The Forrest City times., 1913-04-04
HORACE HAZELTINE

uSeu running III tHlS IIe. rOollsu thoughts they must seem to one who reads of them; worthy only to be chased with the idle. superstitious fears of young girls and old women, | and impossible to well-balanced, clear-headed man of twenty-nine. It and clearheaded. And yet the se- quel would tend rather to a contrary conclusion.
 Cameron was still reading the Her aid, and I sat with a pair of binocu- lars at my eyes sweeping the waters for the trailing smoke of a liner or some object of lesser interest.
 Presently the silence was broken by my companion.
 T see" he began, dropping the pa per to his knees, that China is really in earnest in her anti-opium cam paign. Two Peking officials have died from the effects of a toohasty break ing of the habit Men do not die in the attempt to obey mere paper re- forms. The Chinese are a wonderful old people. Clyde"
 l lowered my glasses, all at once in terested.
 You've been in China?" I asked
 No, l haven't" was his answer I've always meant to go; but when l was nearest, Ill news drew me home; and so l never got closer than Yoko- hama on one side, and Srinagar, in kashmir, on the other"
 You've seen something of them In this country, l suppose?"
 No. very little. I attended a din ner once at which Ii Hung Chang was the guest of honor; and I've eaten chop suey in one of those Chinese eating palaces they have in Chicago That's about the extent of my person al Chinese experience. But I have always been interested in the country and its people. I have read about everything that has been published on the subject. By the way, did they ever find out who killed that boy of Murphy's?"
 Not yet" I answered. They've had some of his own kind under sur veillance, but no more arrests have been made"
 Murphy was released?"
 Yes"
 He took up his paper again and once more l applied myself to sea gazing.
 Far away to the northeast I made out what appeared to me to be a sea- going tug or pilot boat, steaming, I thought, with rather unusual speed for a vessel of her class. It was not much of discovery, but the waters had been very barren that morning, especially for the last two hours, and insignificant as this object was I felt in manner rewarded for my vigil.
 Half an hour later she had slipped out of sight and l was busy in an ef- fort to pick her up again, when a cry from the lookout forward directed my attention to a floating speck possibly not more than point off our course
 Come" I said to Cameron, Tets go up on the bridge and have a look!' And have our trouble for our pains?" he returned. incredulously It's probably some bit of wreckage box or a cask."
 Very well, l agreed, starting of alone. Even box or cask is worth while as a variation"
 When on nearer approach the drift ing object proved to be a fisherman E dory, with a man, either dead or un- conscious. plainly dlscernible in the bottom, l should hardly have been hu man had l not experienced a degree 1 of satisfaction over Camerons failure as a prophet. That, however, was the least abiding of my sensations. In ar l Instant 1t had given way to anxiety i concerning the boats occupant anG l interest in the busiuess-like manner in which Macleod, the stocky young executive officer of the Sibylla, was 1 preparing to pick up our find
 The engine room had been signaled half-speed ahead, and already a sailor with a coil of rope in hand was sta 1 toned at the forward gangway. have frequently seen river pilots make ] landings that were marvels of clever calculation. but I never saw any steer ing more accurately gauged than that l by which Macleod, here in the oper sea, with the precarious swell and surge of ocean to combat. brought the yacht gliding within a bare thret inches of the rolling dory's bow. l was leaning over the rail as we came thus upon the castaway, ant saw clearly enough for just a moment the huddled creature in oilskins, silent and motionless in the stern, with closed eyes and wet, dark hair mat ted upon his forehead. Then a sailor dropping lightly into the boat. shut off my view for a little. There was whir of flung line; an exchange ot quick-spoken, and to me unintelligible words between the sailor in the dory and sailor standing beside me or , the yachts deck; and then, the line was taut and straining. and the dory which had sheered of astern, was be ing brought up slowly alongside.