Evening star., 1914-01-11
Continued from page 4

the ultimate sacrifice, whatever it might be-
aWhy, Sir" he began. @Yes, Sri ran
out toto get "a plug O tobacco
No sooner was this clumsy lie out than
he knew it would never stand.
Tobacco! And l ran right aboard
You unconscionable little liar! You left this
pier to phone to the Red Stacks! That's
what you didl'
3Oh!' said Danny weakly, and grasping
at last that it was he, not Long, whom the
general manager had been pursuing.
am sure he wouldn't do anything like
that" put in Long, his usually forid face
shot with the paleness of death.
@You don't know what happened, Long.
George says you were aboard the Dread
nought and asleep. Isn't that right9'
"That's right said Danny swiftly, and
cutting the answer out of the other boys
mouth. Herewith Warren leveled his guns
upon him again.
"You little whelpl You're the one who
has been selling us out Get out of here!
Never put foot on this pier or on Black
Stack again! Get!'
Danny put his arms out before him de-
fensively.
"Get out of here!- and then he called him
what had cost the Sea Lions boy beating.
The little fellows cap fell from his grasp,
and the rigidity of iron seemed to enter his
form. For second he stood looking up at
Warren with a fearful, haunting challenge
in his eyes. 1t was blow to which the gen
eral manager had no counter. Joel Warren,
who had never been afraid of any man, was
not to forget that look all the rest of his days.
Suddenly relaxing, Danny stopped, picked
UP his cap, and walked out of the Office, and
Bob Long weakly let him go.
A S the boy cleared the pier gate he took
to his heels and ran blindly. His one
thought was to get away-far away and
alone somewhere with his hurt. His was
the instinct that sends wild animals seeking
caves and lairs to lick their wounds. But
presently his breath grew short, and con-
sciousness of things outside himself made
him stop and look up. He was at the doors
of Saint Mary's, the rambling brick hospital
on Rincon Hill, where most of the ports sea
MANNED and sick find harbor. Here was sur-
cease. Deep Water was there. Croghan
would listen to him; he would straighten
out things; he would understand.
But even as the thought formed Danny
drew back. al couldn't lie to hin!" he
sobbed aloud. San can't be- won't be
squealer!' and turning, he fled like the
wind back toward the waterfront, not seeing
or hearing Margaret Mason, who was just
leaving the hospital and stood on the steps
and called after him. Nor did he know that
Sister Mary Vincent, who kept ward of the
hospitals doors that day, and to whom
hearts in pain were as open books, sent
prayer from the depths of her soul following
his speeding feet.
That afternoon Warren told Deep Water
what had happened overnight and during
the morning. With mighty curse Croghan
sat up in bed, and in language that only he
would have dared use to the general man.
ager told him that Danny would no more
have betrayed the Black Stack Company
than he would. And when, under swearing
of eternal secrecy, he had told Warren what
Danny had done out of loyalty for the
widow of Gus the Dane, great heaviness
entered the general managers heart.
@Find him and send him to me, Joel, or
I'll never forgive you!T was Croghan's part
ing injunction to the general manager; but
no word, no trace, of the lad was to be had.
TT was near the end of October before Deep
Water left Saint Mary's, and all this while
Bob Long had kept away from him. Where
others had failed in finding trace of Danny,
Croghan succeeded, and that on the morning
he quit the hospital. He discovered that on
the day after Warren had discharged him he
had shipped as fremen's messboy on a
steamer in the Hawaiian trade and deserted
her at Honolulu.