About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1912)
8 Cynthia-of-the-M inute Copyright 1911 By Louis Joseph Vance CHAPTER X. CONTRETEMPS •‘Mr. Crittenden!” said Cynthia sharply. having stolen a strong strategic position In the rear of the young man. whose wits just then were all with hla vision, wandering indolently over the distances of A sea that shone like a sheet of sapphirine satin, softly undulant. "Mr. Critten den!"—end there was a brave ring of indignation in her accents, when he faced her. startled. "i want to know what you mean by it!” she declared, and held her chin high and clasped her hands behind her. meaning him to infer she would not snake hands until he had explained himself. But there were incorrigible imps In her eyes to give the lie to her show of ire; and as he recovered from the surprise Crittenden’s slow smile deep ened indulgently. "How d'you do?” he inquired, with a bow of quaint punctilio. "I’ll be only too glad to have the privilege of mak ing plain what 1 mean by whatever-it may-be. . . . But." he added, his eyes openly critical, "you’re so changed —every day—one hardly knows you.’ "Is that the reason you've been avoid ing me all day?” demanded the young woman with spirit "Avoiding you!” he repeated in a tone so whimsically persuasive of In jured innocence that Cynthia laughed outright Impulsively she whipped a hand from concealment and placed it in his. "1 am glad to see you.” she said, em phatically. "though 1 have got even reason in the world to be displeased with you." "But why?" he insisted, dropping her hand with more reluctance than he permitted to be apparent either to Cyn thia or to the observast Senor Persex. As for himself, if indicted for that re luctance. he would have entered an honest plea of not guilty. "For dereliction of duty." Cynthia Impeached him; "for gross discour tesy and for plain, downright unkind ness.'* "Whew!" Crittenden whistled, dis mayed. "Do you mind giving me a Mil of particulars? I’d no idea I was so hopelessly uncivilised.” “Very well.” Cynthia backed up to the rail and reckoned the several counts upon the tips of her Angers. "Dere liction of duty: because as purser you should look after your passengers: and you haven't taken enough interest to find out whether we were comfortable or not. Discourtesy;- because you should have done so anyway, ex officio. Vnkindness: because you haven't given me the ghost of a chance —till now— to thank you and tell you how happy I am as Madame Sa varan’s companion; which I wouldn't be but for you. *Tm sorry," he said penitently— "sorry. I mean, that I've been so busy trying to be a regular purser, ever since I came aboard, that I hadn't taken the time for this—this talk with you that I’ve been looking forward to all day. Honestly I have, only—” "Go on; I'm rapidly becoming placa ted.” said Cynthia demurely. He laughed quietly. "The fact of the matter is. he confessed. “I would not be here myseyf. if it wasn’t for you- I bad no idea you were to aall with us until nearly midnight—long after you had come aboard and, I presume, were asleep. . . . You see. all yester day I was in two minds about th‘s business; first I was for it, and then again I thought perhaps I'd better try a bit longer to stick it out at the old stand. Finally, late last night some thing brought me to the point of mak ing the trip to Brooklyn to find out what it was all about. Then Rhode got hold of me—and—well, he'd set his heart on having me—l don't in the least know why. I was trying to insist on being let in on the know—l mean, told what all this was about —and he was just as determined he wouldn't tell; and in the end he clinched the matter for me by ' informing me you were on board—you.” j Crittenden amended hastily, “with Med- . ame Savaran and her maid.” -• "Do you mean me to understand you gave in on my account alone? demanded - Cynthia of the straightforward eyes. (There must be no hint of nonsense between them; she had made up her mind on that point! •That's about the truth of the mat ter." he conceded. "I felt responsible, in a way—having been the agent—un conscious enough——who involved you in well, whatever all this nonsense ia about.” His earnestness impressed the girl. •Then you. too, really think there's something under the surface —?" "Crooked." he gave her the final word—cant of the hour, like many of’ its kin, inevltabe in Its expressiveness. "Yes, I do think —I’d hope not, but I’m sure of it —there's crooked work at the bottom of this. Everything points that "And there’ll be danger—?“ T don’t know. Perhaps not —proba- bly not. I was afraid at first there might be—” "What?" "Well —filibustering—gun running for some South American revolutionary junta. But I don't take much stock tn that now. I’ve had time to do a little thinking and looking about since I Joined the ship, and—well, matters don't lock that way, for a number of rea sons.” "Tou don't mind telling me—?" ■'Certainly I don’t. To begin with. ■ there's little incentive for gun running ’ Just now. Things are quiet all down the eoast. It’s funny. but it’s so. There’s not even a cloud the traditional size of a man's hand on the political aorizon. And then —as nearly as I can make out, and I'm in a position to inow, being purser—we're not carrying tuns or ammunition. The manifests •how practically nothing that could dis nitse that sort of thing. We carry no machinery. The cargo’s t rich one—suspiciously rich to my nind—but all goods of a domestic :1a ss. Finally, Rhode has pledged me ■is word we're not filibusters; ’ that wouldn’t mean so much, perhaps, with »ut the burden of proof in its support. Sa's probably telling the truth.” T see." said Cynthia slowly, intent o follow his exposition. ."But still one oust believe there’s something wrong!” "You can’t get away from it.” Crit tenden declared. "It's in the air; the thin fairly smells of it. To bee in with. if. as they’ve, been pretending, he Cynthia were really being taknn j town for delivery to an Argentine •irtn—why all this mystery and moon ffiine? Why recruit a crew on the j juiet? Why was -Phode so keen to j ret me—of •’! incompetents!—lnsteac [ »f a purser who knew his business? (Vhy single out a member of the Down •nd Out club when there are a%y num ber of capable men to be had for the tdverUaing? Why did he pick up Gris •om for boatswain? That’s the cahp you •oticed him speak Ao at Suzanne's, you •emember. Why is he, himself, so in wrested and anxious? Why does Mad tme Savarain insist on coming along to see that he doesn’t play horse with >er stake in the venture? He’s been wiling me about that, by the way. . . And then, again, no sane firm of •Mppers would have bought this tub. Ike's fit for nothing but to be broken •p for old Iron. I understand. They my Youngling fairly weeps over the -endition of the boilers and engines. Apparently not a dollar has been spent on sorely needed repairs—ffiie’s had not a lick of paint put on her beyond those necessary* to change her name Cydonia to Cynthia. The only thing about the ship that has been put in decent wording order is the wireless outfit, and that Thurlow, the wireless operator, tells me is the most com plete and expensive installation imag-> inable; the sort of thing you’d look for on the Lusitania instead of on a rusty old hulk of something less than 3.000 tons. If it wasn't for that immense ly rich cargo. * I'd suspect they intended to throw her away for the insurance money. But remembering that, it doesn't seem plausible. . ... tions on board —the Reds and the Blacks, you might say: Rhodes’ party and Peres's. Neither trusts the other an inch. Rhodes nominally the leader, but Peres treats him as a nonentity— and somehow generally manages to fcet his way when it comes to a show down. Lobb and Claret. Bergen. Mur ray. Spelvin—they’re all Blacks. Rhode has on bls side Youngling. Griscom. Greenaway, Bergen; and, I presume, myself. Thurlow seems to be inde pendent. ... A .queer kettle cf fish. ...” 4 Crittenden wound up a long speech with an impatient shake of his be wildered head and a half inaudible and wholly threadbar' reference to that putative decadence obtaining ’n the state of Denmark. "It sounds a good deal like my -wall paper.” observed Cynthia from pro found depths of abstraction. 'Sounds like what?” cried Critten den, astounded. "I mean.” Cynthia translated, much diverted by her blunder, "it reminds me of the wall paper in the room I hkd in that dreadful lodging house." **Oh-h .. . " said Crittenden, still groping. "It was so old and stained and faded and worn.” the girl explained, "that at first it seemed impossible. It was posi tively inhumanly incoherent. The more you saw of it the more it seemed like something suggested by a rather in sipid nightmare. But then, if you kept on looking and puzzling,- after a while suddenly you’d catch a glimpse of the first awful, hideous design, and then you could easily enough make it out in all its ugliness. ... I mean that this affair may be like that: if you watch it patiently enough and puxzle your brains until you’re weary, some sort of a de sign will show up through the super ficial meaninglessness." She smiled disparagement ‘That’s a pretty labored comparison, I'm afraid, and hardly worth while—” Tt’a vivid enough,” Crittenden as serted. “and I’ve no doubt pretty apt ... At all events, we won’t be long in finding out now. The farther we leave New York behind us, the near er we draw to the revelation, whatever it ma y be. That’s certain.” He spoke mechanically, his eyes thoughtfully narrqwed in the obession of thia problem. Fumbling absently in a aide pocket of his coat, he found and stuck between his Ups a wrinkled cigar ette. Cynthia remarked the disappearance of his gilver case, wondered, and sur mised the reason for it. For a moment a perilous sympathy shone in her gaze. But, perhaps fortunately for him, he was blindly abstracted. ' 'Then you’re just a little ■' sor ry ... ?” the girl asked after a mo ment, her tone bantering. "Not I," said Crittenden, rousing. "It's more comfortable this way— standing by to take my share of re sponsibility in case anything does hap pen. ..." "You oughtn't to feel that way fairly,” objected Cynthia, more seeious. “it’s no more your fgult than mine. Through you I found thia position; , through me you wt” drawn aboard I the ship. It’s the Red Man, really, who’s to b!ame. We're only his mani kins—bits of flotsam in the race of the . tide. ...” “Partners of strange fortunes," - said . Crittenden, under the contagious spell of phrase mongering. "Is that a bargain?” she caught him up quickly. * "Another?” he laughed. But Cynthia met his odd, whimsical stare with eyes naively earnest and sincere. "Don’t joke,” she said quietly. "I mean it And we owe it to ourselves in a way—to form an alliance of fensive and defensive: you and 1 against them all. Is it a bargain?” she repeated, offering her hand with a pret ty gesture'at once generous and ap pealing. ' “Yes. . . ’. ” Crittenden took her hand with more reluctance than he let her see. He could not refuse it, but he was wary of *lOllllls himself become too inti mately Ifaterested in her, of letting himself drift with the tide of inclina-’ tion and desire. He feared her just a little. She was just that much too be witching. It wouldn’t be hard to be come more than fond of a creature so artless and yet so pleasing, so dan gerously armored in unusual charm and yet so helpless. And Letty in her idle malice had put this constraint upon him, with her cas ual and contemptous insinuation that he wished to put aside his wife that Ihe might be free to marry again. Such I insignificant, baseless suggestions | thoughtlessly sown in the minds of men often take root and grow and flourish, casting shadows over their lives as long as the span thereof. As now, when Crittenden, unable to forget that groun<|le>sss charge, fearful (it may be) that it had jome footing in fact, felt himself curbed to grinding circumspec tion in all his relations with this girl, to wjiom he was nothing, even as she was nothing to him. Yet now he was pledging himself to friendship, binding himself to her in a clandestine understanding, with all its dangers. . . . He grew afraid—afraid of himself, doubting his strength, and afraid of Cynthia for the very strength of her fragility. And in succeeding hours and days of that curious voyage he grew increas ingly more apprehensive as meeting suc ceeded meeting and confidence led to closer confidence, forging link by link the bonds of an intimacy hardly to be broken save at a cost he would willing ' !y have spared them both; though It was ( for Cynthia that he was ever the more ! solicitous and pitiful. Without discour- ■ tesy amounting to boorishness he could < not avoid the girl, .nor without self- ■ stultification be find to the gladness that ■ lightened in her eyes when they encoun tered his own. the deepening unwilling ness with which she parted from him: nor yet could he be numb to his own constantly augmented gratification tn her company, his abiding delight in her unconscious allure, the joy he had of her delicate audacity of spirit, her heart free laughter, her pensive silences. He was his own fool, who foresaw, with the clearness of vision that only blttr unhappiness brings to z man, step by step the progress of infatuation and its inevitable end; while he had at his command a word to break the spell of ttiat fond enchantment, but not the will or the power to utter it and rob himself of what he was learning to prize beyond ail things desirable. By degrees he came to despise him- THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1912 By Louis Joseph Vance Author of "The Brass Bowk ” ''No Man’s Land,” Etc. h self and to look forward, with something of the yearning of a life prisoner fore- I seeing the approach of death in his dun geon, toward that ftiescapable hour when he must either speak the truth or deny his manhood. He had one hope, of the faintest: that the culmination of the intrigue involving them all would come in time to afford him some honorable means of escape. Those days, while yet that crisis was deferred, to Crittenden were strangely bitter-sweet. To Cynthia they were only sweet, days that ran their courses in an iridescent glamour of romance. Unlike Crittenden, she did not analyze what rendered them so precious to her. The capacity for self delusion is not singular to man. Cynthia lived only for the hour, her soul asleep— though dreaming. In her understanding the sunlight shone with added lustre only because she had no longer that gaunt shape of Care for company, the air she inspired was rarely stimulating only be cause of the mystery of their great ad venture. She was happy because she was loved—by Madame Savaran, of course, who petted her inordinately, to an extent that would have spoiled an other nature; she was light of heart and prone to frequent laughter because she was kept continually diverted by an un familiar mode of life: she was constant ly mindful of Crittenden because he was a good comrade, keen for the fun of playing fellow-conspirator and of making believe that this was a most desperate hazard—whereas, as she knew in her heart, the outcome of it could not pos sibly be anything but for the happiness of every one concerned. Thus Cynthia in infrequent moods of introspection. . . . Meanwhile the Cynthia ploughed steadily southwards her blind furrow on the face of the waters. Little of moment happened to disturb the tran quility of shipboard existence. The great conspiracy simmered gently in a covered vessel; only occasional jets’ of steam escaped to remind one of the existence of the brew. The several cooks responsible for its concoction hovered solicitously round the pot, ex ceedingly jealous of its ultimate per fection. but without open dissension. Treating one another with admirable if studied tolerance, the head chefs, Rhode and Perez, walked apart, wrapped each in hfs mantle of remote inscrutability. Small incidents proved disproportion ately amusing. Captain Lobb, waxing bold on sufferance, contrived to over step the undefined bounds of Madame's tolerance, and get himself severely snubbed. He sulked for an hour and then, despairing of making any im pression upon Cynthia, who somehow inexplicably remained unconscious of his charms, began casting sheep’s eyes at Sidonie. Mr. Youngling, mildly saturated, en tertained the company at one luncheon with a long, loud, and lachrymose mon ologue anent the virtues of his de ceased spouse, blandly refusing to be silenced or squelched by Madame Sa varan's acrid commentary or basilisk stare. Senor Perez continued consistently attentive to the ladies, implacably su percilious toward Rhode. The latter gentleman, between morn ing and evening bouts with his esti mable mother-in-law, devoted himself to the melancholy consumption of an inordinate amount of American whisky, without showing any effects thereof, ill or otherwise, whatever;, unless such may be termed his habit of hasty prep aration for Immediate flight whenever he heard a sound resembling the rust ling of a skirt Mr. Claret, 'somewhat slowly but methodically, managed to quarrel with every individual member of the ship’s executive staff, seeming to derive from this depressing occupation a sort of morose satisfaction. Continued in Next Issue. WINGATE IS SHOT BY JAILER LEVY (Special Dispatch to The Journal.) CHARLESTON, 6. C.. Aug. 21—Charles ten Is stirred over the shooting of Capt. V». x.. Wingate, of the city chaingang guard, by Assistant Jailor .Clarence Levy. Wingate is an appointee of Mayor Grace’s administration, which is opix>s tng the re-election of Sheriff Martin, who appointed Levy. Chief of Police Cantwell says that he has evidence, secured by his detectives to show that Wingate was shot from atnoush and that shots were fired from the second or third floor windows at Wingate at the time that Levy opened are upon him through the bars of the big gate of the prison. ' . Mayor Grace has strongly denounced the Shooting, declaring that it was a 'diabolical plot to murder’’ Wingate following it is presumed, the evidence that Wingate was collecting in refer ence to the conduct of the county jail, for use by the anti-Martin forces. Feeling is running high in local poli tics and the shooting of Wingate has In tensified it. The refusal of Sheriff Martin to permit the police to arrest Levy that he might be arraigned in the usual form at the station house and permitting him to continue to occupy his quarters on the jail and dis charge his duties and also retain the pis tol with which Wingate was shot, adds to the feeling. The warrant for the arrest was served upon Levy in jail and the hearing will take place as soon as Win gate is able to appear. CHATTANOOGA MAN ALLEGEDCOUNTERFEITER (Special Disptch to The Journal.) CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., . Aug. 21. Charged with making and passing coun terfeit dollars, J. L. Case, a resident of Alton Park, a suburb of this city, has been bound over to the Federal court under bond of $5,000 by United States Commissioner S. J. McAllester. The prosecution in the case was conducted by Secret Service Agent E. P. McAdams, specially detailed upon the case by the treasury officials at Washington. The special officer testified that he had arrested Case in the actual act of making the money and submitted as material evidence all the dies and molds which were used as well as the solu tions of silver and allo'y and several finished dollars. The evidence showed that the gov ernment inspectors had had Case under surveillance ever since he purchased his outfit from a wholesale house in New York. The agent testified that the in spectors were always informed of the receipt of orders such as that submitted by Case and that the purchasers were henceforth shadowed until the Federal authorities were convinced that the ma terials and molds were not being used for legitimate and legal purposes. Several witnesses were introduced who testified that the accused had upon several occasions offered them the coun terfeit money which had been refused. Other arrests are expected to follow shortly, as, according to the special agents, a number of men are impli cated. Mil LINEH STRIKES ICEBERG IN HEffl FOG But With Different Fate Than Titanic, She Gets Safely to Port v. “ ■ (By Associated Frats.) LIVERPOOL, Aug. 21.—The Allan line steamer Corsican, which struck an ice berg east of Belle Isle, near Newfound land, on the afternoon of August 12 while on her voyage from Montreal for this port, arrived here this morning. The fore part of the vessel was protected with collision bulkheads, otherwise she showed no signs of damage. Captain Cook, the commander nf the Corsican, in the course of an interview, when the vessel had docked, said: "The weather was hazy when the Cor sican collided with the iceberg on Au gust 12. She was traveling at dead slow speed w'hen the iceberg was sighted ahead. The engines were immediately put astern, but the Corsican touched be fore she could be stopped. She suffered no damage below ten feet of the water line. The crew was at once called to stations and the boats were swung out, but were soon taken back again. -.11 the watertight doors were at once closed. The weather continued foggy for four days after the collision, but the ship was able to proceed at moderate speed. Her bows were protected with collision bulkheads. WAS THERE A PANIC? Most of the passengers of the Corsican say there was no panic at the time of the ‘collision. Two Cambridge stu dents named Bethel! and Stevens, how ever, Say they were almost thrown out Hundreds 17 D 17 17 of Dollars P IV 11/ 1L To Agents of The Semi-Weekly Journal in Our Great Profit-Sharing Contest. The Offer Is Open to All. You Take No Chances The harder you work the more money you will make and the more the prize winners will receive. Our offer is as follows: For every yearly subscription that you secure to The Semi- Weekly Journal we will allow you 25c commission and in addition we will deposit in a special fund 10c for each and every yearly subscription sent in by all agents. This 10c of each sub scription received from our agents will be held and given as prizes as follow*s: % 50 Per Cent of Fund to Agent Sending Largest Number of Yearly Subs 25 Per Cent of Fund to Agent Sending 2d Largest Number of Yearly Subs 15 Per Cent of Fund to Agent Sending 3d Largest Number of Yearly Subs 10 Per Cent of Fund to Agent Sending 4th Largest Number of Yearly Subs • » T _ L—■.i— If our agents will take an interest in this contest they can make it the largest contest ever conducted in the South. You have all to gain and nothing to lo>e by entering, for you get your commission on the subscription and in addition we place 10 cents for each yearly subscription in this fund as additional pay for your services. Remember, every subscription brings the fund up just that much more, so the more subscriptions you secure the greater the fund will be and the more money you will have to divide among the four winners when the contest closes, August 31, 1912. Write the contest editor right away and ask for furl her information; special contest order blanks may be had upon application. Each yearly subscription at 75 cents a year, or any of our combinations at SI.OO, will count in this contest. 25 cents commission allowed on either. In case of a tie for any prize, the amount of the prize tied for will be divided equally among those tiring. Address All Communications or Orders to CONTEST EDITOR Semi-Weekly Journal ATLANTA, GA. ASTOR BABY MUST WORRY ALONG ON A PALTRY THREE MILLION Mrs, Madeline Force Astor Announces Positively That She Will Not Contest the Will .. (By Associated Brest.) NEW YORK, Aug. 21.—A formal statement given out by counsel for Mrs. Madeline Force Astor, in reply to per sistent reports that a contest of the John Jacob Astor will is being con templated says: "Mrs. Astor has always expressed entire satisfaction with the provisions made for her by her late husband. She has not now. nor has she ever had any of their bunks by the violence of the impact. They also assert that a number of the passengers were panic-stricken, and that one woman called on everybody to kneel and pray. The students assert that a hundred tons of ice fell on the ship’s deck and that there was 19 feet of water in the hold last Sunday. The crew, they said, were unable to sleep in the forecastle after the colli sion. Several of the passengers had nar row escapes. Stevens continued: “Several Italian on board were seized with panic, grabbed their bags and jumped into the boats. If we pad taken to the boats there would have been no chance of being picked up, as the fog bank was said to be 100 miles wide. As a matter of fact, we did not sight a boat for two days.” The captain asserts that the Corsican did not ship any water. The passengers held a meeting today, shortly before their arrival, and pre sented Captain Cook with a gold watch and a purse of gold. desire or intention to dispute the valid ity of the ante-nuptial agreements or the will. “As for setting aside the will, any lawyer of the slightest experience would not advise that it could be done. All the provisions strictly conform to the laws- of the state, la reference to the article ofc the will providing for posthumous children, it must be sai4 that while the fund of s3,\Joo.o()b' seems to be rather small in view of the large estate Colonel Astor left and as com pared with the sum William Vincent Astor will receive, it is nevertheless, a large fortune and ample for the heir’s maintenance and deucation. It is like ly, moreover, that this trust estate will quadruple by the time the child is 21 years old.” HEAVY VOTE EXPECTED IN SUMTER COUNTY (Special Dispatch to The Journal.) AMERICUS, Ga_. Aug. 20. —With 1,800 Democratic voters registered for tomor row’s primary in Sumter, friends of the several candidates, gubernatorial, state house, legislative and congressional, are busily engaged today seeing the voters. Comparatively little interest, however, is manifested in the contest for state house offices. At Crisp campaign headquarters, the assertion is made Tuesday afternoon that Judge Charles Crisp will carry twelve of the fifteen counties of the district ■with a plurality of 3,000. The four-cornered legislative race in Sumter, between Crawford Wheatley, E. A. Nisbet, J. E. Sheppard and John Fer gusion, is decidedly interesting, with the result in doubt. Messrs. Sheppard, Nis bet and Ferguson were members of the recent general assembly and are seek ing re-election. GILDED NORTH KILLS HIMSELF ON DDDMT “I’m Tired of This Thing,’’ He Told Young Woman Com panion y j? ? • ■ - i ■; (By AsMcUted Preu.) NEW YORK. Atig. 21.—That part of; Broadway known as the Rialto, wasj the scene of another shooting early to— day, when a young man registered at al local hotel as "A. W. Rogers, of Jack' son. Miss.” suddenly remarked to a young woman with whom he had spent the evening: \ "You go along. I'm tired of this' thing. I’m going to kill myself.” As the girl fled, Rogers drew a re-1 volver and sent a bullet through his' brain. The police believe the name Rogers: was an assumed one, for on the man’s | watch fob were the initials "A. W. Y.”l and the same initials were engraved on his cuff links. Rogers came here about] a month age. He was evidently a man; of means, for much jewelry and a large, roll of bills was found on his clothing. * FUTURE OF CHINA FULL OF PROMISE SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20.—"Condi-L tions in the new republic of China araj slowly shaping themselves into soma semblance of organization.” said Rear Admiral J. R. Murdock, when he arrived from the Orient yesterday. "The situation is far from satisfac tory, but it cannot be expected that a new government can be formulated over night. Internal dissensions will keep it from gaining a flrm basis. When the leaders cease advising conflicting meth ods, China will go forward with giant strides.”
