The Nevada County picayune., 1917-05-31

hoL tdhE up SO iuuCA IDDIu d> they do now. They wanted to use Nolan's stateroom for something. and they hated to do 1t without asking him to the ball; so the captain said they might ask him, if they would be re- sponsible that he did not talk with the wrong people. ''who would give him intelligence So the dance went on, the finest party that had ever been known, I dare say; for I never heard Of q man-of-War ball that was not. For ladies they had the family Of the American consul one or two travellers who had adventured so far. and q nlco beyy of English girls and matroas, per haps Lady Hamilton herself.
 Well, different officers relieved each other in standing and talking with No Ian in a friendly way, so as to be sure that nobody else spoke to him. The dancing went on with spirit and after q while even the fellows who took this honorary guard of Nolan ceased to fear any contretemps. only when some English lady-Lady Hamilton, as I said. perhaps, called for set of American daneers.n an odd thing hap pened. Everybody then danced con- tredances. The black band nothing loath. conferred as to what American dances were. and started off with Virginia Reel.' which they followed with "Money-Mu>E. which. in its turn in those days, should have been fol- lowed by The Old Thirteen But just as Dick. the leader, tapped for his fiddlers to begin. and bent forward, about to say, in true negro state. The old Thirteen gentlemen and ladies p as he had said. 'kirEiHny Reel if you please" "'Moner- Musk if you please ," the captains boy tapped him on the shoulder. whispered to him, and he did not announce the name af the dance; he merely bowed. began or the air, and they all fell to. the off, cers teaching the English girls the figure, but hot telling them why it had no name.
 But that is not the story I started 10 tell. As the dancing went on. No Ian and our fellows all got at ease. as I said, so much SO that it seemed quite natural for him to bow to that splendid Mrs. Graf, and say:
 T hope you have not forgotten me, Miss Rutledge. Shall have sle hon. or of dancingp
 He did it so quickly that Shubrick, who was by him. could not hinder him. She laughed and said
 ''I am not Miss Rutledge any longer Mir. Nolan; but will dance alI the same just nodded to Shubriak. as if to say he must leave Mir Nolan to her, and led him off to the place where the dance vas forming.
 Nolan thought he had got his chance. He had known Yer at Philadelphia, and at other places had met her, and this Was a Codsend. You could not talk ia contredances, as you do in cotildons, or even in the pauses of Waltzing; but there were chances for tongues and sounds. as well as for eyes and bushes. He began with her travels, and Europe, and Vesuvius, and the French; and then, when they had worked down. and had that long talk ing tilne at the bottom of the set, he said boldly, little pale, she said, as she told me the story, years after:
 And what do you hear from home, Mrs Gram"
 And that splendid creature looked through him. .Iayel how she must have looked through him 'Home!. AIr Nolan!i, thought you were the man who never wsgted 10 hear If home again :" and she walked directly up The deck to her husband aad left poor Nolan alone, a. he always H4s. He did not dWee again.
 l cannot give any history of him order; nobody can new; and indeed, l am not trying to. These are the tru- dueAs. which l sort oHt as ] believe them, from the myths which have been fafd atout this man for forty years. The fellows used 10 say De Vas the Iron Mask" and poor George Fous went tu his grave in the belief that this Was the author nf "Jun.us. 1ho was being punisbe4 for his celebrated libel ou Thomas Jefferson. Poas Was H8f very ~traHg iH tHe Iii .1r.eai line \ happier storF than either of these have teIl is of the war That eaHe along soon after. l have heard this atIair told in three or four Ways. and Indeed fl may have happened more than once. But which ship il was on 1 cannot tolL However, in ane. at teasf. of the great frtsate duels with fhe Eae.l-h. in which the navy was rHaliR baptized II happened that a round shot from the enemy entered one of our ports quare, and took rieht down thc officer of the gan AIHee.f. and almost every man ef the guns crew. Now you may say what you choose about courage, but that is not d nice thing to see. But as the men Who were not killed picked themselves up, and the surgeons people Were ear rying off the bodies, there appeared Nolan. in his shirt sleeves. with the rammer in his hand, and, just as if he