Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-09-06
CHAPTER Xxx.


When Cambel arrived back at thu
Port Edes, he found Captain KEITH
sitting in the chart room with q pei
gripped between his teeth and a rhym'
ing dictionary in mis- hands surrender
ing its reluctant treasures. On tht
mahogany desk in front Of MIN was Z
sheet OF much corrected manuscript
with a capital letter at the commence
ment az every line. And beyond, in {
jam pot, was a bunch Of wake leayec
magnolia flowers, with twQ coral pink
magnolia cones, set around with a fril
Of sheeny leaves.
Captain owen Kettle was composing
a sonnet on the magnolia, and dogSec
work was trying 10 finish what q one
line inspiration had begun. TIE two
gaunt mosquitoes who had slipped into
the room when the wire gauze door
was shut grew visibly fatter without
danger To life or 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
it,"
Than popish saint more holier."
wrote the little man, reading the words
as they sprawled across the paper.
And now I want to get in something
about the smell. Angel breathed' is
the thing, only it don't seem TO lay up
handily with the rest. Angels are GER
tain to have good breath, and these
flowers smell as fine as anything I've
tried. Just AXE a sniff at them your
self. Well, Mr.. Cambel, here you are
again, and / haven't said I'm glad to
see you. But / am. It's as good as
meat to put eyes on you and hear
what's to be doing next. / tell you it's
been pretty dull work with the donkey
man off all day bird shooting, and me
as ships husband sitting here on my
own tail. l fancy you'd be a bit as
tonisned at walking on board same as
you would into a house without hav-
ing to hail d boat"
"A little, not much. l was prepared
for anything after what l saw be-
tween Point Sebastian and here
Il fancy they'll have to bring out
new geography books about this part
Of Florida. | never saw such q place.
Why, sir, the blessed ground fairly got
up and walked during that blow. l
don't think the steamer shifted much.
Canted a bit to leeward maybe, but
didn't bulge out of her keel groove, but
ii was the shores that fetched weigh.
When nee they broke mornings, the
trees set back their shoulders and
sheeJed home, and great islands bore
down on us like ships. The lightning
burned flares all the time. and 1
watched il through the chart room
ports because none could stand on deck
outside. I'm not a frightened man. Mr..
Camb0l, or a superstitious, but l
thought that night was too hard for a
cyclone. | tell you, sir, and you may
laugh if you like, | reckoned it up that
judgment day had come. and / got the
book and read myself the burial
service clean through, sea bits and all,
50 as to fetch whatever happened, land
or water. | haven't led q bad life, Mr..
Cambel. Pretty religious ashore, and
never sparing myself trouble in haz-
ing a crew so az to carry out owners
business at sea, and when I'd said that
burial service l 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 q year ago, and l bought
"a pamphlet Of him, and it showed the
thing Il according to Revelation and
Daniel all as clear as a big boo could
have done. 1t vas 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, | felt sure that the chap
a right in the main, only he'd got a
bit foul in his dates.
There was only one thing" the lit
tie man added plaintively-"I wished
I'd a new washed jacket aboard. The
one I'd on was that smeared and
crumpled | should have felt ashamed
to appear in it."
Well, I'm glad you weren't hurt"
said Cambel. 1T was a terrible night
for any one in this area"
Il came through Y. Mr.. Cambel,
without so much as a finger nail brok-
en-. So did the d~onkeyman. He came
up here and asked IL l wanted him
when the blow began, and when l told
him No he went to his own room
and turned In and slept till it was
over. Now, the niggers didn't. When
the steamer began 10 list, they got
scared. Thought she'd turn bilge up
permost, | suppose. and bolted down to
their fshbox of a schooner which lay
alongside. OF course when the shores
slipped their moorings and bore down
IN her the schooner had to give, and
the niggers are buried somewhere yon-
der to ~starboard, but where dom
know. I've looked, but there isn't sc
much as a spar, there isn't so much as
a Whit of circus to put d label on the
spot. i We Hdu nllSnly nIIle 10 DO lat
terly, and l might have stuck ur
some sort Of a signboard to 'em, Mig
gers though they were, If could nave
fixed the place TO an acre, but when q
grave head gets bigger than thai you
may be writing here lieth' in more
senses than one. So / left them quiet
o course with the steamer high and
dry UP country, and the river two
miles away through thick woods, II
wasn't much good, our messing with
paint pots and changing name plates
Wed built a new forehatch and shipped
it, and creased up the engines, and as
that seemed TO me all that was neces.
sary, I've given my shipm2te holiday
ever since. There's the making OF {
sportsman in our donkeyman, Mr.
Cambel. There isn't a thing that crawl.
or flies or swins in this section o.
Florida that blessed Irishman hasn'
blown of my old gas pipe at or tried
10 catch with a worm on a cod hook
He wasn't keen at first; said he'd beer
brought up in a works. but when
told him everything he took wa.
poached. by James, sir, you Nigh
think he was the Prince of Wales
the way he sticks at it,"
Blood will out" said Canabel, Will
q laugh, and he marveled at the extra.
ordinary ~toughness OF the donkeyman
AT all times there Is much sulphur II
the water of these Florldian swami
but since the cyclone the %sulphurou.
emanation had been stirred and SO
free, and the presence OF them was NJ