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

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

CONFESSION. - The conquest of Island Diablo and the discovery of its secret not only of- fered work in accordance with his char- acter and temperament, but the one thing he now lived for—revenge. Indeed, since his terrible experience in the House of Lazarus and the dis- appearance of the woman he loved, Fielding’s character had undergone a marked change—a change so radical as to make his cousin tremble for his reason. | Possessed by a single purpose, the Rough Rider had brushed aside what looked like insurmountable obstacles as if they had been mere cobwebs. The intendante of the port of Guay- mas had made trouble for them on the ground that they were in possession of arms and equipments contrary to the law made by the government to prevent traffic with the hostile Yaquis. And Fielding had calmly and deliber- ately threatened to kill the itntendante if their sailing was delayed an hour through official interference. He meant what he said, too. He never spoke of Ethel Fapshaw, but Plasted was not the less aware that she occupied his mind to the exclusion of all other subjects, as the mainspring of the injury and the revenge upon which he brooded. When at length Antonio, the pearl fisher, made them see the mass of vol- 155 canic rocks whose secret had been so ruthlessly guarded, a fierce joy lighted his face. “Look, Lem!” he _ exclaimed hoarsely. ‘“ There is the accursed spot at last! There we shall read the riddle of Spurzheim and make him ours! For, wheresoever he may hide, I shall seek him out, and when I have found him , He did not finish the sentence, but his hands clenched and his eyes gleamed like those of a tiger about to spring. “Let us not be too precipitate,” counseled Plasted. “To attempt a landing by day will warn the enemy, and perhaps provoke a fight against we know not what odds of numbers or po- sition. “ But if we effect a landing by night, we may secure a base upon the island itself from whence to strike inland. The schooner may lie close enough in- shore to cover us with her gun, if they attack.” Contrary to the apprehension Plas- ted based upon the eagerness of the other, Fielding readily acceded to this plan. The course of the schooner was ac- cordingly altered so that her destina- tion, if she had been sighted, would re- main for the present, at least, a matter of conjecture to the islanders. (To be continued. ) re ers CONFESSION. "Twas not the dance for which I wove to-night The roses in my hair ; Not for the eyes that envied, or that praised, I gloried to be fair ; Not for the mirth I lingered—but the hour When mirth was done, and when, The faint farewells behind us, you and I Should take the path again. "Twas for this pausing on the pathway, here Amid the fir boughs’ moan ; The wind upon our foreheads, you andI _ In God’s great night alone ! Catharine Young Glen. (COL LOOOLK COL