Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-03-28

while, you're all right, you're all
right. Don't be alarmed
There's someone on a boat there
hailing YOU" said Dolly, pale with ex-
element, and pointing to a light cock
leshell of a dingey with a lug sail.
which was approaching them on the
lee bow. Richard listened.
You'll be ashore If you don't mind, .
came d thin, far-uf shout.
There, there, 1 told you" Mrs.
Harkheim almost sobbed.
Richard called back some unintel-
ligible reply.
Help! Help" shouted his aunt, with
more sense. The little boat rapidly ap-
preached them, dancing lightly owe
the waves like an animated cork. Its
occupant proved to be a girl. lShe
was dressed in blue serge, with a Tam
O'Shanter hat. Skillfully steering her
dingey alongside the Kestrel, she low
cred the sail with a run, threw Richard
a line and was on board in a twink
ling. Richard raised his hat, feeling
exquisitely foolish, and stammered that
the yacht would persist in hanging in
the wind. They We're not 70 yards
from the rocks now.
ooh. do do something" gasped Mrs.
Markheim, "you seem to know-er-
about these things
The girl put UP the helm and sharp
~ told Richard to keep it there. He
said to himself that he would sooner
have gone down with all on board"
than TO be rescued in this way by a
girl. And on his own yacht. too! Now
she took the helm from him, and
Richard saw that in some miraculous
way the Kestrel was moving again,
the sails all drawing and the dingy
towing astern. They were saved.
This is a story of two meetings,
and that was the first.
To say the least, it was ig]nom:nious
for Richard, and very informal all
round. Mrs. Markheim, overlooking
with gratitude, renewed again and
again the thanksgiving of herself and
her daughter and begged to have her
SayiOr'S name. "Fenella MarstOn."
came the shy answer, and Richard, full
of discontinue and speechlessness as
he was, had wit enough left to admire
in secret such a pretty name as Fen
ella. 1t appeared that Fenella lived
with her father in a lone house among
the hills between Port Erin and Peel,
and "she must go at once" she said,
when the poor f1uttering Kestrel had
once more reached the shelter of the
quay wall.
A year passed, and Richard was
again yachting at Port Erin, this time
alone. Mrs. Markheim had graciOusly
asked him to join herself and Dolly
at Fecamp. but for some ineXDlicable
reason he had declined the invitation.
much to every ones surprise, for every
one. including Dolly, imagined that he
WAS in love with Dolly. For his own
part, he was nO quite certain on the
point. and he determined to spend Il
week or two in solitude at Port Erin
with his darling Kestrel, which by the
way, he could now handle with some
skill. in order that he might commune
with himself and explore the receSses
of his feelings toward the adorable
Dolly. Adorable she certainly was-
that he admitted. Beautiful, Just Suf-
ficfently retiring, bOokiShly clever, and
full of sympathy for his literary am
billions, she seemed just the woman
to make him happy, though married.
But-but-but-well it is impossible to
conceal the fact that Fenella was con
tinually in the background of Richards
thoughts. Although the memory of
her was connected with the one miSer-
able incident of a brilliant career, he
liked to call up her picture as she
moved rapidly about his yacht, en-
gagged in saving it and him and Dolly
and Dolly's mamma from a watery
grave.
One day he rad sailed the Kestrel to
Peel. Tide and wind initiated against
him getting her back before nightfall,
and he determined to walk home to
Port Elm, ten miles over the noun
tains, and return for the yacht on the
morrow. The route from Peel, pro
vided one avoids the carriage roads.
is as wild, and weird as a person
could wish. After leaving the quaint
old town and the quaint old towns
new, vast hotel, one begins to climb
almost Immediately, and all the way
the cloud-wrapped top of South Bar
rule appears and disappears like a re-
volving light. 1t vas late in the after
noon when Richard started, and he
found the hill paths. at nc time o
geSted with traffic, now quite de
serted. -Four miles from Peel n of
hose drifting, binding mists for
which the Isle of Man is famous sud
denly obliterated the landscape, and
when it happily cleared away, after
about a quarter of an hour, Richard
was we'll lost. He sat down on a
bOwlder to study a small pocket map.
but to no purpose. Then he jumped
up. for he heard a man whiStling.
Presently the whistler appeared in
sight. but she was a woman. a woman
in a serge frock and a Tam @ Shanter
hat and carrying a bag. She was
walking rapidly, and when she caught
sight of Richard she suddenly ceased
making music and involuntarily slack.
ened her steps. Richard emitted al
ejaculation of surprise which it is I'm,
necessary to repeat here.
Now. the experienced reader will
have guessed that this woman in the
blue serge and the Tam O'Shanter hat
was just Fenella herself. Everything
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