Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1903-07-24
COMMITTED TO THE DEEP.
By A. ST JOHN ADcocK


Il NV y put his head In at the
g 6 door
cabin passenger, sir,
>FCsS No. 49, he reported, with
businesslike brevity Every bad"
Whats the matter with him?"
Dunno, sir. Uncommon bad."s
Usual thing, supposeT
mo, sir. Not seasick. Queer when
he came aboard yesterday, thought.
Been in bed all day. Wouldn't let me
get him anything-till just now he
asked me to fetch you"
NO. 16, you say? All right"
The steward withdrew, and the doc.
tor only delayed to finish the first para
graph of a letter he had been writing
when he was interrupted.
1t was not precisely an urgent letter.
for he had no intention of doing any
thing with it until the ship arrived at
Liverpool; but it was a letter that re-
quired Geal Of consideration, and,
though he was in most things phleg-
matte, he was impatient to have it all
ready to post Immediately he landed,
for it was to contain much that he
knew he could not possibly put into
speech, and it was to tell the recipient
that he would arrive less than half a
day behind it.
Few of the passengers were in bed
yet, for the night was young; the sea
was quiet and the outer air pleasantly
warm, and through the rhythmic throb-
bling of the engine he could hear chat
tering and laughter and footsteps pac-
tween decks to his patient.
The lamp that shone from the wall of
No. 16 showed him a haggard man
stretched on the bunk apparently
asleep.
He was 4 youngisl man-not much
over thirty, anyway. His features
were gaunt and tanned with hard liv-
ing and rough weather, and his hands
were coarsened as with manuel en-
Payments. He slept uneasily and his
breathing was stertor:ous and diff
cult.
While the doctor was taking this PFC
liminary survey of him he coughed
and Gwolze.
"Stewardw
'I'm the DOCTOR You sent for me.
What's wrong:"
"Oh. thanks. X. didn't know,
doctor. I've felt awfully knocked up
for days past. and thought L. could
throw it off+-but 1 can't. My heads
all afire, and my hands, too. Feel
that"
1she doctor took his hand and laid a
Finger on his pulse. The hand was
hot and dry, the pulse was galloping
furiously, and brief examination was
sufficient to diagnose his ailment.
"A touch Of pneumonia" said Walden.
''You must take more care of your
self than you've been doing lately. You
were not fit to travel; you must have
felt Ill before your started"
81 wanted to get home" the other
answered, YEARLY. 1--WE been away
a long time"
I'VE must see what we can arrange
about nursing" the doctor concluded
III give you some medicine; you've
got a good constitution, and. with care
you'll pull round all right"
think so?"
"Oh, yes. =. He mustn't be left
Barrow" The doctor turned to the
steward. Somebody will have to sill
up with him tonight. I'll see him
again before l turn in, and I'll get the
captain to let you have some assist
ance."
After fulfilling which latter duty he
retired to his cabin and. resumed the
laborious composition of his letter.
A glimpse of what he was writing
would have amazed any man who
knew him. For to everybody who
knew him, with one possible exception
DIR. Walden was matter-of-fact. rather
unsympathetic, wholly unromantit
man, of nearer fifty than forty; where
as the letter that was slowly develop
ing under his pen might almost have
been written by sentimental young
ster in the rapturous agonies of frs
love. Nobody would have credited thc
doctor with possessing the smallest
streak of sentiment anywhere in his
robust, substantial person. He never
suspected it himself even until three
years ago.
Three years ago he met in London
the girl he told himself he had beer
looking for all his life. She was nearl;
twenty years his junior, but what die
that matter? Her people had beer
rich and proud. and now through re
cent financial disasters, they were poor
and prouder, but what did all that mat
ter, either? He loved her, and caret
for nothing else if she could only love
him.
He had been impclled to tell her so
for his ingrained hardness and self-re
strain had failed him>at the first toucl
of this bewildering passion that, 81
long a-coming, subdued him utterly a
last. She heard him with pity in hel
eyes, but not love; and she told him
with only pity in her tones. that tbt
man she loved was dead and her hear
was buried with him.
Later, Ire learned the story that Ia,
behind her words. and saw more hop,
in 1t for himself than she had giyel
him. for surely his living love OF hel
could, in due time, win her away from
the memory OF d dead rival. Beginnin:
TO 1atter himself that she was already
relenfing toward. him. he had appealed
to her again before lie last left home
and she had seemed to waver- sh'
silenced him TREMENDOUSLY, and had
seemed to hesitate; and feeling tha
each new day put a barrier betWeer
her and her past and removed one iron
.betwixt himself and her, he would no
take her answer then. bus begged he
10 think of all it must mean to him ant
let him ask her for it, once for all
when be came home from bis next soy
age
II p was speeding hompyard now anf