Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-27

They don't know me, and when attempt to
sound them they spit fire and contempt at my
fathers memory. / suppose l have not the neces-
sary diplomacy.
Don't blame yourself said the vicar with grave
kindness. You have undertaken very delicate
task. know, because know the Hunters fierce
pride and the gaping wound your father's-er-con-
duct made in it.
Adams leaned eagerly toward him That is
where you can help me- You can tell me all about
it. All about it, The naked story without condone-
ment cOncealment."
You know nothing?"
Nothing tangible Until six months ago l
unaware that Adams was not my real name. Then
my father, in an unusually morbid fit of dependency,
told me the proper one. knew he had relatives in
Rbblesands Che often talked of the place. and that
he left here for America before born; but that
ALL slight family quarrel he said, led to his
departure, and it was that quarrel he has sent me to
patch up You see, he has not long to live, and
since he realized it the estrangement has troubled
him acutey.'
He looked at the photo again and noted the many
faces of beauty and culture surrounding it. Have
you had that picture long?" he asked.
Several years. 1t was given to me by Miss Betty
day when was at Beachend and she was empty
ing old drawers
And you gave it place of honor-a place of
honor to a dsgraced mani" said Adams gratefully.
Your father a h0norsd me with his cGndsnee
voluntarily told me things that think other liv
ing man could have dragged from him"
For instance. his haunting fear of death on the
water?''
He told you, them?
No; l saw it. It was unmstakable to one who
loved him as did We sailed together in my early
youth on the Grand Banks, and l have seen him
shrink very often in times of peril.
He followed his calling in America then-and
you too? Just shade of curiosity filtered through
white hands and well cut tweeds.
Until he secured good berth ashore. Three
years after that he struck sudden wealth with
patent lifebuoy and sent steam yacht out with
message for me to give away my sea kit and come
home; Then spent four years at college. whose
president received liberal extras for every brny trace
he managed to rub out of me-"
I'm glad glad that he is free from the seal"
said the vicar every word corroborated on his fea
lures. Had he followed his own inclnations, he
would have chosen vocation ashore; but being
Runter custom decreed otherwise. All through life
he feared his timidity would some day besnirch the
family tradition and when-when-"
You will keep nothing concealed, please" inter-
posed Adams decisively.
The vicar hesitated. The story is not good one
to hear of ones father
L am his son. and therefore entitled to the truth
however ugly. fyou don't it to me- shall haunt
the pothouses and pump the 5buiohs t
of his fathers shame thirty odd years before
THERE is not much to tell. To begin with, your
grandfather married twice. His first wife had
one son. William, Betty father, who now sails the
Bddu1ph. His second wife, your grandmother, was
Annie Eastwood, and the Blddulph LAUNCHED he'd the
week of the marriage, was named after her. She was
yeoman's daughter the first woman not connected
with the sea to marry Runter. 1t was from her, l
think that your father inherited his fear of the water
One wild night, when the best of Ribblesands hap
pened to be away at vessel was wrecked on the
breakers She struck a dangerous maze of shall
lows and deeps which man but your father knew
sufficiently we'll to venture near in that storm Ten
volunteers manned the lfeboat and called on him to
coxswan her, and he refused The vessels crew
were drowned and the country rang with his shame
Naturally, the odium fell on the whole family, and
unable to face their bitter reproaches and taunts
YOUR father fled and has not been heard of since.
And not content with bounding him away from
home they visited the sin on his aged mother cried