Pittston Gazette

              Wvotiijng Valley. 1'ITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY. DECEMBER 2ft, 1886. %IAXLVlfNaSl» [ Oldest Newspaper in the A Weekly local and Fam ly Journal. 1"?82BWSS claimed the madman, stooping bis faro close to the spot his finger still rested upon. "All yesterday I was trying to find itout. The latitude and longitude's wrong. Can't I fix a ship's situation on a chart as well as another? I'll pit my whole stock of blood against any man's as a navigator. No sun to take, for it was dark all last nigbt. And when there is a sun ho spins like a Tyneside grindstone round the horizon. Oh, it makes mo sweat!" he criod, fetching his naked chest a slap that made Mr. Poole skip a pace or two clear of him. howls like a wolf," said he. "He might have lived another week in that wreck yonder, but the sun won't rise npon him alive tomorrow in this ship." "I remember a mail,'' CCm enire, "who before the ended tint two-thirds of wiiat had been the profauCD«t set of blsisf liChm t? thjit ever slept, iu it- forecasts to regnlijrly assemble at a pray, r liioeting . in the first dog watch. He was a pale mail, with large, spiritual eyeballs. He got first one and then two to listen to him. It was slow work, but he persevered. Tho passengers made him a purse before the ship's arrival, and he di tribated the money among liia congregation, refusing to take a penny piece. That was"— heartily of the galley's various dishes, tbey lounged in groups and talked together quietly, smoking ou the quarter deck or conversing with the ladies in a very gentlemanly way indeed. Why was the captain suspicious? thought the mate as he walked with a grave and sober face to tho athwartship rail to watch the fellows washing down tho quarter deck. A sound of tho muttering ot artillery behind the sea. Next minute the heavens opened in u violet blaze. A woman screamed. It was as though a mass of fire had fallen through the skylight into the euddy. A loud but still distant roar followed, and then fell tho rain in a living sheet. It shrieked upon the planks overhead; it swelled in the scuppers and floated the loose rigging; it poured like streams from fire hose overboard, and still not a breath of air. ;e was i mv took in his (ere aud mizzeu royals and flying jib whether there was any occanion to do so or nor; also, after the passengers had retired and the cabin lamp was turned low, he'd come on deck in his tall hat aud peacoat and smoke one Manilla cheroot, marching up aud down abreast of the wheel. You might tell the time by the skipper's star of tobacco aft and strike the bell when he threw the stump away. He opened the door, and they stepped out lightly. "Send Mr. Poole here," said old Benson in a whisper like a saw, and he went straight to the second mate's cabin. He entered it without ceremony. A little lamp screwed to the bulkhead was burning. The lid of the arms chest lay open, and the skipper had no needto look twice to see that it was empty. While he was gaping at it Mr. Poole arrived. "LorI" said Captain Benson It befell as the surgeon predicted. A little before the first dinner bell rang and when the poop was alive with passengers moving leisurely in the violet twilight of the awning a seaman came hurriedly out of tho berth in which the madman lay confined, and just when the dinner bell was ringing and the passengers were going below to prepare themselves for the table the doctor came aft to the. skipper, who stood, grasping the brass rail at tho break of the poop in a posture of expectation, and exclaimed, "He is dead!" A small gloom overhung the spirits of the breakfast table that morning. A dead man was in the ship, and he was to be buried. Several men left the table and joined Trollope under tho poop. Tho recess hero provided as good a shelter as a cabin. There was in the atmosphere an ashen suffusion that yet was not light. You seemed to see and yet saw not by it. It lay pale on tho face like the light of tho next world. It was more terrifying than pitch blackness. The gentlemen under the poop sucked their pipes and watched the rain roaring in smoke off the planks. The lightning was now fast and flaming, sheeting over the heavens in 20 confluent forks at a time, and the thunder seemed to split in crashes right over tho masthead. Still no wind. Hw was marching up and down at this hour of hard upon six bells. At the for- "What's the meaning of this, sir?" Tfiid the captain, pointing to the chest. "I have no idea, sir," answered the necond mate, who was pale and seemed alarmed. "Let ine deal with him, sir," said the sailor, whispering hoarsely into the second mate'* ear. "I've got a brotherin-law that's locked np. You must match artfulness with artfulness along with the likes of this." At half past 10 they dispatched the dead body over the side. Nobody knew whoso child he was. No man to have saved his own heart from breaking couid have given him his right name. The ladies were affected by tho ceremony, and Mrs. Peacock dropped a tear. ward extremity of the short, white length of poop deck steppeu Mr. Poole, the second mate. A solitary figure grasped the wheel. The sails swelled to the main royal, and from under the bows came a noise like water in little streams merrily running over shingle. He was interrupted by a loud groan or cry of "Jesus receive me!" immediately followed by the splash of a Inidy. C motion of blood stained eye when talking, though he could be nimble enough with his sight when he chose. CHAPTER V. THE WBKCK. "Man overboard!" yelled a voice from the forecastle head. "You have the key of this chest, sir. Where is it?" "Then, sir, we'll get him stitched up at once and bury him in the morning," said tho captain. There was poetic insight in the remark of the lady passenger that a solitary object encountered upon the ocean, whether a ship in full sail or socfa an abandoned craft as that ont yonder abead of the Qneeu, oranges the face of the deep tgr imparting a quality of melancholy through mere compulsion of the sight to realize the mighty distances. It was eight bells, and the wreck was abont three miles off. The fiery tun was eating into the heart of the wind, and the bark's languid crawling threatened to the impatient, tardy approach. " Whut ocean d'you think this is, Masters?" said Mr. Peter Johnson, who was one of this three. "Shoveahead, then," said Mr. Poole. "Hanged if it isn't that pious seaman!" cried Davenire, and he and his friend rushed on to the poop. The second mate opened a locker and took out a key. "Here it is, sir, just as I placed it—just as it's lain from the beginning. The persons who've stolen the arms did not want my key. The lock's been foroed." "Beg pardon, I'm sure," said the seaman, stepping to the man's side, "but While tho passengers were dining a couple of seamen stood over the dead body forward, stitching it up in a piece of sailcloth ready for the last toss. One of tho two was the man who had been set to watch the lunatic. He drove bis needle, with a pale, hard face. Tho hole the body made in the water did not more swiftly fill than did the memory of the madman fade when old Benson closed his book and passed into the *uddy for his sextant "Mr. Poole," suddenly called out the captain in a voico that sounded harsh and parrotlike, perhaps with the suddenness of it and the soft silence it broke into. "Hanged if I know! Tho Pacific, I "Help, help!" shouted a voire alongside. "Pick me up afore I'm drownded. Good Lord, what have I gone and done?" suppose." let me Fee." Here ho thrust his nose at the chart It was a hundred to one if ho could read. "Why, of course! This, to be sure, must be the vessel's sittivation. " The madman listened with a face of teeth and hair that might have expressed satisfaction or conviction had ho been sane. "But I must tell you," con.iuued the sailor, "there's an old sailor called Captain Benson close aboard who'll be happy, I'm sure, to compare his charts with yourn. Suppose you come and have a talk with "And tho heart of it, too," says Mr. Peter Johnson. "If this water could be kept smooth, you'd see the gleams of the wakes of whalers crossing and recrossing ono another. Nothing but whalers here. How long has yonder vessel been in that state? Probably not thrde days. Aud here's a splendid little ship already alongside of her, willing, I presume, to do anything and everything in the name of humanity. Whut the deuce, then! Where would the cruelty be? I'd hoard her and take my ohanoe of a rescue in 24 hours for 100 sovereigns. Well, no, not in 24 hours," says be, with a look up at the lofty, serene sky. The fine white moonlight was soclear you could distinctly sets the man's upturned face as ho struck out. Tho ship slowly drove past. Sonfe of the ladies were screaming. Mr. Poole, who hud the watch, sprang to tp.\ quarter and with both hands launched a largo life buoy quoitliko. It struC k tho swimmer, who was shouting for help, and he went under, but was up agaiin in a minute and floated, holding on to the life buoy, bubbling and bawling, while the ship wus gradually coming round to tho wind. It was the afternoon of tho third day that the sparkling, fiery blue breeze which had driven tho ship, forging throngh it till tho lift of the soft cloud of foam on either bow was often as high as the catheads. It was on the afternoon that this sweet sailing wind failed. It dropped on a sudden, like tho tail of a blast out of an electric storm. Tho lofty sails came into the masts with an eager report, as though the ship herself snatchcd a voice out of this shock of surprise. The run of the seas fell into a smooth swell, which rolled foamless, .like liquid glass, against the dark green of the ship, so exposing her sheathing that on looking over the side you saw the reflection blushing like some wavering dart of sunset on the pure round of water. About two miles on the port beam lay a whaler. The Cjueen had learned, with the help of flags and a huge blackboard, roughly written on with chalk, that she was an American, almost full up, almost three years out, now bound round the Horn for tho distant port she would probably take six months in fetching. "Sir," answered the second mate, and he came swiftly aft, touching his hat as be met the old skipper abreast of the after quarter boat, clear of the wheel. "When did you make this discovery, sir?" the captain said, casting his little eyes about ' —' "Bill," said he presently, when tbey had stitched tho face out of sight, "do tho likes of these hero have immortal souls?" "I know these storms," said Davenire. "There's no galo here. It's going to pass away liko a woman's swoon after a yelling fit" "Just now, sir; soon after the chief officer relieved me." voices are those down on two quarter deck?" "What made 70a examine the hn» iugt now'r' "Theqneetionsyon put to me on deck, Bill was a man of some color in his blood. He turned his eyes dusky, and almost as bland as an African's, upon his mate. "This should give us tho opportunity we want," said Masters. "One's Mr. Davenire, sir. I think I hear Mr. HankeyJ and there are two or three others.'' ' "Why don't they go to bed?" "I don't know, sir." "What are they doing, sir?" sir." The ship's telescope went the rounds. All were agreed that no signs of life were visible aboard the bulk. The horizon swam i» silver passed her, and her sheathing flashed in wet, dazzling stars as the long cradling Pacific heave slightly rolled her. "We're not ready, and you know it!" exclaimed Captain Trollope. "Am I to have the handling of this job? I want no suggestions and much more caution from some of you. " "Let me see the list of the small arms." him." The poor creature's brown eyes glared suspiciously. He looked up through the little skylight, round the cabin, then at his naked trunk, which he on a sudden hugged with a maiden's modesty. "I guess if he was a sailor," he answered, "no bouI was ever sarved out to him, mad or not mad." Mr. Poole produced a packet of papers from bis little locker and banded a dirty old parchmentlike piece of staff to captain, who stepped close to the and read aloud, " 'Seven muskets, "Ain't sailors allowed souls, then?" They got him aboard after sonic bothering with the boat. Old Benson, in his fair hat, stood stern and linn at the head of the poop ladder. The shadows of his legs, painted by the moon on the white plank, might have framed some gigantic (gg with its top sliced oil. All the passengers had gat fieri il near him to view the drenched man lifted over the rail. Some of tho ladies trembled and fanned themselves, and Mr. Dent looked scared and white iu the pale light. The half drowned man stood upright, liatless, with plastered hair and a gleaming, wet shadow spread at his feet. "What did he say?" exclaimed Burn to Shannon when the thnnder had passed. "Smoking, sir." "Ask it of yourself, Tom," replied Bill in a voice of mingled indifference and contempt. After a short, expressive pause old Benson said, "The mate tells me you knew Mr. Hankey before -he came on board this ship." "She would have given us the chance," said Murk Davenire to Captain Trollope as they stood together at the miiueen rigging. "Where have they put Burn?" said Masters. "Where shall I find your clothes?" said the second mate. But before an answer could be made to this question the sea was lighted up by a marvelous, beautiful, but terrific stroke of lightning, that fell like a ball "Along with Shannon," answered Caldwell. "Davenire takes bis berth. Shannon will have a bucket of cold water at hand, and it is agreed that he shall tilt a drencher over tho squealer should ever he start on one of his midnight sweeteners again." The madman took no notice. He pointed again at the chart, and looking at the seaman said: Tom stopped in his work. The polished needle ho -held gleamed like lire in a flash of westering sun striking through the little scuttle. He looked at his mate, with a face awork with agitation. An emotional man one could easily gee he was—a sailor of the snuffling sort—yet smart and skillful. "He came out in a ship that I was in, sir." "Yen, I see your meaning," said the other. "But she comes too soon." And he rolled his keen eye at the Queen's longboat and then at her quarter boat as though one thought put another into bis bead. "I'll tell you what it is," be continued, speaking almost in a mumble under bis heavy mustache. "The mob of us must be devilish wary, hold apart and talk little or nothiug at table if we're to run daylight into this errand. Here we are two days out Here am I a first class passenger. Yet by the blood of my heart, as my old colonel would say, that gimlet eyed skipper was as insolently blunt and suspicious just now as if 1 had been a stowaway, brought aft to him black with the forepeak by one of his Jacks. " "Who is be?" "I know nothing of him, sir," responded the second mate, speaking uervonsJy, as a young officer well might when challenged by a skipper in the manner which old Benson was now wearing. "Does the old gentleman know anything about navigation?" some distance away on the port beam of the Queen. It flashed through the air as though discharged by some vast gun pointed downward. A dead, unreverberant shock of thunder followed. Some one shouted on the ship's forecastle. There was another cry on the poop overhead."Know? Why, ho can tell where he is by the sun arter she's set. A lonesome star of a thick night will put him within a hinch of his true place. The hadmiralty have offered him pounds a week to navigate their fleets, but he don't like the notion of wearing a uniform." Meanwhile, watched with deep interest by all the passengers on the poop, the boat reached the side of the wreck, where she was maneuvered so as to board clear of the trailing raffle. Mr. "Am I to believe," says he, laying one band not without reverence on the dead body, "that this poor chap didn't have no soul to go to God with?" "Didn't he come on board the ship ihe night before we sailed at your invitation?"A clumsier old wagon never dipped her gangways in a swell, and every lift of her square stern hid from the sight of the people who were looking at her on board the Queen the mowing and shining heights of a tall ship hull down. The mercury in the captain's barometer had been steadily sinking since noon. The sky slowly thickened all round, and 110 sound came from the sea. The swell rolled iu breathless heaps, and the white birds vanished. It was the most uncomfortable time the passengers had passed. The ladies could not stand and the gentlemen staggered, though old Benson observed that most of the men strode the reeling deck with very easy legs—legs of the sea, pliant, elastic, swift in recovery and a walk that is pleasanter to see than a dance. "You can believe what you like," answered the other, "but I'll tell you what it is—the more you believe the more you'll be warping your intellects to the bearings this covey's was brought to. Let's bear a hand with the job. "Is he able to speak?" cried tho captain."What has happened?" cried Mr. Storr, rushing through the cuddy to where the men stood. Pool# sprang into the main chains and was followed by a seaman. Tho others shoved off and hung within easy hail. The wretch made a crazy nod which made his smile terrific. Mr. Poole pulled off his coat and buttoned it over the shoulders of the madman. While (his was doing he said to tho seaman: "Look into these cabins while I get this man to the boat. Come along, sir," said he blandly, "and I will introduce you to the old gentleman." "No, sir. A small boat sen] led alongside. I looked over the rail and was bailed by name. Recollecting the gentleman and understanding that he was to lie a passenger aboard this ship, I asked him aboard." "Aroyou nblotospeak?" shouted Mr. Poole in tho man's ear. "Why, yes," answered the fellow, passing his sopping arm over his streaming face. "What's it all about? Gi" us a drop of liquor, some un. " "The whaler has been struck and is on fire," answered Captain Trollope coolly. She had a small deck cabin aft, with two windows and a door looking forward, and forward, just abaft the galley, was a house in which her seamen had slung their hammocks. Poole and the sailor went first of all to look at the galley fire. They stared about them as they went Her decks were comparatively clear, and it was oertaiu she had been a light ship, bound for a cargo. Tain't all jam." He must have had a keen sight and a practiced eye to know it, for the lightning made a most dissembling phantom of the Yankee. But he was soon proved right by a light beginning to burn steadily on Tho lightning flashed about it; the thunder roared over it; tlie rain had ceased. A candle flame would have burned straight in the air. The invisible blaek swell ran softly, beaten into u low pulse by that great fall of wet, and still yonder light burned on, growing in brilliancy till you could see the whaler coming and going to, sudden tongues of flame leaping and dying about the foremast. They stitched in silence, and when they had made a bolster shaped parcel of tho body they carried it out in obedience to instructions and placed it upon the fore hatch, and Tom went aft for an ensign to cover it with. "Did he fall overboard?" demanded the captain. "What was your talk about?" "Many tilings, sir. 1 forgot—the ship I had come out with him in, his struggles in the colonies and so on." "There are too many of us," said Davenire. "Without my chart?" shrieked the mailman. "He threw himself overboard, sir," aang out a voice hum the boat's falls. "Yes. Less conld have managed. " "Did he inquire about the consignment of gold?" said the captain, standing bard as bronze upon his rounded legs while he watched the face of the sccond mate by the light of the moon, his glowing cigar poised, a loose, white hair or two trembling. "Masters may be all right But drink hasn't burtud the vanity out of him. If he gons messing atDout with Miss Mansel something may bo said, some feather light hint unconsciously dropped. She as eyw like corkscrews and ears like hatchways." The second mate rolled toe North sea up and fixed it as a telescope under the poor fellow's arm. "Gi' us a drop. My senses are all abroad," said the man. At eight bells tho cook locked up his galley, and the first watch began. Another fine night of waters rippling in the moonlight. The bark, with starboard overhanging studding sails, floated like ice through the moon whitened air, and many trembling stars studded the arches between the sails, and under the yawn of the fore course the lamps of heaven shono like distant lighthouses. A seaman walked the deck of the little forecastle, on the lookout. The rest of the watch had stowed themselves away for a nap abaft the longboat and in the deep shadows under the bulwarks. They gave the dead body as wide a berth as they could, and tho watch below turned in, growling that tho thing should bo so near them. " When did you make this discovery, Hrf" five blunderbusses, four horse pistols, five other pistols and a dozen of outlasses. ' They must be in the ship," he exclaimed. "I don't like the look of this, sir. I'll not believe," be went on, softening his voice, with a glance at the bulkhead of the adjacent cabin, "that the orew have bad a hand Ja ft.' Yet the forecastle must be searched. This was done when all hands were on deck watching the whaler on fixe. Who sleeps next you?" What man on boarding derelicts of tbis sort can conjecture the sight that is to greet him? Death at sea is a horribly fanciful artist Poole remembered once boarding a vessel abandoned as this was and being confronted on getting over the side by a frightful mask of faoo that swayed and mowed in the cage of a heap of fallen shrouds. He was for flying. The mask had a firm squint and was must ached. Its gestures conveyed a ghastly threat to Poole; but rallying bis heart and looking close, the mate beheld the figure of a dead man so entangled in the rigging, whose ends lay over the side, that at every lift of swell the head motioned a living menace. Captain Trollope went down the port poop ladder. He pulled a flask of brandy from his pocket; and the soaked and crazy seaman drained a couple of gills. Then his teeth t* gan to chatter, and be trembled violently. The Queen lay close in with the wreck, and what passed aboard was quite easily visible to tho naked eyes of the passengers. There had been life, then, in that derelict, and one poor human sufferer was to be delivered from a horrible death. Yonder dismasted fabric, swaying in the flash of the brine, with now a lift of green sheathing and now a dip of painted ports, takes the tragic and thrilling significance of human suffering itself from the spectacle of one man as he is handed into the boat, flourishing his nuked arms and talking und hallooing to the ship Nobody could have supposed that the Queen would roll so abominably. She sank to her covering boards, and a nervous ear might have found a direct threat of storm in the cannonading of canvas aloft, in the crackii-g of strained rigging, in noises of breaking crockery, The second mate was afraid to speak the truth and told a lie. This questioning of the old skipper astonished and alarmed him. Unformed suspicions filled his head and muddled it. When he should have said yes, he answered no. The captain quitted him abruptly and went some puces forward and strode awhile athwartsbip, smoking, but some feet abaft the rail at the break so that those who stood under could not see him. There was nothing, however, for the old man to hear but a low rumble of voices, with an occasional laugh, saving that once a clearer voice began, without. heed of the cuddy door being open and the ladies sleeping within, to tell a story which dismissed the old skipper to bis regular post, and while he sucked at his cigar end he beard a shout of laughter. "How do you know?" "She watches us." "Did you fall overboard?" shouted old Benson. Captain Trollope made no answer. A moment later the breakfast bell rang. The wreck was now within a half hour's reach as the pace then was. The passengers hurried into the saloon to breakfast quickly that they might see the show as it passed within musket shot, unless the Queen's helm was shifted. "I chucked myself overboard," answered the fellow in a shuddering, whispering voice. "Full up with oil, by Jovel What a bonfire we're going to have!" said Mr. Burn. "Chucked yourself overboard!" cried the literal captain. "D you meau to tell me you meant to drown yourself aboard my ship?'1 * "A ship on fire!" yelled Mr. Storr into the cuddy. Heavy goods fetching away, little shrieks of women, from the poop and answering curses from the forecastle. They clewed up and furled down to tho topsails, in which they tied two reefs. At one time when this was doing Trollope and two or three others stood uear the mizzenmast looking up at the main. They swayed easily on their legs like a boy straddling the middlo of a swaying seesaw. The reef tackles were then being hauled out, the yard was 011 tho cap and a few hands were slapping their way up the weather rigg»ig"Captain Troll ope and Mr. Weston, sir. I don't think myself"— stammered the second mate with a bewildered look "Dare we show ourselves?" cried Mrs. Dent, jumping up from the table. "Are we to meet with any more exsitements?" exclaimed Mrs. Peacock to "Not arter I was in tho water," replied the man, looking at Captain Trollope as though for another sap. "It don't rain," answered Mr. Storr, "the lightning's passing." "Did not you promise that we should meet with no more horrors, captain?" said Mrs. Peacock to old Benson. "What, sir, what?" panted the old skipper. tbe captain. "What is to be understood by that word, ma'am?" answered old Benson. There was nothing of the kind, however, to be seen here. Poole and the man walked warily to the galley and peered into a tiny caboose with a tiled floor, a sort of sentry box seized to the deck. Strange it had not gone with the masts. Some brown coal vapor, thin as the smoke from a tobacco pipe, lazily crawled into the chimney out of the almost extinct embers of a fire. So, then, she had not been abandoned. "Take him forward! Take him forward!" shouted the skipper 111 accent* of horror and rage. Here Mr. Matthews, sparkling in wet oilskins, came below to inform the ladies, with the captain's compliments, that there was a ship on fire in sight, and that if they would care to witness the dreadful spectacle a platform of gratings und dry planking should be at once contrived for them to stand on. The commander wiped his weather discolored face with a red pocket handkerchief, big as a small ensign, and answered, "There can be no horror in the saving of a man's life, ma'am." Two men came down from the poop smoking pijx's, and, going along to tho fore hatch, stopped and looked at the body. "I doubt if they are in the ship," oontinued the unfortunate officer. "That window was open when I came below. I don't recollect leaving it open when I went on deck at 8 o'clock. Whoever did it has washed my berth out for me," and, striding to his bunk, he grasped and held aloft a quantity of blanket, sodden with salt water. "Every item in the catalogue of naval disaster," said Mr. Storr. "I thought I was going mad," cried the man, "and that I could only save my soul by perishing first " "Aiiy bargains to be had in that catalogue?" called oat Mr. Burn, smiling at the little auctioneer while he filled a tumbler with a draft of Bass' beet. "That's much how it would have been with ine," Raid Mr. Mark Davenire. "A roes and a babble, and not the memory of a moment, by Jove, to follow mel" "Take him forward! ' howled the captain. "And, Mr. Poole, set a watch over him." "He is mad!" exclaimed Mrs. Peacock, watching tho man as he approached the boat Captain Benson this night lingered a little louger than usual on deck. Seven bells found him pacing Lis dignity walk betwixt the wheel and the mizzen rigging. At thin hoar all was hushed under the break of' the poop. The last of the passengers had turned in, and the ship was in possession of the watch on deck, who snored in oorners or wearily paced the forecastle. "Midnight yells should go cheap," answered Mr. Storr, with a sarcastic leer at the ./at man. "I would -jot lose such a sight for a million," exclaimed Mrs. Dent. "I cannot help it," answered Captain Benson. "Bettor that than death in the bush," said Mr. Hankey, "where, if the fowls of the air permit, you rot into a grin of bones. There's a beastly baseness in the disclosure of one's narrow pipes. I should wish to lie secret, or at least hidden, as that chap'will be when he's over the side. I'd not even that the moon should shine upon my skeleton," and the man's face looked up pale between its bard black whiskers at the planet that was softly glowing over the port beam. They began to pace the deck to and fro abreast of the corpse. "I'm calm now. I feel it's all right. The wetting's doue me sights of good. It's all along of watcliiug that chap 011 the hatch," exclaimed the mau. "Shall wo lend them a hand?" said Mr. Burn, turning to observe tho captain, who walked on tho quarter. "This sort of thing is called going homo for one's health, " said Mrs. Peacock, who had been almost dead with fear during the raging of the storm. The captain made no answer. He darted many quick and curious looks around the little interior. • They looked into the deckhouse and found nothing but a few hammocks and some odds and ends of clothes. Mr. Poole hailed the Queen. ' 'I wish that fool Burn would shut •pi" exclaimed Trollope to his neighbor, and he leaned forward to catch a sight of him. "Good Giddens!" murmured Johnson to Burn, catching the special point of the incident with discernment worthy of a loftier mind. "It would just be that pendulum swaying that would craze me. See how wearily and regularly she rolls, but without way. It would work the wits loose in the brain. They would pitch from side to side like shifting ballast, and the continual hammering of them upon the skull, first on this side, then on that, would set me grinning and raving just like yonder ooou in a very few hours." But hero Mr. Poole and others fell to shoving him, and in a few minutes the hustling group walked forward and vanished like smoke in the dusk of the forecastle. ston "I'm game for one, " said Mr. John- Tommy Poole I Your captain viewed but a poorly embellished hole; a portrait of Poole's mother cut out of black paper, the lineaments bronzed; a small crucifix at the bead of the bunk; a rack containing a few pipes. But a man who on £6 a month supports an old mother and a childless wife cannot handsomely furnish his cabin. "Hello!" sang back old Captain Benson."Quiet!" said Trollope. "Don't stare aloft. You never seem to know when you're watched." Miss Mansel laughed. However, all of them, including Mra Peacock, speedily clothed themselves for the deck, and then the Queen was alive with sightseers. The. storm was settling northward, leaving a breathless calm in its wake. Southward the evening was beginning to show in pale stars amid rifts of heavy vapor slowly going to pieces. It could not be seen with the night glass that the whalemen were fighting the fire, .which had caught a strong bold. Already the bows of the craft were in flames, and wliHe you watched you could see how thos? fiery dartings, snaking into thick smoke, crimsoning it, then blackening out, coiled their way aft like serpents, with an appearance of frequent repulsion, though at every fresh spout of flame something caught fire alow and aloit. "There are no excitements to be expected, ma'am," said the captain. "Maybe, fir, if you were to send a hand aloft with the glass he'll make out signs of a boat, for the galley fire's not yet out." "I hope we shall meet with plenty," exclaimed Miss Holroyd, a kindly faced young woman of two and twenty, destitute of personal attractions. "I'm getting blistered Bick of waiting," said Shannon. Now it was that old Benson, after taking a view of the compass and sending a searching look aloft and to windward and after gruffly delivering a sentence or two of instructions to Mr. Poole, went below to get some rest, but no man could tell at what hour this old skipper would reappear, for he was mysterious as a specter in his tricks of emergence. Often it happened that within ten minutes of the old dog's having gone below for the night the mate of the watch, lounging at the rail, relieved of the tyranny ot that bow legged presence, would look aft and starl on beholding, walking close beside the wheel, the shadowy but familiar figure in a tall hat and long coat. CHAPTER VI. THK AKMS CHEST. "Thunder, how that whaler rolls!" cried Burn. The white haired skipper raised his hand, and Mr. Poole, followed by the sailor, went aft. "You must consider, my dear," said Mrs. Peacock a little severely, "that I am making this voyage for my health." When Captain Benson came on deck early next morning, the sailors wore washing down, and the ship was stretching along under full breasts of canvas. A smart breeze had come on to blow in the middle watch. The ocean was pouring steadily out of the southwest. Past She was still a clean cut figure out abeam, but the sail past her had disappeared in the dimness. The spouters were taking a hint from the Queen and shortening canvas. With the unaided vision you saw a row of tiny figures dotting the foreyard, whose points of studding sail boom seemed to spear the very heads of the swell. "Go and call up both stewards," said the captain. They had gained the gangway and were within a dozen pares of the door of the after deck house, when they came to a halt as though shot or paralyzed. Full in the doorway stood a figure. It "When is our business to be done?" said Hankey in a quiet voice. "Trollope seems to hang in the wind. Is not this the right sort of weather? Why not make an cud this very night? Are wo waiting for the Horn?" The two men slept in the steerage. They promptly arrived, tumbling, astonished and eager, ont of their bunks. They were amazed to find the commander of the ship at this sepulchral hour of one bell standing hatted, bis face inflamed, his hanging arms vibrating like the legs of a dreaming dog, in the cabin of the second mate, who was himself colorless as though he had been stabbed. Captain Trollope, wiping his mustache, rose from the table and stalked out on to the quarter deck. A few followed. Then the whole table rose, and by that time the wreck was close aboard on the starboard bow. "He would be nearly naked," said Mr. Burn in his oozy voice, "but for tho mate's coat Why should a man when he goes daft always want to strip himself? Is it because madness brings a chap close to his original state of nature?"the foam of tho ridge abeam as tne Queen rose you could make oat three white spires, a big ship bound, like the bark, no doubt, round the Horn. The seething blue hollows astern were free kli'd with small, white sea fowl. They bad D10 business so far north. You meet them gleaming over waters whose skies are whitened by giant fields of ice. They raced after the Queen, faultlessly molding the.*r flight to the heave of the sea, and they filled with interest, beautiful and living, the wide yeast of the wake that rushed off astern, whiter and more defined than a London coaching road. Daveuiro hissed a cautious "Hush!" as a sailor stumbled op out of the shadow of tho longboat and passed them to mount the forecastle ladder, where he joined the fellow on the lookout She was a plain little hull; had possibly been some New Zealand or Australian keel trading to the islands. Her long tiller swept from bulwark to bulwark as she rolled like a human arm wild with appeal. The whiteness of every splintered thing told of recent disaster. In the water under her port haunch was a wonderful brilliant sparkling, a multitudinous flashing of minute azure and silver lights. The whole rose and fell in splendid gleams with the motions of the hull and the lift of the sea. "Wash, wash, wash, wash," muttered Shannon, counting off the monotonous, regular steep rolls of the whaler in a sort of ticking way. "Ancient and fishy will be the smell of blabber that she belches from her hatchways at every plunge. I served six months in one of them"— "Here he comes," said Mr. Johnson. "Stand by for a rush of ladies." "Where's the captain?" shouted the madman as he bounded over the rail, delivering himself, eellike, from the grip of a seaman afrd dropping the second mate's coat overboard in the swift struggle. He had kept a hold of his chart, however, and now flourished it as he screamed, "Where's the captain?" "Tho ship must reach the agreed situation," said Davenire, speaking with a note of authority as a leader or lieutenant. "Trollope isn't sure. Besides, that old Benson's not on the watch. Bosh! The old cock stares, and I find him brusquo as Trollope does, as though distrustful. But what, in the name of holy Jim, can ho suspect? Anyway, if the job's to be doue, it must be rushed effectually. There's to be no opposition and no bloodshed. That must be seen "Keep a bright lookout for her boats!" cried Captain Benson, who walked alone near the binnacle in short excur- Midnight was struck on the belL A hoarse voice bawled down through the fore scuttle: "Eight bells below there. D'you hear the news?" The wheel was relieved, and the chief officer, with his eyes full of sleep, came up the weather poop steps and talked for a few minutes to Mr. Poole, who then went to his cabin. "Trickle," said the captain, "some one has plundered the arms chest." He pointed to it. Trickle sunk his head and opened his mouth. "We'ro going to have a black gale," interrupted Trollope, and he went be- sions. He was agitated. Few sights at sea move sailors more to their depths than a ship on fire. He finds nothiug thrill ing, splendid or romantic in it, as some of the ladies on the Queen's poop did, as Mr. Storr did now that the danger of the storm was passed. To the sailor a burning ship is the most heartbreaking voice the sea can find a tongue for. You saw the influence, of the sight upon the gang of men under the poop. They stood staring, sucking their pipes, dropping now and then a remark in a sullen note of helpless sympathy. "Did you notice anybody hanging about the cuddy last evening when all the people were on deck looking at the fire?" , Trickle thought hard. So did  the nndersteward. They stared at each other; they revolved in the anguish of their struggle with reoollection. One seemed to have it, then the other, each with a jerk of his fist, one finger np, to no purpose. In fact, both men had been on the forecastle while the sea show lasted, and when they went aft low It was hard to guess by the sinking of the glass what was to happen, saving that a wild, uncomfortable change of some sort was at hand. The workings of the sky were strange and subtle. It was a dirty bine; then it turned of an ashen pallor. A sort of grime thickened upon it till it spread a whole loathsome face of uniform sullen dark green from line to line, with the whaler wallowing, dim as a phantom, in the hollows, touching the stormy dusk with sudden flashes of white canvas, yet you saw no break of cloud, and the swell, now beginning to lose its weight, ran like grease. "Lay aft some hands and secure that poor fellow," shouted old Benson, traveling forward to the break of tho poop with incredible activity. . The captain looked at those birds for a few minutes and tlx u round upon the sua, letting his gaze rest upon the three shining needles abeam. He now called the mate to him. "What can that be, captain?" inquired Mrs. Holroyd. The moon was far astern on the quarter, sinking, and the burning light of tho whaler gone long since. "Fish, ma'am," responded the skipper. And he put a binocular glass into the lady's hand. Before this command could be attended the lunatic was at his side. to. It's not to bo a hanging." "When is that arms chest to be dealt with?" said Hankey. Clouds of fleece flew across the stars, which shook in splendor, and the bark strained as she drove the brine into recoiling flashes. But the breeze had headed her; tt»ty had braced up in that first watuK ni the ship was off her course. And fish that swelling knoll of brilliance was, the biggest of the length of your finger, by what oourted and by what detained -who can tell? There was no grass on the sheathing—nothing good for fish to eat The lovely cloud shone beautiful in the blue water in the shadow of the wreck. Nobody had seen such a sight before, and passengers and seamen lining the rail stared their hardest Mr. Poole, stepping aft to the captain, with a flourish of his thumb to his eap, said in a low voice: "This is the chart, sir," he cried, unrolling it with insane vehemence, while the ladies in a body rushed below, leaving Mr. Dent and Mr. Storr standing at the companionway ready for immediate flight. "They tell me you're a first class navigator. I can't make the ship's situation right Look hertfl" "How is that man who threw himself overboard last night?" "Presently. I should have thought you'd see that," said Davenire dryly. Hankey wagged his head in the moonshine."All right, sir," and the mate pointed to the fellow, who was scrubbing with an earnest face at the deck near the mainmast "Does the oM gentleman know anything about navlfflitUinf" "She'll have plen ryot boats, though," said Mr. Masters. the passengers were coming in a body from the poop into the cuddy, talking about the fire and looking about them for grog. '' Hark!'' exclaimed Davenire. ' 'What are those two chaps up there arguing Scarcely $$ minutes had elapsed since the Wfcifa was relieved when Mr. Matthew* wh» soberly paced the weather side of tha poop, was surprised by observing Um aecond mate gliding with great rapidity across the deck from the lee poop ladder. Matthews came to a stand. Mr. Paulo exclaimed, breathing fast: was a man of about 80, naked to the waist His breeches were of dungaree, and his feet were naked. Tho sad sight to behold, the bad, most afflicting part to see, was his face. Ho was grinning with the withered smile of consumption. The puckering about the mouth was like a hunchback's. His teeth lay naked to tho full width of the distended lips, and they made the whole face as unmeaning and mocking as a skull. His hair was brown, soft aDd long; hi® eyes, too, were brown and might not have been wanting in beauty, but the brilliance of famine or madness was in them now. "Is he safe to be at large?" "I've overhauled him and believe he is, sir. The man's a fair sailor and sound enough, but he's of a pious cast, itnd his brain got shifted by watching the lunatic yesterday." "Aye. Hut that don't take the desolation out of tho picture, my friend," answered Mr. Bunt. Old Benson saw that the chart represented the North sea. about?" Tbey dined in the cuddy by lamplight. The captain's seat was empty. Mr. Matthews entered hurriedly for a mouthful aud returned, scarcely finding The lookout man and the seaman who had joined him came to a stand at the head of tho forecastle ladder. Tbey did not appear to heed the presence of the two gentlemen, who, moving a few ' 'Fire a rocket, Mr. Matthews; fire a rocket," called the captain, his word* passing clear,though hoarse,through the still air, "ami barn a port lire." And be repented, "Keep a bright lookout for Captain Benson stepped into the cuddy and moved slowly along the floor, glancing by the dimly burning lamp at the cabins to right and left of him and at the berths in the shadow beyond the companion steps, up which he presently stalked. He was astounded. The old heart of oak was terrified too. What could the robbery of the arms chest signify but a conspiracy? Certain people had armed themselves at the ship's expense. For what purpose? His soul croaked a conjecture that made him reel on his sturdy bowlegs as he stepped out of the hatch into the rush of the blaok, wet wind and the gloom of the night, wild with flying cloud and dipping stars. The mate came up to him. "The sun, " cried tho lunatic as he stared for a breath with uu eagle's unwinking eye at the blazing luminary, "goes round and round like a horse in a circus. Can yon catch him?" ho asked in a hissing whisper, with his horrible grin of cunning. "He don't shine of a night, and all day long he gallops round and round." "We'll bury the body at five bells," said the captain. "Aye, aye, sir." "I fancy there's life aboard the craft, ■ir. I see a sort of vapor oozing out of the caboose chimney, as though the fire was not long out." paees forward, haited to listen in tne shadow of the berth in which the body bad lain. Prom the poop lightly flouted the voices of passengers in conversation, mingled with the music of a piano in the cuddy, faint *ith the intervention of mizzenmast and cuddy front, and you could hear the high tones of a woman singing. tlio boats." The captain looked har J at the sailor as though he reasoned \rithin himself whether he should call him aft and rate him. Then, perhaps guessing that the mate had done all that was necessary in that way, he was rounding on the flat soles of his goloshes when be stopped again and said with a glance along the poop: ' $b He slopped his way hastily to the companion and disappeared, but returned in a minute, having observed such a rise in the glatt as was good for his "What do you think? The arms chest in my cubin has been forced and the whole of the weapons stolen." The captain took his glass from Mrs. Holroyd and suddenly said with emphasis: "It's as you say, sir. Take and board and overhaul her." By this time, however, tho surgeon, the sccondmate and a seaman had gathered about the poor creature. He yelled when they were obliged to use force. His shrieks on the quarter deck rang in echoes from the silent hollows of the sails, and you seemed to hear a faint answer to them trembling in a sort of moan aboard the wreck. He had the sense to see he was not to be returned to his vessel, and his craving was for her. It took half the ship's contjiuny to get him forward. They stowed him away in a wing cabin securely bound, and a sailor watched him. CHAPTER VII. THE CAPTAIN'S STATEMENT. spirits. "Make sail on the ship, sir," he cried. "Out reefs. Loose topgallant sails. Aft here and set this spanker." "Father of light, what's this?" criod Mr. Poole. The bark heeled to a damp gust of the night breeze us the second mate, in a voice, low with agitation, spoke. Mr. Matthews did not rightly catch his meaning. The man repeated his words. A boat wan lowered, and the second officer and four seamen pulled away from tho hull. Even as the boat started the black, wet gleaming curve of a grampus showed between the wreck and the bark. It breathed in a sigh that was as music for the silent poetry of that hull. Instantly the shining cloud nnder the wreck's quarter sank and vanished. I The poor creature put his finger to his lips. His smile vanished; he mado a beckoning gesture with a short sailorly bow as of entreaty. Poole went up to him. "Don't yon make no mistake," said the voice of the seaman named Tom. "You've never turned to and thought over things as I have, Bill." "Have yon found anything worth making a note of at your end of the table, sir?" Whiz went u rocket as he spoke .sheer betwixt the two tall masts of the fore ami main. A minute later the iignre of the second mate, overhanging the port rail, was brilliantly outlined against the weltering blackness over the side by a stream of hi*sing blue fire fountaining from his hand. "All the small anus stolen out of the chest?" exclaimed Mr. Matthews, stiffening his leaning figure and peering hard at Poole by the windy starlight "How long have they been gone?" "Why, no,' answered Bill. "And "Why, no, sir; since yon spoke to me on the subject I have found the people very cautious in their conversation." "The chest is plundered, sir," panted the captain. "Are there more of you?" said he. I've kept r s, in consequence." "Stop!" cried the man, with a peculiar, hard accent that might have been a Welshman's. "I have been waiting for this chanoe. Gome with me, sir, "and the half naked figure turned and led the way into the cabin. Mr. Poole looked quickly about him, expecting to see others, or fearing to find the dying or the dead, or, which would have been worse, more lunatics. It was a narrow interior, snug enough, cabined on one hand, with one central table and a line of lockers for seats. .Upon the table lay a chart, which the half naked man went up to. He passed his fingers through his hair, and, kioking round at Mr. Poole, who now fearlessly stood close, he put his forefinger upon the chart and esclaimed in his harsh, almost hissing accents: the wo claimed Tom, panting out 1 the noise of a beavv snore. "Is it to be ascertained who Captain Trollope is?" said the captain. "Where's the ammunition, sir?" inquired the mate. Three of the set who may now be called the ten stood smoking their pipes in the gangway watching the boat and the hull, but conversing in low voices. The helm of the Queen had been put down; the lighter canvas trembled in floating fingers of sunshine and shadow high aloft; the ripple bad died at the cutwater. The cook stepped out of the galley, hot and cursing, to empty a bucket of his galley parings over the aide, and the stnff floated motionless. "It's t rfnl t bink if a chap's head's "They'll have made for the ship in the north," said Mr. Matthews to the secoud mate. And that no doubt was the case, though the Queen had been the nearer vessel. For a couple of hours old Benson kept his ship hanging in the wind, and the passengers watched with admiration and fear a splendid but frightful picture, from which the sense of tho human life that had been there, having made its escape, could not rob tlio spirit of tragedy. She lay bnt a quarter of a mile distant. Figure the tons of oil in her, the oil soaked planks, the well greased masts, the dripping in her every pore. The heavens overhead shook iii folds of crimson to the horizon. "I've only just discovered the theft," answered the second mate. K wi ifi his soul s bound to go "Some of tho gentlemen may know, bnt will they give us the truth? There's Mr. Dent, sir, or some of tho ladies perhaps. " "Hal" cried old Benson, pulling bis hat down to his ears. "I had forgotten that. Go below and tell the second mate to place the powder and ball in my cabin." -mil? Can you explain it? Is if part of tluD physical faculties, fir a wparato hesw noe which breaks suvjiv from the dead body just as wrong too "This must be reported to the captain at once," said Mr. Matthews. "Keep the deck till I return." The Queen was brought to her course, her Bails slept to the light air, and their silver trembled under the shadow of her hull. The wreck slided away, forlornly rocking. "They have inquired of me," interrupted the captain hastily. "I don't like hin looks, sir." He went below and knocked on the captain's door. the smok •8 up after the They found the ammunition untouched. It had been stowed in the steward's pantry, and they might have hunted for it all night but for John, who, on the yester morning, having tumbled on his knees to explore a small cupboard for an oil can, had handled the powder and ball without knowing what they were. They all knew that the ship carried no more ammunition than this. Mr. Matthews placed the stuff in the captain's cabin, as commanded, and returned on deck to report. The old skipper was astounded. flam Lor bleFB mo, The skipper swung in a cot, an«' when the mate told him that Mr. Poole had just discovered that the whole of the ship's small arms were stolen he tumbled out of his swing bed on to the deck in shirt and drawers, as an ape drops out cf a tree when shot. "You are ccrtain there was nobody else on board, sir?" said Captain Benson to the second mate. "Certain, sir?" what's a-happening? Fired, if my brains ain't been jammed lDy the grip of this here cap!" And the listCiitrs heard the man fling his cap violently on to tho "And yet but for his nose a tall, flne, gentlemanly man, sir." A KfiUmdUi Imt friijhtful ptetwrc "I don't like his looks, sir," repeated the captain hotly, "and I don't like tbo looks of the man they call Masters. While as to Mr. Caldwell"—here he peered cautiously round—"I wouldn't have a man with his face in my forecastle. " time for the questions which were discharged at him from the skipper's end. Mr. Poole was also on deck, and some one said all hands were on the alert. "I tell yon what," says Mr. Gold well to Mr. Masters, standing in the gangway, "if that holl there hadn't come too soon, she'd have saved us the most troublesome part of the job." "Who is this madman?" deck "The mate, I allow, sir. He hasn't tho looks of (he captain; gone loose headed on a sudden with loneliness." The other walked silently into the bows of the »hip "That f Captain Trollopo and Mr. Han key were the first to quit their seats. They went on the quarter deck and stood in the gloom under the overhanging ledge of tiie poop. A few sharp glances followed them, and a knowing look of arched eyebrow and compressed lip was darted by Johnson to Cavendish. "Who's done it, sir?" puffed the old man while he pulled on his breeches and coat and took down his tall hat, all in a passion of hurry. in his works, ,v s 1 in't he?' iiiE th« right time said Hankcy as "No, man," answered Mr. Masters. "What oould we have to say to a dismasted vessel? There's to be no cruelty, you know, and a fortnight of a crowd in that thing there wonld make a bell of her." "Or grief," said Captain Benson, casting hi.* eyes upon Mr. Storr, who stood listening. "Theremay have been a wife or some one dear to the man lost to him in that business," said he, with a nod at the wrwk. tho two strolled lojsnrely aft, turning for :t moment» to look at tho figure of tho man who was standing motionless iu the moonlight, like a shapo of obony, with his eyes seemingly fixed upon his foot. Mr. Matthews let sink his head in thought. He was puzzled by tho captain's suspicious, yet not more, perhaps, than the old fellow himself was by them. What wore they to fear? A mutiny of ten passengers? There could be no mutiuy where there was no authority, and the ten gentlemen, moreover, seemed perfectly happy. They had mined the ibio'i marsala. they eat TiDo skipper saw there was no life in tho burning ship and no boats about. "Is this or is this not the situation of this vessel?" "The ship must be searched for the things, sir," said the mate. Ho beard tour bolls strike, and, glancing Mr. Poole bent his head and pereeiv ed that it was a chart of the North sea. cnoe more at the flowing and throbbing heap, which shone as daylight for anything to be Seen in a league round, he gave orders for sail to be trimmed. "Aye, to her dunnage," blew the skipper. "The small arms stolen 1" he exclaimed, brought to a halt by an instant's shock of sheer incredulity. "Why, this looks like a plan, don't it? A conspiracy, hey, sir* Forward or aft? Softlv. sir." _ _ . out powder and shot, sir?" "What's the good of muskets with- On a sudden the captain was heard roaring down the steps for his oilskins, and one of the stewards ran on dock with a long waterproof coat "Unless the people who've stolen the things brought powder and shot with them," said the mate. *'I doo't. believe it" said Captaiw Continued on Second Page. Caldwell gazed at him with m black, thoughtful scowl. He was the most sav•n looking el the lot, with * sullen "Nevermind about the ship's place," said he soothingly. "Are there more of you? My vessel waits for us." "Is there any chance for the man?" said the captain, addressing the surgeon as ho came up the poop ladder. "Thorn's always a religious seaman in a long voyage forecastle," said Daveuire.Old Bonson was a man of habits. When he commanded a full rigged ship, thtni hi nurtun latitnilna h» mml—■'* " Whv don't you answer me?" ex- The snrseon shook his head. "He "He's needed." said his oomoanion. "Hark! What was that?"