The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-13

stual UlS .eVeu USSA Ci1E-
fled up and down the West African
beaboard. He neglected both quarter
master and third matc--and tnese two
experts, being only too glad of the
brsatning spasse kept 1a aroHes pose ns
their commander gave an undivided at.
tention to the very highly qualified
passenger who had dared to sully the
bridge.
Now, under ordinary conditions, Car
Ter would have recognized the circum-
stances, and have remembered his ser
emile and u shrug. But things had
gone woefully awry with him during
The last score OF hours. The strain OF
The fight, the discovery that the man
X. ONeill of the letters was Miss Kate
In the flesh, the uncertain future OF
Two Coast factories, the way in which
Everybody received his engagement to
Laura Slade; all these things led up
steady nerves jangling in way to
which he was unaccustomed, and no
Lelt himself forced by ratner insane
Impulse to do something starting. he
had successive inclinations to throw up
his berth altogether and go home; to
marry Laura Slade out of hand by the
kind assistance of Captain Image and
the M'poso log book, which occurred
to him as the local equivalent OF Gret-
ma Green; to violently abuse Miss Kate
D'Neil .or being herself. FINALLY. when
the premonitory symptoms OF well well,
earned dose of fever gripped him with
n stab and a shudder, he had the usual
malarial depression, which put the
usual question as to whether life were
really worth living.
Over and above all these things, since
the first moment of seeing Kate, 1t had
been borne in upon him that he had
made a mistake over his engagement
ting free: he was doggedly determined
to see it through, or in other words
to marry Laura, whatever the cost and
result might be. But from that date
convenient questions. Ho demanded OF
his inner conscience definition OF that
fmpalpable thing. love: BE wished 70
be informed (from the same source
exactly in love with Miss Slade at that
particular moment, and when the phe-
nomenon commenced. and how long IL
was likely, to endure And wnen LAURA;
this than he expected, offered to re-
lease him from his promise, he abused
her for the suggestion, and protested
that he feared very much after the
interview that he had hopelessly over
done 1t.
Image s expiained in a two minute
speech that Mr.. Flame-tipped Garter
was violating the etiquette OF nations
In daring to pollute that upper bridge
rect invitation, he rather welcomed the
opportunity and retorted in kind.
Now, Captain Image, as has been
limited. had made the most Of the years
he had spent sea- going In the matter
of picking up a vocabulary; he has
to this day brothers in Wales who are
local preachers and revivalist leaders, and
there is no doubt that he was the inheritor
OF some ancestral strain OF burning elo-
auencc. Carter. on the other, hand,
fhOuph NOT rs n rule q of much
speech had not lived with Swizzle-
Stick Smith all those long months
without taking lessons sons, in the art OF OF
conscious of 1t at the time the edu-
cation soaked In, and when the mo-
ment OF stress arrived his memory
Miss Kate O'Neil heard the discus
sion and retired to her room below.
Stewards popped their heads round
oorways and Listened s app5e GA
of the houses and strained their ears.
and the second engineer who was
bred on Tyncside and openly claimed
to be connoisseur came out brazenly
onto the top of the fiddley three yards
from the speakers and did nothing to
an unorcnding ventilator cowl with
inch spanner
From the present writer's point OF
view the remarks on both sides had
the fatal drawback that their point
lay far more in artistic delivery than
In their subject matter, ana SO 10 report
them here verbatim would give a total
ly unjust idea of their weight and in
huence. But 1t must be understood
that Captain Image, who never till
now had met a foenan so worthy OF
his tongue, surpassed himself; and Car
ter, who now for the 1rst time used
these winged words in hard vicious
felt all a sportsman's pride In
seeing his verbal missiles land and
rankle.
It is hard to award the victory: and.
In plain truth. each orator was SO
warmed with the effort of his own
tongue that in another second the
British blood would have reached fisti-
cuff corporation, and they would have
cllnched But luckily an Interruption
arrived to break the tension. The third
mate that terribly abused young man
who was gaining a breathing space
whilst Carter stood up against Cap
tain Images tongue. at first conned the
A1poso up the winding channel with
Sigh Of relief, and was ably seconded
by the quartermaster at the wheel.
degrees their sporting instincts drew
them from the matter Immediately in
hand, and made them Interested spec
tators of tho duel In fact their In
terest absorbed them. and, WE'LL the
steamer got the smallest bit out OF
hand.