Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-03-23
Around the Horn

Sprohl was an employe himself, but he
ignored the thrust, and said merely:
you're to meet us in Port Prize to ar
range about the charer, you say?"
Precisely. I want to establish per-
sonal contact with certain Australian
firms. Miss Crowell is taking a party of
friends on a south seat cruise in the Cor
sair in May. l shall go with the Corsair
as far as Auckland, New Zealand, and
catch the Melbourne packet there"
Austin dropped his eyes. The berth as
skipper of the Crowell yacht, Corsair. was
his by right of succession. 1t had been
given to some one else the year before
through favoritism. Edith Crowell was
Big Burt's daughter. Like Sprohl, she
was fair, but not in his beefy blond way
Austin remembered her first as a quiet
little blue eyed girl with pigtails who
had visited the ships with Big Burt on
his inspection tours, later as a debutante
with bobbed hair n a sturdy figure.
later still as a young woman with serious
eyes, a friendly mouth, and a complexion
that bespoke health M sane living
Rumors had come to Austin's ears that
Edith Crowell had refused Sprohl SC
often that she had half made up her
mind to put a stop to the repeated pro-
posals by marrying him.
Austin glanced at Sprohl. The pres
ence of the general manager of a ship
ping concern as large as the Inter-Ocean
at a port of lading ten thousand miles
from his desk was an unheard of thing
The skipper knew that 1t was only an
excuse to be o member of Miss Crowell's
yachting party as far as Auckland.
81 see" said he. II shall want a wire
less outfit installed before we clear for
the Horn. The boys knocked two holes
in one Of the stern plates chipping rust
yesterday"
Sprohl's white. almost invisible, eye
brows wen up.
mot n cent for unnecessary equip
ment," he replied harshly. They'll make
us scrap her in a year or so"
Capt. Austin remained silent and his
face impassive. Only his dark eyes gave
any indication of what was going on In
his mind as he put the envelope with the
sailing orders In his pocket.
The two men were about the same age
in the middle thirties. Their enmity
dated back to the time when Sprohl as
office boy, with a mistaken estimation
of his own powers of authority, had es.
sayed to bar the way to the cashiers
desk to Austin, the cabin boy, presenting
a money order from his skipper. Tht
barring proceedings went slightly astray
Young Sprohl had emerged from then
collarless. t~ieless, n with a very BLACK
eye. which two pounds of raw beefsteaB
He had also come out of the scrimmage
had been unable to reduce to normally
with a deep and deadly hatred for Aus
tin. Being revengeful, he had never for
gotten. AS he rose in the service of the
/. O. N. G. he lost no opportunity to in.
jure the other.
1t had never been any overt act upor
which Austin could put his finger. Sproh
was cunning. 1t had been merely trans.
ferences to the hardest vessels, a mate
berth delayed two years, a dig here, ar
unjust display of favoritism there, fol
Sprohl was able as we'll as cunning, anc
his rise to one executive position aftei
another a been rapid. Austin knew
that If 1t had not been for Capt. Ander
son of the Endymion dying in midocean
and because Of his OWL record breaking
run to port with a cargo Of nitrates hi
would never have risen to the post o
captain in the I. o. N. c.. service. Sproh
would have prevented 1t.
Before being transferred to the Endy
mion as mate he had been second ant
first officer of the Corsair for two years
He had therefore seen q good deal o
Edith Crowell, more than was good TO
his own peace of mind, in fact; but h
had never permitted himself to forge
that he was an employe Of her father
After his transfer to the Endymion-en
gineered, he had no doubt, by Sprohl-
his sensitiveness had prevented him from
accepting an invitation to q dinner part
at the Crowell mansion on upper Fifth
avenue when the Endymion happened Il
be in port, but he still numbered Edith
little perfumed note among his choices
possessions.
"A wireless is not unnecessary equip