The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-08-15
CHAPTER XVII.
AT POINT SEBASTIAN.

Now that the great rambling wooden
hotel In which Miss Elsie Kildare was
staying under care OF her friends. the
graph wire and within easy days steam
OF railroad, was not particularly far
In crows' flight from that uncharted
river where the Port Edes lay stranded
on a sand bar. The hotel in fact,
backed upon the Everglades and faced
the blue crisping waters of the Mex
ican gulf. At one side OF 1t was plan
tation OF sisal hemp, and beyond that
thickets Of sawgrass. and beyond again
cypress trees and cabbage palms
sprouting from an underground which
was bound into an impenetrable cheval
de frise with wait-a-bit thorn. At the
other side were newly planted umbrella
trees, two decrepit orange bushes with
out fruit, twenty luxuriant clumps OF
elephants ears, and then straggles Of
palmetto scrub, right down to the soft
white banks Of gulf sand. Beyond was
clear blue water with a rickety wood
en- wharf straddling q mile out into
II ike some uncouth gray legged cent?
pede. And beneath the water dented,
rusty food cans grew intimate with the
coral polyp. .N
In winter time Point Sebastian was
a resting place for nabobs OF the north,
|
| lightful American women who leave a
| convenient husband at work elsewhere
on the dollar mill. But in the warmer
months these worthy people did their
/ pleasure living at the seabeaches of the
| north or the hotels OF the Alleghanies,
| and the resthouse at Point Sebastian
4 locked and covered most of its glories.
| The Floridian who stays in Florida all
summer does so usually because of q
| tightness in the exchequer, and for the
/ few OF him who came to dissipate q
small but hardly scraped up hoard in a
spell of standardization q tenth of the
available rooms made ample lodging
place. ..
! Still there was a summer season OF
sorts at Point Sebastian, which was
merry enough in its way. Most nights
| on the parquet of the hall a CHEEKY
score danced under the glare of cleo
trio lights to the lilt of Heuton fiddles
\ and In the cool gloom of the piazzas
4 outside, II straitened means did pre-.
vent the actual drafting OF marriage
contracts, even penury undisguiseC
u could enjoy the dallyings of-the weeks
Irritation. Mr.. Kent Williams and hii
tribe were entertaining fellows enough
to meet for q limited time, and maid
ems, come into the hotel for an annua
J outing, basked in the odor Of theii
pretty sayings ana frankly prepared
themselves for nothing beyond tenn
porary amusement. .sH#
Patrick Cambel met at least Ave me,
there he knew, which shows the grea
J advantage of being a university man
. because since at oxford and Cambridg,
they most successfully refrain from
teaching anything that is of CONNER
cial use 10 anyone except a parson. o
doctor. or a schoolmaster, II naturall.
follows that many men from thos
, | ka af laor a n Ia
. at home and drift across the seas.
He did not make the smallest secre
} about his advent. AS the newspaper
. had told them already, he had been ol
the unlucky Port Edes when she cam
[ to grief, but had managed to get ashor
l by a marvellous streak of luck an
! found himself at spot where less tha
D a year ago ne had been wanderin
about on a shooting expedition. Theme
4 he had made his way In a dugou
bought from a Seminole. to the hott
r on Point Sebastian. VOLTA tout. Their
Q was nothing surprising about 1t. II
q ihad mad several opportunities fc
drowning before that, but none Of thei
/? had ever come of, So he supposed ths
z the Parcae marked him out to liv'
: And-what would they havef III
3 shout.
8 At that period Mr.. Patrick camb,
r was feeling extremely pleased wit
himself. He hated the work at whic
/, he had been engaged, as any man mui
8 hate being mixed with swindle. be
Q great or small. And the end SCENE
" near; the end. conjoined to full SUI
h cess.
: He had had struggle for II. b
k cause once more Captain Kettle ha
8 felt INCLINED TO fiCht for his own har
Q rather than do all things for mere go