Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1902-08-07
HOMEGROWN GREY.
By BRET HARTE.
copyright, 1895, by the Author.l
CHAPTER I

was swinging at her moorings in the
Clyde, off Bannock, ready for sea. But
that good American bark, although
owned in Baltimore, had not a plank of
American timber in her hulk nor q ma
tive American in her crew, and even
her nautical goodness had been called
into serious question by divers of that
crew during her voyage and answered
more or less inconclusively with Delay
ing pms, MARINE spikes and ropes ends
at the hands of an Irish American cap-
tain and Dutch and Danish mate. So
much SO that the mysterious powers of
the American consul at St. Kentigern
had been evoked to punish mutiny on
the one hand and battery and starvation
on the other, both equally attested by
manlfestly false witness and suborna-
ton ON each side. In the exercise of his
sanctions the consul had opened and
shut some Jail doors and otherwise eff
fected the usual sullen and deceitful
compromise, and his flag was now fly
ing on final visit from the stern sheets
OF smart boat alongside. It was with
a feeling Of relief at the end Of the in
terview that he at last lifted his head
above an atmosphere of perjury and
bilge water and came On deck. The sun
and wind were rufiing and glinting the
broadening river beyond the measured
mile, few gulls We're wavering and
dipping near the lee scuppers, and the
sound OF Sabbath bells, mellowed by a
distance that secured immunity of con-
science, came peacefully to his ear.
Nov that jobs over we'll be takin
a partin dhrink, " suggested the cap
tain.
The consul thought not. Certain in
cidents of 1.-THE job We're fresh in his
memory, and he proposed to limit him
self to his strict duty.
You have some passengers, I see,''
he said, pointing to a group Of two
men and young girl, who had appar-
emily just come aboard
Only wan, an engineer going out to
Rio. Them s just his friends seein him
off, I'm thinkin," returned the cap
tain, surveying them somewhat con-
temptuously
The consul was a little disturbed. He
wondered II the passenger knew any
thing OF the quality and reputation Of
the ship to which he was intrusting his
fortunes. But he was only passenger,
and the consuls functions-like those
OF the aloft sitting cherub Of nautical
sOng-were restricted exclusively to
looking after poor Jack" However, he
asked q fo1y f11rt,o,. rr1,octiopc o1io;+;,c.
the fact that the stranger had already
visited the ship with letters from the
eminently respectable consignees at St.
kentigern, and contented himself with
lingering near them. The young girl
was accompanied by her father, re-
specially rigid looking, middle class
tradesman, who, however, seemed to be
more interested in the novelty of his
surroundings than in the movements of
his daughter and their departing friend.
So it CHANGED that the consul re-entered
the enthusiastically in search of
missing glove, but really with the in
tention of seeing how the passenger was
bestOwed-just behind them. But to his
great embarrassment he at once per-
ce1ved that, owing to the obscurity Of
the apartment, they had not noticed
him, and, before he could withdraw,
the man had passed his arm around the
young girls half stiffened yet half
yielding figure.
Only one, Ailsa,'' he pleaded in a
slow, serious voice, pathetic from the
very absence Of any youthful passion in
1t; Just one, now. It'll be gey lang
before we meet again. Yell not refuse
me now. %
The young girls lips seemed to muir
muir some protest, that, however, was
lost in the beginning of long and 81
lent kiss.
The consul slipped out softly. His
smile had died away. That unlocked
for touch of human weakness seemed to
purify the stufy and evil reeking cabin,
and the recollection of it's brutal past to
drop with a deckload Of iniquity be-
hind him to the bottom of the Clyde.
1t is to be feared that in his unofficial
moments he was inclined to be senti-
mental, and it seemed to him that the
good ship Skyscraper henceforward car
RED an innocent freight not mentioned
IN her manifest, and that gentle, ever
smiling figure, not entered Oh her books,
had invisibly taken place at her wheel
But he was recalled to himself by
slight alteration on deck. The young
girl and the passenger had just returned
from the cabin. The consul, after dis
creetly careless pause, had lifted his
eyes to the young girls face, and saw
that it was singularly pretty in color
and outline, but perfectly self COM
posed and serenely unconscious. And he
was little troubled to observe that the
passenger was middle aged man, whose
hard features were already considerably
worn with trial and experience.
Both he and the girl were listening
with sympathizing but cautious interest
to her father contention with the boat
man who had brought them from shore,
and who was now inclined to demand
an extra fee for returning with them.
The boatman alleged that he had been