Kate Beaumont

CHAPTER V.

THE news that the ship was on fire drove the McAlister affair as clean out of Mrs. Chester’s head as a cannon-ball could have done.

That was Mrs. Chester; capable of emotions as fiery as ignited gunpowder, but capable of holding only one charge at a time. Moreover, there was a certain restricted sense in which this worldly and spunky woman was naturally religious. I do not say that she was satisfactorily devout; nor do I undertake to remember whether she was or was not a church communicant; my whole statement amounts to this, that she believed heartily in the other world, and was afraid of it. Not that she thought of it profitably or often ; she only trembled at it when it seemed near. If she was possessed of a devil, as some of her enemies and some even of her relatives asserted, it must have been that devil who, when he was sick, a monk would be.

For the present the secret of the incognito was not divulged, and Tom Beaumont was not st’boyed at the foe of his family. In fact, not ten minutes had elapsed before Mrs. Chester, having flown to the captain for consolatory assurances, and got nothing which satisfied her, was looking up into the grave, calm, benignant face of Frank McAlister, and asking of it news of life or death.

“ I believe,” said the deep, mellow voice of the young man, “that the fire has been discovered in the hold ; or, rather, it has been suspected there. Investigations are going on now which will let us know whether there is any real cause for alarm. If there is fire, it is in the cargo ; probably a case of spontaneous combustion ; badly stored chemicals, it may be.”

“ What a shame ! ” burst forth Mrs. Chester, trembling with anger as well as fear. “Whoever put such things on board ought to be hung.”

“ They are not mine,” he observed, in answer to her sudden glare of accusation. “ Indeed, I don’t know as yet that there is anything of the kind below. Only, it seems likely. Otherwise, how account for the fire ? ” added this investigator.

“ I shall go and see what is there,” she cried, making a rush in her dressing-gown towards the stairway.

“It is of no use, madam,” ventured Mr. Wilkins, who had just come below. “ Can’t get near the place. They ’re taking out cargo, and the deck is all littered up ; the Devil’s own mess − beg pardon. Nothing to be seen but smoke coming out of the hatchway. I don’t see, by Jehu, how those sailors can stand it down there. O, I s’pose it ’ll all come out right,” he concluded, seeing the terror of Mrs. Chester.

At this moment Duffy arrived with an air of bringing a glass or two of grog along with him, inside his jacket.

“ The Spouter ! ” he said, apparently continuing a conversation with Wilkins. “ I say, Bill Wilkins, the Spouter ’d cool her off in no time.”

“ What is the Spouter ? ” eagerly asked Mrs. Chester.

“ Our fire - engine, Mrs. Chester. Hartland fire-engine. I ’m cap’n of the comp’ny. ’Member, Mrs. Chester, how Hutch Holland’s store got fire, ’n’ we put the m’chine at it ? Had the m’chine out ’n’ on the spot in five minutes. Took up posish at the corner − ”

Mrs. Chester, totally uninterested in the prowess of the Spouter, since it could not help her, turned her back impatiently on the somewhat tipsy Duffy, while Wilkins took him by the arm and led him to the other end of the cabin, saying, “ Here, tell me about it.”

Serious hours passed. Now and then a man went on deck, crawled as near as he could to the lumbered hatchway, tried to peer through the boiling whirls of smoke, came back to the anxious ladies, and reported − nothing. Tom Beaumont, by this time as drunk as Duffy, and much more noisy in his liquor, was back and forth continually, talking unreportable nonsense.

“ O, why can’t you find out something, some of you ? ” was the cry of the angered and terrified Mrs. Chester. “ Where is that Captain Brien ? I want him to come here and tell me what is the matter. I want to give him a piece of my mind. How dare he load his ship with combustibles ! He has n’t heard the last of this. Not if he gets us ashore, he has n’t heard the last of it. I ’ll follow him up. I ’ll ruin him.”

“ Cap’n Brien ’sh all right,” declared Tom. “ Cap’n Brien ’sh a gentleman. He’s up there, workin’ like a beaver. Don’t y’ hear him holler ? ” Here a ludicrous idea struck the young gentleman, and he repeated with an exasperating smile, “ Nigger in a wood-pile, don’t y’ hear him holler ? ”

“Tom !” implored Kate Beaumont, who seemed even more moved by her brother’s condition than by the common danger.

“ O yes, − all right,” laughed the youngster. “ Got little too much aboard. Go on deck again ’n’ cool off. All right pretty soon.”

“ O, what a miserable set! ” gasped Mrs. Chester, stamping with impatience. “ Is there no clergyman on board ? I never will go to sea again without a clergyman on board. Is there nobody here who can pray ? I would give all I’m worth for a prayer-meeting. I wish I had brought old Miriam. She could pray for us.”

She glared around upon the men, angry that none of them could pray for her. Kate Beaumont turned away gravely, walked with bended head to her state-room and closed the door upon herself. Was it to lift a supplication to Heaven for deliverance, or for resignation ? McAlister hoped so, believed so with inexpressible tenderness of spirit, and sent his soul after her.

“ I think we had better make some preparations,” he presently said to Mrs. Chester, as she paced the cabin with clasped hands and partially closed eyes. “ The coast cannot be far off. We may reach it in boats, if it comes to that. May I advise you to make up a little package of such things as you must save, and to tell Miss Beaumont to do the same ? I hope it will not be so bad as that. But we had best prepare.”

Mrs. Chester gave him a stare, and then hurried to her room. The young man had decided that, as for himself, he was ready ; he wanted nothing but his overcoat and the life-preserver which hung over his berth ; it was folly to think of cumbering a boat with books and baggage. He now fell to pacing the cabin quietly ; and in so doing he approached the group of Wilkins and Duffy.

“ I say, sit down,” called Duffy, looking up with a fixed, absurd smile, and striking his fist hospitably on the table in front of him. “ Take seat, Mr. Mc − McAlister. Know you. Knew you ten days ago. Sit down over there. Talk about Hartland.”

“ O you drunken blatherskite ! ” growled the disgusted Wilkins, pushing away as if to rise from the table.

“ Hold on, Bill Wilkins,” called Duffy, grasping his friend tightly. “ Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Mc − McAlister. Both Hartland men. Talking about Hartland.”

“ Beg your pardon, sir,” muttered Wilkins, addressing McAlister. “ He ’s always that way when he takes a spoonful. He has n’t had but two glasses under him, and here he is higher than any other man would be on a quart.”

“ Only two glasses,” declared Duffy, trying to look sober. “ Not tight. Just trying to cheer the − the occasion. You see, Mr. McAlister − ”

Wilkins squinted a look of apology towards the young gentleman.

“Never mind,” muttered the latter. “ Disguise is probably of no importance now. I had my reasons.”

“ Certainly,” nodded Wilkins ; while the eager and smiling Duffy, who had not noticed this aside, went on with his babble.

“You see − talking of Hartland − ’member the fire there four years ago ? O, you was n’t there, excuse me. Hutch Holland’s store. ’Member me − Duffy − keep store there − right opposite Wilkins ? Cap’n of the fire-engine. Spouter ! Had her out in five minutes. Hose busted. Took out a length. Busted again. Took out’nother length. Rammed her close up to the ole shanty. Let drive into the cellar − ten tons of cold water − cleaned cistern all out. Well, could n’t stop the blasted thing. Why ? Well, here ’t is − petrolem afire − don’t ye see ? Filled the cellar full of water, ’n’ histed the pe-trole-um,” slowly this time, resolved to pronounce it. “ Went on blazing ’n’ ripping ’n’ roaring just the same. Floated − rose to the top, ’n’ burnt like hell − did n’t care how much water there was. More water the better. How should I know ? Nobody said petrolem − petro-le-um, hang it ! If I ’d known ’bout petrolem, I’d ’a’ pitched in sand, ’n’ smothered it. But water ! kept me slinging water on to petrolem. Would n’t stay on it. Petrolem rose to the surface ’n’ burnt right straight along. Caught the floor at last, ’n’ sailed up like sky-rocket. That’s the way the ole shanty went. None of my fault. Nobody said petrolem − pe-trole-um.”

He paused a moment; his friend Wilkins smirking slightly, notwithstanding a gloomy under-thought about the fire in the hold ; and McAlister surveying him gravely, reflecting on what he had said, rather than noticing how he said it.

“ Well, what was I driving at ? ” resumed Duffy. “ What was it, Bill Wilkins ? Did n’t stop with Hutch Holland’s burn-out. Told ye that before.”

“ I should think so,” growled Wilkins. “ Forty times. Full load every haul.”

“ O, I know − petrolem down there,” continued Duffy, jerking his head toward the forward part of the ship.

“ That’s the reason water won’t catch hold. Want sand. Won’t bring about anything till we get some sand. An’ where’s sand ? Bottom of the ocean. Bound to bust − that’s what’s the matter − settled to bust − bet yer pile on ’t. Let’s have some more whiskey. I ’ll go ’n’ hunt the steward.”

As he rose, Wilkins caught him by the arm and jerked him down again, more effectually than tenderly.

“ No, no, Duffy ! We don’t want any. And you ’re drunk enough for the whole ship’s company.”

“ But Mr. McAlister wants whiskey,” insisted Duffy. “ Let go of me, Bill Wilkins.”

“ Nothing for me,” objected McAlister, raising his voice a little, and awing the fuddled man into his seat.

“ Well, all right, then,” assented Duffy. “ If you say so, that settles it. I only drink myself on these occasions. Wilkins here ought to take some. He ’s scared, Wilkins is. I say, Wilkins, ain’t you scared ? ”

“ Yes, by Jehu, I am,” confessed Wilkins. “ I wish to Heaven I was ashore.”

“ Want to live, don’t you, Wilkins ?” continued Duffy, still keeping up his fixed, silly smile. “ Find it pleasant world, don’t you, Wilkins ? Like to catch ’nother hold on’t ? ”

“ Yes, I’d take a contract to live five hundred years,” said the frank Wilkins, not apparently a frightened man, either. “ I like it. I ’ve had a good time here. I don’t feel sure that I shall ever be let into another world that ’ll be so pleasant to me. I’d take a contract for five hundred years, and after that I believe I’d be willing to take another.”

“ An’ be shipwrecked ? ” asked Duffy, still simpering.

“Yes, and be shipwrecked.”

“ An’ fail, Wilkins ? Bust up ’n’ fail, now ’n’ then ? ”

“ Yes, throw in as many failures as you like, and all sorts of other bothers.”

“ Well, Wilkins,” said Duffy, speaking with extreme gravity, as if he were really called on to decide something, − “well, Wilkins, don’t know but I ’gree with you.”

“ Wilkins would n’t like it in Heaven,” he added, turning to McAlister. “ Not a ’ligious man. Now, I’m ’ligious ; had advantages. But Wilkins, let him have his own way, ’n’ Wilkins wouldn’t go to Heaven, − not till all the other places was shut up.”

At this moment Tom Beaumont slid like an avalanche into the cabin, got up with much rubbing of his back, cursed the brass edges of the stairs, and began to beat aft.

“ Another of ’em ! ” muttered Wilkins. “ By Jehu, here’s what’s a going. I can’t stand so much blathering when I’m sober myself.”

Leaning forward, he whispered in Duffy’s ear, “ Shut up about that name, will you, now ? ”

“ Name ? O yes, McAlister. Keep shady. Secret of a gentleman, − word of a gentleman, I mean.”

And as Tom approached the table, Wilkins and McAlister left it together, proceeding towards the deck.

“ Those two fools ! ” muttered Wilkins. “They’ll get water enough in their rum, by Jehu, if they’re not looked after. They ’ll be so drunk they couldn’t get into a boat if it was as big as a continent. Hope you ’ll excuse Duffy, sir. He’s not that way often. It only takes a thimbleful to capsize him. Good, peaceable, wellmeaning fellow. Don’t know a better intentioned man. I like him, though he is a doughhead, especially when he’s tight.”

Meeting the steward, he whispered hurriedly : “ Look here. Close up your gin palace, and lose the key. Some people on board have crowded themselves too full already. Lose the key right square off.”

“ You don’t seem to be alarmed out of your wits,” said McAlister.

“ O, I can stand this sort of thing so so. I ’ve had adventures before now. Still, I was honest in what I said to Duffy ; I don’t mean to die as long as I can help it; don’t want to die a particle. Hang me if I see anything gay in it.”

On deck they perceived, by the light of the stars and a deck-lamp or two, that no more smoke was curdling up from the hatchway. The captain, too, instead of being forward superintending the struggle with the fire, was standing near the helmsman, looking now at a chart and now at the compass.

“ All out, Captain ? ” asked McAlister, drawing a deep breath of relief. “ Shall I tell the ladies ? ”

Raising his heavy-lidded eyes, red and watery from the effects of the smoke into which they had been peering, the skipper gave his two passengers a sullen, noncommittal stare.

“ What ! not out ? ” exclaimed Wilkins.

“ D−n it, no ! ” in a growl of wrath and impatience.

“ Captain,” said McAlister, in his calmly authoritative way, “ it seems to me that in such a state of things you had better tell the passengers plainly what to look for. It may save a panic when the crisis comes.”

“ Well, the case is just here,” returned the captain, slowly and sadly. “We can’t get at the fire. It’s low down in the hold, and yet water won’t flood it. Can’t unload enough to reach the spot. No man can stay below a half-minute. I don't know what the devil is burning down there. It sends up a smoke that no human being can face. It’s chemicals, or some kind of oil, and yet there’s nothing of the sort on the freight bill. Well, if it’s oil, water will only do harm ; raise the stuff, you see, and set the deck afire ; then we ’re gone. What I ’ve done is to batten down the hatches, to keep out the air and smother the flame. If only the stuff will burn out without catching the ship ! We ’re heading now for the nearest land.”

“ Shove her right along and run her high and dry,” assented Wilkins, cheeringly.

“ That’s all that can be done,” groaned the captain.

‘‘How far to land?” queried McAlister.

“ About three hundred miles. The boat is going her very prettiest. If we can only keep in her twenty-four hours ! ”

“ Had you not better say all this below?” insisted McAlister. “Passengers will take a captain’s word for everything.”

“ I ’ll come down. But my God ! is n’t it horrible ! First ship I ever lost, gentlemen ; and I fifty-five ! By heavens, I ’d rather have died than seen this day. I hate to face those women. There ’s that girl. I had a daughter once. I hate to meet that girl.”

And Captain Brien, all bluster and humbug swept out of him, wiped away honest tears of misery.

“ By Jehu, yes, we must save that girl,” struck in Wilkins, energetically.

“ Yes ! ” said McAlister with solemnity.

A few minutes later, the dozen or so of passengers were gathered in silence about the captain in the cabin. He told his story, much as he had told it on deck, and then added, in a businesslike way, as if he were issuing directions for an ordinary disembarkation: “Now for your duty. Make up your little packets for the boats. Get some ship-bread about you. And then keep cool and stand by. When I want you, I 'll call for you. I ’m very sorry, ladies and gentlemen. It ’s not my fault. I didn’t stow the ship. That’s all.”

And, glad to get out of it, glad to escape from those blank faces which all seemed to reproach him, the captain slowly wheeled his short, solid body towards the stairway, to go on deck and resume his sleepless watch.

“ O you wretch ! ” Mrs. Chester burst out in a tremulous scream. “O you worthless, villanous −”

“ Hush, Aunt, hush ! ” begged Kate Beaumont, seizing her elder relative around the waist, and trying to drag her towards her state-room.

“ What’s that ? What’s the row ? ” called Tom Beaumont, now half crazed with liquor. “ Who’s a fightin’ ? Who wants to fight ? Let me in.”

“ Never mind,” whispered Wilkins, hurrying the captain towards the stairs. “ The woman’s hysterical, and the boy ’s drunk. You get on deck, captain. It’s all right.”

Tom meanwhile has rushed up to Kate, his face full of maudlin affection, and his right hand under his coat skirt. “Anybody insulted you? say, sis ? ”

“ No, Tom,” cried the girl, full of shame and terror. “ O, do try to be quiet ! ” And here she burst into tears.

Wilkins ran back, caught the young lunatic by the elbow, and walked him aft with a confidential air, whispering, “ Tell you all about it. It’s nothing but your aunt’s got the hysterics.”

“ O, thah t’s it ? ” drawled Tom, falling back from him to the length of his arm, and staring with head on one side. “ Dammer ! ”

“ Yes, that’s it. But we must get to work. Make up our little bundles for the boats. There,” pushing him coaxingly on to a settee ; “ you lie down out of the way, won’t you ? Let me strap up your duds. Want your overcoat ? ”

And so on, − the adroit and self-possessed Wilkins! − thoroughly accustomed to bummers ! In three minutes the wretched youngster was asleep, leaving Wilkins at liberty to make his preparations for him, and then to go about his own.

All the crew were up all night getting ready to quit the ship at a moment’s notice. There were men enough to manage four large boats, and these boats were sufficient to carry thrice as many passengers as there were, with stores sufficient for a fortnight’s voyage ; so that, barring accident or tempest, there was every probability of getting all hands safely to land. Kegs of water, boxes of hardbread, cases of preserved meats, etc., were ranged along the deck, ready for embarkation. Captain Brien’s variegated face gleamed and reddened every few minutes in the light of the binnaclelamp, or in the glow which poured out of the doors of the furnace-room. The firemen and the engines kept each other hard at work. So far as McAlister could judge (and he was not, of course, easy to please in the matter), everything was being done that could be done.

“ How goes it ? ” he asked, meeting the skipper in one of his trottings back and forth between the engine-room and the wheel.

“Beautiful!” The captain was almost gay, his doomed boat was running so gamely “That engine is charming. It’s like a young lady dancing. Fourteen knots ! Never saw the beat of it in a boat of this size. Is n’t it too d−d hard ! ” he exclaimed, striking his clubs of fists together and stamping his fat feet, as short and broad as a bear’s paws. “ Here’s this little angel of a boat gone to smash ! And all for some blasted cargo − the Davy Jones knows what − that ought n’t to have been shipped, would n’t have been if I’d done the stowing. O − by —jimmy! ”

And, lowering his head like an angry bull, the captain butted on toward the helmsman.

Going below and traversing the cabin, McAlister overheard Tom Beaumont snoring whole nightmares in his state-room, and Mrs. Chester either whimpering or scolding in hers. As he passed the door of the latter, Kate Beaumont came out and began walking backward and forwards, apparently without noticing him. He looked over his shoulder pitifully at the pallor of the girlish face.

“ Miss Beaumont,” he thought he might say, “ may I walk with you ? ”

She took his arm mechanically, and presently she looked up at him, as if suddenly remembering who he was and what had passed between them. Well, it was no time for family feuds ; it was no occasion for nice delicacy in choosing one’s companions ; she continued to walk by his side and lean upon him.

“ I trust and believe this will end well,” he said, longing to cheer her.

“You are very kind,” she replied. “ I am afraid I have not treated you well, Mr. − Mr. McMaster. I don’t know. If I have done wrong, I beg your pardon.”

“You have done everything right. I shall always respect you.”

There seemed to be some comfort in this ; of course not comfort enough for the hour.

“You are bearing this bravely,” he went on, admiring her even then.

“ I could bear it, if I only had help.” And the girl, only eighteen, remember, sobbed. “ Mr. McAlister, I want to ask one thing of you. We two women will be cared for. But who will care for my brother ? Will − will you ? ”

“ I pledge myself to it.”

“ O, how good you are ! ” It was no time to reflect that she was placing herself under deep obligations to a man who had asked her hand in marriage. It is probable that, under the terrible circumstances of the crisis, she did not think of it. Standing on the verge of the other world, this world’s entanglements were very vague.

“ Could not you and I,” he asked, “ when we get home, put an end to this feud ? ”

“ I don’t know. It might be. I will try,” she replied, with a feeling as if she were talking in a dream.

“ Let us pledge ourselves here to try,” he begged. “ Will you do it ? ”

“ Yes,” she promised.

“And I,” he added.

Then he insisted upon her lying down on one of the long settees of the cabin. “We may have a hard day to-morrow,” he said, “and you must endeavor now to sleep. I will keep watch.”

In such style passed the remainder of the night on board the slowly consuming Mersey.

CHAPTER VI.

ALL next day the tame demon of fire and the wild demon of fire struggled for the Mersey. The engines never relaxed the vehement joy of their highest speed ; and the conflagration below never ceased its muttering, lapping, and gnawing.

“ We ’re running for land like a man that’s snake-bit running for a whiskey-mill, ” observed Wilkins, squinting with half-closed, calculating eyes at the racing bubbles alongside.

“By George, I wish I could run for a whiskey-mill,” softly grumbles Duffy, who, having got sober overnight, is now in sustained low spirits. “ Pretty time to close bar. Now’s just the chance to hand round something cheering.”

“ Lord bless you, man ! you don’t want to go off by spontaneous combustion, do you ? You ’ll catch fire soon enough and stay alight long enough, without troubling yourself to kindle up.”

Wilkins seems to be joking, but he is not; he has a way of saying his most serious things in this jester fashion ; he is at this moment sincerely anxious to keep his friend from getting drunk and being drowned ; nor is he at all unmindful of the gravity of his own danger.

“ I don’t want to get corned, no such thing,” insists Duffy. “ I was n’t upset last night, though you thought I was. I can tell you everything I said.”

“ Lord ! don’t! ’’ implores Wilkins. “ Hutch Holland’s store. Petroleum and sand. Know it all by heart.”

“ I’m going for that steward,” resumes Duffy, after a minute more of dolorous meditation. “ I can’t stand this sort of thing without a drink.”

“No use,” says Wilkins. “They always lose the key of the spirit-room at such times. It’s a thing that happens constant. He won't find it for you. O, come back ! Look here, I’ve got a little drop myself; there, turn up that flask.”

“There’s water in it,” declares Duffy, indignantly, after a long taste. “ What the old boy did you go and put water in it for, Bill Wilkins ? ”

“Well, it was wrong, I know,” grinned Wilkins, who had “thinned out ” his whiskey of a set purpose and for Duffy’s good. “Wrong as a general thing. Wrong in principle. But never mind. It won’t be the water part of it that ’ll hurt you. There, that ’ll do ; hand over.”

Seeing Tom Beaumont come on deck, Wilkins snatched the flask from the sucking Duffy and hid it in his breastpocket.

The youngster had slept all night, taken a late but hearty breakfast, and was now perfectly sober.

“ How are you, gentlemen ? ” he nodded, in his free-and-easy, though graceful and not uncourteous way. “ Not up all night, I hope. By Jove, I used my time ; slept from one end to t’ other.”

“ I think an eternity of sleep, yes, or an eternity of cat naps, would be right pleasant,” said Wilkins.

“ I’d go in for it,” muttered Duffy, “ under the circumstances.”

“ How are things ?” asked Tom.

“ Pretty hot amidships,” was Duffy’s bland reply. Feeling his whiskey a little, Duffy ; not so scared as he had been a minute before.

“ The Devil! ” growled Tom. “ I understood down below that we would make land, sure. Hot, is it ? By Jove, if the thing breaks through, we’ve got, by Jove, to wade into the boats and make a long pull of it.”

“ That’s so,” assents Duffy, gathering courage every minute, as the liquor climbs higher in his tottlish head. “ Two hundred miles to skip yet ; take us about sixteen hours. That fetches us ashore somewhere near midnight. But, if we have to paddle, Davy Jones knows when we ’ll get there.”

“ H−ll ! ” is the compendious comment of Tom Beaumont, not frightened in the strict sense of the word, but realizing the situation.

In talk more or less like this, in occasional investigations as to the growing heat of the deck, in inquiries concerning the working of the furnace and the speed of the ship, and in much impatient walking or gloomy smoking, these gentlemen pass the day. We must however add, to the credit of Tom Beaumont, that he runs below every hour or two, to say a word of cheer to his aunt or sister. The dissipated youngster is brave beyond question, and not altogether lacking in the finer emotions.

“ I do hope, Tom,” says Kate, taking him by the arms and looking him sadly in the eyes, − “I do hope you won’t drink one drop to-day. You took altogether too much last night. You made me ashamed and frightened. I thought, what if you should die in that state ! And what help could you have been to us?”

“By Jove, sis, don’t!” begs Tom, trying to laugh, but wilting a little. “It wasn’t the correct thing; no, by Jove, it was n’t; and I beg your pardon, do, indeed. You see I was surprised into it, this thing coming on so sudden. All right to-day ; not the first drop. In fact, can’t find it. Steward got his wits about him and lost the key. By Jove, I came near giving him a welt; but he’s right, and I know it; gave him a dollar. Told him to hold on to his old key till I was ashore. If I’m to drown, it’s more like a gentleman to drown sober. Going down drunk all very well for common sailors. But our sort can look the thing square in the face. O, don’t you be anxious. You are not in danger. Every man on board is going to devote himself to saving you. I ’ll save you myself, by Jove, without any help. As for Aunt, there, that’s different. I ’m glad, by Jove, the old lady is getting a scare.”

“O Tom!”

“Yes, I am. Hope it ’ll do her good about the region of the temper. What keeps her so still ? Reading her Bible, hey? Time she did. ’Tain’t often she makes eyes at the patriarchs. Reckon she must have forgotten where to look for them.”

“ Tom, stop ! Our aunt is our aunt. You must not say such things about her, and I must not hear them.”

“ By Jove, sis, you’d go straight to heaven, wouldn’t you?” exclaims the harum-scarum boy, staring at Kate in a kind of worshipping wonder.

A few minutes later the girl met Frank McAlister, and said to him hastily and with a touching shame : “ I need not ask you to-day what I did last night. My brother is capable of taking care of himself. You must take care of yourself. I thank you.”

“ I shall still have an eye to you all,” he replied. “ I shall do what I can,” he added soberly, remembering how little it might be.

“ I don’t know how I could have asked such a thing of you,” she went on, her mind reverting to the feud between the families.

“ In such times as this all human beings are brethren. Besides, I had placed myself at your disposal.”

She did not answer this last phrase, nor did she even color over it. In her troubles she perhaps did not hear it, or had for the moment forgotten his offer of marriage. The consequence of her silence was that he believed he had done wrong in alluding to the offer ; and the consequence of this was, that he wished to make reparation for his fault by thinking only of her comfort and safety.

“ Have you made all your preparations ? ” he asked,

“ I have a little packet. I believe there is nothing more to do.”

“ How admirably brave you are ! ” he said, as he had said once before.

“ O no! I am very anxious. I would give − O, what would n’t I give − to be ashore.”

“ And yet you govern yourself! ” he observed, wanting to kneel down and kiss her hand. “ But you need more rest. Let me beg you to try to sleep as much as possible this morning. The day is better than the night for that. We can see the extent of our danger best by day, and you can be got to the boats the easier, if it should be necessary.”

“ I will lie down in the saloon,” she replied, after having made one step toward her state-room. The twin room was occupied by Mrs. Chester; and that lady’s voice could be heard steadily reading the Scriptures, for she was so frightened that she did not care if all the world knew it ; resolved, at all events, that Heaven should know it.

Such was the life above and below on board the unlucky Mersey, as she made her desperate rush shoreward. All day a dreary watching and waiting; at times hope predominant, as if by infection, and every one expecting a safe deliverance ; then again a sorrowful, paralyzing chill settling upon every spirit The captain, who knew the situation best, and, like a wise officer, knew more than he told, chiefly dreaded two dangers. The fire might burn through the wooden sheathing, melt the copper, and let in a flood of water which would sink the steamer in a few minutes. Or the vessel, driving headlong toward a shore little frequented except by wrecks, and of which he knew nothing except by his charts, might strike some hidden rock or sandbar, and go to pieces far from land. No time for soundings ; death, snarling and tearing below, was creeping nearer every moment; the hot breath of the imprisoned tiger was stealing thicker and thicker through the seams of the planking; the risk that there was in delay seemed greater than the risk that there was in speed.

Still, the bright morning passed safely ; then a humid afternoon, full of sailing mists and shadows, came and went ; and at last the Mersey was plunging over the sombre waters of a starless evening. All this while the wind was fair, balmy, and moderate, and the sea not too high for boats to be launched and to live.

Eight bells in the evening; there were already high hopes on board the vessel; the lookout aloft was straining his eyes to catch an outline or a light; the captain, wearied to death, but constantly on deck, was rubbing his hands with a little air of cheeriness. At this moment there came a change ; there was a different feeling under the feet ; people thought, without saying so, “What is the matter?” At first insensibly, but in a very short time quite obviously, there was a diminution of elasticity and a slowing of speed. Some of the passengers below had a sensation as if the ship were in port and coming quietly to dock. Others, who were on deck and could see no cause for this singular change, thought with sudden terror of the calmness of death stealing upon the convulsions of a man in delirium.

“What’s all this?” called Wilkins, as the captain ran by him towards the waist. The captain stumbled on without answering, and the passenger hurriedly followed him, suspecting, with an awful sinking of the heart, that the end had come. Amidships they were met by men − stokers and engineers − rushing up out of the engine-room, some uttering curses and others inarticulate cries of terror, while one, recognizing his officer, said sharply, “ Water around the furnace ! ”

“ Sure ? ” screamed the captain. Yes, there was no doubt of it; a strange hissing, a new noise on board the steamer, sent up its horrible confirmation ; it was certain that the fire had let in the ocean, and that the two were fighting below for the mastery. It was a frightful struggle of the two giant elements as to which should destroy the creation of man’s industry and exterminate the creator. The menagerie of natural forces had risen upon their tamer. The demons were in full and triumphant insurrection.

Meantime there were confused sounds of terror all over the dark decks ; the panic reached below, too, and passengers ran up, shouting to know their fate.

“ Sound the pumps,” called the captain ; and presently a voice answered, “ Three feet in the hold, sir.”

“ Pump away, men,” was the next order; and the thud and rattle of the pumps commenced. Then pealed another voice, “ Look out for an explosion,” followed by a trampling of feet rushing toward the boats. The ultimate peril, long as it had been expected, had come at last, as death always comes, with paralyzing suddenness. Who could tell whether the now untended boiler would not explode ? Who could tell how soon the water which was pouring in below would sink the vessel ? Every one felt that there was no time to spare ; nearly every one was wildly bent on saving himself.

Below decks the scene was different. The change in the vessel’s movement had at first been imperceptible, and, even when noticed, did not for a minute or two create terror. Kate Beaumont went up to Frank McAlister with a face which expressed only a slight wonder, mingled perhaps with a little hope, and said, “ What is it ? ”

“ I beg pardon,” he replied, starting up from a doze on one of the settees, “ I did not observe anything.”

“ I − don’t − know,” she murmured, listening attentively between her words. “ Something − singular.”

Just then Mrs. Chester appeared, dropping her Bible at the door of the state-room, and running toward them joyfully.

“We are there ! ” she laughed. “ O, I knew it. I knew we should be saved. This horrible voyage ! this horrible, horrible voyage ! over at last ! O Kate I am so happy ! ”

The gladness of supposed escape had made a child of her; she was laughing aloud, and ready to dance, with her groundless happiness.

“O, to think it is over!" she prattled. “ What a horrible thing it would have been to drown at sea! Or to burn ! ” she added, with a shudder. “ O, that was the worst. But it is all over. We are coming into port. How can we praise Captain Brien enough ! The dear, good man ! I could kiss him, black and blue and brown as he is. He has managed things so admirably ! Really, if women might do such things, I am in a fit state to propose to him. − Not talk so, Kate? Why not ? What a prim, cold little piece you are ! Such escapes don’t come once in a lifetime ; no, thank Heaven ! not once in a lifetime. I own it. I am half crazy with joy. What is that ? ”

The panic above had by this time broken out in a clamor which could not well be misunderstood. The startled woman turned short and stared anxiously at McAlister, who had delicately withdrawn from the two women to a little distance.

“ Go on deck and see ! ” she ordered, forgetting who he was. “ Go on deck and find out where we are. O my God, if I am mistaken ! ” she added, as he vanished. “ It can’t be. I won’t have it. O, why don’t they stop that horrible trampling and shouting ? Let me alone, Kate. I will go up there. I must see.”

McAlister returned, running down the cabin stairs, very grave and perhaps a little pale. Mrs. Chester extended her hands toward him with an agonized gesture of entreaty.

“ Don’t tell me ! ” she shivered. In the next breath, “ O, what is the matter ? ”

“ Get ready as quickly as possible,” said the young man. “We must go ashore in the boats.”

“ The ship is sinking,” screamed Mrs. Chester. “ O my God, I feel it ! That worthless, villanous captain ! ”

“ Don’t ! ” begged Kate. “ Do be calm. O, what shall we do ? ”

McAlister took the girl under his arm and hurried her toward the stairway, following Mrs. Chester, who was already rushing thither. In the confusion and hurry of the crisis all the little packets, as well as the life-preservers, were forgotten in the state-rooms.

Meanwhile matters had been made nearly desperate on deck by the misbehavior of the crew. A portion, at least, of the sailors and firemen had, it seems, got at the spirit-room during the day and supplied themselves with whiskey. Several were more or less intoxicated ; moreover, they could be seen taking bottles out of their pockets and drinking ; it was to be feared that the alcoholic mischief had only begun to do its work. Already there was a gang of these fellows around each of the larger boats, throwing in provisions and kegs of water after a reckless fashion, running against each other, cursing, pushing, and even striking.

“ Hold hard there ! ” shouted the captain, as he saw some of them grasping the tackle falls. “ No one gets into the boats without orders. Passengers first. Ladies first.”

But the men kept at their wild, hurrying, bungling work, without answering him, and perhaps without hearing-

“ By Heavens ! ” groaned Brien. “It’s a worse lot than I thought. − Steward! Mr. McMaster! Some one hurry up those ladies. Avast, men. Don’t let that boat go. Come out of her, every one of you ! ”

Finding them ungovernable, he ran below after his pistols ; for he too had been caught unprepared by the sudden spring of the catastrophe. Coming back, he was caught on the stairway by Mrs. Chester, who clung to him in a sort of delirium of terror, at once reproaching and imploring, until he loosened himself by main force.

During this brief interval the crisis, aided by the drunkenness and panic of the men, had hurried along with the terrible swiftness which it had shown from the outset. One of the large midship boats had been let go by the run, and was dragging bottom-up and stove alongside, with two or three men drawing under it. Several planks in the waist had suddenly started and curled up, and the smouldering hell within the hull, finding vent at last, was sending up tongues of flame, licking at its prey like a boa. The motion forward had ceased, and the ship, settling in a manner sensible to every one, was wallowing with a sickly feeling among the waves. Its doom from the fire was imminent ; but its doom from the ocean was still more threatening. The panicmad sailors and stokers had gathered around the starboard boat and were preparing to send her down the side, some already crowding into her, and others loosening the falls. It was a lamentable and shameful exhibition of cowardice, selfishness, and cruelty. It would not be easy to cite a worse case.

“ We can’t go with those drunkards,” cried the captain. “They would capsize us.”

He was addressing McAlister and Tom Beaumont, who had brought up Mrs. Chester and Kate from below, and were taking them forward to the waist. Every one on deck, it must be understood, was now perfectly recognizable in the light of the hissing explosions of flame which shot up from the volcano below, only from time to time clouded by volumes of smoke.

“ Come aft,” ordered the captain. Next, raising his voice to a yell: “ Every sober man aft! Stand by to let go the quarter boats. But keep out of them. I ’ll shoot the first one who steps in without orders.”

Then, levelling his pistol at a fellow who had laid hands on the fall tackle of one of the small boats, he shouted, “ Stand back there ! My God, this is a mutiny.”

CHAPTER VII.

THE Mersey burning and sinking at once; a rabble of drunken, panicstricken sailors and firemen tumbling into the large boats ; the few passengers, the ship’s officers, and perhaps a dozen of the crew, huddled around the quarter-deck boats ; the captain stamping, threatening, pistol in hand, directing the embarkation ; − such was the disorderly and unpromising state of affairs.

The captain’s pistol was not the only one flourished, for Tom Beaumont and Wilkins drew and cocked revolvers, and even the mild Duffy produced a derringer. Under the moral effect of this artillery, the getting of things and people into the boats began to go on as it should aboard an Anglo-Saxon wreck. “ Heave in those water breakers ” ; in they went with a “Yo-heeoh.” “Now the bread boxes”; and the bread boxes followed. “ Here, you, sir, man the starboard boat; Mr. Wilson, take charge of the other one.” Two trustworthy men were now in each little craft, ready to cast off tackles on touching the water, and to make fast towlines. “ Let go, slowly ; ease away, men, steady; there she floats.”

“ Now then, ladies,” and the captain turned to his passengers, “ Mrs. Chester first.”

Mrs. Chester, far more eager to go first than the captain was to have her, went down a rope in the grasp of a stout sailor, clutching him as if she meant to tear and devour him.

“ Now, Miss Beaumont,” was the captain’s next call. “ Look alive, there below. Haul up under the counter. Some strong man here for Miss Beaumont.”

“ I!” shouted Tom, pushing a sailor aside. “ I ’ll take care of my sister. Hold on to me, Kate.”

“O Tom ! be careful,” was the girl’s prayer as she threw her arms around the young fellow’s neck.

“ Hold hard ! ” screamed the captain. But it was too late; the boy had missed his hold or lost it ; and both brother and sister went into the dark ocean. There was a general groan, a rush to the bulwarks, and a hesitation. Who could swim? It is a notorious fact that sailors are seldom good swimmers. Now came another splash ; it was our tall McAlister, who had gone under with a header ; and then there followed another suspense.

“ Here’s one,” shouted a sailor in the boat, leaning over and dragging in some wet object. It was Tom Beaumont, no more able to swim than to fly, and saved by the merest accident, happening to rise in the right placeHis first words were, “ Where is she?”

He had scarcely strangled this out, when there was a general cry of joy from all those staring men, standing as they were on a burning and sinking wreck. The light of the flames showed a head on the surface, twenty feet astern of the small boat, and under it, almost submerged by it, another head, this last being that of a man, while the first was that of a woman. It was McAlister, laden and almost borne under by the weight of the girl whom he was striving to save.

“ Drop the boat astern,” roared Captain Brien. “ Give him a hand.”

In another minute the two were drawn in board, the girl pale, cold, and nearly strangled still, the man breathless with his struggle under water. There was no time for changing of clothing; the steady sinking of the ship gave warning that the embarkation must hasten ; and all that could be done for the wet ones was to bring them some blankets from the nearest state-room.

This was the only accident to the party on the quarter-deck. In twenty minutes or thereabouts from the springing of the leak every living soul had abandoned the vessel, and the crowded boats were pulling rapidly away to escape the flurry of her foundering. It was a gloomy and ill-promising voyage, that upon which they were now entering. The wreck, already low in the water, but blazing throughout its midships and sending up superb piles of flame from its paddle-boxes, only made the darkness of ocean visible. A considerable sea was running, tossing the little craft uncomfortably, if not dangerously, and sending in splashes of spray which soon made all equally wet. In a few minutes every one was chilled through, notwithstanding that the temperature was mild and almost summerlike. McAlister and Tom Beaumont combined in wrapping all the blankets around Kate.

“ It is useless,” she smiled ; “ I shall only be the wetter for them.”

Mrs. Chester, sunk in discomfort and despair too deep for words, gave no sign of existence, except groaning.

“ This is ugly, ain’t it, Wilkins ? ” muttered the shivering Duffy.

“This is a big lot better than going clean under,” returned Wilkins, his elbows on his knees and his head between his hands. “ By Jove, the more miserable I am, the more I want to live. It’s always so.”

“ Sick, Wilkins ? ” presently inquired Duffy.

“ No, I just don’t like to look at it. Show me land, and I ’ll sit up straight enough.”

“ We are all right now,” struck up the captain from the sternsheets, falling into his characteristic strain of bragging and humbug, no doubt because he thought it would cheer the women. “ It’s only a little wetting. See land to-morrow, and tell our stories at home next day. In a month from now it will all be a good joke. We would n't have missed it for anything.”

“ Except me,” he added to himself, remembering ruefully his damaged fame as a sailor, and his injured prospects as chief commander in the new line.

Baling almost constantly, the unfortunates rowed due west, making what headway could be made. They had sailed for half an hour when of a sudden the broad flicker of light behind them vanished, and, looking backward, they could no longer see the Mersey.

“ It seems like the death of a friend,” murmured Kate. “ I am sorry for the poor ship.”

“ That’s so,” answered Captain Brien, his heart warming more than ever towards the girl. “She was a beautiful boat, wasn’t she?”

“ I’m glad the miserable thing is sunk,” mumbled Mrs. Chester, who never quite forgave anybody or anything which had caused her trouble.

Presently Kate Beaumont said in a low voice to Frank McAlister: “It was you who saved me. Was it not?”

“ I was so fortunate,” he replied in a tone which was like an utterance of thanksgiving.

“ I knew it. But I have been so stupefied ! I shall be indebted to you all my life.”

“No,” he said, and would perhaps have been tempted to try to press her hand, had it not been defended from him by wet blankets.

And so that conversation, meaning we will not undertake to say how much, came to an end.

But we must not prolong this voyage. It was an adventure which had nothing more to signalize it than what has been described. In the morning there was a cry of “ Sail ho ” ; then came deliverance from danger and discomfort ; then a short trip to Charleston, South Carolina. It was their destination. Yes, the Mersey was the first and only boat of the famous line which Charleston attempted to call into being for the sake of having direct trade with England and setting herself right before the world as the maritime rival of New York.

In Charleston the Southern hotel par excellence, the house where the great planter of those days stopped when he returned from Europe, or when he came to the city with his family to do shopping and attend the races, was the Charleston Hotel. It was in the huge front piazza of this house that Frank McAlister, refreshed, newly attired, brushed, and anointed, encountered that ancient friend of his family, Major John Lawson, the descendant (so said the Major) of the De Lauzuns.

“ Why, my dear fellow ! Why, my de-ar fel-low ! ” cried the Major, smiling up to his eyebrows and shaking hands for a minute together, though gently, tenderly, O how affectionately ! “ Why, is it possible ! why, is it pawsi-ble ! ” he went on, in a high, ecstatic soprano of wonder, somewhat as if he were talking to a child. “ And so it is you, is it ? ” patting his shoulder. “Why, bless my body, so it is. I would n’t have known you. What an amazing development ! ” and the Major fell back a yard to stare at the young giant with an air of playful, petting amazement. “ Taller by three inches than your grenadier of a father ! Why, if the old Frederick of Prussia had been alive, you would have been kidnapped for his regiment of giants. The Potsdam regiment,” explained the Major, not a little proud of this bit of military history. “ But no ; you don’t want to be told how you have grown ; you have been at other and wiser business as well. Why, tell me all about it. Why, I could listen to you forever.”

No words can describe the blandness and the unctuous flattery of the Major’s manner. It was like warm oliveoil, poured over your head and flying all down your beard and vestments in an instant. No time allowed for resistance ; before you could think, there was the Major still letting it on from his inexhaustible cruet. His utterance was soft and cajoling, running through a wide gamut of affettuoso tones, a favorite close being high soprano or falsetto. His face was prematurely wrinkled with smirking and grimacing. It was haunted with smiles which appeared and vanished like fire-flies. Now one shone out on his cheekbone; now another glimmered on his forehead ; now a third capered along his wide mouth. Then again his whole countenance broke up into them, putting you in mind of the flashings of a shattered looking-glass, or the radiances of a breezy sheet of water in the sunshine. As for his thin, genteel figure, it was so lubricated with constant bowing and gesturing, that it was as supple as an eel.

Meanwhile there was a slyness in his gray eyes and humorous twinkling in the crow’s-feet at their corners, which caused you to doubt whether he were not secretly laughing at you under his mask of flattery. The truth is, that the Major did amuse himself with the simplicity of human vanity. He complimented upon principle ; he had made a formula for his guidance in this matter, and he stuck to it in practice ; as Talleyrand (was it?) said, “Lie always, something will stick,” so he said, “Flatter always, something will stick.” But we must not consider him as some straightforward, bitter persons did, a mere hypocrite. He was a good fellow ; liked to make people feel comfortable ; offered them compliments, because he had little else to spare.

McAlister gave the Major a brief and plain statement of his life abroad. Four years at Oxford, three years at Göttingen, one year in travel.

“You are a prodigy,” grinned and fluted the Major, his voice quavering high into falsetto. “Why, you are a praw-di-gy. You must be a miracle of learning. There isn’t another man in the State who has passed his life to such advantage. You have come home to lift us poor South-Carolinians out of the slough of our ignorance and conceit. And the son, too, of my excellent old friend Judge McAlister ! I am delighted beyond measure.”

“There is much for me to learn, no doubt, as well as something to teach,” replied Frank, in his manly, plain way, so different from the frisky, supple graces of the Major. “ I do believe, however, that I shall have something to tell you, that is, in a year or two.”

“O, but you have something to tell us now.” And the soft Lawson fingers patted the huge McAlister arm. “ You must begin at once.”

“ I suspect,” continued Frank, “ that there is wealth in the State which we know little about. There are mines to be sunk yet in our up-country. And this shore region, if I am not much mistaken is crammed with phosphates.”

Phosphates ! The word was beyond the Major’s tether. He did not know what phosphates might be, and did not believe he should care. He proceeded to smother the youngster’s learning with appropriate compliment.

“ Ah, there comes out the old canny Scotch blood,” he smiled. “ Or is it Scotch-Irish ? Ah, Scotch ! A most intelligent and industrious people. The best practical race that we have in the State. Brave, too ; brave as lions ; what a race ! The perfervidum Scotorum is world-wide famous. By the way, have you letters from your father? I haven’t met him, bless my body ! for months.”

“ Yes, I found letters here. My father, I thank you, is well. The whole family also.”

“ And you visit them soon, of course ? Return to the paternal hearth ? Do give my kindest regards, my most profound respects, to your father. Noble man ! A pillar, sir ! A pillar of society ! And, by the way, − bless me, how could I forget it, − but what an escape ! Saved from the sea and from fire ! You must be a marked man, set apart for some wonderful fate. But the Mersey lost! Our steamer lost! Our steamer! What a calamity ! What,” and here the Major’s voice fairly whimpered, “ a ca-lam-i-ty ! And, by the way,” -descending to a confidential whisper, “you had Beaumonts aboard. Your old − enemies. I hope nothing disagreeable.”

“ Embarrassments,” answered the young man, slightly shrugging his shoulders.

“ Dear me ! I am excessively grieved. But nothing that will lead to a − a − ? ” inquired the old gossip, imitating the motion of raising a pistol.

“ O no. At least, I trust not. I sincerely hope not.”

“ Let us hope so,” said the Major, in a tone which reminded one of the formula, “ Let us pray.” “ Why, it would be infamous,” he went on. “ In view of your noble behavior, it would be in the highest degree unreasonable. Saved the young lady’s life, I understand. Ah ! I surprise you ; you had no idea that your fame would find you out so soon. Modest,” − another patting here, − “modest, mod-est! But, you see, I met one of your Hartland business-men, − a nice sort of a commonplace fellow named Duffy, I believe, − and accidentally, quite accidentally, heard the story from him. And so you saved Miss Kate Beaumont’s life ? What a wonderful − providence, shall we call it ? I told you truly, that you were a marked man, a man set apart for some extraordinary destiny. And Miss Beaumont? I haven’t seen her since she was a mere child. How did you like the young lady ? ”

“An admirable girl,” said the brave McAlister, not without a slight blush. “ What I saw of her led me to respect her profoundly.”

The Major’s small, cunning gray eyes twinkled with the joy of a veteran intriguer, not to say matchmaker.

“ Why, my dear fellow ! why, my d-e-a-r fel-low!” he whispered, snuggling up to the youngster, and fondling his mighty arm. “ If this should end in a reconciliation between the families, what an event! South Carolina could afford to rejoice in the loss of the Mersey. What a romance ! Why not ? Romeo and Juliet in the South ? Bless me, my dear young friend, why not ? Stranger things have happened.”

“ You forget the fate of Romeo and Juliet,” replied McAlister, with a gravity which revealed how seriously he was taking this matter.

But the Major would not hear of carrying out the parallel ; he guessed like lightning at his young friend’s state of mind, and he prophesied smooth things ; indeed, when did he ever prophesy any other ?

“ O no ! ” he laughed, waving away the suggestion of a tragedy. “ Nothing of the sort, my dear Mr. McAlister. We shall see, if you only wish it, a better ending than that. Why, bless you, man, the Beaumonts are not barbarians of the Middle Ages. They − I remember the old feud − respect your natural prejudices − but they, you will excuse me for saying so, are South Carolina gentlemen. They have the polish and humanity − you will surely pardon me − of the nineteenth century.”

“ I am sure that I wish to think well of them. I will tell you, moreover, that I only wait an opportunity to show them that I feel kindly towards them.”

“ An opportunity ! ” smiled and fifed the Major, − “an opportunity! It has come, and you have improved it. Improved it nobly, superbly, beautifully. Now it is their turn. You have saved the life of their daughter and sister. They must thank you. They must call upon you. They will. We shall see. Then, Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending. Yes,” closed the Major, fairly singing his hint for a pastoral, “ Ro-me-o and Jul-iet in South Car-o-li-na ! ”

“They − the men, I mean − must call on me, of course, or the matter is ended,” observed McAlister. He spoke slowly and gravely; he was sincerely anxious to receive that peacemaking visit; he did not care how plainly the Major should perceive his anxiety ; indeed, he scarcely thought of him at the moment.

“ Certainly. They must. If they don’t they are − Well, let us be charitable. But I can’t conceive that they should not call. It is Tom, I believe, who is with the ladies. Well, Tom is young ; but Tom knows what chivalry demands ; born of one of our own good families ; a race of gentlemen, − excuse me. Of course Tom Beaumont will make his bow to you before he leaves Charleston.”

And the Major, in his excellent, gossiping soul, meant to call on Tom and flatter him into doing what was handsome. It must be understood that this man was by instinct a matchmaker ; he liked women, liked to pay court to them, liked to see others do the same; and now, guessing that Frank was smitten with Miss Beaumont, he wanted him to woo her and win her. Besides, what a charming history, what an inexhaustible theme of conversation with ladies, what a subject to decorate all over with flowers from Shakespeare, would be this healing of an old family feud by means of a love-match ! For the Major was a littérateur, in the amateur sense ; could quote eternally from standard authors, especially in verse ; wrote also a kind of poetical prose, much admired by some of the women to whom he read it.

But Major Lawson had other strong points. He did love − as what SouthCarolinian of those days did not love ? − to talk about fighting. Wars, duels, adventures with robbers, putting down of insurrections and even family feuds, were all pure honey to him. Groaned over them, to be sure ; but his lamentation was simple humbug ; it was the merest rose-water philanthropy ; in his soul he feasted on them. Next to lovemaking, and far beyond politics, he revelled in talking of combats. “ Not that he had ever had a fight; there was no man in the State more pacific. His title of Major did not signify war, nor even so much as service in the militia. He had been an aide-decamp to a Governor ; just an honorary aide-de-camp, with nothing to do ; that was the whole sum of his martial life. His title, too, was really Captain, for he was only a Major by courtesy, familiar friends having breveted him at their dinner-tables.

Well, this peaceful, courteous creature must now turn to the old bloody feud between the Beaumonts and the McAlisters, and prattle of it with something like a licking of the chops.

“ Terrible history ! ” he said, with the sorrow of a dog over a toothsome bone. “ If we could only put an end to it ! No less than four valuable lives have been sacrificed to this Moloch since I came to the age of manhood, − two McAlisters and two Beaumonts ; not to mention the side difficulties which it has brought about between friends of the two houses, − the Montagues and Capulets,” he poetically added. “ I well remember the excitement, the furor, which was raised by the − the meeting between your excellent father and Randolph Beaumont, the elder brother of Peyton. The State fairly shuddered with anxiety. Fairly shud-dered ! ” And the Major shook himself in his black dress-coat. “ Both men practised for months, − for months, sir ! Each knew it must come. Prepared himself, sadly and sternly, like a gentleman. Randolph declared that he would spoil McAlister’s handsome face for him. Your father was a remarkably fine-looking fellow ; not like you, who resemble your mother, − but still handsome. Indeed, he is now ; a king of men ; a Saul ! Well, sir, Randolph practised at the head ; had a figure set up for that purpose in his yard ; used to hit the top of it with beautiful precision ; really beauti-ful ! Of your father’s preparations I will say nothing. Perhaps the subject is unpleasant to you. But it was a stern necessity. He must take his precautions or he must forfeit his valuable life. Well, the day came ; no preventing it. An admirable exhibition of courage. Two shots in quick succession. Randolph Beaumont sent a shot through McAlister’s hair, and fell with a ball in his own heart. My God, what an excitement ! The whole State shook, sir ! ”

McAlister had listened to this reminiscence with an amount of disrelish which surprised himself. It was not the first time that he had heard the story, and heretofore he had always heard it with interest. But childhood’s ideas had more or less died out of him; during the last few years a passion for studies had dulled the combative instinct within him ; and within the past week Miss Kate Beaumont had made him hate the family feud.

“ I never heard my father allude to the tragedy but once,” he said to the Major, rather coldly. “ It was only a word, and I thought it was a word of regret.”

The old gossip started. Had he made a mistake in chanting to the son the prowess of the father ?

“ O, of course ! ” he hurriedly assented. “Your father is a wise, practical, humane gentleman. Could n’t look upon the matter otherwise than as a woful necessity, mere self-preservation. Certainly.”

And so the Major suspended his raw-head and bloody-bones reminiscences. It was a disappointment to him, for there were still four or five nice joints to pick, and, dear me, how sweet they were ! There, for instance, was the late duel between Robert McAlister, our Frank’s senior brother, and the present eldest son of the house of Beaumont. No deaths, to be sure ; only a shot through a leg and another through an arm; but even so much was savory.

“ Sad, sad business ! ” groaned the Major, bringing down the corners of his mouth decorously, as people will do at funerals and the like, even when they don’t care a straw. “ All politics, purely result of politics ; not bitterness, I am glad to say. Simply a struggle between high-minded gentlemen, each of whom honestly and sadly believes the other mistaken. Opposition, as you are no doubt aware, between the supporters of the electoral system and the so-called parish representation. Your family, as original up-country gentlemen, naturally support the former. The Beaumonts, as original low-country people, are the extreme advance guard of the parishes.”

“ That is it, is it ? ” said Frank. “ I never knew before what was the origin of the dispute. I was such a mere boy when I left home.”

“ That, and other things similar. Bless my soul!” and here the Major fluted his sweetest, “ have I got to teach you the antiquities, the fasti, of your family ? Why, the first McAlister of Hartland − your noble old grandfather − was one of the supporters of our grand old Horry − Marion’s Horry − in his efforts to establish the common-school system in South Carolina. Naturally on the side of the people. A born Gracchus. And yet nature’s gentleman, the truest of aristocrats.”

“ A supporter of education,” said Frank. “ Well, I thank him for that.

I am of his party. Depend upon it, Major, that our State needs education, and that I shall do my poor best towards educating it.”

“ Amen ! ” pronounced the Major, solemnly, as if it were the thing that he had most at heart. “Well, my best wishes. Delighted to have seen you, − de-light-ed ! Carry my respects to your family. And as for the Beaumonts,” he added with a knowing, matchmaking, tender whisper; “they will call on you ” ; in a lower whisper; “ they will,” almost inaudible.

And so, nodding and smiling, and, one might almost say, kissing his fingers, Major Lawson ambled away.

Would the Beaumonts call? Would Tom Beaumont come to say a civil word to the man who had saved his sister’s life ? Or would he, remembering only the ancient hostility of the two names, leave Charleston without a sign of friendship ?

Such were the questions which chased each other through the brain of the young gentleman who paced alone the piazza of the Charleston Hotel.

J. W. DeForest.