ide the Presidio Government Reservation. Condy asked a direction of a sentry nursing his Krag-Jorgensen at the term

ull of the smell of grass and of the sea. The sky was a speckless sheen of pale blue. To their right, and not far off, was the bay, blue as indigo. Alcatraz seemed close at hand; bey

of head-stalls and bridles, whistling the while or smoking corn-cob pipes. Here on the parade-ground a soldier, his coat and vest removed, was batting grounders and flies to a half-dozen of his fellows. Over by the stables, strings of horses, all of the same color, were being curried and cleaned. A young li

e Golden Gate. Here they would turn and follow the shore-line for a way, then strike inland across the hills for a short half-mile, and regain the city and the street-car lines

at his side, her step as firm and solid as his own, her round, strong arms swinging, her little brown eyes shining with good spirits and vigor, and the pure, clean animal joy of being alive on that fine cool Western morning. She talked almost incessantly. She was positively garrulous. She talked about the f

glances at a great ship-a four-master that was being towed out toward the Golden Gate. At every moment

k, B

dy, look

held on down through the low reach of tules and sand-dun

t building down there on the shore of

must be the li

down and visit it. I th

exclaime

d the fort, and cross a few hundred yards of sand-dune. Condy opened the gate that broke the line of ev

ed with loam in which fuchsias, geraniums, and mignonettes were flowering. A cat or two dozed upon the window-sills in the sun. Upon a sort of porch overhead, two of the crew paced up and down in a manner that at once suggested the poop. Here and there was a gleam of highly polished

a blue sweater and a leather-visored cap, wit

d a situation. Speech was stricken from their mouths. For a moment they were bereft even of action, and stood there on the threshold, staring open-mouthe

explained, "and we thought we'd like to see th

"Come right in. This is visitors' day. You just happened to

dent the Captain did not recognize them. The situation readjusted itself, even promised to be of extraord

ften, and we're not called out very often, either. We're an inside post, you see, and usually we don't get a call unless the sea's so high that the Cliff House station can't launch their boat. So, you see, we don't go out much,

Condy, "and this is Miss Bess

tain Jack. I'm so used to it that I don't kind of answer to the other. Well, now, Miss Bessemer, this here's the surf-boat; she's sel

ptain Jack explained and illustrated, and told them anecdotes of wreck

the story-teller so often tells of but so seldom finds, and w

no matter for conscience in the smuggling of Chinamen across the Canadian border at thirty dollars a head-a venture in which he had had the assistance of the prodigal son of an American divine of international renown. The trade to Peruvian insurgents of condemned rifles was to be regretted only because the ring manipulatin

ief expedition; had captained a crew of Chinamen shark-fishing in Magdalena Bay, and had been nearly murdered by his men; had been a deep-sea diver, and had burst his ear-drums at the business, so that now he could blow tobacco smoke out of his ears; he had been shipwrecked in the Gilberts, fought with the Seris on the lower California Islands, sold champagne-made from rock candy, effervescent salts, and Reisling

kept back something in the hand for myself and hooked it to San Francisco. Strike me straight if she didn't follow me, that iron-jored piece; met me on

e- lonesome? I should think you would want to have some one

nd thinking only of possible storie

on, I should think this station would be pretty

t, his hands in his pockets, "I'm lying low just now. I got into a scrape down at Libertad, i

her elbows on her knees, leaning forward, her little eyes fixed and shining with interest and expectation; Condy, the story-teller all alive an

shore within ear-shot, in that atmosphere redolent of paint and oakum and of seaweed

Captain Jack, continued the management of the restaurant pending a settlement of the proprietor's affairs and an appearance of heirs; how in the confusion and excitement of the boom no settlement was ever made; and how, no heirs appearing, he assumed charge of the

nds, men of hyphenated names and even noble birth, whose appellations were avowedly aliases. He told them of his meeting with Billy Isham, one of the club's directors, and of the happy-go-lucky, reckless, unpractical character of the man; of their acquaintance, intimacy, and subsequent partnership; of how the filibustering project was started with Captain Jack's f

called himself Gaston Maundeville, and was clean daft on his knowledge of Shakespeare and his own power of interpretin' the hidden meanin' of the lines. I ain't never going to forgit the day he gave us Portia's speech. We were just under the tropic, and the day was a scorcher. There was mostly men folk aboard, and we lay around the deck in our pajamas, while Billy-Gaston Maundeville, dressed in striped re

, and spilled wine with spilled blood. He told them of Isham's knife duel with the Mexican lieutenant, their left wrists lashed together; of the "battle of the thirty" in

's face was flaming, his hands were cold, and he was shifting h

at a yarn!" he exclaim

k upon the upturned box, looking around her as

publics along the South American coast, and things happen to you. You hold a man's life in the crook of your forefinger, an' nothing's done by halves.

want to do anything else. Why, you're living sixty

the Captain. "I got a few schemes

hlessly. "Why don't you get a ship right away-to-

e smoke from his cigarette through his ears. "There's a go