Charlevoix county herald., 1914-11-21
CHAPTER |.
The Derelict!

the more particular one should per
haps say that he swept his gaze
over that arm of The sea, which
forms the roadstead of Nagasaki
harbor.
1t was no new occupation for CAT
ford. Many an evening before he
had lounged on the piers and turned
his eyes about the harbor and
jingled the yen in his pockets,
unless perhaps the yen were not
there.
Presently he leaned his shoulders
against some bales, TERED behind
him, drew paper and tobacco from
a pocket, and rolled cigarette, With
the dizziness of practice.
He lit it and let the first waiff of
smoke dribble from his lips. Again
his eyes, brown and seemingly partly
filmed, turned narrowed pupils idly
across the glinting waters of the
bay.
Without any conscious perception,
he noted the shipping-the tugs
putting fussily about their business;
the great bankas loaded with their
varied cargoes; motor launch cut
ting a white path from pier. the
sampans, like water beetles, SKIM
ming here and there.
His gaze lifted and went farther
out to where a. great gray shape
showed a leviathan of war wallow-
ing in the tide. The sun-fag dropped
at her stern, its crimson rays cast
into ruddy radiance by the wester-
ing sun. The sound of a bugle
waited softly to his ears. Gafford
blew out more smoke.
They're nifty little beggars," he
muttered. Sharp as the devil and
shrewd-rather. The Koru is some
boat. Superdreadnaught, thirteen
inch rifles. All modern improve
ments, as tn. householders say. Oh,
we'll" He left his conclusion I'M
finished and tossed the cigarette
into the tide. He turned his half
where the war-ship lay.
They fell upon d trim white shape,
low, her funnel at rakish angle,
every line of her speaking plainly
of potential speed.
Yacht" said Gafford; mentally to
himself. Turbine, for guess.
Outrun anything but torpedo de-
stroyer, and make it hustle some"
He wriggled the naked toes Of a
bare foot and prinned. Some haze
meat and Gamma eat, and some can
eat and hae ma meat H. quoted,
and stretched his arms inside his
cotton shirt.
"Ho humv said Gafford; "it's
hell of worldw
Again he jingled the yen. "To eat
or not to eat-that rs the question"
he went on after an interval. ITO
eat or to dream-whether to pur-
chase the plebeian bowl of rice and
fish, and dull the voice of hunger or
WOO the insidious solace of the in
spissatei juice of peoples, and-for-
get? Well"
A ray Of the sinking sun fell upon
him and lit up his face and figure.
1t was a gaunt shape, though one
which showed that It had once been
that of a well-proportioned man.
The bony framework still dis
layed broad shoulders, though in
height he was certainly not more
than five-and-eight. Under HAIR as
black as that of the natives of Nip
pom, his face was lean, with the high
cheek bones of the fighter, and
square set of chin and jaw, which
should have given a firm set to his
lips rather than the lax drOop, which
seemed TO have become habitual
now.
His cotton shirt, open at the neck,
exposed the framework of a deep,
full chest, covered with emaciated
muscles, which might once have been
elastic and full. To all Of this the
lack luster eyes of brown gave the
kew. The man was derelict-one
Of those whites who, from one cause
or another, nave sunk beneath the
bondage of the poppy--who spend
their time and brain in earning the
which only opium can satisfy. He
was a self-made slave.
The waterfront of Nag. 5aki knew
him well. Beyond the day, when he
came there, they knew him not at
all. That day had been three years
ago.
Since then he had lived his hand
to-mouth existence, gathering his
few ven by work as a dock-hand,
boatman, a guide for tourists, by
petty work or pettier knavery, as
the case might be; spending them
for food for bare existence, nothing
sufficient to cover his body, and the
pleasure of the opium pipe. Yet,
even in his sullen dreams, no one
had ever heard him mutter of the
time before he came into that life.
But il was of that time that CAT
ford was thinking as he dumped
against the bales. There were times
when he wharf rats of Nagasaki
forgot that the sallow stranger, who
spoke to them in their own lam
guage, was not actually one of them
selves. There were times when for
DAYS Gafford forgot it himself and
gazed about him in a sort of sotted
content. But there were other times.
Today as his eyes swept the trim
lines Of the white boat, far out in
the bay, vagrant breeze had lifted
other bars of red and white than
those of the sun-fag to his vision.
For a moment they had streamed
before him-red and white about a
star-studded field Of blue. BY some
buried instinct he had felt a mo-
mentary Strengthening of his shout
ILL., N Iacira m IOff