The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-07-31 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.

The total imports of foreign stock into London last week
=minted to 18,992 head. In the corresponding period last
year we received 21,940 ; in 1884, 15,(h8; in 18,13, 1-,1n6 ;
and in 1882, 14,087 head. At Liverpool were received 67
beasts from 13ceon ; 1494 boasts and 2478 sheep front
Montreal; and 536 beasts from New, York;" and at South-
ampton, 36 beasts and 6 calves from Jersey and Guernsey,
and 80 beasts from Oporto. The cattle trade has been
quiet and featureless, Throughout a want of ani mat
has prevailed, and prices have remained about the seine.
Fresh supplies of beasts have been moderately good from
our own grazing districts, and have been sufficient for
requirements, the demand being of a slow, dragging cha-
racter. Buyers certainly have the advantage, the best
Scots and ci osses going at 4s' 6d to 4s fid per slb. f 110
foreign side of the market a moderate number of beasts
was on offer, There was a quiet demand, at cr 0p
lug prim!. The sheep pens were not so well filled
as on the last two or thee cessions. quiet
business was doing, but with a steady tone. The b,st
Downs and half-breds realised fis 10d to 6s lid per 8 lb.
Lambs were dull at 5s 6d to 6s 4d per 811) Calves slid piBs ,
sold quietly at about late rat •s. Prices : Coarse and
inferior beasts, 3s 2cl. to 3s Cd , second quality ditt
38 8d to 4s Od; prime large oxen, 4s 2d to 48 6d ; ditto
Scots, &c., 4s 8d to 48 8d: coarse and inferior sheep, be 0,1
to 45 6d ; second quality ditto, 48 6d to 5. (Id; prime coarse
woolled ditto, 5s 6d to 5s 8d : prune soutlelown
ditto, 5s 8d to 65 ; lambs, 5s 6il to 6s 4d ; lart
coarse calves, 3s 2d to 48 2d; prime small ditto, 4, 6'l
to 5s 2d; large hogs, 2s 8d to be 6d; neat small porkers.
3s 6d to 4s lid, per 81b by the care ise. Total
supply: Beasts, 3270 ;1 sheep and lambs, 9440 ea Ices,
1911; pigs, 0; milch cows, 50. Foreign: Beasts. 1140; sheet'
and lambs, 770: calves, 20. From the Midlaid. Bowe.
and Western Counties we received P4O beasts; from
Norfolk. Suffolk, and Essex, 500: from Ireland, 80 ; tient
Scotland, 10; and from Canada, 150 beasts.
• METROPOLITAN MEAT MARKET.

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A moderate supply was on offer. There was a slow trade
at the annexed .prices : Inferior beef, 2s 4d to is rd ;
middling ditto, 2s 10d to 3s 2d ; prime ditto, 4s ed
Scotch ditto, 4s 4(1 to 4s 6(1 ; American (I i+errooll
38 8d to 3s 10d; ditto hindquarters, 4s fd to 4s 4(1 ; ditto
forequarters, is Sd to 2s Od ; veal, English, : 0,1 to
3s 8(1; ditto, Dutch. 2s Pd ^ 3s 4d; inferior muttos,
2s 8d to Ss 4(1; middling ditto, 3s 4,1 '4: 4s'(l: prirti
ditto, 4s Rd to 50 4(1; Scotch ditto, 5s 4,1 to ssd;m
Zealand ditto. 30 04 to is 4d; lamb, 5s 4d ro 6s
large pork, 3a Od to 3( 4(1; small ditto, 3s 10d to 413
per 81b, by the caress'

visa.
Black soles, is ad to 2s Gd per pair; slips, IM to Is Idpet
lb ; cod. £559 to 4.8 per score : crimped ditto, 6s ad to IOS
each; Dative oysters, 2s Gd to 3s per dozen; common ditto,
is 0,1 to 8s (d per 1(t); large salmon, Is id to Is ral pen';
lobsters. 8s to 7,0 s Od per dozen; mackerel, 4s to (is Pe
sc, re: large crabs, Is A.l to 2s Gd each; small ditto, ta to,
Is 104 per couple ; gr,lne and trout, led to is per lb;
bloaters, 3s to 5s per box.
-

POTATO.
A good supply of potatoes was on sale. The demand was.
moderate, at the toliowing prices: Essex kioneys, 6s to SS
Kent regents, bs to 78; Jersey kidneys, be to 7s; gild Cho?'
bonrg round, 4s 6d to 5s 6d nAr cwt.

LALL RIGHTS RESERVED./
THE HEIRESS

ATHERSTONE GRANGE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF
*Allan Thornton," " Efte Baird," "Almost a
Criminal," " Leonora's Legacy," 4.c.

CHAPTER XXI.
AN OLD SCAR.
There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple;
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Great things will strive to dwell with it.
--STURESPEARE.
t' War's troubling you, Twist e
"Nothing."
" Yes, there is."
"What makes you think so?"
"Several things. You didn't eat your dinner, you
hadn't a word to say at dessert, and I can read worry
in every line of your face at this minute. Why, you're
Pulling away at a cigar that hasn't a spark ot light in
it, now, and if that does not argue a preoccupied
Mind, I don't know what does."
"I am worried—about this death."
"It was all right, wasn't it? You were quite sure
how it happened ?"
"Certain. I did not say one word in my report
that wasn't Gospel truth. And yet I can't help feel-
ing like a man who has left something undone."
'You've got the blues, Twist," and Captain Bolton
gave his friend a huge clap on the back. "Como
down and have a nip."
The worthy captain had traded to Scotch shores in
his time, and had acquired the habit of calling his
Small drains by the north country word for them.
"I don't mind if I do. But I don't fancy your
Physic will cure me, Bolton. lam thoroughly out of
sorts."
"I don't feel over bright myself. In all the years
I've been at sea, I never had a death in any ship I've
commanded. It's a deuced uncomfortable thing."
Captain Bolton's cabin was a very comfortable
Place. His wife and daughters delighted to vist his
Ship when he was in England, and furnish it up with
all sorts of nice little contrivances for his comfort and
enjoyment; and the spirit flasks and liquor glasses
he produced from a hidden locker would not have dis-
graced the handsomest house in England.'
"I I don't feel happy over this affair," the captain
said, when they had sat down. " I have net looked
after those girls as I ought to have done. I left them
to the stewardess. I never do go near the ladies
When they are ill, unless they send for me. I can't
cure them, and they are best let alone."
"And I had no idea there was anything more than
ordinary the matter," said the doctor. "It is a miser-
able business."
"Seems to me it's getting cloudy, Twist. Has
that poor lass taken the sunshine below with her, I
Wonder."
It was getting cloudy, but not rough as yet, and
there was a moaning sound among the ropes over-
head, which sounded ominous.
"I'll go up," the captain said, "and take a look at
the weather. Come in."
For a light hand had tapped at the door, and the
stewardess appeared.
"What's the matter ?" the doctor asked.
"I shall be glad if you'll come to the young lady,
sir—Miss Atherstone I mean," She replied. "She

seems very poorly."
"What ails her?"
"Hysterics, sir. She's quite worn out, and I don't
know what to give her. Brandy only seems to make
her worse."
" Ah, don't give her any- more. I'll come to her
directly, and bring something with me that will do
her more good."
He was in Beryl's cabin in a very few minutes,
With a phial in his hand. She was looking very ill,
and was tossing about in a half delerious state in her
berth. Her beautiful hair was all loose, and lying in
dishevelled masses on the pillows, and, hard as the
doctor seemed towards her, he could not help admiring
her rare beauty.
It was scarcely a loveable or affectionate face now
that Beryl was only partially conscious. It might be
that the charm which had made her alike loveable and
lovely had been entirely in an expression which she
Could assume or discard at will. It was gone now,
and a hard, stern, unyielding face, whose beauty was
of feature and outline only, was before him.
"How she's altered, poor thing !" he said to himself.
"Sorrow is no beautifier, that's certain. And, by Jove,
how the weather is altering, too !"
The sea was dashing against the side of the ship
now, and a sudden lurch had nearly sent him out
Into the saloon, and on to his back. He felt quite
troubled about Beryl, and called to the stewardess.
"She must not be left," he said.
"So it seemed to me, sir," the woman replied. "But
I have so many ladies ill yet, that I can't stay with
her."
"Ah, send forward for someone from the forecabin
there—the woman who did the other business here.
She seems handy and clean."
"Yes, sir."
Res Beryl had caught the sense of what they were
(Aline:, and lifted her head to stare wildly at them.
"Not her," she said, in a voice that was half a
scream. "Anybody but her. I could not bear it.
"My dear, she was a very nice, tidy woman," Dr.
Twist said, putting her back on the pillow again. "I
know no one on board more suitable."
"But she was with her after she died. She touched
Poor Ursula when she was cold in death. I should
see her dead face every time that woman came near
me. I should feel her cold hand every time those
fingers, so fresh from her corpse, came near me."
The gasping voice rose to a scream now, and the
hysterics came on again with fresh violence.
"Highly wrought state of the nerves," Dr. Twist
said. "Put her hair back, stewardess. It is getting in
her eyes. That will do. Why, what is this?"
A long, ragged scar, looking like a just-healed
scratch, was visible on the left temple of the.half un-
conscious girl.
"How did she do that? Has she had a fall ?"
"She struck her head the other night, sir, but it
only made an old place burst out afresh. She
wouldn't let me tell you, only fetch her some water
to wash it with. It was always troublesome, she
said."
"An old scar," the doctor said, looking closely at
the curious scratch, which seemed to be festering,
and was very much inflamed. "It is odd."
Beryl was lying quiet now, seemingly half asleep.
and Dr. Twist told the stewardess that he should leave
her for the present.
"We are going to have a nasty storm, I think," he
said;" and some of our ladies_will want a draught, or I
am very much mistaken. I will make up one or two
to give you. I never saw women so persistently sick
as some of them are."
"I think it's because they won't try to get up," the
stewardess said, shortly. "They won't even try to
get a breath of fresh air, and it would be the best
thing for them. The sickness is all over at the other
end, and I verily believe it is because the passengers
there are obliged to get up whether they like it or

not."
"We could hardly enforce such a rule among people
who pay high rates for their passages," said Dr. Twist,
"It is necessary among such a class as we
have in the steerage yonder. A pretty state we should
soonbe in,in a few hours, if sanitary measureswerenot
pretty strictly enforced."
"I've got one or two in here that want sanitary
measures worse than the steerage folk," said the
stewardess, indignantly. "Dainty, lazy, helpless
things. I'd dip 'em in the sea if I had my way with
'em."
Dr. Twist laughed, and went his way to his own
sanctum, and found everything wonderfully changed
in the short time he had been below. The passengers
bad vanished, and the captain wail walking on his
bridge, like a huge amphibious animal, in mustard-
coloured waterproofs and sou'-wester.
The sea was dashing against the ship in ominoas
waves, that sent the Psyche, big vessel though shUwas,
through the water in sidelong jerks, and the wind had
changed its whistle to a roar, that made hearing any-
thing said next to an impossibility.
"Where away, Twist ?" shouted the captain, seeing
his friend walking for the forepart of the vessel, in a
series of lurches, catching at all things he passed to
steady himself.
The doctor's reply went miles out to sea on the
wings of the wind, but not a word reached Captain
Bolton's ears, who laughed and shcok himself, and
tried no more. He saw the doctor go back presently,
piloting a rosy-faced, but extremely staggering young
, woman, whom he propelled into the ladies' cabin head
first, as it seemed to those who were looking on.
"6 Ala, more help wanted, I suppose," the captain said
to himself. "This breeze has stirred 'em up. Hold on,
Twist," for the doctor was scrambling up in a very
safe but extremely undignified manner. "That's it.
Here you are. Dirty-looking, ain't it?"
"Very," said the doctor, shaking himself, as a bigger
wave than before struck the ship, and gave them a
shower bath unexpectedly. "And come at the wrong
time. The lads don't like it."
"No, they seem to think it has something to do
with the death. They have been relieving their minds
in the forecastle with the most dismal stories of wre.k
and disaster they can invent ever since the funeral
. this morning."
"And there are some good romancers arilDng them.
I'll back that hoary-headed old sinner, Bill Grimes, to
tell the tallest lies in the way of yarns that ever
issued from the lips of a sea-faxing; man, and that's
,not saying a little. Why, Bill rode, Fm afraid to sly
how many miles, on the back of a sea serpent once,
and is alive to tell it."
" Ah, and caught a mermaid off the coast of Fiji.
I've heard that yarn and what comes of it myself,"
said Captain Bolton, laughing. "By Jove! here it
comes, Twist. Turn your back to it, and hold on.
Ad there's Mrs. Braham tlat on her back on the
deck, as sure as I'm a living sinner," he added, just
before the wind end driving rain came upon them
with a rush, and took all tha breath out of their bodies
for a moment.
It passed over—a roaring blast of Serve wind, and
a rush of beating rain—and then the ship righted
evain, and seemed to shake herself, like some huge
aatimal, and settled to her work once more. The rain
Poured down in a hissing torrent that made the waves
send up thousands of bubbles to moat the drops, but
the sudden storm had spent itself, and the ship was
going along comparatively steady.