41 Lure O Gold 1904

"
The Lure o
Gold
palpitation of the heart; but the Modesto is
church. *
steady as a
"
No doubt of it, sir,"
said I, with a slight feeling of
duplicity, for I was mentally making
allowances for
the Doctor s strong attachment to his steamer, which I
had heard at least one marine man along the San Fran
cisco water front refer to as
the crankiest old tub on
the Pacific." But men who sail often in a vessel are
likely to come to have a strong affection for her,
and
the Doctor s remarks about his ship seemed quite
natural to me, and full of a laudable loyalty.
The Doctor took his pipe from his bag and, lighting
it,
proceeded nearly to stifle me with prodigious clouds
of tobacco smoke, which soon filled that close little
room. When, at last, after much polite repression, I
choked and coughed, he laid aside his pipe, ceased his
yarning about his ship and raised the window sash about
two inches from the bottom.
"A
sanitary measure," he remarked, but I doubt if
he would have admitted even that small allowance of
oxygen (such is the contradictory nature of some of the
wise gentlemen who have the world s health in charge)
had I not shown signs of approaching asphyxiation.
"Very sorry you re sailing to-morrow, John. What
[20]