Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-26


pass his lips, not did he speak of home call
aloud for friend. l observed this, and it struck
me as being very curious; for derious men-I
have had considerable experience with them
always speak of these things in their wanderngs
In caring for hm-we had no doctor on board,
so that duty devolved upon mel noticed another
strange popularity. Although his body proclaimed
him to be a young man, his hair white
snow. At first attributed this to the horrors he
had just endured (from his derium we had learned
that he was the sole survivor of trading schooner
that had sunk after striking hidden coral reef
and that he had been for three DAYS adrift on the
open without morsel of food drop of water;
but afterward, when he told me his story, L
learned otherwise. The snow white hair and the
absence OF woman's name upon his lips came
from the same cause. He paused momentarily,
and let his glance wander round the circle of white
eager faces that were bent upon him, until last
his eyes fell upon Wyngates unknown heroine
There they remained as he leaned forward and said
or four years preceding, his life blank to him.
OF the years that had gone before them he remem-
bered nothing-absoutely nothing. He could not
A sudden thrill of interest ran about the table,
as Edmunds raised his wine glass to his lips and
slowly drained it; but Wyngate that the woman
stead she kept her eyes steadily upon the explorers
face as he carefully lowered his glass and began
twist it thoughtfully between his fingers. And it
seemed to the novelist that there something
more than interest now in her direct gaze. Indeed
he almost persuaded himself that he saw the dawn
of great fear in her eyes But of this Edmunds
look toward her again, as he proceeded
'All that he knew of himself he said, was that
he had awakened into consciousness-or rather,
the consciousness he then had-to find himself
common sailor upon ship bound from New York
to Sydney. How he had come there he had no
idea nor could anyone on the ship tell him, except
that he had shipped in the regulation manner
But that previously he had not been sailor he
felt certain. Not one detail of the life familiar
to him, of his duties easy for him to learn
He knew, he was sure, that up to that time he had
had another existence in another sphere of life.
AT first the man was dazed by this thought
Somewhere there might be home and loved ones
waiting for him while he drifted in ignorance of
them across the wide sea, shut out from them and
their love forever by the strange barriers that
hedged him in,-the barriers which, try as he would
he could not pierce The horror of that time
whitened his hair while his youth still upon him.
But at last hope dawned once more in his heart.
He had shipped from New York, and SO he reasoned
that New York must be his home. Therefore, he
decided that at the end of his voyage he would ship
a vessel bound thither. 1t seemed certain to
him that once there he would recognize some spot,
meet some familiar face, or perhaps be seen by
some one who had known him and could tell him
who he He carried out this plan, and within
year was back in New York; but, alas! although
he wandered up and down the citys streets for
months he could find nothing which he remem-
bered to have before, and in all the throng
that hurried past him he saw not one familiar face.
AT last the money that he had saved
hauSted, and he compelled to find work to live.
Utterly discouraged by his failure, he turned his
back upon the city and sought employment at sea
Git was, you see, the only vocation with which he
fanliar) So. for months he drifted from port
port, until he to the South Sea and shipped on
the wrecked trading schooner: That was his story
LAS l listened to it, could not but agree with
him in thinking that he was accustomed to life
other than that of a common sailor. His accents
his words, were those of cultivated man, and he
had knowledge of the little nicetes that only
with education and refined surroundings. Naturally
1 sympathized deeply with him in his sorrows. and
then. time passed and grew acquainted with his
gentle manners and his simple ways, that sympathy
broadened into genuine affection: Indeed SO at