The Argosy, June 1904 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

496 It was true. Jackson Hawley, in company with a tall man in blue clothes, was advancing along the road from the direction of the shops. At second glance Lynn noticed that the man with the smith was evidently a sailor. His face was deeply tanned, while his long hair, which almost touched his collar, was sun and weather bleached. The blue clothes were wrinkled as though they were more used to reposing in a sea-chest than to covering the long body of their owner. “Why, it is Captain Englebock! ” cried Bertha, turning from Lynn with a smile of welcome. “The Susannah must have got in.” The young man remained standing awkwardly while she went forward to meet her father and this stranger. He studied the captain as the three ap- proached the gate. Lynn remembered the tales he had heard regarding the foreign bark and her captain who visited Padstow, and likewise the accusations which Black Morgan had made against Jackson Hawley’s character. It was believed, evidently, by some of Mr. Hawley’s townspeople that this stranger and his vessel carried on an illegitimate trade with foreign coun- tries, and that the smith of Pebbleton was financially interested in the voy- ages of the Susannah. Captain Englebock was a hook-nosed man, with keen blue eyes. He came of one of the northern European na- tions—Swedish or Danish. He was not over thirty-five. “Mr. Lynn, Captain Englebock,” said Jackson Hawley with great good nature as the group reached the young man. “Mr. Lynn was enabled to do me a great favor the other day. Saved my life—yes, sir! Actually he did. “You remember that dog Morgan who went one trip with you at my rec- ommendation? Well, he turned on me like a wolf down there in the shop, and would have brained me if it hadn’t been for Mr. Lynn. “Morgan is in jail now, waiting trial. lt’s where he should have been long ago. But Pm soft-hearted, you know, captain.” PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ecom{clboao ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED THE ARGOSY. “Yes, yes, I know,” said the captain of the Susannah, looking at Lynn sharply. Then he mumbled something about being glad to meet the American, and shook hands. “ Yowll come in to luncheon, Ar. Lynn?” asked Hawley. “No, thank you, sir. I must go back to the inn.” He dared not look at Bertha. The master smith and the captain staricd up the walk. The girl lgered a mo- ment. “T will see you at seven just behind erandfather’s shop,” she said in a low voice, and then followed her father and his guest without another glance in Liynn’s direction. CHAPTER VIL. ON THE TRAIL OF TIIE MYSTERY. LET me observe that all these mat- ters, in such detail, are not drawn by ine from that second letter which Lynn wrote us from Pebbleton. Lynn was tar too modest to tel} us so fully of that terrible adventure at the ravine. My source of information, however, is quite as authoritative as Lynn’s own words would have been. Lynn wrote us the bare facts; but we have sinc« fis- tened to those facts detailed most en- thusiastically. : The end of that second letter is, hiow- ever, vital to the story, and showed a determination which was formed in Lynn’s mind after he left Miss Hawley, her father, and their guest at the foot of the garden. Ile went back to the inn and com- pleted the letter to me, sending it off before he kept his tryst with the girl at the riverside. I see very plainly that, even if I am able to explain my withholding my real uname to Miss Hawley, Chris will be over to-morrow and will queer me at onee with Jackson Ilawley. Hawley will be on his guard and will doubtless put the old woman on her guard. What I can do to- night I do not know; but I realize that but a few hours possibly remain for me to do something. If the old woman was not so queer I would go to her and explain my position S