The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-18
-:- LOVE THE CRIMINAL -
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 bs4N Car,1 etc. A iAt iD VEF E1f s'94 43I "

'a'' 7 s' Aa 2. m l all lll 8nwamHUHWaI up. "ysafd John ShiI with smile. -and
 you ought to get all the rest here you want It's quiet enough. Dowsett this Is Miss Laura vane. and your missus has got to look after her as if i she were daughter"
 Tne man bowed gravely. A Londoner might have smiled, or even winked. But this stolid fellow, who had passed all ms life at sea or on the grim flats or Essex. had acquired some of the siience Of his surroundings And. as Laura locked at him, she knew that sne was in the hands of one who would ao all that he was told, and say noth- ing about it.
 | Miss vane." continued shil, .is very hungry, and so am l. I daresay Mrs l Dowsett can get us some breakfast"
 Eggs and a bit of fish, sir, I've no doubt the man replied.
 | They descended the steep bank. which kept the waters of the creek rom overfiowing the mafshland. and Mrs. Dowsett, after the situation was explained to her, promised a substan- tial meal in twenty minutes. She was q lean, pale-faced woman and her body was bent with labor and the damp or the marshes But there was a kindly smile on her worn face. and Laura felt that she would find all the sympathy of good heart under the somewhat forbidding exterior Alter an excellent breakfast, during which the two lovers talked cheer l fully on the most commonplace sub- Jects, John Shil lit Cigarette, and. drawing out a tide-table. studied 1t l thoughtfully.
 Tt win be no good my leaving for two hours. Laurie.1 he said: T can't possibly row up the creek to Black Hall till the tide begins to flow. Shall we have walk around the island?" l Yes" she answered in low voice. T should like it. The loneliness of this place fascinates me-"
 | It was an ordinary reply to an trembled. For she knew that the brief period of quiet friendship was over, and that the hour had come in which she was to pit the strength of her love against the honor of the man who loved her.
 This Is wonderfnl,' said Laura. as they walked along the high bank which surrounded the island. T have never seen anything like 1t before"
 Tt seems strange after Laverstone and the Stonewold Hills." he replied, ~but one gets used to it in these parts. At first the flatness and desoIation l depressed me, but now I am inclined to think that 1t has a charm of its own"
 Yet 1t must be dreadful to live here always" she said. Poor Mrs. Dow setti no wonder she looks so white and ugly and old. Yet the man looks well enough"
 "Ah. that is the unfairness of life in the Essex flats" he replied. ''The men go about their work on the water, and fine, healthy work it is too. This chap I works on the oyster beds farther up the creek. and he Is sort of watch man of the oyster fisheries. But the women spend all their time on the land, and you can see the mark of the soil In their faces. Ague. malaria, rheumatism. these are the devils of the marshes, and 1t is the women who writhe in their clutches. Yet they bear it all patiently for their husbands sakes."
 Laura was silent. and looked out | across the lonely land to the still more lonely sea. Her life had b. n full of great tragedies, of events which had scared both heart and brain. Yet she wondered as she looked at the wide bank of glistening mud, and the brown sluicing tide, and the dull stiffness which seemed the keynote of the place, whether after all there was any tragedy to equal the monotony of existence in land like this. She. at least, had lived: she had been moved | by living flame. But Mrs. Dowsett could never have known anything but i the dreariness of life.
 Poor souls," she said, after a long pause, and there were tears in her eyes.
 -Oh. they are quite content" Shil | replied land they have what some of ] us would give much to possess-a con- tented mind and a quiet sense of duty. They make no fuss about it, and, if anyone were to suggest that they were | heroic, they would laugh. They have | their own ideas of heroism. Many of | their husbands and their brothers are l heroes in their eyes-men who have saved life at sea, and who have been through hardships which are never re- counted in the daily papers. They do not realize that the men are alive, and Hthey are little better than dead"
 Save that they do thier duty" Laura replied slowly, and surely that Is the highest life of all."
 ! She did not look at him as she spoke; but he know from the tone of her voice that she was not thinking of Mrs Dowsett. Her eyes were fixed on the distant sea, as though she were lock- I ing for the return of some ship-some | golden argosy that would bring back happiness into her life.
 Shall we sit downT' said John Shil gently, "the timbers of that wreck seem dry enough"
 They had come to sharp turn in the bank. A narrow creek flowed in- land for nearly half a mile, and the bank, following the line of the water, ran obediently along the whole length of 1t and returned on the other side. The creek was not more than fifty yards wide at the mouth, but 1t was necessary to make a detour of half a mile to skirt 1t. Halfway down the bank. on the other side which faced the water, was the battered frame Of an old barge-a mere skeleton of a thing that had perhaps once been the pride of its owner and crew. John Shil moved towards it down the steep slope, and held out hts hand to Laura
 She took the proffered assistance, and the firm grasp of the mans fingers sent the color to her checks He was only offering an ordinary courtesy, but her heart, beating fast as his mere touch, imagined the grip of possession, the strong hold of a hand that would take her, and protect her against the violence of the world.
 They sat down on the edge of a plank which still stretched between two gaunt ribs. It was not a comfortable seat. but 1t was better than the damp grass. The old hulk was at the foot of the bank, and half of it was buried in the mud of the creek. Beneath their feet lay a mass of corks. sticks. sea weed, crab shells. and all the jetsam which the tide brings up with it from the sea.
 For little while neither of them spoke. There was much to be said,