Evening star., 1925-08-02
The Good That Isin the Worst Of Us
BY
Capt. Whelan Was Hated by Every One, Even Himself

J cerned and hushed. Forenoon well
| seek out it's folk"'
FLAMES, yesi' agreed the mate in
I the same conspiratorialt tones.
They were anxious, fbemused men.
| The ebbtide ran merrily to the ever
f, young mother, the sea.
Tile heat of midafternoon held the
world. Sea, stream and sky, brig
mangroves and village were empty OF
] life, burned numb. The dazzling light
! glazed everything. setting all creation
\ in glass. The pitch was sticky in the
| deck S seams.
Beneath an awning spread amid.
ships Cap'n Whelan sprawled in a
battered cane chair, his face flooded
| with sweat. his heavy body inert. On
any other afternoon at that hour in
that sitting estuary he would have
been asleep, but sleep was far from
him because his mind was surpris-
ingly active. The innocent cause of
this transformation slumbered scan
tily covered in a hastily contrived
canvas cot.
That harsh man, that hard man
Cap'n Silas X. Whelan was very much
| occupied with his thoughts. Pres
mission and they would know how
the baby had to be disposed Of, but
until then he was in sole possession.
Despite the heat he felt strangely
alive as he looked at the round little
body crumpled on the canvas. Few
men come to 40 as emptyhanded as
Cap'n Whelan, who had been so selfish
all his days. He owned a brig, but
had naught besides-no hearth, no
frta dc
| He was the man who had sought to
stand alone, and in succeeding realized
that his triumph was as ashes.
Getting on, getting on" he unused,
| and nothing to Show-not a-thing.
A mans lonely most of the times,
and when he's old therell be none to
give an eye to. none to go on living
nonen care like" He swore con-
scientiously.
THAT kid now, that young 'un-
when I'm 20 he'll be 20, just starting
on his prime, full o. life, full o. hope.
And when I'm so he'll be 80 and at
his best. A man could go on being
younglike a long time if he had a
young 'un like that to sweat for. He
could-that's SOL"
He nodded his head several times
like a clockwork giant and spat across
the deck and over the rail. He swore
meditatively. his goggling eyes fixed
on the babe that had so much of life
before him, and men who have kept
other interests in their lives besides
themselves would not believe how
hungry We're his eyes. A brig, be she
ever so hght-heeled, can't compensate
for the simple things most folk have
Cap'n Whelan sat through long, hot
hours and proceeded stolidly with the
discoveries which had begun when he
barred his soul to Mr.. Rimington be-
fore the ebbing of the tide. And the
investigator of 40 who finds such bit
ter knowledge must be saddened
though he be harsh as the sea.
When the FURNISHED sun was low
above the mangroves the world
awakened as though at a signal. A
breeze, new born, stole in from the
sea, ruffiing the silver mirror of Pan
jermassa. The rigging sighed. A
flock of parrakeets streamed above,
chattering brokenly. Completing the
resurrection. the EsmeraId's dinghy
nosed out from the bank and swan
like a water beetle toward her.
But Capn Whelan was not con-
scious of these things until the mate
stood before him. He sat up with
start as though he had. been asleep,
when, indeed, he had been dreaming
only.
We'll mister?''
The mate, looking weary and out of
temper, shook his head.
Dunno what we're going to do
about it," he said. Cant get a trace
of where the kid comes from-only
one white family up the river and
they're Dutch. have no children and
didn't know there was such a thing
as baby on the island. Sultan's had
oil doI hut oil
Looks like as if that kids been kinder
wished on us-dropped out of Heaven!
What do you plan DOING"
AT this report the skipper sat for
ward, but he did not seem chagrined
or dismayed. He was puzzled, in
credulous.
mo one to claim him?'
Not single" said the mate
with emphatic finality, and because
he was not 40 and had not come to
the wisdom of the master his manner
was concerned. The big mans face
was enigmatic as Buddha's, but there
We're chuckles rumbling somewhere
beneath his fat.
Don't look so surprised, mister"
he urged, and his tone surprised the
mate. He's salvage, that's what he
surely is. We just gotter do what we
can for him, and he can't complain If
things are bit rough. Dog-gone, he
sure has a taste for water. / give him
his bath, yes, sir,-and you'd have
laughed to see him. Guess he'll man
age right enough"
You're not figuring on taking him
with us?"-this disbeIeving protest
Say are you the master and owner
O. this brig? That's just the very
thing I am figuring on doing, and just
what I'm going to do. He stops along
o. us. What d. you reckon on-get-
ting another canoe and sending him
out to sea? ?"
"No-fames-no" the mate admit
ted.
"Well, them
They regarded the baby in silence
for a space, both finding ample food
for thought. Then Cap'n Whelan
stood up.
Cant say see that condensed milk