The Crusade of the Excelsior

, and often by the actual presence of her owners, he had shown zeal and hope in his scrutiny of the incoming ships. The gaunt arms of the semaphore at Fort Point, turned against the sunset

ot have been more completely swallowed up than in the changes of that shore she never reached. Whatever interest or hope was still kept alive in solita

absorbed of the enthusiastic audience. A weak smile of vacillating satisfaction and uneasiness played on his face during the plaudits of his fellow-admirers, as if he were alternately gratified and annoyed. It might have passed for a discriminating and truthful criticism of the performance, which was a classical burlesque, wherein the star displayed an unconventional frankness of shapely limbs and unrestrained gestures and glances; but he applauded the more dubious par

e new-comer was the older and more decorous-looking, with an added formality of manner and self-assertion that did not, however, conceal a certain habitual shrewdness of eye and lip. He wore a full beard, but

he younger man, with an embarrassed laugh, "and I thought I'd

p to the plaza for a cab, but wait here for the first one th

se, with a sudden assumption of larger gayety, "there's nothing mean about Belle Montgomery, eh? She's

is companion's lorgnette. "By the way, Markham, do you usually kee

my overcoat pocket," said Mark

er, rising from his seat. "Well, I'm going

same moment in no less interested absorption. A quick hush ran through the theatre; the men bent eagerly forward as the Queen

thing, you know,-and come here just to LOOK at her. But she's very accomplished-in fact, a kind of literary woman. Writes devilish good poetry-only took up the stage on account of domestic trouble: drunken husband that beat her-regular affecting sto

ost in abstraction, sta

ith Keene. You know he's off by

got Excelsior on the brain!" He stopped as he looked at Brimmer's cold face,

ree with him," began

off Mazatlan last August. As if the Excelsior wouldn't have gone into Mazatlan if it had been her! I tell you what it is, Brimmer: it's mighty rough on you and me, and it ain't the square thing at all-after all we've do

wn and sigh deeply-not hypocritically, but perfunctorily, as over a pas

mercial record; and that, in a business point of view, this plan of Keene's ain't worth looking at. As a private matter of our own fe

hat. What gets me is this darned nagging and simpering around, and opening old sores, and putting on sentimental style, and doing t

"He knows Miss Montgomery already.

looked u

her line to Panama; that is"-he he

way of Nicaragua. He stops at San Juan to reconnoitre the coast up to Maz

rced smile, which he tried to make playful, "your engagement with Keene won't keep you long. What do you say to h

and lips slig

. "Keene asked me. In fact, that's the appointmen

ment," Markham replied, with feign

igh

idn't

idas, alias Perkins, whose little game we stopped by that Peruvian contract, actually landed in Quinquinambo and established a

a patronizing vanity. "There's you, and there's that filibuster, and old Governor Pico, that she's just snatche

ly buttoning up his coat, as if encasing hims

edly. "There's a man over there in the parquet t

Brimmer nodded to them coolly, as if on 'Change, and made his way out of the theatre. He had scarcely taken a few steps before a furious onset of wind and rain drove him into a doorway for shelter. At the same moment a slouching figure, with a turned-up coat-collar, slipped past him and disappeared in a passage at his rig

Pausing a moment before a side hall that opened from it, he cast a rapid look up and down the corridor, and then knocked has

koned her visitor to approach. She was a woman still young, whose statuesque beauty had but slightly suffered from cosmetics, late hours, and the habitual indulgence of certain hysterical emotions that were not only inconsistent with the classical

u see, to my first love-poetry-as soon as Rosina has changed my dress. It is not generally known-but I don't mind telling YOU-that I often nerve myself for the effort of act

ul arm with which she emphasized it. Neither did it strike him that the distinguishing indications of a poetic exaltation were at all unlike the effects of a grosser stimulant known as "Champagne cocktail" on

ssion of mournful gratitude. "You actually left your business and the c

actually asked me to the supper to which Mr. Keene had already invite

My position, you know," she added sadly, "prevents my always following my own inclinations or preferences. Poor Markham, I fear the world does not do justice to his gentle, impressible nature. I sympathize with him deeply; we have

, and bowed her head over it as

particularly to the woman before him, was completely finished by this later tribute to his own affliction. His usually c

row that the more manly heart experiences under an exterior that seems cold and impassible. Yes," she said, raising her lan

e volcano had shown some signs of activ

to Mr. Keene's expedition,

of sensible inquiry have been exhausted by me. But I envy Keene the eminently practical advantag

ion, he gains no real advantage in learning whether his sister is alive or dead. The surety of her death would not make him freer than he

and fixed a critical, half supercilious look upon her. She did not seem to notice his almost

?" she said, as if wit

r briefly, without

d woman. You have heard

them," said

eserted me was, I have reason to be

There was no such name

nd a slight flash in her eyes. "What are you thinking of? There never was

ly a stage name, and as it was necessary that I should have another in making the business investments you were goo

"What matters? I wish there was no such thing as business. Well

assenger list either," said Brimmer.

Callao, you wouldn't have known it. I knew that he arrived

eyes changed t

want to f

l tied to this man, or if I am free to follow the dictates of my own conscience,-to make my life

ose equally," said Brimmer cold

,-a certificate of disgrace,-an advertisement to every miserable wretch who follows me with

who criticised. He, however, did her full justice on a point where most men and all women misjudged her: he believed that, through instinct and calculation, she had been materially faithful to her husband; that this large goddess-like physique had all the impeccability of a goddess; that the hysterical dissipation in which she indulged herself was purely mental, and usurped and preoccupied all other emotions. In this public exposit

esture-"with these men Markham and Keene. THEY do not know it; perhaps they prefer to listen to their own vanity-that's the way of most men; but you do know it, and you h

ered Brimmer, completely l

. "If you wait you can entertain them here, while Rosina is dressi

an assignation with the woman, who, rightly or wrongly, was notorious; he had nothing to gain by this voluntary assumption of a compromising attitude; yet here he was, he-Mr. Brimmer-with the appearance of being installed in her parlor, receiving her visitors, and dispensing her courtesies. Only a man recklessly in love would be guilty of such

here," stammered Markham.

along with you?" said Brimmer m

," continued Markham, glancing around the em

" said Brimmer, with mendacious effrontery. "Miss Montgome

of five-and-twenty, whose frank face was beaming with excitement and youthful energy. Th

mer yet?" said Kee

am. "The fact is, Brimmer, I think of

id Brimmer s

ng slightly. "You see, we'v

at, somewhere off the peninsula, and brought into hospital at San Juan last August. He recovered enough lately to tell his story and claim to be Captain Bunker of the Excelsior, whose crew mutinied and ran her ashore in a fog. But the boat in wh

to the other, "and I will look into it also to-morrow.

ed his hand impulsiv

rward to. Not but what I'd have found Nell without your assistance; but you see, boys, it DID look mighty

gomery theatrically, appearing at th