The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-06-27
"what-you-you're a poet?" raped

out CaIlDel.
II knock off a bit of verse OCCASION
ally" said the skipper complacently,
when I'm In the mood, that is. 1t
generally comes like this, when w
been tail twisting the hands and have
a spell Of a rest and a think after
ward"
Il see. The outcome of vivid con-
t%rast," said Cambel. He imagined to
himself that these boosted poems would
be of the "heroric' order to the verge
pf melodrama. AS 1t happened. he
could not conveniently have made a
worse guess. Kettle tugged from his
pocket a doubled up exercise book red
dened slightly under the tan and hand
ed 1t across. His companion flattened
put the crease, n from the light that
came from a chartroom port dipped
into the manuscript verses for himself.
all sonnets and ballads which might
well have been written by a sentimental
Fchool girl. They breathed Of love and
devotion n premature fading away,
and at least three gushing adjectives
qualified each tender noun.
There was no word about the sea on
which their author had spent his life
or Of the things of the sea with which
ne had had all his dealings. He knew
about these as few men did, out they
seemed common to him and unclean.
Consequently he had delivered himself
y - .hA Va ~ Lll0I on LIZ III lie ld
never witnessed ashore and love songs
to ladies he had never met outside the
covers Of cheap fiction. 1t was all
imagination. and /untutored. uninspired
imagination at that.
AS a result. Cambel found the poems
too killingly funny for words and was
consumed with a wild desire for laugh
ter, but that red bearded little savage,
thetr maker, glazing anxtously at him
rom the opposite shadow, he does not
let SO much as the tail of a smile dance
up from the corner of his mouth. He
lad to enjoy and endure In silence, and
with the exercise book thrust out to
the yellow light. then he read on
through h %stanzas diligently.
In one, evidently photographed,
the writer spoke Of himself as a ''timid,
Trail gazelle." in another he addressed
his remarks from the mouthpiece of a
ccoy and cooling turtledove'' to "sylph-
ike maiden OF naughty mien" who at
the time Of narration was the "'bewitch-
ing. enhancing, unparalleled queen" of
smother gentleman's hearth. An ode
10 Excellence" which commenced
Hairy Alfred. brother bard" was evil
1ently directed at a contemporary, but
the past was cared for in Cleopatra. a
lament" which a footnote stated could
be sung to the tune of "Greenland's
icy Mountains" Probably as a coIlec-
lion Captain Kettles was unique in its
clumsy, WauQlln sentiment n It's gen
eral unexpectedness.
Meanwhile the auditor was idgeting
oervously. He had not got over that
initial which publication
gives. He hungered for a criticism
favorable if possible. At last he made
bold to ask for 1t.
You're a wonderful man, Kettle" re-
turned his companion. quite meaning
what he said. land unless I had seer
those verses for myself I'd never have
believed you capable OF producing
them. no matter what had been told
me abou our powers
: The poet gave a sign of relief. and
was going to pursue the subject further
when something fell upon his ear which
turned his thoughts into a very differ
ent key.
by James. there's the engine
stopped. What's up now, I wonder?"
He Jumped to his feet and stood with
If heavy boots made itself heard on the
engine room ladders. Then there was
\ murmur of voices and a pattering of
footsteps from the f~orecastle. and pres
emily a steady stream of men began to
ascend the bridge deck ladders. Among
the growing babel of voices came ref
srences to h gold, Half a million yell
low sovereigns. boys!" and threats
there was no mistaking, Teach the old
man manner or put him over the side"
By an evident previous arrangement
The men were massing themselves on
the port side of the bridge deck.
"Mutiny. by James, that's wha this
means!" commented Captain Kettle in
an undertone. He was cool as ice and
o the moment had decided how to act.
Nov, Mr.. Cambel. slip into the chart
room for your pistol. ! have mine in
~ pocket. It's us two against the lot
Of 'em, and we'll finish out top side.
oh. don't you make any error. It'll be
\ red nights work for those dogs. But
We'll rub the fear of death into them
before we've done this time-into those
that are left. that is. Get your pistol,
quick. sir. and skin your eye for handy
shooting"