The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-11-30
BY RICHARD HAIR DING DAVIS. 4

steadily out across the harbor. His eyes
fell on the ugly -~ore-pier. and he WINGED
and uttered a short, grim laugh.
That's true. what you say he began
Il haven't done much. You are quite right.
Only-" he looked up at her curiously and
smiled-"only you should not have been the
one to tell me of it"
Miss Langham had been 50 far carried
away by her own point of view that she
had not considered Clay, and now that she
saw what mischief she had done. she gave
4 quick gasp of regret. and leaned forward
as though to add some explanation TO what
she had said. But Clay stopped her. II
mean by that" he said, that the great
part of the inspiration have had TO do
what little l have done came from
you You were q sort of promise of some
thing better TO me. You were more of 4
type than an individual woman. but your
picture, the one l carry in my watch.
meant all that part of life that l have
never Known, the sweetness and the noble
ness and grace of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. I
hoped l would some day have time to en-
Joy. So you see" he added, with an I'M
certain laugh, its less pleasant to hear
that 1 have failed to make the most OF
myself from you than from almost any
one else"
But. Mr.. Clay" protested the girl.
anXiously, Il think you have done Won
derfully well. l only said that l wanted
you to do more. You are SO young and you
have
Clay did not hear her. He was leaning
forward looking modify out across the
, water, with his folded arms clasped across
! his knees.
Il have not made the most of myself"
he repeated: that is what you said.' He
spoke the words as though she had deliv-
cred a sentence. You don't think we'll Of
what 1 have done. of what 1 am."
He drew in his breath and shook his head
with a hopeless laugh, and leaned back
against the railing of the boathouse with
the WEAKNESS in his attitude of a man who
has given up after a long struggle.
No. he said with a bitter fiippancy In
his voice, Il don't amount to much. But.
my God!" he laughed. and. turning his head
away, when you think what / was! This
doesn't seem much to you. and it doesn't
seem much to me now that 1 have your
point of view on it. but when l remember!'
Clay stopped again and pressed his lips to-
gether and shook his head. His half-closed
eyes. that seemed to be looking back into
his past, lighted as they fell on Kings
white yacht. and he raised his arm and
pointed to it with a wave of the hand.
when I was 16 / was a sailor before the
mast" he said. ''the sort of sailor that
Kings crew out there wouldn't recognize
in the same profession. / was of so little
account that I've been knocked the length
of the main deck at the end of the mates
. oAu AZ W HG DlCCdlllS III tlc StuPptiS
for dead. I hadn't a thing to my name then
but the clothes I wore, and I've had to go
aloft in a hurricane and cling to a swing
ing rope with my bare toes and pull at a
wet sheet until my finger-nails broke and
started in their sockets; and I've been a
cowboy. with no companions for six months
of the year but 5000 head of cattle and
men as dumb and untamed as the
steers themselves. I've sat in my sad
die night after night. with nothing over
head but the stars, and no sound but the
noise Of the steers breathing in their sleep.
The women I knew were Indian squaws,
and the girls of the sailors dancehouses
and the gambling hells of Sioux City and
Abilene, and Callao and Port Said. That
was what 1 was and those were my COM
panions. Why!" re laughed. rising and
striding across the boathouse with his
hands locked behind him.. I've fought on
the mud floor of a Mexican shack, with a
naked knife in my hand, for my last dollar.
l was as low and as desperate as that.
And now" Clay lifted his head and
smiled. Now" he said. in a lower voice
and addressing Miss Langham with a re-
turn of his usual grave politeness, "I am
able to sit beside you and talk to you. I
have risen to that. / am quite content"
He paused and looked at Miss Langham
uncertainty for a few moments as though
in doubt as to whether she would under
stand him IL he continued.
And though it means nothing to you,"
he said, land though as you say / am
here as your fathers empioye, there are
other places. perhaps. where 1 am better
known. IN Edinburgh or Berlin OF Paris, If
you were to ask the people of my own pro-
fession, they could tell you something of
me. If l wished 1t. l could drop this active
work Tomorrow and continue as an adviser.
as an expert. but 1 like the active part bet
ter. l like doing things myself. l don't say
L am a salaried servant of Mr.. Langham's';
l put it differently. I say: Their are five
mountains of iron. You are to take them
up and transport them from South America
to North America, where they will be
turned into railroads and ironclads.' That's
my way of looking at it. It's better to
bind a laurel to the pillow than to call vour-
self hard names. 1t makes your work easier
almost noble. Cannot you see it that way.
too?'
Before Miss Iangham could answer a
deprecatory cough from one side of the
open boathouse startled them, and turning
they saw MacWilliams coming toward
ther1. They had been SO intent upon what
Gay was saying that he had approached
them over the soft sand of the beach with
out their Knowing it. Miss Langham vel
coined his arrival with evident pleasure
Inc launch is waiting for you at the
end OF the pier" MacWilliams said. Miss
Anglia rose and the three walked to-
gether down the length of the wharf. Mac.
Williams moving briskly in advance in or.
Ger 10 enable them to continue the con-
versation he had interrupted. but thew
ioho"ed close behind him, as though pefth-
tunity. oppof-
Hope and King had both come for Mites
Lsangham, and while the latter was heir