El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-07

unknown tangle of trees ana grasses and
lagoons, the Everglades themselves.
It's worth living, Mr.. Cambel, times
like these said Kettle when they had
sat there in silence till the warm night
had spread all over and the white stars
were beginning to show in multitudes
through its gaps
The other nodded, sucking at his cold
pipe.
None of those poets have ever put all
this down on paper. They've got parts,
bits, but not all. I fancy it is because
they haven't seen the thing for themselves.
I've tried myself, but I haven't made
much account of it. -
'What-you-you' a poet?' raped
out Canbel.
st knock off a bit of verse occasionally"
said the skipper complacently, 'when
I'm in the mood, th at is. 1t generally
comes times like this, when I've been tail
twisting the hands and have spell of a
rest and think afterward."
81 see The outcome of vivid contrast,
said Cambel. He imagined to himself that
these boosted poems would be OF the he
roic'' order to the verge of melodrama. AS
it happened, he could not conveniently
have made worse guess. Kettle tugged
from his pocket doubled up exercise book
Redeemed slightly under the tan and
handed it across. His companion fat
tened out the crease, and in the light
which came from a chartroom port dipped
into the manuscript verses for himself.
To his establishment they were one and all
sonnets and ballads which might well
have been written by a sentimental school
girl They breathed of love and devotion
and premature fading away, and at least
three gushing adjectives qualified each
tender noun.
There was no word about the sea on
which their author had spent his life or
of the things of the sea with which he had
had all his dealings. He knew about these
as few men did, but they seemed common
to him and unclean. Consequently he had
delivered himself to an ode of that spring
which he had never witnessed ashore and
love songs to ladies he had never met out
side the covers of cheap fiction. 1t was
all Imagination, and untutored, unin-
spired imagination at that.
AS a result, Cambel found the poems too
killingly funny for words and was con-
sumed with a wild desire for laughter, but
that red bearded little savage, their maker,
glaring anxiously at him from the oppo-
site shadow, he dare not let so much as the
tail of a smile dance from the corner of
his mouth. He had to enjoy and endure
in silence, and with the exercise book
thrust out to the yellow light, then he
read on through the stanzas diligently.
In one, evidently autobiographical, the
writer spoke of himself as a ''timid, frail
gazelle, - in another he addressed his re-
marks from the mouthpiece of ''coy and
cooling turtledove' to ''sylphlike maid
en- of naughty mien'' who at the time of
narration was the Overwhelming, entranc-
ing unparalleled queen" of another gen.
tleman's hearth. An lode to Excellence
which commenced Hairy Alfred brother
bard, - was evidently directed at a contem-
porary, but the past was cared for in
CLEOPATRA, LAMENT which footnote
stated could be sung to the tune of
Greenland S Icy Mountains. - Probably
as a collection Captain Kettles was unique
in its clumsy, maudlin sentiment and it's
general unexpectedness.
Meanwhile the author was fdgeting
nervously. He had not got over that in
itial nervousness which publication gives.
He hungered for a criticism-favorable if
possible At last he made bold to ask for
it.
YOU'RE a wonderful man, Kettle - re-
turned his companion, quite meaning
what he said, and unless 1 had seen those
verses for myself I'd never have believed
you capable of producing them, no matter
what had been told me about your pow
ers."
The poet gave sigh of relief, and was
going to pursue the subject further when
something fell upon his ear which turned
his thoughts into very different key.
by James, there's the engine stopped.
What's up now, wonder?''
He jumped to his feet and stood with
neck craned out, listening. The ring of
heavy boots made itself heard Oh the en-
CINE room ladders. Then there was
murmur of voices and a pattering of foot
steps from the forecastie, and presently
steady stream of men began to ascend the
babel OF voices came references to the gold,
Half n million yellow Sovereigns boysi''
and threats there was no mistaking,
over the side"
By an evident previous arrangement the
men were mIssing themselves ON the port
side of the bridge deck.
''Mutiny, by James, that's what this
means!' commented Captain Kettle in an
undertone. He was cool as ice and on the
moment had decided how to act. ''Now,
Mr.. Camb&, slip into the chartroom for
your pistol. 1 have mine in my pocket.
It's two against the lot of 'em, and
Well finish out top side. Oh, don't you
make any error. It'll be a red nights
work for those dogs. But We'll rub the
fear of death into them before we've done
this time-into those that are left, that is
Get your pistol, quick. sir, and skin your
eye for handy shooting
CHAPTER TX.
MUTINY.
Patrick Cambel came out of the chart
room with all the armament he could lay