there is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, and the murderers of john openshaw were never to receive the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as resolute as themselves, was upon their track. very long and very severe were the equinoctial gales that year. we waited long for news of the lone star of savannah, but none ever reached us. we did at last hear that somewhere far out in the atlantic a shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough of a wave, with the letters "l. s." carved upon it, and that is all which we shall ever know of the fate of the lone star.