Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-10-11

daughter should resent 1t. And yet
so far from exulting in having thus
been distinguished and recognized
above her fellows, Miss Ray had felt
deeply embarrassed, and almost the
first words she said after receiving
the bluff seaman's ELUSIVE greeting
were in plea for her associates.
"Oh, Capt. Butt, it's most kind of
you to ask me up here-and my
brother, too, will be so interested in
the chart-room, but, can't you-won't
you ask DIR. Wells and at least some
of the ladies'? You know they all
would be glad to come, and"
THAT'S all right, Miss Ray"
bawled old Butt, breaking in on her
hurried words. "I'll ask 'em up here
some other time. You see we're roll
ing bit to-day, and like as not some
of 'em would pitch over things, and
and--well, there amt room for
; more'n three at time anyhow"
''Then you ought to have asked Dr.
Wells first and some of the seniors"
She hesitated about saying elders
No one of the band would have well
coined an invitation rendered on ac-
count of her advanced years.
It'll be just as bad if I go and ask
her now" said Butt, testify. ''The
others will take offense, and life's
too short for shipmaster to be ex-
planning to lot of women why they
can't all come at once on the bridge
I'll have 'em up to-morrow-any
three you say"
But when the morrow came he
didn't ''have 'em up!" Maidie had
pleaded Loyalty for her associates.
L,
inform them. The captain had said
he would do that, and meanwhile she
tried not to feel eXasperated at the
injured airs assumed by several of
the band and the cutting remarks of
one or two of their number.
That afternoon, however, the skies
became overcast and the wind rose
That night the sea dashed high to-
wards the rail and the Sacramento
wallowed deep in the surges. Next
morning the wind had freshened to a
gale. All air-ports were closed. The
spray swept the promenade deck
along the starboard side, and the Red
Cross and two-thirds of the martial
passenger-list forgot all minor ills
and annoyances in the miseries of
NAL de mer. Three days and nights
in their cabins, but Miss Ray was an
heavier weather on the Atlantic.
Sheltered from the rain by the
bridge-deck and from the spray and
gale by heavy canvas dashed athwart-
ship in front of the captains room,
and securely strapped in her reclin-
ing-chair, this young lady fairly re-
i0iop6 in he no 10 I,
the elements and gloried in the
bursting seas. Sandy too, albeit a
trifie upset, was able to be on deck,
and one of the subs from the port
side, hearing of it, donned his outer
garments and cavalry boots and
joined forces with them, and Stuyve-
SAINT, hearing their merry voices, de-
clared that he could not breathe in
his stuffy cabin and demanded to be
dressed and borne out on deck too.
At first the surgeon said: no."
whereupon his patient began to get
worse.
So on the second day the doctor
yielded, and all that day and the
third of the storm, by which time the
starboard deck was slowly becoming
peopled with a few spectral and bare
ly animate feminine shapes, Stuyve-
SAINT reclined within arms length of
the dark-eyed girl who had
tranced him, studying her beauty,
drinking in her words, and gaining
such health and strength in the life
giving air and such bliss from the as
ISOLATION that Sturgis contemplated
with new complacency the happy re-
suit of his treatment, for when the
gale subsidized, and on the fourth day
they ran once more into smooth and
lazy waters, it was Stuyvesant's con-
Stunning desire to take up his bed and
| walk, except when Miss Ray was
there to talk or read to him.
And this was the state of affairs
when the Sacramento hove in sight
of the bold headlands, green and
beautiful, that front the sea at the
northeast corner of mountainous
LuZOn. Once within soundings and
close to a treacherous shore, with
| only Spanish authority to rely on as
| to rocks, reefs and shoals, no wonder
old Butt could have no women on the
| bridge, this too at the very time they
| most wished to be there, since every
thing worth seeing lay on the port
or southern side, and that given up
| to those horrid officers and their
pajamas.
Not until his anchor dropped in Ma
Mia bay did the master of the Sacra-
mento think to redeem his promise
to bid the ladies of the Red Cross to
the sacred bridge, and incidentally to
tell them how Miss Ray had urged it
in their behalf while they were out
on blue waters-hat now it was too
late.
CHAPTER XI.
1t evas late in the afternoon when
/ the Sacramento, slowly feeling her
i i