The Argosy, April 1912 — page 49: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AS THE DICE FELL. safety on the helmsman’s wise hand, I will do all I can, for my own sake, to protect oi ‘““A great man!” muttered Errol. great man!” “T thank you right humbly, sir,” quoth I, blushing violently and deeply gratified at the praise. ‘““T refer to Smith,” he snapped, and his words were like a dash of ice-cold water. T3 Oh t >P) : “To Smith. ’Tis a wise choice. will guard her and make her happy.” “What are you trying to say?” I de- manded, vaguely uneasy. “What is a ‘wise choice’? And—” “My consent to Captain John Smith’s plea for Dorcas. Has the lass not told vou?” I could not answer. I stood, mouth agape, staring dully at him. ‘Twas yesterday,” prattled on the old man, “that Captain Smith broached the _topic to me. It seems my lass has found favor in his eyes. She—” I interrupted with a wordless gurgle of horror that I prudently changed to a cough. He went on: “Captain Smith told me he intends to settle down for life here, as colonist and planter. He wishes to marry, and Dorcas is a winsome lass, though I, her father, do say it. Captain Smith made full courteous request for her, and I granted it.” “But she?” I blurted out, trembling. “What of her? Does she consent to such—” “Master Clyde,” reproved Errol, “in my home I have ever been master, and ever shall be. My daughter has been tra:ned since birth to obey. I did not ask her con- sent. I gave it. And she, as a dutiful daughter, realizes that I have acted for her best and highest interests.” Still I stared at him, wordless, dum- founded. ‘There was a roaring in my ears as my beautiful air-castles fell in frag- ments about me. Oddly enough, in all my thirty-six years no other woman had ever touched my heart until I had met Dorcas Errol. She was the ideal which my heart had craved. And now, I knew full well, through all the black years to come, all other women would be to me as shadows. Once more had mine enemy, Smith, scored against me. And this time with a blow that took all the joy out of life for me. 66 A He 35 I could not speak. I turned on my heel and walked away, my heart as heavy as lead. At a flat, marsh-bordered slope of green we landed. Here our colony was to be founded. Smith would gladly have sought the higher, healthier ground farther up the river, but he was overruled by force of. numbers. After months of sailing, the. colonists would not hear of wasting more time in voyaging. To them the site of our colony seemed fair and healthful enough. And here, in the early summer of 1607, was sown the seed that was to blossom into the first’ permanent colony in North America. There were dozens of fantastic names suggested for our embryo settlement, but at length Smith’s own suggestion was adopted, and, in honor of England’s king, the place was called by us “ Jamestown.” Scarce were the ship-loads of adventur- ers landed when they went apparently mad. Some were for rushing straight off through the hostile, trackless forests, west- ward, toward the Pacific Ocean. It was commonly reported in those days that the Pacific’s shores were yellow with pure gold. Thither the adventurers resolved to go at once. ‘They seemed to fancy that the Pacific was at most a half-day’s journey westward from Jamestown. Others snatched up spades and mattocks and eagerly began to dig in the soft, black waterside earth, tearing each clod of dirt apart with shaking fingers, in search of gold nuggets. Still others pointed at the yellow waters of the great river and learnedly declared that the quantities of gold along its banks gave it that aureate hue. Gold! Gold! Gold! Go.p! That was all the crack-brained idiots thought of, talked of, dreamed of. It pos- sessed their souls like a frantic mania. When one of them dug up a few shiny particles of mica the rest actually drew — knives in rabid dispute over their posses- sion, deeming the bright stuff gold dust. Yes, it 1s true, all of it. And I have not told one-tenth. Such were the men on whom we relied to build a lasting colony here; to settle and to populate the New World. : Around them were miles of black forests, alive with savage beasts, and with far more (CO chook CO