Enterprise news-record. [volume] (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1910-1911, 1911-02-08
LOUIS TRACY
Copyright. 1909 by Edward j. Clode
CHAPTER XVI

SHOWING HOW BRAZIL CHOSE HER PRESI-
DENT.
y" WO thousand five hundred years
r. ago the prophet jeremiah ex.
n pressed incredulity as to the
power Of an Ethiopian to
change his skin or a leopard his spots.
The march of the centuries has fully
justified the seer's historic doubt. so it
makes but slight demand on the crit
1cal faculties TO assume that two years
residence In Europe had not cooled the
hot southern blood flowing in Car.
mela's veins.
She had hated Iris before she set
eyes on her. She hated her now that
she had seen her rare beauty. She
gloated on the suffering inflicted by
the presence of the faded old man
who claimed her as his bride Though
1t was of the utmost importance that
she should hasten to her father, she
returned to Las Flores in her rivals
company. their arms linked in seem
ing friendship and the Brazilian girls
told of Bulmers wooing.
So Dickey contented himself by lis
tening to Coke's Homeric account of
the Andromedas wrecking, and if he
interposed an occasional question and
thus drew the girls sweet voice into
the talk it was invariably germane to
the strange history of the ship and her
human freight.
Coke's narrative was picturesque and
lurid. Every incident centered in the
striking personality of Philip Hozier
From the instant the second shell
struck the winch and laid him appar
emily dead on the forecastle to the
very hour of this coming together at
Las Flores, HoZier held the stage. Ii
was he who took Iris on his shoulders
and brought her to safety through the
spume of the wrathful sea, he who
carried her to the hut, he who crossed
Fernando Noronha alone to protect
her.
Coke was impartial. He would have
minimized his own singular bravery
in running up the ships signals had
not Iris given him breathing space
while she enthralled the others with
her description. Otherwise Coke skip
ped no line of his epic.
"You'll rec'lect." he wheezed in 0
voice that rasped like file, 'you'l
rec'lect, Mr.. Verify, as | said to yor
that Hozier was good enough to take
charge Of the bridge of a battleship
By-well, any'ow If I'd said the chan
mel feet shouldn't ave bin talkin
through me at Look at i'm now
'E's the on'y reel live man Dom Wot's
'is-name as got. Sink me. if it WASH
for the folks at 'ome an the fac tina
the Andromeeda's skipper ought t.
keep clear of politics in this crimson
country I'd ave a cut in at the game
meself."
1t might be hoped that Carmela'
mood would soften when she discov
cred her rivals hapless love, but tina
would be expecting something whicl
her bursting southern heart could no
give. A volcano pours forth lava, no
water. 1t scorches. not heals. Iris
willing or not, had sapped her Saliva
doris allegiance. Carmela wanted t
see those curved lips writhing in pair
those brown eyes dimmed that smoot
brow wrung with the grief that know
no remedy.
A fierce Joy leaped up in her whe
Verify spoke of an early departure.
"You see, Iris," he explained, "thes
Brazilian bucks may be months in Sc
tim their differences. Dickey an mi
'elped lot by our consul, squeezed
pass out of the president-beg pardol
miss, but e is president, In Pernan
buco at all events" he said In q
apologetic aside to Carmela-"an IL