, 1896-03-28
across. snc sara / was TO bring YOU

- I'> ceAN = "AS - ~ III
when you turned up"
"Not now. At present l am going to
turn in to sleep. Probably ! shall die
in the course of the night. 1t will save
me the trouble and pain of kicking N.Y.
self if l do"
"Did you." said the man with the
scnburned legs, Sin the course of your
wanderings find a place where they sold
corn whisky? Oh. you're snoring III.
ready. are you? Surely it's drunk yon
are, my son, because otherwise you've
come back very dotty. What rot to go
and live like u hermit all by your lone
some"
Miss Wicoxn was a Young woman
with u great notion of having her w
way. Had I known her less l should
have tried to avoid speaking on a mat
ter which l preferred to keep silence
upon. Being acquainted, as we were, I
did not bring out any futile stubborn
ness.
She wanted to know what there was
to be seen in the lagoons and lakes, and
I told her, with one reservation, but
my tale did not quite hold water, and
she twigged that there was something
left out and demanded to hear what it
was. ~whercupon / shrugged my Shout
ders helplsssly and told her about Atch-
eson, chapter. commas and verse,
merely lying in the solitary instance Of
a personal name.
"You say tha- he is Il Christchurch
mani" sho demanded, when l had fiji
ished.
"Did 1 say so%'
"You did, and You mentioned also
that he rowod against you at Henley's
for the Stewards and Ladies' plate.
That fixes him. If you'd done mo the
compliment to remember, / was down
there Oh Il Eouseboat that year. And So.
Of course, his name isn't Foote at all?'
perhaps it's got changed" l admit
ted weakly. "Men's names do, you
know. when they climb down the scale
as he's done"
chart of the northern gulf coast from
its cleat in the cabin roof. "Now show
exactly where this hermit lives"
1.-THE charts all wrong. The place
there isn't surveyed
Precisely. But you've been there.
and you know the lay of it. Don't be
shy. Your powers, my dear Mac. i'll that
direction are notorious. Here's u pen
Gil. Fill it i'll accurately and tell me
the landmarks from the gulf side"
"If you go up there and see this fei-
low and sleep even one night i'll those
swamps. you'll catch fever and die;
also the mosquitoes and the sand flies
will eat most of you before death comes.
Don be II fool. What more do you want
to know about the man? Stay here. and.
l will tell you"
my excellent Mac, l have pumped
you dry. For the rest l must see hilu
myself. and l shall not die of fever,
because I shall get this yacht to take me
around to the outside and so from there.
and so not have to spend a night ashore
at all. NCr will the insects of the
swamp deyour me, because l own a wide
brimmed hat and a large and most ex-
cellent veil.'
In an hours time the two yachts were
standing out board and board over the
bar which guards the entrance to Bayou
Bon Secours. There was II romping
breeze from the nor'ard, and we sped at
eight knots past the low shore, where
only the tree stems show above the wa
ter. Then we slipped ont through the
channel between Dauphin island and
Fort Morgan. and lifted to the swing of
the outer sea, running east along the
gulf coast.
OF course Miss Wilcoxn did go to see
Atcheson. I took her to the island my
self, through an intolerable maze of
lakes and waterways, and told the Van
Sciaks that We hoped to Stay alligators
by daylight, which is probably the bald
est excuse u grown man with n pretty
invention ever made. But l will give
the girl credit for one thing--she didn't
stay talking to the fellow for more than
ten minutes. What she said to him l
don't know. because my instructions
were to stay by the boat and see that it
didn't drift away. But when she came
back and we rowcd off she found cause
to comment that Atcheson was u curious
handful.
II told you that before" l said.
"Now you've learned it for yourself, l
trust you re satisfied?"
II am entirely. Mac. l hope you are
too"
But when I got back to town, and to
my vast establishment saw Atcheson
there, then q light began to dawn upon
me. He was marching down Pail Mall
as large as life and very respondent.
he had OH u frock coat down to his
heels, the last gift of the gods in the
way Of hat and tie, and a new reaped
chin. which stood ont refreshingly white
against the rest of his countenance. He
shook me by the hand and said l was a
great man. Then we went into a club
and talked for several hours without u
stop, and he explained to me how a
hermit cannot hermitize unless he has a
disease vulSarly known as the hump"
tits enjoyable enough while you
have that" said Atcheson, "but when
the hump goes the bottoms knocked
out of tho hermit business altogether.
What a filthy, squalid brute I must have
been all that time"
"But you liked 1t we'll enough?"
81 believe I did. in my morbid way.
But it's over and done with now, thank
heaven, and I'm going to marry Yum
Yum. Yum-Yum. Your anger pray tar
ry'- Oh, bother, I've forgotten the
words. Jove I shall have a lot to pick
up again."
"That's a fact" I said. "Ordinary
sanity, among other things. And 60
you're going to marry Mary Wilcoxn,