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"The battle lasted until alot a shot into the Frenchman's boiler and the cutter burst into flames But the A water, and Pratt had one killed and four of his crew seriously wounded After a consultation, Brewster and Pratt decided to head for the nearest friendly port, set the injured men ashore, and ship the ore on to the States from there By dawn, they limped past the breakwater at Aberdeen, Scotland"
"Why couldn't they have simply transported the ore to an American warship? Surely that would have been safer than shipping it by commercial means?"
"I can't be certain," Seagraht then de the A up the byzaniuovernnorance of the whole affair"
The President shook his head "Brewster must have been a lion of a man"
"Oddly enough," Donner said, "he was only five-feet-two
"Still, an ah all that hell with no personal profit motive in mind You can't help but wish to God he'd made it home free"
"Sadly, his odyssey wasn't finished" Seagraan to tremble "The French consulate in the port city blew the whistle on the Coloradans One night, before they could unload the byzaniu fro dock No shots were fired It was fists and knives and clubs The hard-rock endary towns of Cripple Creek, Leadville, and Fairplay were no strangers to violence They gave better than they took, tossing six bodies into the black waters of the harbor before the rest of their assailantsCrossroad after crossroad, froe to the next, on city streets, and from behind every tree and doorway it seeht across Britain had bloodied the landscape with a score of dead and wounded The battles took on the aspects of a war of attrition; the anization which threw in five an to tell John Caldwell, Alvin Coulter, and Thoow Charles Widney fell at Newcastle, Walter Schhah oldthe cobblestone streets far from home Only Vernon Hall and Joshua Hays Brewster lived to set the ore on the Ocean Dock at Southampton"
The President clenched his lips and tightened his fists "Then the French won out"
"No, Mr President The French never touched the byzaniuram picked up Brewster's journal and thumbed to the back "I'll read the last entry It's dated April 10, 1912:
"The deed is only a eulogy now, for I am but dead Praise God, the precious ore we labored so desperately to rape from the bowels of that cursed mountain lies safely in the vault of the ship Only Vernon will be left to tell the tale, for I depart on the great White Star stea the ore is secure, I leave this journal in the care of Jaers, Assistant United States Consul in Southampton, ill see that it reaches the proper authorities in the event I aone beforeto return to Southby"
A cold silence fell on the study The President turned from theand settled in his chair onceThen he spoke "Can it mean the byzanium is in the United States? Is it possible that Brewster?"
"I'ram murmured, his face pale and beaded with sweat
"Explain yourself!" the President demanded
Seagram took a deep breath "Because, Mr President, the only White Star stealand, on April the tenth, 1912, was the RMS Titanic"
"The Titanic!" The President looked as if he had been shot The truth had suddenly hit him "It fits," he said tonelessly "It would explain why the byzanium has been lost all these years"