as in the other. With a waricred and fifty eae dollars within his grasp, he was feeling the pangs of hunger. While he was lamenting the necessity of submitting to the growlings of his empty stomach for an indefinite period, his attention was attracted by a series of new and unfamiliar sounds. But they did not come from the cave above, and they did not excite his fears, only his curiosity. The noises entered the cave through the main entrance, and came from the lake. Andy listened to the sounds for some time without being able to define them. They were like the puffings of a steam engine. Anywhere else he would have said that a steamer was approaching Bunkel Island, for the sound came nearer every moment. ‘here was no steamer on Lake Montoban, and of course the noise could not come from one. ‘This point was settled decis- ively in the mind of the listener. He felt that he was then in charge of mighty interests, and that he ought to know what was coming, if anything. Moved by this reflection, he cast off the line at the side, and with it tied the treasure to the bottom of the boat, so that if by any unforeseen accident the tender was upset, the bag would not be carried to the bottom by the weight of the tools in it. Drawing the boat to the mouth of the cave, he ob- tained a view of the lake in the direction of the channel. It certainly was a day of surprises, and there seemed to be no end of them. In spite of his faith in the fact that there was no steamer on Lake Montoban, one was coming up the channel. She was a craft of considerable size, with a saloon deck and cabin above the main deck. Andy was quite as thoroughly surprised and confounded as he had been at any time before that day, except when the treasure of the two banks dropped within his grasp. When he came to look the strange craft over in detail, after a general view which did not take in particulars, he saw the word “‘ Lily’ in large gilt letters on the front of the pilot house. | The name explained to him that it was the steamer from Lake Modogo, which the owner was trying to sell. Some said she could not get over the shoal at the foot of the lake, where it flowed into the Bondego River. ‘There she was, and in some way she had come into Lake Montoban. The gale had been increasing in force all the time since Andy retired to the cave, and the lake was in a state of terrible commotion. The Lily was CoOTnmiclaoolK< (S@)