Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-07-16
CHAPTER vi.
Quicksands.

cue of the mate, Charlotte Farnham
awoke with the conviction that she had
beer r..iraculously saved from incur
ring the penalties dealt out to those
who rush blindly into the thick or
things without due thought and care
full consideration.
But the Puritan conscience was not
to be entirely silenced. Reason sits
in a higher seat than that occupied by
the senses, and reason argued that
man who would forgive his enemy and
instantly risk his life in proof of the
forgiveness, could not be a desperate
criminal. Conscience pointed out the
alternative A little careful investiga-
ton would remove the doubt-or con-
firm 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
remarked it, naming 1t malaria ana
prescribing quinine. Whereat Char
IOIIe ulSSeHlDlcu put Oh q aheoN ~
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 it's miracles.
1t was possibly ten minutes later,
while she stood leaning against
stanchion and watching the lights of
a 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 a 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 Farm
f,,l nf hic norliar clin he
passed her as if she had been invisible.
She let him go until her opportunity
was all but lost; then, plucking csur-
age out of the heart of desperation
she spoke.
Zone moment, If you please; II
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.
II 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
seemed powerless to surmount.
II thought perhaps-I 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
overplenty and another mans need.
Have you ever known what it means
to go hungry for sheer povcrty's sake?
but, of course, you haven't?"
NO" she admitted.
"Well, have. I was hungry that
morning; very hungry. I know this
doesn't excuse the thing-to you. But
perhaps it may help to explain it,"
II think I can understands little.
But surely"
He stopped her with quick little
gesture.
IT know what you are going to say
that 1 should have been willing to
work, or even to beg, rather than
not willing to beg. I know it is all
wrong from your point Of view; but
should be sorry to have you think
that I did what I believed to be
wrong"
But think of it; if you are right.
everyone else must be wrong!"
mo; not quite everyone. But that
is very large question, and we need
cd was unconventional; little more
summary than that of the usurers and
the strictly legal robbers. but quite as
defensible. For they rob the poor
and the helpless, while l merely dis
possessed one rich corporation of a
portion of its exactions from the
many"
'"Then you are not sorry? l saw
you yesterday afternoon and hoped
you WERE"
He laughed unpleasantly. 81 was
sorry, then, and 1 am now; for the
same reason. / have lost the money"
Lost it?" she gasped. "How?"
Il had hidden it. and suppose
someone else has found it. 1t is all
right, so far as the ownership is con-
cerned; but I am still self-centered
enough to be chagrined about it."
But you must have returned it in
the end. You could never have been
content to keep it."
do you think so?" he rejoined. "I
think I could have been quite content
to keep it. But that is past; it is
gone, and I couldn't return it if 1
wanted to-"
NO." she acquiesced; land that
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
any event. Let me tell you what I
hnl hn "a