The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-21

The male yawned Don't know.
I.Never asked her. But perhaps she does
She looks i'll enough"
The mate went off TO his room thea.
turned in all standing, and was
promptly asleep. Kettle with memories
of the past refreshed, took paper and
a scratchy pen, and fell to concocting
verse.
He wondered, and at the same time he
half dreaded whether this was the same
Miss Carnegie whom he had known be-
fore. In days past she had given him a
commission TO liberate her lover from
the. French penal settlement of cay
-enne. With Infinite danger and dif4l-
Guilty he had wrenched the man free
from his -warders, and then, finding him
a worthless fellow, had, by force. mar
ried him to an old Jamaican negress.
and sent the girl their marriage lines
as a token of her release. He had had
no word or sign from her since, and
was IL some dread now lest she might
bitterly resent the liberty he had taken
in meddling so far with her f,ffairs.
However, like it or not, there. was no
avoiding the meeting now, and so ne
went on somewhat feverishly) with his
writing.
The squalid meal entitled tea came
on, and he had to move his papers. A
grimy steward spread a dirty cloth,
| wetted it literally with Swater, and
shipped fiddles to try and induce the
| tableware to keep in place despite the
rolling. The steward mentioned that
none of the officers would be down;
that the two passengers would meal
together, and, in fact, did his best to
be affable; but Kettle listened with cold
! inattention, and the steward began to
| wish him over the side where he had
come.
The laying of the table was ended at
last. The steward put on his jacket,
changed a bell in the alleyway, and
then came back and stood swaying in
the middle of the cabin, armed with a
large tin teapot, all ready to commence
business. So heavy was the roll that
at times he had to put his hand on
! the floor for support.
! Captain Kettle watched the door with
a haggard face. He was beginning to
realize that an emotion was stirred
within him that should have had no
place in his system. He told himself
sternly that he was a married man with
a family; that he had deep affection
for both his wife and children; that, in
cold fact, he had seen Miss Carnegie in
the flesh but once before. But there
was no getting over the memory that
she made poetry, a craft that he
adored, and he could not forget that
she had already lived in his mind for
more months than he dared count.
His conscience took him by the ear,
and sighed out the word love. On the
instant all his pride OF manhood was
up in arms, and he rejected the impu-
tation with scorn, and then after some
thought formulated his liking for the
girl in the term interest. But he knew
full well that his sentiment was some
thing deeper than that. His chest
heaved when he thought of her.
Then in the distance he heard her ap-
preaching. He wiped the moisture from
his face with the mates pocket hand
kerchief. Above the din of the seas
and the noises from the crowded cattle
pens outside, he could make out the
faint rustic of draperieS and the I'M
certain footsteps of some one painfully
making way along hand over hand
against the bulkheads. a bunch of
fingers appeared round the jamb of the
door, one of them decked with a queer
old ring which he had seen just once
before, and had pictured a thousand
times since. And then the girl herself |
stepped out into the cabin, swaying to !
the roll of the ship.
She nodded to him with instant rec
ogntion. 1T was you they picked up !
out of the boat? Oh, am so glad you |
are safe
Kettle strobe out toward her on his |
steady sea legs and stood before her, |
still not daring to take her hand. You i
have forgiven me?" he murmured. !
What 1 did was a liberty, 1 know, but |
if I had not liked you so we'll, l should |
not have dared to do it,
She cast down her eyes and flushed. |
You are the kindest man L ever met,
she said. The very kindest." She took
his hand in both hers, and gripped it |
with nervous force. Il shall never for /
get what you did for me. captain"
coughed and ratified the teapot lid, and |
the business of tea began. All of the
ships officers were either looking after
the work entailed by the heavy weather
on deck. or sleeping the sleep of utter
exhaustion in their hunks, and 50 none
Joined them at the meal. But the stew
ard necessarily lowered at their elbows,
and it was only during his fitful alb
sences that their talk was anything like
unrestrained.
You said you liked poetry" the girl
whispered shyly when the first of these
opportunities came. Il wrote the most
heartfelt verses that ever came from
me over that noble thing you tried to
do for a poor stranger like me-"
Captain Kettle blushed like a maid.
For one of the Magazines" he asked.
She shook her head sadly. 1T was
not published when 1 left England, and
it had been sent back to me from four
offices. That was nothing
new. they never would take any Of
my stuff" ...- Il
Kettles fingers twitched suggestive
ly. I'D like to talk a minute or so
with some of those editors. I'd make
them sit up"
'.That wouldn't make them print my
poems
wouldn't it, miss? Well perhaps
you know best there. But I'd guaran-
tee I'd hinder them from printing any
thing else for awhile. the inky-fingered !
brutes. The twaddling stories those
editors set UP in type about low-down :
pirates and detective bugs are enough
to make one sick
It appeared that Miss Carnegie's IA
Their had died since she and Kettle had
last met, and the girl had found her
self left almost destitute. She had been
lured OUT to Buenos Ayres by an adj
vertisement, but without finding en-
ployment; and, sick at heart, had
bought, with the last of her scanty ]
store of money, a cheap passage home
In this cattle boat. She would land in
England entirely destitute; and al
though she did not say this, spoke {
of the future, in fact, Ket- {
lie was torn with pity for her state. t
But what, he asked himself with fierce !
scorn, could he do? He was penniless I
HIMSELF he had wife and family de- I
pending on him; and who was he TO {
lake this young unmarried girl under /
ais charge? /
They talked long on that and other I
lays, always avoiding vital questions; i
and meanwhile the reeking cattle boat I
widowed north, carrying with her Gas c