Imperial Valley press., 1910-11-26
The Blue Oceans D@@ Daughter @&

so that in case of an alarm they could be immediately called into action. Owing to the seriousness of the situa- tion, the mate went forward to keep watch on the forecastle, while the captain remained on the high poop which balanced the topgallant fore castle.
 Here and there appointed seamen of the watch kept their feet along the gangways, and as night came the little group moved about among the sleepers in the waist, with every fac ulty alert for the slightest indication of an approaching enemy.
 There was no moon. and the warm. thick haze obscured even the stars. The night was as black as pitch; there was not a light showing on the ship; even the lantern over the binacle aft, where the compass swung, was care fully hooded. The ship was making no way, and there were no hands at the wheel.
 Captain Hiram paced softly up and down with the catlike tread of the veteran seaman from one side of the poop deck to the other and then aft. peering about him anxiously in every direction. He was not alone in his watch. A slight and slender figure paced by his side, and with eyes more youthful and brilliant strove to see what was hid from the glances of the weatherbeaten sailor.
 Twenty years before another figure had thus and often paced by the side of Capt. Hiram Hubbell, master and owner of the staunch merchant ship Hiram and Susan. He often thought of it, especially when he walked the deck with this slender stripling.
 Captain Hiram, the son of wealthy Boston merchant, had chosen to fol- low the sea. In one of his voyagings he met and married Susan Anderson on the distaff side of New England birth, but through her father of Dan ish-that is, Viking-blood. She had gone to sea with the young captain and had died at the birth of her daughter, another Susan Hubbell. tC } whom she had left one half of the stout ship, which her dowry, in con. l junction with her husbands earnings } had built, and which bore their joint
 names.
 ! Captain Hiram had kept his daugh-
 ter at sea with him during the greater
 portion of her life. He himself had
 educated her, and as he was by no l. means an ignoramus she knew much and what she knew she knew we'll
 But she was entirely unacquainted
 with the social life of the women of
 her day, when to be fashionable it
 was necessary to be able to faint on every and any occasion, and when the
 vapors was the prevalent feminine disease. Captain Hiram had kept the
 girl sweet and pure, guarding her as
 Jealously as the angel at the gate pro- , tected Paradise from trespass by the
 sons of Adam.
 He had taught her, in addition to what book learning he had at con- mand, all the nice art of the sailor. : At both fore-and- and quarterdeck , seamanship she was proficient. She , could hand and reef and steer. She , could pass the weather caring and tack the ship.
 She was an unerring shot with small arms, and was her fathers master in | the somewhat rude sword play which he had taught her. Her strength and } physical activity would not be so much remarked in these days of vigo- , rous outdoor womanhood, but then , they were surprising.
 r Her instinctive feminine qualities had not been entirely eradicated
 either.
 l Indeed, some of them had been en- } hanced by the life she led. She was as graceful as any woman on earth