The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1905-03-02

and Wilbur himself vas willing to
avoid, at least for one day, the pub
llcity which he believed the Bertha's
temperance was sure to attract. He
remembered, too, that the little boat
carried with her a fortune of $780,
900 and decided that until it could
be safely landed and stored it was
not desirable that its existence should
be known along "the front"
For days. weeks even, Wilbur had
looked eagerly forward to this, return
to his home He had seen himself
again in his former haunts, in his club
and in the houses along Pacific avenue
where he was received, but no sooner
had the anchor chain ceased rafting
In the Bertha's hawse pipe than a
strange revulsion came upon him. The
new man that seemed to have so sud-
denly sprung to life within him, the
Wilbur who was the mate of the Ber-
tina Millner, the Wilbur who belonged
to Moran, believed that he could see
nothing to be desired in city life. For
him was the unsteady deck of q schoon-
er, and the great winds and the ire
the horizon that ever fed before his
following PROV; SO he told himself, so
he believed. What attractions could
the city offer him, what amusements
what excitements? He had been flung
off the smoothly spinning circumfer-
,ence of well ordered life out into the
void.
He had known romance and the spell
OF the great, simple and primitive emo
tons; he had sat down to eat with buc-
cancers; he had seen the fierce. quick
leap Of unleashed passions and had
felt death swoop close at his nape and
pass like swift squirt of cold air.
City life, his old life, had no charm for
him now. Wilbur honestly believed
that he was changed to his hearts
core. He thought that, like Moran, he
was hencefOrth to be 4 sailor of the
sea, Il rover, and he saw the rest of
his existence passed with her aboard
their faithful little schooner. They
would have the whole round world as
their playground; they held the earth
and the great seas in fef; there was
no one to let or to hinder. They two
belonged to each other. Once outside
the Heads again and they swept the
land of cities and of little things be-
hind them. and they two We're left
alone once more, alone in the great
world Of romance
About an hour after her arrival off
the station, While Hoang and the hands
were furling the jib and foresail and
getting the dory over the side Moran
remarked to Wilbur:
tits good we came in when we did.
mate. The glass is going down fast,
and the winds breezing up from the
west. We're going to have blow.
The tide will be going out in a little
while, and we never could have come
in against wind and tide"
Moran" said Wilbur, "Im going
ashore-into the station here There's
a telephone line there See the wires?
l can't so much as turn my hand over
before have some shore going clothes.
What do you suppose they would do
to me if I appeared on Kearney street
in this outfit? I'll ring up the whole
sale chemists in town and have an
agent come out here and talk business
to us about our ambergris. We've got
to pay the men their prize money.
Then as soon as we get our own mon
ey in hand we can talk about over
hauling and Quitting the Bertha"
Moran refused to accompany him
ashore and into the lifeboat station.
Rooted houses were an object of sus-
picion to her. Already she had begun
to be uneasy at the distant sight of
the city of San Francisco, Mob, Tele-
graph, Russian and Rincon hills, all
swarming with buildings and grooveG
with streets. Even the landlocked
harbor fretted her. Wilbur could see
; she felt imprisoned, confined When
he had pointed out the Palace hotel to
her-a vast gray cube in the distance.
overlapping the surrounding roofs-she
had sworn under her breath.
And people can live there! Good
heavens! Why not rabbit burrows and
be done with it? Mate, how soon can
we be out to sea again? 1 hate this
place."
Wilbur found the captain of the life
boat station in the act of sitting down
to dinner of boiled beef and cabbage.
He was a strongly built, we'll looking
man. with the air more of soldier
than a sailor. He had already been
studying the schooner through his front
window and had recognized her and
at once asked Wilbur news of Captain
Kitchell. Wilbur told him as much of
his story as was necessary, but from
the captains talk he gathered that
the news Of his return had long since
been wired from Coronado and that it
would be impossible to avoid nine
days notoriety. The captain of the
station (his name was Hodgson) made
Wilbur royalty welcome, insisted upon
his dining with him and himself called
up the chemists as soon as the meal
was over.
It was he who offered the only plaus-
sol 90 J, H.