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BKEWSTEE'S MILLIONS.
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presently, and appeared resigned to his fate. I'm your prisoner, then 1 " he said. "Well— I'll just bet you, de Mille, that I get loose when I want to."
I'll take that bet for a thousand," said de Mille, " provided you don't get help."
" Kight," said Monty.
But though, after his first outburst, Monty took his imprisonment lightly, it was really a crushing blow. Even when his guards grew seasick his smile was forced.
The man who asked to be delivered from his friends was right," he said, bitterly.
For this meant that he would be obliged, after reaching New York, to rack his already wearied brain in an eftbrt to discover new extravagances that would support the scrutiny of Swearengen Jone>\ He had counted on getting rid of nearly forty thousand dollars by the extension of the cruise to North Cape. Now he would have to spend the extra money the trip would have cost, and he would also save the money for the last month of the yacht's charter — since he would be in New York with more than a month of the time to run. Damn the luck ! " he said.
But fate, which had dealt Monty so many
blows, was stirring herself to aid him. Up on
deck the captain looked anxiously at his glass.
There's dirty weather coming," he said.
I've heard of the glass acting this way in
the Pacific — but it's not Atlantic weather."
And his predictions were justified. For the dirty weather the captain had anticipated turned out to be a hurricane of tropical violence. The Flitter was not meant for such weather. But she would have weathered it all right had it not been for an accident — the breaking of her shaft. Monty, in his cabin, with the door locked, learned of this disaster when the terrific rolling and pitching changed in character, proving that the yacht had lost steerage way, and was being buft'etted helplessly by the huge seas. And it was Peggy who remembered him and came to let him out.
On deck he greeted a frightened crowd that was trying to put the best possible face on matters.
"Well !" he said, "if you'd let me have my way this would never have happened ! "
But he did not rub this in — being a good sport. And for the first time since he had inherited his million he forgot about money. For it was plain that the situation was full of peril — and he was thinking of Peggy, and
of the mother who was waiting for her in New York.
The Flitter lay helpless in the raging storm. More than once it seemed that her end was at hand. But the storm abated as quickly as it had arisen. From the moment of the lessening of the wind they had relief; within six hours all danger was past.
" Thank (xod ! " said Captain Perry, devoutly. " Ladies and gentlemen — I've seen bad weather, but I never came closer to losing a ship. And now — well, we've got to rig up sail and get down to the Canaries, somehow. We've been blown out of the steamship lanes — and we're in for a week or so of drifting. It looks like calm weather, too."
Once more he was right. And Monty, with a hundred thousand dollars still to spend, began to think he was going mad. For they got nowhere. He had to get to New York, and day followed day with no apparent chance that they could. The others could not understand his impatience to get back to New York now.
" It's not so long since you Avanted to go to North Cape — and now you're worrying about getting to New York ! " said Peggy.
He couldn't explain. But, at the last moment, when it seemed to him he had been driven to the limit of his endurance, a tramp steamer was sighted.
"Thank Heaven!" he cried. " Signal her to take us in tow, captain ! "
"You're mad!" said Perry, aghast". ' That would mean salvage — it would cost you a hundred thousand ! "
" I don't care — do it ! " said Monty.
But Perry refused, absolutely.
"it's a waste of money," he said. We may be slow, but we'll make land safely."
" Then I'll do it myself ! " cried Monty. With a spring he reached the box of signal flags. He knew the code, and in a moment he had hoisted the signal that appealed for help. The others tried to drag it down, but he held them off with a revolver.
" I've stood enough of your interference!" he shouted. " Keep off" ! "
" Let him alone," said Perry, with a groan. "They've seen the signal — that does it. He's got to pay now."
Chapter XII.
IT was the twenty-second of September, and Monty and all of them were back in New York. He was the mock of all but the few loyal friends who had been on