The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1909-07-30
"Old Ben Bolt"
BY MYRA NORTHcLIFF.
Copyrighted, 1909, by Associated
Literary Press.

everybody called him that, and stran-
gers accepted 1t on the spot as singu-
larly appropriate, for Captain Jim
staybolt's honest, kind blue eyes, his
brown face and closely curling hair
and his masterful yet good natured
mouth made him indeed seem the en-
bodiment Of the famous "Ben Bolt of
the salt sea gale"
He wasn't old at all, though he
thought himself aged and beyond all
the dreams of youth because he had
just turned thirty-fye. But then he
had always had an abnormal modesty
about his own masculine charms.
His head, albeit of pepper and salt,
was filled with practical good sense
that had brought him up from fisher
man to superintendent and part owner
Of the Grantson company's big feet Of
smacks.
He had his Office In the cubby of q
water stilted shanty at the end Of the
pier, and its window looked directly
across at certain young woman
named Kate. dealing out candy, or
anges and cheap cigars to the rolling
crews of the boats.
There was a standing joke among
the boys how the smoking habit took
hold of everybody after he saw Kate.
1t never got to her ears, though, for,
Notwithstanding the candy and cigars,
there was fine little line of reticence
about the girl over which no one ever
stepped, not even Hank Raynor, the
vainest and most impudent fellow that
ever trod a schooner's deck. But her
pretty bushes and shining eyes gave
the clew to her preference, and Ray
nor, who frequently consumed his en-
tire wait buying a cigar, could not
have been said to discourage the i'm
preston.
1t is true the boys joked, but the ma
jority of them swore as well, for the
handsome Raynor bore no immaculate
reputation among them.
"Cuss it!' said Dick Pearsall mate
Of the Osprey schooner, savagely one
night. "Why is 1t woman can never
see an inch from her nose when she's
daffy on a man"
Margin takes that out of 'em,
though" laughed old Captain Brown,
who was on honorable drydock after
fifty years of cod and halibut.
"Marryin'p sneered the mate of the
dandy Burgess built smack Lucinda V.
Margin! Raynor looks like a mar
ryin' man, don't he? amt no masher
myself, but tell you that smarty is
just tryin' to show off before us fell
lows. Marry her! Even IL he wanted
to he amt fit to wipe her old shoes
onp
Nobody dissented. There were
tongues in the fishing port that did not
hesitate to declare that Raynor's skill
as q fisherman was far inferior to the
art with which he could wreck coast
ers for living when the owners got
tired Of paying insurance and decided
that 1t was time to collect some in
stead.
"All the same, he told me 1t was
fixed up between 'em," insisted Cap
tain Brown. "rhat's tellin', s'pose,
but he didn't say as there was any
thing private about it."
Unnoticed by the men, Captain Jim.
Saybolt had come up In time to catch
the last words. He stopped moment
In the shadow Of column. When he
moved on his face looked gray and
drawn in the uncertain light
Get ready to take the Osprey and
the Lucinda out next tide" he said
evenly. "We'll have 'em unloaded in
three hours more and ready for sea
again"
He went back, and the group broke
up. Pearsall, as he turned, caught a
glimpse of his superior's face and Won
dered vaguely IL "the boss" were Ill.
With fine sense Of honor, Captain
Jim himself had refrained from look
or word that might compromise Kate,
but the memory of chance touch Of
her fingers once when she passed back
his change still sent thrill over him.
Since that day she had grown under
his eyes to be the one desirable thing
Of his life.
He knew enough Of Raynor to de-
spise the man. Time and again he
had all but prayed he might get actual
cause for interference. Now the shat
tering of the dream seemed less his
blunder than crime.
A week afterward Kate's old father
was struck by falling block and laid
on his bed, helpless for life. Her
mother fell Ill of typhoid. The super
tntendent saw the bloom fade from the
girls cheeks, to return only when
Raynor appeared, and that In q nerv-
GUS flush. He grew hot and cold alter
nately ut the air of careless proprietor
ship the latter had lately assumed.
Then suddenly the man announced
that he was going away.
Hank has got Ship" Captain Jim
heard Kate contide to another girl.
ITS schooner running out Of South
Amboy for Norfolk, and the owners
have promised him raise In few
months, and then, IL father and mother
are able to be moved
Captain Jim lost the rest, but a sharp
thrust went through him, whether Of
anguish or relief he could not have
told. A month later came news of a
shlpwreck ON the New Jersey coast.
The dispatches said openly that there