The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-09
Euening Story
How PelIy Paid.
Ry>wuJ. r. AMEs

products of one people to the markets
of another were rotting on the floor
of the sea, sent there by the Germans,
and because in consequence freight
rates were SO high that it paid better
to take mad chances with the lives of
sailors than to lay vessels up for re-
pairs, the Twin Sisters dragged a
jangIe of loose plates thru a West In
dian tornado for fourteen hours, and
then, after screaming for aid till her
wireless broke down, damned her nose
under and went to the bottom in the
midst of bowling darkness.
Five days thereafter Fenton Pelly,
dressed in the completely new clothes
that had replaced the outfit he lost in
the Twin Sisters, called at the home
of Constance Brand, bringing her the
story of sunny Frank Sudbury's
stragic end.
They had known each other long,
these three-ever since Constance was
a pupil in the grammar school where
she taught, and the boys, older by a
year or two, played the part of rivals
for her favors. Later, in. their grown
up time, Pelly had taken 1t rather
badly when Constance, spurred by his
persistence, had told him fatty that
her choice of Frank Sudbury was de-
liberate, irrevocable and quite beyond
his undoing.
( Fenton sfleered a little at her
choice. for already he was a seagoing
man with an engineers papers, while
Frank had not yet found himself.
Then came the war. and Frank, serv-
ing in the navy, by the time it was
over had discovered that his lines OF
life lay on blue water, too.
That's how he came to be second
officer of the freighter Twin Sisters
that night when she went down in the
tropic storm, and how Pelly came to
be the bearer of the tidings, for fate
had shangl1aied them into the same
ship
Constance, white faced dry eyed,
clineing to her woman's pride and
courage, with fingers that were
bloodless where they gripped the book
in her lap, listened without a word or
sign Pelly was respectful, unimagina-
tive, bit 'stolid as always. He talked
along in a monotone, as if he had re-
hearsed the tale over and over on his
way. to make easier the breaking of
the news.
Eat the last" he said, ''tho we'd
been expecting it for hours, the end
came sudden like. She preached to
and twisted herself all out of shape
like a rotten stick; you could feel the
slump under you when those old
rivets began to 60 1t was just like
the tearing of a worn out rag. She
ripped wide open AMI the whole At
lantie ocean came in. OF course it
was case of piling into the boats
and getting away from her-if we
could. There were nineteen people in
our company; and four boats-more
than enough. Six of us got into one
of them and got it into the water, right
side UP byagood luck. Something hap
pened to the other boat on that side of
the ship, for it came down tail first,
as near as we could see, and dumped
the crew into the sea.
The lights were burning-they
burned to the last, for the electrical
plant was on the main deck-and 1
could make out Franks white sweater,
the only one on the ship. He was in
that boat. When the boat came down
by the run we put about and headad
for the spot. The sea was running in
enormous. great swells. with very little
chop. ( -
Those men shot out from under
the lee of the ship like chips and we
contrived to get them all except
Frank. He was swimming and man
aged to get as close to us as 1 am to
you. 1 reached out both hands to
grab him-and he threw up his arms
and went down.
That was the story. It made in
Constance Brands lonely life the diff
ference between noon and midnight,
between a dream day in May and a
STARK mld-W1nter blizzard.
Her parents were dead; serious, pur.
posefui. she had made few light
friendships: outside her work Frank
Sudbury had filled her existence for
years. She found herself now living
/, in q spiritual vacuum. A vast, resent
/ ful unrest filled her. She became
afraid of her own rebellious thoughts.
In this mood Fenton Pelly supplied,
in some unaccountable way, a link
6anI Gu
not liked the man too well, but he
had been there in the last terrible
scene-and he had tried to save her
lover. -
.As the weeks passed she admitted
hin to some share in her life, as he
had been a sharer in its tragedy. And
Pelly, with tactfulness and de1icacy
beyond what she had deemed him
capable of found ways of making
himself well nigh Indispensable. He
was with her a great deal
He had decided to stay ashore, he
and was looking into the garage bust
ness.
At last Felly poured out his heart
again. Constance, softened toward
the man and thinking of herself as
one whose wrecked life could there
after yield some shreds of content
only in giving happiness to others. did
not definitely deny him. 1t was too
soon, she said, for such thoughts. As
for the future-who could tell?
At the end of four months, because
I he had been cautious and discreet
and very kind. and devoted himself
to her wholly, there came an evening
When the time seemed ripe to Pelly
to clinch his chain. They stood at the
gate of Constance's boarding place
Pelly, with a world Of Difference and
an obvious struggle to muster the
needed courage, placed his hand over
Observation-Disclosures
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