Pagina 402 van 416

The very night that Code and Elsa had their last talk Nat Burns

was smuggled aboard a motor sloop lying in Whale Cove and taken

over to Eastport, where he was turned loose in the United States.

Half of the value of the Nettie was eaten up by his debts and

damage settlements, and so, the better to clear the whole matter

up, he sold her at auction inside a week and departed with the

remnants of his cash to parts unknown.

Since that time not a word or trace of him had been heard in

Freekirk Head except once. That was when the St. John's paper

printed a photograph of an automobile that made a trip across the

Hudson Bay country.

Beside the machine stood a man in furs who was claimed by all who

saw the picture to be Nat Burns. Was he running a trap line in

the wilds with the Indians, or was he a passenger in the car

under an assumed name?