The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-01-02
MRS. LlARDET's HUSBAND.

MRS. LlARDET'S HUSBAND.
~ APT. DAVE LIARDET of the trad
ing schooner Motutakea of Sydney
~ was sitting, Dropped up in his
bunk, smoking his last pipe.
His very last. He knew that for the
Belgian doctor-naturalist, his passenger,
had just said so; and, besides, one look
at the gaping hole in his right side, that
he had got two days before at La Van
dola, in the Admiralties, from the broad
bladed obsidian native knife, had told
him that he had made his last voyage.
The knife blade lay on the cabin table
before him, and his eye rested on it for
moment with transient CLEAN of sat
| isfaction as he remembered how well
Tommy. the Tonga boy who pulled the
| bow oar, had sent bullet through the
| body of the yellow-skinned buck from
whom the knife thrust had come.
From the blade of Obsidian on the table
| his eye turned to the portrait of woman
| in porcelain that hung just over the clock.
Poor little woman! 1t will be darned
rough on her."
Then Russell; the mate. came down.
Joe" said Liardet, in his practical
way, which even the words of the doctor
and the face of the clock before him
could not change, cock your ears and
listen for 1 havn't got much time, and
| you have the ship to look to.
81 want you to tell the owners that
| this affair at La Vandola wasn't my
fault We was doing fair and square
| trading, when a buck drove his knife
| into me, for no apparent reason beyond
| the simple fun of the thing.
Next thing is to ask 'em to sling
| Tommy FLYER over and above his wages
for saving of the boat and trade, mind,
|
| boat; boat and trade, boat and trade,
| that's the tack to go on with owners
| Joe. Well, let me see, now.
MY old woman. See she gets fair play,
| wages up to date Of death, eh, Joe? By
| God, old man, she won't get much of a
| check-only four months out now from
| Sidney.
Look here, Joe, the Belgian's all right.
lille won't go telling tales. So don't you
| log me dead for another month, and
make as bad a passage as you can.
/ There's only three white men aboard, and
| the native boys will take their Bible oath
| l didn't die until the ship was off Lord
Howe island if you give EN- box of
| tobacco. You see, Joe?
We've been two years together, now,
| Joe, and this Is the only thing I've ever
asked you to, do OF, done myself, that
| wasn't square and above board. But
| look here"&here for 'some half minute
Capt Dave1 Lfardet launched into profan-
| ity-T"L tell you that the owners of this
ship wouldn't care a single curse If you
and l. land every Aiving soul aboard had
our lives, cut out at La Nandola, as long
as they didn't loose money over it and
] 1havn't to pay our wages to our wives and
Everyone was $50 sorry for poor little
Il Mrs. Liardet!" She was so young to be
t,al widow "and <havfng no" Children, my
i dear, the, poor creature. must have felt
the sl7otk more Reenly."
II Thus the TocalN gabble of the acquaint-
ances and friends of the pretty widow
And She laughed softly to herself that she
couldn't feel Overwhelmed with grief al
her widowhood. - = - '.. -
He hadn't thought above making
money she said to herself-O Nell Liar
det for whom did he desire to make it,
land yet never could make it."
And then she thought of Russell anC
smiled again. His hand had trembet
when it held hers. Surely he did no
come so often to see her merely to tall
of rough old Dave Liardet-a man whom
she had only tolerated, never loved.
Also, he was captain now And, o
course, when he told her of that rlcE
patch Of pearl shell that he alone knew o
at Caille harbor, in which was a smai
} fortune, and had looked so intently int
her'blue eyes, he had meant that 1t wa
= for her.
Russell had stood to his compact will
the dead skipper. The owners had gival
her $3.50, and Russell making up plaus
ible story to his dead captains wife o
! Liardet having in bygone days lent hin
t | $3.50 had added that sum to the other.
The patch of shell at Caille he mean
J | to work, and If Dave had lived the
. would have 'gone whacks." But, as h
| was dead, he wouldn't do any meal
thing She should have half of whateve
, he got-"go whacks" just the same
1 But, as for love, 1t never entered hi
e honest brain, and had anyone told hiI
E | Nell Liardet was fond of him, h
| would have called him a liar, an
il plugged him for insulting lady
Going away, Mr.. Russell-Joe! Surel
you won't go and leave me without
7. friend IN the world? I thought you care
for me more than 'that!'
= Don't say that, Mrs. Liardet If you
allow me I'll always be friend. An
h as l thought 1t would be hard for yo
: to have to send the little that Liardet lei
IS you, 1 have made arrangements for 20
4 | to draw a few pounds whenever you nee
- it from the agents. And, as long as
n have a pound in the world, Dave LA
q det's wife"
le ''WifeP' and the blue eyes flashed al
lie grily. HE is dead, and 1 am free. VII
N do you talk of him? 1 hate the nam
hated him-a coarse, money-loving-"
"Stopr'
Russell stepped forward. "Goodby
n But the man that you call coarse al
money-loving died in trying to make