Mexico Missouri message., 1916-02-10


occupied a large room that overlooked
the quay. Even if there had been
better hotel in town he would not have
moved.
He was not lonely. He wandered
interested through all the struggling
city. When he was too lazy to go to
the city he sat in the precarious bal
cony of his room and watched the city
come to him.
Almost a month had passed since he
landed on his Lethean shore, and it
had served him well. The world
seemed to have tlme-servers in small
regard He began to think of his moth
er. He strolled over to the cable sta
ton. The offices were undergoing re-
pairs. The ground floor was unfur
nlshed save for table and one chair.
In the chair sat a chocolate-colored
employee with a long bamboo on the
floor beside him. Gerry's curiosity was
aroused. He went in and wrote his
message to his mother-just n few
words telling her he was all right. The
chocolate gentleman folded the mes
sage, slipped it into the split end Of
the bamboo and stuck it up through
a hole in the ceiling to the floor above.
Gerry smiled and then laughed at the
gravity with which his smile was re-
ceived. The man looked at him in
establishment. These English were all
mad and discourteous. What was
there to laugh at in Il man at work?
Gerry went out and rambled over
the city. Night came on. He was
restless. He wished he had not sent
the message. 1t was forming itself
into a link. He dined badly at a res
taurant and then wandered balk TO the
quay Arriving steamers were posted
on a blackboard under a street lamp.
The mail from New York was due to-
morrow. The consul's papers would
be full of the latest New York society
scandal-his scandal. He went to his
room and sat on the balcony watching
the varied craft preparing to drift out
on the tide. Suddenly he got up and
went down to the quay.
A long, raking craft was taking on
its meager provisions. Gerry engaged
its captain in pantomime parley. The
boat was bound for Penedo to take on
cotton. Gerry decided to go to Penedo.
Two of the crew went back with him
to get his baggage. The hotel was
closed. Gerry was the only guest and
he had his key. He had paid his
weekly bill that day, so there was no
need to wake up anyone. In half an
hour he and his belongings were
slowed on the deck of the Josephine
and she was drifting slowly down to
the bar.
Four days later they were off the
mouth Of the San Francisco. They
doubled in and tackled their way up
to Penedo. There was no life in Pen
edo. 1t was desolate and lonely com
pared with the Hotel d'Europe and the
lively quay; go when a funny little
stern-wheeler started up the river on
its weekly trip to Piranhas, Gerry
went with it.
Piranhas was a town of mud plas-
tered against a barren cliff. 1t made
no pretense to being alive. Here a
dead man could live in peace with his
surroundings. From fifteen miles up
the river came the rumble of the
mighty Paulo Alfonso falls, singing
perpetual requiem. Gerry established
himself in a howell of an inn that even
in this far retreat did not dare call
| itself hotel.
The only industry in Plranhas was
the washing of clothes and the women
did that. Fish were caught in great
quantities but fishing was not an in
dustry. Here man fished only when
he was hungry.
Gerry chartered a ponderous canoe.
At first he had a man to paddle him
up and down and sometimes across
the wide half-mile of water. But be-
fore long he learned to handle the
thing himself. The heavy work soon
trimmed his splendid muscles into
shape. He supplied the hosteIry with
a variety of fish.
One morning he awoke earlier than
usual. The wave Of life was running
high in his veins. He sprang up and,
| Sllll III MS pdJdiuuSt huIrlSu Out AOl
his morning swim. The break Of day
was gloriously chilly. A cool breeze,
hurrying up from the sea, was stead
lily banking up the mist that hung over
the river Gerry sprang into his canoe
and pushed off. He drove its heavy
length up stream. not in the teeth of
the current, for no man could do that,
but slirting the shore, selling on the
help Of every eddy and keeping an eye
out for the green swirling mound that
meant a pinnacle of rock just short
of the surface. He went farther up
the river than ever before. His mus
cles were keyed to the struggle. lie
passed the last jutting bend that the
boatmen on the river could master and
found himself in a bay protected by q
spit of sand, rock-tipped and foam
tossed where it reached the rivers
channel. From this point the river
was a chaos Of Jagged rocks that
fought the mighty tide hurled from