Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-06-15

foreign papers that came into the ship
sooner or later. only somebody must
go over them first and cut out any ad-
vertisement or stray paragraph that
alluded to America. Phillips told me a
story of something which happened at
the Cape of Good Hope on Nolan's first
voyage. and it is the only thing | ever
knew of that voyage. Phillips had
borrowed a lot of English books from
an officer, which in those days, as in
deed in these, was quite a windfall.
Among them, as the devil would order,
was the Lay of the Last Minstrel"
which they had all of them heard of.
but which most of them had never
seen. | think it could not have been
published long. Well. nobody thought
there could be any risk of anything ma
tional In that. so Nolan was permit
ted to join the circle one afternoon
when a lot of them sat on deck smok-
ing and reading aloud. Nolan took the
book and read to the others. and he
read very well. as know. Nobody In
the circle knew a line of the poem.
only it was all magic and border chiv-
airy and was 10000 years ago. Poor
Nolan read steadily through the fifth
canto, stopped a minute and drank
something and then began. without a
thought of what was coming:
"Breathes there the man with soul so
dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own. my native land?"
Then they all saw something was to
pay, but he expected to get through, /
suppose. turned a little pale. but
plunged on:
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned
AS home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering ON a foreign strand?
If such there breathe. go, mark him we'll"
By this time the men were all beside
themselves. wishing there was any
way to make him turf over two pages.
but he had not quite presence of mind
for that. He gagged a little. colored
crimson and staggered on:
For him no minstrel raptures swell.
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite these titles, power and pelf,
The wretch. concentrated all in SELF
And here the poor fellow choked, could
not go on, but started up, swung the
book into the sea, vanished into his
stateroom, land, by Jove," said Phil
lips. I'VE did not see him for two
months again. And | had to make up
some beggarly story to that English
surgeon why did not return his Wal
ter Scott to him."
That story shows about the time
when Nolan's braggadocio must have
broken down. AT first they said be
took a very high tone, considered his
Imprisonment a mere farce. affected to
enjoy the voyage. and all that, but
Phillips said that after he came out of
his stateroom the same
again unless it was the Bible or Shake
sreire or something else he was sure
of. He was always shy afterward
when | knew him-very seldom spoke
unless he was spoken to, except to a
very few friends. He lighted up occa-
sionally, but generally he had the nerv-
Gus, tired look of a heart wounded
man.
Nolan's transfer at sea to the War
rem was the first of some twenty such
transfers. which brought him sooner
or later into half u best vessels, but
which kept him all his life at least
some hundred miles from the country
he had hoped he might never hear of
again.
1t may have been on that second
cruise-it was once when he was up
the Mediterranean-that Mrs. Graft.
the celebrated southern beauty Of those
days, danced with him. They had
been a long time in the bay of Naples.
and the officers were very intimate
In the English fleet. and there had been
great festivities, and our men thought
they must give a great ball on board
the ship. They wanted to use Nolan's
stateroom for something, and they hat
ed to do it without asking him to the
ball, so the captain said they might
ask him if they would be responsible
that he did not talk with the wrong
people, ''who would give him intelli-
gence." For ladies they had the fam
lily of the American consul. one or two
ira velers who had ventured SO far and
a nice beyy of English girls and ma
irons, perhaps Lady Hamilton herself.
AS the dancing went on. Nolan and
our fellows all got at ease, as l said
so much SO that it seemed quite natu-
raj for him to bow to that splendid
Mrs. Graft and say:
II hope you have not forgotten me,
Miss Rutledge. Shall | have the hon.
or of dancing?"
He did it SO quickly that Shubrick,
who was by him, could not hinder
him. She laughed and said:
II am not Miss Rutledge any longer.
MI. Nolan, but | will dance all the
same" just nodded to Shubrick as If
to say he must leave Mr.. Nolan to her
and led him off to the place where the
dance was forming.
Nolan thOught he had got his chance.