yptian maid.

"And she sailed with us on the long vain voyage to the South Seas and
back again, and, steward, on my honour, I grew quite fond of the dear
maid myself."

The Ancient Mariner gazed dreamily into his glass, and Dag Daughtry took
advantage of the pause to ask:

"But the young doctor? How did he take the failure to find the
treasure?"

The Ancient Mariner's face lighted with joy.

"He called me a delectable old fraud, with his arm on my shoulder while
he did it. Why, steward, I had come to love that young man like a
splendid son. And with his arm on my shoulder, and I know there was more
than mere kindness in it, he told me we had barely reached the River
Plate when he discovered me. With laughter, and with more than one slap
of his hand on my shoulder that was more caress than jollity, he pointed
out the discrepancies in my tale (which I have since amended, steward,
thanks to him, and amended well), and told me that the voyage had been a
grand success, making him eternally my debtor.

"What could I do? I told him the truth. To him even did I tell my
family name, and the shame I had saved it from by forswearing it.

"He put his arm on my shoulder, I tell you, and . . . "

The Ancient Mariner ceased talking because of a huskiness in his throat,
and a moisture from his eyes trickled down both cheeks.

Dag Daughtry pledged him silently, and in the draught from his glass he
recovered himself.

"He told me that I should come and live with him, and, to his great
lonely house he took me the very day we landed in Boston. Also, he told
me he would make arrangements with his lawyers--the idea tickled his
fancy--'I shall adopt you,' he said. 'I shall adopt you along with
Isthar'--Isthar was the little maid's name, the little mummy's name.

"Here was I, back in life, steward, and legally to be adopted. But life
is a fond betrayer. Eighteen hours afterward, in the morning, we found
him dead in his bed, the little mummy maid beside him. Heart-failure,
the burst of some blood-vessel in the brain--I never learned.

"I prayed and pleaded with them for the pair to be buried together. But
they were a hard, cold, New England lot, his cousins and his aunts, and
they presented Isthar to the museum, and me they gave a week to be quit
of the house. I left in an hour, and they searched my small baggage
before they would let me depart.

"I went to New York. It was the same game there, only that I had more