The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1910-04-08
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on in spite of cracking wood and sails
threatening to tear loose from the
~bolt-eyes, taking shrewd advantage Of
each slant Of wind, and lowering can
vas only when danger was deadly. He
had come into his own, he was at
home, and the re%juvenated Sea Queen
leaped forward at his will, as though
endowed with fresh life. He seemed
to understand her moods, her caprices,
as though he had sailed her in every
sea, and | watched him test her, loos-
ening a rope here, tightening another
there, striving to discover her good
and bad qualities, until my admiration
for his ~seamanship almost overbal-
anced my growing detestation of him
otherwise.
Lady Darlington became positively
afraid of him, dreading his approach,
shrinking from his address, yet not dar-
ing to withdraw wholly from his pres
ence. His sole topic of conversation
was psychomancy, and every time she
~endeavored to lead him to some more
pleasant subject he would return with
dogmatic persistence to that one rath-
er dismal theme. His blatant self-con-
ceit saved him from realizing her utter
WEAKNESS. and he never seemed to
tire Of his own u%nctuous, nasal tones.
Heavens, but the fellow was an insult
ferable bore. Celeste would slip away
unobserved, but her mistress and my
self had no means of escape. | re-
NAMED quietly below for three days.
and even then was not released by
any formal word of mouth. | simply
became SO tired of the senseless i'm
prisonment that | mounted to the
deck, taking Lady Darlington with me,
determined to be confined to the cabin
no longer except by physical force. De
Nova was upon the bridge when we
emerged from the companion, but he
merely glanced at us %curiously. Tut
tie, coming aft a little later, retained
sense enough to remain silent. The
three days passed below had thrown
me much into the society of both mis-
tress and maid, although the frank
intimacy of that first conversation
with Lady Darlington was never re-
sumed There seemed an intangible
barrier of reserve between us. al
though We talked freely enough re-
garding our situation, the peculiarities
OF futile, and the constantly changing
wonders of the deep. 1t was as if
neither of us quite dared to probe be-
meath the surface, opening up once
more the depths each endeavored to
conceal; rather We're we onten to
drift as the tide ran.
l saw comparatively little of De
Nova, the second officer, during this
period, and gained an impression that
he was ~endeavoring to avoid meeting
me. Yet l ran across him twice in
company with Celeste, once in the
cabin, and again in the narrow deck
space o~verhanging the stern, and be-
gan to hope vaguely that the girl was
winning him over to our interests.
With the others l sought to approach
l made no progress. Mcknight sell
then only to smoke in sullen silence,
seated gloomily On the edge of the
main hatch or to the lee of the chart
mousse. Olsen was undoubtedly honest
enough, yet without intelligence, his
those of a faithful dog. The
Chilean, a smooth-faced young fellow
wonderfully deficient in chin, | learned
had been assigned as assistant to the
cook. and was thus kept too busy in
side the galley eve to be approached.
Indeed, SO far | had not seer his face
Oh board the ship.