Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-03-31
In Shallow
 Waters.
By KIRK MCGEE.
1907. by Mary McKeon.

CT one more trip tG the Banks Dave Hiss, who had for three years bpca latc Of thc s'W#.,'Gih under thc cap aincy of Josh Baker, would take oE: tie Mary and Jane and become cap ain himself. there wa5 not q begrutlg Ing word or q selfish thought
 Dave was a young man and q poIU lar one. He was q good sailor and a lucky fisherman It was known that lie was in love and was already engaged to Captain Bakers daughter Mary, and the talk was that they were to be mar ried the day Ee assumed his new com mand If il had been for Captain .ak- CT to choose son-in-law from the fifty single mon in the fishing feet hc would have held out his hand to Dave in preference. They had fought the peris of the sea together for three years, and they had come to know each other as landsmen can never know one another.
 Out on the Banks that day it was squally weather. The air was cold and raw, and the sea heaved up and gur- gled and growled as if demanding vic tims. Every craft needed watching, and none was more closely watched than the Swordfish There came mo- ment, however, when the captain was below for drink of something hot, and the mate had his eyes on a tramp steamer shearing her way through the fleet, and that very moment it was when a squall struck down with the swiftness of cannon ball, and tho Swordfish was thrown on her beam ends.
 It was inevitable that confusion should follow. With her masts flat on the water and her sails bellying out. the boat could not right to an even Keel, and it was the mate himself who seized an ax from its becket and cut away the shrouds, letting the strain take them overheard. It was the only thing to do to save the schooner, and he periled his life in the doing of it. That went for naught, however. No man Is so jealous of his reputation as . fisherman. He knows. and his owners know, that there must be accidents at sea, no matter what the vigilance, but for all that an accident is a smirch and an injury to his reputation.
 So 1t was that the news ran through the fleet of sixty sail almost as if by telegraph, that the Swordfish had been dismasted in q squall which had spared all others. There must have been care yeSsness, of course. Captain Baker blamed Dave Bliss, and Dave Bliss re sented the criticism, so the first of the fleet to reach home had a story to tell that quickly spread all over the town. The fisher craft that goes down at sea Is talked of for week. The fisher craft that loses a mast or q set of sails is not forgotten for six months
 When the SwOrdfiSh came limping home a week or so behind all others, there was q gulf between master and mate. The crew were divided in senti- ment It was the same with the towns people When it was known that the craft had arrived. Mary Baker sat at the window and waited for her father and lover. They had always come to the house in company upon their re- turn. The hours went by, and at last the father arrived alone. His face was stern set and hope went out of her heart as she saw it. She had heard the gossip of the early arrivals, but hoped that it was exaggerated. She knew that the fleet and the town had taken sides, but she believed in her lover
 Hell never enter my door again.. said the father as he stood and looked at the girl.
 But it couldn't have been his fault. and we are to be-to be married,' she protested.
 ''IIe should have seen the squall. He shouldn't have lost his head afterward and cut away the masts He comes here no more. He shall never be sol! in-law of mine. l want to h2ar nothing more about it.
 That evening Mary received a note from Dave by the hands of q boy. He said not word against her father He simply asserted that he had done the best he could and that before see ing her again he would wait for public opinion to change. He had not lost the confidence of the OwEe.s of the Mary and Jane She would Ee ready for sea in ten days. He hoped that his Mary would believe in him and that things would come right in the end.
 The reply he received stre~ gJhened and encouraged him. and ~, went about his affairs as if the gos. ' of the town were naught to him. T..e Mary and Jane sailed with the c.. Aye more than that. she he; :e f had been predicted that she ''''' a"ove a fier but when her c;,'. -. been stretched and her rigging Shtened ul she smoked along like steam. It was her misfortune to pass the Swo"dfisi close aboard. During the two week. on shore Captain Baker and his olt