Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1925)

MARCH 1925 Picture s and Picture puer v her sister's happiness with the man they both loved that she was making mm this forlorn effort to — Gain him? Or — capture him ? IWIeantime, old Captain Ferguson and * a friend of the family, Alice Masters, had taken Colin aside in the schoolroom and were whispering a secret in his ear. " Later in the evening, Colin, the Committee's goin' for to present you with a silver medal for your bravery !" "What!" " Fact ! We thought you'd like to be warned in time." Colin crept away to think about this terror that was to come to him. And then in a flash he recalled the new uniform that he had seen Emma making. It had seemed nearly complete. Supposing .he were to slip back and see and put it on and come back and have his fine silver medal pinned on his new uniform at its first wearing? That would please Molly ! He looked round. Nobody was observing him in the throng. Without further hesitation he pushed back the door and slipped out. It was no more than a quarter of an hour's drive to the Thatcher house. He unhitched the buggy and slipped away in the darkness, but with a swift glance at the darkening sky, where fierce clouds were now scurrying across the moon. When he came to the cottage and tethered the pony to a stoop he felt the first drop of rain patter on the cabbage leaves. He hurried indoors. Emma swung round from the mirror and met his astonished gaze calmly. " Emma !" he cried. " Colin I" " Wh) -" lu Mood aa one b fixed Emma I But hi Qised her. This WM a BOW kiiima — a yea .1 beautiful Emma ! Etc took .1 pace forward hesitantly. " You look — beautiful ! 1 — Hut . . ." " My beauty ia for you," .sin aaid, looking him full in the eye*. " For me?" "Don't you see? Are you blind? Who is it stays behind while you join in the fun — who is it stays behind always — for you? Doing things for you . . . Colin! Don't you see? I love you ! I — 1 am yours ! And — you are mine !" Suddenly she flung her arms round his neck. " Kiss me, Colin," she whispered. " But . . ." He turned for relief to a great sound that at that moment rent the heavens. " What was that?" "Thunder — a storm," she said chokingly. "What of it? There has been a storm in my bosom these many weeks. Did you care for that? Kiss me, I say !" He kissed her. Before the fury of her passion he seemed to have lost his will. fVitside the storm fell on the little ^-^ community with a fury almost personal. Somewhere out in the frightful torment of the sea, a little red light shot up into the heavens, there to burst, and almost simultaneously a dull red glow shone whence it had come. The alarm ! A ship on fire ! Somebody, running up the main street, burst into the schoolroom and spread the news. At once the dancing ceased and the dancers raced out into the open, 4 single blow from Weaver put him out of the fight for good. Yes, there it was' A quarter of a mile out and burttillf rapidly And the .. hell. If anything war* to be done, it BUM l>< dour soon arid swi!ll>. The nembera oi the Fire Patrol began t) angle each other out Mom the molj and to line up at the tide oi the road. Then a cry arose. " Where s Colin .'" Notw)(ly knew. A hnel search was made — there was in* time for more — then the boata put out without him. But Colin was not the laj^ard somethere thought. Emma too had heard the signal of distress and had sent him to his duty. But the fury of the gale had startled his pony, and when he reached the stoop beside the gate of the Thatcher cottage it was only to find to his consternation that both animal and buggy were missing. But though he ran as he had never run before, by the time he reached the harbour all was over. The survivors had been brought ashore and were being tended by the villagers. Over one, an elderly seaman who had been battered badly by the storm, Molly was bending, tending his injuries. And then from somewhere on the fringe of the crowd an ugly cry arose. " Coward !" Colin swung round, his cheeks flaming; and he was just about to account for his absence, when it dawned on him that his secret was someone else's as well, and could not be told without that someone's permission. He bit his lip and turned away and let the cry of coward go echoing after him. There was one there, at least, who had no thought for the petty local spites and ooinions; and this was the elderly seaman who, at Molly's hands, was being speedily brought back to comfort in a sheltered corner of the beach. For some time he had been staring at his nurse with undisguised admiration ; now he spoke. " My lordy, miss, but you're a beauty ! I seen some women I'll say, you're the peach of the bunch. Come now, give an old sailor man a kiss. " Just one, now. 'Tis plain you don't know the man you're speakin' to, missie. I never take ' No ' for an answer." Suddenly old blind Captain Ferguson forced his way through the press and bent over the speaker. "Who are you?" he demanded. " What might your name be?" " Me?" said the sailor. " Why, Dan Weaver's my name." "Weaver?" "Aye." "Then I'm sorry, Dan Weaver. I thought for the moment you were someone else. I'm blind, you know, and have fo go by voices." " Who might you have been thinkin' I was?" Weaver asked. But the blind man shook his head.