The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-25

N~%---f
was freckled, but the freckles didn't
impair his good looks His eyebrows
were high, and his mustache went up
at the corners, giving him a very proud
and cold expression. AS a matter of
TACT, he was as Warm-hearted a man
to his friends as / ever saw, yet dis
tant and naughty to strangers. 1t
seems he had to skip from his own
country on account of politics.
thought our politics were bad enough;
still we haven't reached the point when
we chuck the other side in Jail, so per-
haps were better off than we think
we are. Liberty was Caloran's war cry.
My how his black eyes would burn
when he talked of it, His idea of it,
though, was all his own. What he
looked forward to with rapture was
fine, free country, with Senior Caloran
for king, and durn little to be said by
the opposition, and that little at their
own peril. AS he said of himself, it
wouldn't be well to think he had no
claws, nor do l think any one in his
right mind would entertain the idea,
for the Senior looked distinctly danger
Gus. And it turned out that he was
just as dangerous as he looked-there
was no bluff about it. He liked to talk
to us boys of his college days, and of
He was a mighty good hand at the
sports of $his own land too. Especially
in fencing. He had a sword he called
the "Liberato that he carried every
where with him. 1t seems that he once
pushed the liberator through the man
ly form of an editor of a paper that
was against his party. 1T is such things
as this that make bad feeling in poll
tics. 1 suppose it had something to
do with Calorans leaving the country,
too. You would think that sword was
some kind of electric machine, if you
could see the change that came over
Caloran when he put his hand on the
hilt of it, AS he said. he was rather
sleepily quiet usually, but when he be-
gan to make pokes at an imaginary
enemy with the liberator he was about
as live a man as you'd care to see
mighty wickedly alive-you could fair
ly see the other, man dodge, he made
the play so real Fencing and all that
had to do with swords was his hobby.
He had books with him telling the
history of sword-play from the early
days, when sorcery was part of the
art, and a man learned how to fence
in a charmed circle, and if he fought
he mad to remember the parts of the
circle-Such as such a thrust when one
foot was here, and the other there
otherwise. you'd have bad luck. And
if other man make his lunSe first you
have bad luck, anyhow" said Caloran,
when he translated it for me. How
foolish is all that superstition AS to
say that it is not the quick arm and
sure eye, the head to plan and see the
opportunity, that Win!" which was
very sensible talk, and all the strang-
er, coming from a man who wore
medal on a string around his neck,
which, he told me at another time, abb
solutely protected him from sudden
death! | took a great interest in what
Caloran told me of fencing, for spar
ring had been my hobby, and while l
wasn't as we'll up in my game as he
was in his, yet 1 knew something
| about the subject, at that The two
| things We're good deal alike, and
| they'd worked their way up from non
| sense in much the same way. Take
look at the position of a prize fighter
in one of the old-time pictures! He
looks as if he was showing a beginner
things he mustn't do. A third-rate
modern would stuff him full of boxing
glove, if he didn't change his gait.
Another thing l learned was that with
the sword, as with the fist, exhibition
work, and work with real purpose
were quite different; fencing wasn't
duelling, any more than sparring is
lighting Caloran said he didn't waste
any time in parrying when he was out
for gore; he defended himself by keep
ing the other lad on the jump. That
works with bare knuckles as we'll.
The manly art of self-defense consists
in mauling the gentleman opposite, as
far as I've found it.
Caloran was polite in regard to box
ing. but at heart he thought it brutal
To deity insert a foot of slippery steel
among a fellow citizens works, he
thought, was refined and courteous but
to bung UP his eyes, or flatten his nose,
"Ah, Cara! Muy brutal Muy brutal"
he'd say; then SUDDENLY recalling that
l might not like the criticism, 1T is
merely that tastes are not in all men
the same" he'd wind up with a smile
and a wave of his hand. Caloran
wouldn't hurt your feelings for the
world, unless you had sword in your
hand. AS for me- the thought of facing
a steel skewer in the hands of a man
who didn't like me gave me frostbite
down the spine Tastes do differ, that s
a fact.
Well, Caloran. Captain Bill, Santiago,
Knut. Louis and us three fellows made
up the ships company, and l never
hope to strike a better one. excluding
| Santiago. Yet he gave us plenty to re-
member, too, when you come to that.
And we were out after gold, mind you
/ i.
ten thousand years from 'em, according
to my feelings If ever you saw three
happy boys it was Pete and Sam and
me. When we got near the bay, we
| could hardly sleep at all. There wash
a doubt in our minds but what we
were going to throw down our dredges
and pull up gold by the pailful. Sam
! and l often figured out how we would
| saunter in to the offices when we got
| back-dressed in old clothes, to make
the surprise more complete, and then
yank out a roll of bills the size of a
prize cucumber and ask the head of
the house please to buy us $4,000 worth
of something.
| One night the three of us sat up on
! the bowSprit till first morning light.
| There was a glorious old moon. the
wind held as steady and strong as a
| pillow horse, and the Lucky Venture
| just ripped her way through the water.
| the only thing on the whole blasted
map. We couldn't roll init was too
| fine out there. We sat and talked over
old times and enjoyed ourselves till,
as I tell you. the morning came up gray
and cold. That was a great night.
can see the ocean as it was then, this
minute a tremendous following swell,
that Capt. Perkins lodged like a jock
ey. and the old Lucky Venture hauling
herself up one slant with an effort you
unconsciously tried to help, and going
down the other side like a landslide,
carrying all the wash on her lines that
was safe, and looking a beautiful and
graceful thing in the moonlight. Prob
ablN another thing that makes If stick