Pittston Gazette

              K8*AHI..ISII KID1850. i VOL. XLV1I. NO. 17 f Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY. JANU vRY 8. 1897. A Weekly local and Family Journal. cabin's empty. '* "I distrust every one of those ton passengers, " continued the captain. "'But I am at a loss to know how to deal with them. I can prove nothing. I can take no stops which I might afterward justify. Ther» are ten of them, sir—ten several snits at law. I hate tho law, sir. I was never in a law coort in my life. I have worked hard and am advancing in years and am not to be sold up and professionally ruined by—by"— Hero tho old fellow fairly broke down, crimsoning till he looked throttled. &iii&m uit ci, . .at »» i was meant to be done?" •vaUj LsJt \\ iiiit others, half dazed with sleep, were grasped by the conspirators and rushed with the speed of wind past tho windlass ends to the forecastle doors. Instantly these were closed, the scuttle socured, and the 11 seamen—counting him of tho spasms—and tho cook of tho bark Queen were as helplessly imprisoned in their sea parlor as ever they were certain to be at some future time for the several causes of drink, mutiny and the like in the lockup ashore. ing up joke," and be jingled the cabin keys in his coat pocket. whose halyards, he was thinking, wanted unother small pull now that daylight disclosed the brig, there emerged stooping through the shabby companion hood just before the gun a hearty figure of a stouter bulk than Mr. Hardy, dressed in a naval cap, a suit of dungaree and a check shirt. THE GRosvEaour ropviitMr. mow py "r»r autwoh. The skipper remained in Miss Mansel's cabiu in conversation with Mrs. Storr, her hnsband, and the Dents. A group of fellows were lighting their pipes on the quarter deck under the recess. Already the news that tho young lady passenger with the fine eyes had mysteriously disappeared was got forward, and by putting your head out of Miss Mansel's cabin door you might have seen through tho cuddy windows fje whole strength of tho ship's company gathered in a heap about the windlass end. Indeed Mr. Poole on tho poop conversing with Captain Trollope and Mr. Caldwell was too much astonished and frightened by the report from below to giv# heed just then to the discipline of tho vessel. "Have you spoken to the mute about that there notion of yourn, 'Arry?" repeated the mau who had stopfied eating to listen. urow aiom vo peer into rne raoe turn looked oold and hard as granite. "How long's Trollope going to be?" said Masters. "This seems a case of murder," said the oommander, apparently thinking aloud. "I wish that hag would choke herself," said Weston, with a mad look. "Who is it?" "No, 'tain't for me to interfere. If they wants advice, they knows where to come for it," answered 'Arry, pulling a piece of pipe out of his breeches pocket and looking at it earnestly as though he would talk to it as Dana's Finn talked to the bottle of rum. "Beg pardon, your honor," said one of the seamen, touching his forehead, a homely, middle aged, good natured sailor, with a Limehouse look and a hand of yellow oakum dangling at his ohiu, "that body's not been long in the water.""Mother Peacock," answered Burn. "I'm sorry for the Holroyds—doooid awkward work; found everybody stark, staring wide awake," said Masters. And he exclaimed with an oath, while ho wiped his forehead, "It it's over, it's well over, and I wouldn't have it over again." This person was Commander Boldock, K. N., a man with a huge face, of scarlct flesh, in the midst of whioh sparkled two good humored gray eyes. His head was riisproportioned. It belonged to a giant His mouth, his teeth, his ears, whatever grew above his throat, lilliputianised the rest of him. His friends feared that he had water on the brain. The ill uatured, however, called it whisky and water. It was sure yon saw by his hue at once that he loved his drop, and indeed this very morning yon might swear that he had brought it with him out of his cabin, since the instant his immense face, brilliant with sweat, showed its '•* hove the companion way a faint scent of rum entered the light breeze and blew over the rail to leeward. The moon was dark that night, but tho sea line ran firm and tlack against a sort of faintness liko the lunar dawn itself in the clear--obscure low down— and the stars were many, and some of them splendid. The wind poured in a steady hum out of the cloudless dusk sparkling to windward, and the mate, when they hove the log a little before eight bells, made the speed 8% knots. "'Ere, I say I" bawled a voioe over tho edge of the hammock. "What the blazes have they gone and done with us?" "You are II mon forward, captain," said the doctor. " We are six men aft— nay, count Mr. Storr and Mr. Dent, and we are eight men aft. Nineteen to ten—nearly double." He shrugged his round shoulders. "How do yon know?" said the commander, whipping his great face round upon him sharp and eager. A pair of legs twinkled to the deck from another hammock. A seaman rolled out of his bunk. Tom jumped for tho scuttle and tried it There was a sudden surprising hurry of figures in this wild, uncouth interior as it was to be viewed in this midnight hour by the dim flamo of the flaring lamp. Curses deep and loud escaped a few throats. Then some one sang out: Weston glanced at him with an expression of disgust and suspicion. "I'll swear it by the color of the skin, sir." At this instant Davonire's hurricane voice was heard at the wheel. CHAPTER XL MISSING. "Shall I look in on Miss Mansel and aee how she does?" "Would you think she's alive, then, Adams?" said the oommander. "If you please, madam," says old Benson, who was standing up. "But don't yon know, sir," burst out tho captain, shrill with temper, "that on board ship odds are not to bo reckoned when the plot's deep and the rogncs know their business?" "Jump for it, Burn! See what he wants," said Weston. And as the fat man ran with headlong hurry up the companion steps, Captain Trollope came slowly out of the commander's cabin. "yes, sir." The gray dawn found Captain Benson asleep in his cot and Mr. Mutthews, the chief officer, in charge of the bark. The circle of the sea ran with a searching sweep black as ink against that lifting melancholy light of heaven, but in a few minutes the sun sprang clear, and a man aloft in the main topmast crosstrees, sheltering bis sight while ho gripped a shroud, plunged his gaze far astern and, hailing the deck, sang out, "Sail, hoi" Something, perhaps, that had been passed in the night, or standing north or south athwart the bark's wake, invisible from the deck as the dome of St Paul's, so that the mato, after a careless look, saw to the first business of the day on board ship— washing down the decks. The captain went slowly np tho companion steps, and when he had gained tho top of the hatch he stood with bu hand upon the hood, laboring somewimP with his breath. The mate came np tnte lee ladder and approached slowly. He saluted with a flourish of his thumb, said he had searched in all directions, but saw no signs of the young lady. "What should be done then?" said Boldock oomplainingly. "If yon have any knowledge of this sort of thing, torn to. I'd not have her die upon oar hands after saving her life." The shoes and bell shaped legs of Mr. Hardy fluttered in the oompanionway, and down came the whole man. The table was thinning, when a cry from Mrs. Holroyd brought him and all others who were on tho move to a halt Mr. Caldwell, still seated, tnrnod his gloomy face heavily and slowly to look. Mr. Matthews jumped up. Mr. Poole relieved Mr. Matthews at midnight and walked the deck of the darkened ship watching her as she rushed onward, a bulky, leaning phantom, froui truck to main tack as pale as foam in moonshine. Just when he had walked out his first honr the man at the wheel called to him and said that be felt unwell and asked to b relieved. A ship that is shredding the dark waters of the night at a little less than nine knots under the heavy impulse of canvas to the royal yards needs a surer grip than a sick hand can hold her with. Many a league can be wasted on such a night as this by bad steering. The degrees of tho disorder that governed the helm would be indicated by the curves of the wake, and now that tho Queen had a fair wind and a good wind it was to be a be« line with her keel or it wouldn't be Mr. Poole's fault "What do yon fear, sir?" said the slow minded mate. A lamp always swung, burning dimly, all night long in the cuddy of the Queen. As Trollope emerged Masters sprang up on a chair and turned on a full flume. "Hold your gabl" "What was it?" "We are a rich ship, and I fear the intentions of these men," cried the captain, bouncing off his seat and beginning to roll and blow ovor a few feet of his carpeted plank. "I thought," BayB the man, breaking into the silence that followed his roar, "I heard 'em shooting muskets." "Lads," says Tom, coming undor the lamp and sitting down upon his chest with bis arms folded in an attitude of resignation, "I was born an old woman, mates, if them there ten blushing passengers ain't gone and stole the ship." "There's no Miss Mansel here," was Mrs. Holroyd's exclamation. She stood in the doorway and addressed tho captain, and her face was white, with sudden astonishment and alarm. "You had the first watch, sir," said Benson, with a tinge of gray sifting into his complexion and speaking Bomewhat brokenly. "When did you last observe her?" "What of the captain?" said Weston. When he was on deck, he returned Mr. salute, then looked aloft at thejf spread of sail, then round upon the a£s, then took a survey of the man at the little wheel, and, stepping over to Mr. Hardy, exclaimed in a hoarse, deep voice that seemed to perpetually complain, with an odd note of remonstrance:"Adams thinks she may be alive," "I'm afraid," answered Trollope, with a cool drawing room air, "that he's dead." said the commander. "She's got to be dried and wrapped in blankets feet of all." said Mr. Hardy, after taxing a abort bat oarnest view at the face, "and then artificial respiration might be attempted. What —— - « • ««• "Yon don't mean to say, captain," exclaimed the doctor in a rather low, thrilling voice, "that yon believe these ten men intend to rise and seize the ship?" "What do I understand?" said Captain Benson, coming from the head of the table. "Miss Mansel's not in her berth, do you suy, ma'am?" "I can't say that I took any notice of her at all last night, sir. I don't remember seeing her in the cuddy, nor do I recall her as having been np here." "By your band?" exclaimed Weston, looking just a shade scared as his sight went to tho clumsy bntt end protruding from Trollope'8 side pocket Ho entered tho cabin and was followed by the surgeon and mate. A small crowd of people came to the door. Among them was Mr. Caldwell and "For mercy's pake, silence, sir!" whipped oat the captain in u choking sort of whisper. "It's just that, and that job of the arms chest is a piece of it, and that fellow on the jib boom end last night another. I can't fit in the young lady—I can't fit in"— He stopped, pressing his hand to his brow. "But not a syllable of this," he went on after a short silono*, during which his companions had cyod him, almost breathless, "for I may be mistaken." A heavy groan broke from a corner. "What's that noise?" exclaimed a sailor, looking round. d'yon say, Adams?" "That's it, sir. And perhaps a spoonful of ram to lie at the baok of the throat wouldn't hurt?" "Where hare yon looked?" Mr. Matthows named the several parte of the ship ho had explored. The massive shape of Davenire, with its inevitable twinkle of silver chain, filled the companion hatch as he descended."Light airs, light airs. Nothing bnt light airs in these heavens." "It's me, Bill. I've got the spasms," said the hollow voice of the sufferer. "The second mate promised to bring me a drop of brandy along, and I was coming forrards when this here outbreak tookplace. Lor'a'mercy!" Hetumbled on to the deck and rolled over and over. The first of the passengers to make bis appearance was Mr. Storr. It was still very early. The little man went np to the mate, and, after some talk abont the wind, and the rate of progress, and the fino weather, ho said he bad passed • broken nigbt "What's that ont there, sir?" interrupted Mr. Hardy, peering and leering on a sudden over the edge of the tall rail at the sea on the weather bow, where the water was flowing with a look of blue silk shot with the morning lights. The commander went to the rail and likewise peered and stared. He oaught the object in a breath—whisky or no whisky, Boldock rolled the vision of a hawk in his sockets—and fell a-dodging it under the sharp of his hand. "Then heave ahead, "said Commander Boldock. Tho captain called Poole to him. Dismay was fixed npon this young man's face. "Well, how goes it here?" be exclaimed, looking round. It seemed a hopeless undertaking, but these bronzed and blunted ohildren of the brine knew very well, with Horatio Nelson, that at sea nothing is impossible and nothing improbable—a maxim that should ever be the philosophy of British sea affairs. Commander Boldock look* ed on. Mr. Hardy and Adams did the work. They stripped to their shirts, for it was mighty hot in that little oabin, and first they dried her, and they then wrapped her op in a blanket, and then they got Adams' prescription of ram between her lips and proceeded to artificially inflate the lungs. They rolled her on this side, then on that, then over, then baok again. Adams seemed to know his business. "It might take two hours," said Mr. Hardy, with the sweat running like tears down his face. "Yon have the middle watch, sir?" says Benson. ' 'The mate's snug enough," answered Weston. "The others need not be thought of. The captain's dead, do you say?" said he, turning to Trollope. Thus thinking, he advanced to the rail at the break of the poop and bailed the forecastle. A man came aft and took the wheel from Bill. Bill complained of spasms, and before ho let go of the wheel be had writhed at the spokes in many attitudes of pain. "Too hot, perhaps?" says the mate. "Yes, sir," answere Poole. "Did you see anything of Miss Mansel in yonr watch?" "No, sii." Bill was a good hand and a cheerful man. They all liked Pill. William had a drop of rum saved up in his chest This ho produced, and after Bill had drained it down they lifted him into his bed, and William rubbed his stomach, and then Bill said he felt better. "Bad dreams," answered Mr. Storr. "And, what's stranger than that, my wife was troubled with nightmares also." "Come and look." He returned to the commander's cabin and was followed by Davenire, Weston and Masters. Here, too, burned a small lamp, as in the mate's berth. It was a large, roomy cabin, the best in the ship. A table shone with marine brass instruments. In fact, old Benson was a bachelor. He owned a house ashore, but his ship was his home, and his notions of sea comfort were excellently illustrated by the fine oot he swung in, the mahogany chest of drawers, the very convenient washing apparatus over against the beautiful marine barometer, the books, the three or four pictures, the soft carpet CHAPTER XIII. THK PIRACY. "No sir. And why?" thundered old Benson. "Because, in all probability.she came on deck when you were forward instead of aft, which was your post, and she may, for all yon know, have tumbled overboard, while yon— Who had the wheel in tho first two hours of your watch?" "How is Miss Holroyd? Have yon beard, sir?" inquired the mate. Captain Benson carried his sextant on to the poop. Mr. Matthews and the doctor walked leisurely down the cuddy. "Go forward and turn in," said the good natured second mate. "I'll send you a drop of brandy along out of the cuddy by the first chance I get" "Why," says he after a minute or two, "I do believe—I do believe"— then breaking off, "Mr. Hardy, be so good as to hand me the glass." "I don't know. If her cabin had been next mine, then, supposing she'd been restless, talked deliriously, and so forth, I might be able to account for our having been disturbed with ugly sleeping fancies. But one cannot bear through two or three bulkheads." "They know how to secure them doors," said a seaman, coming back to his chest after testing the doors by shaking and letting drive at them with his shoulder. "I'm rather hoping," said the mate, putting his hand upon bis sextant case, as though to keep himself in memory of his object in entering the cabin, "that the captain's fears are unfounded. I have used the sea for many years, but never heard in all my going a-fishing of the passengers of a ship rising and seizing her feloniously." The man bent nearly double, walked slowly toward the lee poop ladder, down which he disappeared, but he had not been out of sight a minute when Poole, who remained aft conning the fresh helm, saw a head and shoulders at the brink of the loe deck, and Bill, still bowed, returned in as great a hurry as his posturo of anguish would admit of, while he dumbly waved bis band as though in torture. The second mate ran to meet him. The mate unshipped a heavy, long, brass telescope off its brackets under the companion hood and bore it with both hands to the commander, who laid it like a piece of artillery upon the rail and put his eye to it, as though sighting some object he meant to destroy. He looked, puffed, removed his eye and dried it, looked again and then cried out: "Johnson, sir." "I'm shipped for the run tp the Thames," shouted an active seaman, "and I wants my money, and I wants my clothes. D'you mean to say there's to be no blooming breaking out with us 11 men and the cook?" All on fire with rage, the man seized the handle of a scrubbing brush, leaped on to a chest and beat with indescribable fury at the locked cover of the scuttle. "Send him aft Send aft tho man who had tho second trick. Send aft all the meu who were at tho helm from midnight till six bells of the morning watch." "No, sir," answered the mate. "Ican't help thinking," continued Mr. Storr, "that something must have happened in the night to account for my wife's and my own restlessness and dreams." "Keep all on," said Commander Boldock, deeply interested. "I wish I could fist her as you do. I'll tell you what, Mr. Hardy, under the good God's eye, we'll warp her baok to the mooring All tho ship now, on a sudden, seemed to break into hurry and confusion. Sailors ran aft to hear the news on the quarter deck. The ten—Mr. Mark Davenire was now one—camo on to tho poop. Everywhere you saw motions of agitation—a ceaseloss dance of figures— and the light wind was filled with the hnmming of talkers. "All these ten men are not very pleasant company," said tho doctor. Upon that carpet he lay now, poor old man, stiff upon his back, clearly dead—a short, grotesque, startling figure of a corpse to come upon, so absurdly clad, as it was. His hat had gone round the world with him, and with the devotion of the limpet to the rock it was on his bead now, though crushed, as if it had resolved to go out of the world with him. He lay upon the deck in a pair of bed drawers, and a coat which he was half in and half out of. "It's odd that you should both bavo dreamed." "A few of them I don't like the looks of," said the mate. "Mr. Caldwell would skin his father for a guinea. I dare say Mr. Davenire's big head blabs more to bis pillow than he would like the world to know. But Burn, Masters, Weston, seem to me at times to have the making of what they call good fellows in tbem. I think this," said he a little eagerly, outstretching his forefinger, "if there's any conspiracy it's been brought about since the ship sailed, and Trollope bosses it" "Why, by heavens, Mr. Hardy, it's the body of a woman, and a white woman I And she appears to be gagged. What can that be over her mouth?" He looked again. "Her hair is floating out from her head like ink from a galleyed cattlefish. Look for yourself." "What d'you think?" gasped the seaman in a voice hoarse and horrible with suffering and surprise. "The cuddy's full of men)" "Hark!" shouted a man. a-an8wering of you.'' "They're The little man drew a step closer to the mate, and after a swift glance round tbe deck exclaimed with a degree of "Below there!" was heard dimly, but clearly. It was Peter Johnson's voice, and there were no stronger lungs save Trollope's in that ship. "Below therel" was repeated in tremendous accents, accompanied by the hammering of a heel upon the hatch. "Can you hear me?" earnestness that rose almost to agitation: "Mr. Matthews, I don't mind telling yon there is something in the looks of several of the ten gentlemen which is making my wife and me very uneasy. Tho robbery of tbe arms chest was very extraordinary; if a practical joke, purposeless. If tbe design of tbe thieves is a menacing one, where are tbe arms? And who are the men that did it? And what object have they in view?'' "There's nothing to be done, sir, bnt to keep our weather eye lifting,'' answered tbe mate in a low, cautions voice. ■ "Then you are suspicious yourself?" The prudent mate responded with a grave smile. "There'* no Miss Mantel here." "Eb?" said the second mate, sending a swift glance at the skylight without Captain Trollope. Miss Mansel's cabin was empty. She had slept in her bed, that was ccrtain. The clothes were tossed on one side, as though she had released herself quickly. moving. And while Mr. Hardy was looking Commander Boldock told the man at the wheel to put his helm over so as to bring the object almost directly ahead. CHAPTER XII. BENSON CALLS A COUNCIL. "There's some of 'em on the quarter deck. Mind your eye, sir. They're armed."The captain stepped to where Poole stood watching the ship and said in a low voice: "Go and see if tho chief officer's nsleep in his berth, sir. If he is not, my compliments, and I desire him to come to my cabin; also send tho surgeon to me." Amazement held the beholders Eilent for some moments. Then the little skipper puffed out: Mr. Poole rushed to the ladder and looked over. He saw six men grouped close and seemingly waiting. They were just under the cuddy front There was no light to know their faces by, but he recognized some of them by their shapes and stature, and at once called out, "I say, Mr. Davenire, what are all you people doing down there at this time of night?" "What have you to say?" yelled the infuriated seaman, poising the broom handle as though making ready for the .man. Davenire and Masters drew close add looked at the old face. It was swelled like a drunkard's. The eyes were turned tp God knows where. Every familiar expression was eclipsed or caricatured by distortion. "Eh, Mr. Hardy," he exclaimed in bis deep sea voice, "isn't she a woman? Isn't she white? Don't she look alive?" "It's an extraordinary state of affairs certainly," said the doctor. "But the more I think the more I fancy there's less danger than fear. 'Twixt you and me, Mr. Matthews, the captain has shown a degree of irritability of late that—that—well, it's not a good sign, and I say it as the medical man of this ship. He's in the sixtieth year of bis age and has led a very hard life. For many years he's been burdened with the responsibilities of command, and I think yon will find that he is outstaying the period when most men are forced to give up by age or illness. Sixty at sea corresponds with 80 on shore." "She positively breathes. But it's the motion of the sea," answered Mr. Hardy, keeping his eye glued to the glass. "Where is she? Where's the yoang lady? Sh-5's in the6bip, of course. Mr. Matthews, see if she's on deck or for- "We're ten men," sounded the volo» above in a dull roar through the plank", "and every man's armed with a six barreled revolver. We mean you no mischief, but if you attempt to break out, then the first of you who shows his bead at the scuttle or the doors is a dead man. Do you hear me?" Mr. Poole showed himself in three ardent skips up the weather ladder. Mr. Matthews, sir, was now going to the captain's oabin, and tbe surgeon, sir, was already there. "I never hurt him," answered Trollope, answering the tragio question he beard in that silence. "We'll make a little call yonder and ask a few questions," said the commander. ' 'Let the men knock off washing down. Stand by, to back your maintopsail, and swing that starboard boat there over the side." ward, or if she has found her way into the steerage." "This is apoplexy," said Davenire. He felt Benson's pulse. "Dead as dog's meat" said he, standing erect. The mate, with a face of consternation, rushed out "Where could they have bidden the goods?" exclaimed the auctioneer. "Heavy muskets and great cavalry pistols aren't easily concealed. Both my wife and I have particularly observed the people at your end, at table and on deck. They dress mainly in light, airy clothes, and we cannot discover that they are armed." "Miss Mansel disappeared!" cried Mrs. Peacock in a half screaming voice, crowding in. "What's boconio of her?" "Where's tho steward?" cried the captain. "I wish to confer with you," began Captain Benson. "I do not know what is wrong with me, but it is strange that I, who have followed the sea all my life, should find myself wanting in determination at—at—this time of day," he added, somewhat hysterically. "I am troubled by the mysterious loss of tbe young lady. It is terrible to be unable to form a conclusion as to bow she met with her end. If we could think of her as murdered"— He stoppod and glared at Mr. Matthews. When he had said this, a voice in the group growled, "There's your chance," and in an instant the great figure ol Davenire sprang up the ladder. A general groan resounded through the forecastle. He had been heard clearly enough. They knew that the sentinel ■poke the truth and guessed that men so perilously alert, so desperately reckless and determined, had at once made every provision of sentry and would keep all promise of bullet and powder they made. Masters pulled off the old man's hat "Here, Davenire," said he, "give us a hand to help him into his cot" The brig slowly drove down, and all the people who could see over the side kept tbeir eyes fastened upon the floating object. It was strange to meet such a sight as that upon the wide sea hundreds of miles from land. A chill, sick thrill of horror ran through the young officer when he saw a revolver in the grasp of the man, a revolver of the old pattern, but much in use at that age, easily visible to the second mate by reason of its bulk of six barrels as it swung at the dreadful fist of Mr. Davenire. Between them they raised the body, as though it bad been a pillow, and when it was abed it was out of sight "Here, sir," answered Trickle outside the people at thto door. The body of the woman was carried into the port cabin. "Gentlemen, mako way if yon please," said tbe captain. "There is nothing left to look at The cabin is empty." "You're right in that," said the mate, glancing at his watch and then removing the sextant. "It's a life to kink the spine of an elephant Going to sea is a new birth, and many a young daisy oomes back to his mother with the withered face of the monkey." "I'll tell you just how it happened," said Trollope. "I made a dash for his cabin, not knowing whether he had arms or not. I whipped open the door and found him with his legs over the edge of the cot I dare say he'd been aroused by the cry on deck and was getting up. When ho saw me, he roared out: 'What do you mean by this? What do you want here? Get out of my cabin, you scoundrel! Where's Mr. Matthews? What—what'— And, half choking, he dropped from his cot and ran for bis hat, which be put on, and then he began to struggle into his coat while he made mouths at me. Such a nightmare of a face! I never heard so hollow and frightened a voice; never saw the color of the flesh change as his. 'We've seized this ship,' said I, letting him see that I was armed, though, poor little chap," he went on, speaking slowly, with a melancholy glance at the cot, "small need for firearms when it's for a man to deal with the like of his snow crowned inches. 'We've seized the ship,' I said, 'and I guess we've simply done what you've been expecting. Now, Captain Benson, you shall have good treatment,' said I, and I was going on when the sight of him stopped me. He took his throat in his hands and fell as if shot through the heart breathing with a horrible noise. It did not last long. I lifted his head; then, seeing he was dying or dead, put him down again on his hat, and so you have it" said Gantain Trollope, pulling his mustache and again looking at the cot. The brig came to a halt, rolling clumsily upon the subtle underswell of that beautiful morning ocean. By this time one of the plump quarter boats had been lifted out of her chocks and now dangled ready for lowering at the ends of her immensely thick wooden davits. A boat's crew stood by. Commander Boldock and Mr. Hardy gazed over the side. buoy she's been out from. The longer yon lire the more you'll find the miraculous in everything, for if that lady wasn't floating in our course expressly to be picked np that breath might be kneaded into her, what was it doing in our road?" "Good mercy!" cried the mate, with a start "I should hope they're not, ■ir." "They've got us, and they've got the ship," said Tom. "And the best thing we can do is to keep quiet" Saying which, witff the coolness of a sailor used to adventure, he pulled out a plug of tobacco and lighted his pipe. In a few minutes howls of glowing Cavendish were spangling the dusky interior like fireflies, and the flame of the lamp burned in a ghastly blue in the fog of the smoke. Caldwell and Trollope lounged off. Tho others stood apart. Their excite-, mcnt and dimnay were too deep to permit them to qait the scene just then. Mr. and Mrs. Dent whispered together, Mrs. Holroyd went to her daughter, and Mrs. Peacock was heard to ask Mrs. Starr whether it wasn't the cuptain's duty to turn tho ship's "prow" at ouoe for Sydney, as everything was going wrong, and she for one was certain they'd never sight England. "Can't Captain Benson do anything?" "What would you suggest?" inquired the mate demorely. "Be quiet and I'll not hurt you," exclaimed the huge fellow, grasping Poole. "I don't think that, captain; really I don't," said tho doctor. "What conceivable object would any living oreaturo in this ship have in murdering her?" "She ain't dead," said Adams. "What advice," said tho doctor, "should one be able to offer to the commander of a ship under such circumstances as these?" "Help! Murder! They're seizing the ship!" shrieked the second mate. The voice went to pieces in echoes aloft It rang forward like a boatswain's pipe. "I believe the man's right, sir," said Mr. Hardy as be gently drove the body toward the bulkheads for Adams to drive back again. "If she oomes to, it'll be the gag that saved her life, sir," said Adams, feeling himself entitled under the oircumstances to be loquacious. "It stopped the water from flowing into her mouth." This puzzled Mr. Storr. After a short ■ilenoe, "I quite understand," said he, "the delicate position the captain is plaoed in. He couldn't batten them down on mere suspicion. They'd claim heavy damages on the ship's arrival and ruin the old gentleman and perhaps his employers. And yet I fear they'll make it an uncomfortable passage for us. Never to be able to go to bed without"— Here, turning bis head, be saw Captain Trollope passing in his lounging walk from the companion to tba rail. 4 'Aye," ■aid he, raising his voice, "a grand morning indeed! But we shall need more wind, Mr. Matthews, if we're to get round the Horn quickiy." The body, as the long, brass telescope had before determined, was a female's, and a very fine figure of a woman, the commander thought it looked, as it slightly rose and fell with the light azure wrinkles of the water, trembling in sobs to it The loose arms waved with the motion of the water as though that midocean sleeper appealed for peace or help. The dark hair clouded off in a soft, gloomy mass close under the blue surface. A gag of some sort concealed the mouth. "There it is," gasped the captain. "Things of the most extraordinary kind happen in this vessel, and you can't find motives for them. Why was my robbed? What puts it into "There it is," said the mate. "I believe a nerve tonic," explained the doctor, "would extinguish a very large part of this amazing suspicion." "Jump and secure them in the fok'sle," thundered Davenire, and swift as the shadows of birds flying down the wind the five on the quarter deck sped, three to port and two to starboard into the forward darkness all about the windlass and the galley and the foremast . A silence, as though the ship herself slumbered, was in the cuddy, when the shriek of the second mate, in the grasp of Davenire, had slung through the cool and steady pouring of the wind. Immediately afterward they heard Davrnire's tremendous roar to his little company, and now it was that Trollope and the three other? who had the handling of this part of the ship went to work. But light is the work to be done when the workmen are savage with resolution, when every man is armed with a deadly weapon, and when those to be subdued aro tranquilly sleeping. "Well, I have got what I want from you," said the mate, going to the door. "I have observed bis irritability, and my place as chief officer should not stop me from very privately seeking your opinion on that bead. There ought to be a delusion somewhere in it" he added, with a slow smile, "for I've sat with those ten fellows at the foot for some days, exchanged minds middling freely with some of them, and never till just now got hold of a suspicion—I mean of the captain's sort" "When did yon last see Miss Manlel?" said tbe captain to the steward. arms chesi "Hard to realise a live body floating through, all the same," said Mr. Hardy, letting go a minute to wipe his faoa "Last evening, sir." "At what hour?" "Help! They're seizing the ship!" shrieked the second mate afresh, and the young heart of oak fell a-wrestling like a demon with his giant opponent For «ome moments his strength of feai and rage staggered Davenire, who tottered to the very edge of bis falL "She looks fresh," exclaimed th« commander. "At about half past 9, I think it was, air. She came out of her cabin and passed on to tbe quarter deck. I was on somo job, sir, and took no particular notice." "I don't know that she can be alive," said the commander in his hoarse, deep, remonstrating voice, "with that thing tied round ber breathing apparatus." "That's my meaning, sir," said Adams. "I'll swear by her color she ain't been more than four or five hours overboard."At half past 8 that morning three chairs were empty at the coddy table. The little captain came out of bis cabin looking unusually stern, and the asb or gray of anxiety was mingled with the sea red of his complexion. He ran his eye down the line of gentlemen on either bsbd and missed tbe huge form of Mr. Mark Davenire. "Did yon call her, d'yon say, this morning?" "Maybe her nostrils ride clear," said Mr. Hardy, leering. "What she belongs to may be in sight," exclaimed the oommander. "Don't let go of her, Hardy," he continued, in his deep, remonstrating voioe, "until you're both cocksure it's all up. I'd like to hear her yarn, too, and what happiness to restore so pleasing a figure to this theater of life! I'll look in on yon again soon." "Knocked on her door at a quarter to 8 this morning, as usual, sir; thought the young lady was in a sound sleep, as I got no answer." "You'll yell, you screech owl, will you?" he said. He shifted his arm and raised his heavy weapon as if he would brain the man. No, the intention was changed in the instant of its conception, and in another heart beat he had gripped him, choking, by the throat and was hauling him helpless as a child to the companion batch. They left tho cabin. The mate took his sextant on deck, and tho doctor went below to bis berth in the steerage to meditate over the above conversation with a pipe in biB mouth, the fumes from which somewhat disguised the disgusting smell of drugs breathed into the atmosphere of the confined, oppressive crib by scores of dirty bottles on shelves. Each man exactly knew bis station and duty in this audacious piracy. Trollope, revolver in hand, sprang for the captain's cabin. Burn and Masters, after securing the cuddy door and removing the key, dashed for the berths of the Dents and the Storrs, while Mr. Patrick Weston, his twisted face purple with the passions of that hour, rounded to Mr. Matthews' cabin. "Then go and bring her aboard," said the commander. -»ne snaii nave a chance for her life, and if she's dead we will bury her decently." The surgeon, at the captain's side, was gazing round him with a very grave face. Everything seemed in its place. Dresses swung from pegs upon the bulkhead. The hat the young lady had been in the habit of wearing was in the upper bunk, along with a bandbox or two, a parasol, an umbrella and the like. The apparel she had removed on the previous night lay neatly folded on a chair. Tbe surgeon's solemn eye wandered to it and fastened itself there. Ho exclaimed: The boat sank, the oars flashed, in a minute or two Mr. Hardy was alongside the floating woman. They used extreme caution, guessing that a tap from an oar or a sea put in motion by the boat might sink the body. Two sailors leaned over and the lubberly tub of a boat leaned, too, with a pretty sparkle of her bilge to the sun as she raised it with the brine. "Where is Mr. Davenire?" he said to Captain Troll ope. "Johnson tells me he's not well," answered Trollope. He went out and trudged up the steps. ' 'Jump aloft a hand and report anything in sight," he called out The seaman had gone right aft, and uow stood doubled up by cramp alongside the helmsman. The ladies and Mr. Dent and Mr. Storr were shocked, and some of them horrified in various degrees by Miss Manser s mysterious disappearance. There had even gone a whisper of murder among uiem, and more than one pair of eyes belonging to this group would go to Mr. Davenire, but more particularly to Mr. Caldwell, as those two gentlemen walked the lee side of the deck, while the captain and mate were screwing at the sun. A man sprang Into the fore shrouds and as nimbly aa though he had been hoisted with a run gained the royal yard and stood holding by the truck, carefully sweeping the sea. His white trousers trembled against the blue and the figure all that way up looked like b toy sailor, something clean and brightly painted out of a box, just the object for a boy to fix in the stern sheets of his little boat; yet a real man's deep bass voioe floated down from the heights after • few minutes, during which the diminished shape had been strenuously eyed by Oommander Boldock, "Nothing in sight I" The man staid on the yard and sought the remote liquid oenflnes again for any gleam of starlight canvas that he might oast a light of satisfaction on that large, bland moon of red face that continued upturned at him upon the quarter deck. To no pnrpoae. There was nothing in sight, and so down he came on the royal backstay, enlarging as be grew like a descending lark out of the speck it makes till he leaped, a man to the eye, off the bulwark rail. Trollope began to eat, as though the matter was of no consequence to him. "Hold this wheel, Bill," said the fellow, letting go the spokes. The mate had been awakened by Poole's loud cry over his head. Ho could not distinguish the words, but ho heard a note of imminent deadly import in the high, strained voico. Ho sat up, his heart loud in his ears; then, catching Davenire's hoarse cry, he leaped from his bunk and was pulling on a few clothes when Weston drove in like an electric bolt. Davenire stepped to the side of the body and gazed at the face. He looked at it for a minute or longer, as though ho brought a professional eye to bear. "I hope your daughter is better this morning, ma'am?" says the captain to Mrs. Holroyd. "TF# are a rich ship, and I fear the intentions of these men." the bead of a gentleman to terrify tbe ship forward by performing the antics of a baboon on my flying jib boonftnd? If the young lady committed suicide, what was her reason? If murdered, why ?" "Back! If you move ono little step, I'll put a bullet through your head," cried Davenire, keeping his hold of the second mate and pointing his revolver at the approaching seaman. Grasping the body with their fishhooks of fingers, the Jacks tossed it aboard, soaking and streaming like a thunder shower. It was then laid in the stern sheets, and the boat made for the brig. While this was doing Mr. Hardy pulled out a sharp clasp knife and cut away the gag. She had good features, but she was ghastly to horror's own degree in that searching light owing to the eyeballs showing like slips of china betwixt the lids, and to the lips being almost pale as the cheeks through compression of the ligature. The apparel was very scanty, consisting, so far as Mr. Hardy could make out, of a dressing gown over a flannel petticoat and a woman's ordinary nightclothes. Her feet were naked—very pretty little feet they were, Mr. Hardy thought Doubtless they bad been slippered when the poor creature for some murderous motive or other had been sent adrift "Oh, yes," said he, wheeling round, "Captain Benson will command no more ships in this world. The worst of there old hearts of fire is they never will tako their discipline kindly." "Decidedly better, thank you. But the doctor has ordered her to keep her bed," answered Mrs. Holroyd, "till noon." "Would Mrs. Storr step in?" "Mrs. Storr," said the captain. That lady hurriedly left Mtb. Peaoock.The fellow stopped, sbrcoiK, recoile* tome paces. The eye of a loaded revolver cows the man as the eye of a man subdues tho beast. Meanwhile it might have been observed that while this conversation went on Mr. Oaldwell merely toyed with the food whioh be asked for. Tbe expression of his face attracted the attention of Mr. Masters. From time to time he eyed him strenuously. The eyes were bloodshot and dim. Upon his swarthy, gypsy dark skin lay a sort of weak, greenish tinge, as though he sat nnder colored glass. His coal black hair and beard were a little wild, too—shaggy, unkempt or disordered, as of pur] f e—an effect which was assuredly remote from tbe desires of that man's soul. Sometimes he'd glance at Trollope or Shannon, but rarely at the others. He drank thirstily of ale and feigned to eat Masters, sitting beside Burn, whispered: "Mrs. Storr," said tbe surgeon, "do you think you will tie able to tell us by looking round yon if the young lady was dressed when she loft her cabin?" "It is of no use, Mr. Matthews," lifting his weapon that the unfortunate officer might see it. "Wo have possession of the ship; the men are under batches. Take the thing quite coolly. It's not so bad as a shipwreck." CHAPTER XIV. THE FLOATING BODY. He barked out that "wby" with a start that drove him half oat of hiB chair. All through dinner time in the forecastle little more was talked of than the girl's disappearance. "Down you go, and keep quiet when you're there." In these same seas iu which the Queen was Railing, in the year, in the month, nay in the week in which that bark had been seized, a motherly, lubberly old black brig was flapping and rolling along at the gray of day. She stole out iu all her fat and homely proportions as the light strew, brightening upon her and sheeting the sea to her tall black beam in a pale tremble of mackerel gleams and bright slate ont of the far northeast. No beauty was she, yet as good as a line of battle ship for a drifting boat to fall in with, and this thought was in the mind of the mate, Mr. Hardy, as he stood at the starboard rail abreast of the little binnacle box and with folded arms surveyed the scene of ocean slowly opening to its most desolate recesses. Mr. Hardy was a stout, short man, with an incomparable leering bine eye. His eyes leered, but he knew it not, and the effect was good when his business was solemn. He had the face of the born comedian, arch, dry, the whole fabric of the lineaments sot slightly awry; he was burned up by the sun, and his nose was so coated with adhesive membrane that as the light broadened the feature gleamed toward the rising sun as though it were sheathed in a purse or coating of finely wrought mail. He was wrapped up in a weather bronzed monkey jacket, and bis head was protected by a round hat of colonial invention. His trousers, tight at the hips, fell like the mouth of a church bell to his feet, which were cased in Mrs. 8torr very carefully viewed the interior. She examined the dresses and said, pointing to one, that it was a light rammer gown—the girl had worn it since the storuiy weather. That being so, she considered that Miss Mansel would have pat on that particular dress again this day; then, after looking about her a bit farther, at the hat in the upper bonk and the olothes folded upon the chair, she gave it as her opinion that the girl had not left her cabin dressed for the deck, although;-V she added, "I don't see her dressing gown, and I miss * flannel petticoat from those clothes there." "I agree with the doctor, sir, "said Mr. Matthews, whoso plain, homely, weather stained face wore a shocked look, a strained expression of anxiety. "Could she have been murdered without noise? How was it done? With a knife? There are no traces of blood, sir. By strangulation? The cabin don't suggest it, sir. The bedclothes are turned over in a way that must convince us she got out of her bunk of her own will." "Seems as if the fok'sle had got into the cuddy this bout,'' said a hairy faocd man called John, sawing at a piece of pork upon a biscuit, which he used as a trencher. "By the noble Joseph, mates, but it 'ud be good news for sailors to l'arn that the crew of a vessel had been asked by the skipper to protect him from the passengers.'' So speaking, Davenire thrust the second mate headlong down the companion steps, with a short, deep chested shout to others who were below to receive him. He stopped to listen to somebody KTcaining in a cabin opposite. Almost then the noise was heard of a body tumbling violently down the companion ladder, followed by a roar iu Daveuire's voice, instantly answered by Burn. He left the companion doors open. Bill had not grasped the whoel; the ship was coming to; her wake was an arch, and in a minute or less sho would be aback, canvas hammering, spars straining, the light ones going. Daveuiro sprang to the helm, and with the shift of a few spokes brought the vessel to her course. Tho mate at sight of tho revolver backed bard against the bunk and cried faintly on hearing the noise outside, "Good God, are you people murdering us?" "I don't allow myself that she was drowned," said Bill. "You'll find it was an accident Not even soocide, as they tarm it. These here young ladies get romantio notions. They come up on deck, when tbey ought to be below, to look at the stoears and to watch how beautiful the white sails pull the wessel along. They'd holler and run if they saw a rat, buC don't onderst&nd proper danger, at least at sea. They get messing about on the .rail, peering over the sido to dream of their sweethearts, while they see nosegays and love knots and valentines iu the fire that burns iu the water passing aloug, till all iu a "I want to match the lady's disappearance with the plunder of my arms chest," said the captain. "It looks to me," exclaimed Mr. Hardy, gazing up at the commander, whose immense roasted face, overhanging the rail, w as reflected in the smooth water as though it had been the moon, "as if there had been some piratical business on down here, sir." "I'm not nere to cnat witn you, matthews," said Weston. "Don't talk of murder. You are a very good fellow, a favorite with us at our end, you know, and you shall be well used. But give no trouble, I entreat you, for your own sake," be added, with an ugly, expressive look at the firearm ho grasped. The mate saw that look by the low flame of his bracket lamp and stood motionless and silent, his jaw slightly dropped, his eyes starting. In silence also Weston Btepped out of his berth, withdrawing the key from within, then locking the door. "I'm afraid Davenire's killed the second mate," said Masters as Weston briskly approached him. "There's too much of the beast in his strength. He flung the poor devil headlong down." "Where is he?" interrupted Weston. Masters nodded at Caldwell's cabin. "Is he looked in anyhow?" said Weston."Where the dickens," thought the commander, "has that body come from? How long has it been in the water? Why was she gagged?" "What's the matter with Caldwell?" Meanwnilo tho fellow whom he had aovered with his weapon had fled from the poop, and Bill, with the colio, was crawling liko a tortoise through tho gloom of tho deck to leeward, so that in a miunte Davenire was alone. He placed his pistol on the grating bohind him, within easy reach of his hand, and steered the ship, towering beside the wneel, making morions witn tne spokes as though ho felt into the life of the vessel through them as the spider with advanced claw commands its wliolo dominion of silk to its nethermost hitch. Thus was it aft at that time—a great lonely figure of a man at the helm, a light shining in the companion way, and the dim uoise of a woman screaming, the ship rounding in milky bosoms of canvas to the stars, shredding southeastward with lonely decks. "I guess," oozed Burn, "he's afraid of the moment when Miss Mansel will step forth and proclaim our secret." "In what way?" said the doctor. A short silence followed this. The lady's statement seemed to convince the captain. "Is she in league with the people who stole the armw?" exclaimed the captain. He took a number of turns upon hia qnwter deck, deeply rnnsing. Presently the scent of fried ham penetrated his aoee, and the steward came out of the little galley bearing the cabin breakfast "Warily now," says the other, whispering and looking down while he plied his knife and fork. "What have you heard?" "If so, I don't see of what use she could be to 'em, for I'll kiss the crucifix in Mr. Poolo's berth on this, that she's not in the ship," exclaimed the mate solemnly. "She must be in the ship," said he, and he gave Trickle agd John, the understeward, certain directions, whispering them. "Bring her aboard, bring her aboard," exclaimed the commander, stiffening bis figure and sending a look round tbe ocean with a man-of-war's man's sniff. In fact, tbe mere thought of it whipped fifty new pulses into his sturdy shape. "Send tbe aft," commander. called the "Trollope's answer this morning wan"— "Until wo know," exclaimed the doctor in a low tone, that his words might not reach the people in tho cuddy, "that the young lady is not in the ship speculation is hopeless. Yet it is worth yonr while observing, Captain Benson, that Miss Mansel must have quitted the cabin of her own free will. The appearance of the place warrants tho idea." "What, sir, is your opinion as to the cause of the young lady's disappearance?" ankod tho captain. "Oh," sputtered Masters, "consider where you are!" A short man with strong whiskers and a whistle banging at his neck came briskly from the forecastle. minute over they go.'' They unshipped the gangway, and with that sort of reverence which good sailors will exhibit toward the dead— and more particularly toward those of the dead who might have been mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts in this world—a few of the Jacks of the brig Wellesley handed the body aft and with pains and patience down the tfaxrow companion ladder. It waa just then that Captain Benson exclaimed, "Is not Miss Mansel well?" And raising his voice, "Can you give me a reason, sir, for Miss Mansel being absent from the breakfast table?" "It will be thickening tho business too much," answered tho doctor thoughtfully, "to axsumo that she, too, was walking in her sleep, and so somehow fell overboard. No. Wo must surrender that, though I might have held to the notion but for Mr. Shannon. I'm afraid it must work out as just an ordinary case of suicide." "Her time was up," croaked Tom. "Her soul was under orders to sail. What does it matter how tho call was obeyed? Whother sho fell overboard or jumped overboard or was chucked overboard, as 'Arry here thinks." "Watch the brig, Mr. Stubbing, will you," said the commander in tones m though he were remonstrating with the man, "while Mr. Hardy tries to roll the breath of life into the body below? Do you know anything about the treatment of the drowned?" "I have not heard that she is not well," answered the doctor, looking round at the steward. "I think it, and I'll tell you why," said 'Arry, who though a Dane by birth shipped alwayB under an English name, while he Fpoke the tongue much more fluently than most of his English mates. "What did that man come out to the jib boom for last night? He said ho walked in his sleep. He's a blooming liar, and I'll tell him so if ho likes to come here. Do sleep walkers sing out as though they'd got a rat in their guts? What did he want to make all that noise for? My notion is it was to bring everything forrads, so as the decks "Has she asked to have some breakfast taken to her?" said the captain. "I should hope sho did, sir," grumbled the little skipper, thunderstruck by the subtle, dark significance of the doctor's words. "When a man's picked up drowned," said the boatswain, who was very thick of speech, looking askance at bis captain as though he suspected one more dry joke in this voyage, "ain't it the treatment to bury him?" Tho little captain gazed sternly and gloomily at the cabin deck. After some silence he looked at tho mato and said, "There is mischief hatching in this ship, sir." "No, sir," replied the steward. "She was sleeping when I knocked, an hour ■go." Forward it had been a swift business. The port watch were asleep below, and three or four seamen of the starboard watch dozed on deck. "Trim sail, Mr. Hardy," said Commander Boldock; "then come below and let me have your opinion." "A third chair was empty this morning," said the doctor. "Mr. Mark Daveniro evidently does not require my services. It is nevertheless my duty, acting on your commands, captain, that I should look in upon him to seo how be does. " "Aye." I shoos decorated with bows. A sea dog I "A plagne on all pity," cried Wes- ' Rubicund with the grog blossom, but a ton. "Where's Burn?" J bit of a sea dandy, too, for perhaps no The fat man stepped out of a berth as man afloat in that year of our salvation this question was asked, and the sound would have deliberately bought himself if a woman screaming in hysterica fol- a pair of shoes with bows and gone to sea owed him. ! to stand fine weather waters in them Two middle sized cabins were situated under the wheel. The body of the woman was carried into the port oabin, tbe starboard berth being the commander's, and very tenderly laid upon a looker. The men who had brought her below stood off, while Commander Boldock There was nothing ro uncommon in a passenger, particularly a female passenger, continuing to rest beyond the regular time of meals as to excite notice. "What's this?" yelled one of them, springing to his feet. "It is clear you never walked the hospitals, " said the captain. "It must bo smothered, then, sir, and the sooner tho better, if you will give me your instructions," replied the mate, with a half glance at the doctor, which was like questioning the commander's perfect "In withyon, my livelies," roared the voice of Mr. Hankey. And that strongly bnilt gentleman, grasping his man, ran him flvina into the foreoastle. Tha "Watoh the brig, if yon please, Mr. Stubbins," and the oommander went below. — "Aye, sir, as a houtdoor patient" Presently Mrs. Holroyd left the table. She was about to enter her cabin, when, tBrninv to tho cat)tain, she said: "Go, sir, quickly, if yon please," castxd Captain Benson. "Perhaps his "Is this part ended?" raid Weston. As Mr. Hardy took a stefli forward to "Oh " said Burn, "it's only ft lock- obtain a critical view of the fore royal, Oontfnveif on Second Pant.