Si
m
Pndl didn't dream that the ocean was not
ill between us."
ct . i & .11 .. " (;!
a. fApa h .ununes weuk tun i .
.Batty, "and I determined to do for myself.
El went to London to teach, or do anything
'.feasible, -when I was taken by this lady."
v2 xhe three singularly associated inaivia
i" J? uals breakfasted together, and afterward
? packed their belongings for travel. Only
i-,- for a lew minutes at a time were xaioot ana
jvuiy aione togetner. iae gin Ktuicu ujb
inclmed to talk of her employer. Still she
was explicit enough to show to
'Talbot the complex and spiteful character
of Mrs. Belitska. Having become a mor
phine taker, the lady had fallen seriously
ill at the end of two years. It was then that
she had retired to a hospital in Berlin, a
fashionable asylum for fashionable maniacs.
Some curious statistics regarding victims of
the morphine habit show that out of 100
cases 30 were completely cured, 46 died of
poison and Z4 became habitual drunkards.
On leaving Berlin Mrs. Belitska had given
up morphine, bat bad taken to drinking.
Then, reconquered by her old vice, she had
added alcohol to opium; morphine daring
the day and whisky at night, until she fell
asleep in exhaustion.
"What was the noise last night in her
room?" Talbot inquired. "She doesn't dare
to abuse you?"
"O, am I the girl to stand that," was the
evasive reply.
Then the lady entered, and discussion of
her Tiad to cease. Talbot's disgustwas
minded with anger. He felt humiliated
and disheartened. "Was he condemned to
remain with this despicable, besotted crea
ture? Should he leave Kitty Mellish -with
her? TJp to this point he had no reason
-personally to complain; but what was his
duty toward the girl he loved? Perhaps
"Kitty divined his apprehensions, lor she
soon found the chance to say:
"Talbot, you are above these humilia
tions. In spite of her violent disposition,
Madame will take care not to ofi'end you.
She needs yonr wit, your societv, and your
talents. In short, she has seen that you are
a man of the world a gentleman, in a po
sition beneath your real dignity. She fears
you, and, with her, fear is only one form of
respect I beg of you to make the trip with
her lor my sake and your own. "We can't
be choosers of oar employment, and I must
fill out my engagement."
"Then I shall, ot coursa, keep mine, he
ardently responded. "'We are too poor to
be fastidious, and von shall at least be
safe."
Mrs. Belitska had explained to her com
panions that she was going to the uttermost
bounds of Dakota, near Deadwood, to sell
lands lett to her by her second husband.
She had been told that it was a region of
thieves and murderers. Tne papers re
counted the sinister exploits of the cowboy,
that amiable child of the far "West, who
knew no other law than his own pleasure,
and no other judge than the revolver. Then,
too, what an arduous journey. She would
have to travel across the prairies in stage
coaches. She had laughed and answered
that she was going to Deadwood for busi
ness, not pleasure; that half of her fortune
was at stake and that she owed it to herself
to brave these imaginary perils. Beside,
she wished to get away from civilization.
The tourists -were off before night on the
railway portion of the journey. The Bus
sian was by no means taciturn concerning
herself, and, as Talbot was not talkative,she
lound him very intelligent. It takes con
siderable wit to know how to listen. More
over, the more he listened to her, the more
she irritated him. The egotism and hard
ness of this still beautifulwoman were con
stantly "betraying themselves. Beside, it
was quite apparent that she was jealous of
Kitty Mellish. In this way they traveled
until they reached the station on the prairi.
where they were to leave the comfortable
cars and take to stage coaches. Until this
point, the Bussian showed herself less cor
dial, but also less familiar, for bis part,
Talbot remained shut up in his glacial re
serve. His politeness amounted to stiffness.
Her retaliation took the form ot coldness
and hauteur toward Kitty.
The night was spent at a small inn, from
which the stage was to start next morning.
During supper Mrs. Belitska remained si
lent, affecting not to notice her hired com
panions. The ladies were tired, and there
fore retired early to their rooms, while Tal
"bot spent ail hour sauntering about the
premises.
""' He was just closing the door of his room
when a tumult was heard in Mrs. Belitska's
apartment. He rushed to the possible aid
of Kitty, for he knew not what might occur.
Upon the threshold oi her room stood the
girl, in evident alarm, while Mrs. Belitska
was scolding her loudly. The Bussian re
coiled at the sight of the young man.
""Wait a moment, madam," said he in im
perious tones.
He led Kitty to her own room, and then
returned, with the resolve to break at any
cost the ties that united them. He found
her buried in an arm-chair motionless, with
hands folded and eyes fixed.
Bv what right do you busy yourself with
my afiairs ?" cried she, hoarsely. "I never
meddle with yours, I fancy."
"My answer is brief; I am about to leave
you.
"Ahl" She made an abrupt movement,
as if in some hasty annoyance. A bottle of
whisky, half empty, stood beside her on the
table. The wretched woman was drunk, but
not enough so that she failed to see the dis
gust upon his face. Then she blushed, as if
for the first time her vice made her ashamed.
"I'beg or you do not decide yet. Ton
see that it is'impossible for me to argue with
you. Please think over it until to-morrow.
I ask your sardon for the wor s that I have
just used."
"My resolution is irrevocable," replied
Talbot frigidly. "I-amatthe end of my
patience, and I must protect Miss Mellish.
Good-bye."
He was turning: away when she rose and
came toward him, trying to take his hand.
"So, nol don't go, I beg of you! Be in
dulgent; I am so much to be pitiedl"
She spokelin hollow tones, like one moan
ing Xu delirium. Talbot bowed, and went
out. He understood only too well her need
of his protection. Perhaps in his heart he
wished only to yield, so strong was his de
sire to extricate himself from the abyss of
poverty.
The next day had scarcely begun, when
some one knocked softly at "Talbot's door.
It was Kitty, very pale, and still agitated
by the violent scene of the night before.
She begged him not to abandon the Bus
sian, bat to stay to the end of the agreed
term.
''"We are too poor, Talbot, to be capri
cious," she urged. "We are in an ad
venturous land; why nbt follow oar ad
venture through? I shall .feel safe so long as
you are with us."
That was a convincing argument, and Tal
bot pressed the girl's hand as he said: "You
are courageous, Kitty. Then we will jour
ney along with our strange mistress."
"Kitty's face cleared. "How good you
are!" she returned.
Talbot felt unduly rewarded by thisun--deserved
burst of gratitude. He went at
once to Mrs. Belitska. Por this visit she
had not dared to hope. On waking she had
recalled the events of the previous night,
and had thought with horror of finding her
self alone in the boundless "West. How
could Talbot be induced to recall his decis
ion? She thought that she understood him,
and his icy politeness inspired her with a
wholesome fear. When he entered, he
could scarcely recognize in her the wreck
of the night before. She hastened to him,
and, taking his hand, made him sit down
beside her.
"Tell me at once that you didn't mean to
that you will forgive me."
"Madam, "
"It you keep up that severe look I shall
never dare to speak. Don't be se cruel to a
poor, nervous creature, who doesn't always
know what she's about. Ob, I'm not try
ing to excuse myself, or to plead extenna't
ipg circumstances. I rely not upon your
sympathy, but on your generosity. Think
of all the danger for mo between "here and
my ranch. It would be cruel to desert me
at a time when I have only your protec
tion." There was a short silence. "You must un
derstand that I cannot tolerate any more
, inch scenes with Hiss Hellish," he said.
"You may be sure "
"It is not to your entreaties that I yield,"
he vent on coldly. "In tact, my interest in
But Kitty
ha
as made the same request."
The woman seemed lashed to rary. "And
it is to her that I owe your indulgence."
"Yes; and I will not have you do you
understand clearly? I will not have you
inflict indignity on this girl. I agree to re
main with you upon the conditions named,
but if you break your promise no considera
tion shall keep me. So reflect well!"
"I have reflected. I need you. I must
keep vou as a friend. If you could only gain
some influence over me. I am not naturally
depraved only spoiled by bad habits. Ah,
if J had only met earlier such people as you
and Kitty." She spoke slowly and sadly
with the humility of the Slavonic
people, who will always sacrifice
their vanity to satisfy a caprice. "In future
vou shall have no reason to reproach me. I
have always been indulged who was there
to hnd lault witn me nut i. will permit,
and, if necessary beg you to be severe with
me, and not to allow any of my whims and
caprices. Treat me like a naughty child; I
should be so glad to find a master."
"Was there a double meaning in these
strange words, or was it merely the symptom
of another hysterical attack. However,
Kitty now appeared and they went to break
fast "I have been harsh, Yery harsh with you,
Kitty," said Mrs. Belitska; "but my friend
Talbot has shown me my error. You must
excuse me."
The girl muttered a few words. She knew
by experience that the mildness would not
last long, and her anger was less ominous
than her seasons of repentance. During the
meal she was unusually gay. She bent all
her energies toward blotting out the memory
or the misunderstanding.
The stage coach jonrney was begun
smoothly, but within 24 hours Mrs. Belitska
had forgotten all her promises, and was once
more the capricious woman of earlier days.
The prairie lands were of an exasperating
monotony, and the sight of sundry ragged
and dirty Indians irritated the invalid, who
had recourse to a double dose of morphine.
Then she began to be afraid of the possible
consequences, if Talbot should undertake to
leave ner and take Kitty away too. Toward
4 o'clock in the afternoon of the second day
tbey were approaching the station of "Willow
Creek when the stage stopped short In her
alarm she hailed the driver:
"What has happened?" she cried in
anguish.
She got in response the most desolating
news that it was impossible to travel farther
that day. A gang of cowboys had possessed
the road, and the coach was at the mercy of
their caprices. Mrs. Belitska uttered cries
of alarm. "What was to become of her?
"Be calm. Madam," said Talbot; "a lit
tle patience, and matters will right them
selves. "We can spend the night at this
lodging house; and as to the dangers that
you fear, I- think them purely imaginary.
I am well armed and will keep my eyes
open."
In his own mind the young man was by
no means reassured: but he would not alarm
the women, especially the younger and
dearer one. He had learned that 25 des
peradoes, angered against the stage com
pany, were assembled in the neighborhood,
resolved to plunder everything if the man
agement should not yield to their demands.
Her irritation increased still more when
they offered her for a reput bread, bacon
and beans. She said not a word, but Kitty
knew her too well to be misled. At the
sight of the pale face and glittering eyes,
tbe disgust at the food and the over-excitement
of the morphine, the girl expected a
terrible scene.
The log house consisted of a large kitchen
on the ground floor, and several small rooms
overhead. One of these Mrs. Belitska and
Kitty occupied, while Talbot took the gar
ret with a single window opening on the
prairie, from which he could watch the hori
zon, and warn the two women in case of
danger threatening them.
In his restlessness and preoccupation he
did not notice the Bussian's abrupt manner.
He suspected that she would replace the
missing dinner by whisky, but being un
able to hinder it be feigned indifference,
and soon shut himself np in his room and
opened the window. The encampment of
cowboys was insensibly dosing in upon
them, the only passengers in the coach, as if
to shut off every means of escape.
Talbot did not for three hoars move from
his post At lost a movement arose out
side, and he saw men going to and fro with
lighted torches. "What could be their de
signs? Did they mean to set fire to the
house? Suddenly the men turned their
backs on the log house and walked off to
ward the inclosure where the cattle and
horses belonging to the company were kept
Talbot saw that they meant to execute one
ot their favorite maneuvers, that of setting
fire to the fences and buildings inclosing
the animals. The latter, terrified by the
flames, would break loose and dash frantic
ally about and while the people of tbe log
boose were trying to catch them the cow
boys would carry off all the baggage in
charge of the stage company.
Just at this instant an outcry was heard
from the room given to the women. Talbot
grasped tbe situation a disgraceful scene
was being made there by the morphia wo
man. "When he onght to be on the watch
for the safety of his companions, he found
himself obliged to save Kitty from the pos
sible fury of a madwoman,. .
m.
The morphine taker, combined with, the
drunkard, is no longer a thinking creature,
but is a brute, whose unbridled passions may
lead to crime. Mrs. Belitska was no longer
a responsible person. She had forgotten all
her promises to Talbot, and, after a straggle
against herself, the wretched woman had
come to the end of her forces. Kitty had not
felt reassured, and, far from sharing Tal
bot's confidence, had been expecting that
their employer would make an outbreak.
As usual, Mrs. Belitska was seeking obliv
ion, and she doubled the quantity ot whisky
just as she had doubled the dose of mor
phine. "Wrapped in her shawls, she lay
prostrate on the hard floor, with vacant,
wide-opened eyes, and lost in a sullen rev
erie. The heavy silence was oroKen only by
the shouts coming from the prairie encamp
ment The hours dragged slowly by; she
did not move or speak. "Was Bbe going to
fall asleep there? Suddenly she started up,
throwing off her wraps.
"Kitty," said she, harshly.
"I am here, madam," replied the girl,
who bad not disrobed.
"No words! Obey me!"
Kittv understood that morphine was
wanted; but whether her hand trembled or
had grown stiff with fatigue, in adminis
tering the desired dose of morphine she
happened to strike tbe -Kussian s lorebead.
Punishment was not long in following.
Mrs. Belitska berated her so rudely that she
burst into tears.
"Instead of that stupid crying you had
better go to work again," she said.
But as Kitty kept on sobbing the anger of
the woman rose to fury. She threw herself
upon the girl, striking her to the ground and
stamping on her in her frenzy.
Just at this moment Talbot appeared. He
remained for an instant in motionless" coo- J
sternation at the sight, although he did not
then know that physical violence had been
used. But his presence, tar from calming
the madwoman, heightened her fury; and,
seiiing her victim by the hair, she dragged
her into the middle of the room, with a
jrlare of defiance at the young man. In his
indignation he sprang forward with such
force that she recoiled. Then, gently lift
ing tbe almost lifeless body of the girl, he
raised her to her feet and conducted her to
the door.
"Go to my room, Kitty. You shall stay
so longer with this demon."
Kitty obeyed and Talbot found himself
alone with Mrs. Belitska, "You heard me?"
he went on imperiously. "We will both
leave you. It would be criminal on my
Iia'rt to expose that poor girl to you any
onger."
Mrs. Belitska laughed. "So yoa imagine
that I will go on tolerating your mastery?
Who is master here?" and she approached
him as if to brave him to his face.
"I am the master," he went on. You
you are a madwoman and a drunkard.
.Lunatics and drunkards .should be left to
themselves or locked up."
In her exasperation, she rwhed at her ad
versary and streak at hiss, bt his pateeaee J
you has entirely disappeared.
hfiafia
'was at an eed. He seised few hands, which
.still had the strength to tear themselves
from bis powerful grip. Bad, she some in
tuition that she would be obliged to yield?
Her haggard eyes looked about far some
weapon of defense. Suddenly, with a cry of
joy, she seized a long knife, which was
lying in its sheath among her traveling out
fit, and sprang forward. , The. sharp blade
touched his arm and made a alight wound.
Then the young Irishman lost hfs head. He
seized tbe woman by the shoulders, and
when she resisted, trying to stoop down and
make her escape, his hands closed tightly
about her slender throat The struggle was
short and violent, she resisting furiously.
and he lererianiy tigntened nis grasp. Sud
denly she gave a short, choking sound, her
eyes'stood out and her head fell backward
bv its own weight It was all so hasty that
Talbot Started back in terror. Mrs. Belitska
swayed to and fro, and, as if in a swoon, fell
to the ground.
Just then shonts were heard without, in
the broad space between the house and "the
river. They were cries of joy, of triumph,
and could bear only a sinister meaning.
"Ah, I had forgotten they are coming to
plunder us," thought Talbot He ran to
the window, grasping his revolver. The
cowboys were surrounding the house.
"There's the fellow!" cried one, with an
Irish accent
The voice more than the words struck
Talbot for Itwas so like that of his cousin,
Gregory O'Carroll, that he felt for an in
stant that the speaker mnst be none other
than his relation and rival. The mob vocif
erated anew, and one, with a thoroughly
brutal face cried out: "I'll look after him."
This one lifted the muzzle of bis gun
toward the window, and before Talbot could
draw back the ball struck him in the right
shoulder. With a hoarse groan he sank to
his knees. Twice he tried to rise, but iu
vain. He was losing considerable blood,
and bis strength was exhausted by useless
efforts. The struggle between will and
strength could not last long. Finally he
closed his eyes and fell backward.
He did not' regain consciousness -until
midnight A clot of blood, forming about
his wound, had checked the flow which
might have proved fatal. Then the events
which had passed so rapidlyretnrned one by
one to his confused memory. How did he
happen to be still alive? A pale ray of
moonlight crept through the open window
upon the gastly face of Mrs. Belitska.
Slowly and painfully he dragged himself
toward her. She did not move; she was
dead killed! Bat hy whom? By him,
Talbot, or by those men? He looked at her
in horror, and asked himself if he could be a
murderer? Impossible. She could not have
succumbed so quickly. Astruggle of a few
minutes, however fierce it may be, does not
end so tragically.
Traces of blood reddened her livid cheeks.
Her ears were lacerated. Then, finally,
Talbot gathered that tbe cowboys must have
broken into the house, plundering every
thing, even to the jewels in this woman's
ears. Dead! The robbers had thoneht her
to be in a swoon, not knowing that the poor
creature bad ceased to breathe. Bo he, Tal
bot Power, a well-born Irish gentleman, was
the murderer! "With the extreme lucidity
of fever he again recalled all the incidents
of the evening. He had strangled her! He
placed his hand upon her heart It was no
longer beating.
In withdrawing his hand he felt some
thing stiff resisting beneath his touch. It
was a square envelope pinned inside the
dress of the Bussian. Instinctively and al
most unconsciously he drew out the pins.
What did this envelope contain? The last
wishes, no doubt, of the dead woman. He
tore open the paper and was almost stupefied
on perceiving lour bank notes of 4,000
sterling each, equal to about (80,000, which
he held in his trembling hand. A fortune
acquired through blood one of which no
body knew, and which had by a miracle es
caped the notice of the brigands. It was a
horrible temptation. Twice Talbot's hand
was outstretched to restore to the dead her
blood-stained money; twice his evil genius
stifled the last efforts of his weakening con
science. At last he closed the envelope
and pinned it in his own clothes with the
very pins that served the owner. His heart
was beating as it it would burst, and he had
the consciousness of an irreparable down
fall. Some hours before he had been an
honorable man, with only chance to blame
for bis poverty. Now he was a thief and a
murderer.
IT.
"How do you feel, Talbot?" It was Kitty
Mellish's gentle, solicitous voice.
Talbot opened his eyes, rousing himself
for the first time from his lethargy. His
feeble glance wandered about the bare walls
of a rudely furnished room.
"The doctor said that you would come to
yourself." continued "Kitty. "I hardly
dared believe him. So, no! dont talk; it is
forbidden.
Talbot remained perforce silent and mo
tionless, though a burning anxiety was tor
taring him. Me remembered everything
the violent scene in the log house, tbe cow
boys and the tragic death of Mrs. Belitska.
Did they know him to be a thief,an assassin?
Again and again he tried to question Kitty,
who had installed herself at his pillow. But
she shrugged her shoulders with a smile,
and refused tctanswer. Left to himself, he
occupied his mind with one thought: what
should he say if the authorities questioned
him? Two hours later Kitty appeared,
more cheerful than before.
"I see that you have had a good rest, sir,"
she said. The ban is removed. Now we can
talk."
"Kitty, what has happened?"
Then the girl began the painful story. At
dawn the people of the house had returned,
accompanied by some friendly-ranchmen,
and found tbe corpse of Mrs. Belitska and
Talbot's bleedioz form. Kittv alone could
explain how the cowboys "had attacked the 1
three travelers, snooting Talbot and stran
gling Mrs. Belitska when she refused to
give up her jewels. Happily Kitty herself
had made no resistance. As she proceeded
Talbot's anxiety decreased. Then tbey sus
pected nothing. Naturally everything was
attributed to the cowboys, three of whom
had been seized by inexorable justice and
haneed from the nearest tree. The others had
escaped, although one, an Irishmau, was
suspected to be hiding about the neighbor
hood. Of the money concealed under Mrs.
Belitska's dress not a word was said.
Doubtless Kitty was unaware that her em
ployer carried so large a sum with her.
Eighty thousand dollars! Talbot felt a
fine perspiration sprinkling his brow. What
had become of the envelope? It could not be
still pinned to his vest It would have been
folly to hope for such a miracle.
"You must rest now," Kitty said.
Then he suddenly recalled the voice re
sembling Gregory O'CarroH's, and also the
mention which Kitty bad made of an Irish
man having been with the cowboys.
"Kitty," he asked, "how did you Jeave
my cousin, Gregory?" She cast down her
eyes, and he added: "He was a suitor of
yours, and did he win your heart after I
came away?"
"He was gnilty of the most atrocious con
duct toward me," she frankly answered,
"after you left the neighborhood. He per
secuted me with his attentions, and when I
told him that that " and the sentence
died in a blush.
"That your heart had gone away with
me?" Talbot interposed.
"Well, yes. There the doctor sail you
must not excite yourself. After I had told
him that, he vowed vengeance upon yon.
He pretended to believe that I meant to join
yon here in America, and swore he would
follow us.''
"What if he led the attack on the log
house?"
Then he told her of the voice like Greg
ory's that had directed the shot which had
wonnded him. Could it be?
Kitty insisted that he must Test, and lie
silently mused: "If Gregory did try to
have me killed is he worse than I, for I am
-a murderer and a thief, too." Then he
sought to invent some explanation for the
Sjychological phenomenon which hsM sud
e'nly altered him front an honesf man into
a criminal. He did not willingly strangle
the woman; he was protecting her, a self
condemned victim against herself. Worn
out by morphine and whisky, she Bust have
yielded to a cerebral anagastioa caused by
the pressure of his fingers pa fcer throat
Granted; the murderer might excuse him
self, but how about other people? "I meant
to steal," he went on, "but I didn't actually
steal, for the money is no longer Jn my pos
session. It must have been lost or stolen ou
the way here. I yielded to temptation, it
is true, but when I was not in fall command
of my faculties. If I had been well in
mind and body I never should have done
that But I shall never profit by it, so T
am innocent" Hence, from the moment
when he accommodated himself to this sub
tle reasoning, Talbot began to shudder at
the idea of losing the fruits of his theft
That night, during Kitty's absence, he
called to the .only other occupant of the
Firairie house an old man-rand asked:
'Aren't my clothes just at the foot of the
bed? I wish you would put them over me,
for I feel a little chilly."
Tbe man smiled. How could anyone feel
cold in such extreme heat, in the middle of
June? Still, he humored the caprice, and
then left him.
Talbot's trembling fingers sought the
waistcoat A miracle! The envelope was
in its place. He could feel the bank notes
crackling inside the paper. Bich? He was
rich at last! His eyelids closed, and, worn
out by the moral conflict, he fell into a pro
found sleep, full of delightful dreams. No
more remorse, no more repentance. Hence
forth he would look upon himself as neither
a thief nor an assassin, but as a bold adven
turer, taking his revenge upon all the world.
Next morning he awoke upon the fifth
day after the tragedy. He was still weak,
but his brain was clear, and his first wide
awake thought was of the money. He was
alone. He took out the envelope, and when
about to open it, saw that there was some
writing on it The handwriting, as he
recognized at a glance, was that of Mrs.
Belitska. It said:
"If I should be killed to-night, as I think
Talbot Power has been, and this money by
any chance should escape the hands of the
cowboyjmob, I hereby bequeath it to Kitty
Mellish. She is a good girl, whom I have
abused, and this reparation will wrong no
body else, because I have no relative.
"Miea Belitska."
Talbot pressed his hands flat on his eyes,
as though to disabuse them of an illusion:
but when he opened them'again they read
the inscription as before. A cry of joy
escaped from his lips. He was not a mur
derer. The will had been written, as its
language showed, alter the cowboys' attack,
after she had dropped from his grasp in a
swoon, and after he had been shot She had
died under the bands of the plunderers, who
had not found the hidden riches.
So he was not a slayer of a woman. And
Kitty was an heiress!
Where was she now? He was eaeer to
tell her of the good fortune. It was day
break, but not clear daylight, and he could
barely see the writing plainly en6ugh to
read it A tap at his door interrupted his
second slow perusal. In response to bis
"Come in I" a form with the outlines of a
ranchman entered, and stood in the shadow
against the closed door. The hat, palled
well down over the forehead, would have
hidden the face even in a less obscure cham
ber. Por a hesitant moment the figure in
the corner stood still and silent Then it
flung the cloak back and pushed the hat
up from the face.
"Who the devil are you?" he asked in
amazement, peering in the dim light eagerly
at the face.
As it came nearer he saw that the visitor
was Kitty Mellish.
"There's short time for explanation," she
said. "The house is going to be attacked
bycowboy bandits. The woman told me
the woman who has been doing the house
work here and then she ran away to save
herself. The scoundrels have an idea that
Mrs. Belitska left money with us, and
they're bound to get it "
'So she did, Kitty." Talbot replied. "It
is here. She wrote a will bequeathing it to
you."
"And I have news as startling. Wh o do
yon suppose was the leader of the mob that
murdered Mrs. Belitska, nearly killed yon,
and is now coming to finish its work? Your
cousin, Gregory O'Carroll. He came to see
me twq days ago. I didn't tell you of it yes
terday because I wished to keep you quiet.
He said he loved me, hated you, had fol
lowed me to America and would not leave
me to you. He declared be would trump np
a charge that you had murdered Mrs. Belit
ska, and bring a gang to lynch 'yon. He
will be here soon."
"I will fight it out to the last"
"We will fight it out You are weak yet,
bnt together we will equal your usual self.
I've put on these clothes so they will mis
take me for a man, and not think a girl is
your only companion. I will be a man for
an hour, Talbot, or at least half a man."
The invalid's eyes shone very brightly.
"Do you mean it?" he said, and the girl
answered with a look that sent the blood to
the man's face.
She quitted the room for him to dress. He
went to the window, .opened it, leaned out,
and whistled at a lump of darkness on the
road. It took shape andshowed itself to be
a boy.
"Go to the railroad station with all
speed," said Talbot "Bun as if the devil
were after you, and back again with every
fighting man they can muster. They'll
know what they're wanted for when they're
here. Be off."
The shadow vanished, and Talbot, after
making a, crude three-minute toilet, let
Kitty in.
"It will take the best part of half an hour
before we can have a man here." he said.
"The later Cousin Gregory and his crew of
cutthroats come, the worse for them."
"Hush," she said. "I hear something.'
They listened. On the road, nearer and
nearer, came tbe clatter or horses hoofs.
"There's enough of them," said Talbot,
"for the last time, Kitty, be off before it's
too late."
She turned on him with a fierce look on
her beautiful face.
"Talbot I will be a happy girl to die
with you."
A great light of pity and passion shone in
his eyes. "Well, well," he said, "if you
say that you mean a, ana u ever j. nave the
chance to tell you what I think of you, I
shall be the happy man. But now we must
make all snug."
He bolted the front door. Then he came
bact, and in a moment he bad bolted and
locked the door of the room, had swung the
table up against it and piled a couple of
chairs on the top. Then he examined the
chambers of his pistol and took Kitty's from
her belt and looked at it
"Fourteen shots," he said softly to'him
self. "None of them must miss."
"None of them shall miss," said Kitty.
He took her hand and held it for a second,
while tbev looked into each other'a pvp
There was a second's pause, which seemed
endless, and the clattering of hoofs stopped
outside.
There was a beating at the door, and, nat
urally enough, no answer. Then Gregory
O'Carroll's voice rose on the air.
"Are you there, Talbot Powder? Are
you there?"
Talbot stepped f the window, opened it
and leaned out into the dim light- He
could discern a little knot of horsemen
huddled together, and one looking up at
the house.
"Is that you. Gregory?" said Talbot
tauntingly. "And did you think we should
be such poor company together ;and, we of
kin, too that you brought your fine friends
to cheer us?"
"Coma down, murderer," answered Greg
ory. "If you want me you must come and
take me." And with that Talbot slammed
down the window, and reaching ont his
band, caught Kitty's, and pressed it
"We shall have thewasps about our ears
in an instant," he said; "let us pray we
escape stinging."
There came a great crashing at the door
below, and in a few seconds the listeners
heard it swing back. There was a moment's
silence as the invaders reconnoitred the
empty rooms. Then there came the sound
of feet trampling up the stairs, and the glare
of light under the door, and somebody
caught the handle and shook it violently.
"Open the door," came the voice of Greg
ory again. "You are fairly caught"
"'Devil a bot," rolled out the Irishman
profanely. "Step inside and see for your-
The door was strainbg.asd mania? u.
der shoaltotbrwHsaaaiiek. Sfl&talyj
" "! v CT ? r -r- "7-' r, f -o
there ws a erhs1M 'deer res-led is, aad
half a doaea men use stassbling In after
it Instantly from Talbot's revolver went a
bullet, and one man fell on his face and lay
still. A second shot, this one aimed by
Kitty, sent another staggering back on the
landing and thence down stairs, with a dis
mal thud. In another moment the room was
empty again, and the assailants grouped
themselyes on the stairs out of sight and
shot
Outside there was a hurried muttering,
and the voice of Gregory came hoarsely:
"Now, boys, now." Then the enemy came
in again.
From behind the intrenebmenta two
gleaming pistols confronted them.
"There are two of them," veiled Gregory.
"Down with them!" and the mob pushed
jorwara,
There was some Oulck exebances of snnti.
and then the mob rushed hack again, Gre
gory with a hole in his shoulder, one of his
companions with a hole in his heart, which
stretched him by the side of his first victim.
Out of eight men, three were sped, and
Gregory was wounded with one other.
"Come on, Cousin Gregory," shouted
Talbot cheerily. "Don't be bashful, man."
The assassins charged again, and again
retreated, leaving two of their number
wounded too badly to keep up the fight
There were only four now to fight, includ
ing Gregory.
"Have you had enough?" asked Talbot
jeeringlv, and from his side Kitty echoed
him: "Have you had enough, Mr. O'Car
roll?" Gregory's face grew livid.
"You, Miss Mellish you you shall pay
for this." Then turning to the others,
"Come," he said, "it's oaly a woman."
The lour men advanced warily; but there
was a noise outside and trampling on the
stairs, and half a dozen men rushed in and
took the lynchers in the rear. In ten sec
onds they were disarmed and driven away.
Gregory has not been heard of since.
After the fight, Talbot turned to Miss
Mellish, who was leaning, pale as death,
against the wall.
"Kitty," he said, "I have never met with
a woman like you in my life, and never
shall again. Shall we fight the world to
gether again a little longer? What do you
say to yonr becoming Mrs. Powers."
"With all the pleasure in life," said the
young lady simply.
THE S2TD.
Copyrighted. 1889. All riehts reserved.
SUNDAY THOUGHTS
-ON-
morals:
BY A CLERGYMAN.
iwnrmaf tob thi dispatch. j
Several churches in this vicinity have
recently installed new pastors. A word to
he se churches regarding their duties to
these pastors will have the merit of time
liness. For one thing, let the minister boss the
job. There must be a head to everything.
Who else is so well fitted to lead and control
in church afiairs as the minister? Who else
knows the situation so well, and is in such
intimate touch with the parish?
As in politics, there are always a plenty of
patriots willing to serve their country for a
consideration, so in the church there are
men who for the consideration of prominence
and Influence will plot and poll wires to get
into parochial office. If such men get in, get
them ont If they are out, keep them
oat. Nothing kills a church so sorely in
a self-respectine and intelligent community as
the reputation of being carried in some lay
man's vest pocket Let the minister be cap
tain on his own quarterdeck. He is responsi
ble before God and man. Therefore giye him
power. Responsibility without power is dan
gerous. Make his power coextensive with his
responsibility. Then hold him responsible. If.
he does not level up to tbe responsibility, the
brotherhood can with a good conscience invite
him to step down and oat.
We urge the church to co-operate with the
pastor. Cooperation is the open secret of suc
cessful work. Cruel to put on the back of one
camel the load Intended for the whole caravan.
Tbe epitaph of many a minister might well be
this: "Murdered by the idleness and indiffer
ence of the parish." Lay hold with bim. This
will make work easy. Inspiring, successful.
Hello, there, lazy church members! lend a
hand.
'TIs tbe doty of tbe church to defend the
pastor's reputation. This is the medium of his
influence. If this is gone what is left? And it is
as delicate as a woman's a breath is sometimes
fatal. There are in every church whisperers
ami vau&ujiexs: men. who wiien any Slan
der begins to circulate, sbrng the shoul
ders and arch the 'eyebrows and look
wiser than they are: women wbo conzh under
the handkerchief and other women, who,
without any malicious purpose, do endless mis
chief by gossiping, whose tongue is hung as a
pivot and runs at both ends. Nor are women
the only offenders in the way of gossip. There
are men whose tongnes are so long that tbey
must be measured with a yardstick. More
over, what mischief could gossipers do if it
were not for the gossip hearers T According to
an old writer, both these classes ought to be
hanged tbe one by the tongue and tbe other
by the ear. There is one text which needs to
be frequently preached on nowadays, viz: "All
liars shall have their pare In the lake which
bumeth with fire and brimstone." If this be
true, then Satan will have to lay in an extra
stock of brimstone t
Surely, a Christian chnrch should be as
charitable as tbe common law Is; and this holds
a man to be innocent until be is proved to be
guilty. A pastor's reputation is the special
charge of his people. They should defend it
as long as it is defensible.
A church should show the fruits of preach
ing in Christian life. What does a minister
preach fort To save men and women to build
character to make noble manhood and woman
hood. What makes a churchr Not a magnificlent
edifice (usually mortgaged): not a crowd of
hearers: not a five thousand dollar choir; not a
gifted preacher. These are, at best mere ac
cessories. No.men and women self-sacnilcing,
noble living; these make a church. There is in
the community a prejudice against the church
which has no piety. Evenwordly people feel
that a chnrch should love and exemDllfy righ
teousness. Is this impression a mistake?
It a chnrch is attached to its pastor let it say
so. There are some husbands who never speak
wen oi uieir wives unni mey are sainted.
There are some wives who seldom refer to their
husband nntll they come to speak of them as
"the late lamented." So some churches make
a point of not manifesting tbe affection they
really feel until the pastor goes away. "I
would never have left my late charge," said a
pastor, "hadl Imagined my people loved me as
they showed they did when 1 resigned."
George Eliot makes "Mrs; Foyer" say in Adam
dieac: "it's poor work allays a settin' the
dead above the llvin'. We shall all on us be
dead sometime, I reckon; and it 'ud be better if
folks 'ud make much on us beforehand, instid
o' beginnln'when we're gone. It's but little
good yoa'll do a waterln' tbe last year's crop."
This remark of "Mrs. Poyser" is respectfully
commended to all congregations.
Short Sunday Sermons.
LUTHHK thanked God for the little words in
the Bible. He Is our Father. He so loved the
world that He gave His Son. He is the God of
all comfort Life is saddened and we need this
view of the in finite and eternal.
Jesus remains the highest model of religion
within tbe reach of human thought; and no
perfect piety is possible without His presence
In the heart Strauss.
That mightiest heart that ever beat, stirred
by the spirit of God, how it wrought in
Christ's bosom! What words of rebuke, ot com
fort, of counsel, bf admonition, of promise, of
hope, of revelation, did he pour outf Words
tlfht fructify the son! as summer dews and sun
shine do the soil. Theodore Parker.
Whaxkvbb may be the surprises of the fu
ture, Jesus will never be outgrown. His worr
ship will grow young without ceasing, His suf
ferincs will melt the noblest hearts, and all ages
will proclaim him the greatest of the sons of
men. Renan.
I believe Jesus Christ to be more than a
human being. All admit and joyfully admit
that by His greatness aqd goodness, He throws
all other human attainments into obscurity.
William Ellen; Charming.
It the life and death of Socrates were those
of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those
ot a God. Rousseau.
Tire career of Christ is a beautiful picture
of purity and simplicity and shows what excel
lent creatures men would be when under the
influence and power 'of that gospel which he
preached to them. Thomas Chubb.
Now when the Centnrios, and tbey that were
with him watching Jesus, saw the earthquake,
and those thlnas that wars done, thev feared
greatly, sajing: Truly tUs was tie Boa of God.
ss JfggEjSgy -TScSBgr ' - i rap"!5
Jil-JB.0 lii-CJE AJLUATi
W. Clark Eossell Gives Some Experi
ences Ufider the Title of
PLUMS FfiOM A SAILOR'S DUFF.
Hairbreadth Escapes From Icebergs Of Cape
Horn.
ATTACKED BI A CKAZED THIED MATE
TfBITBS TOB TH DISPAICH.1
It has been commonly expected of sailors
fin all ages that they should encounter noth
ing upon the ocean Dut hair-breadth escapes.
The theory is that the mariner but half dis
charges his duties when his experiences are
limited to his work as a seaman. That he
may be fully and perfectly accomplished
vocationally he must know what it is to
have been cast away, to have barely come
off with his life outof a ship on fire, to have
been overboard on many occasions in heavy
seas to have chewed pieces of lead in open
boats to assuage his thirst to have en
countered, in short, most of the stock hor
rors of the oceanic calling. Considering,
however, that the sailor goes to sea holding
his life in his hand, I cannot bnt think that
his mere occupation is perilous enough to
satisfy the romantic demands of the shore
going dreamer. It is feigned that the sea
faring life is not one jot more dangerous
than most of the laborious callings
followed ashore. Let no man credit
this. The sailor never springs
aloft, never slides out to a yard arm, never
gives battle to the thunderous canvas,
scarcely performs a duty, indeed, that does
not contain a distinct menace to his life.
That the calling has less of danger in it in
these days than it formerly held I will not
undertake to determine. If in former times
ships put to sea destitute of the scientific
equipment which characterizes the fabrics
of this age, the mariner supplied the de
ficiencies of the shipyard by caution and
patience. He was never in a hurry. He
waited with a resigned countenance upon
the will of the wind. He plied his lead
and log-line with indefatigable diligence.
There was no prompt dispatch in his day,
nd headlong thundering, through weather
as thick as mud in a wine glass, to reach
his port We have diminished many of the
risks he ran through imperfect appliances,
but, on the other hand, we have raised a
plentiful stock of our own, so that the bal
ance between then and now shows -pretty
level.
My seafaring experiences covered about
eight years, and they hit a transitional
period of immense moment I mean the
gradual transformation of the marine fabric
from wood in to 'iron. I was always afloat
in wood, however, and never knew what it
was to have an iron plate between me and
tbe yearning wash of the brine outside un
til I went a voyage to Natal and back in a
big ocean steamer that all day long throbbed
to the maddened heart in her engine room,
like some black and gleaming leviathan
rendered hysterical by the lances of whalers
feeling for its life, and all night long
stormed through the dark ocean shadow like
a body of fire, faster than a gale of wind
could in my time have driven the swiftest
clipper keel that furrowed blue water.
A 'WIUJ HIOHX AX SKA.
What hair-breadth escapes did I meet
with? I have been asked. Was I ever
marooned? Ever cast away, as Jack says,
on the top crust of a half-penny loaf? Ever
overboard among sharks? Ever gazing
madly round the horizon, the sole occupant
of a frizzling boat, in search of a ship where
I might obtain water to cool my blue and
frothing lips? Well, my duffis not a very
considerable one, and the few plums in it I
fear are almost wide enough apart to be out
of hail of one another. However, a sample
or two will suffice to enable me to keep my
word and to write something at all events
autobiographic
So let us'start off Cape Horn on a July
day in tbe year of grace 1859. The ship was
a fine old Australian liner, a vessel of hard
upon 1,400 tons, a burden that in thoie days
constituted a large craft She was com
manded by one Captain Neatby, something
of a favorite, I believe, in the passenger
trade a careful old man with bow legs and
a fiery grog-blossom oi a nose. He wore a tall
chimnev-pot hat in all weathers, and was
reckoned a very careful man because he al
ways furled" his fore andmizzen royals in the
first dog watch every night We were a long
way south; I cannot remember the exact lat
itude, but I know itwas drawing close upon
60. There was a talk in the midshipmen's
berth among us that the captain was trying
his hand at the great Circle course, but
none of us knew much about it down in
that gloomy, 'tween-decks, slush-flavored
cavern in which we voun listers lived.
I was 14 years old, homeward bound on my
first voyage; a little bit of a midshipman,
burnt dry by Pacific suns, with a mortal
hatred and terror of the wild, inexpressibly
bitter cold of the roaring ice-loaded paral
lels in whose Antarctic twilight our noble
ship was plunging and rolling now under a
fragment of maintopsail, now nnder a reefed
foresail and double-reefed fore topsail, chased
by the shrieking western gale that flew like
volleys of scissors and thumbscrews over
our taflrail, and by seas whose glittering,
flickering peaks one looked up at from
the neighborhood of the wheel as at
the brows of tall and beetling cliffs. The
gale was white with snow, and dark with
the blinding fall of it too, when I came
on deck at noon. I was in the chief mate's,
or port watch, as it is called. The ship
was running under a double-reefed topsail
in tnose uays we carried single sails reeled
foresail, close-reefed foretopsail, and main
topmast staysail. The snow made a London
fog of the atmosphere; forward of the galley
the ship was out of sight at times when it
came thundering down out of tbe blackness
aft, white as any smother of spume. She
pitched with the majesty of a line-of-battie
ship, as she launched herself rn long-floating
rushes from gleaming pinnacle to seething
valley with, heavy melancholy sobbing of
water all about her decks, and her narrow,
distended band of maintopsail hovering
overhead oiacic as a raven's pinion in the
flying hoariness. We were washing through
it at 12 or 13 knots an hour, though tbe ship
was as stiff as a madman in a strait jacket,
with the compressed wool in her hold and
loaded down to her mainchain bolts be
sides. SMELLING ICEBESG3.
By two bells (one o'clock) forward of the
break of the poop the decks were deserted,
though now and again amid some swiftly
passing flaw in the storm of snow, you
might just discern the gleaming shapes of
two men on the look-out on the forecastle,
with the glimpse of a figure in the foretop,
also on the watch for anything that might
be ahead. The captain in his tall hat was
stamping the deck to and fro close against
the wheel, cased in a long pilot coat, under
the skirts of which his legs, as he slewed
round, showed like the lower limb of the
letter O. Through the closed skylight win
dows I could get a sort of watery view of
the cuddy passengers as they' were then
called reading, playing at chess, playing
the piano, below. There were some scores
of steerage and 'tweendeck passengers,
deeper yet in the bowels of the ship, but
hidden out of sight by the closed hatches.
I know not why it should have been, but
I was the only midshipman on the poop,
though the ship carried 12 of us, six to
a watch. The other five were doubtless loaf
ing about under cover somewhere. I stood
close beside the chief mate to windward
holding to the brass rail that ran athwart
the break of tbe poop. This officer was a
Scotchman, a man named Thompson, and I
suppose no better seaman ever trod a shin's
deck. He was talking to me about getting
home, asking me whether I would rather be
off Cape Horn in a snowstorm or making
to sit down with my brothers and sisters at
ay father's table to a iolly eood diaser of
ttkaa4 watt to! ta pvMfatg ; whsaaU
rtKFUBlF J J Ai"VH(
a fc stspasd la what ka was say-
if, ami MI a saMs violently.
, "IsBMUSM,"saidhelwiUtaglaeaftat
Smell feel thought I, with a half look at
him, for I believed he was joking. l"or ray
part, it was all ice to me one dense, yelling
atmosphere of snow; every flake barbed,
and the cold of a bitterness beyond words.
He fell a-sniffing again quickly and vehe
mently, and stepped to the side, sending a
thirsty loos into the white blindness ahead,
while I heard him mutter, 'There's ice
close aboard, there's ice close aboard I" As
he spoke the words there arose a loud and
fearful cry from the forecastle.
"Ice right ahead, sir!"
"Ice right ahead, sirl" reneated the chief
mate, whipping round upon the captain.
"I see it, sirl I see it, sir!" roared the
skipper. "Hard a starboard, men. Hard a
starboard for your lives. Over with it"
A CLpSE CALL.
Tbe two fellows at tbe helm sent the
spokes flying like tbe driving wheel of a
locomotive: the lone shiD nnborne at the
instant by a huge Pacific sea, paid off like I
creature oi instinct, sweeping slowly but
surely to port just in time. For right on
the starboard bow of us there leaped out
into proportions terrible and magnificent
within a musket shot of our rail an iceberg
that looked as big as St Paul's Cathedral,
with a stormy roaring of the gale in its ra
vines and valleys and the white smoke or
the snow revolving about its pinnacles and
spires like volumes of steam, and a volcanic
noise of mjghty seas bursting against its
base and .recoiling from the adamant of its
crystalline sides in acres of foam
We were heading for it at the rate of
13 miles an hour as neatly as you point the
end of a thread into the eye of a needle. In
a few minutes we should have been Into it,
crumbled against it, dissolved upon the
white waters about it and have meta name
less end. Boy as I was, and bitter as was
the day, I remember feeling a stir in my
hair as I stood watching with open mouth
the passage of the mountainous mass close
alongside into the -pale void astern, while
the ship trembled again and again to -the
blows and thumps of vast blocks of floating
ice.
"Ice right ahead, sir," came the cry
again, nor could we clear the jumble of
bergs until the dusk had settled- down,
when we hove-to for the night No one was
hurt, but I suppose no closer shave of the
kind ever happened to a shiD before.
Again, and this time once more off Cape
Horn. It was my third voyage; I was still
a midshipman and in the second mate's
watch. I came on deck at midnight and
found the ship hove to, breasting what in
this age of steamboats, and, tor the matter
ot that, perhaps in any other age, might be
termed a terrific sea. She was making good
weather of it; that is to say, she kept her
decks dry, but she was diving and rolling
most hideously, with such swift headlong
shearing of her spars through the gale that
the noises up in the blackness alolt were as
though the spirits of the inmates of a thou
sand lunatic asylums had been suddenly en
larged from their bodies and sent yelling
into limbo. The wind blew with an unen
durable edge in the sting and bite of it The
second mate and I, each with a rope girdling
his waist to awing byr stood muffled up to
our noses under the- lee ot a square of can
vas seized to the mizzen shrouds.
A TIME TO DBTNK COITEE.
Presently he roared into my ear, "Sort of
night for a pannikin of coffee, eh, Mr. Bus
sell?" "Ay. ay. sir.'' I replied, and with that
jiuerahiag uiyaci iruiu
1 the ItDe. I Clawed
my way along the line of the hencoops the
decks sometimes sloping almost up and
down to the heavy weather scends of the
huge black billows and descended into the
midshinmen's berth. It was not thn firut
time I had made a cup of coffee for myself
and the second mate in the middle watch
during cold weather. An old nurse who
had lived in my family for years had given
me an apparatus, consisting, of a spirit lamp
and a funnel-shaped contrivance of block
tin, along with several pounds of very good
coffee, and with this I used to keep the sec
ond mate and myself supplied with the real
luxury of a hot and aromatic drink during
wet and frosty watches. The midshipmen's
berth was a narrow room down in the 'tween
deck, bulkheaded off from the sides, fitted
with a double row of bunks one on top of
another, the lower beds' being about a 'foot
above the deck. There were five midship
men all turned in and fast asleeD. The
others, who were on watch, were clustered
under the break of the poop for the shelter
there.
A lonelv one-eyed sort of slush lamp,
with sputtering wick and stinking flame
swung wearily from a blackened beam, ren
dering the darkness but little more than vis
ible. I slung my little cooking apparatus
near to it, filled the lamp with spirits of
wine, put water ana conee into the funnel,
and then set fire to the arrangement I
stood close under it, wrapped from head to
foot in gleaming oilskins looking a very
bloated little shape, I don't doubt, from the
quantity of clothing I wore under the water
proofs waiting for tbe water to boil. The
seas roared in thunder high above the scut
tles to tbe wild and sickening dipping of
the snip a side into tne trough. Xne hum
ming of the gale pierced through the decks
with the sound of a crowd of bands of music
in the distance, all playing together, and
each one a different tnne. The midshipmen
snored, and coats and small clothes hanging
from the bunk stanchions wearily swung,
sprawling out and in like bodies dangling
from gallows' in a gale of wind.
FIRE BETWEEN DECKS.
All in a moment a sea of unusual weight
and fury took the ship and hove her down to
the height, as you would have thought, of
her top-gallant rail; the headlong move
ment sent me sliding to leeward; the fore
thatch of my sou'wester struck the spirit
lamp; down it poured in a line of fire upon
the deck, where it surged to and fro in a
sheet of flame, with the movements of the
ship. I was so horribly frightened as to be
almost paralyzed by the sight of that flick
ering stretch of yellowish light, sparkling
and leaping as it swept under the lower
bunks and came racing back again to the
bulkhead with the windward incline. I
fell to stamping upon it in my seaboots, lit
tle tool tbat J. was, noping in tbat way to
extinguish it A purple-faced midshipman
occupied one of the lower bunks, and his
long nose lay over the edge of it He opened
bis eyes, and after looking sleepily for a mo
ment or two at the coating ot pale fire rush
ing from under his bed, he snuffled a bit,
and muttering, ''Doocid nice smeli; burnt
brandy, ain't it?" he turned over and
went to sleep again with his face the other
way.
I was in an agony of consternation, and
yet afraid of calling for help lest I should
be very roughly manhandled for my care-
lessness. There was a aeai oi "rame" un
sness. There was a deal of "raffle" un-
der the bunks; sea boots, little bundles of
clothing, and I know not what else; but
thanks to Cape Horn everything was hap
pily as damp as water itself. There was
therefore nothing to kindle, nor was there
any aperture through which the burning
spirit could run below into the hold; so by
degrees the flaming stuff consumed itself
and in ten minutes timej the planks were
black again. I went on derk and reported
what had happened to the second mate. All
he said was "My God!" and instantly ran
below to satisfy himself that there was no
further danger. I can never recall that lit
tle passage ot my life without a shudder.
There were 195 souls of us aboard, and had
I managed to set the ship on fire that night
the doom oi every living creature would
have been assured, seeing that no boat could
have lived an instant in such a sea as was
then running.
AX INDIAN OCEAN" EXPEDIENCE.
In a very different climate from that of
Cape Horn I came very near to meeting
with aa extremely ugly end. Itwas a little
busia8entlrely ont of the routine of the
ordinary oetan daagers, bat the memory of
it? sends a thrill through me to this hour,
though it is much past 20 years since it hap
pened. I was making my second voyage
aboard a small full-rigged ship that had
been hired by the, Government for the con
veyaaee'ef troops to the East Indies. I was
the only midshipman; tbe other youngsters
consisted of "five appreatises. We occupied
a deekbease a littie forward of the bIh
hatah. TkTs hoase was divided by a Ibm
ad af( bika4d; tiH -?wiitim Uni is J
the nort caranarimeat'the third "aa dJfourtliT
matesgand myself slung our hammocks Toa
tne starboard side. The third mate was a
man of good family, aged about a,
a young Hercules in strength, with
heavy under jaws and the low, peculiar
brow of the prize-fighter. He had been a
midshipman in Smith's service, and was a
good and active sailor, very nimble aloft,
and expert in his work about the ship, but
ola sullen, morose disposition, and a heavy
drinker whenever the opportunity to get
drink presented itself. I think he was re
garded by all hands as a little touched, but
I was too young to remark In him any
oddities which might strike an older obi
B1;rTer' . Hj WJU RlTen to delivering himself
of certain dark, wild fancies. I remember,
he once told me that if he owed a man
grudge, he would not scruple to plant him
self alongside of him on a yard on a black:
night, and kick the foot-rope from under1'
him when his hands were busy, and so let'"
him go overboard. But this sort of talk It,
would put down to mere boasting, and, iw
deed, I thought nothing of it -
We were in tbe Indian Ocean, and ona'
evening I sat at supper (as tea. tbelastmeal, ?
on board ship is always called) along witb7 S
this man and the fourth mate. We fell Into
some sort of nautical anmmont n.tn th
heat of the discussion I said something that
caused the third mate to look at me fixedly'"
for a little, while he muttered under hur
breath, in a kind of half-stifled way.fas'
though his teeth were set I did not catch
the words, but I am quite certain from the)
fourth mate's manner .that he had heard
them, and that he knew what was in tha
other's mind. I say this because I recollect ' '
that very shortly afterward the fellow rosaV
and walked out on deck with an air about
him as if he was willing to give the third
mate a chance of being alone with me. '
A MEAN TEICK.
It was a mean trick, but then he was a
cowardly rogue, and when I afterward heard
that he had been dismissed from the service)
he had formerly entered for robbing his
shipmates of money and tobacco and the
humble trifles which sailors carry about
with them in their sea chests I was wicked
enough, recalling how he had walked out
of that deckhouse, leaving me, a little boy,
alone with a strong, brutal, crazv third
mate, to hope that he might yet prove guilty
of larger sins still, fori could not but re
gard him as a creature that deserved to be
hanged. The instant this man stepped
through the door the third mate jumped up
and closed it, It traveled in grooves, and
he whipped it o with a temper which,
caused the whole structure to echo again to
the blow.
"Now, you voung " he exi-laimed,
turning his bulldog face, white with rage,
upon me, yet speaking in a cold voice that
was more terrifying to listen to than if ha
had roared out, "I have you and I mean to'
punish you," and with that he unclasped
his heavy belt, and then clasped it again so
as to make a double thong of the leather,
and grasped me by the collar.
What my feelings were I am unable to
state at this distance of time. I believe I
was core astonished than frightened. I
could not imagine that this huge creature
was in earnest in offering to beat me for
what I had said, and yet I was sensible, too,
of an unnatural fire in his eyes a glow that
put an expression of savage' exultation into
them; and this look of hi somehow held ma
motionless and speechless. He half raised
his arm, but a sudden irresolution possessed
bim, as though my passivity was a check.
upon his intentions.
"No, no;" he exclaimed, after a little.
I'll manage better than this;" and still
I o-nnnlno-irm Ti-o- tho i-r.ll.i-nf mr .'..V. T..
i dropped his belt and ran me to tha fore end
of the compartment; threw me on my back
and knelt upon me. Within reach of his
arm, kneeling as he was, were three shelves,
on which we kept such crockery and cutlery
as we owned, along with our slender stores
of sugar and flour and tbe cold remains of
previous repasts. He felt for a knife; I
could hear the blades rattle as his fingers
groped past his curved wrist foroceof them,
and then flourishing the black-handled
weapon in front of my eyes, he exclaimed:
"How I'm going to murder you.
IN A MANIAC'S POWER.
I lay stock still. I never uttered a word; I
scarcely breathed, indeed. Aeain. I my-
that I do not know that I was terrified. My,
. think, with just enough sense left in jne.ta'
I.UUU. .thru n. vub w. JVUii-VkUVSlaCUDU
comreoeau uu u x utfccreu iae least cry
or struggled, no matter now lalntly, J.
should transform him into a wild beast
Nothing but my lying corpse-like nnder tha
pressure of his knee saved me. I am certain.
My gaze was fixed upon his face, and I
see him now staring at me with his
little eyes on fire, and the knife poised
ready to plunge. This posture, may be. ha
retain edjfor two or three minutes; it ran into
long hours to me. Then on a sudden
he threw the knife away backward over his
shoulder, rose and went to the door, where)
he stood a little staring at me intently. I
continued to lie motionless. He opened tha
door and passed out, on which I sprang to
my feet and fled as nimbly as my legs
would carry me to the poop where I found
the chief mate. He was a little Welshman
of the name of Thomas, a brother of Ap
Thomas, the celebrated harpist, and if he ba
still alive and these lines should meet his
eyes let him be pleased to know that my
memory holds him in cordial respect as tha
kindest officer and the smartest seaman I
ever had the fortnne to be shipmates with.
To him I related what bad happened.
"O ho," cried he, "attempted murder,
hey? Our friend must be taught that wa
don't allow this sort of thing to happen
aboard us."
He gave certain orders and shortly after
ward the third mate was seized and locked
up in a spare cabin just under the break of
the poop. Two powerful seamen were told
off to keep him company. How much the
unfortunate man needed this sort of control
I could not have imagined but for my hear
ing that he was locked up and my going to
the cabin window that looked on to tha
quarter deck to take a peep at him if he was
visible. He saw me and bounded to the
window, bringing his leg of mutton fist
against it with a blow that crashed tha
whole plate of glass into splinters.
His face was purple, his eyes
half ont of their sockets. There was
froth upon his lips, with such a general dis
tortion oi ieatures mat it would he impossi
ble to figure a more horrible illustration of
madness than his countenance. I bolted as
if the devil had been after me, catching just
a glimpse of tbe powerful creature wrestling
in the grasp of the two seamen who were
dragging him backward into' the gloom of
the cabin.
A NIGHTMARE PEODUCEB.
Such an escape as this I regard as dis
tinctly more eventful, if not more romantic,
than falling overboard and being rescued
when almost spent, or being picked up after
a fortnight's exposure in an open boat My
most sleep-murdering nightmares nearly,
always include the phantom form of that
burly, crazed, third mate kneeling upon my,
motionless little figure, and feeling for a
knife as one of the shelves just over ray.
head.
I could relate a score of experiences; off
ugly collisions with the police in Calcutta,
of a narrow escape of bein? thrown over-,.
I board by a dinghy-wallah of the Biver
ioogh!ev, or a desperate fight in the slings
of the mizzen-topgallant yard with an ap
prentice of my own age. and the like; bnti
the space at my disposal obliges me to con
clude. "Very little of the heroic enters tha
sailor's life. The risks he rnns, the adven
tures he encounters, have, as a rule, nothing.
of the romantic in them; they ara
mainly brought about by his owo-i.
foolhordiness. bv the nroverbial care-;
lessness that is utterly irreconcilablej h
w,M- Mia BKIH OlMlgSUOUB U. ,11-
lance, alertness, and foresight imposed upon
him by the nature of his calling, by tha
imbecility of his shipmates, and much too
often by drink, let no matter what tha
cause of most of tha -nerils he meets with.i
his experience, I take it, head the march i of ,
proiessional dangers. Small wonaer uikj
iaun in the "sweet lime cneruo ma
sits us aloft" should still linger in the fore-"
castle. Por certainly if it were not for the
bright lookout kept aver him by some sort
of maritime amreT. tha mariner would rank"
fbreso&t as among the most perishable ofj
aua predicts. t-4
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