e recognized it; it
was the hateful and sinister individuality of Loge.
With choking throat and dry lips Cleggett stood and suffered beneath
the smothering presence of this terror while the slow seconds mounted
to an intolerable minute; then there burst from him an uncontrollable
shout.
"Loge!" he roared, and the cavern rang.
And with the word he pressed the button of his electric pocket lamp and
shot a beam of light straight in front of him. It fell upon the
yellowish brow and the wide, unwinking eyes of Loge. The eyes stared
straight at Cleggett's own from across the cave, thirty feet away.
Loge's teeth were bared in his malevolent grimace; his head was bent
forward; he sat upon a rock. Cleggett, unable to withdraw his eyes,
waited for Loge's first movement. The man made no sign. Cleggett
slowly raised his pistol....
But he did not fire. The open, staring eyes, unchanging at the menace
of the lifted pistol, told the story. Loge was dead. Cleggett crossed
over and examined him. Clutched on his knees was a bomb. He had been
wounded by Barnstable's last shot, but he had crawled through the
tunnel with a bomb for a final attempt on the Jasper B. His strength
had failed; he had rested upon the rock and bled to death.
As for his last thought, Cleggett had felt it. Loge had died hating and
lusting for his blood.
CHAPTER XXVII
CLEGGETT ACCOMMODATES THE KING
There was a wedding next day on the deck of the Jasper B. The Rev.
Simeon Calthrop performed the ceremony, and Wilton Barnstable insisted
upon lending his vessel for a bridal cruise. Washington Artillery Lamb,
engineer, janitor, cook and butler of the Annabel Lee, went with the
vessel.
As for the Jasper B., although his wife urged him to keep the ship for
the sake of old associations, Cleggett had the hole in its side built
in and gave it to the Rev. Simeon Calthrop for a gospel ship. George
the Greek, who married Miss Medley, shipped with the preacher in his
cruise around the world, and he and his wife eventually reached Greece,
as he had originally intended. Elmer went with the Rev. Mr. Calthrop to
assist him in his missionary work.
But it was some time before the Jasper B. sailed. Besides the hole
which was the entrance to the tunnel it was discovered that the vessel
rested on a brick foundation. The man who had used her for a saloon
and dancing platform in years past had dug away part of the bank of the
canal to fit the curve of
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