Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1898-01-15
CLEVERLY CAUGHT.
A DETECTIVE STORY.

Among the saloon passengers of
the Illimani, ere she was fortnight
out, little Miss Agnew had become
quite a pet. sShe was such dear
so natural, so really chic + said
the ladies, while the men enjoyed to
the full her utter or assumed lack of
conyentionality.
She was a fresh-colored girl of
about Is, handsome enough after u
robust, dairy maid fashion, with full
red lips, white teeth and black eyes,
under shock of curly hair, that
shrank from no mans gaze.
Miss Agnew had come on board
OF the very last moment, with an TN.
Gle and aunt 10 see her of also a
note from the owners commenting
her to the captains care.
Popularity it was known that she
was rich squatters daughter re-
turning home after q long visit to
England. Her sole occupation of
one of the best berths in the ship,
as we'll as the possession of plenty
of spare cash, gave some reason to
the rumor Of wealth. 1t was also
whispered that she had been expell-
ed from more than one fashionable
school. But nobody seemed to think
much the worse of her for that.
This trip the Illimani happened
to have rather aristocraiic pas
sengcr list for Australia.
There were an incoming governor
and his countess : another stray cou-
pie of peers and peeresses rich
baronet and his wife +; and several
gentlemen, middle-aged and elderly,
making the round voyage for their
health's sake-that is, the sake OF q
long ana steady drinking.
And with these, at times, nothing
10th, Dolly as she was called,
would smoke the cigarette and toss
glass of champagne, being looked
upon with a denient eye by her fe.
male friends, not only on the plea of
her being an Australian tomboy,n
but for the cake of the little scanda-
lous titbits she was able TO retail to
them afterward in the privacy of
their cabins.
At Naples, among others, there
came on board for the second saloon
young Frenchman, apparently
pretty i'll with Asthma; SO much so,
indeed, that he seemed able to do
nothing else than lie up with rugs.
Quite a curiosity, too, was this deck
chair, massive but light, folding up
into compact compass, curiously
carved, and made of neither cane nor
canvas, but of stout olive wood, with
big, bullying arms and thick, curved
back.
And Monsieur Deschamps seemed
to set great store by it, for always
when the day was Overland he walked
feebly to his berth, the quarter-mas-
ter carefully folded up the chair and
carried it to its owner.
At first people laughed. But
cranks and eccentrics are SO plenti-
full on such ships as the IlIimani
that far more outre things ceased to
attract attention, and Deschamps
and his chair soon became part end
parcel of the daily and weekly mon.
otony.
Curiously enough, among all the
passengers there was no one with
sufficient knowledge of French to
interpret between the sick passenger
and the Illimani's doctor, or the
stewards, or anybody.
And this was awkward, for Mon.
sieur Deechamps was unable to speak
a word of any language Lut his own.
This matter presently coming to
Dollys cars, she volunteered to
shave co.
~ was" she said, "a couple of
years at school at Rouen, and if 1
can't patter their lingo / reckon / IN
due for the leatheriest medal on
board this canoe.
So, tripping across the bridge that
separated the two classes, Dolly
went up to the invalid and began
much to everybody's admiration
to discourse with eloquent volnbility
and gesture. Listening minute,
the Frencbman, appearing to receg-
nize the real thing at las, sat up
and waved his hands and shrugged
his shoulders, and smiled With de-
light and qualification beautiful to
witness.