Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-26
CHAPTER xxvI.
Necessary, but Unexciting.


Necessary, but Unexciting.
SO s. G. SIS Cream of the Cavern Finest
Scotch whisky. Ask for 1t everywhere, or
order direct from the blenders. Saunders,
Smith & Sinclair, High street, Elgln."
Lord wortley pointed to the white letters
staring out from their ground of blue en-
amel. in an advertisement on the walls OF
the railway station at Aviemore. He and
his newly made bride had just stepped out
of their new IL. NJ. c." cara bigger and
finer car which had been ordered from Leeds
to take the place of the ruined one. Sims,
other car which had been dashed to pieces
among the boulders of the Divie bed, but
in his heart he loved the new one better,
and his conscience demanded a salve for
his fickleness. The little man felt himself
to be faithless swain, and he took the
faithless swain's way: he prated the more
of the old love, to conceal from himself that
he had transferred his affections to the new.
For indeed to him motor car was thing
almost more than human.
Today Lord Wortley of Rawdon and APP
perley. In the county of Yorkshire, had been
married to Mary, only daughter of the late
Sir Ian Holland of Holland Abbey. Moray
shire. Sims had cherished a secret hope
that the honeymoon would be spent In tour
ing with the new IL NJ c. and had even
gone SO far, in a moment of responsiveness,
as to suggest the idea to the future Lady
Wortley herself. He put it as merely hy-
pothetical case; wondered innocently why 1t
was not more often done; and asked Miss
Holland whether she didn't think 1t good
plan. Mary had laughed and promised that
at any rate the honeymoon should begin
n irrE dr3
Holland Abbey to Avlemore, and they would
pick up the London express there. For the
little chauffeur had become favorite of
hers, and she did not want to disappoint
him.
And now the sight of this advertisement
made her almost grudge that she had car
ried out her promise, for 1t reminded her OF
things which today she wished to forget.
why has 1t not been removedy' she said,
with shudder. Il hoped we should never
see it again"
st must have been overlooked" said
Wortley. 'Til write about 1t tomorrow
Six months ago every important railway
station in the country had possessed one Of
these blue and white signs: for Harvey
Wiseman had been bold in advertisement
toward the end Saunders, Smith & SIM
clair were small but old-established firm
of Elgin spirit merchants, and their Cream
OF the Cavern had been their speciality in
modest local way, for a matter of twenty
years. Perhaps the appropriateness of the
name for his purpose had attracted Wise
man, since 1t chimed with his hobby of dra-
matte fitness; and perhaps he thought that
1t would be easier to push the sale of an
already established article than to create
a sale for new one. At any rate, at a
date about three months before this story
opens, he bought up the business, which
though old was not flourishing, and then
he began to spend money largely on adver-
tisements.
Cream of the Cavern" from being a
brand known and esteemed in the limited
district from the Ness to the Aberdeen
shire Dee, became a familiar name to the
world at large. Wiseman sank all the cap
1tal at his command in pushing the large
and quick sale which his scheme needed.
He paid cash for his advertisements at first
and then used the credit which he thereby
gained to advertise ten times more. His
profit would be at least eleven shillings a
gallon, the amount of duty which he did
not mean to pay; and when his stock was
sold. it would not matter about the out
standing bill for advertisement, for that
also naturally, he did not mean TO pay. It
was bold schemes; it's weak point was
that it required certain number of months
for fruition. And Wortley-and Fate-had
denied him those months.
Fate had decreed that the store OF
Cream of the Cavern should be con-
Yerted suddenly into water and carbonic
acid gas. A pistol shot was fate's instru-
ment; and the hand which held the pistol
was Harvey's own.
When Sims was returning from Elgin
with the police for whom his master had
sent him, he saw a curious light flash out
over the sea. The light came from the
burning whisky. The stuff had run in a
hot tide down the ancient path of the monk
to the shore, burning fiercely at the front
of its advance, until 1t reached the open.
But the galleries of the monks path were
narrow, and the first wave of combustion
used up most of the available air in them
The stream of whisky followed partly as
liquid, partly Il not spirituous vapor
blazing out wherever the side opening of
cavern gave 1t air; but for the most part
1t did not burn freely until il reached the
open air of the shore. At the caverns
mouth it shot out with a roar in an eighty
foot tongue of blue flames, edged with
streamers of brilliant yellow from the So
dunn of the sea salt: and by the very en-
ergy of its combustion it created a forced
draught which sucked the rest of the vola-
tile fluid through the long gallery till the
fountain was exhausted Then the great
beacon fare of striped blue and yellow fire
died down; the roar of the great draught
ceased; the hot gases inside the caverns
cooled and contracted, and the flame crept
backward again up the tunnel, bringing
the air with 1t again in a gentle reversed
draught. Pools of whisky, which the first
great rush had left behind unconsumed in
depressions of the rock, blazed out in local
fires as the returning air reached them;
and at last there was more left to burn.
1t was tremendous, and it was grand, as
destruction on a great scale always Is;
but 1T was soon over.
IL
the caves mouth lit up the waves of the
Moray firth for about ten or fifteen min
utes. no more. and then died away: and
in less than an hour the last of the
smaller fires went out also. AS the heated
gases in the long galleries cooled the soft
cold air from the sea crept in and took
their place. but not quickly. Twelve hours
passed before Sims was able to lead his
rescue party down into the caverns.
He tried the opening in the refectory
wall first, because that was the only en-
trance he knew; but there was no path
In by that way now. The reversed
draught was bringing hot sitting fumes
up through the narrow tunnel; for the
fire was out now. and the caverns were
purifying themselves through that open
ing as through chimney. Then he tried
the distillery Itself.
Men who had worked there all their
lives told him that there was no way
into the caves from there. but Sims be-
lieved differently. He explored every cor
ner, and at last came to Wiseman's book
lined snuggery. And there he found what
he wanted.
The snuggery was part of a small block
which Wiseman had himself added to the
distillery buildings Three sides Of II
were new, but the fourth was an ancient
wall Sims removed the dwarf book case
which contained the Elizabethan drama
In the diStfller's fay0r}fo edition ord ho