The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-08
By G. F. Brady.

have to take the form of an increas
of wind from the same quarter. How
ever, I said nothing. One learns iron
schoolmastering not to nag at peopl
when they are irritable. and Ned
face at that moment reminded me yer.
much of boy who is nursing SOM
| grievance, real or imaginary
| While Ned was cooking the potatoes
| I united the dinghy and went for {
spin up the river. After a long day!
sailing it is pleasant to exercise your
limbs. and there is nothing like pai1
of oars for taking the creases out Of
you. On anyway back I took a gooC
| look at the boat that was to be my
neighbor for the evening. She was one
| of those cruising craft that you may
| see by the score on the Breads in the
summer months, with the mast set fal
forward, a lug sail and a low cabin
the kind of boat that two or three men
Will get cheap, and sail themselves
for they are easy to handle, and stiff
in a wind. She was in a dilapidated
condition, and her name, the Dandy,
was ludicrously out of keeping with
her general appearance, for the paint
was off her sides in places, her sail
cover was rotting on the boom, and
somehow there was a look of forlorn-
ness and neglect about her that was
almost pathetic, and gave quite a
melancholy tinge to my reflections.
ITO whom does that boat belong %
I asked Ned, when he appeared at the
entrance of the cabin with dish of
steaming potatoes.
Ned prides himself on knowing every
her sails a mile off. he will tell you
the name and owner of any yacht you
point out to him.
81 can't rightly say who she belong
to now replied Ned. "She were built
at Brundall. Two gentlemen from
London bought her last year and was
sailing her about these waters. But"
he added, grimly, they was both
drownded out of her, by what I've
heard
And does that make her an I'M
lucky boat?' / asked. I had heard of
some such superstition, and Ned's SER
ious face impressed me.
shes more'n that" he replied, dark
ly: but I forbore to press him for an
explanation.
After hearty meal I felt in a eupep-
seeing Ned still messing about with
the ropes in a gloomy and desultory
sort of way. I called to him.
Look here" I said. "Somershall is
only two miles off. and I shan't want
the dinghy again tonight. You're
young and active man. Why don't you
jump in and pull down to the bridge
and see your friends? You can spend
no iohf RI
long as you're back the first thing in
the morning. I've got all 1 want
Ned's face frightened at once, and /,
his whole manner changed
Thank you, sir he said, with alac- !
rity. II didn't like to ask you; but I've
got a married sister what lives at
/ wrote to tell her reck- !!
oned to be here o. Tuesday. and I make
no doubt but what she's expecting of
me. If so be as you could really spare
me, I'll drop down in the boat as soon
as I've right-sided things here, and I'll
be back again afore daylight to-mor-
row morning.
Ned washed up the dinner things
with greater dispatch than I had be-
ieved him capable of, arranged sun
Try ropes and gearin the orthodox man
ler and before the darkness had COM
oletely shut down he had vanished
,ound the bend on his way to Somer-
shall, and l could hear the click of his
'owlocks dying away in the distance.
As I turned to go back into the cabin
cast an almost involuntary glance at
he boat out of which the two men had
been 'drownded" a year ago. She
oomed gray and ghostlike through the
wilight, and at the sight of her some
hing like cold shiver passed through
ne. The thought of death is never ex-
lilarating, and when it obtrudes itself
n the middle of ones pleasure it has
peculiarly SOLDERING and depressing
fleet l tried to picture the two poor
elbows who had been called away so
uddenly and unexpectedly to face the
;rimmest of all grim realities. But
ummer evening is not suitable time
or INDUCING morbid fancies 1 shook
myself free of the idea, lit the cabin
amp and was soon deep in a book.
At II I stepped out once more on to
he deck to have a look at the night,
nd to take a plunge before turning in.
The river was flowing so silent and so
lack that you couldn't tell. on the
urther shore. where the water ended
nd the bank began. 1 stripped off my
lothes. dropped over the side. and ,
fter three or four strokes I was out
100000 $c>c%o%c