The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-05-16
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copyright, 1899, by the Author.l
copyright. 1899. by the Author.l
CHAPTER XII.
AN ITEM OF NEWS,


was awaiting her. She received the
noisy greeting Of the rough haired ter
rier with a kindly pat on the head,
stopped and ruffled the fur Of the great
Angora cat as he lay before the cheerful
fire She turned to the manservant
when be came in
"Oh, John, Mr.. Stacey has head
ache this morning, the worst he has
had for months. He says he will take no
more than cup Of tea and two bits Of
dry toast.
"Indeed, ma am, I'm sorry to hear
that, said John in sympathetic tone
"It's long time since the master has
had real bad headache Thank you,
ma am, as she poured out the large
cup of tea.
Mary sat down in her place and
poured out her own tea. She was not
worried or upset at her husbands in
disposition, because he was man who
had all his life suffered occasionally
from violent headaches, and he declared
that since his marriage they had been
much less frequent than formerly. She
helped herself to some kedgeree and
opened one by one the pile Of letters
beside her plate, smiling over their
contents new and then, as if she found
the news they contained pleasant.
Then. these disposed Of, she took a Sec
ond helping of the kedgeree, which was
unusually good, and opened the news
paper, setting it up against the teapot
for the greater convenience of being
able to eat and read at the same time.
Like all women, she read the first col
Smn to begin with, then turned the pa
per over to the middle sheet. In one
moment the whole atmosphere and at
titude Of her life was changed, for
there in staring letters before her, was
the heading Survivors of the Arikha-
ma"
She canght the paper up from its po-
sition against the teapot and thrust it
down between the table and her knee,
going on mechanically eating her break
fast, as If by 80 doing she could keep
the suspicious announcement at arms
length. Then she found that although
che had gone on eating, she would not
swallow the food that was in her
mouth. and, as she came to realization
Of the fact, she choked the mouthful
down and pushed her plate away.
Survivors Of the Arikhamap' Good
heavensl What did these four words
imply Survivors Of the Arikhama'
ooh, my God, not that, not that!" she
moaned out, putting her hands up to
her head and staring hard at the oppo-
site wall. "Not that not that!''
Survivors of the Arikhama. The
trend Of thoughts which the words
called mp was hideous--hideous hid
eous Perhaps, after all, he was alivel
She passed her hands over her face to
clear her eyes from the mist that danced
before them. Her blood ran cold; her
flesh seemed to turn chill; her heart to
have stopped its motion; only her terri
BILE thoughts went whirling, whirling,
whirling onto what? To the fact that
Edward Conway might be one of the
survivors of the Arikhamal
She looked down at the paper crushed
upon her knee 81 daren't read it; I
daren't read It, will put it in the fire
as it is. 1t will be better not to know.
Oh, my God, what shall do9" The
survivors of the Arikhama Where had
they beenf Years had gone by
"Oh, this is folly-follyl Pull your
self together, Mary Stacey; pull your
self together. Nerve yourself, womanl
Don't be a coward Face the worst;
know the worst, and get it over! Any
thing is better than suspicious, and the
paper will tell you"
So she took up the paper with nerve
less, shaking fingers, smoothed it out
and Eent her eyes upon it, They refused
their Office Merciful nature spread
curtain between her palpitating heart,
her dazed brain and the cruel news
which the printed columns brought.
She could see nothing
She shook herself together. "This is
foolish, her heart said "You are I'M
nerved, Mary Stacey. Rub your eyes
hard, and don't be coward. Read the
notice.
Slowly the printed words appeared
through the mist--the merciful mist
Survivors of the Arikhama. And
then the paragraph went on to tell this
wondrous tale Of the sea. How sailing
brig, under stress of weather, had found
herself driven upon rocky islet in the
far Pacific 1t was not an unknown is.
land, but an uninhabited one, being too
far out of the ordinary track Of vessels
and too small and poor in quality of
land to make it worth while for any one
to settle there. The sailing vessel, find
ing herself driven very near, put in to
renew her stores of water and, to the
establishment Of the captain and crew,
discovered three men and dog in pos
session of the island. These were the
captain and two of the crew of the i'll |
fated steamship Arikhama, who after |
drifting about in an open boat for many /
weeks and suffering unheard of priva-
tions, had found themselves tossed upon
this faroff strand, which had been to
them SO long living grave.
Captain Conway and the two seamen
were the only three men out of nine
who had survived the hardships and pri-
vations Of that long and terrible voyage
and the cruel life of isolation which fol-
lowed. Then came description Of how
the rescued men had lived. Penguins'
eggs, occasional fish and roots Of vari-
GUS kinds had formed their chief susie
nance. The whole account ended with
details of how the three men had wept
like madmen on meeting their rescuers,
and the concluding sentences said:
"When we tell our readers that Cap
tain Conway had only been married a
few months when he set out on tho
Arikhama's last i'll fated voyage, it will
easily be understood that his anxiety to
have news of his wife was overpower-
ing. The captain and crew Of the Live
ly jeanne, however, were not able to
satisfy him on this point, but they sail
ed the following day for Melbourne, and
Captain Conway will set sail for home
Immediately ON arrival at that port
So she knew the worst, and worse
than the worst could not be- So all her
new found happiness had fallen about
L L - L. yn0