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176 "They're moons, you poor " (he couldn't catch this amazing appellative!) "seven of 'em."

Now this discovery of Carlotta's came near to unravelling the conversation, which the stranger mistakenly thought was extraordinarily uncommon. He decided that, in spite of his faulty knowledge of the purest Americanese, he could now understand the cryptic allusion to the "yacht," though why it should be called "young" was beyond him to fathom.

But the girl was talking on. Picturesque—but that voice—Diable!

"An' those marks in the corner—like chicken trac's an' letters?"

"That's the key to it," MacAllister deigned to explain. "And damned if I don't believe it's that island I heard of down in Kingston. If it is—by the beard of your alleged ancestor, Carlotta, it means treasure!"

"You mean," she said, "that that means real cash?"

"It's a fifty-fifty chance, you doubting Thomasina."

"Well, all right, but all I gotta say is,—if yuh can read money in those Shriner marks, I can bring yuh a stack uv Yiddish newspapers that'll cash in for millions." She turned away. "Gawd! It—" the pronoun referring to none other than her mentor, "IT," she repeated, "wants me to sign that fool contrac'!"

The further dialogue that now ensued between the three huskies, who had been lying motionless save for their masticating lips, was also illuminating.

The nearest, a bent old fellow, stood up, the flames leaping higher in the wind and revealing the matted whiskers which