The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 3 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIOUS SHIP. 435 Then I detached one of the olivine plates, and ran with it to my laboratory. 7 ‘“The single plate proved up five ounces of virgin gold. According to that, our labor had netted us nearly three thousand dollars a day. The olivine cathode ;was doing with ease all I'had claimed for it. We remained in one spot till we had taken a million dollars’ worth of gold from the sea, then moved on to the vicinity of Australia. ‘‘ It was here that the greatest amount of gold was found, owing to the rich quality of the ore in the rivers which empty into the sea after having traversed the Australian gold regions, the percentage being nearly two grains of gold to the ton of sea water. Our cathode often enriched us here at the rate of five thousand dollars a day, depending on the state of the sea and swiftness of the tides and currents. We worked with great secrecy, not alone in fear of piracy, but convinced that if the truth could be known, and olivine discovered, it would be but a question of time when gold would be taken from the sea in such quantities as to bring its value down below that of the baser metals, compelling an instant charge in the currency standards of the world—a calamity the gravity of which it would be impossible to calculate. ‘Is it so strange, then, that within four years after my departure from the metropolis I turned up again with a goodly store? Or was it odd that in seeking investment for my burdensome treasure I should have gone into Wall Street, to be soon seized with the inevitable madness, with the inevi- table result ? ~ But, thank God, for all my disasters in the Street, for all my disillu- sion of financial life, there was one sweet consolation. I met and loved at first sight the dearest little woman on God’s green earth.”’ CHAPTER XII.—AN UNEXPECTED SEQUEL. ‘“ HarK—hush, Jack! What was that?’’ Absorbed as she was by the moving narrative of the man at her side, Millie, nevertheless, thought she heard afar over the silent waters an omi- nous sound. Marks turned abruptly, his eyes bent upon the ocean with a searching glance. ‘‘Come!’’ he said, with a slight tremor in his voice, leaping up and seizing his companion by the hand. Hurriedly they passed down over the yielding sand dunes toward the shore. » What is it, Jack ?’’ she queried, in faint whispers. ‘The ship—the mysterious ship,’’? was the calm answer, ‘It will soon be here now.”’ ‘What! The Wizard? Is it possible that you have signaled the Wizard ?”’ ~ Watch—yonder !’’ came the quick reply. Suddenly three small flashes of colored lights gleamed along the wave, then Marks dropped to his knees in the sand, performing what seemed to be a weird sort of incantation. ‘The result was three flashes of scarlet flame from flash powder laid upon the flat of the rock. Eomichook (S@)