YEAR THE POCK-MARKED MAN. Bynopsis~The man who tells this story-call him the hero, for short i# visiting his friend John Saunders, British official in Nassau, Bahama Islands. Charlle Webster, a local merchant, completes the trio of friends, Conversation turning upon buried pirate treasure, Sausders produces a written document pur. porting to be the death-bed state- ment of Henry P. Toblas, a suc- cessful pirate, made by him in 1859 It gives two spots where two mil- lHlons and a half of treasure were buried by him and his companions The conversation of the three friends is overheard by a stranger, whose face Is deeply pitted small pox. by CHAPTER 11, a 1 Charter the “Maggie Darling.” As luck would have it, the loss, or that John Saunders had had it copied: but the theft remained none the less mysterious. However, leaving that mystery for later solution, John Saunders, Charlie Webster and I spent the next evening in a general and particular eriticism of the narrative itself. There were against its authenticity. To start with, Toblas, at the time of his deposition, was an old man—seventy-five old—and it was more than probable that his experiences as a pirate would date from his early manhood: they were hardly likely to have taken place as late as his fortieth year. place much earlier, and there wonld thus be a space of at least forty years between the burial of and his deathbed revelation. natural to ask: Why during a years did he not return and the treasure for himself? Various circumstances may have prevented him, the inability from lack of means to make the journey, or what but certainly one would need to Imag. the treasure It ' i was those re®ieve not; a man with so valuable a secret In his possession so many years from taking advantage of It. For g& while, too, given to the purported treasure caches puzzled maps give no such Men's Shoes” and island,” but at last, in a map dating back 1763, we upon f oO the names, the veracity 3 ion the sites a names of the Modern “Dead Shrift us, places as 4 “Short to came So far one two Then Tom Came Up With My Break. fast, of Tobias was supported. “Dead Men's Shoes” name fgr a certain eay some twenty sall from Nassau, one of the long string of coral islands now known as the “Exuma Cays” But of “Short a trace. “All the same,” sald I, “the adven- ture calls me; the adventure and that million and a half dollars—and those ‘Ded Men's Shoes'—and I intend to undertake it. I am not going to let your middle-aged skepticism discour age me. Treasure or no treasure, there will be the excitement of the quest, and all the fun of the sea.” “And some duck perhaps,” added Charlie, “And some shark fishing for cer tain,” said John. * . » . » - * The next thing was to set about getting a boat and a crew. After looking over much likely and unlikely craft we ‘finally decided on a two-masted schooner of trim but solid bulld, the Maggie Darling, 42 feet over all and 13 beam: somethlog Copyright by Doubleday, Page & Company gasoline engine of 24 horse power, and an alleged speed of ten knots, Next, the crew. “You will need a captain, a cook, an { engineer and a deckhand,” sald Char- | lle, “and 1 have the captain and the | cook all ready for you" That afternoon we rounded them { deckhand, and we arranged to start, | weather permitting, with the morning | tide, which set east at six o'clock on July 13, 1903. { gasoline, over and above the tanks and three barrels of water, being duly | ning which was naturally spent in’a parting conclave in John Saunders’ snuggery. “Why, one Important thing | forgotten,” sald Charlie, “Machetes— iand spades and plckaxes. And I'd take a few sticks of dynamite along with you too. 1 ean let you have the lot. We'll get them aboard tonight.” “It's a pity you have to give It John, “but then you can't keep the crew from Knowing. And they're a queer lot on the subject of treasure, have some of the rummiest supersti- tions. 1 hope you won't have trouble with them." “Had any experience niggers? asked Charlie, “Not the least™ with you. You know about That's a thing. You ean captain your own boat, If need be. That's to the if you strike any dirty weather. let me give you one word of advice: Be kind, of with keep your distanee all the same. And careful about losing your temper. You more out of them by coax ing—hard as It is, at times. And, by the way, how would you like to take { old ‘Satior’ with you? “Sallor” was a greet Labrador re- triever, who at that moment turned his big head with a devoted «igh from behind his master's chair. “Rather,” I So “"Sallor thereupon enrolled as a furth { tion to the crew, | “Oud the cook, hand next morning. children. anyhow, good all good. course, $ be get sald n cers 4 OT, once, You ean help work the boat:” CHAPTER 1V. In Which Tom Catches an Enchanted | Fish, and Discourses of the Dangers | of Treasure Hunting. CENTRE HALL, PA. My language was more forcible than classical--had quite a piratical flavor, in facet; and my friend of “the wonder. ful works of God” looked up with a deprecating alr. Its effect on George was nil, except perhaps to further deepen his sulks, And this L did notice, after a while, that my remarks to George seemed to have set up a certain sympathetic ac qualntance between him and my pas senger, the shackly deckhand being ap- parently taken in as an humble third. They sat for'ard, talking together, and my passenger read to them, on one occasion, from a plece of printed pa- per that fluttered in the wind. The captain was occupied with his helm, and the thoughts he didn't seem feel the necessity of sharing: a quiet, polsed, probably stupid man, for whom I could not deny the respect we must always glve to content, however simple, He was a sallor, and I don't clouds moving as It went humming in cur salls, and the sun, coming out in | its glory over the crystalline waters, made a fine flashing world of it. full of exhilaration and the very breath of So for companionship I was thrown back upon Tom. I felt, too, that he was my only friend on board, and a vague feeling had come over me that | the heart, Nassau looked very morning sunlight, with ts pink white houses nestling among palm trees and the masts of its sponging schooners, and soon we were abreast of the picturesque low-lying fort, Fort | Montague,” that Major Bruce, nearly two hundred years ago, had such a time building as a protection against pirates entering from the east end | of the harbor. It looked like a veri table plece of the past, and set the imagination dreaming of old days of Spanish galleons and the black pretty In and those tain sad wisdom in his old face. { Charlie, patting the old man on the shoulder. “Many a | together after duck, haven't we, Tom? “That's right, That's right” | sald the old man, his eyes twinkling | with pleasure. Then ct {| Williams-—a younger man, with an in- | telligent, self-respecting manner, some. { what noncommittal, businesslike, evi- { dently not particularly anxious as to | whether he pleased or not, but looking | competent and civil enough. Next came the engioeer, a young | hulking bronze giant, a splendid phys ical specimen, but rather heavy and trip we've taken mn 1 suh, iat, The deckhand to be a Shackly, rather silly, effeminate follow, suggesting idiocy, but doubtless wiry and good enough for the purpose. proved anchor of the Maggie Durling I went down Into my cabin to arrange various captain, touching his hat. “There's a party,” he sald, “outside here wants to know If you'll take him passenger to Spanish Welle” “We're not taking pagsengers,"§ fin. swered, “but I will look him over” A man was standing up In a row- boat, leaning against the ship's side, “You'd do me a great favor, sir,” he began to say in a soft, Ingrzilating voice, I looked at him with a start of ree ognition. He was my pockmarked friend, who had made such an unpleas- | ant impression on me at John Saun- | ders’ office. He was rather more gen- | tiemanly looking than he had seomed at the first view, and I saw that, though he was a halfbreed the white | blood predominated. “I don’t want to intrude,” he said, { “but I have urgent need of getting to | Spanish Wells, and there's no boat go- ling that way for a week. I've just missed the mall” “I didn’t think of taking any passen- gers,” 1 sald, “I know,” he sald. *T know It's a great favor I ask,” He spoke with a certain cultivation of manner. “Dut I am willing of course to pay anything you think well for my food and my passage.” I waived that suggestion aside and stood irresolutely looking at him, with no very hospitable expression in my eyes, I dare say. Bat really my dis udice, and Charlie Webster's phraso came to my mind-—"His face ls agains: the poor devil |” It certainly was. Then at last I sald, surely not over. “Tom and You and IL.” " { back to the object of my trip, those doubloons and pleces of eight that la; {in glittering heaps somewhere out in those island wildernesses, i Then Tom came up with my break- | fast. The old fellow stood by to serve ime as I ate, with a pathetic touch of the old slavery days in his deferentia half-fatherly manner, ng a quaint remark every now a8, when drawing my att | sun bursting through the clouds, h sald, “The poor man's blanket is com- droppl and again: vt tn tha ention tn thie in | seemed a whole ot of pathos to me Presently, when breakfast was i and I stood looking over the side into { the Incredibly clear water, In which j it seems hardly possible that a boat | can go on floating, suspended as she seems over gleaming gulfs of liquid space, down through which at every { moment It sees she must dizaily fall. As Tom and I gazed down, lost in | those rainbow deeps, 1 heard a voice Oyer sickening usction: “The wonderful works of God” It was my unwelcome passenger, we stood. I looked at him, with the question very clear in my eyes as to was, “Precisely,” 1 s21#, and moved away. I had been trying to feel more kind- ly toward him, wondering whether 1 could summon up the decency to offer him a cigar, but “the wonderful works of God” finished me. “Hello ! tain,” 1 sald presently, pointing to some salls coming up rap. idly behind us. “What's this? 1 thought we'd got the fastest boat In the harbor” “It's the Susan B., sponger.” sald the captain, The captain was a man of few words, The Susan B. was a rakish-looking craft with a black hull, and she cer- tainly could sail. No doubt it was pure imagination, but I did fancy that I no- ticed our passenger signal to them in a peculiar way. 1 confess that his presence was be ginning to get on my nerves, and I was ready to get “edgy” at anything or nothing--an irritated state of mind which I presently took out on George the engineer, who did not belle his hulking appearance, and who was for ever letting the engine stop and tak ing forever to get it going again. One could almost have sworn Le did it on purpose, : un friend. “Are we going too fast for fishing, Tom? 1 “Not too fast for & barracouta.” sald Tom ; so we put out lines and watched the stretched strings, and listened to After a while Tom's taut, and we hauled in a five-foot bar- racouta, “Look !" sald Tom, as he pointed to a little writhing eel-like shape, about nine inches long, attached to the belly of the barraconuta asked, the sea. ine “A sucking fish!” good luck” the his hack, a flat and fo turn cut from his head, lined and he procecded and immediately below inch and half of stamped over poor creature a skin sole to BN rubber held on much the ither holds the stone like rth which the wet fl he of barracoutn circle of said, when he had It clegn and neat in his fingers, “we must hang this ap and dry it in the wind ; wind Just nor'-nor'east-—and there like it, specially when hesitated, with a slyly inn in his eyes, “What is it, Tom? | “Now,” he north. cust in fzht ascot Tom smile iw no o " Od ent aske “Well, sir particul I meant to = ir part of a sucks prop erly dried In the ia a mascot after Uoasure™ “Who said | * 1 asked. “Aren't you enh ¥ wryliodd "asking : “Lot's you hring after tress Tom. Later off -. “The « He nn “Bat it's the “The dead “Well, sar, the ele » was never a buried Et x |. fide’ fi “1 yo ant dant Cia i im its vie either i0r fool Some it sounds all it’s true for all that. when is Ye or they it: an ghost Int fe al $4 thav ys th they ve on arricane tidal we well, the stays the “The g dida’t you there He's got to keep next fellow gentry duty, comes i fo 80 to speak. He My no! He dass But the minute someone give it away. that Lan th has got to waiting for ever froee.—n nd go on sitet 80 long til ing for it.” “But what has this sucking & new ghost in gf there, And I pointed to the red membrane already drying in Tom's hand, “Well, the man who carries this in his pocket won't be the next ghost,” he nouswered, “Take good care of it for me, then, Tom,” 1 said, “and when it's properly dried let me have it. For ve a sort of idea I may have peed of it, after all.” And Just then old Sailor, the quietest member of the crew, put up his head into my hands, as though to say that he had been unfairly lost sight of. “Yes, and you too, old chap-—that's right. Tom and you and L” And then I turned in for thé night. The pockmarked man proves an interesting pas- senger and the voyage is far from monotonous (TO BE NTINUERD.) Statement That Counts. Do not let the man who says, "Mis is the year when I am going to show you how to farm It.” think that he will have all clear sailing. He will most wildeats and bears at every turn, and he may consider himself lucky If he gets off with a whole hide. The big thing is to stand on the far end of the field when the harvest is gathered In and be able to say, “I did what 1 sald 1 would I"—Exchange. ONLY Women Must Use Shades That Are Picked for Them, Wearers of Garments Have Little or No Chance to Exercise Own Taste, Says Writer. Launching a new eolor nowadays is attended with as much ceremony the launching of a battleship, Amy E. Hogeboom writes in the New York Herald. Not that there is suc bh thing as a new color, nor that colors Hre scarce, do with #he dye situation. but fact Is that the manufacturers HESCID ble each season and certain shades to be market at that season. us fH decide piaced the If you shonid on ng. This does it might the majority of the well-dressed wom en not the shade not happen as often as that the manufacturers Allowing only a few the bag at time colors has out one Its adver the left from for the select the = which to center of one tage, herself {8 concerned opportunity to wn taste; she I8 almost as help in be she she has or no exer er her « the less had matter color a dressmaker as she would no sense at ane one match '% and an utterly hope! % FEATHERS, HAT AND PARASOL » id wr | Feathers are the really fashionable trimming this season. This hat and parasol are of the most handsome shade of robin’s egg blue; the feathers | are blue, too, while a rosebud on the | brim is a blushing pink rambler. i : all-white wash dross bri le i and dri 3 fear many dresses have you or have you wishe discard boca they | know it ean be | without of losing use what wnoey ¥ sired Vater an STRAIGHT-LINE LONG SKIRTS Styles Prosiaimed Tor Fall by Nation. al Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers. Pockets, ing Coates long with enorm of fur or shirred ng 40 inches ir nany fashionable women mont races, The talk of Irish pore and more to favor for the bett Ince as returnis er grade of blouse is persistent, Extremely sggeral French imports, bring elx that would long fringes ar otherwise A stunning bathing costume on new lines with the knee-fitting breeches which are the very latest thing. A the suit. THEY ARE SURE TO SHRINK When Buying Housedresses, or Mak. ing Them, Allow for One Size Larger. . Always have enough housedresses, To be sure cottons are high priced, but if you make them yourself or buy them at a store where the prices are not exorbitant the cost should not be prohibitive. If you buy them ready made do make sure to get them a size Inrger than your regular size. They are sure to shrink and it Is almost never that the manufacturer shrinks the materiale before the dresses are cut out. If you make your own then you have the advantage in being able 0 shrink it well beforehand. Even then you must remember that the goods will probably shrink a little in the third and fourth washing not make them a bit scrimpy, dd a little for this later shrink. Silk pongee summer suits, s« with vivid shades of crepe favor oriental lines, includ darin coat. White tricolette is spoken of as one of the most popular materials for high i priced sports overblouses, ss. me lined de chine, yor # ne 5 mane | Practical and Smart. If one must wear furs in midsum- 'mer—and it has been how | practical they are aside from their une disputed smartness—dit ig by far the | best plan to have a distinctly differ { ent set of summer peltry and send all the winter furs to cold storage for the hot spell. Furs are like plants: they have to rest once in a while between | seasons of blooming out in beauty, proved worn month in aod month out with no period of recuperation would secon be come shabby and lifeless looking. ¥ Veils Add Daintiness. The woman who is trim from top to toe never forgets that a veil is the last touch in daintiness for any outdoor costume. This year she is wearing one of the big-meshed veils that seem to be the fad; but inst because veil meshes are so big fashion has whim- sweaters are knitted in checked de signs. Often, too, a sweater is with a checked border, and with There is one great advantage in the checked band at the lower edge of
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers