The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-06-15

you go one inch off the straight. I'll blow this police whistle from my win dow and the affair goes out of hands forever
 The sailor thought for a little Ihe3 he struck his leg with his great sun-burned hand.
 "rH chance it." he cried. "I be- ueVe you are a man of your word, and a white man, and I'll tell you the whole story But one lining will say first. So far as I am concerned, regret nothing and I fear nothing, and I would do it all again, and be proud of the job. Damn the beast, if he had as many lives as a cat, he would owe them all to me! But it's the lady. Mary-Mary Fraser-for never will I call her by that accursed into trouble. I who would give my life just to bring one smile to her dear face, it's that that turns my soul into water. And yet-and yeIt-what story, gentlemen, and then I'll ask you. as man to man, what less could I do.
 1T must go back a bit. You seem to know everything, so I expect that you know that I met her when she was a passenger and I was first off, CT of the Rock Of Gibraltar. From the first day met her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyage loved her more, and many a time since have I kneeIed down in the darkness of the night watch and kissed the deck of that ship because I knew her dear feet had trod 1t She was never engaged to me She treat ed me as fairly as ever a woman treated a man I have no complaint to make It was all love on my side, and all good Comradeship and friendship on hers When we part ed she was 3. free woman, but could never again be a free man
 Next time I came back from sea, I heard of her marriage Well. why shouldn't she marry whom she liked? them better than she? She was born for all that is beautiful and dainty l didn't grieve over her mar riage was not such a selfish hound luck had come her way, and that she had not thrown herself away on a penniless sailor That's how l loV- ed Mary Fraser
 "WeIi [ never thought to see her again. but last voyage I was pro- m oted, and the new boat was not yet launched. so had to wait for a couple of months with my people at Sydenham One day out in a coun- try lane I met Theresa Wright, her old maid She told me all about her about him, about everything tell you, gentlemen, it nearly drove me mad This drunken hound, that he should dare to raise his hand to
  to lick! met Theresa again. Then I met Mary herseIf-and met her again. Then she would meet me no more But the other day l had Q notice that I was to start on my Voy- age within a week. and determined that would gee her once before l left. Theresa was always my friend, for she loved Mary and hated this villain almost as much as l d1d From her I learned the ways of the house. her own little room downstairs. crept round there last night ana scratched at the window. At first she would not open to me. but in her heart I know that now she loves ! me, and she could not leave me In | the frosty night She whispered to me | to come round to the big front win 1 dow and I found 1t open before me. l so as to let me into the dining room. | gain I heard from her own lips things that made my blood boil. and | again cursed this brute, who Inis- handled the woman I loved. Well, ! I was standing with her 1 just inside the window, in all inno- ! cence as God is my judge, when he | rushed like q madman Into the room, | called her the vilest name that man | could use to q woman, and welted | her across the face with the stick he | had in his hand. I had sprung for | the poker, and It was a- fair fight be- i uS. his first blow fell. Then 1t was my | turn, and I went through him as if 1 he had been a rotten pumpkin. Do | you think I was sorry? Not Y It | was his life or mine, but far more than that, it was his life or hers, for how could I leave her in the power | of this madman? That was how ! killed him. Was l wrongS Well, | then, what would either of you gen tIeren have done, if you had been in . my pOSitiOnp
 "She had scream med when he struck | her, and that brought old Theresa down from the room above There l was a bottle If wine on 1he sideboard, l and I opened it and poured Q little between Afary's lips for she was half lead with shock. Then I took a drop myself. Theresa was as cool as ice. and it was her plot as much as mine We must make it appear that burg ars had done the thing. Theresa kept on repeating our story to herlt