This witness, who was but a child when the incident had
occurred, clearly recalled the fact that Ebbe Petersen had not decided
to take his wife and daughter with him on the voyage until a few days
before they sailed. They had then invited her, the witness--now a Mrs.
Cantwell--to go with them, but her mother had declined to allow her to
do so. Mrs. Petersen, moreover, according to Mrs. Cantwell, was a woman
of education, who wrote a particularly fine hand. Other papers were
discovered executed at about the same time, signed by Mrs. Petersen with
her full name. It seemed inconceivable that she should have signed any
deed, much less one of so much importance, with her _mark_, and,
moreover, that she should have executed any such deed at all when her
husband was on the spot to convey his own property.

But the strangest fact of all was that the attesting witness to this
extraordinary instrument was H. Huffman Browne! It also appeared to have
been recorded _at his instance_ eleven years after its execution.

In the meantime, however, that is to say, between the sinking of the
_Geiser_ in '88 and the recording of Mary Petersen's supposed deed in
'99, another _equally mysterious_ deed to the same property had been
filed. This document, executed and recorded in 1896, purported to convey
part of the Petersen property to a man named John J. Keilly, and was
signed by a person calling himself Charles A. Clark. By a later deed,
executed and signed a few days later, John J. Keilly appeared to have
conveyed the same property to Ignatius F. X. O'Rourke, the very person
to whom Mrs. Petersen had apparently executed her deed in 1888. And H.
Huffman Browne was the attesting witness to both these deeds!

A glance at the following diagram will serve to clear up any confusion
which may exist in the mind of the reader:

[Sidenote: (Not Recorded until 1899)]

1888 MARY A. PETERSEN 1896 CHARLES A. CLARK
by her (X) deed conveys _same property_
conveys to to
I.F.X. O'ROURKE JOHN J. KEILLY.
|
| 1896 JOHN J. KEILLY
| conveys to
| I.F.X. O'ROURKE
|_________________________|

O'ROURKE thus holds land through two sources.

Browne was the witness to both these parallel transactions! Of course it
was simple enough to see what had occurred. In 1896 a mysterious man,
named Clark, without vestige of right or title, so far as t