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CHAPTER IV.
I SAID, "This is home, at last. It is
all over;" and she stood by me
on the deck. She pushed the
heavy black cloak from over her head,
end her white face appeared above
the dim black shadow of her mourn
ing. She looked silently round her on
the mist, the groups of rough men,
the spatterings of light that were like
violence, too. She said nothing, but
rested her hand on my arm.
She had her immense griefs, and
this was the home I offered her. She
looked back at the side. I thought
Bhe would have liked to be in the boat
again. I said:
"The people in this ship are my old
friends. You can trust them —and
me."
Tomas Castro, clambering leisurely
over the side, followed. As soon as
his feet touched the deck, he threw
the corner of his cloak across his left
shoulder, bent down half the rim of
his hat, and assumed the appearance
of a short, dark conspirator, over
topped by the stalwart sailors, who
had abandoned Manuel to crowd, bare
armed, bare-chested, pushing and
craning their necks, round us.
She said, "I can trust you; it is my
duty to trust you, and this is now my
home."
She disappeared in the brilliant light
of the cabin. The door closed. I re
mained standing there. Manuel, at her
disappearance, raised his voice to a
tremendous, Incessant yell of despair,
as if he expected to make her hear.
"Senorita • • • proteccion del
opprimido; oh, hija de pledad • * *
Senorita."
His lamentable noise brought half
the ship round us; the sailors fell back
before the mate, Sebright, walking at
the elbow of a stout man in loose
trousers and jacket. They stopped.
"An unexpected meeting, Capt. Wil-
Hams," was all 1 found to say to him.
"What shall we do with that yelp
ing Dago? He's a distressful beast to
have about the decks."
"Put him in the coal hole, I suppose,
as far as Havana, I won't rest till I
see him on his way to the gallows. The
captain general shall be made sick of
this business, or my name isn't Wil
liams. I'll make a breeze over it at
home. You shall help in that, Kemp.
You ain't afraid of big-wigs. Not you.
You ain't afraid of anything. • * *"
"He's a devil of a fellow, and a dead
shot," threw In Sebright. "And jolly
lucky for us, too, sir. It's simply mar
velous that you should turn up like
this, Mr. Kemp. We hadn't a grain of
powder that wasn't caked solid in the
canisters. Nothing'll take it out of my
head that somebody had got at the
magazine while we lay In Kings
ton. • • *"
"And, by the way, Kemp," Williams
said, with sudden annoyance, recollect
ing himself, as it were, "you never
turned up for that dinner—sent no
word, nor anything. * • •"
The young mate of the Lion stood
by, quiet, listening, with a capable
smile. Now, he said, in a tone of dry
comment:
"Jolly sight more useful turning up
here."
"I was kidnaped away from Ramon's
back shop, if that's a sufficient apology.
It's rather a long story."
"Well, you can't tell It on deck, that's
very clear," Sebright had to shout to
me. "Not while this infernal noise—
what the deuce's up? It sounds more
like a dog fight than anything else."
As we ran towards the main hatch I
recognized the aptness of the compar
ison. It was that sort of vicious, snarl-
Ing, yelping clamor which arises all
at once and suddenly dies.
"Castro! Thou Castro!"
Malediction • • • . My eye
lids • " • *"
"Thou! Englishman's dog!"
"Ha! Porco."
The voices ceased. Castro ran tip
toeing lightly, mantled in ample folds.
He assumed his hat with a brave tap,"
crouched swiftly inside his cloak. It
touched the deck all round in a black
cone surmounted by a peering, quiver
ing head. Quick as thought he hopped
and sank low again. Everybody watch
ed -with wonder this play, as of some
largp and diabolic toy. For my part,
knowing the deadly purpose of these
preliminaries, I was struck with hor
ror. Had he chosen to run on him at
once, nothing could have saved Manuel.
The poor wretch, vigorously held in
front of Castro, was far too terrified to
make a sound. With an immovable
pailor on each side, he scuffled violent
ly, and cowered by starts as if tied up
between two stone posts. His dumb
rapid panting was in our ears. I
ehouted:
"Stop, Castro! Stop! • • • stop
him, some of you! He means to kill
the fellow!"
Nobody heeded my shouting. Cas
tro flung his cloak on the deck, jumped
on it, kicked it aside, all in the same
moment as it seemed, dodged to the
right, to the left, drew himself up, and
stepped high, paunchy in his tight
smalls and short jacket, making all
the time a low, sibilant sound, which
\vas perfectly blood-curdling.
"He lias a blade on his forearm!" I
yelled. "He's armed, I tell you!"
No one could comprehend my dis
tress. A sailor, raising a lamp, had a
broad smile. Somebody laughed out
right. Castro planted "himself before
Manuel, nodded menacingly, and
stooped ready for a spring, I was too
late in my grab at his collar, but Man
uel's guardians, acting with precision,
put out one arm each to meet his rush,
and he came flying backwards upon
me. as though he had rebounded from
a wall.
He had almost knocked me down,
and while I staggered to keep my feet
the air resounded with urgent calls to
Bhoot, to fire, to bring him down!
* * • "Kill him, senor!" came in
an entreating yell from Castro. And I
became aware that Manuel had taken
this opportunity to wrench himself
free. 1 heard the hard thud of his leap.
Straight from tbe hatch (as I was told
later by the marveling sailors) he had
Alighted with both feet on the rail I
only saw him already there, sitting on
his heels, jabbering and nodding at
us like an enormous baboon. "Shoot
Blr! Shoot!" "Kill! Kill, senor! As
you love your life —kill!"
Unwittingly, without volition, as if
compelled by the suggestion of the
bloodthirsty cries, my hand drew the
remaining pistol out of my belt. I
rai&id It. and found myself covering
the strange antics of an infuriated ape
He tore at his flanks with both hands
in the idea, I suppose, of stripping for
a swim. Rags flew from him In all
directions; an astounding eruption of
rags round a huddled-up figure
Crouching, wildly active, in front of
j the muzzle. I had him. I was sure of
i my shot. He was only an ape. A dead
ape. But why? Wherefore? To what
end? He sickened me, and I pitied
Him, as I should have pitied an ape.
I lowered my arm an almost imper
ceptible fraction of a second before he
•prang and vanished. The sound of
ROMANCE
BY JOSEPH CONRAD
(Copyright, 1904. by McClura, Phillips & Co.)
the heavy plunge was followed by a
regretful clamor all over the decks,
and a general rush to the side. There
was nothing to be seen; he had gone
through the layer of fog covering the
water. No one heard him blow or
splutter. It was as if a lump of lead
had fallen overboad.
Williams wouldn't have had this
happen for a five-pound note. Se
bright expressed the hope that he
wouldn't cheat the gallows by drown
ing. The two men who had held him
slunk away abashed. To lower a boat
for the purpose of catching him in the
water would have been useless and
imprudent.
"His friends can't be far off yet in
the boats," growled the bosun; "and
if they don't pick him up, they would
be more likely to pick up our chaps."
Somebody expectorated in so mark
ed a manner that I looked behind me.
Castro had resumed his cloak and was
draping himself with deliberate digni
ty. When this undertaking had been
accomplished, he came up very close
to me, and without a word looked up
balefully from the heavy folds thrown
across his mouth and chin under the
very tip of his hooked nose.
"I could not do it," I said. "I could
not. It would have been useless. Too
much like murder, Tomas."
"Oh, the inconstancy, the fanciful
ness of these English," he generalized,
with suppressed passion, right into my
face. "I don't know what's worse, their
fury or their pity. The childishness of
it! The childishness. • • • Do you
imagine, senor, that Manuel or the
Juez O'Brien shall some day spare you
in their turn? If I didn't know the
courage of your nation • * •
"I despise the Juez and Manuel
alike," I interrupted angrily. I de
spised Castro, too, at that moment, and
he paid me back with interest. There
was no mistaking his scathing tone.
"I know you well. You scorn your
friends as well as your foes. I have
seen so many of you! The blessed
saints guard us from the calamity of
your friendship. • • •"
"No friendship could make an as
sassin of me, Mr. Castro. * • •"
"* * * Which is only a very little
less calamitous than your enmity," he
continued in a cold rage. "A very
little less. You let Manuel go. • • •
Manuel! • * • Because of your
mercy. • • • Mercy! Bah! It is
all your pride—your mad pride. You
shall rue it, senor. Heaven is Just.
You shall rue it, senor."
He denounced me prophetically,
wrapped up with an air of midnight
secrecy; but, after all, he had been a
friend in the act, if not in the spirit,
and I contented myself by asking,
with some pity for his imbecile crav
ing after murder:
"Why? What can Manuel do to
me He at least is completely help
less."
"Did the Senor Don Juan ever ask
himself what Manuel could do to me—■
Tomas Castro? To me, <^vho am poor
and a vagabond, and a friend of Don
Carlos, may his soul rest with God.
Are all you English like princes that
you should never think of anybody but
yourselves?"
He revolted and provoked me, as If
his opinion of the English could mat
ter, or his point of view signify any
thing against the authority of my con
science. And it is our conscience that
illumines the romantic side of our life.
Brusquely I turned my back on him,
and heard the repeated clicking of flint
against his blade. He lighted a ciga
rette, and crossed the deck to lean
cloaked against the bulwark, smoking
moodily under his slouched hat.
CHAPTER V.
Manuel's escape was the last event
of that memorable night. Nothing
more happened, and nothing more
could be done; but there remained
much talk and wonderment to get
through. I did all the talking, of
course, under the cuddy lamps. Wil
liams, red and stout, sat staring at me
across the table. His Tound eyes were
perfectly motionless with astonish
ment —the story of what had happened
in the Casa Riego was not what he
had expected of the small, badly re
puted Cuban town.
Sebright, who had all the duties of
the soiled ship and chipped men to
attend to, came in from the deck sev
eral times, and would stand listening
for minutes with his fingers playing
thoughfully about his slight mustache.
The dawn was not very far when he
led me into his own cabin. I was
half dead with fatigue, and troubled
by an inward restlessness.
"Turn in into my berth," said Se
bright.
I protested with a stiff tongue, but
he gave me a friendly push, and I
tumbled like a log on to the bed
clothes. As soon as my head felt the
pillow the fresh coloring of his face
appeared blurred, and an arm, mistily
large, was extended to put out the
light of the lamp screwed to the bulk
head.
"I suppose you know there are war
rants out in Jamaica against you—for
that row with the admiral," he said.
An irresistible and unexpected
drowsiness had relaxed all my limbs.
"Hang Jamaica!" I said, with diffi
cult animation. "We are going home."
"Hang Jamaica!" he agreed. Then,
in the dark, as if coming after me
across the obscure threshold of sleep,
his voice meditated, "I am sorry,
though, we are bound for Havana.
Pity. Great pity! Has it occurred to
you, Mr. Kemp, that • • •
It is very possible that he did not
finish his sentence; no more pene
trated, at least, into my drowsy ear.
I awoke Blowly from a trance-like
sleep, with a confused notion of hav
ing^ to pick up the thread of a dropped
hint. I went up on deck.
The sun shone, a faint breeze blew,
the sea sparkled freshly, and the wet
decks glistened. I stood still, touched
by the new glory of light falling on
me; it was a new world—new and fa
miliar, yet disturbingly beautiful. I
seemed to discover all sorts of secret
charms that I had never seen in things
I had seen a hundred times. The
watch on deck were busy with brooms
and buckets; a sailor, coiling a rope
over a pin, paused in his work to point
over the port-quarter, with a massive
fore-arm like a billet of red ma
hogany.
I looked about, rubbing my eyes.
The Lion, close-hauled, was heading
straight away from the coast, which
stood out, not very far yet, outlined
heavily and flooded with light.
Astern, and to leeward of us, against
a headland of black and indigo, a daz
zling white speck resembled a snow
flake fallen upon the blue of the sea.
"That's a Bchooner," said the sea
man.
"And it means," said Sebright, com
ing ur, "most likely, that the fellow
with the curls that made me think of
my maiden aunt, has managed to keep
his horse-face above water." He meant
Manuel-del-Popolo. "What mischief
he may do yet before he runs his head
into a. noose, it's hard to say. The old
Spaniard you brought with you thinks
he has already been bosy — for no
good, you may be sure."
"You mean that's one of the Rio
schooners?" I asked quickly.
That, with all its consequent trouble
for me, was what he did mean. He
THE ST. PAUL GLOBE, SUNDAY, MAY 22, 1904
said I might take his word for it that,
with the winds we had had, no craft
working along the coast could be just
there now unless she came out of Rio
Medio. There was a calm almost up
to sunrise, and it looked as if they had
towed her out with boats before day
light.
Castro, wrapping his chin, stood still,
face to the sea. After a long while:
"Malediction," he pronounced slowly,
and without moving his head shot a
sidelong glance at me.
He lowered his tone to impress us
more, and the point of the knife, as it
were an emphatic forefinger, tapped
the open palm forcibly. Did we think
that a man was not already riding
along the coast to Havana on a fast
mule?—the very best mule from the
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never show his nose in there again after breaking his charter port to help steal a young lady."
stables of Don Balthasar himself—that
murdered saint. The captain general
had no such mules. His late excellency
owned a sugar estate halfway between
Rio Medio and Havana, and a relay of
riding mules was kept there for quick
ness when his excellency of holy mem
ory found occasion to write his com
mands to the capital. The news of our
escape would reach the Juez next day
at the latest. Manuel would take care
of that—unless he were drowned. But
he could swim like a fish. Maledic
tion!
"I cried out to you to kill!" he ad
dressed me directly; "with all my soul
I cried. And why? Because he had
seen you and the senorita, too, alas!
He Bhould have been made dumb—
made dumb with your pistol, senor
since those two stupid English mari
ners were too much for an old man
like me. Manuel should have been
made dumb—dumb forever, I say. What
mattered he —that gutter-born off
spring of an evil Gitana, whom I have
seen, senor! I, myself, have Been her in
the days of my adversity In Madrid
senor—a red flower behind the ear,
clad In rags that did not cover all her
naked skin, looking on while they
fought for her with knives In a wine
shop full of beggars and thieves. Si
senor. That's hfts mother. Improvisa-
Qor—politico— capataz. Ha • • •
Dirt!"
He made a gesture of immense con
tempt.
"What mattered he? The coach
would have returned from the cathe
dral, and the Casa Riego could have
been held for days—and who could
have known you were not inside I
had conversed earnestly with Cesar
the major-domo—an African, it is
true, but a man of much character and
excellent sagacity. Ah, Manuel'
Manuel: If I But the devil him
self fathers the children of such
mothers. lam no longer in posses
sion of my first vigor, and you, senor,
have all the folly of your nation. • • •"
He bared his grizzled head to me
loftily.
"* • • And the courage! Doubt
less, that is certain. It is well. You
may want it all before long, senor
• • • And the courage!"
The broken plume swept the deck.
For a time he blinked his creased,
brown eyelids in the sun, then pulled
his hat low? down over his brows, and,
wrapping himself up closely, turned
away from me to look at the sail to
leeward.
"What an old, old, wrinkled, little,
puffy beggar he is!" observed Sebright,
tn an undertone. • • • "Well, and
what is your worship's Opinion as to
the purpose of that schooner?"
Castro shrugged his shoulders.
"Who knows" • • • He released
the gathered folds of his cloak, and
moved off without a look at either
of us.
"There he struts, with his wing?
drooping like a turkey-cock gone into
•?JV *$• Jy.
deep mourning," said Sebright. "Who
knows? Ah, well, there's no hurry
to know for a day or two. I don't
think that craft could overhaul the
Lion, if they tried ever so. They may
manage to keep us in sight perhaps."
Late that day we held a sort of
council of war in the saloon. Sera
phina's attitude, leaning her cheek on
her hand, reminded me of the time
when I had seen her absorbed in
watching the green-and-gold Hzard in
the back room of Ramon's store, with
her hair falling about her face, like a
veil. Castro was not called in till later
on. But Sebright was there, leaning
his back negligently against the bulk
head behind "Williams, and looking
down on us seated on both sides of the
" long table. And there was present
too, In all our minds, the image of the
Rio Medio schooner, hull down on
our quarter. In all the trials of sail-
Ing, we had not been able to shake
her off that day.
"I aon't want to hide from you, Mr.
Kemp," Sebright began, "that I have
pointed out to the captain that you
would be only getting the ship in trou
ble for nothing. She's an old trader
and favorite with shippers; and if we
once get to loggerheads with the pow
ers, there's an end of her trading. As
to missing Havana this trip, even if
you, Mr. Kemp, could give a pot of
money, the captain could never show
his nose in there again after breaking
his charter-party to help steal a young
lady. And it isn't as if she were no
body. She's the richest heiress in the
island. The biggest people in Spain
would have their say in this matter.
I suppose they could put the captain in
prison or something. Anyway, good-by
to the Havana business for good."
Dismayed, I spoke quickly to Sera
phlna. With her head resting on her
hand, and her eyes following the aim
less tracings of her fingers on the
table, she said:
"It shall be as God wills it Juan."
"For Heaven's sake, don't !' f said Se
brlght, coughing behind me. He un
derstood Spanish fairly well. "What
I've said Is perfectly true. Neverthe
less the captain was ready to risk it."
"Yes," ejaculated Williams pro
foundly, out of almost still lips, and
otherwise so motionless all over that
the deep sound seemed to have been
produced by some person under the
table.
"But the point Is that it would have
been no earthly good for you two,"
continued Sebright. "That's the point
I made. If O'Brien knows anything,
he knows you are on board this ship.
He reckons on it as a dead certainty.
Now, it is very evident that we could
refuse to give you up,, Mr. Kemp, and
that the admiral (if the flagship's off
Havana, as I think she must be by
now) would have to back us up. How
you would get on afterwards with old
Groggy Rowley, I don't know. It isn't
likely that he has forgotten you tried
to wipe the floor with him, if I am to
take the captain's yarn as correct."
"A regular hero," Williams testified
suddenly, in his concealed, from-under
the-table tone. "He's not afraid of any
of them; not he. Ha! ha! Old Top
nambo must have * * *"
Sebright had paused only long
enough for this ebullition to be over.
The cool logic of his surmise appalled
me. He didn't see why O'Brien or
anybody Havana should want to in
terfere with me personally. But if I
wanted to keep my young lady, it was
obvious she must not arrive in Ha
vana on board a ship where they
would be sure to look for her the very
first thing. It was even worse than it
looked, he declared. His firm con
viction was that if the Lion did not
turn up In Havana pretty soon there
would be a Spanish man-of-war sent
out to look for her—or else Mr.
O'Brien was not the man we took him
for. She was a person of so much im
portance that even our own admiral
could be induced—say, by the captain
general's remonstrances—to sanction
such an action. There was no saying
what Rowley would do if they only
promised to present him with a
dozen pirates to take home for a hang
ing. Why! that was the very identical
thing the flagship was kept dodging
off Havana for! And O'Brien knew
where to lay his hands on a gross of
such birds, for that matter.
"No," concluded Sebright, over
whelming me from behind, as I sat
looking, not at the uncertainties of the
future, but at the paralyzing hopeless
ness of the bare tomorrow. "The Lion
is no place for you, whether she goes
into Havana or not. Moreover, into
Havana she must go now. There's no
help for it. It's the deuce of a situa
tion."
"Very well." I gasped. I tried to be
resolute. I felt suddenly as if all the
air ir. the cabin had gone up the open
skylight^ I couldn't remain below an
other moment; and, muttering some
thing about coming back directly, I
jumped up and ran out without looking
at anyone lest I should give myself
away. I turned my face to the sea as
a man feeiing himself beaten in a fight
with death might turn his face to the
wall.
Right or wrong? Generosity or fol
ly? Conscience or only weak fear be
fore remorse? Twice I had honorably
stayed my hand. Twice • • •
to this end.
In a moment-1 went through all the
agonies of suicide, which left me alive,
alas, to burn with the shame of the
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treasonable thought, and terrified by
the revolt of my soul refusing to leave
the world in which a young girl lived!
What did Seraphina think of me? I
should have to go and tell her to what
a pretty r.ess I had brought our love.
"Must try to put some sense into it,"
volunteered Sebright, coming up to
me. "That's what we are here for, I
guess. Anyhow, there's some room for
sense in arranging the way a thing
is to be done, be it as hard as it may.
And I don't see any sense, either, in
exposing a woman to more hardship
than is absolutely necessary. We have
talked it out now, and I can do no
more. Do go inside for a bit."
I paused a moment to try and regain
the command of my faculties. But it
was as if a bombshell had exploded in
side my skull, scattering all my wits to
the four winds of heaven. Only the
conviction of failure remained, attend
ed by a profound distress.
I fancy, though, I presented a fairly
bold front. The lamp was lit, and small
changes had occurred during my ab
sence. Williams had turned his bulk
sideways to the table. Seraphina still
leaned her head on her other hand,
and I noted, through the soft shadow
of falling hair, the heightened color of
her cheek and the augmented brilliance
of her eye.
With the dignity of a supreme confi
dence she extended her hand. It was
one of the culminating moments of our
love. For love is like a journey in a
mountainous country, up through the
clouds, and down through the shadows
to an unknown destination. It was a
moment rapt and full of feeling, in
which we seemed to dwell together
high up and alone—till she withdrew
her hand from my lips, and I found my
self back in the cabin, as if precipitat
ed from a lofty place.
CHAPTER VI.
It was Sebright, with his asperity
and his tact who conducted affairs, as
I have seen a trustworthy and exper
ienced old nurse rule the infinite per
plexities of a room full of children. He
had an imaginative eye for detail, and,
starting from a mere hint, would go
scheming onwards with astonishing
precision. His plan, to which we were
committed—committed helplessly and
without resistance—was based upon the
necessity of our leaving the ship.
He judged that O'Brien, warned al
.ready, would sit tight for a few days,
being sure to get hold of us directly
the Lion failed to turn up within a
reasonable time in Havana that he
would take fright, and take measures
to hunt her up at sea. But I might
rest assured that the Lion was going
to Havana as fast as the winds would
allow her.
What was, then, the situation he
continued, looking at me piercingly
above Williams' cropped head. I had
run away for dear life from Cuba
(taking with me what was best in it,
to be sure, he interjected, with a faint
smile towards Seraphina). I had no
money, no friends (except my friends
in this cabin, he was good enough to
say); warrants out against me in Ja
maica; no means to get to England;
no safety in the ship. It was no use
shirking that little fact. We must
leave the Lion. This was a hopeless
enough position. But it was hopeless
only because it was not looked upon
in the right way. We assumed that
we had to leave her forever, while the
whole secret of the trick was in this,
that we need only leave her for a
time. After O'Brien's myrmidons had
gone through her, and had been hoot
ed away empty-handed, she became
again, if not absolutely safe, then at
least possible—the only possible
refuge for vs —the only decent means
of reaching England together, where,
he understood, our trouble would
cease. Williams nodded approval
heavily.
I had told them that the lately ap
pointed Spanish ambassador in Lon
don was a relation of the Riegos, and
■personally acquainted with Seraphina,
who, nearly two years before, had
been on a short visit to Spain, and had
lived for many months with his family
in Madrid, I believe. No trouble or
difficulty was to be apprehended as to
proper recognition, or in the matter
of rights and inheritance, and so on.
The ambassador would make that his
own affair. This matter of tempo
rary absence from the Lion, however,
seemed to present an insuperable dif
ficulty. We could not obviously be
left for days floating In an open boat
outside Havana harbor, waiting till the
ship came out to pick us up. Sebright
himself admitted that at first he did
not see how it could be contrived. He
didn't see at all. He thought and
thought. It was enough to sicken one
of every sort of thinking. Then, sud
denly, the few words Castro had let
drop about the sugar estate and the
relay of mules came into his head.
He fancied that the primitive and
grandiose manner for a gentleman to
keep a relay of mules —any amount
of mules—in case he should want to
send a letter or two, caused the cir
cumstance to stick in his mind. At
once he had "our little hidalgo" in,
and put him through an examination.
"He turned fairly sulky, and tried
constantly to break out against you,
till Dona Seraphina here gave him a
good talking to," Sebright said.
Otherwise it was most satisfactory.
The place was accessible from the serr
through a narrow inlet, opening into
a small, perfectly sheltered basin at tl*
t»ck of the sand-dunes. The little river
watering { the estate emptied itself-into
that basin. One ■ could land from a
boat> there, he understood, as if in a
' 2? ck"~£ nd !t wae the very, devil if I and
Miss Riego could not be I hidden for a
few days on her own property, the more
# +v? at^ as lt came out in ! the course
of . the discussion, while I had "rushed
rout-to look at t the sunset," that the
manager, or whatever »they .called him
—the fellow in charge—was the hus
band of Dona Seraphina's old: nurse
woman. Of course, it behooved us to
make as \ little fuss as possible try to
reach the house along bypaths early
in | the morninfg, ; when - all - the slaves
would be out at work in the fields. Cas
tro, who professed to know the locality
very well indeed, would be of use.
Meantime ( the Lion would make her
way to Havana as if nothing was the
matter. No doubt all sorts of con
founded alguazils and custom-house
board in full cry. They would be made
very welcome. Any strangers on board
Certainly not. Why. should there be?
th« ™ ** , Rio Medio? What about
Rio Medio? .Hadn't been within miles
and miles of Rio M.edio; tried this trip
to beat up well-clear of the coast.
Search r the ship. With pleasure—
every nook and cranny. He didn't sup
pose they would have the cheek to talk
of the pirates: but if they did venture
—what then? Pirates? That's very
serious and dishonorable to the power
of Spain. ' Personally, had seen nothing
of pirates. Thought they had all been
captured and hanged quite lately. Ru
mors of the i Lion having been [ attack
ed obviously untrue.. Some other ship,
t»2 aPßf* -I ■■'■Vm* .* That was the line to
take. - If it didn't convince them, it
would puzzle them altogether. Of
course, Capt. Williams, in his great
regard for r me, had abandoned the in
tention of making an affair of state of
the outrage committed on his ship. He
would not lodge any complaint in Hav
ana at all. The old women of the Ad
miralty wouldn't be made j to sit up
this time.; No report would be sent to
the admiral either. Only, if the ship
were interfered with, and bothered
under any pretense whatever, once they
had every facility to have one good
look .everywhere,- the admiral would be
asked to stop It. And the Spanish au
thorities would not have a leg to stand
on either,, for this simple reason that
they could not very well own to the
sources .of their t information. Mean
time, all hands on board the Lion had
to be taken into confidence; that could
not be- avoided. He, Sebright, an
swered for their discretion while sober,
anyhow; and he promised me that no
leave or money would be given in
Havana, for fear they should get on a
spree, and let out something in the
grog-shops on shore.
So that was settled. Now, as to our
rejoining the Lion. This, of necessity,
must be left. to me. Counting from the
time we parted from her to land on the
coast, the Lion would remain in Hav
ana , sixteen days and if we did not
turn up in that time, and the cargo
was all on board by then, Captain Wil
liams would try to remain In harbor on
one pretense or another a few days
longer. But sixteen days should be.
ample, and It was even better not to
hurry up too much. To arrive on the
fifteenth day would be the safest pro
ceeding in a way, but for the cutting
of the thing too fine perhaps., ■*—- «
(To be Continued.) ' * '^
THE BAD BOY.
She knelt beside the bed where lay the
boy
Who all the weary day had been so bad:
Tears wet her cheeks, and prayer was on
her lips
The while she drank griefs gall in bitter
sips.
"If you but knew, my boy," I heard her
say,
"How you have hurt me through this live
long day,
If you could know the love a mother
bears.
Or that your name's the burden of her
prayers.
And then she prayed till hope came back
to her
And happy tears replaced the grief-dropa"
blur;
She prayed for patience, prayed for light;
but more
Prayed for the boy for whom such love
she bore.
She prayed that he might choose the bet
ter part
And lose the growing hardness in his
heart;
She prayed till joy unto her soul re
turned
And mother-love through all her being
burned.
How like her God she seemed while
kneeling there.
Her lips attuned to sweet unselfish pray
er;
How like the Christ that nightly over
me
Bends, trusting that my love for him
may be
Such that upon the morrow I may go
More meekly on his errands bere be
low.
Some day that boy must feel love's thral
ling thrill—
I yet may learn to do my Master's will.
—S. W. Gillilan in Baltimore American.
B. Ginner—These editors think they'r«
smart, but they don't practice what they
preach.
A scum—lndeed? In what particular?
B. Ginner—Why they insist on youi
writing on one side of the paper only, bui
they print on both sides.—Philadelphia
Press.
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