Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-20

That's rum. l am tell you'll All want is a chance
Ill not quit If get iti'' And then, overcome he
stretched out trembling hands and ended. For
Gods sake, mister-for Gods sake give me chance
to show that Ill stick.
Harrott moved restesslv on his feet. if reluctant
in his time of necessity to say and yet dreading
take chance this derelict but too well known.
voice broke in from behind the Captain of the tug
having observed the owners hesitancy:
That's right, you don't want him. He's no good
He's called The Gutter. Get me some man that will
stick. This Walsh isn't to be tied to. He's lost
If get chance I'll be sticking after you've
shown white!" came another below from the appi.
cant. you've not been put up against it like wasl
You haven't any right to yaWp Ill tell you how it
was if you IL give me half "a
The whte-haired man held up restraining hand
Walsh checked his words. He had not forgotten
obedience The Captain of the tug sneered at his
companion. messenger boy from the inner Office
came noisily through A clerk with pen behind his
halted beside the owners desk. and parrot in
furnished cage beside the window seized the oppor-
tunity to air his English, while Harrott, old and
kind and Walsh, trying to get new lease of life,
stared at each other reading the others necess
ties and the other begging for opportunity to
show that he not entirely lost.
walsh the elder said at last, "I'm going
to give you the chance you want. AS rule don't
believe men who have persistently gone down and
up. ever amount to anything; but-well, I'm going
to give you chance.
WALSH for the first time showed symptoms of
w breaking down. He showed his fist through
the window and took the white, thin hand of the
master towboat man, gulped hard glanced disdain-
fully at the Captain who had tried to hold him down.
and then back till his eyes met those of Harrott,
which h, had become unusually soft
and-and- Well. I'll not disappoint you, sr!"
He swung away with his back to the tiny counter to
hide the working. of his face and Harrott under
standing took offense at his lack of courtesy
He tactfully waited moment and then stepped to
door in the partition
Come in, Walsh he said in businesslike tone
Of in is Hurd IF
the Elsie B. You might well sign now.
He brushed a clerk aside and took out blank art-
ces, filling them in with his grabbed handwrit
ing Walsh stood with his hat in his hand, looking
steadily at his feet and ignoring the other men.
whom marked silence had fallen. The tug owner
turned and beckoned to the engineer and he came
forward and signed the articles, but little different
from those he had signed scores of times before He
looked up to again meet Harrott's eyes, and the lat
ter's face Softened and warmed.
Il know, he said. Il know all about it. and-I
know you: Go now! Go on! There's tow waiting.
Got kit?"
Walsh shook his head All he had in the world
the clothes he stood in. He knew they were all
he needed. inasmuch they were beyond being
soiled. He followed Hurd out of the Office, recog
nizing certain antipathy in the swing of the Cap
tains shoulders he led the way back to the wharf
and the Elsie b. which squatted on the water as if
lounglng in the engine room door, and he at least
looked friendly and good humored. Walsh dropped
down and stepped inside the engine room. The
smell of the grease like stimuant. The splash
of the water against the piles like music. He
threw his shoulders back and looked up the steam
Sam, that's your new boss" was all the inero-
ducton the Captain gave, chopping his words off
if grudging the necessary explanation. And then
eyes. he added, How we get out?"
Now, sir, was the quick answer, and before the
Captains shadow lost from the doorway he
reached over and caught the steam valve, waiting
for the bells. They changed melodiously and he
threw her open on forward speed. She swung sturd-
lily out into the stream and away to get her and
he he hav iov
Walsh, former chief engineer of the finest boat
afloat, was happy in tugboat job that once he