The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-04-16
TIE EVENING STOR Y
Hitting a Ho.lse Boat.

- a4Au hdQ panied the portrait OF
huth Bascomb and fallen in love with
ner- whether she returned his love
or not was the thing he was worrying
over Harry Stevens was a New York
sculptor, and he had desired to bring
out marble bust of Miss Bascomb
ana also had fallen in love with her.
As 70 whether she would consent to bel
sculped and marry him was a matter
Jnat gave him headaches. Both the
artist and the sculptor had sisters that
were friendly with Ruth Bascomb, and
this was the general situation for the
playwright to build on
me present situation was that Ruth
BaScomb'S mother. who was a fairly
wealthy widow, had become possessed
OF housed boat, and had determined
to float around Princess Bay and up
the Shrewsbury river for a month or
so. Her guests were to be the artist
and his sister and the sculptor and his
sister, and two or three other persons.
A day was appointed a. tug engaged
70 tow the house-boat down New York
Bay and leave her at her first anchor
age, and all was going merrily. when
the villain hidden in the thicket showed
his hand
It always has been suspected that he
was villain belonging to the same
club as the artist and sculptor. He
became aware of the house, boat party,
and out Of pure deviltry and from no
desire to see the sculptor get ahead of
the game. he worked his little trick
fixed up telegram calling Harold
Strong to Philadelphia to see about
painting the portrait of a millionaire.
The artists return was indefinite. He
knew that he was leaving a rival be-
hind him, and he knew that the Colon
lal Dame. as the craft was called,
would scarcely have come to anchor in
the bay and the moon risen above the
would be talking soft nonsense to Ruth
Bascomb, but the artistic spirit was
strong within him.
He arranged with his sister to inter-
rupt If the sculptor tried to take ad-
vantage of the occasion. Feeling him.
self as secure as any man ever can feel
where a woman is concerned, he de-
parted on his mission and the stately
Colonial Dame also departed on hers.
sometimes a millionaire can be found
sitting on his front steps and smoking
a fairly good cigar and waiting to be
interviewed Again he is as elusive as
the midnight mosquito. The one the
artist sought was elusive. 1t took a
whole day to run him down, and when
he was finally brought to bay, his re-
ply was:
Young man. don't try any of your
confidence games on me If you want
to keep out of jail. I didn't telegraph
you. I want no painting of any sort.
l don't like the look of you. If you are
honest then someone has made a fool
OF you; if you are a confidence man.
x
Harold Strong had been buncoed. It
was only natural that he should be-
iieve the game had been played by his
rival He didn't wait to devour even
sandwich before catching a train for
New York For three hours he sat IL
a chair car and murdered the sculptor.
He killed him in seven different ways,
and was planning the eighth when he
arrived at a good sized town in Penn
SylVan1a and was asked by the porter
If he wished to stop there. He had got
into a car that had been switched off
at junction onto another road while
he was doing the numbering act.
1t was noon when the artist reached
New York It was two o'clock before
he began his hunt for some craft to
take him down to Princess Bay and lay
him alongside the house boat. The
sculptor had had one moonlight night
in which to weave his net of romance
around the victim, but he should not
have another. The artist tried to char
ter all sorts of crafts, from an Albany
day boat to a sand barge, but the after
noon wore away and night was coming
on before he landed at the foot Of
Thirty-ninth street. Brooklyn, and in
terviewed Captain links of the Merry
Sal.
"Can you charter me to find house
boat in Princess Bay tonight2" re-
peated Captain jerks as he bent his
head to scratch the back of his neck.
Yes, sir reckon you can if you've
You've got d sch ooner right here which
is not much to look at compared with
some schooners, but if there is any
thing on land or water that she can
pick up I'd like to see it. That's her
great holt. young man. picking up
things. There's going to be q fog to-
night as sure as you live but If I don't
hit that house-boat plumb center be-
fore midnight then III never sing gos-
pill hymns off Cape Hatteras agin."
Harold Strong closed with the offer.
The crew of the Merry Sal consisted of
the captain and a Iunkhead of a young
man and boy of ten who had run
away from home and was trying a life
upon the artist as a husband pursuing
an clipping wife; the lunkhead looked
upon him as an idiot for giving up
twenty dollars when the captain would
have taken ten, and the runaway boy
figured it out that he was some sort
of CRATER escaping from the police
The opinion of the crew did not at
feet Mr.. Strong, however. He helped
to cast off the schooner and cant her
head the right way and hoist the main
sail and presently she was careering
down the bay and avoiding as many
Statues of Liberty, men-of-war and
Staten Island docks as she convenient
~ could. What she couldn't avoid she
crawled over until she struck deep
water on the other side. She struck
the fog at Fort Hamilton, and then the
anxious artist asked:
Captain. isn't this going to make It
difficult for US to find the house boat? p
mot at ALL my son-not at ALL was
the confident reply. Il told you we
should have a fog, but that it would
make no difference. The Merry Sal IS
a-sailin' of herself. She a-follerin' Of
her own nose. I've told her that
want her to hit a house-boat called the
Colony Damned, and she'll do It or
never look me in the face again
1.-The Colonial Dame is the name OF
the boat corrected the artist.
'3Wel, I got near enough to it for the
schooner to understand what is wanted.
You Just enjoy yourself and don't wor-
ry Lord, but I wish you really
knowed what a nose this craft has got
for smellin' out other boats and things
90 ,,lc-l,4 I 1.zas cnrlntnt around SANDY