The age-herald., 1899-03-26

of being some day aS rich as his rIval. .' Bad move, I said The other man has a long start of you on that line. If you give up your red coat, you throw away your strong suit, don't you see?
 'I don't know whether he did see it In that light, but I do know that Cropley seemed wonderfully comforted by the in- terest I took in his affairs. He went to bed -or to his bunk-in more cheery mood than he had seemed to be in when we first struck up acquaintance. Next morning he was apparently in the best of spirits. "Tve been thinking over what you told me last night he said puhing at his pipe after tiffin, before the ladies had shown up on deck. It is a rum thing he said; this business is rather like a game. isn't itg
 'T told him that both love and war were huge gambles, and in both cases it was all- important to show a good front to the | enemy-or the adversary. This philosophy seemed to amuse him: but he certainly practiced 1t that morning. When Edith and | her mother came on deck he joined them, utterly unabashed by either the presence of | the coffee planter or the severe politeness of | Mrs. Judge. And the plan seemed to work, | too, for Edith talked to Cropley listened 1 to Cropley and asked Cropiey questions about the harbor and the funny boats, and | the pearl divers, which questions, for the most part, he had to either refer to me or l give up.
 Tt was a beautiful morning, and the goose seemed to hang high for poor Crop | ley-so much so that his rival was begin ming to look as dejected as a man in spot less white duck, with a shining, freshly shaven face, can look. I made up my mind to tell Cropley at the first opportunity not to push things too hard, or the mother
 might resort to stringent measures and for bid Edith to talk to him at all. That was the danger which I foresaw at that time. But then Cropley suddenly burst into a blaze of glory as a hero.
 We were all standing at the stern rail five of us-looking at the small craft below us dancing about on the light swell. A na- tive seaman--a Lascar from some piratical part of the Malay Peninsula-came skip pirg nimbly along the top of the rail that was to hang in bights from spring hooks for some purpose or other. He apologized for disturbing us and passed on. In less than a minute after he had passed we head the cry Man overheard? behind us.
 "Of course it was the Lascar who had dropped from the taffrail. Everybody ran to the starboard side of the deck, and there was the poor devils head bobbing up ana down like a cork, while his shipmates were running every way at once to get out iiie buoys.
 "You see there was no danger of his drowning. You can't drown Lascar un- less you anchor him in ten fathoms with a two-fathom cable. The danger was Tn sharks; that was why all the dingheys ana sampans that were padding about within a few wards of the man held off from him SO, they were afraid of being upset by the scramble of sharks that were sure to come And then, you see, the man was only a I,ascar anyhow. A white man or high caste native would have been different.
 "Just for one moment it was horrible There was not a ripple near the man as
 tnd fn in another moment and then-the end or It. Edith's mother drew her back from the rail We three men seemed momentarily paralyzed.
 "Then suddenly, young Cropley began getting his arms out of the sleeves or ms loose Chinese silk jacket. l shall never for- get the way he set about 1t. There was an depression on his face which l can only describe as pouting.
 ".Confound it. he said, I suppose must go.'
 And the next moment he was over the rail and flying, arms and legs ai4 spread out, through the air, down to the spining, swelling water where the Lascars heao was bobbng up and down.
 "Wbat struck me about it all was the tone in which he said those words, Con found it! I suppose l must go.' It was just as if the bugle call had interrupted him in a game that interested him deeply. Things had evidently began to look bright for hin, because Edith was smiling, and suppose he thought it "a beastly bore, don't YOU know for this fool of Lascar to go and drop into that shark pond on this par ticular morning.
 And I suppose Cropey had quite made up his mind that there would be no coming back for him. He was only doing 1t all, believe, because it was the thing to do, and because it would be a disgrace to the flag if this Lascar were eaten up like that without an attempt on the part of any Of the 'sahibs' to save him; and 1t did LOOK for little time as if things were gong that way. But he was pleasantly surprls- ed, so was I, so was Edith, so, l peieVe, was even Cropley's rival. We had none Of us counted on one very simple fact in na- tural history, namely, that sharks, with all their ferocity, are very timid. The splash Cropley made as he dropped into the water saved two lives. Probably 1t came Just in time
 .There was an answering sudden swirl as he dropped in, and I even thought could see long fin cutting through the water. going away from the two men. Ine sharks were rushing away from the splash as they always do, though they may pe counted on to come back as soon as every things gets quiet again. But before they could come back one of the ships poats that had been moored at the foot or the eompanion ladder was alongside the Lascar and the Englishman. They were both pull ed In safe.
 ..That does illustrate what you were say ing about heroes not making heroic speeches, doesn't it?' ao,
 "Well, don't quite know whether 1t does or not" said the stout man with the cigar. But how about the girl?
 "Oh. the girl? Well, curious thing apoue that affair. How do you suppose 1t enoeo
 "She. of course, fell in love with young cropley. no mistake at all about It tnls time. Then her mother tried to put spohe in his wheel, in spite of the strong puplic opinion that sprang up on board pefore we pot as far as Alden. For, of course, crop lev immediately became the nero oi the chin. It was the coffee planter himsei1 "ho did the trick for young Cropley.
 My prosperous friend first went and nao an interview tete-a-tete with mamma after which that lady treated Cropley with great deal more urbanity and consideration than she had been doing And pe1ore we all separated at Southampton Cropiey tolo me his rival had offered him one-tniro share in the coffee plantation If he' crop lev. would cut the army and go pach .o Cevlon to manage things there for him, so that the middle-aged planter might retire and live at ease in Europe"