Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-06-30

rescued was promptly appreclatlYe n sat
up, calling for whisky, but for three hours
they worked on the obdurate rescuer IN.
til at the flood some show of life returned.
Although the adventure was entered in
the logbook as a''regrettable accident, - ii
was in truth nothing of the sort, Tt was
the result Of that mad impulse, familiar
phenomenon to every sea captain, when
the sight of black water of II sudden stirs
the blood to the leap.
In the morning that followed Holden
sat up in his berth. From his portfolio he
watched the porpoises wallow and plunge
in the still sea. Ineffably weak with that
PROSTATE dropping weakness that comes OF
a bad time in the water, he fell back at
last and slept. Later a deputation, com
prising the second officer, the surgeon and
three picked passengers, waited on him.
"Mr. Holden, " said the doctor, 1--WE are
elected of the ship, which asks the honor
of your company at dinner tonight, We
wish to drink your health, sir, and, If you
are we'll enough, have you drink your
own He looked down and thanked
them, said that, though he didn't quite
care about the business, he'd be amazingly
pleased to show up. "No one'n disturb
you again., " said the doctor. $50 pull your
self together by 81
On the average of three in half an hour
he exchanged p~enciled notes with his wife.
Then the pencil broke down, and he
climbed from his berth to find another.
There are many bad places to find lead
pencils, but a lady's chatelaine is one of
the worst. His wife's was an arrangement
in steel and oxidized silver, and from it
he unlocked a dainty prong which after
much labor might make holes. Then, try
ing to rehang it, the whole affair dropped
from his fingers on to the boards. An en-
velope slipped from the needle pocket, scat
tering a shower of tiny red hearts, and up
permost In the center lay a gentleman'a
visiting card. On the front was a line of
verse, on the back an original idea for
an appointment. 1t was engraved Greg
inald Mathew" and signed "Reggie."
He poised the card for a time, wonder
ing; then a cold wind came into him, and
he Understood.
Like the first night at a theater or the
moment in church before the bride bushes
down the aisle, there was something liv-
ing, electric, contagious in the atmosphere
that evening. Mrs. Georgia, had she been
we'll enough to dress and dine, would have
likened the sensation to "sitting between
two worlds before a thunderstorm"
Admittedly one ships dinner is very like
another. Still today there was a touch Of
the special in the appropriateness of the
table covers, in the cleaning glass and
plate, in the freshened green palms; the
ships officers, gilt braided and blue
serged; men in simple dinner jackets and
immaculate shirts, women in blouses of
muslin and grass lawn and white weeping
pongee silk, and here and there a pretty
face and here and there a diamond.
No n staid on deck till the joint that
evening, and at 8, when the lights were
switched on and Holden, very weak and
white, walked to his seat on the captains
right, there was a rattle of sparkling glass,
and from the women's eyes little bright
shots Of admiration. For the hour he was
unquestioned hero, albeit a grave enough
type of the heroic. Mathew sat opposite to
him, trying to catch his oye, but shy of
making a scene.
Holden initiated his wine card for a
bottle of volnay and afterward talked
chartroom mysteries with the captain.
A light ground swell listed the ship
lightly, and the bergs of ice in the deep
sea tumblers pinged against tho glass like
the dropping of small shot. The portfolio
sIIVuUs WoiO ulvAt 50. f---L 40, L-- -~;~l...
and a yellow heat haze filled the saloon
and touched the skin like u prickly fever.
People who are imprisoned for six weeks
catch at excitement with both hands, as a
Gods gift precious beyond prayer. To-
night 1t ran as a whisper through the
soup, and If fish begat steadiness by the
joint it was again rife and dubbed mer-
curylike from sweets to salad. 1t was ter.
ribly hot, but at coffee time all settled in
their seats, well fed and cczy. Then across
the table the captain caught the eye of the
inquirer, and the chief nodded to the doc
tor.
With a hand on each lapel the doctor,
dapper and rotund, stood at his ease to
talk. They were proud, he said, among
other things, to carry Mr.. Holden in the
ship; proud to think that, whether in a
Netherlands hooker or in H. NJ. S. Birk-
enhead-aye, in any floating craft, from a
grand hotel to a battered little North sea
tramp-there were still men, large hearted
and strong limbed, ready at call to offer
their lives in another's service.
Ladies' sparkled at Holden, beat hands
and smiled, as In tournament days they
xarlanded their knight in flowers, and the
men shook their glasses and deeply Hear,
heared!" Then the captain, lifting his
glass to the level Of the lights, called out
cheers for Holden, and a wheezy, sailed
piano drummed hoarsely rearward, and
the men on the watch wondered why the
saloon dinner was run mad.
Lifting himself to his feet, Holden stood
with an effort. II have only to say" he
said quickly, that rather than have saved
this mans life ! would have given up my
own. Yet l am glad to pull round to call
him here a BLACKBOARD, a cur and He
lifted his glass and, stem to finger, flung
the burgundy full tilt in the mans face.
Oddly enough, the next morning Math.
ew, too, fell sick. He kept his cabin till
the steamer hove to at Cape Town, when
he went ashore without ostentation in a
hired dingey. His baggage followed In
the tender.
And Mrs. Georgia sat up in her gauffered
nightdress and with large, appealing eyes
told of the mans relentless persecution, Of
her meroiless snubbings and how she had
kept counsel from her husband for peaoe'a
sake. "You dom know, Jackl Godl You
don'tl" she said.
And Holden believed Mrs. George, for
It IL written he was in love with his wife's
eyes. They looked at him now full Of
depths and wonders and meanings, like
the dream of Alnaschar. II. P. Blake In
Black and White.
Resented.
Cyrus Winterside, " snapped the indig.
liant wife as the quarrel waxed ~ieroer,
'you married me for my money, and you
L,no,,, a."