New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-05-26

Il Trend observed
me as beng very curious. for dellrIOus men
have had considerable experience with them
always speak OF these things IN their wanderings
" In caring for hlm-we had no doctor on board
50 that duty devolved upon mel noticed anothe.
strange popularity Although his BODY proclaimed
hlrn to be i young man, his hair a white *
snow. At first | attributed this TO the horrors he
had Just endured (tror his delirium had learned
that he the sole survivor OF a trading schooner
that had sunk after striking a hidden coral reef
and that he had been for three DAYS adrift on the
open sea without moTsel of food drop of
but atterward, when he told me his story. !
learned otherwise The white hair and the
absence of womans name upon his lips came
from the same cause He paused momentarily.
and let his glance wander round the circle white
eager faces that were bent upon him, until, at last
his eyes fell upon Wyngates unknown heroine
There they remained as he leaned forward and SAID
in a slow, impressive voice Except for the three
or four years preceding, his life blank to him
OF the years that had gone before them he remem
bered nothing-absolutely nothing. He could not
tell me his name.
\ sudden thrill of interest ran about the table
as Edmunds raised his wine glass 10 his lips and
slowly drained it but Wyngate saw that the woman
opposite him took no part in It nor needed II. In
stead. She kept her eyes steadily upon the explorer
face he carefully lowered his glass and began &c
twist it thoughtfully between his fingers. And II
seemed 70 the novelist that there something
more than interest in her direct gaze. Indeed
he almost persuaded himself that he saw the dawn
of a great fear IN her eyes But of this Edmunds
appeared be entirely unconscious; for he did not
look toward her again as he proceeded
he had awakened into conscIousness-or, rather
the consciousness he then had-to find himself {
common sailor upon ship bound from New York
TO Sydney. How he had come there he had nc
idea, could anyone the ship tell him. except
that he had shipped in the regulation manner
But that previously he had not been a sailor he
felt certain. Not detail of the life familiar
to him, of his duties easy for HIM to learn
He knew he sure, that up TO that time he hac
had another existence in another sphere OF life.
AT first the daZed by this thought
Somewhere there might be a home and loved ones
waiting for him while he drifted in ignorance OF
them across the wide shut out from them anc
their love forever by the strange barriers that
hedged him n-the barriers which, try as he would
he could not pierce The horror of that time
whtened his hair while his youth was still upon HIM
But at last hope daWned once more IN his heart
He had shipped from New York and so he reasoned
that New York must be his home. Therefore, he
decided that the end of his voyage he would Shr
on a vessel bound thither. 1t seemed certain tC
him that once there he would recognize some spot
meet some familiar face. or perhaps be seen by
some one who had known HIM and could tell hnn
who he He carried out this plan, and within
a wear was back in New York; but alas! although
he wandered up and down the city streets tO-
months he could find nothing which he ever re1nem
bered to have seen before and in all the vast throns
that hurried past him he saw not one tamlar face
AT last the money that he had saved was ex
hausted and he compelled 10 find work TO live
Utterly discouraged by his failure. he turned his
back upon the city and sought employment at sea
lit was YOU see. the only vocation with which he
was familiar So months he drifted from port to
port until he came the South Sea and shipped on
the wrecked trading schooner. That was his story
AS | listened to 1t , | could not but agree WITH
him in thinking that he was accustomed to lie
other than that OF common sailor his accents,
his words were those of a cultivated man, and he
had knowledge of the little nIcetleS that come only
with education and refined surroundings Naturally,
| sympathized deeply with HIM IN his sorrows, ana
then as time passed and grew acquainted with MS
gentle manners and his simple ways that sympathy
broadened into genuine affection. Indeed, so at
tached to him did become that made place for
Al, NV ret ar