Blow The Man Down: A Romance Of The CoastDay, Holman
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Blow The Man Down: A Romance Of The Coast
Day, Holman
Love stories; Ship captains -- Fiction; Yachts -- Fiction
“I _did_ not know! But perhaps some day I can show you that I do now
know,” she replied, humbly. “That will be the day when I can give you
the proofs against the men who have tried to ruin you. I am inside the
camp of your enemies, Boyd, and I'll give you those proofs--even against
my own father, if he is guilty. That's all! Let's wait. But while you
are working I hope it's going to give you a bit of courage to know that
I am working for you!” She patted his cheek. “Go on!” she called to her
driver. The car jerked forward and was hidden among the chariots roaring
down through the modern Babylon.
Without power for self-analysis, without being able to penetrate the
inner recesses of his own soul in that crisis, he trudged on.
A little later, almost unconscious of volition in the matter, he found
himself at a steamboat office buying a ticket. He was going back to the
obscurity of Maquoit. But he was fully conscious that he was not obeying
Julius Marston's injunction to go and hide. A deeper sentiment was
drawing him. He knew where there existed simple faith in him and
affection for him, and he craved that solace. There were humble folks in
Maquoit who would welcome him.
“I'll go back--I'll go home,” he said. Once he would have smiled at the
thought that he would ever call the Hue and Cry colony “home.”
XXVI ~ THE FANGS OF OLD RAZEE
A dollar a day is a Hoosier's pay,
Lowlands, lowlands, a-way, my John!
Yes, a dollar a day is a Hoosier's pay,
My dollar and a half a day.
--Old Pumping Song.
Before leaving New York Mayo made inquiries at offices of shipping
brokers and trailed Captain Zoradus Wass to his lair in the loafers'
room of a towboat office. Their conference was a gloomy one; neither had
any comfort for the other. Mayo was laconic in his recital of events: he
said that he had run away--and had come back. Of Marston and Marston's
daughter he made no mention.
“I have been to see that fat whelp of a Fogg,” stated the old master
mariner. “I ain't afraid of him. I had a good excuse; I said I wanted a
job. I didn't let on to him that I advised you to slip your cable, but
I might have curried favor with him by saying so. He seemed to be pretty
well satisfied because you had skipped.”
“Captain Wass, that's the main thing I've come to talk over with you.
Here's my ticket back home. But I feel that I ought to walk up to the
United States marshal's office and surrender myself. And I want to ask
you about the prospects of my getting bail. Can you help me?”
“I reckon if I saw you behind bars I'd do my best to get you out,
son. But you steer away from here on a straight tack and mind your own
business! When the United States wants you they'll come and get you--you
needn't worry!”
“But I do worry, sir! I am dodging about the streets. I expect to feel
a hand on my shoulder every moment. I can't endure the strain of the
thing! I don't want anybody to think I'm a sneak.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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