Evening star., 1913-12-07
Continued from page s

single handed to TAHITI and charter pearl
ing schooner there to take him to where the
Andes lay.
The faith of this man of three-score in his
ultimate success was consuming in its in
tensity 1t was like blazing pillar of divine
fire before the eyes Of Pericles O'Brien.
"But what of Mrs. Thornton, Commo-
doreo Have you thought about leaving her
alone?' asked Pericles.
"She knows. Sing will care for her. All
/ am asking is for her-that may win back
from the sea enough SO that the remnant of
her life shall go out in protection and peace.
And the poet soul and red blood Of
Pericles gave answer in that moment.
go and conquer!" said ne, wringing a
hand from which age seemed to depart at
his touch.
THE next morning the wreck of the ship
: Andes, lying on reef in the far away
South Seas, was sold on the floor of the
Merchants Exchange for eight hundred dol
lars-a vessel that only few months pre-
viously had been worth hundred thousand.
And but three men knew for whose account
she was bid in,-Peric1es O'Brien, William
Thornton, and the broker who acted for
them. Three days afterward the Commo-
dore set sail on one of the yachtlike brlgan-
tines that carried the mails to Tahiti.
Ie11CleS " DIlcl kIlcW lIldl dS lOlS do IlC
lived he would never forget the parting Of
husband and wife in the cottage on Russian
Hill. He realized that the brave men he
had met in his time were but puppet shells
in comparison. There was something Spar
tan-lke in the way she let her mate go,
something pagan in her stoicisrn. If her
husband thought it right to do this thing,
it was right And yet, with her Christian
faith supreme at the last, she said:
"You will come back, Commodore You
will succeed, if you but keep your faith. =
1t was in the third week in May that the
Commodore set forth. A fortnight after
ward John Laysan came back from the East
to hear what had happened, and to say to his
partner:
"There was never anything like you on
land or sea beforeN
The beginning of July brought letter
from Tahiti telling of the Commodore's safe
arrival there and of his success in chartering
pearling schooner to take him to the Andes
That letter had been written a month pre-
viously; for mail comes up on laggard wings
out of the South Pacific. August and Sep
tember passed without other word from him;
but never for an instant in all this silence
did the faith of Abby Thornton waver: she
knew her Commodore would come back to
her!
THE golden brown days of October were
scattering their leaves in the path Of
November when out of the far seas came the
news that two months before the Gambler
Islands had been swept by devastating
tidal wave, and that a reef and big ship
that had been stranded on it had been swal-
lowed by the sea.
How to tell this news to Abby Thornton
was Pericles' first thought; his second, how
best to provide for her in what the Commo-
dore had called the remnant of life. With
this he remembered an envelop that Thorn
ton had given to him the day he sailed, which
he had said was to be opened in case he
should not return. Pericles got it out of the
safe now, and it was with great lifting of
spirits that his hands came first upon an in
surance policy for fifteen thousand dollars,
dated eight years previously and payable to
Mrs. Thornton. Next was a simple will
appointing Pericles executor and trustee Of
the estate of William Thornton, without
bond, and directing the immediate payment
to him of "three thousand dollars advanced
on behalf of the salvage Of the ship Andes. !"
And last was letter thanking Pericles for
his friendship and unfailing kindness, which
he read as through binding mist. One
paragraph in it stood out beyond all the
rest, vibrant with the suffering of a soul that
pain had stripped naked.