Part 34 (1/2)
”But why?”
”Why, why?” He sat up. The pa.s.senger could see the thick, dark eyebrows draw together. ”Why? Why anything? What would you do?”
”Forget it.”
”Forget it. But can you?--everything? No--you betcher you can't. And it's every man to his own cure. Some I know get drunk and fight. And some I know who get drunk and cry. Some worry their friends to death, and some others beat their wives. Every man to his way. I have no wife”--he laughed softly--”and I want to keep my friends. So I run my heart out in races and beat up bully bosons, and fight bulls--when I can.”
”But when you can't?”
”When I can't? Why, when I can't, I lay out on the fo'c's'le head and bay up at a two-horned moon.”
The pa.s.senger turned and looked down. ”Thank your G.o.d, Kieran,” he said, ”you can laugh when you say that.”
The pump-man's smile died away. ”Maybe I'm thanking G.o.d,” he said softly, ”for more than that.”
BOOKS BY JAMES B. CONNOLLY
PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
OPEN WATER
A collection of new stories of the same type--breezy, fresh, vigorous--as those in his earlier books.
Some are of Gloucester fishermen, some of the men of the navy, some of the smugglers--in all such is the smack of the salt-laden wind; the rattle and creak of s.h.i.+ps' tackle; the dull boom of pounding surf, or the hissing crash of the breakers. But there are the other stories of sport and adventure ash.o.r.e of which Mr. Connolly has shown his complete mastery.
THE CRESTED SEAS
”Tales of daring and reckless deeds which make the blood run quicker and bring an admiration for the hardy Gloucester men who take their lives in their hands on nearly every trip they make. There are Martin Carr and Wesley Marrs and Tommy Clancy, and others of the brave crew that Connolly loves to write about.”--_Chicago Post_.
”The author knows how to make them real and how to carry them through moving and thrilling scenes with unconscious heroism and often with equally unconscious dry drollery.”--_The Outlook_.
OUT OF GLOUCESTER
With ill.u.s.trations by M.J. BURNS and FRANK BRANGWYN
”Mr. Connolly has a touch of gay humor in his narratives. He knows his sea and his sailors well. He understands how to bring dramatic power and effect into a story.”--_Congregationalist_.
”This new volume of six stories of ocean adventure will strengthen Mr.
Connolly's reputation as the best delineator of the actual life of our New England deep-sea fishermen that has yet appeared.”--Boston _Journal_.