El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-11
CHAPTER XVII.
AT POINT SEBASTIAN.


Now the great rambling wooden hotel
In which Miss Elsie Kildare was staying
under care of her friends, the Van Liews,
though on the end of a telegraph wire and
within easy days steam of railroad, was
not particularly far in crows flight from
that uncbarted river where the Port Edes
lay stranded on sand bar. The hotel in
fact, backed upon the Everglades and
faced the blue crisping waters of the Mex
lean gulf. At one side of it was planta-
ton of sisal hemp, and beyond that thickets
of sawgrass, and beyond again cypress
trees and cabbage palms sprouting from
an underground which was bound into an
impenetrable che, al de frise with wait
a-bit thorn At the other side were newly
planted um brella trees, two decrepit orange
bushes without fruit, 90 luxuriant clumps
of elephants ears, and then struggles of
palmetto scrub, right down to the soft
white banks OF gulf sand. Beyond was
clear blue water with a rickety wooden
wharf straddiing a mile out into it like
some uncouth gray legged centiped. And
beneath the water dented, rusty food cans
grew intimate with the coral polyp.
In winter time Point Sebastian was
resting place for nabobs of the north, and
a congregation spot for those delightful
American women who leave a convenient
husband at work elsewhere on the dollar
mill But in the warmer month these
worthy people did their pleasure living at
the seabeaches of the north or the hotels
of the Alleghanies, and the resthouse at
Point Sebastian locked and covered most
of its glories. The Floridian who stays in
Florida all summer does usually be-
cause of a tightnesS in the exchequer, and
for the few of him who came to dissjpate
a small but hardly scraped up hoard in a
spell of standardization tenth of the
available rooms made ample lodging place.
Still there was n summer season of sorts
at Point Sebastian, which was merry
enough in its way. Most nights OH the
parquet of the hall a CHEEKY score danced
under the glare of electric lights to the
Tilt of Teuton fiddles, and in the cool
gloom of the piazzas outside, if strait
ened means did prevent the actual draft
ing of marriage contracts, even perjury
undisguised could enjoy the dallyings of
the weeks Irritation. Mr.. Kent-Williams
and his tribe were entertaining fellows
enough to meet for limited time, and
maidens, come into the hotel for an an
nual outing, basked in the odor of their
pretty sayings and frankly prepared them
selves for nothing beyond temporary
amusement
Patrick Cambel met at least five men
there he knew, which shows the great ad-
vantage of being university man, be-
cause since at Oxford and Cambridge they
most successfully refrain from teaching
anything that is of commercial use to
any one except a parson, or "a doctor, or a
schoolmaster, it naturally follows that
many men from those seats of learning
fail to make living at home and drift
across the seas.
He did not make the smallest secret
about his advent. AS the newspapers had
told them already, he had been on the I'M
lucky Rort Edes when she came to grief,
but had managed to get ashore by mar
velous streak of luck and found himself
at a spot where less than year ago he
had been wandering about on a shooting
expedition. Thence he had made his way
in dugout, bought from Seminole, to