Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-21
CHAPTER XII-Continued.

CHAPTER XII-Continued.
She peeped at Boyle sideways. His eyes
were closed. the cigar was between his
face. She could not guess that the once
saying to himself:
MY godfather. how Pills glared! There
will be trouble on this ship about
woman before long or I'm a Dutchman
An didn't the skipper rise at the fly too!
HUH"
He uttered the concluding monosyllable
aloud.
Did you speak?" inquired Elsie. Sc
verely.
"Eh? No, Miss Maxwell"
"Oh. thought you wanted to say
something
Not a word. Too much talking makes
my back stiff
your physical peculiarities are amaz-
ing. Mr.. Boyle"
Huh, It's odd how things take some
people. I once knew chap. skipper OF
the Flower of the Ocean. who couid
drink hogshead OF beer an be as sober
as a judge except in one leg. an that
was a wooden one"
She laughed. It was impossible to be
vexed with him.
You have met some 80 remarkaetA
shipmasters, If all you s.. 81, true she
cried.
Sailors are queer folk. believe me-
That same brig. Flower of the Ocean. an
a pretty flower she was. too-an tar an
coal dust. with a perfume that would
poison a rat-put into Grimsby one day.
an the crowd went ashore. They kicked
up a shindy with some bar loungers. an
kH,> Geo. A1~ vN1t nvvna nj
Peg-leg. the skipper, you know. was the
only man left in the place: havin un-
shipped his crutch for the fight. What
have you bin a-doin' of here-throWin
grapes about?' asked the peeler. gain at
the floor. suspicious IKE era Grapes; said
Them's eyeballsv Another time
"Huh!' he grunted. Ion before the
wind when she hears Sunday school
yarn like that. Wonder what she'd say
if told her about the plum duff with
up nowadays like orchids. They shouldn't
be let loose in this wicked world
AS Elsie passed along the promenade
deck she saw Courtenay, Tollemache and
Walker deep in consultation. They were
percussion fuse of Illuminating
mercury. While she was watching them
Walker dropped broken furnace bar on
top of a small package placed on an iron
block. Instantly there was sharp re-
port. and Joey. who was an interested OBJ
laughed. and she heard ~Courtenay say:
THAT Is the right proportion of full
inmate. Now. Tollemache, I'll help you
to fix them. We do not know the mo-
ment those reptiles may choose to at
tack"
So the captain did not leave the Ala
culof menace altogether out of count.
Something rose in her throat, some wave
of emotion which threatened her splendid
serenity. She ran rather than walked to
her cabin. flung herself on the bed and
sobbed piteously. 1t had to come. this
demanded unflinching courage, she faced
them dry eyed, with steadfast heart. But
today. in the bright sunshine and ap-
parent security of the ship. sinister death
did not stop to ask herself why she wept;
being a woman. she yielded to the gust.
and when 1t had ended. with the sudden
ness of a summer shower. she smiled
through the vanishing tears. Her first
concern was that none should be aware
Of her weakness.
How stupid of me-" she murmured.
What would the men think If the.
knew broke down in this fashion,"
She looked in mirror. In the claa:
light without any one could see she ha6
been crying. AMI there was so much work
main in her stateroom until all tokens o:
the storm had passed. She searched for
a powder puff. and was at loss to dis
cover its whereabouts until she recollected
that the doctor had borrowed it for the
use of man slightly scalded when his
own supply of antiseptic powder was ex-
hausted. So she went into Isobel's room
entering it for the first time since tn
Kansas struck on the shoal. The two
cabins communicated. as Mr.. Barring haG
TO of hps- frry n
broken through the partition for the girls
use during the voyage. If Elsie had not
already given way to tears she must have
faltered now at the sight of her friends
belongings strewed in confusion over the
floor, chairs. dressing table and bed. Iso-
case the size of an ordinary portmanteau.
1t held an assortment of pretty. and
mostly useless. knick-knacks. and they
had all been tumbled out in a frantic
hurry. At first Elsie fiinched from further
scrutiny. but common sense told her that
this respondent mood must be fought.
She dropped to her knees, found a mother
o'-pearl pOudrier, and picked up other
scattered articles and replaced them in
the dressing case. To accomplish this II.
was necessary to rearrange various trays
and drawers. Portraits of girl friends.
including her own, and of men unknown
to her. letters. memoranda and Other
documents were thrown about in disord n.
All these Sne put back IN their recep
tacles, wondering the while what motive
had led Isobel to make such a frenzied
search for some special object that she
cared not a jot what became of the re-
manning articles.
Yet who could account for the frenzy of
that terrible hour when the captain an
nounced the ships danger? Even Courte-
nay himself. she remembered, had emp
tied a locker in a rapid hunt for the
dogs coat; but he had laughingly ex-
planned his haste later when some chance
reference was made to his soaked gar
ments.
Anything was explicable in the light OF
panic. She gathered up skirt and some
blouses, locked the dressing case. put the
key in her purse and quilted the room
with a heavy heart, for the handling of
her friends treasures had brought sad
memories
Passing into the deck corridor she heard
the captains voice. apparently at a con-
siderable distance. Two hundred yards
away from the ship Courtenay and Tolla-
mache were anchOring a fiat framework,
built of spare matches and secured by
wooden crosspieces. On it stood the first
of the internal machines. The raft
foated level with the water, so its only
conspicuous fitting was small spar and
q block, to which line and an iron bar
were attached. The men looked stranga
In her eyes at that distance. In the mar
velously clear light she could see their
features distinctly, and. when Courtenay
shouted to a sailor to haul in the slack
of the line. she caught a trumpet-lika
ring that recalled the scene in the saloon
His athletic figure. silhouetted against
Shimmnrinp NJ 20 y-ot tor