Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-20

burnt Calves, "in the course of your wan
derings find a place where they sold corn
whisky / hope it's merely mountain dew
that's troubling you. my son. because other
wise you've come back very dotty.
CHAPTER III.
Miss Wilcoxn was young woman with
great notion of having her way. She
wanted to know what there was to be seen
in the lagoons and lakes, and told her.
with one reservation; but my tale did not
quite hold water. She guessed that there
was something left out, and demanded to
hear what it was. Whereupon l shrugged
my shoulders. helplessly, and told her about
Atcheson, chapter, commas and verse,
merely lying in the solitary instance Of
personal name.
You said that he is a Harvard mann?
she ruminated, when had finished. You
mentioned also that he rowed against you
at Poughkeepsie. That fixes him. If you
had done me the compliment to remember,
/ was up there that year. His name ISM
Foote at all?'
Perhaps it's got changed" / admitted
weakly. MEMS names do. you know. when
they climb down the scale as he's done.
Hum she said, and pulled down chart
of the northern gulf coast from its cleat IN
the cabin roof. Now show me exactly
where this hermit lives
THAT charts all wrong
Precisely. But you We DeeH tHele, anu
you know the lay of it. Here's pencil
Fill it in accurately. and tell me the land
marks from the gulf side"
eff you go up there and see this fellow.
and sleep one night In those swamps. you IL
catch fever and die What more do you
want to know about that man? Stay here
and l will tell you
my excellent Mac. I have pumped you
dry. For the rest l must see him myself.
And 1 shall not die of fever, because
shall get this yacht to take me around to
the outside. and go from there, and so not
have to spend a night ashore at all!''
at all events you shall do it decently.
There's small creek on beyond, up which
we will invite the Van Sciaks to take the
yacht. I'll bring our sloop. We will go In
with the pretense of alligator hunting
In an hours time the two yachts were
standing out board and board over the shall
low bar which guards the entrance to the
Bayou Secours. Then we slipped out
through the channel between Dauphin
Island and Fort Morgan. and lifted to the
swing of the outer sea. running east along
the gulf coast Night had fallen before we
made the creek. and we tackled in over the
bar by blazing moonlight. with center
boards up and the breeze eddying light and
fftful through the trees. That night we
took the rifles and the bulf lanterns
and shot a dozen alligators by way of CIV
ing ourselves countenance
OF course, Miss Wicoxn did go to see
Atcheson. l took her to the island myself.
through an intolerable maze of lakes and
waterways, and told the Van Sciaks that
we hoped to slay aligators by daylight,
which is probably the baldest excuse
grown man with a pretty invention ever
made But l shall give the girl credit for
one thing-she didn't stay talking to the fell
low for more than ten minutes When she
came back and we rowed off she found
cause to comment that Atcheson was a Gu
rious handful.
Il told you that before" I said 'Now
laar T nCt IRE
satisfied"
Il am entirely. Mac. I hope you are too"
II don't know about that. But do know
I'm extremely hot"
well. then, hurry and get back, and I'll
fix you up mint juep We've ice on board
and all the other necesSaries, and Mr.. Van
Sciak has shown me how to use a swizzle-
stick. He said it might come in useful, as
l had thoughts of settling down."
SO I've been given to understand. AS
you have not had my congratulations be-
fore, please accept them now in all full
ness. 1 suppose I'm scratched from the
running now?"
"Com-plete-ly, my dear boy We've no
tastes in common. For instance. except for
perhaps once, l loathe alligator hunting"
And so we went back and / was reward
ed. not with one julep only, but several.
The Van Sciaks wanted to go to Mssis
sippi sound next day and as the other man
and l were bound for Pensacola, In Flori-
da, the yachts separated, and I did not see
Miss Wilcoxn again for some time. But l
heard of some of her doings, which. to say
the least of them, seemed eccentric. Also,
which was worse they were unWorldly.
Young men with culture and S1O.O00,OOO are
not to be picked up every day; nor should
they be thrown lightly aside.
But when l got back to New York, and,
to my establishment. saw Atcheson there.
then light began to dawn upon me. He
had on frockcoat down to his heels. and
the last gift of the gods in the way of hat
and tie He shook me by the hand and said
l was a great man. He explained to me
how a hermit cannot hermitize unless he
has disease vulgarly known as the
hump
It's enjoyable enough while you have
that" said Atcheson, but when the hump
goes, the bottoms knocked out of the her
init business altogether What a filthy
squalid brute l must have been all that
time
But you liked it we'll enough"
Il believe / did, in my morbid way But
it's over and done with now, thank heavenl
and I'm going to marry Yum-Yum, Yum
Yum. your anger pray tarry- Oh, both
er, I've forgotten the words. it's so long
since they were sung. JOve! / shall have-a
lot to pick up again.
That's fact said. Ordinary sanity
among other things. And so you're going
to marry Mary Wilcoxn. after a1l?"
It's sure thing. OF course. her people
were mad, because I'm not very well off
don't you know; and the other Johnnies
people are mad, too, at his being cut out
But you're the person they can't get over
They will persist in it that you are at the
bottom of the whole thing. Isn't it delight
fully funny?''
But don't think it funny at all make
quite sufficient enemies off my own bat for
personal consumption And besides as
have said If the other fool hadn't got his
solus in the yawlboat nor meddled with
AtcheSon at all.