Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-09-07
CHAPTER Xxx.
DECISIONS

( y
| ing its reluctant treasures. on the
[ mahogany desk In front OF him was a
/ sheet Of much corrected manuscript,
! with a capital letter at the commence
! ment Of every line. And beyond in a
/ jam pot, was a bunch OF waXen leayed
| magnolia flowers, with two coral pink
magnolia cones, set around with a frill
| OF sheeny leaves
Captain owen Kettle was composing
/ a sonnet on the magnolia, and dugged
I work was trying 10 finish what a one
! line inspiration had begun. The two
! gaunt mosquitoes who had slipped into
/ the room when the wire Eau2e door
| was shut grew visibly fatter without
| danger TO life OF 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
Than poplsh saint more holler,"
wrote the little man, reading the words
as they spraWled across the paper
And now / want 70 get in something
about the smell Angel breathed is
the thing only II don't seem to lay up
! handily with the rest Angels are GER
tain 10 have good breath, and these
flowers smell as fine as anything I've
tried Just take a sniff at them your
self Well Mr. Cambel, here you are
again, and / haven't said I'm glad 10
see you. But | am. It's as good as
/ meat to put eyes on you and hear
what's 10 be doing next ] tell you it's
been pretty duh work with the donkey
! man Off an day bird shooting. and me
as ships husband sitting here on my
own TAIL / fancy you'd be a bit as
tonished az walking on board same as
you would into a house without hav-
ing TO hail a boat?"
"A little, not much. l was prepared
hisngr AZ gJh hnt lga.
tween Point Sebastian and here"
u fancy they'll have TO bring out
new geography books about this part
OF Florida | never saw such a place.
Why sir, the blessed ground ralrly got
up and walked during that blow |
don't think the steamer shifted much.
Canted bit 10 leeWard maybe, but
didn't bulge out of her keel groove, but
it was the shores that fetched weigh.
When once they broke muOrings, 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 |
watched it through the chart room
ports because none could stand on deck
outside. I'm not a frightened man, Mr..
| Cambel or q superstitious, but l
thought that night was too hard for
cyclone. | tel you sir, and you may
laugh II You Ike, ! reckOned 1t up that
JuASAlltlll AA[ ll-tl come, ana I ROI IN :
prayer book and read myself the burial
service clean through, sea bits and all,
so "a TO fetch whatever happened, land
or water. | haven't led bad life Mr..
/ Cambel Pretty religious ashore, and
never sparing myself trouble in haz-
ing crew 80 as TO carry out owners
business 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,
Liverpool, not a year ago, and l bought
a pamphlet Of him, and It showed the
thing out according to Revelation and
| Daniel all as clear as big book could
have done. IL was to finish in 1908, and
there was a picture of the earthquake
and another picture Of people going
up 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
before my eyes, and dry land taking
their place l felt sure that the chap
was right in the main, only he'd got
bit foul in his dates.
There was only one thing" the lit
tie man added plaintively-'T wished
I'd new washed jacket aboard The
one I'd on was that smeared and
crumpled i should have felt ashamed
to appear in it,"
We'll, I'm glad you weren't hurt"
! said Cambel. 1t was a terrible night
for any one in this area"
Il came through it, Mr. Cambel,
without 50 much as a finger nail brok-
on. SO did the donkeyman He came
! up here and asked if ! wanted him
when the blow began, and when / told
/ him NO he Went to his own room
and turned in and slept till It was
oyer. Now, the uisgers didn't When
| the steamer began 10 list they got
reared Thought she'd turn bilge up
| permost, | suppose, and bolted down to
their fishboX of a schooner which Law
alongside. OF course when the shores
slipped their moorings and bore down
on her the schooner had to give and
/ The niggerS are buried somewhere Nou-
| 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
whiI of circus to put "A label on the
spot I've had mighty little TO do lat
| terly and | might have stuck up
| some sort OF signboard to 'em, Mig
gers though they were, If | could have
fixed the place TO an acre, but when a
grave head gets bigger than tnat you
may be writing here lieth' in more
senses than one So | left them quiet
"Of course with the steamer high and
dry up country and the river two
! miles away through thick woods, il
wasn't much good, our messing with
paint pots and changing name plates
! Wed built q new forehatch and shipped
| 1t, and creased UP the engines, and as
that seemed to me all that was neces-
sary. I've given my shipmate holiday
ever since. There's the making Of a
sportsman in our donkeyman Mr.
Cambel. There isn't a thing that crawls
or flies or sWims in this section of
, Florida that blessed Irishman hasn't
blown off ny old gas pipe at or tried
To catch Wich a worm on a cod hook.
! He wasn't keen at first: said he'd been
| brought up IN works. but when
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
! a laugh, and he marveled at the extra
| ordinary toughness of the donkeyman.
Al all times there is much sulphur In
the water of these Floridian swamps
but 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 70 look upon, yellow to look
| through, and in the air was a never
faillng, never varying hint al the odor
OF ancient eggs. Il even stole into the
chart room and mingled with the scent
Of the magnolia Blossoms
1t isn't violets," the captain assent
ed In reply TO Cambels comment, "and
there's fever knocking about in those
swamps as sure as there is In a Ham
burg drain But what's fever mean.
sir, except carelessness and ignorance? :?
You tackle fever with science. Mr.
Cambel, and IL hasn't a show. And IL
we haven't got science aboard here
concentrated and labeled and bottled
down in our medicine chest. ! don't
know whore you will find *. Yes sir,
will say that The Port Edes has a
romping fine medicine chest, and I've
been through II all myself so | ought
TO know. The donkeyman's been most
ways through it. too but he's on at
fever mixtures now, and he's going
solid at them, We've three quart bot
tles--A for bilious " for malariaI and