The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-09-05
CHAPTER Xxx.
DECISIONS.

Il EOIL iNueS, TIC captain hGILle
4 sitting in the chart room with a pen
| gripped between his teeth and rhym-
/ ing dictionary In his hands surrender
| ing its reluctant treasures. On the
1 mahogany desk in front OF him was a
sheet OF much corrected manuscript,
! with capital letter at the commence
\ ment of every line. And beyond, in a
/ jam pot, was a bunch of waxen leaved
magnolia flowers, with two coral pink
magnolia cones, set around with q frill
i OF sheeny leaves.
/ Captain owen Kettle was composing
| a sonnet on the magnolia, and dogged
/ work was trying to finish what q one
line inspiration had begun. The two
| gaunt mosquitoes who had slipped into
/ the room when the wire gauze door
i was shut grew yisibly 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 want to get in something
about the smell. Angel breathed is
] the thing, only 1t don't seem to lay up
/ handily with the rest. Angels are cer-
tain to have good breath, and these
I 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 to
see you. Fut / 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. fancy you'd be bit as
tonished at walking on board same as
Nnt NVafr. -
ing to hail a boat?"
"A little, not much. / was prepared
for anything after what i 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 a place.
Why, sir, the blessed ground fairly got
up and walked during that blow. /
don't think the steamer shifted much.
Canted bit to leeward maybe, but
didn't bulge out of her keel groove, but
II was the shores that fetched weigh.
When once they broke moorings, 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 liz through the chart room
ports because none could stand on deck
outside. I'm not frightened man, Mr.
Cambel, or O superstitious, but /
cyclone. / tell you, sir, and you may
laugh IL you like, / reclSoned il up that
judgment day had come, and / got the
prayer book and read myself the burial
service clean through, sea bits and all,
SO as to fetch whatever happened, land
or water. haven't led a bad life, Mr..
Cambel. Pretty religious ashore, and
never sparing myself troubia in haz-
ing q crew so as to carry out owners
business at sea, and when I'd said that
burial service 1 felt I'd done all that
could be expected.
I'd heard chap prophesy about
the end of the world in Waterloo street,
Liverpool, not year ago, and / bought
a pamphlet OF him, and 1t showed the
thing out according to Revelation and
Daniel all as clear as big book could
have done. IL was to finish in 1903, and
there was picture of the earthquake
and another picture OF people going
UP to the sky in their ordinary clothes
And when / 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, i felt sure that the chap
was 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--T wished
Id a new washed jacket aboard. The
one I'd on was that smeared and
crumpled / should have felt ashamed
to appear In it."
Wen, I'm glad you weren't hurt"
said Cambel. 1T was terrible night
for any one in this area"
II came through it, Mr. Cambel,
without so much as finger nail brok-
en- So did the donkeyman. He came
up here and asked IL \ wanted him
when the blow began, and when told
Kim No he went to his own room
and turned In and slept till 1t was
over Now, the niggers didn't. When
the steamer began TO 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
on her the schooner had to give, and
the niggers are buried somewhere yon-
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
whiff 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 a signboard to 'em, nig-
gers though they were, IL / could have
fixed the place to an acre, but when a
grave head gets bigger than that 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. 1t
wasn't much good, our messing with
paint pots and changing name plates
We'd built new forehatch and shipped
II, 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 thing that crawls
or flies or swims In this section OF
Florida that blessed Irishman hasn't
blown off my old gas pipe at or tried
to catch with worm on cod hook
He wasn't keen at first; said he'd been
brought up in q 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 win out" said Canbel, with
laugh, and he marveled at the extra
ordinary toughness OF the donkeyman.
At all times there Is much sulphur in
Al a.. IN. 49,