Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1930-04-11

lost the opportunity TO send messages
that might have saved them. 1t
seemed necessary for the common
good to refuse TO listen to any of Mrs.
Railways speculatlons about the pos
sibility that the doctor was their sin
cere friend. Mary made common cause
with her fiance against Bettington.
What a brave and steadfast child
she was, thought the elder woman.
Here, at the threshold of a new and
fuller life, she was likely to be stayed
by death. For her own part, life held
no more prospects. And like Mary,
she, too, was to be halted on the
threshold. For a few glorious mo-
ments she had been conscious of her
destiny; and now she knew they were
only moments of self-deception. Wom-
en- had always envied her for beauty,
wealth and position. None had ever
enyied her for her happiness. Happi-
ness was, broadly speaking, the COM
mon lot. She had been given every
thing else.
There was no morbidity in dwelling
on the fate that was enwrapping her.
She could not have lived so long and
seen so much, without being aware
of the lawlessness of mems desires.
She thought of Metzger's burning
eyes: Sam was gone, but her menace
remained. And perhaps this strange
man, whom she knew now to be An
drew Orme, escaped convict and twice
a murderer, loved her. In her heart
she was convinced of it. f. Never,
never would she let any human being
know that she, too, had loved him,
murderer! A man for whom not even
the most splendid Of heroism could
win pardon. A man for ever without
the pale.
Those elements Of lawlessness in
the individuals of the crew, which
Clements, by his adroitness and the
terror he inspired, had contrived to
keep in subsection, were not long to
lie dormant. Already unaccustomed
ease and freedom from duties had
awakened in men, to whom all honest
work was abhorrent, the desire for
a continuance Of these romantic con-
ditions
The four in the fcfecastle expert
enced much Of the feeling that Alai-
din must have known when his lamp
proved SO obedient servant. 1t was
with certain timidity, covered by an
dir nf hro r-odn fhof IL
demands on Slivers for food and
drink. They ordered; he obeyed.
They sent him for Railways famous
cigars; Slivers brought a humidor
filed with them. Mike suggested
champagne. The genie, they had
known as Slivers delivered it to them.
Hammer was chicken-hearted. He
believed that his arrest at some time
or other was certain. And there were
lifers, in at least two of those con-
vict establishments to which he might
be sent who had threatened to kill
him. And they would succeed. He
had been a trusty and he had been
stooi-pigeon. Alone of the men he
had a profound distrust Of Bettington.
He thought the surgeon was going to
try to help Mrs. Railway and so save
his skin. Two could play at that
game. If he so stirred up the three
plastic men before him-that they ut.
tackled Metzger and Pereira and killed
them-and he felt this would be the
result-he could be hurrying to the
doctor with the news and implore
him to mete out justice to the slayers.
1t was pretty scheme and his ex-
preston annoyed Grammar. "What
are you grinning for?' he snarled.
what makes you so d-n happy?'
81 was thinkin'," Hammer returned,
"how good and surprised them da-
goes'd be If we went aft and turned
'em out Of the Boss quarters and
made them come here where they be-
long. There they sit and wait till we
get to Limon. They speak the lingo;
we don't. They'll speak us into jail
before we know 1t. You know what
them Central American prisons are.
Nothing won't ever get us out. We
won't even know what we're in for"
THAT'S fack," Mike agreed. Il
was in one in Bahia and don't know
yet why, unless it was for throwing
a bull off the dock"
IF we had to shoot EN-" said
Hammer, wed say it was because
they tried to get at the women folk.
That'd listen good at home"
Hes got head on him." Mike
said, with genuine admiration. THAT
stuff gets over every time, believe me.
Brave seamen save the women and
children first"
Red Mike was one of those drunk
ards who, after sufficient amount Of
poison, lose the more obvious marks
of intoxication. Where the other
three slept stertorously he was kept
awake by the growing ferocity he felt
toward Metzger and Pereira. 1t was
about seven o'clock when he reused
his reluctant comrades from their
slumbers. They awaked sober but
savage. IL was not hard to bring them
to their last nights mood Of vengeance.
The bottles on the table helped them
to that.