Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-07-28

derful night"
Forgetting that l eXist?"
; Stuart looked at her intently a mo-
ment and said, gravely:
"As if any man who ever knew you
could forget"
II don't like your attitude, Jim, and
1 think we'd better fight it out here
and now in the beginning of this trip"
And what is my offense?"
Not offense, but defense"
why Nam"
It's useless to deny it," she said
banteringly. You hesitated to come
on deck with me in the moonlight this
evening. You've kept trotting to Calls
stateroom, when he only begs to be let
alone"
Honestly"
It's no use to shuttle. I'm going to
be perfectly frank with you. Your as
sumption of such chilling virtue is in
sulting. 1 wish an apology and a
promise never to do so again."
Have l really made you feel this?'
he asked, contritely.
You have and feel it keenly. Let's
come to an understanding. You and
l both live in glass houses set on a
very high hill. No matter what may
be the secrets Of my heart, I'm not a
fool and you can trust my good sense"
Stuart pressed her hand, and said
gently:
I'm awfully sorry If I've made such
an ass of myself that you have receiv-
ed this impression"
You repent?"
IN sackcloth and ashes"
"Then forgive you," she cried, with
a laugh, releasing her hand and ris-
ing, but on one condition"
Name It,"
THAT from this hour you be your
old self, without restraint, and let me
he mine."
II promise faithfully"
Then you can help me down that
steep companionway and I'll go to
bed"
He held her hand with firm grasp
as she picked her way down the steps.
Her eyes looked straight into the
depths of his as her face almost touch
ed him. He was sure that she had felt
the mad impulse to take her in his
arms that quivered in every nerve and
muscle of his body, for his hand trem-
bled and she smiled.
| At her stateroom door she paused,
smiled again and said:
Good night"
| His answer was very low.
Good night"
| But he didn't spend a good night.
The longer he thought of it the more
sinister and dangerous he felt his posi-
tion At last he squarely faced the
fact that his desire for Nan had in
creased hundred-fold by the fact that
he had lost her, and that it might be-
come a dangerous mania under the
conditions of physical nearness which
this little schooner made inevitable.
| AS he sat in the darkness in his
stateroom he could hear every sound
in the adjoining one which she occu-
pied as plainly as if the thin panelling
of wood were not between them.
He was a fool to be caught in such
la trap! His love had been too big and
serious a tragedy to end in a vulgar
| intrigue There was something pain
| full and stupefying in the spell which
she threw over his senses. He realized,
too, that she had put him practically
at her mercy by the promise he had
given. And what made it all the more
dangerous was that she was sincere,
and apparently sure of herself.
He made up his mind to cut his trip
short on some preteXt, and in the
meantime he would devote himself
faithfully to an attempt to start Biv-
ems on the road to a recovery of his
shattered health.
| At eight o'clock the next morning the
black nose of the Buccaneer slowly felt
her way into Hog Island Inlet on the
shores of old Virginia and dropped her
anchor in the deep waters of the chan
mel back of the sand spit on which the
U. S. Life Saving station is built.
AS Stuart stepped on deck a great
flock of thousands of brant swept in
from sea and pitched on the bar be-
yond the channel. A cloud of black
ducks circled gracefully overhead and
slowly spread out on their feeding
grounds beyond the brant.
His heart gave a throb of primitive
JOY. He was a boy again, and the
world was young.
"Confound them!" he cried. Ill show
these ducks u trick or two before this
trip is over"
He was glad he came. To the devil
with worry and women and all the
problems of the universe! He watch
ed the flight of the birds for half an
hour, entranced with the memories
they evoked. He made up his mind to
stay the whole month out and get even
with them for a hundred bitter disap-
pointments they had given him in the
past.
The long cleaning sweep of the
Broadwater bay, stretching from the
tip of the Cape Charles peninsula to
the mouth of the Delaware, was liter
ally alive with ducks.
Bivens had put him in command of
the little schooner and he gave orders
at once to lower a tender and tow her
to an old anchorage he knew in little
cove behind Gull Marsh.
And then his trouble began with
!. Bvens.
!. Stuart rushed to his stateroom and
described the prospects of great day
in the blinds with boyish enthusiasm
1t didn't move Bivens, except to rage.
Let 'em fly if they want to, I'm not
going to bulge. Go yourself, JIM"
Stuart was furious, and b gan to
talk to Bivens as if he were school
boy.
| ha oripl with