John Fleming Wilson

“ Malcolm is quite right when he tells me he wouldn’t dream of going into an office again. Of course he’ll keep on being a sea-captain. I’m going with him. We'll need a lot of money to buy the Cymric.”
“Going to sea with him!” her father repeated in a tragic whisper. “Henry Ellery’s daughter marrying a common skipper and spending her life at sea! Have you no pride?”
“Pride?” she repeated in a full, rich voice. “Yes. Too much to shut my eyes to the biggest profession a brave man can follow, or to prefer a white-handed office man to a man who isn’t afraid of the sea. ”

“ But Isabel insisted that you hadn’t had a chance, and for her sake I gave you a further trial. I have a rule in my business, Griffiths!”
The answer was a slight, definite gesture of protest.
“It is to have nothing to do with people who don’t pay dividends on the investment,” Ellery went on. “I invest my daughter’s happiness in a career to you, and I get nothing. I am going to get rid of you.”
“By dividends you mean that I don’t strike you as a success as a clerk in your office,” Griffiths returned. “I’m not. Of course I’m not. If I were, I should have no hopes of ever making Isabel happy.” ”

“ Isabel saw the old, trembling engineer depart, and she went and took her stand by her husband. He glanced around at her, and she saw the effort he was making to keep his eyes open. Below, on the icy deck, she saw a little group of sailors beating their arms back and forth and now and then running into the shelter of the alleyway under her. Each time the wash of a boarding sea had drained away through the scupper shutters, the little crowd came out again and resumed their fantastic frost-dance.
“The fourth engineer is in the alleyway with a gun,” Griffiths explained dully. ”

“ A keen glance at her expression of concern, and the mate went on, more freely: “The skipper—you know him better than I do—is the kind of man who’s always there when he’s needed. Running a steamer is a sort of one-man job, anyway, ma’am.”
When the triangle was rung for supper, Isabel ate alone, the chief engineer coming in for a minute only to see whether the Captain was there. When she had finished her meal, she wrapped herself up and made her way to the wheelhouse, thence to the bridge. ”

“ A moment later she had been wrapped in a blanket and was being carried into the saloon. Griffiths did not set her down till he was in his own cabin abaft the wheelhouse.
“Stay here,” he said sternly, and after a single imperious glance quit the place for the bridge.
For an hour she was unutterably miserable. Then she perceived that the engines were going once more. She controlled herself, rose and departed to her own cabin, where she dressed herself carefully. She had just finished when Malcolm entered brusquely, growled a word or two and insisted that she return to his cabin. ”

“ Ellery stormed. “You knew that it was the best preparation for advancement—that if you showed yourself worth while in the outside office I would shove you along as fast as I could. I try to make a man of you—”
“And I happened to be a man already,” Griffiths answered. “I was master of the big Majestic. I am a clerk in the outside offices of the California Freight & Packet Line. Yet you expect Isabel to be satisfied.” ”

“ The tug stepped back out of the way, turned and steamed ahead along the lofty side of a freighter on whose counter Isabel had read the name Cymric.
Megaphone in hand, Captain Ericsson emerged on his little upper deck and hailed the freighter’s bridge. A figure appeared, seemed to stand motionless a long time and vanished. The man returned almost instantly. Isabel heard her husband’s voice, hoarse and strained. ”

“ The EX-HUSBAND
By JOHN FLEMING WILSON
HENRY ELLERY believed in “driving ’em,” to use his own pet phrase. And most successful he had been, from the time he picked up the bankrupt Western Rope & Twine Company and by main strength made it a power in the business world, to his latest triumph, the jamming of the common stock of the California Freight & Packet Line from a despised 26 to a proud 320. It was his own boast that he was neither a speculator nor a stock-manipulator.
“I get results by keeping my eye on every dollar invested and every man hired and seeing to it that they pay dividends. ”

“ The rising nor’wester lifted the gray blanket of vapor in billows. The bay appeared sparkling in the great bowl made by the hills, and the twin headlands of the Golden Gate stood forth on either beam. ”

“ The mate nodded. “The cold is bad enough,” he told her, “But the worst is having Chinese for’ard. Between you and me, the engines aren’t up to the strain that’s being put on them, and in case of a breakdown, we sha’n’t have much time to handle this old packet in, if we’re to keep from being swept. And a Chinaman wont come out of his warm bunk unless you kick him out.”
“I see,” she murmured. “Captain Griffiths feels he ought to be on the bridge all the time to help the watch-officer in case anything happens.” ”

“ They began to blow on California Freight & Packet Line’s house of cards.
“Stop!” said Ellery hoarsely. “You’ve got it wrong! You’re going to help me out and double your fortunes.”
They did. Thereafter men and newspapers spoke respectfully of “Ellery stocks.”
“A wizard who never fails!” people said.
“Never,” the grizzled Henry muttered to himself, and he sent for Malcolm Griffiths, husband of his daughter and only child.
“Griffiths,” he said, “let’s get down under the paint. You aren’t a success as Isabel’s husband.” ”

“ As it is, we’re due for a stiff passage.”
“I fancy the Cymric doesn’t mind bad weather,” she replied lightly.
The chief scraped his lean jaw with broken nails. “No-o-o,” he drawled. “She was built right in the first place. But she’s old, and she hasn’t been kept up to the mark. Repairs haven’t cost much. And a Chinese crew doesn’t exactly keep a steamer fit. To tell the truth, if it weren’t I knew Cap’n Griffiths of old, I’d hate to look forward to the home, what with gales, thick weather, bad loading, old gear, rotten coal and a crew of Orientals. So many things happen to old ships.” ”

“ Ellery continued, “—a mere girl in every way. She mustn’t have her whole life spoiled because of a childish mistake.”
“I still think it is her business,” was the reply.
“Is that so?” Ellery responded with a swift change of tone. “Well, I’m tired of her having to do it all. Listen, young man: You were a young master of a steamer when you met her and married her. That’s all you were. You had nothing in the way of property, prospects or natural advantages that could save you from the charge of marrying Isabel for her fortune.”
Griffiths flushed and interrupted firmly: “You forget Isabel. ”

“ Isabel laughed gayly. “You told me yourself nobody ought to count a thing worth while unless it paid dividends.”
OUTSIDE the offices Isabel stopped Malcolm in the middle of the crowded pavement.
“Brave boy!”
“Whew!” he said. “I barely stuck it out. Hardest job of my life, my dear! To make out I wouldn’t—”
“Sh-h-h!” She laid a pink finger on his lips, regardless of the passers-by, who slowed their pace in open admiration. “Now we can buy the Cymric and be happy. Let’s go right over and see her!”
Malcolm laughed and tucked the stumps of his arms deeper into his pockets. “My dearest! ”

“ He dropped it, ran out, and it being pitch dark, grabbed the bridge-rail with his bare hands. The mate got the most of the sailors locked up in the fo’e’s’le and got back to the wheel just as the old steward did for the wheelsman and his relief. Now the skipper wants to know if we can handle our fellows till morning.”
“I reckon we can,” she heard the third reply slowly. “If he can stand the watch topside, you say?”
“I think he'll last till morning,” the chief answered doubtfully. “But if it reaches the Cap’n’s heart, well—”
Isabel sat up quickly. ”