Pittston Gazette

              f Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY. JANU vRY 1. 1897. A Weekly local and Family Journal. tfl.OO PER TliR 1 IN AOTAiTCK "Captain Benson, '* exclaimed Captain Trollope, towering np close to him. Dent and Storr Shrinking to see it, though the mates instantly put them* selves on either hand of their oommander, "that sentence, sir, was far from well in your month after what has occurred. Bnt let that be as it will, I, together with other gentlemen here, expect that you will make us—the whole of your passenger* in short—an abundant apology for the affronts yon have put upon us." knowledge of some of the passengers." "I told yon all I then recolleoted, fingers at (Japturn 'ironope. iii Una strange posture he remained for some time, swaying on his arched legs like a swing tray, watched by some of the men as though he had gone out of his mind. He then called for his hat, drew it to his ears, and again snapping his fingers at Captain Trollope stepped on deck. nuu ut ujw uiitejc uenu m name snouia be on the other side of the mast all the while but Miss Mansel." Uavemre spat in ma tury ana maae as if he would leave his companion. At this moment Caldwell came off 'the poop and joined the two. fell to pacing tiib decnf xnere naa ueen some bustle forward at eight bells when such of the watch below as were in tbe forecastle turned out, but all was quiet bis mere grasp. "My dear Poole, I really apologize. I merely wished to ask a question. Am I," said be, making a step so as to command the interior at the caddy and Obtain a clear view of the quarter decfk, "to return to my bed, or do you wish me to accompany you to the captain's cabin?" sir." "Did yon tell me that yon bad shown the arms chest and stated its oontents to the gentleman named Hankey when be visited the ship in Sydney bay?'' "Where is she?" "Inheroabin." "She has not left her cabin as yet," said he, "and the people are going to bed." again. "I'm madder than yon. Mind your wods," said Caldwell iii his desperate whisper. "If ever a devil was in a man's heart, it's here. There's no good in abuse. What's to be done?" "Ton atrocious beasts"— Scarcely was it 1 o'clock in the morning when a most dismal, melancholy wailing was heard proceeding from the sea, apparently right ahead. It was something like the cry of the jackal as it sneaks to the river's edge for a meal of black meat, hut startling and amaz- "I forgot all about that, sir. I am heartily sorry. Qod knows I'd have stove his boat in sooner than have allowed him aboard oonld I have foreseen this." The three halted, looking aft The steward was turning out the lamps in the cuddy, leaving one dimly burning. The interior was easily visible from where the men stood. They saw the surgeon come out of one of the berths and go on deck as though to report to the captain. Mr. Dent stood with Mrs. Storr at the table. But when the colonial merchant had emptied his glass he shook hands with the lady, and both withdrew. A great laugh went up when the little chap paased out, and no man's langh was louder than Trollope'a. The officer of the watch, who happened to be Matthews, came across from the other aide of the deok and stepped leisurely past as though to look at them. He then went round the skylight to his former poet and seemed to watch them. "There's the captain himself," exclaimed Mr. Poole. And as he spoke the little figure of Benson howled from the bead of the poop ladder: "Where's &e officer of the watoh? Who's that man in white down there? How is it there's nobody in charge?" "As how J" sputtered the captain, starting back with a paralytic flourish of his sextant "I am commander of this ship. The vessel has been plundered of her arma. When are they? Can you tell me?" he cried, making a hideous face at Captain Trollope, with a sneer at vehement soon that opened his lips and almost eclipsed his famil- Benson's passion rose high. He thundered and swelled. "D'you know what my power as commander is, sir?" ug uecause bo sudden, so uncommon, so unexpected and wild and beastlike. CHAPTER IX. OVKBBKAIUX "Too well," sighed Poole, standing upright like a private. The Queen struggled with this violent weather for six days. It was in the teeth of her course and blew her north northwest above 100 leagues. She was nothing strained in the hold, H** pumps sucked after a brief spell, but aloft she showed a distressed look, with the rain blackened canvas trapped to the yards and the gear blowing out slack as a man-of-war's pennon in a light wind. The roaring outside, however, subdued all litis within. The captain and mate would occasionally talk over the robbery of the arms chest, but the gale and the safety of the ship wen overwhelming present anxieties, and the incident of the theft grew dim as a fact and as a dangerous riddle. Likewise the captain gave but scant attention to the ten. They loafed through the furious weather as best they oould, snugging down in corners for a smoke, and markedly breaking themselves up so that they seemed no longer the same company of gentlemanly men who had oome together by chance and quickly developed into a ganglike clan. They'd oome on deck, and, holding on stoutly, stare for a little into the whole heart at the blast "What's that?" said Mr. Poole aload to himself, and when that strange cry was repeated a minute after, clearly proeeding as before from the sea right *head, he yelled out again, "What's that?" loud and shrill. "In her oabin, do you say?" exclaimed Trollope. "She'll be up in a minuto with the news. Perhaps she is waiting for the oaptain to go below. What made you—yon, man, of them all—so damnably incautious?" The unfortunate young mate mounted the steps. He was followed by Mr. Shannon, from whom, as though be bad been a specter, Captain Benson shrank, staggering off in a clumsy reooiL Poole instantly began: "It's Mr. Shannon, sir. We found him on- the flying jib boom end, sir. He was singing oat in a doleful, frightful voice, and I rushed forward, getting bo answer from the men, thinking them was a boat or raft or something of that sort under the bows." CHAPTBB VUL THH SEARCH. meanwhile oame and went at tbe stylight. It was noticeable that the men oontrived»tbat their own oabins should be first searched. They rushed the business with the mates by belp of laughter, skylarking and crowding. When it "How am I to know you're not in league with oertain people in this ship for some purpose that I mean to watch and frustrate, sir? D'you know your responsibilities? If I catch"— "If we're not to seize the ship, we should turn in," said Davenire. "There's Johnson, Shannon and others on the poop, and the mate's all eyes this night" The mates left the poop together. The passengers who were then on deck followed them, and old Benson stomped bis thxee fathoms of wfaite plank alone The seamen gror were now talkinj ment. Old Benson disordered in spir the open skylights. his rights in search D berths he hoped There were not many parliament in thost ed trouble on hi* detaining lawsuits, his command. be wondered, in _ peculiarly significant cuddy to be attacked castle? The lookout man leaped to his feet and sprang into the head to look over the bows. The watch tumbled on to their legs and ran confusedly to the forecastle. Again sounded" the melancholy, long drawn, heart subduing, wailing noise, and Mr. Poole, wild with impatience and excitement, unable to obtain a reply from the men, jumpod on the quarter deck and rushed forward. Thus were the principal decks for a space rendered vacant. The helmsman was far aft. Nothing happening on the quarter deck would be visible to him. with wrinkle* and to*- His speech was arrested by a sensation of choking. It was over in a minute, but the second mate was greatly alarmed and asked if be should procure some brandy. The skipper waved aside the question with a stout hearted flourish of his arm and was about to speak when he was again halted by his eyes lighting upon the barometer close past the seoond mate. "Look beret There's this to be done, and it's the only thing to be done—we must arm ourselves and take the ship tonight" dgare of m leanun, al • •• t D • rifying looks. "I suppose, as a passenger, Jon hare an interest in the safety of the vessel? I take it," he began to roar, looking with real fury around him, but always at the gentlemen, "that jron must wish, equally with myself and your fellow passengers, to discover the thieves, that we may judge of their motives. Apologies! I'd sooner sink the •hip." It was something after 11. "I shall loaf about till midnight," said Trollope. "If she keeps her cabin till then, she'll wait for the morning." "What's the hour?" said Caldwell. Just then Davenire oame along from the direction of the wheel. He stopped dead just abreast of them. "What's wrong?" he exclaimed. It was too dark to see the captain's face, but he fell to sputtering: "The ship was placed in your charge, sir. You bad no right to leave this deck, sir. Out on tbe flying jib boom end? Mr. Shannon, d'you say?" With a loud, suspicious miff he approached the gentleman, who exclaimed pleasantly: "It's all right now, captain. Hope I haven't brought tbe seoond officer into a difficulty. It's through no fault of his that I was out at the end of your long spar yonder. I walk in my sleep. Ever carried passengers before who walk in their sleep? Must have heard, of course, of that dreadful disease called somnambulism? Is it a disease? A distemper, then. A distempered brain will make a man walk when bis intellect is wrapped up in slumber. I might have gone overboard." Here the whole white figure of hia shook with a well acted shudder. "How do you know that anything's wrong?" said Caldwell, clawing the air as though to subdue the other's strong voioe. "And, then, haven't I said it?" exclaimed the tall man, peering into Davenire's face "The fools who have messed ns into this must lie. What's your hurry besides? We've been blown 400 miles nor'west. Looking at the southing in the course we're now making, Sunday night will be time enough." "And thenr" said Davenire. "That will dot sir." And the officer left the oabin. "Oh, gentlemen," shrieked Mrs. Peacock, "what are you exciting the oaptain like this for?" That Afternoon, some while before eight bells, a film drew over the sky. It was laden with a delicate beading of cloud. In places it looked like netting. The sun lost his shape and flooded twioe his diameter of sky with an oozing or draining of sickly light The sails of the ship took an odd, sulky glare of brass, and there being little wind they socked hard into the masts at every roll upon the mountain swell out of the south. "Look at Trollope's attitude. Look atyonra. What's wrong, I ask?" He repeated this question hotly. "What is it?" cried the second mate, thrusting in among the men and looking over the bows. "For mercy's sake don't talk of sinking the ship," whined Mrs. Holroyd, clutching her daughter by the arm, and both their faces were as white as any sail above them. "Which is her cabin? Is she out of it?" said Oaptain Trollope. And he walked to the skylight and put his head into the open frame. "I don't see nothing," said a gruff voice. "What the blazes is it or was it?" "There'll come no Sunday night for this job if tonight's not to begin it" growled Caldwell in his most brutal accentHe stepped uneasily abort, arched legs, singular little " most shapeless, his ears and his There were oamnnu morning in cheerfnller tain Benson. "Ain't that like a raft ®ut there?" exclaimed another. "If you don't apologize," said Oaptain Trollope, "you will hear of us again on your arrival." "Miss Mansel has our secret" said Caldwell. "I'll tell you how it happened." And he related the story, tumbling curses into it as he talked. Trollope Without answer walked into the cuddy. While he drank some water hp Htnnrl nlnm hpnide the arirl's door liscemng iui a suudu. nneu ne returned to the quarter deck, Davenire and Caldwell had disappeared. "Raft in your eye," grumbled Tom. "There's another man gone mad and another soul gone lost" "If you persist in this conduct, sir," exclaimed Captain Benson, soowllng up heroically hito Trollope's faoe, "I'll have yon laid by the heels. I'll have yon in irons as a mutineer. Ton shall know my power as commander, by"— And this little man who never swore made his speech awful to the ladies with an oath. Again it sounded, always ahead, yet faint and seemingly in the air. What is one to compare that melancholy, affrighting note to? Probably the African explorer may hear something like it when the cathedral gloom of the mighty forest has blackened into midnight. The glass had con tinned to fall. There was storm in the face of the heaven*, is the weedy smells of the sea. The son went oat in a blood red, smoky glare and the night fell black as ink, with a light air oat of the eastward and a wild moan in each goat, which the heavy dip at the ship on the large swell forced between her masts. Bat long ere this she had been snagged down to a few cloths of canvas. Pall of savage beauty waa the picture she made when having rounded into the trough she rolled her naked spars athwart that sullen flare of sunset in the far northwest On (he evening of the fifth day the weather moderated. At midnighf - -itars were shining, the k»M v white as milk, and much a boat hoar a beautiful light that irradiatea wide space of sea and air, like moon, fell oat of the heavens and the water with a note of thunder -teemed like a signal to the wind, minutes it had fallen a stark calm, through the dark hoars of the ma the ship lay rolling upon a round black swell, without a single ' life in her oatside the trouble *ea JOUM D Ltdi \ ■cud flew NJ thia CjHfi^k •Th" fcuC ?ix - in »o rr il r^^Bi •fd \ moraing m pulM of ■ of the / / 1 Fl^|, / WMDfd JF' poop Mod ■ VfmMAMO't *C* ***D 4^H H vvSWy t '/f mainsail, i ah \  *«* *« K \ \^ pillar a/ V \¥ ' he* jtber sVn\ -D —•' -jJ winch in the Oi^VVvVV^I The two AT\\\v indMr. N x X n""N\ T* («'**;  Meanwhile they the cuddy. Mr the job; aeithei men had franidj in a sailorly wa; pany understood CHAPTER X. THE SLEEP WALKER. Meanwhile on the poop the captain walked right aft beside the wheel smoking a cheroot, and with him paced the snrgeon, who told him that Miss Holroyd's illness was of a very light natnre. Something she had eaten had disagreed with her. "Seems to be drawing ahead of us," said a man in a hoarse whisper of fear and awe. "Ton mean me to believe that yon found your way from your bed to the jib boom end with your eyes shut?" "Ia it not reasonable," wnltinwd Captain Trollope, advancing from the companion stairs to the caddy (root as the two mates entered and thus arresting them, so to speak, on the very threshold of their business, "that we should be satisfied first of all that there is a chest of weapons broken open?" "But even then," said Mr. Caldwell, "are we to believe that there were arms in it!" Captain Trollope turned a deep soarlet He stood motionless, but speechless also. Others of the ten men bit their lips and looked toward the bows. Caldwell drew closer to the captain by a stealthy pace and a face that made Mr. Starr feel sick. The crew were watching and listening. They had gradually drifted in a body to abreast of the main hatchway and were still ooming aft. No man in his senses could have mistaken their attitude. Was it this or quite another reason that caused Captain Trollope to walk suddenly over to leeward, where he overhung the rail, gazing seaward and swinging one foot in hard kicks against a stanchion? 'TU have you laid by the heels." came to the ladies' cabin, however, there was a well mannered pansa "Where's the gale blowed us to?" said another. "Smite my eyes if the Red sea ain't aboard." "With my eyes open," exclaimed Shannon lightly. "The sleep walker seems to stare with attaining eyeballs, but sees not." "The mates may now search for themselves," said Captain Trollope, twisting on his heel, and pulling out a cigar oase be strolled contemptuously and leisurely toward the quarter deck. "Hold your jaw," cries the second mate, "and use your eyes. What d'you see?" "Otherwise we are a healthy ship, air," said the old skipper. "Fetch the doctor, sir," said the captain to Mr. Poole. Two men, pipes in month, from under the break of the stationed themselves at the foot mainmast for a obat and a smoke, was a warm night, bnt the place men had chosen was made pleasant a refreshing fanning of the that hnng festooned from its yard. this particular part of the thick and black with the hoflk the mainmast and its lines of gear layed to girdling pins, along with fnrnitnre such as the pump, the and the rest of it hereabout wake of the main hatchway. men were Mr. Dike CaldweL - Patrick Weston. They were both freai from the cuddy and the grog bottle, but there was no virtue in whisky to give animation to Caldwell's surly Toion "Aft, yes; forward up to the sailor's average, sir," said the surgeon. The gale grew slowly. It sprang out of the blackness and filled the rigging with 100 piercing whistles. It had an edge of antarctic spite in it, and for the cold of that first low blast there might have been a oontinent of ioe close aboard. It freshened. The lashed seas split in thunderclaps against the diving and straining ship, and the darkness wae made a visible whiteness by the foam that burst off bow and beam. At 9 in the morning it was blowing a hurricane. The sea was running in black hills, and the faoe of it was frightful with the light of the storm. The slant of the deck at each leeward roll was steep as • roof. The helmsmen were lashed to their posts. The captain stood under the shelter of • square of canvas in the miasen rigging belted to belaying pins. The mate hung to leeward, where the pitiless shriek and roar sometimes flew high enough above his bead to yield him the sensation at a lulL "Dummed if I don't think it comes from aloftl" said a sailor. And turning his back on the rail he lifted his ohin and stared straight up at the fore royal. The seoond mate rushed down the ladder. "Trollope," shouted Hankey. "The captain's cabin hasn't been searched yet" "It is a good average," exclaimed the skipper after a snck at his weed. "Why disturb the doctor, captain?" said Mr. Shannon. "Don't you believe me? What on earth do you think should oarry me to your flying jib boom end, aa you call it, in my bedclothes to risk my life if it wasn't this trick I've had ever since I was a child? I bad nearly let go when I opened my eyes and looked down and saw the bark's out water spitting fire into the sliding black water half a thousand feet off, as it seemed." "Gentlemen," said the mate, "you ■hall see the chest" "By thunder, not" cried Trollope, coining hastily back to the group. "A very poor average surely, sir," said the surgeon. "How would you have it otherwise? They get nothing to eat. If it were not for the air they feed on, they'd die." "Hellol hellol Why, what the blooming blazes is that?" roars Tom, writhing and staggering and pointing. He opened the door of Mr. Poole's berth. Several persons entered; two or three others talked at the table, apparently without interest in what was pass- Inc. The ladies kept their "You'll not enter my cabin if you please," roared the captain through the skylight They looked. The figure of a man was now to be seen—but as an apparition or phantom—bestriding the flying jib boom end. A cold horror ran in the blood of the superstitious seamen. A dead silence fell upon them while they stared, and not the least amazed and terrified of the gogglers was young Mr. Poole, the second mate. "Captain Benson," said Mr. Da venire, going under the skylight and looking up through an eyeglass, "you have affronted us, the first olass passengers of the Queen, with your suspicions. We now choose," he went on with a well contrived drawl, "to suspeot you of having plundered the arms chest.'' The skipper stood waSnhing him for a minute or sa His lips worked. It looked as though be would be unable to restrain some command that raged like a choking fire in his throat Then be suddenly exclaimed: "Mr. Matthews, turn the men to, sir. Let the business of the ship go on. Then attend me in my cabin. Mr. Poole, you'll keep the lookout " And he stepped to the oompan ionway and vanished. Old Benson came to a stand as though shocked and exclaimed sternly, "There is no class of laboring men better fed than the sailor." "Now you see it," said the mat*. Hankey examined the look and exclaimed, "Yes, newly smashed, by J«ve! No doubt of that" The surgeon bowed contemptuously. It was not for him to argue with this despot of the quarter deck. The skipper fell back a step. Waa the man insane? He waa in a lonely part of the deck with him—a little man, and t'other had a ohest like a table—and ia silence he pricked his ears for the—HUB of the mate and the arrival of the surgeon.The second mate lifted the lid, and Captain Trollope, looking down into the open box over his folded arms, said, "What were the weapons?" "Blunderbusses, horse pistols, cutlasses and so on," said Poole, soaroely able to hold his face as he gave a name to the ridiculous parcel. "Every wont we've mUTt been overv a «• The mate's voice just then was beard calling. The skipper went along the deck and the snrgeon below. "Fok'sle there,"came a hail from the jib boom end, "can any of you tell me how the deuce I've got out here?" The skipper looked down with the spirit of murder aflame in each deep seated little eye. He was dumb with wrath till, finding his voioe, he shouted to Mr. Matthews to come on deck. Some of the men were then for going at oooe to the captain's cabin. Trollope restrained them. heard." Droolre graaped him by the arm. He was a giant of a creature, and the other's arm felt lifeless la that grip of "I oonldn't make ont who it was, air," said the mate, standing at the rail and addressing some one on the quarter deck. The mate, having turned the men to and taken a look aft the ship's oourse, entered the captain's cabin. The old skipper, reverend with white hair and comely with the look of sailorly heartiness and manliness which his hat half hid when it clothed his forehead to the white line of his eyebrows, stood at his little table with a hand upon it lost in thought He started when the mate entered, and instantly looked stern and full of business. "I wish," nji Weston, lighting Ma pipe at a silver tinder box, then handing the toy to Caldwell, "that thia had been the night fixed on. We're moat at us beastly sick of waiting." "The weather wasn't to be helped," «id Caldwell. "Hang me," muttered the second mate, "if it isn't one of the ten passengers. Hello, you, sir," he shouted. "What are you doing out there? Lay in! Lay in! You've alarmed the whole ship's company with this tomfoolery." Two figures at this imltant Mara oat of the cuddy dooc. "Come upf Come up, sir!" the skipper shouted. The zealous but unlucky Poole sprang np the ladder. The dootor's step had the leisurelinessof uncertainty. The mates were half stunned by the roar of laughter that attended this. "I'd like to have the shooting of you both." said he. "Has the girl gone to the captain yet?" "It's too hot to turn in," exclaimed Captain Trollope in a drawling note. The little skipper reached the mate's side and looked down. "Good booty," exclaimed Captain Trollope, wiping his lips. He bunt into another lftugh. " Blunderbuaaea and horse pistols, eh? I think I see old Captain Benson taking aim, the wrong eye shot, a purple face glowing at the butt and like the August moon at the tail of a shoal, the piece all trigger and the flint gone." In the gray of the mcraing the wind slackened, yet it still blew a living gale. The disoomfort was shocking. The main deck was drowned and the cnddy awash spite of the secured doom. The ladles lay in their beds, speechless with sickness and terror. Mr. Dent, with clinched teeth, wrote an aooount at their oondition and thrust the paper into a bottle, which he carefully corked; then, with reeling bead and flying legs, he gained the octmpanion steps, rose upon them to the height of his head, and, watching his ohanoe, flung the bottle at the sea with snob dexterity that it struck the rail and went to splinters upon the deck at the instant his wideawake flew eleverly overboard. The captain, holding by the rigging and leaning ia his girdle like a man heaving the lead, roared some words into the wind at the oolonial merchant, who, catching no meaning and fearing for his life if he trusted to his legs, slid down into the cuddy and regained his oabin. "We'll do better than that," said be. "We'll get a red herring of au apology oat of him far the trail." "If our attitudes are so expressive," said Caldwell, "we shan't help ourselves by standing here. There's Mat- "Tomfoolery!" cried back the gentleman, who continued to bestride the boom end. "Who's the tomfool that's played this joke off on me? Who's launched me ont on this dangerous place? If I let go, I am a killed man." "Here's this gentleman says he's walked in his sleep out of his bunk oa to the flying jib boom end, where he fell to howling, causing the second officer to oommit a grave breach of duty by quitting his charge to see what the matter was on the fok'sle instead of calling me. Now, sir?" The captain volleyed these wads at the doctor, who answered quietly: "A case of sleep walking, eht Who is it? Mr. Shannon! Sir, you have had a narrow escape of your Ufa." "I suppose the gold'11 be easy to get C*t?" says Weston. "Who is that, sir?" said he, peering suspiciously, tnougn ne saw piainiy enough, for Trollope stood in the small sheen flowing through the cuddy windows."Gentlemen," said the mate, ooming down the companion stepe after a few min 11 tee, "by order of the captain the aearch is over. Follow me to the f ok'ale, Mr. Poole." thews over the way watching us, and the captain still on deck. Come forward.""Hankey knows where it's stand. Trollope's notion of keeping a ooople of men aboard is a good un. The whole ten'11 want to go ashore with the gold to make sure of its tomb. The fellows we detain'11 watch the ship while we're gone." "You found nothing forward, of course, air? I can judge by the deportment of the crew that they are to be trusted. Some one aft ha* robbed the ship; more than one perhaps. What has he done with the weapons? What waa his object in stealing them?" Trollope Joined them. "She's not in the cnddy," said he. "She's left the oabin. Have you told Davenire?" "Captain Trollope, sir," said the mate. "Is he drunk?" said the second mate. Another shout of laughter. "I say," here bawled Mr. Johnson, "aren't Mr. Dent and Mr. Storr's cabins to be searched?" "What are the regulations in this ship?" exclaimed Trollope, backing to the quarter deck capstan and leaning in a haughty pose while he looked up 1 'Do you put your passengers to bed like schoolboys, that a man can't walk the deck here on a hot night for a mouthful of fresh air without being challenged by the officer of the watch?" "We must bring him in," said the second mate, "or he'll be overboard. Jump out, some of you men, and help him along." "Lunatic, air, lunatic,'' growled Tom. "Suppose we begin the search here," said Mr. Davenire, looking with crooked eyebrows at the portrait of Poole's mother, while Mr. Caldwell adranoed his black bead to view the crucifix. Mr. Cavendish and Mr. Hankey sauntered up. "They may run away with her." "The innocence of us all aft," said the mate, with a grave smile, "has converted the whole thing into a joke. The captain's desire is that it may go no further." "That's to be provided gainst," said Caldwell in his slowest, ugliest tone. "Od's thunder! Don't you know sailors?""This won't do," said Trollope quickly. "Davenire, follow me on to the main deck. Caldwell, stop and watch if she leaves her cabin. Don't group yourselves and be quick with your tale. If the girl makes her report, you and Weston must bounoe it out. You'll lie like fiends. She's hysterical, d'you see? She's imaginative, she dreams, she works a nightmare into a horrible accusation that must include Dent and Starr." But even as he spoke these words the shadow at the flying jib boom end had cast its legs over and was sliding toward the forecastle in a manner that instantly satisfied the experienced eyes of the Jacks that he required no assistance, fie drew in very stealthily, pausing when at the bowsprit as thongh to admire the picture of the ship as she drove in sleepy beauty, pale and silent, over the water. The mate looked a remonstrance. He did not relish the olBciouaneas Crf these gentlemen. But he had overheard the skipper's answer to Captain Trollope on the poop and bad nothing to say. The search then began. Tbe locker was opened. the mattress tumbled; they peered under tbe bunk; they beat tbe bulkheads as though for secret panels and mysterious hiding places. "We have the powder and ball, sir," said tbe mate. "If they're aboard, the things are as useless as if they were over the aide." "Bat are we to believe it, airT" gasped Captain Benson. "A joke," growled Mr. Caldwell, pushing bis scowling face close to tbe mate, whose fists instantly doubled, while his smile fled like a shadow of cloud from his features. "You search my cabin as if I waa a thief, and you call it a joke." "I suppose Trollope will stick to tomorrow night?" said Weston. "I would advise you not to exasperate me with these needless affronts," said Shannon and his white figure looked firm in the dusk. "This is the second time yon have given me the lie." "My arms chest has been plundered," bawled the skipper. "Things are wrong in this ship. What are yoa doing in the middle watch at the jib boom end*, howling? How did he howl, sir?" he cried, rounding on Mr. Poole. i "Most shookingly and infernally, "Who is that Captain Trollope? Who are these ten passengers? They are a confederacy, sir. They threaten mischief. What do they intend?" "If it's like this," answered Caldwell. "Hand us that tinder box of yours." "It was no challenge," said the mate. "I thought you were one of the seamen.""I shall stay on deck all night if I choose," naid Trollope, pulling ont a cigar case, with no intention, however, of smoking. "My pussage money entitles me to the nse of this ship." The steward bad come oat of UDe windsail and approached tbem on hi* way to the forecastle. He stared hard at the two gentlemen, but there was no light to know them by. He passed on, looking backward onoe. "I believe, sir," said the slow and practical mate, viewing his captain's inflamed face with steadfast, thoughtful eyes, "that you will disoover this business is nothing mote than a practical joke, poor and vulgar, but something to make a bankrupt of its author if he's to be come at Mr. Poole in the forecastle told me this"—recollecting tbe matter with a sudden surprise—"he said the gentleman named Hankey, during his.visit to tbe ship the night before we sailed,- asked, among other questions, about the arms chest and burst into a laugh when the box was shown him and tbe oontents stated." "It's you who've made a joke erf it I was obeying orders,'' exclaimed the mate, with a slight ebade of green entering his complexion as he looked round him. Speaking these wards swiftly and softly, he went oo to the quarter deck, followed by Davenire. He was perfectly oolleoted by this time. Davenire, on the other hand, ooold scarcely speak for wrath. Weston still watched the owUj from the foot of the mainmast, wbsrc the shadow buried him. He quitted his port when Davenire and the otbsr passed. "Come in, sir!" bawled the second mate, and in the man oame, gaining the deck with as nimble a spring over the rail as was ever witnessed on a man-of-war. They next went in a body to tbe mate's berth. Ten gentlemen were now assisting the two officers to find the plunder, and they made a considerable crowd in tbe little cabin. Tbeir number waa a trouble. Nothing could be done for elbows and shoving. "There's no good in all this skylarking," said Burn. "I mean if the thief's to be discovered." This happened shortly before the breakfast hoar. The ship was then laboring heavily, and the stewards prepared a meal at the risk of their lives. They were ooostantly thrown. They stumbled and tripped and reeled with their hands fall of crockery. Some of the ten emerged and cheerfully helped them. By the time breakfast was ready the whole of the ten gentlemen had left their cabins and were seating themselves in their accustomed places as the old skipper came below. "To your cabin and the table, sir, but to the deck at the discretion of the commander," bawled the skipper, who had come to this talk angry from the surgeon. "Do yon know," said Westoo softly, -tnat that curly legged son of a gun has the soent of us?" "The' culprit is the commander, not his officers, Caldwell," said Captain Trollope. The seamen crowded round him. Mr. Poole shoved in. The gentleman was Mr. Walter Shannon. He wore pyjamas and a white shirt and was hatless and barefooted. Rubbing his eyes and yawning, looking first np and then down, then round him with sudden motions of hiB head, Mr. Shannon counterfeited a hundred marks of agitation, distress and bewilderment sir." "I decline to listen to you, Captain Benson," said Trollope. "You act impertinently in addressing me. You owe me an apology, aud 1 intend to exact it as a gentleman and as a man who has had the honor of holding her majesty's commission. Failing it, sir, when we arrive in London, I will take a very early opportunity of what sailors call 'squaring the yards' with you." "Just explain, doctor, that I am ft somnambulist, will yoa? Have yoa any book on the subject? But of your own experience, no doubt, yoa'U have plenty of tales to entertain and convince the captain with." "1 wish the biasing bast new was iver," exclaimed Weston. "I guess the whole ship distrusts us. We may find ourselves cornered in the wink of an eye. Benson's just the sort of man to take his chance when he's frightened, and that small arms business has fright* rned the old codger." "What then?" "Cheer up, Poole," said Hankey, slapping the seoond mate on tbe back. "Jump forward now, and carry the mate along with you. It's the sailor who hopped overboard that's the thief, and you'll find the weapons in his sea boots." "I'd have brained her," said be, "tf I had known she sat them listening." "Ton all llredt" Davenire said. "What are yon doing here?" Trollop* exclaimed. "There's nothing hero," said Captain Trollope, looking around bin with slight disdain over tbe bead of tbe mate. Contriving every attitude of sulky contempt his figure oould convey by that light, Shannon lounged to the oompantonway and sank, all white, like a ghost, through the hatch. Mr. Shannon lightly knocked on Davenire's door and passed in. "Bet your holiest prospects on that," ■aid Mr. Matthews slowly, cap in hand, wiping his fuoe, for indeed the whole of tbem shone with perspiration and most of them with good spirits. "Next cabin," shouted Mr. Masters, and tbe heap dashed in a huddle into the cuddy, bearing tbe two mates helpless in tbe thick of tbem. Mr. Dent came out of his cabin and stood with Mr. Storr. "Stated—stated," blew tbe little man in a great fit of passion. "What right had the seoond officer to state the contents, as yon call it—to reoelve a visitor, to talk to him, I say? Was be drunk?" Giving his spray soaked hat to one of the stewards, be took his chair at the bead of the labia A few of the gentlemen, catohing his eye, bowed. He inclined his head gravely and inquired of the steward after the ladies and Mr. Dent and Mr. Starr. They wanted nothing, he was answered. The name of food increased their nausea. Mr. Hankey and two or three others seemed desirous, by the looks they oast at the captain, to propitiate him. Captain Trollope sat grim and hard faced as a figurehead."What is the meaning of this, sir?" said the second mate sternly. "We an ten," said Caldwell in a low, brutal, grunting voioo—"ten resolved men whose one opportunity lies in this job. We are in plunty enough to eat the ship. How are we to be oornered, as you call it?" "Watching the ouddy to see if she leaves her cabin," answered Weston, looking with a mad, helpless eye at Davenire's vast bulk. "Has she done so?" Saying which he lounged out of sight into the shadows about the galley. "I say," exclaimed Captain Trollope, striding up to them with an unlighted cigar in his hand, "we mean to make tbe skipper apologise for this affront You expect an apology, I suppose." "I think I see it all now," exclaimed Mr. Shannon, talking as though his teeth chattered. "I have walked in my sleep." Old Benson's lungs pumped with an engine's power with passion. The mate a few feet distant heard him blowing like a grampus. But what could he do? Prudence not to be neutralized by temper was one of his several usefal naval qualities. Supposing he locked Captain Trollope up, laid him in irons, as his present rage dictated. The news would spread on the ship's arrival. The papers would comment with their usual impertinent freedom on the subject. Captain Benson would be known as the skipper who clapped his passengers in irons for venturing to take the air of a hot night A man who knew Benson well onoe said of him to another, "There is not much sentiment in Benson." "Yes, plenty," answered the other, "but they call it fifty per-centiment." This bad been Burn's berth. Mark Da venire sat upright in the only bunk it contained. His huge legs, clothed in drawers, hung over the edge of the shallow board that held the mattress, and his great figure seemed to fill the place. By the dim light of a lamp swaying at a bracket the two men saw each other. Davenire's eyes had an extraordinary brightness. They shone like fire in his pale face. Sunlight would have submitted him white as milk. His large, heavily framed form was trembling, and as Shannon entered the big, pale fellow put down a flask. "Looks to me, sir, as if Mr. Hankey was the prime joker in this job." "Na" "And talked, too, I allow,"said a man with a grunting laugh. "What Christian country does that there howl of yours belong to?" "Tbe captain is within his rights. I don't wiah to meddle. Where are the firearms?" answered Mr. Storr, stammering with uneasiness. "Hang it all, man, you must know. What's the use of firearms to a man under hatches?" "Oo right aft where the captain is and let him see you. Talk with a lady if you can find one. You'll have to outswear the girl." "Aren't you going to search tbe ship with us?" bawled Mr. Hankey to Mr. Storr, who stood in a posture of uncertainty at the head of tbe table. Tbe little auctioneer responded with a pale smile and a weak, meaningless flourish of the hand. "Who's to prove it?" hissed the fiery skipper. "His cabin was searched, I suppose?""No man of the ten is fool enough to hide two or three hundredweight of old iron and steel in his cabin with the stewards in and out and the stuff itself plunder, sir." "We are too many," said the other, letting his bead fall back and looking up at the stars. "Seven could have worked this joke of a ship, and we keep two of the forecastle bands, and it isn't 10 into 800,000 either. Rot this sort of expeditions. They always carry a crowd. • • • I say, look at those shooting stars. Cheap fireworks," said he, continuing to stare straight aloft, "which there's never a cockney would condescend to look at. Make a theater show of it, and the beasts couldn't swarm fast enough. Perfect clouds of brilliants, upon my word"— "The ship should be seized tonight," said Weston. "Go aftl" "It is quite clear to me now," exclaimed Mr. Shannon, speaking in a voice of awe. "I have walked in my sleep. To think of my having crept in my unconsciousness to that extreme point of the ship there! Qood angels, what an escape I" Captain Trollope looked down at him with so inimitable a oountenauce of anger and disgust that tbe little man trembled. Weston went slowly up the poop ladder. The other two walked forward. The shadow lay deep near the galley and longboat, and the two continued to pace 80 yards of theileok there. They talked in whispers. The night was so gentle, the air so sweet and warm, that half the watch below, as well as the watch on deck, were nodding in odds and ends of plaoes, and a coup! j discoursed on the fore hatch in low, growling notes. The table submitted a poor show of dishes, the cook oould do nothing with the galley fire, and the ten gentlemen and Captain Benson—the mate did not ennear—drank beer or wine. "It blows a strong gale of wind, sir," said Mr. Johnson politely. He sat nearest to the oaptain. "There's the captain looking," said Shannon in a low voice to Caldwell, and they both laughed. Sure enough, in tbe open frame of tbe skylight waa the head erf the skipper. Hegaaed down with his face full of blood, amaaed and enraged, bat be, like bis officer, bad nothing to say. "Come on deck," said Mr. Dent and the two men climbed tbe companion steps. "Is the second offioer to be trusted? Give me reason to doubt him, and I'll break him out of hand. He shall be under lock and key for the rest of the voyage. " "There wasn't much the looks of an escape in the way you came sliding in," said a man. The ladies now oame forth. Mr. Barn officiously offered his arm to Mis. Dent, who declined, with the courtesy of a oook. Mia. Peacock was conducted up the steps by Mr. Hankey. The other ladies helped themselves. They were briskly followed by the ten gentlemen, with Captain Trollope at their head. It was hard upon noon, and the captain was calling through the skylight to the steward for his sextant. Forward the ship looked deserted. In fact the mess kids bad been carried from the galley, and the men ate their dinner while the two mates went the rounds of Jaok'a sea parlor. "Give me that if there's a drop in " " MatvnvH Ahunnnn "Stop your people from being impertinent, Mr. Poole," said the gentleman. "Take it," said Da venire, pointing to his side. He would not extend his arm. He did not want Shannon to see how his hand shook. The mate reflected and answered earnestly, "You'll find he's perfeotly honest and trustworthy, sir." "It blows bard, sir," answered old Benson, arresting the hand with which he was abont to cut a slice of some kind of saussge while he witched the steward crawl on his hands sod feet to leeward to pick np a piece of ship's beef that had sprang from the table. "What's the good," suddenly roared Tom, "of a man laying out to a ship's flying jib boom end and yowling? Qoing there for that? What's the blooming good of it? All in the dead of the night. Do they call it sleep walking? I've known sailormen ashore get a month for smaller skylarking jobs than this." And the grumbler, stepping to the fore scuttle, dropped noiselessly into the seamen's deu. The next cabin attacked was the one ihared between Mr. Dike Caldwell and MT- Isaac Cavendish. The 18 filled this littfr room like a burst of wind. There w*D hardly space for an elbow to jerk itself. Shouts of laughter reached the captain's ears. They tumbled the mattress; they roared over an old raaor strop A toothbrush was flung through the open porthole. It was Caldwell's, and he turned savagely upon the joker. "That portmanteau?" said the mate. "You don't forget what we're carrying home, do you?" The old skipper hoped to sail the seas a few years longer and to add to his dividends, which were already not inconsiderable, and so after blowing at the rail for a few minutes he threw his cigar away and went to his cabin. He felt a hand upon his arm. "If the girl whips ont with it tonight, they'll lock ns np one by one while we're in our cabins. That's how they'll secure us." The other picked up a flask and sacked down a raw mouthful. "I've done my bit," said he. "I got them all forward. How was it with you?" "Oh, my God!" mattered Davenire. "Do you mean"— "I do not,'' answered the mate firmly. "Give the men to understand that we have our suspicions of the ten cuddy passengers and start them on keeping a bright lookout for themselves. Let them know it may come to their saving their throats by doing it" "Oh, my great thunder!" exclaimed Weston in a whisper of terror. "Every word we've said's been ovurheard." "I presume there is no danger?" said Mr. Masters. Caldwell stood stiff and stirless as a graven image. At this instant the dark, shadowy form of a woman passed from the other side of the mainmast and went toward the cuddy. "The oaptain durstn't do it on the charge at a girl who might have been dreaming." Seven bells were struck at that moment—half past 11. Johnson and Hankey were beside the skylight No other passengers were on deck. The man at the wheel stood solitary aft. The two men lighted their pipes when the captain went below, and the mate said nothing, for why should ho stop men from smoking when the ladies had gone to bed? The captain let his little eyes dwell upon the man for a minute. He then answered, with a significant look, with one at those slips which will make old fashioned English of old men's talk, "Was yon never at sea before?" "No, no. The searet's our own stilL I've been listening to her calling to me through there." "The idiots mentioned the island and the value of tbe nuggets," said Daven ire. "Could she dream that?" The mate, with astonishment slowly growing in his face, said: "Aye, aye, sir. But what name and shape am I to give to our suspicions?" "Come aft! Come aft, sir," exclaimed Poole, catching him by the arm. And he added in a hot whisper: "This is the sailor's end of the ship. You're mad to anger them here. Look! Every belt has its knife. I'll not be answerable." Shannon shuddered and said in a defiant sort of way, as though seeking for spirit in demeanor, "Was it quietly managed?" This was the situation at this hour. The captain was about to take sights, and the ten knew their business too well to hinder him. Tbey lounged until eight bells had been made, the old skipper sharing his fiery glances between them and the sun, and when the bell was being struck by the seaman, who smoked furtively while he stood waiting, the two mates oame out of the forecastle."Who is it?" exclaimed Caldwell, finding his voice and his life, too, aa it were, in a very flash. "Ho, you don't," said Caldwell, with one of his ugly, black soowls, and he sat down upon it "Mr. Matthews, I appeal to your common sense," exclaimed Captain Trollope, endeavoring to fan himself with his hat "Is it oonoeivable, even niDPoeing Mr. Caldwell were the cull*tt, that he'd thrust the rusty contents of an old arms chest among his shirts and waistcoats?" "We're to know nothing at it We're passengers going home. How can an accusation take effeot?" The old skipper was at a loss. He stared vacantly through the large cabin window, then exclaimed: "We must watch 'em. You will keep your eye upon him, sir. You will keep your eye upon Mr. Poole also." "Oh, just a little," answered Mr Masters airily, but with a mind of cau tion that betrayed itself in the fingers be fiddled bis tumbler of beer with. "But 1 was never in such a hurricane as this." "I didn't see her face," answered Weston. "I'll tell yon what," growled Davenire, "if this ship isn't seised tonight, tbe game's up." "Caldwell's a bloody monster!" was the answer. "Whatever he takes in hand in this way is bound to be quietly managed." Instantly Caldwell was gliding after her. Tbe cuddy entrance was close at band. Tbe lamps burned brightly. Tbe night was so fine that, though it was now growing late, the ladies and others of the passengers lingered on the poop. The woman looked behind her as she entered the door, and Caldwell perceived that she was Miss Margaret Manse 1. He carelessly paced to the foot of the port poop ladder, whiob be seemed to mount There standing, he commanded a view of tbe interior. He saw Miss Manse) walk to tbe table and rest herself upon her hand, with her bead turned in the direction of tfato quarter deck, and be noticed how quickly she breathed and how white she was. The shadowy fignre of Captain Trollope came and went on the quarter deck within sight of the mate, who watched him as if he feared he was going to blow up the vessel. Not till eight bells did that tall shape disappear. Mr. Matthews. with somo relief of mind, then saw it stalk into the cuddyTnd close its own cabin door upon itself. Johnson and Hankey had by this time smoked their pipes out and vanished. The girl had not shown herself. One or another had found an excuse to listen tiptoe fashion at her door. Once Hankey did so; Shannon, too, and Caldwell, all under the pretense of drawing water from a filter abreast of Miss Mansel's berth, but no sound had been heard, and it was then felt and understood by the conspirators who were sober that the girl, for good reasons she would doubtless be able to explain, had resolved not to communicate what she had overheard till the morning. "I'll make it right with you, my lads. Fired if I yet know where I am." And Mr. Shannon stretched his arms and yawned and stared again, first up and then down and then around, with a fine affectation of bewilderment and alarm. "She won't be seised tonight," answered Trollope coolly, "and I'll tell yon why. Burn and Masters have turned in drank as drowned owls. Miss Holroyd's ill, the mother's fidgety, and the surgeon's in and out, and will be in and oat through tbe night Half the ship's company are sprawling about the decks. How are you going to get them under batches without more murder than I have a mind to for one?" Shannon drew close to the bunk and speaking with bis lips at Davenire's ear said: "There must be no delay now. If Trollope won't consent, the rest must rise and do it. Murder's been brought into the business. We'd hoped against tkat, yon know"— The captain called the steward, went to his cabin, and there questioned the man closely. He had faith In this fellow. His name was Trickle. He was legged like his master and was about 80 years old, and the Jacks would tell him he walked on his father's legs and it was right the skipper should take a fatherly interest in him. He had nothing to tell the commander of the ship, had no suspicions. He was of Mr. Matthews' opinion. It was a practical joke with some deeper meaning in it than fooling—as, for instance, it might have been the work of one who disliked the second mate and hoped to get him into trouble. "Gentlemen," said tbe old skipper firmly, "you are all of you very fortunate in possessing good sea legs. There are not many landsmen who could sit and eat at this table with so much courage and good spirits and with so nice a trick of fitting themselves to the heave." "Let's hear the repdrt," murmured Trollope to Da venire. But it had now ruu into more than 20 minutes since Mr. Poo!e rushed from tne poop to tne rorecastie to learn meaning of the distressful, spiriflVioving wailing, aud in less than 30 minutes a barbarous murder may be done. "You don't touch it" snarled Mr. Caldwell, keeping his seat and looking dangerously at the mate. "Not that your rotten stuff is here," he added, smiting the leather, "but they've thrown my toothbrush away, and 111 be hanged tf these gentlemen shall make a fool of me by a publio exhibition of my private effects." "It was understood that the portmanteaus were not to be touched," said Mr. Davenire. Mr. Matthews, followed by Poole, came on to the poop. He was pale with heat perhaps with fatigue. He was scarcely recovered from illness, and the corners of his mouth drooped with dislike and oontempt of his latest job. The ladies and most of the men crowded close to hear. Most of the women looked very frightened. Miss Mansel's dark, pensive eyes were frequently directed in rapid glanoes at some of the gentlemen. The little skipper stood bolt upright his arms hanging, his sextant in his clutch at his side. The mates touched their cm pa "A poor girl!" groaned Davenire, trembling and talking as though his other ear was strained at the open port. After this no man spoke for some time Tbe long pause was filled with the dull thunder at shattering seas. The sabin was loud with tbe shrieks and groans of strained fastenings. With sauntering 6teps Mr. Shannon followed the second mate off the forecastle, but when he was in the thick of the shadow between the bulwark and the longboat he made a stride, and catching the officer by the shoulder arrested him with a hand of iron. Poole sprang round to his own defense. The other laughed softly at the second mate's fighting attitude and exclaimed: "If we should be clapped under," continued Shannon, "we're banged men." "They'll be there tomorrow and tomorrow," said Davenire. "How then? Do you expect everything so to happen that we may seiae this ship sweetly and quietly as though she lay nnwatched in dock?" "Tomorrow night," said Davenire. "Or this night that's to come," he added, looking toward a large silver watch that dangled at the extremity of his great silver chain by the side of the lamp. "Sneak off now and turn in." All of a sudden Captain Trollope, standing up, but holding on, addressed Captain Benson in a huge burrioane lunged voice, such as a man would send across a moor at night for help, "You have had time to reflect, sir, and now probably you will see your way to make tbe voyage a pleasant one by apologizing for the affront you caused your mates to put upon us yesterday." "Our secret's out,w said he in a whisper that seethed through his lips in bis efforts to control its volume. "Miss Margaret Mansel knows that we're ten »»»«D»n to seise the vessel tomorrow night'' Caldwell instantly saw Trollope. "It's a measly business, so far as I am oonoerned, gentlemen," said the mate, "something new to me in th's line of life I don't fancy," be added dryly, "that we shall find the weapons we want in tbese cabins." "Obey orders, if you break owners," ■aid Mr. Weston. "Next cabin, and SfeOTG flhrnd 99 "I lead in this matter, I think," said Trollope quiokly and fiercely. "If every man is to be boss, it'll be the fiend's delight all round snd nothing to oome of it after.'' • Without another syllable Shannon slipped, specterlike, from Davenire's berth and gained his own. ' 'Go and send the second mate to me." "My dear fellow, you quite mistake. I merely wish to ask you"— "Well, sir?" said Captain Benson. "We can find nothing that answers to what's missing," said Mr. Matthews. Poole was eating his lunch in the chief mate's place. He arose nervously. "80 it seems, sir," let fly old £enson in a broadside of sputters the instant the young fellow presented himself, "that you did not give me the whole truth whan I Questioned vou about yanr Trollope stood bolt upright "The secret's known, man," exclaimed Davenire. "The whole ship'll be full of it" It was now Mr. Poole's turn to take charge of the ship. He arrived promptly, and when the mate was gone sent a lazy glance at the sea, and to thoroughly awaken himself for the four "By thunder, Mr. Shannon, but it'll go hard with you if you handle me again in that fashion!" interrupted Poole in a voice strong with resentment and dislike. In faot, the strength of the Othnr hud nnt th« ohnnk of a blow into Continued on Second Page. The skipper jumped up and looked at him. His lips worked, but no sound was made. Then with a gesture of frensv be hoisted bis arm and anamwd his "It's my fault and Weston's. We were gabbling like drunken lunatics, but softly, in tbe darkness down yonder. never doubting wa ware aleo*. "I never believed that the weapons were forward," said the little skipper, mr with mine wrath. "There's nothing to be done tonight," MM Trollop* in a steady vote*. Ooatumpnan on m oared by the twe of ShilohV Dure. This great oough inn ta ih. only known remedy for that tarrlblo *a. null hj an nsslsisi Xhua they proceeded, and t^a#aptain