So all was well with the Kansas.

* * * * * * Crawling quietly into the Straits of Magellan at daybreak, the ship put

forth her best efforts in the run through the narrows. Passing Cape

San Isidro, she signalled her name, and it was easy to see the

commotion created by her appearance. The real furore began when she

approached Sandy Point. A steam launch puffed off hastily from the

side of a Chilean warship, and the commander brought the news that he

had been sent specially from Coronel to search the western coast line

thoroughly for the Kansas. He was about to return that day, to

report his failure to discover any trace of the missing vessel, and he

listened in amaze while Christobal gave him a succinct history of the

ship's doings. At the end, Courtenay presented him with a photograph

of Elsie's chart, to which many additions had been made by her under

her lover's directions. The position of the shoal, and of Pillar Rock,

together with the set of the tidal current, were clearly shown, and it

is probable that Good Hope Inlet, notwithstanding its dangerous

approach, will be thoroughly surveyed one of these days. Then,

perhaps, more may be heard of those lumps of silver and copper ore

which the savages hurled at the Kansas.

The cruiser hurried away, under forced draft, to report from Coronel,

the nearest cable-station. Thence she would go to Valparaiso, so she

carried a sheaf of letters, and one passenger, Frascuelo. Finding that

he could not execute the needed repairs at Sandy Point, Courtenay

decided to make for Montevideo, where he would be in telegraphic

communication with Mr. Baring. He was fortunate in finding a

shipwrecked crew on shore, awaiting transport to England. He secured a

full complement of officers and engineers, and the Kansas reached the

chief port of Uruguay without any difficulty.

A sack-load of telegrams awaited the ship. The Chilean man-of-war put

into Valparaiso, after calling at Coronel, nearly three days before the

Kansas dropped anchor on the east coast. Hence, there was time for

things to happen, and they seized the opportunity. The copper market

had turned itself inside out; the firm of Baring, Thompson, Miguel &

Co. had rebounded from comparative ruin to a stronger financial state

than ever, and Señor Pedro Ventana, after shooting a man named José

Anacleto, had considerately shot himself. Evidently, Frascuelo lost no

time when he went ashore; Mr. Baring, too, reported that the dynamite

wrapper had been traced to Ventana's possession.

When Isobel Baring heard this final item she fainted so badly that Dr.

Christobal thought it advisable she should be taken to a hotel while

the ship remained in port. But she vetoed this proposal determinedly

when she recovered her senses, and straightway confessed to Elsie that

Ventana was her husband. She had foolishly agreed to marry him

privately, and Anacleto had witnessed the ceremony. Within a month,

she regretted her choice; there were quarrels, and threats; ultimately,

an agreement was made that they should separate. Her father knew and

approved of the arrangement. He could not afford to break openly with

Ventana, and it must have been a dreadful shock to him when he learned

that the scoundrel had plotted not only to destroy the ship but to

murder his wife at the same time.




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