The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-03-18
At Last.

Rl LdSm
"she is queer craft, truly, senor, and,
what is more, she has at least one bit Of
queer history attached to her."
We were standing on the Custom-house
quay at Port Mahon-he, swarthy, hand
some, eager-eyed and nervous of speech,
typical representative of the ragged, ease.
loving, idlepess-cursed rabble which throngs
every city of the South of Europe, and has
sent its stragglers even into the army Of
busy workers which populates the Balearic
Islands.
The subject of his comment, an old brig
with high bow and towering poop, elabor-
ate with quaint carvings, to which some
tarnished remnant of it's ancient gliding
clung, rode easily at anchor amid feet of
other smaller but similarly abandoned craft
in the neglected corner Of the harbor
to which all such marine veterans were
relegated until some enterprising specula-
tor undertook to break them up.
"What is the history?" asked.
''The senior would like to hear it 2"
II would, indeed" .
Ny new friend deliberately drew q leaf Of
tobacco from his pocket, rolled it into
cigar, which he ignited from mine, blew a
cloud of pungent smoke out in the direc-
ton of the brig, and, seating himself on
one of the stone mooring- posts, with his
eyes fixed upon the vessel, said:
''Then you shall"
This is his story as closely as I can
recollect it, word for word
Fifteen years ago two people who loved
one another more than well lived at the
farmhouse of the Finca Suberney in the
Barranco (valley) de Algandar.
One was girl of the farm, a creature of a
beauty as pure and sweet as our summer
sky; and spirit as loving and wayward as
the wind that blows from the orange gar
dens of Alayor.
The other, lad of twenty, half sailor,
half husbandman, but all true lover, had
been anchored in the valley by the cable
of his heart, and in her eyes forgotten to
long for the free air and the salt spray.
They were man and wife, of but few
months standing-man and wife who went
to labor, in the lime groves and orange
orchards side by side, and to whom, even
with its weary work and common fare, the
valley WAS Paradise.
In the third month Of their marriage q
stranger appeared in the valley.
He was an Englishman, traveller for
pleasure, whose idle lounge brought him to
the farm. The place pleased him, the
people, as everywhere in the Islands, were
hospitable, and proud of the presence Of
guest so he remained.
Days wore to weeks, weeks became
months, and still he fingered. To-day it
was an excursion among the shepherds of
the desolate heights that hem the valley in;
tomorrow sturdy climb up the Monte
del Tow, with it's wind-worn convent ruins;
again, long ride through fields of golden
grain and gardens of olives, fruit groves and
fertile farms. Whatever the amusement
was he followed it up earnestly, as his
countrymen always do.
At the end of his second months stay
one of these excursions brought him down
the mountain side after nightfall, with
wild gale blowing from the north, sweep
ing over the bare hills with bitter
breath,
As he rode in the darkness, his attention
was attracted by a woman's shrek. 1t
pierced the night, and the gale, sharp and
clear, full of wild appeal for aid, and push
ing toward it without hesitation, he found
himself before one of those high, pyra-
midal structures of loose stones, in
which the Balearid shepherds shelter their
sheep.
fire was burning under the lee of this
stall. and by its light he saw woman
girl, rather-struggling in the arms of a
burly, skin-clad rutfan, while two others
looked on with savage laughs.
To ride one of these down, fell the other
to the earth, and with fierce cut Of his
whip across his face compel the third to
release his prey, was the work of as little
time as it takes To tell it. and before the