The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1912-02-02


gaining but a fugitive glimpse of
profile sweetly serious; nor had she
appeared either at breakfast or lunch
con. A circumstance which led him
to surmise that she did not court OBJ
servation: an idiosyncrasy which
seemed passing strange in a woman
so fair.
He told himself that she wore an
air OF watchfulness, of vague expec-
fancy, as though she, like himself,
feared some untoward mishap; that
| she had the manner of one definitely
apprehensive, constantly on guard
against some unforeseen peril.
Now, he asked himself, what could
it be? What threatened her? Aad
why?
| He dimly promised himself the
pleasure of her acquaintance, relying
in the rapid intimacy that springs up
between strangers on long voyage,
with a still more indefinite intention
| of putting himself at her service In
any cause that she might be pleased
to name, Professionally: she must not
interfere with his plans for reaching
Rangoon Gin ninety days"
| That night he was hoping to find
the lady at dinner; but though the
ships company was small, he failed
! to see her in the saloon, at either the
| captains, the chief officers or the
| doctors table; nor, so far as he could
determine, was she taking the air on
deck. Was it possible, then, that he
had been right, that she had a reason
equally as compelling as his own for
secluding herself? Or, was it simply
(and infinitely more probably that
| Mrs. Prynne was indisposed, an ener-
waited victim of excessive heat?
The latter conjecture proved ap-
parently the right one, Mrs. Prynne
failing to appear during the two fol-
lowing days, while the Panjnab was
rocking down the Red Sea channel;
and ORourke grew interested enough
| Che had little else to occupy his mind
for duller voyage he had never
known) to give Danny permission to
pursue his inquiries: with an injunc-
ton, however, prohibiting too lavish
an expenditure of the boys wealth Of
affection. Whereupon Danny return
ed with the information that the mis-
tress of Cecile, the maid, was suffer
ing from heat exhaustion.
This was entirely reasonable.
O'Rourke accepted the demolition of
his airy castles of Romance, laughed
at himself, in part was successful in
putting the woman out of mind !;
doubtless, in time, he would have done
so altogether, had not the lady chosen
to take the air the night that the
Panjnab negotiated the Straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb. For On that same
night, O'Rourke, himself wakeful. was
minded to sit up and watch the lights
of Perrin Island heave into view.
ORourke, in a deck-chair on the
starboard side, we'll cloaked in the
shadow of the deck above, watch
ed the other passengers, one by one
quiet their chatter, yawn, stretch and
slip below to stuffy staterooms
He suffered q dreamy eye to rove
where it would, greedy of the night S
superb illusion.
upon his consciousness like a physical
shock. He verified the hour by his
watch and, reluctantly enough, agreed
that it was tine he got himself tG
bed. He half rose from his chair, then
sank back with an inaudible catch OF
his breath. Without warning the ap-
partition of a Whitehead woman had
invaded the promenade deck For an
instant he hardly credited his eyes,
then, with nod of recognition, he
identified Mrs Prynne.
Unquestionably unconscious of his
presence in the shadow, she fell to
pacing to and fro. Now and again,
she stopped, and with chin Graded in
her small hands, elbows on the rail
watched the approaching cliffs of
Arabia; then, with perhaps a sigh, re-
turned to her unumely constitutional.
Partly because he had no wish to
startle her, partly because he was
glad to watch unobserved Che had a
rare eye for beauty, the O'Rourke)
the wanderer sat on without moving,
stirred only by active curiosity. The
strangeness of her appearance upon
deck at such an hour fascinated his
imagination no less than her person
held his eye. He gave himself over
to vain and profitless speculation.
Why, he wondered, should she
keep to her cabin the greater part of
the evening, only to take the air when
none might be supposed to observe
her?
Why, if not to escape such observa-
ton? Then, he told himself, he must
be right in his superstition that she
had something to fear, someone t.
avoid What or whom? What was il
: all, what the mystery that, as he
watched her, seemed to grow, to Cling
, about her like some formless, i'm
palpable garment?
Events conspired to weave the mar