Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-10-05

/ QedNy SWouu-lAhe Sieept III MhASt
: 1 left him. What / should have done
; had all gone well l do not know
Probably 1 should have told th'
whole story to the doctor; for was
. in mortal fear lest the captain should
. repent of his confessions and make
. an end of me. But as things fell
out, my poor father died quite sud
. denly that evening, which put all
other matters on the side. Our nat
ural distress, the visits of the neigh
: bors, the arranging of the funeral,
and all the work of the inn to be car
, ried on in the meanwhile, kept me
so busy that 1 had scarcely time to
think of the captain, far less to be
afraid of him.
He got downstairs next morning,
to be sure, and had his meals as
usual, though he ate little, and had
more, l am afraid, than his usual
supply of rum, for he helped himself
out of the bar, scowling and blowing
through his nose, and no one dared
to cross him. On the night before
the funeral he was as drunk as ever;
and it was shocking, in that house of
mourning, to hear him singing away
with his ugly old sea-song; but weak
as he was, we were all in fear of
death for him, and the doctor was
suddenly taken up with a case many
miles away, and was never near the
| house after my fathers death.
have said the captain was weak, and
| indeed he seemed rather to grow
weaker than to regain his strength.
He clambered up and down stairs,
and went from the parlor to the bar
and back again, and sometimes put
his nose out-of-doors to smell the
sea, holding on to the walls as he
went for support, and breathing hard
and fast, like man on steep noun |
tain. He never particularly adj
dressed me, and it is my belief that |
he had as good as forgotten his con-
fidences; but his temper was more /
tightly and, allowing for his bodily |
weakness, more violent than ever
He had an alarming way now when
he was drunk of drawing his cut
lass and laying it bare before him on
the table. But with all that, he mind
ed people less, and seemed to shut up
in his own thoughts and rather wan
dering. Once, for instance, to our
extreme wonder, he piped up to a
different air, kind of country love-
song, that he must have learned in
his youth before he had begun to
follow the sea.
So things passed until the day af-
ter the funeral and about three
o'clock of a bitter, foggy, frosty af-
ternoon, l was standing at the door
for a moment, full of sad thoughts
about my father, when 1 saw some
one drawing slowly near along the
road. He was plainly blind, for he
tapped before him with stick, and
wore a green shade over his eyes and
nose; and he was hunched as if with
age or weakness and wore huge Old
tattered sea-cloak with a hood that
made him appear positively deformed.
never saw in my life a more dread
full looking figure. He stopped
little from the inn and, raising his
voice in an old sing-song, addressed {
the air in front of him: s
will any kind friend inform
poor blind man, who has lost the
precious sight of his eyes in the gra- I
cious defense of his native country, {
England, and God bless King George! {
where or in what part of this S
country he may now be?' t
you are now at the Admiral Ben !
bow, Black Hill Cove, my good man." t
said 1.
81 hear voice." said he, "a young o
voice. Will you give me your hand, s
my kind young friend, and lead me S
In?" v
1 held out my hand, and the hor- d
rible, soft-spoken, eyeless creature i
5ripped it in a moment like wise.
was so startled that I struggled to b
but the blind man pulled
ne close to him with a single ac- ?
ion of his arm. h
Now. boy" he said, take me in +,
o the captain" C
Sir" said I, upon my word 1 h
lare not"
"Oh," he sneered, that's it! Take n
ne in straight, or I'll break your 7
lrm." b
He gave it, as he spoke, a wrench il
hat made me cry out. c,
Sir" said l, sit is for yourself IL
hat 1 mean. The captain is not h
What he used to be. He sits with a d
Irawn cutlass. Another gentleman It
-" q,
Come, now, march," interrupted fl
lie, and never heard a voice so cruel
nd cold and ugly as that blind
y