THE SQUAREHEAD.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12285, 11 July 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SQUAREHEAD.

(Isv William Brown Moloney.)

Kragero gasped in wonder when, a.s winter owas 0 was setting in, Eric Sigurdscn. /-turned to tako away his widowed Besla -Svensen, and her little iliiV-d'ter, Hildigunn of the -Sea Eyes, i jt'e'in the Nope fishing village paused ' ;!!! Kizeinent just to behold him. Many . miii of Kragero had fared out of its jiii'pl and gone down the Skager-Rack, !mt never had one come back like

|t hard to believe that this man the world, with a diamond as large ;i liazelni.lt on one of his rope like tinkers and •another, its mate in size and refulgence* in his magenta- satin scarf, , v;) , the tow-headed fisher boy who ten ,p ;! is be.foro had gone away to sail on n-Kter. Kragero saw nothing at uliii'li to smile in the ornateness of these gems.—llo incongruities; no bad in Erie Sigurdsen's apparel. It j 110 esthetic conscience to be up-|.,-i>vod by magetna satin tics and green pl.ii'l tweeds and yellow-topped shoes. Ti> the unsophisticated villagers these tilings were but the habiliments of the r.iit-i'l*" that had happened; but what jjrru- and held their imaginations above „|1 iiis other belongings were a tlijck •cil'l'ii watch chain across his wide ,"ji,-t and, hanging midway 011 it, a charm the size or the miracle, -j ||,T\ were literally a part or' the goldcu i<i he hud wrested from the niountain breasts of California. That nugget r. :i , th«- li-'st of his riches the earth had eviMi hir.i. As yon see this nugget so I found

I) 1 ' loudly boasted to the old-timers ([»1 ■ one night he spent with them in • JlO inn of the Northern Light. And for the most part they were old ujen. who awesomely passed the nuggetan'l chain from sea worn, hand to seanorn hand. The past three seasons had ;,iken heavy toll of Kragero. The rijiingest there was Olaf Greig; and, wing the youngest, it was to him that the nugget and chain came last to heft no 'l to admire; but without so much as a word he returned them to Sigurdscn j,icl his silence went unnoticed, for the parting drink had been tapped and jtflO'l ready. Otherwise tile fact that fi.reig bad nothing to say would have crrnsi'Jii'd no comment. This sea orphan wa- not 0110 to talk. Since the .»reat fleet disaster two years prevnusjv ol which the lad was one of a handful of survivors, who owed their lives to him. be had come to be Tuiowji s <, Ola!" the Silent, ft was this disaster that had widowed Besla Svensen. •It's like one of the Edda tales — r ],said Old Jon Thorsen a few minutes later, turning from closing the inn door 011 Sigurdsen and 'as he spoke .lipping into his trousers pocket- three ••..hi pieces, which the miner had left m hi:- knotted palm. A murmur of ass pnl was answering him through the jijp«-Miiok'vl atmosphere when his gaze pieknd up Olaf Greig in front of the h.-arth. "There!" he exclaimed, poiutiii» at the lad. ".Just as you see my -iiiVk partner now so I saw Eric si"uid'.en fen years ago! Standing (hat uav at that very fireplace he

All eves centered on the boy at thit. Olaf. !n's back toward the company, " as staring down at the flames., lost in a. it'ick of their play. Against the yel!ob-. leaping Tight his tall, sea-booted rorm stood out like the trunk a ro'iiiL' oak. Tliorscn had to call him mjrf to bring round liis curl-matted iilori'l liend. "But Eric was never the makings or viioh « man when he was eighteen—rfvcr!' 1 said the liost of tlio Northern . beginning the distribution of » freshly filled set of mugs. an instalment Sig'irdsen's largess. A chorus of iu-<!on-einent answered this comment, for i: na.s Known ov all there that no man or boy in Kragcro. or for miles up and <loivn the coast, was Olaf Greig s cjual in vtrongtll. In ihis moment the lad became aware that lie was the subject of discussion. Ho bad shifted unca-siiv. self-consciously -•-rimed. with something of defiance, tln> drink-fuddled gaze of those who -tare] at him. and then, jamming on a •■torm cap. made for the street. 'Going home." was the answer he ;itve to Thorsen's query -as t-o whether lip ivont. He did not drink and nobody nought, to detain liim. hut he paused a -■cmi'i in the closing' of the Northern Light's door. .Ton Tliorscn was speak-

like it is in the Scriptures." what he said: "'Many are called, init iV'tv are chosen..' - Eric Sigurdscn is mi' in a hundred thousand. Aye. one ir n million!" Sigurdson bad left behind him at the Northern Eight the price <>f much ''rink, and so H was no! until an rarlc mnrning hour that I horsen tacked homeward. .V hlur of light from Iho Triiulmv of a shack bv the waterside, irln'r-h Olaf shared with liini. was bis Ic.i'ling beacon: but morning his pirtner was nut sitting ui> with a book. Br n candle's spluttering gleam he was putting the finishing touches to the of n mrdel liriL'. a daintv thing f-i l>e held in the palm of one hand. And an hour later, while old -Ton lay snorting. Ola.' stood oil the quayliead wing goodbv to Hildigunn Svensen HiMiguiin of 'the Sea Eves—where she between her uncle Eric anil Bes'a. Vr mother, at tb«» rail of th o steamer r'irif was carrying them away from Kri;c|-n. The mode] was: in the girl's hands, !ni; olaf eoiiM not sco that, her tears 'in.- falling on it like rain: the deism.-. ~-as inn great. Besides, tbern "n- .] mist in his own eyes, which had dinr there when he bad put the little '•rig in her clasi> and she had reached upland kissed him full on his broad i!'"i;:h. With the exception of his Trniii.-o mother, whom he could not remember, this girl of twelve was the lir-t woman to touch her lips to his. Kric Sigurdscn had spent but two day-, and three nights in Tvragero. Thore were some who said they would an: believe he had been among them i; ir were not that Bcsla Svensen and flil'iigunn w.ere-gone and that so many liad strange American goldpieces ,to >inj;v tor it. His coming and going "'•'re like the passing of a comet, and i !<• iho passing of a comet- be left I'M men and women nodding and whispering of the past: hilt also he left

.-! 1...v stargazing. "W inter's hard clinch was-loosening en '!rming"down the Skager-Rack. when l. ;ier—the first he had ever received -r,i,,r to Olaf Greig from Hildigunn "f iiie. Sea Eves in far-away Califori;ii His blue eyes glittered as he from the childish scnnvl tlio inr-.xsage that she would never cease to think of him. and finally this tremendous sentence: "Uncle Eric says that if you should "■me to California, there would be "rk for a man like you. Come! In the hour that brought- that let- <•;? Olaf found Jon Tliorscn in the Neithcrn Light- and told him lie was jning away. And Tliorscn said, as lie i'.an before: " 'Manv arc called, but are chosen.' "Eric Sigurdscn is ;n.' in a hundred thousand—in a mijfnn! Better stay here fishing. Olaf. And there- ho paused at what lie saw ■n i lie youth's eyes —that light of '"n::. far-flung dreams that freezes the '"'lu'ite of age. His last weak ate'mpt at argument was: "How can yon Vou have no money to pay - M r your travel."

"I If go to the Golden Gate as a goes —round the Horn!" the hoy answered; and when Alav was yet Joung he had found liim a Califorma'ind ship, an Englishman, and was Niiling out of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. On the last day of July at midnight -,-, as stamping his feet in the forc•■ijilc of tho Falls of Dee and beating

s 'i> arms round his body, like the rest " lii> wat-ch. in an endeavor to make die blood flow again in frozen toes and For six weeks the Falls of had been trying to weather Capo 'lorn : for six weeks she liad been huckm" tho dreaded westerly gales of those 's'itiidps: for six weeks the voices in ' ; or had been lifted in blasphemy—but I'.-vit once liad Olaf Greig complained. He was smiling now when all his mates ""fro cursing tlieir lot with gall-steeped Ungues.

"What makes you smile—eli? —al"'ays as at a joke?" demanded an old 'o- keyed Swede who, during these hard titiicsl had more than once marked the 'invarying happiness of the hoy's exCroxMon." And, foolishly and youthlike, '"•pasting. Olaf answered, using his own tongue, for he knew little Kng-•i-li :

"1 so to <sea no more after this. Tu California 1 go to work in the gold •nines." AVith a scoffing laugh the Swede translated this to the forecastle and the forecastle remembered it.

I Sudricnlv one September midday Olaf . Greig saw tlie land nf his dreams ahead. 110 saw it from the highest point in the ship—from where lie had been sent to reeve the halyards for Falls' house flag. Standing on tile maiu-sk.v-ail yai-d, with an arm round the bare poie, and .swaying with it as Ihough part of it, "lii.s eyes snatched it to hill!. And of a truth it was a golden land. The Marin Hills and the (Joa.st Range, which loomed tip at the end of tile vista formed by the gleaming Gate, had already put on their autumn garb. itli the sun shining through a shimmering haze on this brown dress, they seemed, in fact, burgeoning of tile yellow riches of which the watcher had conic to ravish them. Nor as the ship sped landward did the likeness grow less. "Won't Hildigunn be surprised, and Besln. and Eric too!'" lie was repeating for the twentieth time in his excess of joy. when a hail from the deck started him descending. As lie reached the crosstrees, his eves cast down, he, sailor and waterwise though lie was. paused in fascination of such small boatmansliip as he had never believed possible. Little open ci a ft, some carrying two and others three passengers, were reaching up to the lee side of the Falls of Dee and fastening to it with long iron hooks. For a second one of the narrow cockleshells would to the huge surging hull, risking destruction, courting death, and in that second deliver an occupant or two over the ship's rail. The next instant the cockleshell, apparently lit only; for a summer lake, but now ten miles 'from land in the deep sea. was safely trailing astern at the end of a- long line attached to its iron hook. It made Olaf's sailor blood hot with admiration. This was a great country to which he was coming a marvellous land, indeed, wlioso watermen could do things like that! Some of the strangers ran aft to where the captain stood beside the pilot- and the boy saw them force cards into his hands. One knocked another down. He guessed they must, be traders, the Yankees who, .Jon. Thorsen had told him. could outwit a Stockholm ship chandler; but he had no more than a moment of his wonder to give them. Another cockleshell was riding almost Ilusli with the Falls' rail amidships. In the instant that he caught his breath, expecting to see the boat crushed, a man in such a garb as government folk wore in Norway a long black coat and a tall, shiny hat—leaped aboard. And lie had just, time to mark thaf this man landed on the deck with an ease and lightness that none of tlio others had shown, when a hail from the mate stopped his descent- and sent him climbing aloft again to lurl the slatting skysail. /

Once .again in the horn' thai followed llic Ijov glimpsed the man in the tall, shinv hat talking to the captain oil the poop. And 1m: could not know that I his person, whom lie took lor someliQfj vof importance, was .Bull ilsoii. kill" crimp of the port: but. oven had ho known it, be had no time or interest to "ive I <J what went <mi below hint. There was the welcoming land for an eve feast and the furling of inanv sails for his hands. Not until the ship lay anchored m the stream off San Francisco did Olafs feet touch deck again. As lie swung out of the ringing, drunk with the drink of his dreaming. the man in the tall hat and frock coat. met. hini and, more wonderful than all, hailed linn by his own home. '•Yuh bound f-'r th unties—cli, Greig?" lie a&ked in English, only to repeat the question immediately 111 a bastard sort of Norwegian.

"Ob. ics—jcs. sir." stammered the bov, removing liis cap and not flaring to look above"tlio diamond sparkling ju the middle of 'Hull Wilson's blue necktie ''Ay "o bav Eric Sigurdscn s—nay Coffee Creek in day County Trinity '' enough. 1 Anil Bull >* ilson pretended to read from a cold: "Got Villi en m'lisl . I'm Sigurdsen s agent —his labor agent. "V ous is de kind dcy nceii in de mines:' The kindly pat on the shoulder that accompanied tho last brought Olai 5 abashed gaze up to Bull W llson s face, but he did not mark then its thin, cruel lips, or the small, crumpled ears —cauliflower i'«rs, prizefighters cnll til em. This important person was siniplv part of tlio whole wondcrnil golden scheme of things that was enmeshing him. •"Ere. me square cad pal. avc a wipe!" cut in a Cockue.y sailor, reeling between them and pressing a whisUy llask to Olaf's lips. The liny gave the sailor a push that, =cnt him twenty feet. Tt was an exhibition of strength that brought a low whistle from tlio crimp; but there was no lime to be lost. "C'onie! Over de side wid yi'h. inc lad!" he urged. "It's all right! Yiih dunnage's in de boat. Quick — skipper collies lor'ard an' stops yilh! There was no danger ol interference from tliat quarter, though, for it was money in the ship's pocket- to. let the crimps take her sailors: by their desertion all they had earned on the passage otit would be torieit to her. eager to put foot on the shore or his dreamland, congratulating himself that he was so soon and so easily to escape the vessel on which he had signed until ■die should reach England: again. Olaf Greig dropped over 'the sido into one of iho AVhiteh ills lie had admired so much at sea. The Cockney was already there, and with him was Ihe cockeyed Swede. "Ay sot a yob hay day mines'." cried the Swede at sight of Olaf. "Ay goal! to make fav e tollar a day too!" And thereat the boy's imagination leaped. Five dollars a day! That was twenty kroner! for one day's work in this land of gold lie was to receive as imich as a mouth iu the home fisheries brought! As these figures raced through his brain the boat passed under the stern of a big merchantman at anchor and so near that he spelled her name and port —the Seafarer, of London. By the lew men he saw aloft bending sail and by her deep lading he knew her for an outwardbound. and Lis heart was stirred of pity for her and her sailors. They were going away from the golden shore! AVliy could not they know enough to stay? That night, as the city clocks struck ten and the bolls iu the harbor echoed the hour. Olaf stood against the bar of Bull "Wilson's boarding house, the Bowhead, gazing into the blue eyes of Olga. Hie crimp's wife. They were alone. Tho few whom drink had not put to bed on the floors, abovo had gone seeking adventure along the adventurous Barbarv Coast. For nearly an hour this woman had held the boy iu conversation, held him by an attraction with which he had never yet reckoned. He thought lie liked her and that his heart had opened to her because he hair was yellow and her eyes blue, and because she was the daughter of a woman of Trouiso. which was his mother's birthplace. Often, as lie talked or listened his eye-; went to the street door expectantly ; for when Bull Wilson had gone out lie had told him that it was to purchase the railroad tickets to carry liim and the other sailors to tho mines in Trinity County. And always the woman's eyes followed the boy's, but not with expectation of her spouse's return. Suddenly she leaned far across the bar, the light of a strange desire in her face.

"Vou are a pretty boy. sailor—do yon know that?"-she laughed tremulously, and one of her hands closed on his. Olaf reddened ; his breath caught at tho insinuation. With a feeling akin to fright lie drew his hand away. The woman frowned: and then, laughing tremuously again, she whispered: "I believe you now —that you've never touched a woman's hand before." There was: hardly anything Olaf had not told this slattern Circe about himself. even including that. And as he was struggling to save his senses from the spell that was closing on them —he felt like one who had been under water too long—tlio street door banged open and Bull Wilson entered.

"Conie. sailor!" he called, ignoring the woman and signalling the hoy to follow him into a dimly lighted hallway that led toward the rear of the Bowllead. .

•'Don't go with him!" Olaf thought jiu henrd the woman whisper; but. without fear and glad to escape her. lie obeyed the crimp. AVith the utterance of that warning whisper, Olga AVilson hesitated a second and then stole from behind the bar and into the hall after them. She overtook her husband as lio bade Olaf enter the silencing room, a dim. gaslit. soundproof hole the ice-chest door of which stood open oa Lis ri^lrt.

"Pleaio. Bull!'' the pleaded. ''Don t do him up!" "Givan ! Beat it! You're soused! ' "He'll shanghai you! Run! Run! ' she .shrieked at the boy in his own and her mother's native tongue; and her arms encircled her husband's. At this warning Olat Greig instinctively leaped toward the door, only to pause as lie saw one of Bull's lists •strike the woman and fell her. J.n that instant all the chivalry of youth lighted the lire or a consuming, berserk rage. And abovo the roar of this blaze lie heard the primitive racial call, lie was Vorse. This woman was Norse. Her mother, like his own, had been a- Tromno woman. "With the cry of a, wild beast he flung himself at Bull Wilson who, sneering as he had been his wont in his prize-ring days, certain of the outcome, calmly waited to receive the attack. There could have been only one result of that clash. The skill of fist, the brain cunning, the cold blood, tjiat had made Bull a champion of champions, were still his despite his forty-odd years of age and long retirement. He ground the Norse boy as the mill grinds grist. Thus it happened an hour afterward that Olaf Greig, triced hand and foot, and unconscious, was sold with the Cockney and the cockneyecl Swede, across the main hatch of the Seafarer, of London, the ship to whose people his heart had opened in pity only that afternoon. And thus it happened that as this Liverpool-bound merchantman cleared the Gate in the morning light it took the strength of her three mates to prevent this squarehead ironi jumping overboard and to tie again, the hands and feet they had loosened to put to work.

Toward the end of the day the captain and the chief mate, with pistols in hand ,freed him" again and lifted him upright where he had been lying prone beside the hatch on which he had. been sold. He was dazed; his strength was spent. His limbs trembled tinder him. A handshovo would have toppled liiin over ; and, realising this with something of shame, his masters put their weapons away. As they pocketed the pistols a lurch of the ship dropped him 011 his buttocks. He did not attempt to rise. The shock sent his bruised and swollen hands to his chest, which gaped black-and-blue with lieelprlnts through his rent jsliirt. From the chest they went uncertainly to his ram face and finally clasped his rocking head; but 110 uttered no sound, not even when the captain leaned over him anxiously and. with 110 tender hands, felt of his ribs and his limbs for breaks.

"Seems all right," ho announced, linisbing the examination. "But we'd better not turn him to till morning, sir," suggested the mate lo'ubtfuliy; ami with that, their voice;; •milk to a murmur, they went aft together.

AY lieiv thev left him there lie continued to sit until, of. a bidden, the breeze freshened, unci bore down the vessel's lee rail to an angle that revealed a low. indefinite shadow along the ocean's rim to the eastward. That shadow was land. It stirred Olaf s bewildered, groping brain —gave it something to fasten on. Slowly, painfully, he rose to his feet, and as he reached his full height his face came nil a level with a glistening, brass-bound glass port ill the house at his side. In its mirroring surface he. saw himself, and the memory of what had ha opened returned like a floodtide —engulfed him. That receding coast in 111'- distance was the laud of his dreams! His blackened eyes leaped toward it. A low moan escaped him, and as his puffed lips shut again the setting sun s blood-red disc dyed sea and sky and coast a, crimson hue. A reddish glow shot through the sails of the ship. All the world was incarnadine, even as was tiic soul and brain of Olaf Greig. In that moment, he was leu thousand of his Viking ancestors aflame with blood lust —an uii'iucuchablc desire of vengeance. "I will come again! I will come again!'* he swore, his right hand uplifted in witness. By the gods of his heathen forebears be swore it by I'rev, bv Niord. I)v Odin! By Orin's ravens of thought'and memory, llugiu and Mnnin. he dedicated himself! 'the Christian God of his own childhood had departed from him. Barnacled, foul of bottom., undei--111 a lined, the Seafarer made a long passage home. It was the end of September when she cleared the Golden Gate. March was a week old. when she went, up the Mersey. As her last mooring line was made fast a blond-headed young giant known fore and aft as the Silent Squarehead went over her side. rJoiH* and penniless. t'nder one arm he carried a thin bag of clothes purchased from the shin's slop chest. It represented his part of the earnings For the half-year's toil. The rest had gone to make Hp the blood money the ship had paid Bull AYiison for him. Twenty-four hours later Olaf Grog was outward-bound for San Francisco. Three months' wages ho had signed awav to a Norwegian boarding-house-keeper for the chance. AVhat manner of shin the Palgrave was mattered not to him. She was bound toward the Golden Gate: That was sufficient. He had. not- paused to write so much as a line to -Jon Thorsen. Eric Sigurdsen, Bcsla Svensen. Hildigunn of the bea Eves —all in Kragcro might never have existed: in fact, there were only two nelsons in Hie silent red world in winch he was living now —himself and Bull AYiison. The 011 c link that connected past and present was little Hikligunn's letter, now a year old; but no .tender thought, springing from the davs when the had called him Olaf the Happy, prompted his keeping the blood-stained scrap of paper. H iv;is the svmbol nf his oath, the silent acolyte of his terrible passion. It was the one thing Bull AA T ilson had not taken from his pockets the night lie bail beaten him and sold him as they sold cattle at the Kragera fairs. ■Summer, tlie season oi In* own oiorthpin summer, but the winter-tune of the South, found him again off Capo Horn in an ice-sheathed ship. For a month and until her foremast wont by the hoard the Palgrave bucked the westerlies. Then she nut hack to the Falkland Islands. August: saw her at last cuter the Pacific. A September hurricane look her three topmasts flow her to the westward of Valparaiso. A wail went lip from her forecastle. '•This irou bucket'll never fetch Frisco'" proclaimed an Irishman the morn ing the ship's head was turned toward the Chilean port- to seek- repairs. u »Tes we gonn come bay rris?co 'n good time/*' said Olaf solemnly in the broken English that was now his. And for the rest of that day the forecastle had something else besides ill-luck to talk about. It was the first time that anybodv there had ever heard the Sonarehead —tlnis was he called as lie had been on the Seafarer and on tile Falls of Dec before her—say more than ,Jes or No. . Mure than half the crew deserted m Valparaiso, but Olaf Greig was not one of those. The Palgrave was bound toward the Golden Gate. She would have been sinking before ho could hare thmiLxliL of leaving her. 'Hie Palgrave finally would carry him to where his cueim- lived and trafficked: sooner or lati'r she would set him down ' there, and then • With his bare, unweanoncd hands lie planned to wreak his vengeance, and the broad dav was to look on. And after he had beaten and trampled Bull AYiison as the crimp TTad beaten aud trampled him. and brokeu across his knee, as one would break a stick, the arm w'th which he. had struck the woman who had sought- to that was to be the last touch —then The plan went no further than that. There was no afterward, no reckoning of consequences. The death of his cneinv would be tho end—that was all. The course of his passion was like the irresistible motion of one ol his native glaciers. Of the law. of what, might happen to himself, of the possibility of his own death or life, he held bo comprehension. That accident . or death, or any other agency, might remove the boarding-liouse master from his vengeance never suggested itself. After two months' delay in Valparaiso the Palgrave sailed a third time for her destination. Baffling winds stayed her passage through December; ' contrary gales beset her in .Tanuarv. ' Tt was 011 November second, nearly ! eight months out from the Mersey, that Olaf Greiir. 011 the lookout at day- ' break, sighted the Heads of San FranI cisco. And though lliey loomed op 1 gray-browed and whito-toothed under : the onslaught of a- westerly storm, he : nevertheless strained his eyes to discover a small boat carrving a man 1 with a tall, shinv hat; but no boat came off from the land to board the

| Palgra ve. No small boat could havi lived in the -sea tliat was running. Not, until the ship lay anchored ii front of the hill-sprawled city did thi '•limps and tlieir runners appear; and as he realised that/Wilson was uol among tliem something akin to doubl assailed his passion, it began to pas; in a moment, however, for the seconc man to solicit him and offer a flasli was a, "Wilson runner. Olaf wanted to ask him where Wilson was, hut lie dared not. He was fearful his purpose might be guessed. He remembered nearly all the runners, hut the fact that they did not recognise _ him made him suspicious. - Perhaps this was but a pretence on their part; so he got another sailor to make the inquiry, and when this man brought him word, that Bull "Wilson was not only alive but more prosperous than ever the Squarehead scuttled into the ship's dark sailrooni and sat there alone for nearly ten minutes. As suddenly as ho had disappeared from the deck he reappeared and, going up to Wilson's run- | lier, said: "Ay go ay ore veet you." I Without a belonging lie went over the rail into the Wilson Whitehall; and, seeing him do this, the Palgrave's skipper and her young chief mate could not believe their eyes. They had ' a warm feeling for this Norse blond head, who had stuck by them and the ship with an incredible loyalty. They hailed him from the poop, beckoned him back, shouted warnings against the crimps; but liis only answer was a dogged shake of the head. . And the- runner, fearful that this sailor might change liis mind and demand to return to the sbi}>, signalled the boat-puller to lay to his oars the while he pattedtlie giant familiarly on the back and 1 whispered him ruby promiscs Tlie runner knew that li© had accomplished a feat worthy of Bull Wilson himself —the pulling of this seama ) out of a ship that owed liim eight months' wages. He had done something to brag about in this season when the whaling fleet was paying a- bonus of two hundred dollars a. man; but in the glow of liis artistic pride—and let. it not be forgotten there is art in all things—lie did not mark that this squarehead listened with 110 eagerness to his panderer's tongue. Silent, grim, his jaws clenched, his hands loekiDg and' unlocking where he held them between his cramped knees, his eyes half shut, his head nodding now and then, Olaf sat until they reached the shore. _ " "Take It from 111 c, sailor, yuli 11 get a real liielconie at -de Bowliead.' said the crimp, exhausted by Olaf's silence. As lie spoke lie was hustling liis game into the covered' wagon that awaited them at the boat landing. "Bull Wilson's de man tuh treat pull, right. "Jes," assented Olaf, taking a. sea, on the bottom of the wagon and letting his legs hang over the tailboard. Ho and Grocky, the runner, were tlic only pasengers, but with a decisive shake of tha head he refused' to ride beside hun on the driver's seat. It was thus lie had ridden the first time through San Francisco's crowded downtown streets to the Bowhcad. He remembered how easilv he had alighted as the wagon had backed up to the curb in front of the boarding house. He wanted to be in readiness to spring. This was one of- the things he had thought about in the darkness of Palgrave's sailroom. The • wagon had; made half the distance from the waterfront toward the Bowliead when a, messenger boy, with a bundle, attempted to crawl tip beside the man on the tailboard, nnssed his footing and fell sprawling. Hurt and spiteful, he picked'up a stone and hurled it straight at Olaf. It clipped the Squarehead cruelly on the ohm and drew blood. '.That rat hit yuli, sailor.-' called the driver, pulling up and looking back to where Olaf sat as motionless as a cigar-store Indian. "Naw!" he answered, his gaze balefull v fixed on the boy running round .1 corner. Nothing must delay him now ; and, as he wished it, the driver whipped up his horse again. And live minutes afterwards the wa--4011 stopped suddenly and began, backill". it was in front of the Bowliead, uul, standing in the open door, with lis silk hat- acock his shortly-cropped ;rev head and a larger diamond than -ver in his blue-striped' shirtbosom, was 3ull Wilson. He was smiling the stage ■mile with which lie was wont to meet hat covered wagon, when it returned 10111 a ship. As the vehicle.,s end :q 11 a red with the curb he advanced on t In the second that he put out Ins itage hand of welcome a human avaauche. uttering a. wild, inarticulate rry launched itself 011 him. A quarter of an hour later not 11101 c -Bull Wilson was kneeling beside the. incouseious form of Olaf G-reig where t, jay on the floor of the room with he ice-chest, door. At his side, watchng what he did. stood Olga, his wile, uul Croekv, the runner. "If he'd ever landed 011 me oneet v-irl flat." said Bull, shaking Ins head, 'dcre'di have been a wake in de BowLead tuh-night!" He was. holding up the limp arm nto which he had just driven a liypolermic of morphine. It was bare to he shoulder. Below the elbow it was >f the line of bronze : above, as white s . 'aria n marble. Michelangelo must lave had .such a model for his Moses. Jnt it was ite capacity of terrihe tren ,r th, not its beautiful iormatiou, hat made Bull Wilson run a hand oviuglv along its length. "Gee, what a pile-driver! lie exclaimed' in admiration, patting the full ouud biceps. "Wid half a head an Li-ms like dese dis Squarehead cud cleaa ip de Nigger an' Jeff an' a- coupe o Tohn-Nells in a night—make 111 all look ike 'tirt-v cents! . Take a pipe at dat best "He pulled back the torn Ironi, if Olaf's shirt- "It's a hundred-gal-on bar'l!" Then, with a sigh, lie lroppcd the arm and. standing up. idd'ed: "An' tuh t'ink he s jest a plain nit!" . ~, . . "What's gcttm' me. though, cut m >oekv. "is what, set him nuts on yous, luj] ! J "Sure yuh never seen him —never landled': him P" T i "Maybe I've handled luui. I dunno; >ut I " , The woman interrupted: "It's that young Norwegian you beat ip an' shangheaied inorc'n a year ago —the one that wanted tub go tuh th nines." , , . • I Bull AVilson swept the form at his j eet with a-glance. "Gwan!" he growled at her. I his m'd make t'ree o' dat kid. ihen, chuckling he nodded her and Cocky out >f the room. As he closed and locked :-he heavy door he called to the woman is she went toward the bar: 'I ve alius lad a sneakin' idea- yuli _ was soit on lat squarehead kid, Olga.' A light laugh was her answer; and t was so dark in the narrow hallway Jiat Bull Wilson could not see that 111s vife and Crocky were holding hands. In the dead of that night Bull Wilson opened the ice-chest door again to irin" forth the thing he had to sell. \nd as day broke Olaf Greig opened lis evrs in a eoffmlike space, which •leaked and moved as though being ionic bv stumbling men ; but conscious less did not return all at once. lor 1 moment lie believed himself in a ind being carried to his grave. Then le imagined himself in the tight bertn ,]i£,t had been liis on old Jon Thorsen s ishing smack. r rhis thought suggested Llie sea and proved a spark- It exploded the miue of memory. Tho mist in his brain was swept iwav. He brought himself up to the point where he had leaped from the ivagon iu front of the Bowliead. Bull Wilson, tlie man in the tall, shiny hat lis enemy—had been within his grasp ind lie had just taken a deep breath icfore crushing him when — Something lad happened tbeii.- He could not renember what. But here he was on a ship. This was a forecastle bunk in ivhich he was lying. He was at sea. Ic had been shaiidia.ied again. He had Jeen cheated of his vengeance! With a cry of rage which choked, halt uttered, in his parched throat he Siurled liiniself from the bunk and went staggering toward-tho scuttle through ivliich the new day was beginning to Irop a square shaft- of light. His way led over a- corduroy road of prostrate nen —some sleeping in drink, some unler the influence of drugs. As he came to tlie gangway ladder :• orm darkened.the scuttle opening, lipvard lie plunged, red-eyed. unseeing. til a side lunge he sent the man' in Jie forecastle entrance sprawling on ill fours and kept 011 until he came to ihe waist- of the vessel. He was. on \i vhaler —a steamer called the Karluk. Then he stopped short. He knew vhero he was. There was 110 swimning ashore from here. Over the side vere the Farrallones Islands, their ight tower shedding its final night ray in their bleak and linhened rocks. Astern, full thirty-five miles away, lay :he coast behind a haze. There was Bull Wilsoa —safe

"Yet, Ay vill come again." ho was crying when the sailor he had knocked down as ho burst from the forecastle scuttle seized him by an arm and faced him round.

"Villi big bum! What'd' yer mean by dropping me?" he demanded in open belligerence. ''Huh? Vat ?' stammered tho Squarehead in bewilderment, compelled to bend down to meet the other's lack of height. "Huh!" repeated the smaller man angrily. With that, his right fist crashed on the point of Olaf Greig's jaw. . A repetition of "Vat?" was followed by the left under his chin and the Squarehead measured' liis length on the deck. Ho started to rise, got as far as his elbows, and there paused, smiling, the while his opponent bade him stand up and fight. Ho was smiling because this little man, whom he coidd have broken in two, had crumpled ears like Bull Wilson's, and because he remembered that with lightning blows, liko those that had laid him where ho was now, his eternal enemy had twice encompassed liim. In that moment cunning was born in Olaf Greig. An officer came running forward, swinging a peace-invoking belaying pin, and closed the .incident.

"I'll take th' fight out o' ye in th' next sixteen months!" ho flung at Olaf; and thus the Norseman learned the term of Bis sentence.

Tho following night he was at tho wheel and overheard the chief mate say to the captain of the Karluk: "That rat with the cauliflower ears in my watch is Shadow Larkin. Used to be champion lightweight of the world —greatest of 'cm all. But he's a. bad " Then they passed, out of hearing, but they left the Squarehead smiling grimly. A week afterward Olaf and the 'Shadow were put at overhauling the whaler's potato supply. Neither had spoken to the other since the first morning at sea.. Both lived in a silence apart from, the rest of the crew, without cronies. This silence continued now, though they wero sido by side, until Olaf suddenly touched the Shadow and, without a word, directed his gaze to a large potato, solid and firm and edible, lying in the open palm of his outstretched right hand. "Well?" snapped the Shadow. "See!" answered the Squarehead; and his hand closed, crushing the tuber to a pulp. "Whatclier tryiii' on, eh?" exclaimed tho Shadow, snarling and leaping to his feet. "T'ink yuh can run a bluff 011 me wid bull stren'th?"

"Naw. Av lake bo frands vit you. Ay lak you t' learn me lioo t' praze fight." A scornful laugh burst from the Shadow; and that was an end of the conversation, for tho mate separated tlieni, sen3ing the Squarehead aloft to a job that required his real sailor skill. During the rest of that afternoon, however, Olaf Greig mado no mov© thatescaped the terrier-like eyes of the former champion. A potato had started Shadow Larkin dreaming. And his dreams took new wings and inwardly lie glowed when, at the end of the day's work, he beheld the Norseman standing stripped in. the Karltik's waist and sloshing himself with sea water. Never before had he seen a man made like this, and he was familiar with the prize-ring masters of twenty years past. In comparison the other' bathers were but grotesques beside- this blond giant. "If dis feller's only got a heart inside be can clean up do woild! He's do AVliite Hope!" murmured tho Shadow.

As lie watched Olaf dress he asked him wliv ho wished' to learn how to fi-ht. "Ay yust lak to knaw," answered the Squarehead.

"Yuh want Lull lick somebody, eh? Ain't, dat it?"

"•Jes," was his simple reply: but neither then nor afterward did he reveal the identity- of his enemy to Shadow Larkin.

There and then began the Norseman's first boxing lesson. The mates and the crew thought the Shadow and he had reopened hostilities until between puffed lips Olaf explained lie was Larkin's pupil and that they wore the best of friends.' Every evening after that, except when work or tho weather forbade, it became tlic custom for the ship's company to foregather to watch them.

It was rare, fascinating sport for the rough and motley onlookers just "to see the Shadow in action. They knew what his fame had been; but to sec liini, a lightweight, a wisp of a man compared with Greig, play with the giant and strike liim wliere lie willed was uproarious fun. As the Karluck's chief engineer put it, it was like watching a Newfoundland pup trying jt£_catch a (la Die. But while the spectators laughed and made jokes the Shadow held his peace. He wa.s exploring, endeavoring to find out whether his pupil possessed the two essential qualities for ring success —heart, or what lie called sand, and head. And on a Sunday at the month's end ho decided that the Squn rehead was the champion for whom tlie world was waiting. Not once had his cruellest blow stopped the Norseman, not once had the giant lost bis temper. So the dream that had started with a potato sprang into the form of a weirdly drawn and misspelled contract, in which Olaf Greig agreed -with James Larkin that for the next fifteen years the said Larkin should be the manager of the said Greig, and share and share alike in all the earnings or prizes that should come to the, isaid Greig and, further, that the said Greig bound himself during that time not to engage with anybody in any fight or athletic contest without the written consent of the said James Larkin. But when the Shadow had finished reading this composition the Norseman shook his head. "But yuli goin' tub bo a champeen!" protested the Shadow. "Every ehampeen has gotta have a manager. Champcens don't fight grudges tier mix wid nobody 'cept in de ring an' fer coin. Yuli t'ink I'm goiu' tub teach 'yuli an' train yuli. an' den have yuh give luc de rinky-dink: j Nix!" "It is naw dat. Yimmy. Ay promise Ay no run avay,'' answered Olaf. "But vonce Ay light vit mon faller. und you Nobody can say me nutting !" The Squarehead's eyes blazed like live coals as the last words burst from him ; and if only the Shadow could have looked into his brain at that moment ho would not have pleaded for hours to turn his decision. At/ last ho gave in and interpolated iu the final clause of the contract-: "except one fight." "A couple o' years, Dutch, an' we'll be oil Easy Street —on de, suuny side!" he exclaimed, as he watched Olaf affix liis scrawl to the agreement. The Shadow was jubilant. "Do kink o' Norway'll have nuttin' on yous! All yuh gotta do's cut booze an' women, an' de woild's yours!" Then, patting himself oil the chest, he added: "An' here's one ox-champ dat's goin' tuh come back wid bells on!" The Norseman for a moment studied him incredulously. "So mooch money vc make—so mooch as Ay can make bay de gold mines?" he asked. . The Shadow doubled with laughter, and at the sound of it many an eye went forward to where lie and 1 Olaf sat together ou tlie forecastle head. It i was . the first time Larkin had heeu hoard to laugh since coming aboard the j Karluk. . ~ "As much as yuh cud make in de gold mines!" he chuckled. "Dere's a mint!" He slanped the back of one of Olaf's big hands. "An'_ dere's anndder." And he slapped its mate. Olaf looked away at the sea and pondered .this for some time. "You bane champeen vouce. limmy, said lie. turning round again. "Vay vou come here? Hull?" Tlie jubilant light went out of the the' Shadow's face: his square, pugnacious jaw set. and his small black eyes became pin-points as he .met- the Norseman's gaze. "If I wasn't here. Dutch, dev'd have iu gaol back dere —see?" he answered evasively. "Dey's a indictment 'lainst me in Arisen fer votin' four times too many last 'lection day. But vuli don't nnnerstan' dese t'iiigs._ is a. furrii'cr. But I'll fix dat indictment u» wid de foist poise vuli win. The Shadow was riglit. Olaf did not understand :>n. v of this, except that his auestion had not been answered, and stebVllv he repeated it. "Vay. A.y ast. Yimmy—vay air yen no move dm* chaniDeen praze fighter?' was the way lie nut. it; and the Shadow's wit- failed 1 liim.

"John Barleycorn!" lie snapped :n answer. "Booze, Dutch. an" —an' a —an' a woman Come on an take vuli lesson!" And that evening the Spuarehcad felt a new sting in the Shadow's 1 gloves, the boxing gloves they had improvised from pieces of canvas and stuffing's of oakum. They cut like knives, bruised like slungshots; and the master was savage, merciless. Yet liis pupil mado no complaint, llioug.'i lie wondered l much as Yimmy's mood. That night, as tliey turned in at the end of tho second dogwatch, the Shadow, who was already in his bunk, suddenly drew a, battered heart-shape! locket of silver from under his pillow-.

"Dere she is, Dutch —de goil what turn me down." said lie, holding out the locket toward where Olaf stood' unbuttoning his coat. "I'd be cliampeen to-day cf she'd stuck. She was me wife—oncct."

The Squarehead crossed the forecastle to the guttering lamp which dimly lit the hole. As he raised the heart to the light it fell open loosely on a worn- hinge, and he found himself looking into the face of Olga, Bull Wilson's wife; and thereupon lie understood much. Silently lie handed the heart back to its owner.

"A feller what I was good full w'en lie was down an' out—he stole her, Dutch!" whispered the Shadow. "Vay you naw have killed' dat feller, Yiinmy?" asked Olaf with solemn mien; but he was a seething luruaec inwardly.

"I'll have tuli do it some day ! L'li have tuli——"

The rest was smothered in his pillow; and, all atrenible, the Squarehead: climbed into the bunk over Jimmy Larkin's, but not to sleep. The' Karluk fished her way into the Arctic by way of the Ivamchatkan coast.. By June she was up with Wrange 1 Island. Thence she went off to the eastward and the wor'd heard of her no more until one September day the look-out 011 the rocky brow of Point Barrow sighted two 6peeks far olf to the northward! in the pack-ice sea. - The revenue cutter Bear, taking aboard the last- home mail in the harbor below, forthwith smashed out tlu-ough the floes and a couple of hours later came up to the specks — two boatloads of all that remained of the whaler Karluk-s company. V week thev had been fightiug their way toward tfio land from where the- bcr:rs had nipped! their ship. In t-no stern-sheets of the tirst boat eat tho Ivarluk's captain, in command and alone. In the stern sheets of the second sab 'a. giant Norseman in command, but not alone. Cuddled up against his side, where the Norseman had tried to keep him warm and where death has turned him to ice, was all that was mortal of the once great Jimmy Larkin, surnamed by men the Shadow. A fortnight afterward the Bear went ajouth through Beteing Strait, carrying Olaf "Greig, a person distinguished amojig all her company simply because he had been a friend and the pupil of the Shadow. Such is famef " Dead though Jimmy Larkin was, yet he lived again, as the cutter's crew saw it, in this Norseman, when they heard the Karluk's survivors tell how the Shadow had proclaimed him the "White Hope. They gave him of the best of their beddiug and food; they gave him shore clothes and money. A king could have commanded no more service.

But silently the Squarehead acceded all' that was thrust on him, and this silence- was construed as a proof of the greatness to which he wa.s considered heir. Such is the fetish of hero, worship. Yet never for a moment did Olaf Greig's mind open to one thing extraneous to the vengeance lie had vowed and 1 renewed again when Jimmy Larkin's farewell breath, calling "Olga! OlgaP froze against his car. He and Bull Wilson were alone once moro in the red wor ho had entered on that September day. two years bofore. Still, often as he counted tin* Bear's screw throbs, every one of which carried him closer and closer t,> his goal, he felt that he was not alone. Sometimes he even imagined he could hear a. voice whispering: "Ho stole her from me, Dutch; an' I was good tub him w'eti he was down an' out!" And, with this whisper., always a battered silver heart would iill lii.s vision, tlio heart with which, the Shadow, his friend, slept in Point Barrow's icy flank.

It. wa-s on a Sunday morning, a- new October day, sparkling with sunshine and blue of heaven, that the Bear went through the Golden Gate. It was a- day to make the soul soar. The tang of new and heady wine was 'n its' air. Down from the city on tho hills the sound of many worshipping bells floated to the sea. Now and again the laughing and calling of children at play came off from tho watei front streets.

Aboard the Bear the men whom she hadi saved from death saw and heard and were thankful, and thought deeply of the life that lay ahead, a sailors' boarding house in. Drumm street. That door was the portal of the end.

All hour after the Bear anchored ".11 •the stream one of her boats was- landing the Squarehead and the rest of the Jvarluk's survivors at the wharf float, where, with only kindness and dreams in. liis hea.rt, he had first conic ashore. Greig, with cunning, eluded his companions. One moment he- was among them; the next they stood in bewilderment, wondering whither he had disappeared. And while they looked roundl and made inquiries, the Norseman was holding towards the Bowhead. As straight as a. bullet lie went, ignorant though he was of the streets Had he been blind he could have found his way. A thousand, a million thousand times he had travelled it! And suddenly the Squarehead halted. Across the street was the Bowhcad, and in a chair to the right of the swinging bar door sat Bull Wilson. There he was in liis shirt sleeves, backing in the sunlight. A boy flying a kite ran along the sidewalk, obscuring him for a second. As the youngster passed on, Olaf Greig started on a run toward his enemy; but as*hc reached the opposite curb in front of his prey he stopped as though he had butted into a brick wall.

The chair in which Bull Wilson was sitting had wheels under it, and his legs were wrapped in a rug. His hair was long and gray; the florid countenance, of old was now a pasty, sickly white. The diamond stud was, missing from his blue-striped shirt front. The silk tile wis roughed and. its black nearly green. "Hello, sailor!" hailed tho crimp, with an effort at his old stage heartiness. "If villi lookin' I'cr a good boardin' house dc Bowhead's de place tuh bring yuli dunnage." He did not rccognise Olaf; but if he had it would not have mattered. From his point of view—lie had not wronged this man. In the true crimp's scheme of things it, is foreordained that sailors are born to be lvought and sold ; and that is all there is to it. "Come ahead, sailor." Bull went on. "an' I'll blow yuh drinks —only yuh gotta wheel me inside." While he had been talking the Squarehead had been slowly, almost impercetiblv, drawing closer and closer to liis enemy. Now ho stood over him. lie had but to open one of his clenched hands and close it again on the scrawny, dcwlapped throat, and this thing in tile chair would speak no more; ana one of the big hands started up and opened—only to fall back inert. This maii was broken, helpless. 'lbe Norseman could not touch him. "Have any thin' yuh want, sailor, Wilson was saying. "Whisky, wino, beer. But push me gently through tli' door —til' thresholds high. Gotta liavo it cut down. Doctors say 111 never get outer dis chair. Hell, ain't it? Fell from a. ship's side intuh a boat six months ago —both me legs paralysed." , The eartli was slipping from under .Olaf. .He could not. touch this manand yet he could not leave him. His throat was closing, his gazo darting round seeking a means of escape. His impulse was to. run, but lie could not. Instinct called to action. At this moment his roving eves went over the Bowhead's swinging door, and at the-end of the bar lie saw OlfSa kissing the runner who brought linn from the Palgrave. Crocky's arms were round her. . ' "Aain't yuli tuh Toll mo in., sailor?" pleaded' Bull. "Jes." answered Olaf, but quite as unconscious that lie answered the crimp as. he-was of taking hold of the wheel chair and pushing it the doolway As lie sent it soinning across the bar floor a screech of helpless rage from Wilson broke Olga's lips from the man to wliom she was rendering tliem.

Laughing loudly, liko c'4o in drink, Olaf Greig staggered out .into tho street. An eddy of a passing Salvation Army procession drew him into its fake, and he marched with it willynilly uutil a. cornet player called liini a drunken beast and pushed hull aside.

And here the eddy of another procession, a benevolent society of some kind, picnic-bound and marching hko an army with banners, snatched hini up and carried him along to tho gates of a ferry, where 110 was hurled baeu becauso lio had no ticket. Somebody seized him and pushed him insid'o .a railing, before an open window.

"Where to?" snapped tho ticketseller within. Olaf looked in at him dumbly, as one in a- trance.

"Where lo? AVhere to?" reepated the ticket-seller; and thereat tho Squarehead plunged his hands into his pockets and brought forth a fistful ot inoncv —tho money tho Bear's sailors had contributed to Jimmy Larkiu's White Hope. Among the coins was a discolored and tattered pieco paper. The man in the window snatched it and opened it. It was llildiguiin Svensen's letter. "Coffee Creek, Trinity County, eh?" read the agent. "Jes!" «rid Olaf eagerly.

"Well, why didn't von say so in th.'. first- place? Here! Hurry! Shake a, leg! That's your train boat!" A kindly policeman standing by caught tho Squarehead by au arm and rushed him through tho closing gates. A moment later the ticket-seller was saving to the cop; "Am't these foreigners mutts!"