Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-11-06
A Band Of
Velvet Ribbon
By JOHN Y. LARNED

duanlum OF young girls ana the Isl
deficit of young men for them to fiirt
with. Albert King, who needed recre-
alton after too much work. found him.
self in demand. But King was not
a ladies' man. and he demurred-
Nevertheless. there was one girl who
attracted him. She was not one of the
rocking chair brigade, as the ladies who
sat IN the piazza were dubbed, for she
ele. Why, King did not know.
King made her acquaintance and
was thereafter taboo by the patrician
girls, who had no use for a man who
would divide his attentions to them
with one of another caste. But he did
not mind this, for Ellen Bickford, the
young lady in question, Interested him
and relieved the monotony Of his stay
In the mountains. Besides, he discov-
cred her superiority in one respect.
courage. for when a large party were
caught out on the lake In a terrific
squat md it looked as II their boat
would be swamped Miss Bickford dis
played no terror whatever. while other
girls were desperately frightened.
Miss Bickford never wore short
sleeves to her dresses except at the
hotel dances, when she displayed a
well rounded neck and arms. But at
such times her right arm was inva-
riably encircled with a broad strip of
velvet. The fact that this part of her
arm-midway between the shoulder
and the elbow-was never exposed
soon began to excite comment That
there was something on her arm to
be concealed was evident; curiosity
stepped In and would know what 1t
was. But there vas a dignity about
Miss Bickford that caused curious per
sons to abstain from making inquiries,
sc the matter remained unexplained.
King was ignorant Of the gossip con-
corning what kind of blemish was
hidden under the velvet He had noticed
the fact of Miss Bickford's wearing Ii.
but had not troubled himself as to the
cause. II he thought of it at all he
ment of a scar, probably caused by
vaccination. But one day the rumor
reached his ears that Miss Bickford
was the daughter of a common sailor
who, when she vas a child, had tat
tooed on her arm an anchor. Since
lady this report naturally interested
him.
Whatever he may have thought of
Miss Bickford's origin, 1t seemed to
him unlike her to conceal any mark
OF 1t. He would rather expect her to
permit the whole world to know her
for exactly what She wHs.
Miss Bickford, it seems, was as much
attracted by Mr.. King as he was by her.
Moreover, she noticed that after a GER
tain period he seemed disposed to draw
away from her. She knew that what
she was c~oncealing was causing a
smothered commotion among the young
ladies of the hotel and inferred that
some one of the many stories that were
floating about concerning 1t had reach
ed him One day she frankly said to
him:
"Mr. King, have you heard the story
that / am the daughter of a common
sailor who tattooed an anchor on my
arm?'
81 have"
"You are the only person In this
house whose opinion l care for, but !
do care for yours and do not wish. so
far as you are concerned, to sail under
false colors. My father is or was a
landsman and had nothing to do with
what is under the circlet l wear. But
l do wear it to conceal something that
has been tattooed on my arm"
SHANK you very much for the pref
erence you have shown me and your
frankness. For the first time my Gu
riosity as to that ribbon has been ex-
cited, and since you have caused it ]
look to you to crafty it"
II assure you that it is nothing to be
ashamed Of"
els it anything to be proud of"
To this she assented haltingly.
eIn that case / insist upon seeing it."
After some persuasion she pulled the
ribbon down toward her elbow, and
there In blue ink under the skin were
the letters Heroine"
King looked at the word, then up at
the girls face and. with a smile, said:
~Come; tell the story. / am dying to
hear it."
'It is not much Of a story. For years
my family had a cottage on the sea-
coast. My summers were spent there
from the time l was six years old !
learned to swim like a duck and could
handle a boat as well as a boy. Our
cottage was on side of a neck Of
land. and a life saving station was on
the other side. One day on our side a
ship came ashore. The life men did
not know of her being there, and there
was not time In which to tell them
There were six men about to drown.
I nx1I1od o1rf in NV h0af and aQ we'd