"Read it yet?"
"No, but I've found it. It wasn't hard."
He handed Peter the paper, his thumb crooked to indicate the place,
which was superfluous; for near the middle of the front page, top of
column and in the strong type of captions, the words leaped out to
Peter's eye as though hand-illumined in many colors:
FERRIS STANHOPE OR LAURENCE VARNEY
Mystery Surrounding Young Man On Yacht Near Hunston.
He Says He's Varney--Natives say He's Stanhope
and Trouble Feared--Yacht is Elbert Carstairs's, with
Her Name Painted Out--Mr. Varney's Movements
Unknown to Friends Here.
Peter read the story aloud in a guarded undertone. In general, it
closely followed the story in the _Gazette_; so closely indeed as to
show at a glance that both productions came from one brain and pen. But
toward the end, the new story took a different turn. It said:
"The above is a sample of the gossip which is agitating this usually
quiet little town. Late to-night there are two distinct factions. One
holds that the young 'stranger' is Ferris Stanhope, reconnoitring under
an _alias_. The other contends that he is really Laurence Varney, or
somebody else, up here on some secret mission. Unless the stranger
leaves town before, the facts will doubtless be brought out to-morrow.
The gossips promise that a sensation of no mean order is forthcoming."
Below this, some one in the _Daily_ office had added:
"A certain air of mystery surrounds Laurence Varney's recent movements.
At his bachelor apartments, in the Arvonia, it was learned last night
that Mr. Varney was out of the city, but the man-servant there had no
idea of his master's whereabouts. From other sources, however, it was
learned that Mr. Varney left New York several days ago on the
_Cypriani_, a handsome steam yacht belonging to Elbert Carstairs of No.
00 Fifth Avenue. An attempt was made to reach Mr. Carstairs at his home,
but the hour was late, and he could not be interviewed. A telegram sent
to Ferris Stanhope's last known address, Camp Skagway in the
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