New-York tribune., 1922-12-17

vHEN Cap'n Hendricks timbers
A are shivered in a railroad wreck
" he returns 10 his native Bayport
and his married sisters house
he. overfows with children and the tyran-
nous lOquacity OF a tedious brother-in-law.
Ose day he is hoisted abaft the dried sea-
weed piled on a truck wagon driven by his
former sea-cook, judah Cahoon, and pulled
more or less by a sedentary and lamentab!e
horse in the late summer Of its declining
years Oppressed by genteel poverty and
bis brother-in-law, Cap'n Kendrick finds
sanctuary with Cahoon. now a caretsker Of
the Minot estate.
Once more at peace. he wanders in the
garden 10 reconnoiter an incursion Of migra
tory and voraeious hens in open order upon
the vegetable beds. A the marauding Plym-
outh Rocks deploy in strategic retreat before
the power OF his brsndished erutch, the
Capn meets the fair young presence Of
Elizabeth Berry, whose mother is house
keeper for Pair Harbor, a home for mar
iners' women, or, in less ambiguous terms,
refuge for the worthy indigence Of thoae
whose husbands, fathers. brothers or eous-
ins-sses.removed have been lost at sea. The
clph is for the time retired from active
service, and in his thirty-eighth year. In
his modest sailor fashion he wonders If
man so weather-beaten, albeit worthy, can
ever win the reciprocal passion Of the ex-
snplsry Elizabeth.
Soon after Cap'n Kendriek is empowered
as administrator Of Fair Harbor lest Egbert
Philips, the crafty husband of the dead
beneficiary, return TO despoil the widow
women of their home, their mite and their
intsrminabfr squabbhng. AS a very pin
nasle Of diplomacy the Cap'n quells the
troubled waters Of spinsterine anger with
the sweet oil Of Establishment
But hist! and again more hist! The VII
lain returns, with his parted hair and his
city ways. his polish Of style and shoe, his
devious and unserupulOus Vaccinations
whereby even the fair young Elizabeth is in
veigled from her growing respect for that
faithful middle aged seadog, Cap'n Kendriek'
to faster growing respect for the urban IN
truder
These city fcllers are slieker than creased
lightning and more sly than buttered ineiines.
There is no getting away from their soft
answers that turn the other cheek, the dazzle
Of their locutions and their nice new kid
gloves. the creeping stealth whereby under
cover Of loye-sweet love-they allure Wid-
der woman to lend them bonds, young men
Ike George Kent also in love with Eliza
beih, into nefarious investments and seduce
The town Of Bayport into antagonism toward
Ae Capn. Only the garrulous Cahoon and
As lamentable equine remain faithful in
Aeir lack Of fashion. The rest is not silence
but scandal at the perfectly innocent busi-
ness conferences Of the Cap'n and the fair
Elizabeth. Herein scandal is gossip made
tedious By loquaeity.
But you can't turn a seadog into an under
dog. Fancy even trying, and on Cape Co..
too. The Cap'n's timbers, once crushed to
earth, nov. rise again and take him to the
bank where he unIoeks the secret Of Egbert's
Nhainy. Al the last that bad, but not bold
man marries an impeeunious ,spinster come
i''' legacy, Elizabeth does not love the
susceptible Knox, and so the Cap'n PAGES the
eaAr'erdeek with his new-wOn bride.
I Is in the old, sweet story Of way down
Cape Cod, Of shivered timbers that viii
not down, Of the pitfalls laid by the city