Show 0 0 LU Y L ay A CONAN DOYZ ic Z ap I 1 N international PRE aa ION CHAPTER III admiral hay denver did not belong to the florid white haired hearty school of sea dogs which Is more common in works of fiction than in the navy list on the contrary he was the representative of ft a much more common type which Is the antithesis of the conventional vent ional sailor lie he was a thin hard featured man with an ascetic acquiline cast of face grizzled and hollow cheeked checked che eked clenn clean shaven with the exception of the tiniest curved promontory of ash colored whisker an observer accustomed to classify men might have put iut him down as a canon of the church with a taste tor for lay costume and a country life or as the master of a large public school who joined his scholars in their outdoor sports ills his lips were firm his chin prominent he had a hard d dry ry ey eye e and his manner was precise a and n d f formal r in 1 forty years of stern dusci discipline had bad made him reserved and silent yet when at his ease with an equal he could readily assume a less quarter deck style and he had a fund ot of elitle little dry stories of the world and its ways which were of interest from one who had seen so many phases of life dry and spare as lean as a jockey and as tough as whipcord he might be seen any day swinging his silver head ed Af malacca alacca cane and pacing along the suburban roads with the same measured gait with which he had been wont to tread the poop of his flagship ile he wore a good service stripe upon his cheek tor for on one side it was pitted and scarred where a spurt of gravel knocked is up p by a round shot and struck him thirty years before when he served in th the e lancaster gun battery yet he was hale and sound and though he was fifteen years senior to his friend the doctor he might have passed as the younger man sirs mrs hay danvers Den vers life had been a very broken one and her record upon land represented a greater amount of endurance and self sacrifice than his upon the sea they had been together for four months after their marriage and then had come a hiatus of tour four years during which he was flitting about between st helena and the 0 oil 11 rivers in a gunboat then came a blessed year of peace and domesticity to be followed by nine years with only a three months break five upon the pacific station and tour four on the east in dai after that was a respite in the shape of five years in the channel squadron with periodical runs home bome and then again he was off to the mediterranean tor for three years and to halifax tor for four now at last however this old married couple who were still almost strangers stran geis to one another had I 1 come together in norwood where it if their short day had been cheque red and broken the evening at least promised to be sweet and mellow in person mrs hay denver was tall and stout with a bright round auddy checked cheeked face still pretty with a gracious matronly comeliness her whole life was a round of devotion and of love which was divided between her husband and her only son harold this son it was who kept them in the lie neighborhood of london for the admiral was as fond of ships and of salt water as ever arid and was as happy in the sheets of a two ton yacht as on the bridge of his sixteen knot monitor had lie he been untied the devonshire or hampshire coast would certainly have been his choice there was harold however and harolds interests were their r hief chief care harold was four our and twenty n now ow three years before he had been taken in hand by an acquaintance of his fathers the head of a considerable firm of stock brokers and fairly launched upon change ills his three hundred guinea er entrance trance tee fee paid his three sureties of five hundred pounds each found his narrie name approved by the committee and all other formalities compiled with he found himself whirling round an insignificant unit in the vortex of the money market of the world there under the guidance of his fathers friend he was instructed in the mysteries of bulling and of bearing in the strange usages of change in the intricacies of carrying over and of transferring lie he learned to know where to place his clients money which of the jobbers would make a price in new zealanda Zea lands and which would touch nothing but american rails which might be trusted and which shunned all this and much more lie mastered and to such purpose that he soon began to prosper to retain the clients who had been recommended to him and to attract fresh ones but the work was never congenial lie he had inherited from his father his kove love of the I 1 air of heaven his af affection for or a manly i find natural existence to act as middleman between the pursuer of wealth and the wealth which lie he pursued or to stand as a human barometer regist r ing ng the rise and fall of the great mammon pressure in the markets was not the work for which providence had placed those broad shoulders and strong limbs upon his well knit frame ilia his dark open face too with ills his straight grecian nose well ell opened brown eyes eye and round black curled head wr wor nil those of a man who was fashioned d fos active physical work M li 11 wax nas popular with his follow f allow br ekr r by his client and b bid ii i home but his spirit wu wa i astl 3 him and his mind behag chnard d unceasingly against his surroundings do you know will m aid mrs liar ha denver one r ning nine ili t i d 1 hind her husband hull i ich n li tiel annl apon his hl hoeldt I 1 il billitis litis im run that harold i noi null nuit pa y ye he loks happ ri ln mii A it s ns wred the adala adm admira lA p mi int mg ing a th nl ni dear cigar it was waa after dinner and through the open french window ot of the dining room a clear view was to be had ot of the tennis court and the players A set had just been finished find and young charles was waa hitting up the balls as high as lie he could send them in the middle dle of the ground doctor walker malker and mrs airs were pacing up and down the lawn the lady waving her racket its as she emphasized her remarks and the doctor listening with slanting head bead and little nods of agreement against the rails at the near end herold harold was leaning in his flannels talking to the two sisters who stood listening to him with their long dark shadows streaming down the lawn behind them the girls were dressed alike in dark skirts with light pink tennis blouses and pink bands on their straw hats so that as they stood with the soft red of the setting selling sun their faces clara demure and quiet ida mischievous and daring it was a group which might have pleased the eye ot of a more exacting critic than the old sailor yes he be looks happy mother hie he repeated with a chuckle it was no not t so long ago since it was vas you and I 1 who were standing like that and J dont remember that we were very unhappy either it was croquet in our time and the ladles ladies had not reefed beefed in their skirts quite so taut what year would it be just before the commission of the penelope I 1 mrs hay denver ran her fingers through his grizzled hair it w was a a when you came back in the antelope just before you got your step ah the old antelope what a clipper she was she could sail two points nearer the wind than anything of her tonnage in the service you remember her mother you say her come into plymouth day bay she it a beauty site she was indeed dear but when I 1 say that I 1 think that harold Is not happy I 1 mean in his dally daily life has it never struck you how thoughtful he Is at times and how absentminded absent minded in love perhaps the young dog ile he seems to have found snug moorings now at any rate 1 I think that it Is very likely that you are right willy answered the mother seriously but which of them 1 I cannot tell well they are very charming girls both of them but as long as he hangs in the wind between the two it cannot be serious after all the boy Is tour four and twenty and he made five hundred pounds last year ile he Is better able to marry than I 1 was when I 1 was lieutenant 1 I 1 think that we can see me which it Is now remarked the observant mother charles West mascott had ceased to knock the tennis balls about and was chatting with clara walker while ida and harold denver were still talking by the railing with little outbursts of laughter presently a fresh set was wa formed and doctor walker the odd man out came through the wicket gate and strolled up the garden walk good evening mrs hay denver said he raising his broad stray hat may I 1 come in good evening doctor pray do try one of these said the admiral holding out his cigar case they are not bad I 1 got them on the mosquito coast I 1 was thinking of signaling to you but you seemed so very happy out there mrs airs West mascott is a very clever woman said the doctor lighting the cigar by the way you spoke about the mosquito coast just now did you see much of the hyla when you were out there no such name on the list answered the seaman with decision the theres es the hydra a harbor defense turret turret I 1 ship but she never leaves the home waters the doctor laughed we live in two separate worlds said he the hyla Is the little green tree frog and beale has founded some of his bis views on protoplasm upon the appearances of its nerve cells it Is a subject in which 1 take an interest there were vermin of all sorts in ahr 11 woods when I 1 have been on river service I 1 have heard it at night like the engine room when you are on the measured mile you cant sleep tor for the piping and croaking ano and chirping I 1 great scott what a woman that Is she was across the lawn in three jumps she would have made a captain of the foretop in the old days she is a very remarkable kable woman A very cranky one A very sensible one in some things le remarked marked mrs hay denver I 1 look at that now cried tin thi admiral with a lunge of his forefinger at it the doctor you mark my words walker if we dont look out that woman will raise a mutiny with her preaching heres my wife disaffected already and your girls will be nu no better we must combine man or theres an end of all discipline no 40 doubt she Is a little excessive in her views said the doctor but in the main I 1 think as she does docs gravo bravo doctor egied the lady turned traitor to houi we al we well 11 court coun martial its u a is a aci tr she I 1 if quit 1 alit th ciofi pi f ians ii an r not nil bif p n i n n tin th N ar ifill too LOO int ni 11 um nh 0 d in 0 iii 1 11 T tl i ar i iii lili i 1 ill thi th w nin imen v h h i ti t N v irk f a 01 U ir bread poor unorganized unorganised timid taking as a favor what they might berria ri as a right that Is 19 win wl eivir fir fi r ih not more constan tj afi t tl i i for it 11 17 fi ih h iii i 11 I i ir i t ns as thi n i rl ri in it j ill arti irlia t clr lu ain il 0 11 ill t ll 11 0 1 1 ill 11 I 1 V 1 N t IV 11 II f r i u I 1 t t till I 1 i li if h ti hi i aj n 1 I 1 n i i all d ua hi rl ri i s f i a trick of manner it if wo we nip trul C tl V til lial UP 1 1 i i alln nn till bihr 1 I 1 1 ir 11 clr 11 1 iu 11 n i hlll in 1 nl i II 11 it 11 I 1 4 ili I 1 hi i v A 11 ll ill i i I 1 1 1 n i i 1 nd I 1 on n I 1 ni a in ill I 1 1 to co ait ft irk tn ill h hn hil n i q ug tui 0 luio in n ii ui f ti i i fl 6 cinq in given them Is it not a contention the admiral chuckled you are like one of these phonographs walker said he be you have had all this talked into you and now you are reeling it off again its rank mutiny every word ot at it for man has his duties and woman has hers but they are as separate as their heir natures are I 1 suppose that we ahall shall have a woman hoisting her pennant on the flagship presently and taking command of the channel squadron well you have a woman on the throne taking command ot of the whole notion nation remarked his wife and everybody Is agreed that the she does doea it better than any of the men the admiral was somewhat staggered by this home thrust quite another thing said he you should come to their next meeting I 1 am to take the chair I 1 haye have ju juit 4 promised mrs airs that I 1 will do so but it has turned chilly and it Is time that the girls were indoors good night I 1 shall look out tor for you after breakfast for our constitutional admiral the old sailor looked utter after his friend with a twinkle in his eyes how old Is he be mother about fifty I 1 think and sirs airs 1 I heard that she was forty three the rubbed his hands and shook with amusement well find one of these days that three and two make one said lie he ill bet you a new bonnet on it mother IV A ns I 1 ELL LL ME AIE MISS walker you know know how things should be what would you say was a good is profession for a young man of 26 who has had no education worth speaking about and who Is not very quick by nature the speaker was charles and the time this same summer evening in the tennis ground though the shadows had bad fallen now and the same had been abandoned the girl glanced up at him amused and surprised do you mean yourself precisely but how could I 1 tell 1 I have no one to advise me I 1 believe that you could do it better than any one I 1 feel confidence in your opinion it Is very flattering natt ering she glanced up again at his earnest questioning face with its saxon eyes and drooping flaxen mustache in some doubt as to whether he be might be joking on the contrary all his attention seemed to be concentrated upon her answer it depends so much upon what you can do you know I 1 do not know you sufficiently to be able to say what natural gifts you have they were walking slowly across the lawn in the direction of the house 1 I have none that Is to say none worth mentioning I 1 have no memory and I 1 am very slow but you are very strong oh it if that goes for or anything I 1 can put up a hundred pound bar till further orders but what sort of a calling la Is that some little joke about being called to the bar flickered up in miss walkers mind but her companion was in such obvious earnest that she stilled down her inclination to laugh TO dr BE |