Pittston Gazette

              V •  R*TA.UI,ISHKJDIH50. C Vol.. XLVll. JSO. 14 ( Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE 00., PA., FRIDAY. DECEMBER 18, 1896. A Week'y Local and Fam ily Journal. r*18£RIB8 naa Dortnea tnem Deiow their natural moorings, and yon wondered how he saw out of two such holes. His legs had been arched hy years of the heaving plank. He wore the; tall hat of the .London streets, and this was his headgear whether in the roaring gale of the Horn or the roasting calm of the dol- though an oozy accent—"great fields of solitude need accentuation to the eye A single object achieves this. A lonely wreck furnishes the imagination with a starting point for measuring the prodigious distances of the ocean." Mr. Storr stand stupiuiy for a fur ther explanation. One man plucked a pipe from the soar that formed his mouth and answered no. ed, sir," said Captain Benson to iL« second mate, who, knowing where to look, ran down the companion steps, lie was instantly followed by the superintendent and his assistant. " • f.noxew PIRATE? WilECKW THE. ORGS V£«eR? GHT.I896. BvTHtAuTHim. By this time the new arrival, grasping his portmanteau, had walked aft to Captain Benson, vigilantly and distrustfully eyed by several of the male passengers as he went Indeed they followed him and hung close to catch what passed. You could almost read by the light of the moon. The stranger's figure and face were as determinable as daylight. He was rather short and lated passengers overtaking vessels in small boats and otherwise,"' answered the second mate, looking aft to see if the captain was on deck. "Pray," said Mr. Hankey in a very airy, gentlemanly tone, undressing the mate, Mr. Matthews, "where does Mr. Poole, the second mate, dine?" "Short handed by how mauy?" asked Mr. Davenire. "By as many as we are," answered the other man. "What would the cutter charge for such a job?" Ho spoke its though he had been an actor in his day. "Here, when the others have finished and I have gone on deck," answered the mate. Captain Benson remained 011 deck. The passengers talked in whispers. The sensation was profound. Mr. Mark Davenire and another went stealthily to the skylight and peered down. Their ears seemed to enlarge as they strained them. It was about 11 o'clock in the morning. The sun was shining with a strong heat, and there was a sense as of being in harbor with that tug lying close alongside panting in her heart The blue water slopped noisily between the two vessels as they rolled at each other, and Mr. Burn, leaning over the rail, seemed able to forget what was going forward in the ship in laughing at the tug's helmsman, whose thin shape shot out of a pair of compasses into a mere pellet of head, a mere rope of onions, the least on top. "How's the salt beef in these parts?" asked Captain Trollope, lighting a "A hundred sovereigns, every penny, and perhaps a heavy consideration on top if the chase was successful.'' The ship's head was now fair for the open, and they were making sail upon her as fast as they could set it. There is no prettier sight than that of such a bark as this getting under way and slowly whitening the blue with the light of her canvas. The topsails fall, tho yards are hoisted, topgallant sails swell as their clews slide to tho yardarms, the fore course arches its foot of snow; beyond are the jibs, tremorless as the wings of tho poiBed albatross, arching to the fishing rod end of the flying jib boom. The whole fabric is clothed. She floats In beauty, gay with the lights of the day. A delicate line of pearl, lustrous us the inside of a shell, trembles from her cutwater along her metal sheathing and goes away in a little wake, whose extremity invited many an eye aboard this ship to the delicious sweetness of the island studded bay they were leaving. druinB. Captain Trollope glanced at Mr. Burn through his glass, and then tnrned his head with a smile which his mustache effectually hid. Others, such as Mr. Davenire, Mr. Caldwell—a dark faced, black bearded, Jewish looking man— and one or two others also listened with an air of faint amusement "I came out with that gentleman in the Golden Ball," said Mr. Hankey. "He was third mate of her. I should say a better sailor never jockeyed, a yardarm.'' "Ain't got to it yet. Had fresh messes so fur,'' answered one of them. _ cigar. "All for what?" said Mr. Hankey, looking at Mr. Murray, who stood alone right aft staring at the whale. rather slim and wore long whiskers of a pale yellow. He was very white, and his dark eyes glistened in their settings as he rolled them round upon the people. "I do" believe," whispered Mr. Dent to his wife while he bobbed bis head with intent eyes at the man, "that he's James Murray." "I have known a Harness cask," said Mr. Hankyy, staring at the two men by the moomight betwixt his hard, black whiskers,r'breed the bloodiest mutiny that was lever heard of at sea. I say, Davenire, Jthink of the spirit of murder lying picl/led in a barrel of beef! What romance/hunter would seek for the fiend there? (But I'll tell you what," said he, stepping upclose to the two astonished seamen, "when the sheath knife's too blunt to fashion a tobacco jar or even a comb for a sweetheart out of the beef that's served to men to nourish them and to give them bone, heart and hands for the halyards and the handspike, why"— he broke off with a theatrical laugh and rounding on hiB heel sauntered aft, watched by the brnce of Jacks till he was out of sight on the poop. "Hal" said the second mate. "And one little portmanteau," said Mr. Hankey. "That's a good expression," said Mr. Matthews, smiling slowly. "But there's such a plenty of land about," continued Mrs. Storr, who was evidently gratified by the attention she appeared to be receiving from most of the gentlemen, "and still that open boat makes the sea look more lonely thun a moor by moonlight, with the arm of a gibbet dangling a dead man over tho snow." "Oh, that would be nothing, sir, when a man's in a hurry." "Do you smell anything like a rat?" said Mr. Hankey. "Were you ever at sea professionally?" inquired the surgeon. CHAPTER 1. the bark C?uekn. the guarriboat to keep a watch through the night." "Ask no questions of a man who has "Do you mean the manager of the such and such a bank?" said she, giving it its name. One moonlight night two men stood at the extremity of a point of laud that jotted into the block ripple of Sydney bay. The moon rode high and rained a light that floated in the air in a mist of splendor; the vision was overwhelmed by the brilliance; the dark shore on either hand the spn» wfierc the two men stood sank into visionary streaks a little distance from them, and looking across Sydney bay was like being at sea. "She has just passed," said one. sought luck in Australia," answered Hankey with a bland smile and a bow. The second mate's grin instantly disappeared on his catching sight of the captain. Muttering to himself "By gosh!" he walked aft, touching his cap to the captain, whom he thus addressed:"A six oared arrangement in charge of a corustalker in buttons. She saw my boat hanging on the bark's quarter and hailed. The second mate looked over and said it was all right, I was his friend and was not to be troubled •Would they fall in with moftfflrtling ashore." Here the black, Jewish looking man named Caldwell broke in: B.v this time Captain Benson appeared to have recognized him. "I did not receive much encouragement when I carrf« out. They told me that last voyage the sou of a baronet, whose father lived in a mansion in Hyde park, had sailed as saloon passenger for the gold rush. The ship arrived and was within a day or two of her sailing for England full up with wool, when the midshipman at the gangway saw a scarecrow crawl over the side. It touched the remains of its hat, its rag? fluttered, its face was of a beastly yel low and hollow with famine and suffer iug. 'Don't you remember mo?' it sighed. The midshipman, who was without sentiment, said no. The scarecrow named himself. He was the baronet's son. He had been knocking about for three months, had found no gold, could get no food, had pawned himself down to his socks and had come to bog a passage home. They took pity on the poor devil and gave him an understeward's berth; that is, he was not even thought good ehough to wait at the table at which he had formerly sat. He had to take the dirty dishes forward to the galley and wash them. Those were encouraging yarns to a man liko me." "Why, you're Mr. Murray,ain't yon?" "That'8 my name, captain. And if you will step apart I'll give you my reason for desiring to sail in this ship to England and my excuse for becoming a passenger in an irregular way." This vigorous imuge seemed greatly to impress Mr. Burn, whose hands plied his little mustache with a sudden vehe- "There's a steamer's smoke right astern of us, sir.'' "This state of suspense is dreadful," whispered Miss Mansel to Mr. Shannon. "What will they do to the wretched man?" "There's no mistake, I hope,"said the gentleman who slightly lisped, "a* to its being safely on board?" mence. The captain sheltered bis eyes with his hand. "There's, an open boat right under tho bow, sir," shouted tho mate from the forecastle. "What does he want to say?" muttered Captain Trollope to Mr. Davenire. "Put him in chains," answered the ship's surgeon, who stood near. The Circular qua; bad not been built in those days. Ships lay moored in creeks, and here and there yon caught a glimpse as of a thundercloud of mast and spar interlaced and knitted into deep shadow, in places touched into silver gleams. In the bay the riding lightsof ships winked against the flooding moonlight weak as fireflies. "Poole, when the champagne mounted, bragged of it," was the reply. " Only think,' said the man, laying a hand upon my arm with a silly grin, 'even Anson's Jack Spaniards went ragged in comparison with us.' 'Bah,' said L 'It's a horrible big trust, though,' said he. 'If some of our pier head jumpers get the breeze of it, wo may need to polish our irons.' I asked him in a dawdling, sleepy way, looking at the moonlight on the water as if I could think of nothing but the poetry of this romantic scene"—the gentleman with the lisp here interrupted with a luugh— "where they stowed the thing for the best safe keeping of it? 'Oh, confound it,' he answerod, 'I ought to know, for i had the handling of it It's in a strong room, specially built, just abaft the mainmast, in the main hold. The wool's snugged ail around it. A stupid blunder in the packing,' said he, while I filled his glass, 'for suppose spontaneous combustion, the wool glowing under battened hatches, and tho ship living for days, as ships do live in such a state, and then making port Why,' cried h«, emptying bis glass, 'it would be all liquor, and we'd be pumping it oat along with the water.' " "1 believe I see it, sir," said he, and he looked at the faint blue film through a telescope. Some of the passengers were well worth observing. They play a large part in this traditionary and remarkable history of the sea, and a few of them may bo introduced at once while the bark is making for the Heads. A man is leaning over the low brass rail that protects the poop from the fall of the quarter deck. He pulls a heavy bhick mustache while be seems to be gazing ahead. He would be an extremely handsome man if it were not that be has a most pronounced turn up nose. His looks are manly, his air frank, he is broadly built and stands about six feet You would judpe that he had nerved in the army by his posture, even as he leaned. A sailor, when he leans, sprawls from breech to heels and the rest is as ilack as his shirt collar. On the other baud, a soldier never lounges. "Is one small portmanteau all his luggage for England?" answered the other. "The brutality of it!" exclaimed Mr. Shannon with a face that was suddenly dark with passion. "Did yon ever see a chain gang?" As the boat glided by a strange murmur from the ship accompanied her. She was a wlialeboat, had probably belonged to a foreign whaler, and in the bottom of her lay two dead men, one with his teeth in the throat of tho other, as though, wanting a knife or too feeble to use one, he hud sought in his agony to quench his thirst thus. It was just about then that the chief mute, who was iu charge of the watch, uttered an exclamation, and at the same moment a rocket was distinctly observed to explode some considerable distance astern. A little later the steady glare of a port Are showed, and this was followed by another and yet another rocket. The second mate walked forward. "What's the old man looking at?" said Captain Trollope, rising to the height of the ladder and addressing Mr. Poole. "I think I recognize an acquaintance," exclaimed Mr. Murray, and he extended his hand to Mr. Dent, lifting his hat at the same time to the colonial merchant's wife. The girl with a shudder answered that she had seen men on railway platforms in England linked together and that had been a sight that sickened her. Mr. Shannon was about to speak when he caught a look from Captain Trollope. It was a look of menace, almost of fury. It had but the life of an instant. Next breath the tall, soldierly looking man "There's a steamer coming up astern," answered the second mate Rhortly. His duty asao officer in charge forbade him from conversing with the passengers. Captain Trollope descended the ladder in quick recoil and said in a hoarse, low, eager voice, "There's a steamer coming after us." On which every man knocked his pipe out and went on to the poop. A ship rode opposite the men. She was perhaps three-quarters of a mile distant, easily to be distinguished an a handsome little barb, with all her sea gear rove and her sails stowed, as though jast arrived or shortly departing. The men looked at her while they quietly conversed. Past ber this moment there went floating, dim as a column of vapor, a largo ship, newly arrived from the old country. In a few miuutes she broke up tbo silence in the bay by the roar of iron linkH swept through iron, and by the hallooing and bawling of men as the sails melted in the moonlight iuto wreaths and festoons delicate as vapor. "Get way upon the ship, Mr. Matthews, " said Captain Benson. And with little courtesy or ceremony he said, "Step below, sir." But it was a sigiit common enough at sea. There are few who have used the ocean who cannot speak of it as something they have seen or suffered. How should any man but a sailor understand such things? Most of the ladies bid their faces and recoiled from the rail. Home of the gentlemen turned pale, and Mr. Burn looked sick. But it was for the rude hearts forward to givo the truo signification of the thing that had now circled iuto the wake, tumbling in its ghastly loneliness upon the waters broken by the ship's passage. Of what did not it speak? The long nights, the burnug days it told of, the empty breaker, the glazing eye, the phantasm of a cold valley, so sweet with the musical babble of running rivulets, that the froth at the lip of tho deluded wretch flakes afresh. "That's from the little craft that was hanging astern this afternoon," said the captain to the mate. Mr. Murray, picking up his portmanteau, followed the white haired skipper down the companion steps. Captain Trollope and one or two others lurked in a heedless, offhand way roundabout tho open skylight, through which they were able to look straight down into the cuddy. But Captain Benson and Mr. Murray sat out of earshot at the head of the table, where the captain's chair was. The old man fastened his deep set, searching eyes upon his companion, who was certainly pale and agitated. But then, to be sure, the situation he had placed himself in was an extraordinary one. He was a man of about 40, and, pulling down one of his long, yellow, flowing whiskers, be spoke thus: "She must be signaling us, sir. There's nothing else iu sight." seemo4 to be listening at the companionway at what was passing below. "What could she want with us? Has a mailbag been omitted? Another rocket! Bring the ship to, sir, and let us see what's wrong there." All of a sudden up rushed Poole, the second mate. Extraordinary interest was manifested in the smoke astern by many of the gentlemen passengers. They did not trouble the captain with questions, but talked apart. Mr. Murray, on the other hand, had been a little importunate till the captain gave his arm to a lady and marched away. He had wanted to know if she was likely to prove a steamer from any other Australian port than Sydney, or was she a man-cf-war? Was it conceivable that sbe was bringing more passengers for the clipper? He looked anxious and about ten years older than when at breakfast. Captain Trollope, Davenire and one or two others of the set viewed him curiously. "Where's the doctor?" he shouted. " Here,'' answered the ship's surgeon. "You're wanted, sir!" The surgeon ran after the mate into the cuddy. The captain's teak colored face betwixt its fringe of white hairs took a resolved, hard weather look. He walked apart from the passengers, and strode in short excursions beside the wheel, guessing a fatality and awaiting its report. This was done amid somo excitement on tho part of the passengers. Even now in these the first few hours of their departure from port the monotony of the deep was felt. Hore was to be a picture by moonlight—a pursuit all the way from Sydney harbor, something more to look at and think of than the white splendor flowing to the bows. A little distance from him, but not apparently acquainted with the man, stood another, with a broken military cut. This person was of medium height, with strong whiskers shooting with an air of briskness into their own blackness. He, too, was good looking, straight nosed, had a well bred air, a He was about to add something, but choked the words down with a glass of wine. The conversation prospered after this. Mr. Caldwell's anecdote set tho others chatting. Those who had looked somewhat uskance at one another now fell into talk, and the captain found himself at the head of a tableful of people who promised, on the whole, to form an agreeable and sociable party. There was some reference to gold. It was 10 o'clock. Some chimes came in faint strains from Sydney town. They were caught np by the chips' bolls, and a pretty noise of tinkling, with clearer, deeper, nearer notes from some throats of metal up the creek,,past the men, trembled in a fairy music across the waters. Here and then; upon the breast of the Lay crept some little, shadow of a boat, framed iu a dim glitter of phosphor that would haie Imm n a bright light bad the moon been nark. Scarcely had the last of ti e fhip.C' hells rung out 10 o'clock when a noise of oars "Aft here, my lada, and round in on the main braces! Put your helm a-starboard."What was the doctor wanted for? the passengers wondered. Had Murray stabbed himself—shot himself? No; they'd have heard the report of a pistol in that scene of deck subdued by alarm and expectation, while on high all was still but for now and again the gull-like ory of a suddenly jerked block. "Sho is a lovely sight in this light," said the man named Trollope, bis voice softening as his eyes went to the little bark. "It waB in 6uch another as she that 1 came out at a shilling a month. She could pile it to the cathead to a song of 13 knots in a topgallant breeze. Yet there's something yonder," said be, with a nod of his head across the bay, ' 'that could give her a tow rope and not know it." "It was only at the last moment. Captain Benson—when, in short, it was too late to book a passage in your ship— that I received a letter from London requiring my immediate presence at oar office there. It concerns some enormous piece of rascality, and I am the only one m the Australian employ who can help them." There was nothing to be read in the old skipper's face as ho put the glass down. Mr. Dent, looking at the white haired seaman with something of a determined manner, as though he summoned resolution to his utterance, exclaimed: "I wish we hadn't fallen iu with thnt boat. It's an unlucky sign to stumble over a corpse on tho threshold of a journey." And amid somo stamping, harmonized by song, tho ship was brought to the wind, and Mrs. Peacock, who watched the movements of the uien from the side of Mrs. Storr, on gazing up at the heavens beheld with astonishment that the moon had changed her position. "Who knows the latest value of the nugget?" said Mr. Davenire, the big man with the bright waistcoat and sil ver chain. "I don't think," says Trollop*) to Caldwell in a low, mysterious voice, "that he'd fire a magazine as an alternative. " Mr. Storr, standing beside the companion batch, faintly cried "Good heavens!" and made a quick step out of the way. In fact, the companion ladder was then full of figures rising clumsily with the dead weight of a man's body. There was a general recoil and most of the ladies went hurriedly forward. "Three pun to three pun one per ounce," answered Mr. Dent A group of the male passengers stood together on the quarter and after looking one another in tho face by the bright light talked softly. "We keep too near the cussed country," exclaimed Mr. Hankey, looking at the smoke. "I dare say some point of it is still in sight from the masthead." "Here be comes," said one of them, ■training his eyes in t!*o direction of (be sound under the sharp of bis hand, as though the sun was in the sky. caught the men "It was the story of Hargreaves' discovery that brought me out here," said one of the gentlemen, named Mr. Peter Johnson. "That fellow I mean who up in Bathurst knocked a hundredweight of gold worth £4,000 out of a rock. Good angels, what joy for Hargreaves!" "When did you get this letter?" asked the captain. The three men stood viewing the scene for some minutes in silence. The moonlight was upon them, and their shadows were defined with such amazing sharpness that tbey might have been six men, three sleeping at the other's feet. Trollope began to whistle, then rounded on his heel. "Those bodies are well clear of the ship, sir," answered the captain. "They'll not hurt ypu." "A ship from London arrived last night What's her name again?" "The Magician?" suggested the captain."Gentlemen," said Mr. Storr, joining them, rubbing his hands, ' 'this, I think, promises to be a voyage of excitements." "What can she be?" says the gentleman named Davenire, staring with all his might iuto that part of the sea where the fireworks had shone. "No, no," auswered the other gruffly; "why, Trollope, that noise means a gunwale fall of tholes. You'll not see Hankey till he's here." "Granted," exclaimed one of the passengers wiifa mnail eyes and a lifting yet half concealed sort of grin that made his face loathsome for self complacency. "But the gentleman refers to the sentiment of the thing, not the fact of it I wonder that you, captain, as a sailor, are not superstitious. The trade is the most gullible in the world." By this time the steamer had risen to the height of her boxes, disclosing a lean, dog's eared funnel tb »t vomited a "By Jove, he's killed himself!" said Mr. Davenire. „ "Pshaw! Nothing fur us to trouble about," said Mr. Shannon. "So," said Murray. "If her mails were not late in delivery, at all events my letters did not come to hand until noon. Unfortunately I was out on business. When I returned to the bank and read the commands from London, your Bhip bad started or was about to start. I was determined to take the first ship, and a clipper, and immediately hired the cutter Wooloomooloo to follow yon, giving myself no time to bring off more luggage thaa what you see there," said he, pointing to bis portmanteau. "Did the gold rush bring you out?" said Mr. Masters, languishing across the table as he addressed Miss Mansel. The lifeless body of Mr. James Murray was passed through the companion batch in the triple clutch of the hideous rogue of the black teeth, the superintendent acd the second mate. They put it flat down upon the deck, right in the way of a ray of sunshine that flooded the convulsed face, which looked alive with the movement of the muscles. The surgeon dropped a large silk handkerchief over the dreadful countenance. As the men spoke these words, both of them articulating in accents of refinement, n low, long white boat camo close in out of tbe haze of the moonlight with a man in the stern sheets, who stood up on catching sight of the figures upon the strip of land, apparently staring at them. Yon saw a gleani of buttons on his frock coat, and the six men who were Rowing leisurely on the thwarts were uniformly appareled. "Doocid odd, though, all the same," muttered Captain Trollope; "just out from Sydney and chased all the afternoon. '' black, fat coil of smoke 20 miles long, and one pole mast forward, on which some signals were seen to be flying, but as the colors blew fore and aft they codlfl not be distinguished. There was no doubt now that her business was with the clipper. Indeed, Mr. Dent, after looking at her throngh the telescope, professed to recognize her as the tug Bnngareeof Sydney. A mirage lifted her, and she looked closer than Khe was. But she was splashing after the ship at eight knotP, and the clipper was barely doing five, and presently she was showing her sm:^squab hull fair upon the water, with the figures of men visible on the bridge and flags still streaming at the pole mast, but dumb as a sea tongue through being on end. "How is London looking at tfcis moment, I wonder?" said he. "If all comes off right, it's my home. There's no other place in the world to live in, and I know the world." "I came to better myself as a governess and am driven home again Vy colonial indifference to my few gifts," said the girl, blushing. "Any message for us, d'ye think?" softly exclaimed the hundsome and decayed looking Masters, strolling to the group. The captain looked at the speaker's boots and then aloft at his ship. "I'm off," said the man who had come from the bark. "Shall I scull yon to the steps?" "One and all; one and all!" exclaim ed Captain Trollope. 'Tm off," aaid the man who Duid come "I shan't be able to eat any dinner after that sight," exclaimed Captain Trollope, strolling up to Mr. Storr. "The colonic® are mere rattraps for tfae catchiug of the vermin of the old country," said Mr. Storr. "I'd be glad to see her sink if I thought so," answered Captain Trollope.from the bark. dark eye, quiet and searching. His clothm were indeed too new. They lacked that comeliness of wear which George Eliot commends. Bnt who would notice such a thing in a man going homo from Australia? They got into the little boat, two sitting low in her, and she glided quietly np the creek where some ships were lying. As she vanished the bark's bell struck 5—half past 10. The notes sounded like a flute, and in a minute or two the stillness was broken by a clanging that, to a fancy listening behind closed eyes, might have made a Sabbath morn in England of that Australian night of moon and stars. Ah though to test him, the first dinner bell rang, and even then more than one eye had taken notice of a leaning shaft of brilliant canvas hanging steadily right astern past the boat, with a fullness of cloths and u steadfastness of posture that gave one the idea of pursuit"Is it a fit, sir?" exclaimed Captain Benson, coming along smartly on his rounded Bhanks from his sacred walk near the wheel, both his Ipose arm* jerking with agitation and t&nper. "Oaral" cried the man in the stern aheets. "Many suicides happen in your experience, captain, during your runs home since the gold find?" inquired Mr. Hankey. Here another fellow, with an air of aimlessness, approached the knot of men which had you counted them you would have found ten. On the other side of the deck, where the skipper and mates stood, were the rest of the passengers. Suddenly Captain Trollope, looking round, seemed sensible of the character and quality of tho group he formed one of. "Of course, sir, I pay you your passage money, all the same,as though I had booked at your agent's," continued Murray, pulling out a notebook well lined with sovereigns and Bank of England notes. "The matter is extraordinary, the case quite exceptional. You shall hear all of it as we go along," he continued, pouring out his words with an oily fluency under which the captain's temper was entirely unable to break. "Any cabin forward cr aft will do for me, and of course I pay first class fare. Can I have something to eat now, flir? I am starving." The boat floated to a stand right abreast the creek, into whose yawning month, glooming swiftly out of the silver into dusk, thickened by the luastn and rigging of ships, the man continued to stare for some moments as though in expectation. The two men down on the point where the water came strumming with a guitarliko note in biack "One man died suddenly last voyage, " answered the old skipper. " WC thought it was suicide till the doctor discovered that ardent spirits bad burned up his viscera. Why should a man kill himself," ho continued thoughtfully, looking at Mrs. tiolroyd, "when he has paid his passage and will got home by waiting?" "Poison, sir," said the surgeon. A third gentleman leans against the port rail. His little bine eyes, weak with the damp of drink, are fixed upon Miss Margaret Mangel, who ic talking to Mrs. Holroyd and her daughter on the other side of the deck. He is a biggish man of the fat and rolling sort, yellow haired, with a faint buttercup fluff of mustache, which one hand or the other is forever haunting. These three men were last night standing upon a slip of land in Sydney harbor and admiring the bark by the light of the moon and the scene of the bay under the stars. Who could have guessed by their conversation then that they had booked as passengers by the Quran? "He was too quick for us," said the superintendent, with a surly look at th» corpse. CHAPTER IL THE CHASE. "Did he poison himself?" cried the captain, who unconsciously formed the center of a crescent of passengers with one very white face under Mr. Starr's straw hat. Captain Trollope looked for Mr. Murray. He had disappeared. The passengers dined by the light of a splendid sunset, which streamed through porthole and skylights, glittering jjx-ycriuinon scars in the gleaming furniture of the table and glorifying by one wavering spoke of misty light, the figure of the white headed skipper, for the lamps were already burning so as to take up the evening tale when the sun had gone. "Come, break up!" he whispered, and in a moment the little company dissolved, some joining the ladies, others stepping the deck, others silently overhanging the rail. The bark was luffed till way was almost shaken out of her. It was a moment of great excitement. The chase of the cutter had been nothing compared to it. Twice in 24 hours to be pursued! Old Benson was puzzled. The traditions of the ocean seemed all awry. Three weeks' detention in Sydney harbor through desertion, and now when fairly away to be checked by t. species of pursuit unprecedented in his experience! however, it was clear enough the steamer wanted the ship. The second mate had managed to spell out the flags which, in Marryat's code, signified, "Important; must communicate." watched him. ripples onu\of The bark Queen had been advertised to sail from Sydney three weeks before she filially started. Her detention bad been owing to tbo captain's difficulty in getting men, or keeping those who signed the articles. She was insufficiently manned as it was for a bark of her tonnage in those days of single topsails and liberal labor. "What is that boat?" said them. The superintendent whispered to his ugly mate, who rolled below and returned with the dead man's portmanteau.Nobody seemed disposed to consider tho point, and shortly afterward the whole of the passengers went on deck. "Either tbe harbor guard boat, or she belongs to a man-of-war," answered the other. The passengers were beginning to leave the deck when the captain rose. He called to the steward and surlily bade him find Mr. Murray a bed and provide him wilh some refreshments; thou went on deck. It was five bellshalf past 10. It was now evening, a fine, clear dusk, full of stars, and a moon over the port bow. The breeze bad scanted, yet the sails slept, and the ripples spread out thin as silver harp strings from the bows. The awnings had been furled, and the dew sparkled crisply on rail and binnacle hood. The ocean swept in a measureless shadow to the stars, and more than one passenger, particularly the ladies, shuddered when the company passed through the companionway on deck and found the beauty of the night tragic with the tiny ark of horror that was somewhere astern. Old Captain Benson raised and let fall the night glass to and from his eye with a manner of strong impatience He was uot used to detention of this sort. Ho felt there was nothing distressful in the matter and seemed to find something impudent in a signal that required him to ptop. The night wind was gentle, full of dew. It blew perhaps a four knot breeze, and the old skipper's heart yearned to brace to it. The snow white sails of the main curved stirless to the mast, and there was not swell enough in the ocean to flap as much us the noise of a hand clap from the rest of tho cloths. "What have they got the scent of? On tho track of deserter* perhaps, or keeping a bright lookout on wbat'syonder, eh?" and the speaker nodded in the direction of the bark. "He had come prepared," said the surgeon to the captain. "But with what?" demanded the The captain grew mad with impatience. Some of the passengers seemed to be looking abont for other ships sailing for Europe. Fortunately for the Queen all other vessels were in the like predicament. At last the mate of this composite bark got together a wild, ragged and hairy crew—objects that had been starved out of the goldflelds, wretches who for nights had slept like dead soldiers on the field of glory. Then, lent even they should tumble ashore and vanish while the captain was eating his Icnch and the mate was overhauling the live stock with the butcher, the ship was hurriedly warped out, shore fasts were let go, capstans manned, and in a few minutes the beantiful little fabrio was sliding needlelike before a pleasant breeee under a wing or two of white cloth Mr the anchorage where she was now lying. It was one of those pictures of shipboard hospitality you will seldom or never meet upon the high seas in these days. Now the great steamship splits its hundreds into twenty tables, and the captain is a mere detail of buttons and lace, faint and dim in distance as host and high and lonely as master. In the days of the Queen the passengers at a ship formed a family party. They sat in rows; the captain at the top could answer the question put to him by the man at the bottom. When people got to know each other, therefore, conversation at mealtimes was easily general. skipper. "Prussio acid." \ "A surer trick than the bullet," whispered Han key to Masters. The tall man with the heavy black mustache was Captain Henry Trollope, the second Mr. Paul Hankey and tho fellow at the rail Alexander Burn. The man in the stem sheets resumed his seat, the oars were leisurely dipped, and the boat vanished in the vaporous sheen. CHAPTER III THE BANK MANAGER. "It makes no mess certainly," said Masters, looking as coolly at the body as if it had been a fish newly landed. Another passenger, at whom the ladies occasionally gJanoed askance, was Mr. Sampson Masters. At a little distance his was as perfect a face as you could figure. When he drew close, his features proved blistered and pocked by drink and dissipation. He Stood near the wheel, looking from under the brim of a white felt hat with a black hatband, right up at the canvas, yet with glances any sailor would have Been were critical Next morning the wind was off the bow, a head wind, and the seas ridging at the ship in rich, sparkling lines of violet and lace, when the passengers came on deck after breakfast. They found the second mate, who had charge of the ship, standing at the rail, with his arm round a backstay, gazing with the idle eyes of custom at the large figure of a whale that was swelling, wet, black and gleaming, along the course of the ship half a mile away to windward.Five minutes after she was out of aight a black spot showed close in on a line with the bark, it enlarged swiftly into a little boat, with a man sculling her. He was alone. He drove the boat a short way up the creek, where the brine brimmed without break of ripple, and jumped out, keeping a hold of his boat by her painter. The others joined him. "Bring the ship to the wind, sir," said Captain Benson to the officer. "Do you carry it back with you?" said the captain. She was a small clinker built boat, with green paddle boxes, and the foam fled from her sponsons as the foot of a cataract hurls into its channel. Three men stood on her bridge, and as she oame alongside with a beat of paddles that, with the arrest of the wheels, sank into a sullen roar of water, a man in a white wide awake and long, lean, yellow face and linen jacket hailed from the bridge. "Aye, sir; yes, along with that," replied the superintendent, pointing to the portmanteau. Tho second mate, Poole, before diving to his dinner, saluted the captain. The Queen lay like a beacon of light upon that wa for the stranger to steer for, and within 20 minutes of the ship having been hove to there came floating to the vessel, shiuing like a fabric wrought out of the lights of the deep, a large, powerful cutter shredding the dark brine into gleams and froth. Down came her Rreat mainsail with a roar of hoops, and while a strong voico was shouting for an end of rope the clevcr little craft glided close in under the counter, where she lay with three or four men in her, all looking up. The moonlight flashed her white planks into ivory and painted in clear colors the figure of a man standing near the mast, with a portmanteau besido him. A fellow, letting go the tiller, ran a few steps and shouted, looking aloft at the crowd of faces upon the ship's quarter "Is Captain Benson there?" "Aye," said tho captain "What do you want?" "Then for God's sake," cried the old skipper with an angry toss of both bis fins, "take 'em both out of the ship at once, sir—take 'em both out of the ship at once and leave us to proceed. Is that a sight for ladies?" "Nothing in eight, sir, bat a small sail right in our wake, scarcely visible even with the night glass. But I'm not sure that she didn't throw up a blue ball a few minutes ago." A couple of stewards moved along the line of diners. They each wore camlet jackets. Each was wonderfully nimble of limb. Through the windows you heard the noise of passing wators, like the sound of a thaw at night in an open country. "Well, Hankey, what's the news?" "I've been an hour with Poole and have corkscrewed out of him as much aa I think is to be got. A couple of bottles of champagne made bim chatty, and the captain was ashore ano the chief mate indisposed in his cabin. There are a few passengers on board. She sails tomorrow at 2, and seemed to me while she lies in the moonlight as 1 walked her deck the prettiest little craft that was ever handled by a sailor. Easily to be worked, in my judgment, by half a doaen men. Her yards are square for her size, but I'd undertake to roll up her main topsail, blowing hard, with three men." There were other men—several. One was a little chap, Mr. William Storr, an auctioneer going home after doing business in the antipodes. His round, lightly whiskered face was enthusiastic with the sense of departure and the beauty of the scene. Close beside him was a large man who had booked his passage by the name of Mark Davenire. Ho wore a heavy silver chain upon his bright green waistcoat, and his cabbage tree hat was tilted upon his nose, while his eyes somewhat stealthily traveled round about "Bring me the glass," said the captain. The second mate then went to dinner, and the captain, putting down the glass, tucked Mrs. and Miss Holroyd under his arms and walked the weather side of the poop. It was a fine sight when the huge bulk rose and fell with the motions of a ship, bursting the glittering heads of brine into snowstorms, while, as though it pulsed its way along with a steam engine inside, it blew a tall spout, which arched like a feather when the weight of the wind took it. "I should be obliged if a sailor or two would help us," said the superintendent."Ho! The Queen ahoy!" "Hello!" sang out Captain Benson. "Has e'er a stranger beeu pat aboard your ship since you sailed from Sydney?'' They contrived it by placing the body on a grating covered with a piece of sailcloth that the ladies who lingered on deck might not continue to be shocked. They passed the dead wretch through the gangway, and watching their chance cleverly launched grating and figure to the paddle box of the steamer, where the thing was caught, the body removed and the grating returned.At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the day following that on which she left her berth the Queen got under way. Her destination was London. It was calculated she would cover the distance in 76 days. She had made the run out in 80, whioh was faster than steam, as steam then was. When all were seated and every passenger had taken his and her place, this first day—for the swell was light, the movement rhythmic, and then again all were seasoned — the captain glanced down tho' lino of faces 011 either hand, and for an instant was struck by the appearance of tho people he was to navigate to England. The number of men seemed to mako the ladies comparatively few, yet there wero seven of that sex to break up the male array with colors of garments and caps. The men lolled about. Mr. Cavendish, whose expression was an objec- "Yes, sir," shouted back Captain Benson. "Was he put aboard by the cutter W ooloomoolooF' Mr. Hankey stepped half way up the poop ladder with a pipe in his mouth and said to the second mate who stood just above, close by: The captain lifted his han^/ "You must allow me to come on board if you please," exclaimed one of the men who stood upon the bridge. He was dressed in a sort of uniform—a bell shaped cap with naval peak, and light cloth braided jacket of military cut. The captain of the steamer shouted down her call pipe. The paddles were maneuvered, the tug drew close alongside, and watching their opportunity as the slight swell rolled the two vessels to and from each other the official looking individual and another sprang on to the bark and came aft. The windlass was manned and a chorus with some fire and spirit in it rang over the Irtish that darkened the nearer shore where a white villa or two gleamed. There blew a fine, fair sailing breeze, rich with Australian sunshine and the blue of the heavens, and fragrant as a nosegay. The slop chest had been overhauled in the morning. The crew had washed themselves and put on clean shirts and now showed as a fairly respectable body of English seamen. They had slept in buuks. They had oaten heartily of the ship's food. The work they nan been put to naa iaicen me kinks out of their backs and the turns out of their arms and legs, and they felt something like men as they thought of London river and hove in the iron •inks one by one to the cheery yells of the mate looking over the bows and to their own roaring, heartening chorus of "Time for us to go!" "Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?" The shyness peculiar to Englishmen was noticeable among the passengers at the start The ladies, it is trne, fluttered before long into conversation with one another, but the men held off, which was strange in three of them at all events, for they had seemed on very good terms on the previous night. "By the mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed," answered Poole, grinning. "Is it all right with you?" sung out the captain. The others listened eagerly. The man ■poke with an educated accent. The three of them suggested the broken officer, the gentleman who had come to the colonies for the gold rush, who had failed and made shift for his life in 20 different directions, sailorizing seemingly being one of them, as might to inferred at all events from Mr. Hankey's talk of topsails and the other's appretiative understanding of his words. slowly. "All right, sir," answered the master of the tug. But no hand was flourished, no signal of farewell exchanged. It had been too ugly a business to admit of any sort of kindness. "Methinks it is like a weasel," said Mr. Hankey. It was not Mr. James Dent, nor yet Mr. William Storr, who took the eye of the old skipper in that swift momentary glance of his to port and starboard down the table. He was impressed by a certain odd similitude as of a sort of turf or horsy family likeness. It was a kind of professional resemblance, as in clean shaven actors, for example; but how to define it? Certainly Captain Trollope was as different a looking man from Mr. Burn as Mr. Shannon, with his large, protruding blue eyes and ginger beurd, was from the black and sullen faced Mr. Caldwell. But old Benson was no hand at defining. Military failures at homo and in the colonies, thought he, as he yawned at a spoonful of soup. They had paid their fares, some 40, some 50 guineas apiece, and without exception seemed a body of very gentlemanly nit n. "We've brought off a gent who wishes to be put aboard." "It is backed like a weasel," exclaimed the second mate, laughing heartily. "Where is be?" said the captain. "Good gracious me!" suddenly exclaimed Mrs. James Dent, whose black hair was plastered down her cheeks and over the back of her ears in tl/? early Victorian style. "Isn't that an open boat out there?" "Here," said the man who stood beside the portmanteau, advancing to the rail of the cutter. "I beg you will allow me to come on board.'' "Or like a whale," cried Mr. Hankey. "Only this very morning at - breakfast," said Mrs. Peacock, with a working face, to Mrs. Storr, "he was talking to me most affably. He knew my husband well. I find it impossible to think of him as a villain." "Very like a whale," answered the second mate, with the tears standing in his eyes. "Good gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs. Dent to ber husband. "It'sSuperintendent Fox!" "But what do yen want, sir?" shouted old Benson, glaring suspiciously down at the figure that was dressed in a blaek coat -and light trousers and a soft, dark hat. He was clearly no official. Mr. Hankey nodded his appreciation. Probably this was the only second male then afloat who could have Polonius'd "Has she an arms' chest?" said one of them. She pointed with a hand that sparkled. The ship was now close in with the entrance to Sydney bay, and the object the lady pointed at sank and rolled and wallowed about three-quarters of a mile distant right ahead. Everybody drew to the side to look. Claptain Trollope fixed u glass in his eye. Captain Benson, the white haired skipper, t*wDk the ship's telescope from its brackets and gazed with attention. The other might have passed for h Bow street runner. His nose was like the end of a bludgeon, the left eye was twice the size of the right, and as he stepped aft with the superintendent he gazed with a grin of ragged black teeth round upon the people. Yet he was some sort of official, too, to judge by his clothes. The superintendent walked right up to Captain Benson and said quite audibly: "I find it harder to think of him at all," answered Mrs. Storr. "Only imagine, he was talking to me and my husband this morning about hia intention of settling in London and of buying a house through Mr. Storr. His voice trembles upon my ear still. It is now the voice of a ghost. I am thankful the snn is up." "Yea." i ."Where stowed?" "You will not ask me to call out my business from this low elevation, sir?" After a pause. "in the second mate's cabin. Rather mean," continued the speaker, "as an arms' chest. Contents, a few cutlass1*, refuse navy goods, a few old pistols; maybe a sheaf of short blunderbusses. The Scotch owners don't put money into their arms' chest," be added, with a sodden laugh. The capUrtn tucked Mrs. and Miss IIol- rCryd mulcr Ms arms. tionable email eyed grin of self complacency, got hold of Miss Mansel; Mr. Burn talked with groat politeness to Mrs. Holroyd and her daughter; some of the fellows went down on to the quarter deck, where smoking was permitted, and hung in groups, chatting pleasantly as though a single dinner aboard the Queen had made them all good friends. "Throw a ladder over the side," sung out Captain Benson. Two or three boats were making shoreward from the ship, and men and women standing up in them waved responsive signals of farewell to the motions of some of the passengers on the poop The number of people bound homeward in the Queen numbered in all, ladies and gentlemen, 19. All were on deck as the anchor was lifted from the ground and the bark to the impulse of her jib and fore topsail rounded slowly to her course. They looked a shipload and seemed nearly all men. Indeed there were but seven ladies, ono the wife of a colonial merchant, Mrs. James Dent, others a Mrs. Holrovd and her daughter Edith and Mb* iuuigiu. t Aiku- Bel, a fine young woman with dark eyes and a pensive, musing air. The pilot had charge of the ship r.nd the captain walked the deck apart, everyhody easily seeing that he was full of the business of the vessel and wished to be alone. The man seemed to shake hands with the fellow who had run from the tiller. Some thought the gesture looked as though he gave him money. He gained the deck swiftly, clawing up the steps with one hand, while be held his portmanteau with the other. Captain Trollope passed him close, humming. A few others brushed by him also in silence. All the whilo he stood for a few minutes on the deck fetching his breath. "Trim saill" cried the captain. "Round with that main topsail smartly, Mr. Poole." "But this is your surmise?" said one of them. "Otherwise the chest may be handsomely stocked." "I hope you will pass her close," said Mrs. Dent. , "She shall slido alongside of us, madam,'' answered the captain. "You are the master of this ship, sir?" At the toot uf the table sat the chief oflkor, Mr. Matthews, a brown man with a ri li curl of beard, and a shade of paleness m his complexion as from re- Cent ilities--. On his left was the ship's surgeon, and 011 the other hand Mr. Paul Haiikey. Little was said at the start. Most of the men appeared to eye each other critically as though they met for the first time. Mr. William Storr, who, us auctioneer, should have been able at least to feel the pulse of the company, tried to Dtart a conversation on the subject of the boat, but was silencer! by many looks of aversion from the ladies and by the gentleman named Cavendish asking, with an odd grin: "That's so,"answered the captain, puffing and straddling, and firmly settling hi; tall hat. CHAPTER IV. ThK SLEE1' TALKER. The gentleman gave the painter of the boat to one of his friends to hold while he pulled out a short pipe. "1 am here," said the other, "to arrest Mr. James Murray, manager Cvf the such and such a bank, Sydney, for em bezzlement" They talked over this matter of embezzlement and suicide in the forecastle as well as in the cabin. Were you ever in a ship's forecastle? Did you never see a company of sailors dining in their parlor? "What's there in an open boat," said Mrs. Storr, taking her husband's arm and towering by help of an oddly shaped hat to nearly half a head aliove her husband, "to mako the ocean seem more desolato than when there's nothing in sight?" "Let them be of today's pattern and purchase," said the man who had received the boat's painter. "The cabin porthole is big enough to pass them through, I suppose? The close of the dog watches in fine weather is the pleasantest hour of the day at sea. The moonlight ripples on the waters, the breeze is soft, and the stars shine purely. The shadows of those who sit or stand fan slowly with the movements of the ship. This was a very perfect night. The dust of the meteor sailed across the southern cross, and the Blow passage of the scintillant smoke seemed to deepen to the eye the hush in the heavenly solitudes. Forward some man was playing a concertina softly. Several of the passengers, including Oaptain Trollope, Davenire, Caldwell and Hankey, went along as far as the galley and appeared to listen. Here they found a couple of seamen pacing with naked feet. But even in that time, while the captain, mutes and passengers were waiting for the stranger to approach, a fellow in the bows of the cutter let go the rope'send. Youhearda 1 allooingofsome sailor's song as the gaff of the cutter's mainsail mounted, and, to the astonishment of Captain Benson, she was off, leaning from the breeze, fretting the silver under the counter into a wake, with the fellow at the helm bawling out, "A good voyage to you!" "Lor!" said the captain. "What's the amount, sir?" "Seventy-six thousand pounds." Here is an interior with a little square hole for light and escape called a scuttle. You may also enter it by way of the main deck round the windlass ends. Nearly all bauds are below. The kids full of smoking meat have been brought along from the galley, and the sailors are falling to. What a fall to is that, no table, no chairs, no convenience of any sort. Hammocks bulge in grimy bulk from the ceilings; a few bunks are shaped to the ship's side and vanish in the darkness of "the eyes" right forward. There is not light enough to see by, although it is noon by the captain's sextant. So Jack has lighted hi* fl»r»» of wick -vhich coufound» "Any ammunition?" said the third man, speaking witu a delicate accent and a slight lisp. "Well, now, I forgot to ask that question," was the answer. Captain Trollope whistled long and low. The fellow with the horrible grin of teeth turned slowly and looked at him. jr "It seems as if others are to have the innings," said Mr. Caldwell in a hoarse whisper in the ear of Mr. Cavendish, who was staring with his congenital grin, made loathsome through the projection of his upper lip by bis eyeteeth. "Hal" exclaimed Mr. Burn, waddling up to the little group that had gathered aliout the captain and expending his "Ha!" iu a fat, beery sigh. "How many go to the crew?" said one of them. "There's a depth of meaning in that question, and it shows the ocean in a now light." "Of foremast hands, 11. They can't muster more. The full complement is Mr. Storr looked at him suspiciously. The lady smiled and said: "When we came out in the Light of the Age, we fell in with an abandoned ship. She made the ocean look a horrible desert. The same effect is produced by that small lioat there." "Are you in the interest of the owners on board this ship, sir?" He was a type of the skipper that has vanished off the face of the waters. His face was the. color of the fresh sawed end of a balk of mahogany, which uncommon hue was accentuated by his snow white hair and whiskers. His gray eyes wore set deep iu his head; A— -ears of starius into hard weather "I don't understand you," answered The mate stood a moment looking idly on, then sent a bull-like roar to the cutter to return and stand by the ship till it wns seen what the passenger wanted. A growliug "No, no," rolled back through the damp night breeze, and the cutter grew dim in the silver baze of the night _ . 18. As fast as the chapa sign they pocket a month's advance and desert and the police can do nothing for the captain. The second mate told me that the Queen hauled out today merely for the better chance of keeping the men aboard. Star have given soecial instruction* Mr. Storr, him so aptly and quickly. He raised his foot by another step to command with his eye the platform of the poop and said: "Poison, xir," said the turrjeon. "I don't see my man," said the superintendent, running his eyes over the group of passengers, following on with a level, penetrating stare at the seamen forward, who had 6truck work for the moment to gaze aft. "Pooh!" said Mr. Masters, who looked uneommouly handsome in the deceptive radiance of sunset and lamplight, glancing as he spoke at Miss Margaret Muuael, "the gentleman means *nn urauft t/t oana frho taKin 4aKI« '' "You will find tho reason to be this," ■aid Mr. * ) a gentlemanly "I say," says Captain Trollope, "are Too a pretty strong crew J""**'" "Did you ever hear of a man chasing a clipper to get a passage?" "There are plenty of instances of t tall Mr Mnratv be ia want- Con'inuil vn Fourth Page.