The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-09-05
CHAPTER Xxx.
DECISIONS.

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When Cambel arrived back at tn,
Port Edes, he found Captain Kettl,
sitting in the chart room with a pei
gripped between his teeth and a rhym.
ing dictionary in his hands surrender
ing its reluctant treasures. On The
mahogany desk in front of him was {
sheet of much corrected manuscript
with 4 capital letter at the
ment of every line. And beyond. in :
jam pot, was a bunch of waxen leaveG
magnolia flowers, with two coral pinh
magnolia cones. set around with a fril
OF sheeny leaves.
Captain owen Kettle was COMPOSING
a sonnet on The magnolia, n dogged
work was trying to finish what a one
line inspiration had begun. The two
saunt mosquitoes who had slipped into
the room when the wire gauze door
was shut grew visibly fatter without
danger to life or wing. In his fine
creative frenzy Captain Kettle never
felt their touch.
Hello. Kettle, got back at last, you
see. and a devil of a time I've had of
It."
Than popish saint more holier."
wrote the little man, reading HI words
as they sprawled across the paper.
And now | want to get in something
about the smell. Angel breathed' is
the thing, only it don't seem to lay up
handily with the rest. Angels are GER
tain to have good breath, and these
flowers smell as fine as anything I've
tried. Just take q sniff at them YOUR
self. Well, Mr.. Cambel, here you are
again. and | haven't said I'm glad to
see you. But l am. It's as good as
meat to put eyes on you and hear
what's to be doing next. / tell you it's
been pretty dull work with the donkey
man off all day bird shooting, and me
as ships husband sitting mere on my
nNFn fnfl fn y,1v --,,s 49, IL 49,
tonlshed at walking on board same as
you would into a house without hav-
ing to hail a boat?"
"A little, not much. I was prepared
for anything after what 1 saw be-
tween DIN Sebastian and here"
i fancy they'll have to bring out
new geography books about this part
of Florida. l never saw such a place.
Why sir, the blessed ground fairly got
up n walked during that blow. |
don't think the steamer shifted much.
Canted a bit to leeward maybe, but
didn't bulge u of her keel groove, but
1t was the shores that fetched weigh.
When once they broke mornings, the
trees set back their shoulders and
sheeted home, and great islands bore
down on us like ships. The lightning
burned flares all the time, and I
watched it through the chart room
ports because none could stand on deck
- nv a IAiSiltStlGul lldll, AlT.
Cambol, or a superstitious, but l
thought that night was too hard for a
l tell you, sir, and you may
laugh if You like, l reckoned it up that
judgment day had come, and / got the
prayer book and read myself the burial
service clean through, sea bits and all,
so as to fetch whatever happened, land
or water. | haven't led a bad life, Mr..
Cambel. Pretty religious ashore, and
never sparing myself trouble in haz-
ing a crew so as to carry out owners
at sea, and when I'd said that
burial service / felt I'd done all that
could be expected.
I'd heard a chap prophesy about
the end of the world in Waterloo street.
Llverpool, not a ear ago., and / bought
a pamphlet of him, and it showed the
thing out according to Revelation and
Daniel all as clear as a big book could |
done. 1t was to finish in 1908. and
there was Il picture of the earthuuake
and another picture of people going
to the sky in their ordinary clothes.
And when l looked out through The
glass at that tearing. raging devils
work that was going on outside, and
the river and the lakes disappearing |
their place, l felt sure that the chap
was right in the main, only he'd got a
bit foul in his dates.
There was only one thing" the lit
tie man added plaintively-'I wished
a new washed Jacket aboard. The
one ID on was that srneared and
crumpled l should have felt ashamed
appear in It,"
Well, I'm glad you weren't hurt"
said Cambel. TT was a terrible night
for any one in this area"
y came through it, Mr.. Cambel,
so much as a finger nail brok-
en-. So did the donkeyman. He came
here and asked if I wanted him
when the blow began, and when 1 told
Kim No he went to his own room
and turned In and slept till it was
Now, the niggers didn't. When
the steamer began to list, they got
scared. Thought she'd turn bilge up
permost, /! suppose, and bolted down to
their hshhox of a schooner which lay
OF course when the shores
slipped their mornings and bore down
her h schooner had to give, and
the niggers are buried somewhere yon-
der to starboard, but where / don't
know. I've looked, but there isn't SO
much as a spar, there isn't so much as
q whiff of circus to put a label on the
spot. w had mighty little to do lat
terly, and ] might have stuck up
sort of a s~ignboard to 'em, Mig
gers though they We're, If l could have
the place to an acre, but when a
grave head gets bigger than that YOU
pe Wrltlng mere l1eth' in more
senses tEan me-. So I left them Quiet.
O course with the steamer high and
dry up country, and the river two
miles away through thick woods. it
wasn't much good, our messing with
paint pots and changing name plates.
builtsa new forehatch and shipped
and creased up the engines, andsas
that seemed, to me all that was necsA-
sary, I've given my shipmate holiday
ever since. There's the making Of a
in our donkeyman. Mr.
Cambel. There isn't a thing that crawls
flies or swims in this section Of
Florida that blessed Irishnsn hasn't
off my old gas pipe at or tried
to catch with a worn on a cod hook.
He wasn't keen at first: said he'd been
brought up In a works. but when I
told him everything he took was
poached. by James, sir, you might
think he was the Prince of Wales.
the way he sticks at it."
Blood will out" said Cambel. with
. laugh. and he n~rarveIed at the extra
ordinary toughness of the ~donkeyman.
Az all times there is much sulphur IN
the water of these F1oridian swan~s
since the cyclone the sulphurous
emanation had been stirred and set
free, and the presence OF them was al
most unendurable. The waters were
black to look upOn. yellow "a 1ooE