New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-01-11

"You can bet. your last dollar on one
thing" declared the skipper, that had been on the
examining board I'd have done more than throw hnn
on the beach You see his tug had tow Of scows' and
when the up he left those poor devils to go
down and ran for port The fact that the scows out
lasted the storm and that they picked another
boat proves that Captain Ritter could have stood by
That's the way look at It too asserted the chei
officer THAT man was a quitcr-thats what he was.
And there amt any man in the world as rotten as a
gutter. Somehow you can forgive a plckpocNc'' or d
murderer in most cases; but there no one has any use
cor qultterl lisa pity they coudn nave sent NiOci
10 the penl'
Burmah suddenly decided that some other part OF the
deck would be more comfortable for him, and moved
awav but the echo of the voices still followed nm with
accusation inssteny repeating honest mems opinions
OF such as he And then he began to wonder at himself
and to think the situation over, duly holding tribunal
Of the soul in which he put himself on trial. one-ha OF
himself the prosecutor the other half the defendant
His brain felt tired, and he not certain that the
game Of life was worth playing, after all He knew that
he now had sufficient money TO retire for the remainder
Of his days retreating place where he was un
known and where he hoped to be respected; but always
there came again from his ample reservoirs Of common
sense the certain knowledge that wherever he went there
would be the fear that someone would come who kne"
him. and would expose him for what he was, GUTTER
man who had betrayed his best friend by running away
when everything was at stake.
He began a closer analysis Of his flight, and was sur
prised to find that it was not acuatcd much by the
actual humiliation of meeting his Victims and beng
stripped of reputation by their charges as 1t was
through fear Of facing Arabca, the Colonel Hubbard
and the quartet from Chattanooga. rs for what Thorn
ton Sprague, and Carleton might have SAID, he could
have listened to them grinned, and said, well, what
are YOU goin' to DO about It, now that you've told
what easy little marks you were; You've got nothn
on me for the courts, YOU know.
But those others, He knew that he was hungry
for the love and esteem Of clean people, who never tai
tered where honor was involved Moreover, he was
sure that never again in the world would he find those
he could love he had learned to love them All then
faings now became amusing, and all their virtues mag
nifed. Even Hubbards genius recognized as being
something big and worthy. The Colonel financial sim
plcton that he was, loomed in Burmahs memory a
giant OF kindly nobility fine to be furnished by
the sorddncss Of greed big and sincere to be tram
mecd bv conventions.
But how had these former dupes Of his learned that
he was there in Port Hatch? 1t could not have been
chance alone that had worked to this end. Yet chance
might have set sgnpost for his undong, despite all his
efforts He had fought throughout was his habit, &c
keep in the background and to keep his out Of the
newspapers; yet despite his utmost and self efface
mcnt the newspapers had come TO regard HIM as the
one in the hmeight Of achievement and to refer
to the Colonel only in a good-natured, whimsical way
whenever he had perpetrated some other extrava-
CANA. That must be the manner in which Thornton
and the others had learned Of his presence Port Hatch
Monaires that they were they might have left one SC
humble Burmah Jones alone; but that trait Of get
ting even seemed TO be pretty general one, from
which his victims were not immune. Also, Burmah adj
mitted, they might be acting from OF duty, the
duty Of preventing other men from becoming his dupes
They might have been visiting Seattle picked up news
paper made few inquiries, and then decided it al
obligation TO visit Port Hatch and notify its residents
the Colonel everyone, to beware. They would find one
Lester.
Al The thn,,rht ~ tho l1 n..l -l had