Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1908-12-30
CHAPTER V.-continued.

CHAPTER V.-Continued.
I presumed likely that 1 understood
more maybe that he thought 1 did
Headache is fair to middling excuse
but 1 judged there was other things
I'd seen them two look at each other
when they met, and-well, they say
mods as good as a wink to a blind
horse, and amt blind. 1 made a sort
of note in my mind to get the pumps
to working again on Lord James next
time 1 got a chance at him alone.
Hartley left me and went over to
the railroad depot and 1 kept on
down the road to the shore. I was
loaf1ng along, going over to myself
the dofngs of the afternoon and won
dering what Van Brunt would say and
so on, when l come out into the clear
place at the top of Meeting House hill.
And the meeting house clock struck
four.
I jumped like I'd set down on a
hot stove. hadn't no idea it was as
late as that. The pig and the Page
girl and the rest of the mix-up had put
all notion of time out of my head. !
yanked out my watch to make sure
that that clock was right, and then
1 glanced at the sky. Over to the
BASTARD big, fat, gray fog bank was
piling up. Twas high water at two,
Eastwich Port cove is a nasty place to
get out of at low tide, and here was an
easterly fog coming.
AS a general thing I don't take any
body's wash when it comes to han
ding boat or looking out for weather
and such, but now 1 was ready to
sing small. A ten-year-old boy brought
up along shore would have known bet
ter than to do as I'd done. Don't make
no odds how good an excuse I had for
forgetting; no excuse is good where it
comes to sailboating. l went down
that hill like the man in the tin cof-
fin went to Tophet, "clinketty jingle"
l jumped fences and cut across lots,
and I'm ready to swear right now that
there's more horse briars to the square
inch in Eastwich Port than in any 9TH
er place on the Lords green earth.
bust through the pines and come out
on the beach yelling: Hi! Turn out
everybody! Get aboard now. Live
ly."
And, by time! there want a soul in
sight. For no less than twenty-five
and a half minutes by my watch
walked up and down that beach, see
ing the tide go out and bellering
"Ahoy!" and Where are your" at
the top of my lungs. And then, 10
and behold you, here comes Van
Brunt and Lord James, poking along
as II they had all the time there was.
Van had been over behind the point
taking a swim and his lordship had
gone along to set on his boss trous-
ers and keep the creases in, or some
such mighty important job.
"All right, skipper; all right"
drawls Van, cool as a Sunday school
boy at an ice cream sociable. You've
got good lungs and you'd ought to be
careful of EN-. I've heard you whoop-
ing for the last ten minutes. What
did you and Martin haye when YOU
were up town? By the way, where is
Martini"
He was so everlasting comfortable
and sassy and was so billing hot and
nervous that 1t made me mad.
Hes gone home on the train" I
snapped out. Got q headache"
Headache, Ell? Humph, What
do you have up town and where did
you get it?"
Never mind where we got it." says
/. You'll get headache from setting
up stuck on a shoal all night If you
don't get aboard that boat. Look at
them clouds"
He looked at 'em. All" he saws.
very like whale"
I didn't know what he meant and I
didn't care.
"Whale!" says 1. well, wen he
lucky II we amt the Jonahs. Get
aboard with that basket, you Opper
whats-your-name, will you; IL you
want to fetch port tonight"
Lord James looked like he'd like To
put another lead" on me, but his boss
was round and he dassent talk back
Between US we loaded the dunnape
Then Van got aboard, deliberate
enough to try parsons patience, and
1 cast loose and got sail on the Dora
Bassett. Wed made a start, ANYHOW
But 1t turned out that was all we'd
made. Van commenced to ask me
more about Hartley, and afore 1 could
tell him the news about the pig race
and the rest, the Dora Bassett run her