Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-04-29
HAWTHORNE ESMERN.DA COUNTY, NEVADA, APRIL 29 1896

decrease of his own ai1liction, and then
told me that we and the oysterman no
longer had the bayou to ourselves.
The Van Soiaks have come in with
their schooner" he said, land they've
girl on board who says she knows You
"a Miss Wilcoxn.
"Ah," l said, "I know her we'll
enough. We used to see IA goodish deal
Of one another once. "
IF you mean that you were spoons
ON the lady" said the man with the
sunburned legs, 81 guess you'd better
forget that. She's engaged to Yankee
man from Massachusetts, now, a person
with culture and dollars-heaps of dol.
lars-about 10000, 900 of 'em, so l be-
heve. And being ammo @tatis su@ 2S,
she knows what is soft thing and is
not likely to chuck it up Take off those
rags and put ON something respectable
and We'll make the niger scull us
across. She said i was to bring you
when you turned up
mot now. AT present 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 my
self if do -
'Did you." said the nan with the
sunburned legs, sin the course of your
wanderings find place where they sold
corn whisky? Oh, you're snoring III
ready, are you? Surely it's drunk you
are, my son, because otherwise you've
come back very dotty. What rot to go
and live like hermit all by your lone
some.
Miss Wilcoxn was young woman
with great notion of having her own
way. Had l known her less should
have tried to avoid speaking on mat
fer which l preferred to keep silence
upon. Being acquainted, as we We're, l
did not bring out any futile stubborn
ness.
She wanted to know what there was
to be seen III the lagoons and lakes, and
l 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, whereupon l shrugged my shoul-
ders helplessly and told her about Atch
eson, chapter, commas and verse,
merely lying in the solitary instance of
a personal name.
"You say that he is Christchurch
MANI" she demanded, when l had fin
ished.
Ibid say so?"
"You did, and you mentioned also
that he rowed against you at Henley's
for the Stewards and Ladies' plate.
That fixes him. If you'd done me the
compliment to remember, was down
there on houseboat that year. And SO.
of course, his name isn't Foote at all?"
perhaps it's got changed, admit
ted weakly. "Men's names do, you
know, when they climb down the scale
as he's DONE"
"Hum," she said, and pulled down
chart of the northern gulf coast from
its cleat in the cabin roof. "Now show
exactly where this hermit lives" E"
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, in that
direction are notorious. Here's pen
Gil Fill it in accurately and tell me
the landmarks from the gulf side.'
"If you 60 up there and see this fell
low and sleep even one night in those
swamps. you'll catch fever and die;
also the mosquitoes and the sand flies
will eat most of you before death comes.
Don't be fool. What more do you want
to know about the man? Stay here, and
will tell you.
my excellent Mac, l have pumped
you dry. For the rest must see him
myself. And I shall not die of fever,
because shall get this yacht to take me
around to the outside and go from there,
and so not have to spend night ashore
at all. Nor will the insects of the
swamp devour me, because l own wide
brimmed hat and 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 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 out through the
channel between Dauphin island and
Fort Morgan, and lifted to the swing Of
tho outer sea, running east along the
gulf coast.
OF course Miss Wilcoxn did go to see
Atcheson. took her to the island my
self, through an intolerable maze of
lakes and waterways. and told the Van
Sciaks that we hoped to slay alligators
by daylight, which is probably the bald
est excuse a grown man with pretty
invention ever made. But will give
the girl credit for one thiHg-she didn't
stay talking to the fellow for more than
ten minutes. What she said to him
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 rowed off she found cause
to DOMINANT that AtcheSOn was a curiOus