The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-08-14

out the alternative. A little carefuI
investigation would remove the doubt
or confirm it. Somebody on the
boat must know the deckhand, or
know enough about him to establish
his real identity.
Charlotte worried over the wretched
ENHANCEMENT all day, and was SO dis
trait and absent-minded that her aunt
rems ked it, naming it malaria and
presc 5ing quinine. Whereat Char
lotte dissembled and put on mask of
cheerfulness, keeping it on until after
the evening meal and her aunt's early
retiring But when she was released
she was glad enough to go out on the
promenade just forward of the star
board paddle-box, where there were
no after-dinner loungers, to be alone
with her problem and free to plunge
once more into its intricacies.
1t was possibly ten minutes later,
while she stood leaning against
stanchion and watching the lights of
distant town rise out of the watery
horizon ahead, that chance, the final
arbiter in so many human involve
ments, led her quickly into the valley
of decision. She heard mans step
on the steeply pitched stair leading
down from the hurricane deck. Before
she could turn away he was confront
ing her: the man whose name on the
Belle jules crew roster was John
Wesley Gavitt.
Griswold's appearance was less for
tuitous than it seemed to be. As re-
ward of merit for having saved the
mates life, he had been told off to
serve temporarily as man-of-all-work
for the day pilot, who CHANGED to be
without steersman. His watch in
the pilothouse was over, and he was
on his way to the crews quarters be-
low when he stumbled upon Miss
Farnham. Mindful of his earlier slip.
he passed her as if she had been in
visible. She let him go until her op-
pOrtunity was all but lost; then, pluck
ing courage out Of the heart of des-
peration, she spoke.
"One moment, if you please; Il
want to ask you something, she fall
tered; and he wheeled obediently and
faced her.
Followed a pause, inevitable, but
none the less awkward for the one
who was responsible. Griswold felt
rather than saw, her embarrassment,
and was generous enough to try to
help her.
81 think l know what you wish to
say: you are quite at liberty to say
it," he offered, when the pause had
grown into an obstacle which she
n
81 thought perhaps had hoped
oh, for goodness sake, why did you
do it?" she burst out, no longer able
to fence with the weapons of Indirect
ness.
He answered her frankly
1T was the old story of one mans
overp1enty and another mans need.
Have you ever known what it means
to go hungry for sheer poverty s
sake ?-but, of course, you haven't"
mo-" she admitted.
well, I have; l was hungry that
morning; very hungry. 1 know this
doesn't excuse the thing-to you But
perhaps it may help to explain it."
81 think I can understands little.
But surely
He stopped her with a quick little
gesture.
81 know what you are going to say
that 1 should have been willing to
work, or even to beg, rather than
steal. 1 was willing to work; I was
not willing to beg. 1 know it is all
wrong from your point of view; but
| should be sorry to have you think
that 1 did what I believed to be
wrong"
But think of it; if you are right
everyone else must be wrong!"
No; not quite everyone. But thai
is a very large question, and We
needn't go into it. l confess that my
method was unconventional; a little
more summary than that of the usu
rers and the strictly legal robbers, bu
quite as defensible. For they rob the
poor and the helpless, while l merel1
dispossessed one rich corporation O
a portion of its exactions from thu
many"
Then you are not sorry? 1 saw
you yesterday afternoon and hopeC
you WERE"
He laughed unpleasantly. ct wa
sorry, then, and 1 am now; for tn,
same reason. have lost the money.
Lost it?" she gasped "How?"
81 had hidden it, and suppose some
one else has found it. It is all RICH;
so far as the ownership is concerned
but I am still self-centered enough f
be chagrined about it,
But you must have returned it i,
the end. You could never have bee
content to keep it"
DO you think SOP he reioined. "
think could have been quite corsen
to keep it. But that is past: it /
gone, and I couldn't return it If
wanted to-
No." she acouiesced; "and tina
J makes it all the harder"
For you to do what you must do
But you mustn't think of that
. shouldn't have made restitution in an
PLUCK 1t out with their biIIe -