| Show committed to the deep e ir the steward kno knocked ched and put his head in at the door cabin passenger sir no 16 11 he hei reported with a businesslike business like abrev ity very bad dr glanced up from hai hi 5 desk irritably the matter with him 4 dunno sir air uncommon bad usual thing I 1 suppose no sir bir not sea sick queer when he came aboard yesterday I 1 thought thou cat been in bed all day let me get him anything till just now he asked me to fetch you the steward withdrew and the doctor only delayed to finish the first paragraph of a letter he had been writing when ho he was interrupted it was not precisely an urgent letter for he had no intention of doing anything with it until the ship arrived at liverpool but it waa was to contain much that ho knew he could not possibly put into speech and it was to toll tell the reel recipient plent that he lie would ar rive less than half a day behind it the lamp that chone clione from tho the wall of no 16 showed him a ii aggard man Z I 1 the 00 matter with him stretched on the bunk apparently asleep while the doctor was taking ft preliminary survey of him he coughed and awoke stev steward ard I 1 im the doctor you sent for me wrong j oh thanks I 1 dont know I doctor my heads ail all afire afir and ni nu izands hands bands too feel that J the doctor took Ms lils hand and laid a finger on his pulse the hand was bot and dry the pulse was galloping loual ayas sufficient to diagnose hifa A touch of pneumonia said yal aal den you must take more care of yourself you roelf than youve been doing lately you were not fit to travel you must have felt ill before you started 1 I wante d to get home the other answered wearily ive been away a long time we must see aliat we can arrange about nursing the doctor concluded ill give you some medicine youve got a good constitution and with care pull round all right think so oh yes he be lef left t barrow the doctor turned to the steward somebody will have bo to sit up with him to tonight night ill see sie him again before I 1 turn in and ill get the captain to let you have assistance after fulfilling which latter dutche duty he retired to his cabin and resumed the laborious composition of bis his letter three years ago he met in london the 9 girl arl he told himself he had bad been looking for all his life she was near ly twenty years his Jur junior ildr but what did that matter her people had been boen rich and proud and now through recent financial disasters they vere v ere ai or and prouder but what did all that matter either she heard him with pity in her e oes es but not no love and she told him with only pity in her tones that the man she loved was dead and her heart was burled with him later he lie learned the story that lay behind her words and saw more hope in it for himself than she had given him for surely his livin living gove of her could in due aue time win her away from the me memory of a dead rival he bould not take her answer then but begged her to think of 0 all it must mean to him and let him ask her for it ince for all when he lie came home from front his next voyage he was speeding homeward now and the leter was to prepare her for his coming he wrote it with ato many pauses paus s for reflection that by 10 j it was still unfinished when mindful of his patient he locked re it in his desk no 16 was awake but drowsy with sheer weakness it I 1 dont pull through this doc tor dont you worry about that you A ill but it if I 1 dont im not afraid ol 01 dying pe been near it too often for that and yet now it hard til it ever did before better not talk I 1 donl dont want you to excite yourself not mel me 1 what I 1 mean Is it would b be e hard luck to adjo on the tho way homo home ive been away nearly nine years I 1 went away as poor as s a rat and im going bach back rich something it ife its a great deal and im not dead yet though im supposed to be bel the other chuckled chuo chua kled grimly one ono everlasting terrible winter we were snowed up miles away from everywhere and we were put down ae ais done for only two of us managed to worry through and wo we wandered heaven knows where and we lived well we live but we worried through and im going home his eyes closed and he ram bled on dreamily nine years but shell be he waiting I 1 told her that it be more than two and she said its till you come ned and if you never come I 1 shall wait till I 1 meet you at the end he lay quiet a minute and then opening his eyes and lad finding the doctor regarding him intently he continued weve never written to each other we promised her people we she was to be free to change it if she would they said it was best I 1 had bad no money and no prospects but if I 1 wont went back a rich man and she had not changed I 1 knew ahe io never would whether I 1 lived or died she said she would never change and she wont did you say your name was edwin ashton the doctor was startled by the alien sound of his own voice the alok sick man nodded and pointing arraes arroes the cabin her alts la in my bag doctor he said do you mind getting it for me my wills in there too I 1 made flung the glass far out into the dark it as soon as I 1 struck my first luck luelf in case oh what I 1 wanted to ask you doctor was if I 1 dont pull round will you have my bag and everything sent to her find her address yes yes but not now interrupted harshly youve talked too much already come along barrow ho he hailed the advent of the steward with ineffable relief call mo me it iche he is worse in the night he was dazed and stupefied by the knowledge that had come upon him so ro unexpectedly and yearned to get away awry and be alone alono whore where ho he might think of it 11 ono one thought only burned to a clear and fiercely steady blaze a sinister hellish thought that ho he dared not face and could not cs cl ting he lost all count of time as a man does when he sleeps but when the steward summoned him hurriedly an hour after midnight he had evidently cot not been in bed a light was burning in his cabin he was still dressed and anti his face was wan and nd his eyes heavy as it he be were in pain mr Ash tona worse sir air edwards ewards is with him and called me to fetch you he cant sleep keeps sitting up edwards says storing staring as if he could see people an ran talking very delirious I 1 expect sir we must try a ele sleeping araug dr draught aug said dully ill be erectly 11 barrow being gone ho he busied hii hil self in tho the medicine cupboard and hastened after him carrying some sonic thing in a glass drawing near to no 10 ho he hear the sick man babbling moncton bously and the very sound of his 0 N 0 ce stung him and quickened a fleifer flame within him till suddenly ho he caught a word of what the man in as saying merely a name but the utterance of it checked him instantly as it a hand had plucked at his sleeve he stood trembling and in that same instant saw shaping white in the darkness before him a sweet sail face grown pale with weary ears ol 01 Q longing the pure wistful eyes looked into his and their calmness calmed him and their sadness made him mahamed with a something thing breaking like a sob in his he swiftly retraced his steps pausing in the unlighted saloon to open one of the portholes porth olei and fling the glass he carried far out into the dark thereafter he sat till well into the day watching and tending the man she loved and had loved so long going on deck in the rooming he leaned over the side to tear up the letter he had written and scatter its fragments into the sea it was the burial of a great hope that had died in tho the night As s he walked away the captain coming from breakfast met him and lingered to make inquiries morning doctor hows bows the patient youre not going to make a funeral of it I 1 hope not quite laughed carelessly he has bits taken a turn for the better black and white |
