Evening Star Newspaper, January 12, 1895, Page 14

: THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1835-TWENTY PAGES. Copyrighted, 184 heller, Johnson & Bacheller. “You know, hundred years to a day, almost, since that DuCasse affair occurred along this very bit of coast we are looking at.” When the colonel begins a piece of in- formation by the words “you know,” I am always prepared to hear something con- cerning which I was totally ignorant; and I fancy the colonel would be surprised to find it otherwise. Now, it so happened that I had heard of the French admiral, DuCasse, as having had some connection with Jamaica; never- theless, not to disappoint my friend, I murmured, in ‘Oh—DuCass: “You know what I mean,” proceeded he, with confidence. “The French were back- ing up the Old Pretender—the son of James Il, by Mary of Modena—and that scoundrel DuCasse was sent out here with a fleet to see what he-could pick up. It was a couple of years after the great earthquake that sunk Port Royal; but there was plenty of booty to be had im the island yet, and the Frenchmen knew it. He fetched up one fine dwy off Morant bay, yon and set ashore a part of his force th and a part further down the coast, at Cow bay—we drove along by there this morning. Well, be caught us napping, that's the truth. He | and his rabble were no ter than the worst of pirates. They made bloody work of it, I tell you; men, women and children nughteredl ‘em all, sir, by Jove! Well, it's good while since; but I've always wished 1 could have a chance to get back at “em; be the time may come yet ng—eh t y get much plunder?" I inquired. “Plund cried the colonel, his wa like mustachios bristling. “Loaded down with it- to the gun'l! And slaves!— they carried off near fifteen hundred of | ‘em. We gave ‘em a@ touch of our quality before they got off, though,” added the grizzled warrior. “Col. Beeston was gov- ernor—Sir William he was then—who used to own the lend Kingston stan on. He was a sifff old ct eeston; and when that h tried to re-| nal tactics Carlisle bay, wh on bim ¥ him off the at his ston Ww w B nd, by and leaving seven hundred of his cutthroats him.” colonel,” said I, after a that same Du Casse who Admiral Benbow ame waters? The colone! was obviously tak y prise; he had no notion that I knew that. He hummed and hawed, frowned and bris- tled; but there was no getting round his- tory. “Oh, Zenbow! Fine old chap, Ben- bow; but rather a dufter, £ fancy. Ob, well, it was z time ago, ‘a long time ago. arles! bring us two more, do you hear! and jurp, now!" * h, Massa Cunl, sah!" responded Charles, vanished with the glasses and an indulgent smile erby had been an honored resident of Jamaica for twenty "s or more; he came here with a brilliant repatation, won in the Injian mutmy. He was the owner | of several estates on the island, and was on a round of visits to them, and had in- vited me to take a seat in his carriage. We were at this moment sitting on the veranda of one of them, a little way up a mountain sije, enjoying the air of the late afternoon and a most deiicious prospect of gea and coast. During the pause that followed the order given to Charles my eyes were caught by a ship some miles distant in the offing. She addel the needed touch of human in- terest to the view, and I watched her pro- .gs with pledsed and idle attention. “What sort of 4 craft do you call that, colonel?” I asked, at length. “She looks to me more like a Chineze junk than any- Oh-—that? Chinese junk, eh! Well hardly! She is a queer-looking affair, | though. Where's the telescope? Charles! Where the deuce has that rascal—ch, gone Why doesn’t he get back? said Charles, reappear- had been sent for and the the telescope, sah!" "3 an odd fish—a very odd fish! ‘ed the colonel, after a pro- longed scrutiny through the instrument. YSTERYT™CARIBB —— ae Se said Col. Enderby, “it’s two | h the militia, | Jove, | fy EAN) Le Tian Haw THORNE Wo, 1AN C eo a | ceptibie to us, but the effect was to head | the vessel directly toward the reef, from | which she now seemed to be but a few | hundred yards distant. On she came, the water rippling from her bluff bows, and rising and sinking slowly on the long swell. She was moving obliquely relative to us, | her port side being half turned to us. Now | a long line of white surf broke almost un- | der her nose. “By Jove, colonel, jumping “He's done it!” As he spoke her forward part was up- | lifted by a roller and came down heavily on the reef. The shock caused her main topmast to break short off at the cap, and it hung down amidst a tangle of cordage. Meanwhile, unless my eyes deceived me, a flag was run up to her mizzen; but it was too dusky to*distinguish what device !t bore. ¢ ‘Tropical twilights are short; and almost at the moment the ship struck the air seemed to become perceptibly darker. Prob- ably a cloud had passed across the west. On the horizon tq the southeast, however, a mass of cloudy vapor was beautifully lighted up by the reflections of the sunset splendor and colored with tints of exquisite delicacy. It molded itself into various | similitudes of form, and finally took that of an antique vessel very much resembling | the one on the reef—a gigantic ghost of a ship, which glowed with phantom fire | through its portholes and finally vanished | in a pillar of gray, diaphanous smoke. ‘The practical and energetic colonel doubt- less did not witness this picturesque orna— ment of the scene. His mind was full of | the actual situation down there on the reef; jand, though he had so vigorously de- d the stupidity of the “red-feathered chap,” and even gone so far as to accuse him of Frenchiness, he now began to con- | sider plans for succor. “Why don’t he show any lights, thougfi?” he muttered. “Has he the idea that he has come ashore on an uninhabited island?” “If he has been cruising about since 1694 possibly he has run out of his stock of | rockets and candles,” I suggested. | “Do yi e any signs of his putting off a there she goes!” cried the to his feet excitedly. beat?” continued the warrior. “He's got boats, for I noticed a couple of them before | the light failed. Why, what the deuce ails him? Anybody would think that every man-jack of ‘em had been struck dead by the same blow that stove in her bottom.” Indeed, there was not a sign of life on d the questionable stranger; she lay k and inert, as if she were the wreck of ‘a lantern or the report of a gun came from her. And yet a minute ago her decks had been aswarm with life. What do you make out of it—eh?” de- ded the Colonel, chafing under his per- ty. The case strikes me as very simple,” I splied. “She is, as you say, a sort of Fly- ing Dutchman affair. She has been doomed for a certain number of years or centuries to,sail the seas that witnessed her crimes; and tonight her season of earthly purgatory has expired. Her crew, who, of course, were simply dead bodies, animated by de- mons, having navigated her to the point she started from, have now taken flight to their own aboc Here the colonel interrupted me with an indignant snort. “Jesting is all very well," quoth he; “put what's to be done about those poor | devils down on the reef? It may come on a | storm hefore morning, and every mother's |son of ‘em be drowned before our eyes. I'll tell you what it is—if they haven't sent on shore to’communicate with us by | the time we're through with our dinner. |1 shall take a boat and go out to see what's up, in person. That's what I shall ao! Would you care to accompany me?” hing would please me better. I have | always wanted to board a phantom ship, colonel, and there is no nan whom I would prefer to yourself for my companion in such an adventure.” ‘The colonel growled, called for Charles, ordered him to have dinner as soon as pessible, and gave him further instruc- tions relative to our proposed expedition. Fortunately for our purpose, the night turned out perfectly fine and still, and | there was a moon, Which rose just about | the time we were ready to embark on our | trip—between 8 and 9 o'clock. We had | ariven down from the colonel’s house, some | two or three miles, over a rough road, in a single-seated buggy; on arriving at the | beach we found the faithful Charles await- ing us. “Has the fellow made any signs of life yet?” demanded the colonel, as his servant helped him alight. ‘o, Massa Cun'l, sah,” Charles replied. “Dey's like as if dey wus gone to sleep, sah. De boys here, dey don’ like it, sah: y it ain't right, an’ I was ‘bliged for to | “THERE SHE GOES,” CRIED THE COLONEL. - “I can’t say that I quite . . you make of he I took the glass and looked. I am familiar with ships than with the Pistory of Jainaica; but this vessel came under no category I was acquainted with. She was rot a large boat—under two hun- dred tons, { should say—and her lines were peculiar and rather awkward; she was high in the bows ard in the stern, after the fashion of the ships we see in old ma- rine paintings, and her spars and rigging, also, had a very antique look. She resem- bled a © junk more than anything; she was paint- ink ever was, ils were of can- vas, much torn and defaced. Besides,what ld a Chinese junk be doing here here's a reef out thereabouts,” re- marked the colonel. “If she isn’t careful, she'll find it out!” he appears to be sailing without any wind,” said I. “She's well manned; 1 should think there might be fifty or sixty men on board. And they're working as if their lives depended on it. But either they're very awkward, or that fellow on the poop, with the red cap on—or fs it a red feather in his hat?—doesn’t know what See what more early he’s about. He can’t inten@ to come ashore here; and yet that's just what he seems to be doing.” “Hi a duffer; he might be a French- by the way he behaves,” man, said the colonel, resuming the glass. “They're an outlanc ooking gang, sure enough, those chaps are; look as if they might be the re- mains of some of DuCasse's pirates, kept for their sins," he added with a “Reeollect I came across some to that effect, in a manuscript chronicle in my collection, the other d T'll look it up. By Jove, that red-feath fellow is bound to the deuce, sure enough! And how he manages to move in the dea calm, at that rate, is beyond me. He must be the Flying Dutchman! He'll be hi | @ry on the reef in ten minutes, who: caught In some current, I sup- il. 1 this light," growled the co |. “it's failing us just when we want it. In fact, the sun was setting, and, as our | outlook ‘was toward the southeast, the shadow of the gigantic Elue Peak was thrown upon that part of the offing where the ship She was merged in it, and ible to distinguish It it was no longer po: what was going forward on her decks. seemed that the sheets were hauled aft, as| ff to take advantage of a breeze tmper- — ‘em extra pay to take us out, pobre “Ah, the rascals! Let them alone not to lose a chance of turning a penny! So, the crew out yonder’s asleep, are they? Weil, we'll wake ‘em before long. Push off, give way, there, and be lively! The rowers—there were four of therm-- bent to their oars, and we swept out into the still lagoon, the rising moon sending her level rays into our faces from the left, and the end of the colonei’s big cigar glow- ing beneath his grim mustache. Owing to the pesition of the mcon it was difficult to discern anything of the ship, which lay up- rd of two miles out; she was a shadow, and little more. As we advanced a silence fell upon us; nothing was heard but the regular breathing of the men, the clip of the cars as they took the water and the creak of the rowlocks. After we had pro- ceeded for about twenty minutes another sound became audible—the gentle breaking of the swell upon the reef. We were now searce a mile away from it, and the ship was silhouetted against the whitish glisten of the sea beyond her. But no noise, no movement, no light ennounced that there were living beings on board. It was cer- tainly mysterious. I glanced at the colonel, who sat with the tiller ropes grasped m his hands, steering straight for the ship. His bushy eyebrows were drawn together, his square jaws were set and he looked as if he were leading a forlorn hope right up to the enemy's guns. ‘Well, what do you think of her?” said I. “I shall hold her commander to an ac- count for his conduct,” replied the veteran. he ocean is not my element; but I know what proper behavior is, afloat or ashore.” “It is my opinion,” 1 pursued, “that he means to lure us on board and then cut our throats, as the final act of his_two cen- turies of piracy.” - “An officer of her majesty's service is rot i lured into ambuscades ps, sir—even if he * returned the color st_assnred,I pected. table men by coasting be on the retired 1, with sternness. all know how to make have been mur. now, esp I will bring the St: to your assistance i there is any trouble | will hope for the best. By this time we were close on to the | reef. Tne ship had struck at high tide, and lay with one-half her hull across it. Nothing more convenient for our purpose could have been arranged. We lay in still water under the lea of the reef, the top of which was now bare; and all we had to do and meanwhile we ations agyw@ Not so much as the flash | ‘was to clamber out on it, get a line from over the ship's side and go aboard. “Way enough!” called out the colonel; “stern all! Look out, forward there! Now, then, we'll have a word with this chap. Ship ahoy!”” The hail was stentorian; it might have been heard back at our point of embarka- tion; but it produced not a whisper of re- sponse from the vessel. The situation did not strike me as bei entirely agreeable. It was picturesque and impressive, but not inviting. There were the loneliness of the quiet, moonless sea, the limpid beauty of the night, the gentle sucking sound of the waves as they lifted and subsided about the reef and the shadow-like mountains piling themselves aloft to the north—they seemed very far away just then! Close be- side us, overhanging our heads, were the biack sides of the unaccountable ship, a sort of grotesque marine catafalque, containing no one could tell what; so lately full of life and bustle, and now as deadly still as a veritable tomb. What did it mean, or por- tend? What in the name of mystery had become of its late occupants? They could not have got away; they had been under observation from the time the ship first hove in sight, and yet they could not he on i board, unless * * * The alternative was the thing that I have described as uninvit- ing. If that swarm of men were on board, lurking in such breathless silence within a few feet of where we were sitting, there was ditficulty in persuading one’s self that their conduct boded us any good. On the other hand, of course, it was scarcely less difficult to imagine what benefit they could eapect from doing us any harm. Here they were, hard and fast on the reef, at the mercy not only of a change in the weather, but of the inhabitants of the island. They must be aware that our visit could be in- tended only in their interest. All the same, I do not mind saying that my most urgent longing at that moment did not take the form of a craving to clamber up the ship’s side and find out what was going on there. As for the colonel, it is the business of warriors not to know what fear is; and in his case there was the added considera- tion that he felt—whether reasonably. or not matters little—that her Britannic ma- Jesty was being slighted in his person. At all events, I am able to affirm that, to all appearances, the only effect upon my friend of this ghastly unresponsiveness on the part of the ship’s company was to de- velop in him a wrath the fiery quality of which was but feebly symbolized by the glow of the cigar which was gripped be- tween his teeth. He repeated his hail twice; and then, turning to me, with the deadly calm of one who has passed beyond the point where demonstrations of any scrt can adequately express his emotions, he said, in the softest tongs I had ever heard him use: “I think I'll just step aboard and make a few inquiries. Will you remain here, or—" If I had been an Englishman, or even a negro, I think I might have been pre- vailed upon to let that gallant gentleman have all the fun to himself; but, as I had the honor of the stars and stripes in my keeping, at least as much as he had that of the lion and the unicorn in his, I at once replied, in a loud and cheerful tone: “Remain here? Well, not if I know my- self! I came out here to see the: ri and you can bet your life, Col. am not going ashore again without having’ done it! “Ah! then have the kindness to follow me,” said he, in the same unnaturally silky voice. He stepped out on the surface of the reef, and I followed him. It was only a few inches above the water, and was both rough and slippery. We trod on | limpets and sea urchins, and slimy strips of sea weed twined themselves about our ankies. Something that looked to me like the fin of a gigantic shark moved to and fro in the water a few yards off. “Charles,” said the colonel, “hand me lantern.” Charles id 80. continued his master, “you will remain here until my return. You are not to come on beard unless I summon you. (I thought it highly probable that Charles would observe this injunction.) Keep the boat about where she is—(sup- pose, thought I, these fellows should take it into their heads to scuttle off as soon as our backs are turned, what then?)—and let no one presume to leave his place, ‘or indulge in any laughter or horse play dur- ing my absence.” Charles undertook to restrain any undue hilarity. Indeed, the courftenances and bearing of the men did not seem to me to betray any strong desire to break forth in careless mirth, to troll jovial tavern catches or to leap out on the reef and indulge in a break-down; but the light was dim, and I may have been mistaken. “And now, I believe we are ready,” added the colonel, with a courteous inclination in my direction. “am certainly,” returned I, with the air of one who has too long been chafing under inaction, and we turned to the ship. As luck would have it, the cordage ap- pertaining to the topmast, which was snapped off at the time the ship struck, was dangling over the side not far from where we stood; and a fragment of rat- line served us in place of a rope ladder. The colonel, in spite of my efforts, politely but firmly insisted on preceding me, and ascended with remarkable agility for a man of his years. I felt that the eyes of the boatmen and of Charles were upon me. I sprang lightly after him, my head nearly com- ing in contact with his boot soles, and in a moment we stood together on the deck. Yes, there we stood; and still alive. We glanced forward and aft. Nothing resembling a human figure was in sight. In the shadow of the high bulwarks, how- ever, and along the sides of the deck houses, I discerned several dark objects lying like rolls of sail cloth or heaps of spare rigging. Upon one of these heaps the colonel flashed the light of his lantern, “Eh?—why, what the deuce—’ he mut- tered. He inspected another heap to his right; then still another, further forward. ‘Asleep?—or drunk ?—cr- He stopped; we looked at each other and the tension of my nerves came very near relieving itself by an altogether inopportune fit of laughter. The colonel, after a pause, deliberately knelt on one knee on the deck, beside one of the heaps, and held the lantern close to the whitish appearance at one end of it. “Dend, by Jove!” Then he put his hand upon it. Then he arose rather hurriedly and said to me: ‘Dead, by Jove! and dry as last year’s anut into the bargain!” y? I repeated with a peculiar shud- Dry?—what do you mean?” man is a mummy—that’s what I returned the colonel. “He's skin he might have been dead a thousand years. And to judge from the clothes he has on,” he added, throwing the light over the costume of the corps “he ought not to have been alive for th last two hundred years, anyway! Prompied by a curiosity yet stronger than my horror, I bent over the remains and examined them closely. They were those cf a man—or of what had once been one—of a rugged and brutal aspect, deeply mean,” and bone; tanned by the Scorching of countless suns, seamed with sears, and shagzy with hair that hungjin masses from his skull, and clothed’ his gaunt visage to the eyes. The flesh, however, had dried into a thick integument of the consistency of parch- ment, lying close to the bony framework, and giving the impression of a figure carv- ed from some qdark;olored wood. The eyes themselves had disappeared, shrunken into their sockets; the lips were like strips of cartilege, and were drawn back from the yellow teeth, giving the involuntary ex- pression of a Savage snarl. Such was the body; the dress was like none I had ever seen Before, unless in some stage extravaganza, or- represented in ancient pictures. It consisted mainly of a jerkin and short breeches of some rough material, andi a thick pair of boots coming up to the knee. ‘he cut and fash- ion of these garments showed at a glance that they had not been made in our day, nor for many generations before; they might have been the fashion in an age when Charles Second sat on the throne of have heard it so piainly-on the upper deck,” I began; but I was interrupted by @ repetition ot the sagne plaintive whimper, evidently from above us. The colonel ut- tered an exclamation, and had scrambled up the ladder before I could turn round. I followed, and found that he had groped his way back to the saloon in the dark. “It must be here, you know,” muttered he, apologetically. “I was sure of it from the first.” I was tempted to compliment him on his activity, but I forbore. I looked round the little saloon. There must be some state rooms hereabouts. I pushed my hand against one of the silken hangings and felt a vacancy beyond. I drew the fabric aside and stepped into a small chamber some twelve feet long by six wide. The colonel was at my heels. A bed or bunk was built against the side of the vessel opposite us. It was covered with drapery of fine cambric, with a satin coverlid. Propped upon the pillows lay a woman between twenty and thirty years of age, apparently, and of remarkable beauty. THERE LAY A WOMAN OF REMARKABLE BEAUTY. Spain, and Louis Quartoze and William of Orange on those of France and Eng- land. How, then, came they to clothe the body of a man lying on the deck of a ves- sel in this year 1804? ‘The colonel and I did not ask each other this question; we were not in the humor fcr speech. We continued our investiga- tions and found the deck strewn with corpses, all more or less resembling the one I have described. They lay in all pos- tures and places, as if stricken down sud- denly where they stood by some compre- hensive thunderbolt. Some had ropes still in their hands, as if they had been haul- ing the yards or taking in sail. All were armed with weapons of one sort or an- other, but none of a pattern known to modern armories. There were cutlasses, dirks, pikes and many grotesque and clum- sy pistcls and matchlocks, whose detona- tions no living ear could have heard for centuries. Here and there, in points cf vantage, we found seven or eight quaint eld bronze cannon, some of them richly carved and embossed. The waist of the ship was low; the decks forward and aft were raised above the middle space to the height of a man, and were reached by steep flights of steps. On the poop we discovered, leaning against the mizzen mast, the only figure on board which had kept its feet. It was the corpse of a tall man, with wide shoulders and a certain stateliness ‘of bearing, in spite of the untowand circumstances. He wore a wide-brimmed@ black felt hat, ornamented with a superb great plume of scarlet feathers. His dress was rich and deco- rated with barbaric megnificence. His erectness was only an accident; he had been propped up {n his position by his long, basket-hilted’ rapier, the point of which was stuck in the deck, while the hilt was caugnt beneath the rim of the gold- inlaid corselet that he wore. The colonel, in moving to look beneath his wide hat brim, struck the point of the rapier with his foot, whereupon down fell the dead man prone upon the deck, with a great jingle and crash of arms. The colonel, for all his steadiness, fumped back as if from a sudden attack. ‘That was the first sound, except our own rare whispers, that had broken the deathly stillness since we had stumbled upon the first corpse. “I recognize this chap—his red feather, at least,” the colonel presentiy remarked, in as composed a tone as he could man- age. “He's the commander, I suppose. ! Well—er—I must say, this seems to me to be a—er—matter in which it is diffi- cult to be guided by precedent. How does it strike you?” “This ship was built and these men were born about the time the Mayflower took the Puritan Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock,” said I. “You and I saw her come ashore here with a living crew four hours ago. At the moment she struck I saw a fellow run aft and haul a flag up to the mizzen peak. There he lies now, with the hal- liards still in his hands. Suppose we take a look at the flag. That ought to tell us something.”” We walked aft, and I cut the flag hal- liards with my penknife. The flag came down, We spread it out on the deck, and examined it with the aid of the lantern. It was the imperial naval ensign of France in the reign of Louis XIV. “This 1s not a thing we can understand, colonel,” 1 remarked. “We must take it as it comes and make the best of it. go below and investigate the cabin. ‘The colonel was mute; he followed me about meekly. When a thoroughly practi- cal man—a man of action—who believes only in what he can explain by rule of thumb, chances to run across something altogether beyond the scope of common human experience, he becomes, for the time being, as helpless and docile as an infant; and a fellow who sees visions and dreams dreams, and to whom, half the time, the solid earth appears less real than his own thoughts, has him completely at advantage. So i led the doughty eld war- rior about at my will, and he trotted after me with an unquestioning deference that was pathetic. I took the lantern and went in advance. We came to the companionway; it was like the mouth of a black pit. I was not at my ease, however; like Macbeth, “direness, tamiliar to my thoughts, could not once move me.” But just as I set foot on the first step of the descent, there came a sound from below. It was a sort of whimpering, complaining sound, half animal and haif human. It seemed to enter into my blood like atoms of ice. 1 was prepared for ghosts, but this was not preternatural; the terror of it was due to its being a natural manifestation in the midst of what was spectral. The colonel heard it, but so far from complet- Ing his collapse, it revived him. He drew in a long breath. “Some poor devil of a dog is down there,” said he, clearing the huskiness out of his throat. “It will be a comfort to rescue him, after all this devil- try! After you, sir!” Now 1, unlike the worthy colonel, am a family man; and domestic life gives a man certain knowledges unknown to celibates. The sound had not appeared to me like the whining of g dog. But it was no use spec- ulating; we-went down. The sound-was-not repeated, and we had nothing to guide us. We found ourselves in a passage communicating with a saloon, small but gorgeously furnished. There was gold and silver plate on the table; curtains of velvet and hangings of silk decorated the walls and doorways, and a carved ebony chest in a corner, with the lid thrown back, showed within a mass of splendid jewelry and other -yaluables. A sword, its hilt sparkling with precious stones, lay on the floor. The place was like a room in Alad- din’s palace. But no sign either of life or death was -visible. We passed through this cabin with only a glance at its contents, There would be time enough for stch things later. We en- tered another passage, and presently came to a squaré apertire in the floor, opening down into the lower region of the ship. A vertical iron ladder offered a means of de- scent. “We may as well take a look below there, colonel,” said I, quietly. “Will you remain here, or—" “Go on, sir!’ he answered, through his teeth. Down we went. An atmosphere as of ages dead and decayed crept into our nos- trils. Arrived at the bottom, there was not space to stand upright. I trod on some- thing that caused me to start ba I turned the light cf the lantern up and down the floor. They lay in rows, four deep; there may have been two hundred of them in that noisome crypt, forty feet long by twenty wide. They were chained one to another, neck and leg. Their black s clung to their bones like wrinkled leathe But their sufferings must have been o ages and ages ago. Death had release: them from their slavery centuries before the idea of emancipation first dawned in the mind of man. “I doubt whether that sound could have come from h21e, colonel; we could hardly Let us | Her dark hair fell down over her should- ers. Her eyes were closed; but as we en- tered they quivered and slowly opened. Their glance, dark and penetrating, rested on us for an instant, and then they closed once more. A faint sigh stirred the lace upon her bosom, and she lay still. By her side lay an infant, not more than a few weeks old. The little creature rested on its back; its plump little legs and arms were kicking and brandishing in air. its eyes were tightly shut; but as we stared upon it they opened, and it uttered a quavering cry—the cry of a baby just emerging from sleep and in want of its ratural nourishment. “Bless my soul,’ colonel. “Bless my soul! the midst of all this!’ I put my finger on the mother’s wrist. It was already cold, and there was no puise. Her beautiful face changed even as we stood there; it became pinched and cadav- erous. The figure seemed to sink into it- self and wither up. It was as if she had been miraculously preserved during un- known years, until her infant should be faltered the honest A live baby, in | saved. But the infant—he was real and substantial; he did not dwindle and vanish before our eyes. The colonel, however, seemed to fear that he would, for he caught him up in his arms and pressed him to his manly but tender old heart. “It makes me feel like a man again to get hold of it,” quoth he, in a shaken voice, while two tears ran down the side of his warlike nose. “Here's a real piece of warm fiesh and blood at last, after all this infer- zal hohgoblinry: Do, for mercy’s sake, let us get out of this before we get turned in- to mummies and hobgoblins ourselves!” I looked again at the mother. What a fete had been hers! Who was she? How came she hither? Had her eyes, indeed, be- held us before she died, or was that an il- lusion of our bewildered senses? What had her life been on this accursed vessel? Who was the father of this child which she had cherished till the end? Ah, well, it is the doom of man to ask questions and to guess at the answers. What do we know? “Yes, we had better go,” said I. “The sooner that baby has some woman to look after him the better. His mother will rest here one night more, and we will return in the morning. May she rest in peace, whoever she was! We mounted the deck, the colonel bear- ing the baby, who took the change in his circumstances very composedly. It was a relief to breathe the free air again. The moon had risen higher, and now shone quietly over the deck, and the dusky heaps of mortality that lay upon it seemed no more than shadows of the past. We crossed over the spot where the failen ratlines hung from the bulwarks, and the cclenel was about to clamber over when I stopped him. “Colonel Enderby,” I said, “now I come to think of it, there is no necessity for your returning to the shore with me. I am sure you must feel that the dignity of her majesty’s service demands that you should remain in charge of this vessel un- til the authorities at Kingston can be in- formed of what has occurred. You are leaving the ship in opposition to your sense of duty, merely out of courtesy to me. But I won't allow it! I will go ashore with the baby, and do you stay here till tomorrow. I don’t at all mind going alone, and it will be a comfort to me to thirk that you are out here enjoying the discharge of an obligation which is not the less dear to you because you happen to be on the retired list. Good night!” But the colonel had me on the arm with a grasp of iron. “If it will give you any satisfaction to know that I have been and am fright- ened pretty near out of my senses,” said he, “you are welcome to the informa- tion. I would no more dare stay here all night alone than * * * Oh, come on! Have you Yankees no consideration for a chap when he’s down?” “My dear colonel,” returned I, “I was just as much scared as you were; all I wished was to come to an understanding. I don’t believe that either the British lion or the American eagle will be a bit the worse for our spending the night at your pen; so let us shake hands and say no more about it.” Since that night the colonel has been less overwhelming and more companionable. I was up early the next moming, but when I stepped out on the porch I found my host already there. He was staring seaward with a blank expression, which remained on his face when he turned to answer my greeting. “Look yonder!” said he, pointing to the reef. “Gone! She's gone, sir, by Jovi and scrip. Not a chip of her left. I looked, and neither on the reef nor any- where witkin the sweep of the horizon could I discern any trace of the mysterious vessel of the night before. Yet there had been no breath of wind from then till now. “She's gone,” he repeated; “and Charles tells me that the men have been over there and say there’s nothing left of her, either under water or above it. Now, what do you make of it?” “Colonel,” Ifeplied, after a pause, “have u got that baby still?” ‘Indeed# I have,” cried the veteran. ‘He’s just dropped asleep, after getting a good breakfast out of that Sally of mine, you know, who—ahem! Oh, yes—I've got him all right!” “Then we may take our own breakfast with a free mind,” said I. “It is the way of ships to pass in the night, and, for my art, I think it was high time for her to he off, don’t you?” “By Jove, my boy, that I do!” cried the colonel, heartily; and, grasping my hand, he led me in to breakfast; coffee and rolls, and a.couple of soft-boiled eggs apiece. Just as we had finished and were think- ing of retiring to our rooms to lay aside our pajames and start for the beach, Charles modestly entered, bearing in his arms a battered and watersoaked fragment of old black plank, with the half-effaced remains of some inscription on it. “De men find it on de beach dis mo‘nin’, sah,” he explained. “T’ink it come off de wreek, sah. T’ink you might like to take a look at it, sah, Massa Cun'l, sah.” At the colonel’s direction he placed the fragment on a chair, so that the light fell upon the writing. We set ourselves to de- cipher it. “Looks to me like ‘Vainquere,’ eh?, What do you make of it?" said the colonel, at length. “T think it's ‘La Valliere,’” answered I. “She was one of Louis Quatorze’s—er— court, you know.” “I fancy you've got it,” assented he. “And now I think of it, ‘La Valliere’ was the name of one of the ships of that scoundrel DuCasse’s fleet!” “Then that completes the chain of evi- dence, But don’t you think,” I added, “that onsidering the circumstances it will be just as well if we don’t say anything pub- licly about this affair. I mean, better not enter into details, and that sort of thing. You see, we have no actual proof; even the baby proves nothing, except to ourselves; and folks are apt to be skeptical.”’ “I fully agree with you,” returned the y colonel, earnestly. “The truth is, I was going to suggest a little—er—prudence, my- self, We know what we know; and we don’t want to be bothered with the ques- tions and guesses of a lot of asses who know nothing. By the way, come in and have a look at him. He’s a beauty, I tell you! And Ill lay you the odds he’s no ios Softly, now, or you'll wake im. We tip-toed in, and there he lay, pink and soft, breathing gently, in his little im- promptu crib, with sable Sally grinning be- side him. “He’s an Englishman, every inch of him, exclaimed the colonel, beneath his breath. “And his mother is an English woman; di you notice her eyes? Dark gray, English eyes—Lancashire eyes; I ought to know, for I am a Lancashire boy myself, and there was a girl I might have married, if pee been a fool, who looked just like er. “And who was the baby’s father, do you think?” “An Englishman, of course,” replied the celenel, indignantly; “an English colonial, at all events. Wasn't I telling you yester- day afternoon that those infernal pirates murdered the men and carried off the wo- men? Very well; now, my idea is, that this child—that his mother—that this child, 1 sey, was born immediately after his mother was carried on board, owing to the fright and agitation, you understand; and that he saved his mother’s honor by being born at that time.” “But, colonel, that was 200 years ago,” I objected. “Well, sir, and what if it was? There are miracles in the Bible, and I believe in the Bible! And could a miracle be per- formed in a better cause than this? I be- lieve there was a miracie; and I believe in that woman, and in her baby; and he shall be my baby, now, and whatever I possess shall be his, when I’m gone; thet’s my last willand testament!” “Will you let me have the honor of being Fis godfather?” I asked. To this proposal the colonel gave a cor- dial assent; and I am to send the little heir a silver mug next month. FROFITS OF LITERATURE. Novelists of the Day Who Are Making Money. From the Brooklyn Standard-Union. Just what a successful hit in literature means to an author in dollars and cents was demonstrated to me a few days since when 1 saw a check sent to Hall Caine for nearly $5,000 as royalties on the American sales of ‘fhe Manxman” during the -last four months. In the same manner ove® $10,000 has been sent to Stanley Weyman by his American publishers as royalties on his books during the last nine months. What has been thus far remitted to Mr. Du Maurier is not known, but it is close to accuracy to place his revenue from “Tril- by” at $25,000, 1t was not an unusual thin for Robert Louis Stevenson to receive $ 000 a year from bis literary work, and I remember very well, during the popularity of “Little Lord Fauntleroy” as a book and play, that Mrs. Burnett’s yearly income exceeded $25,000. Mary Wilkins has net- ted over $5,000 from “Pembroke,” while a close friend of S. R. Crockett tells me that his income last year from his writings was over $20,000. Literary success is very profitable thing, without a doubt. When once it is achieved the truth of the old maxim that nothing succeeds like success is very quick- ly demonstrated to the author. But only the few reach the coveted goal. A novel, for example, must sell 5,000 copies before it pays its publisher and begins te show a profit to its author. And when one con- siders that not one out of forty noyels ever reach a 5,000 sale, the chances of success will be better understood. se THE WIDOW a BLINKINS. Some Persons Feared Her, but She Was Harmless to Strangers. From the Detroit Free Press. The road up the mountain was hard to climb on horseback, but when I reached the top of the gap a beautiful view was spread before me. Like a strand of twisted silver the Cumberland river was woven in and cut among the trees of the valley, and far, far away the green of the ferest stretched until it faded into the blue of the distant sky. After gazing on the magnificent scene for a few moments I got off my horse to fix my saddle girth, and while I was about it a mountaineer came out of the woods by the roadside. “How are you?” said I. “Have you a piece of string that I can tie up this girth with “Sorry, niister,” said he, ‘‘but I hain't. “How far is it to the nearest house? Maybe I can get it there?” “Like’s not you kin; it's about half a mile down the mountain. “Who lives there “The Widder Blinkins. ot Sam Blinxins’ widow?" “I> asked in astonishment, for only a week before I had met Sam down in Pineville in a “I knew he had a brother, but I didn't et he was dead,” said I, considerably re- ed. ‘He ain’t dead,” said he, grinning, “it's his grass widder.” “Oh, Bill has skipped, h: he?” “Well, sorter, you may say. You see, Bill's wife owned the farm and he kinder took it easy tell she got her dander up, and then, caze he wouldn't work, she tuck it into her head to pester the life outen him and keep him from inj’yin his rest. It kep’ on frum bad to wuss, tell at last she tuck a club an’ druv Bill offen the place. And Bill told her he'd be derned ef he'd ever come back forever.” “When did all this happen?” “Only jist this mornin’.” “Well, I guess I had better not stop there, had I?” “In course, mister," he said urgentl: he ain't fierce to strangers.” With this assurance I started off, and as I turned in the road he called to me: “Say, mister, won't you tell the widder that you seen Bill up in the mountain lookin’ powerful lonesome?” a A Congressman’s Joys. Wm. E. Curtis, in Chicago Record. I found a millionaire member of Congress sitting in Lis hotel the other day surround- ed by glocm so dense that it could have been shoveled away like snow from the sidewalk, and asked him what had hap- pened. “I was just thinking,” he sa’ “what a fool I was to come to Congress. It cost me $12,000 eash to pay my cam- paign expenses, in addition to two months” neglect of my business. When I am home about two-thirds of my time is taken up by people who come in to ask for offices. I have had candidates for foreign missions, consulates, department bureaus, United States marshalships, United States attor- neys, pension agents, about forty post- offices and no end of Indian agents and land offices, and all I've succeeded in get- ting since Cleveland was inaugurated is one assistant keeper of a lighthouse, a place for which there was no candidate, and they asked me to hunt up a man. I scarcely dare go home. I am being cursed all over my district by people who think Y'm indifferent to their interests and un- grateful to my friends. It will take six weeks’ steady taiking to explain why I haven't been able to get all the republican office holders in the district turned out and democrats put in, and not half the people who hcar the explanation will believe me. Until now I have never sought anythinz that couldn't be bought, but I've spent $10,000 worth of my time trying to get a $1,200 consular appointment for the son of cne of my constituents, and can’t make it. My business is going to ruin for want of attention, and there is a basket of let- ters on my desk at home that I have never had time to read. ———— Don'ts. Some ‘‘don’ts” given by the Boston Trans- script are worth heeding. Don’t put money in your mouth. It is not only filthy, but may need disinfecting. Don’t often put cardy in your mouth. In- vestigation in dentistry shows that decay- ed teeth are the work of a micro-organism that breeds in the acid preduced by disin- tegration of sugar. Don’t use public drinking vessels. Don’t use towels in use in public lav: tories. A specialis* of diseases of the at Buffalo investigated the towels fur- nished a public school and found the:a in- fected with bacteria. em of Part of a Week. Prom the Indianapolis Jonrnal. Of an old and noble foreign house He was the eldest Sun, She, just a plain American— But then she had the Mon. “Love, why should we be longer Tue?” One eve he softly said. She saw no reason why they should, And next week they were Wed. \ | | WASHINGTON WOMEN. Unworthy Habits of Haste Among Them. May Who Sen to be Acting ; A Foo ish Part, Are Not Satisfied by Going About Quietly. They Hurry and Worry, Then Don’t Get Sleep Paine’s Celery Compound Their Best Relief. celery compound for 2 pa- ington physician, who is declared that In prescribing Paine’ tient the other day a Wa a specialist in nervous difficult there were thousands of such w erally killing themselves by too rap “Tues are not satisfied,” said he, about doing things in a quic rush through with their work and ruin their health as fast as they can. So firmly fixed is this habit that they run up and down stairs when there is no need for hurry. “They not only rush, but Worry, and between these two subject their nervous systems to more wear and tear than anythiug short of wrought steel could endure.” Whatever the cause, our women, our young girls and even business men are rapidly growing more and more nervous. Prof. Phelps, the greet Dart- mouth scientist, saw this alarming state of thins and concentrated all bis energy to remedying it. It was from the formula of this eminent student and thinker thaf Paine’s celery compound was prepared. Its success in restoring nerve-strength and building up the worn-out- body repaid the years of study and investigation that Prof. Phelps conscientiously devoted to the diseases of the stomach and the Kidneys, the result of impfre blood and impo’ ished nerves. The astonishing results that ha’ Ome from its careful use have been the subject of discussion in all the preminent newspapers and magazines in this country, Canada and throughout Great Britain. The record of this great blood cle nser, from the time of its discovery up to the present day, has been a marvelous one. It bas cured lite as debility. rh nd men and women wh ible to countless Je and impoverished FROM LAKE TO OCEAN. A General Scheme of Canal Improve- ment Proposed in Canada. From the Pittsburg Dispatch. The Canadian government has for several years past been working out systematically @ general scheme of canal improvement. This scheme embraces the enlargement of waterways between tide water and Lake Superior, so that the locks shall hay length of 270 feet between the gates and a width of 45 feet, the navigable depth of water over the sills to be fourteen feet. Work has teen steadily pushed forward, and no year passes without seeing more or less satisfactory progress made. The project cherished by what is known as the international canal commission, of which not a little has been heard in these recent Gays, is a good deal more ambitious. That scheme has in contemplation an extent of enlargement which shall furnish not less than twenty-one feet in navigable depth. As the name of the commission would imply, the scheme is international in its scope, both as to the outlay which would be necessary and the ultimate benefits which would accrue. Influential men on both sides of the line are warmly interested in the project, and not a little enthusias:a has been shown, though it does not appear as if much has yet been accomplished in the line of practical steps toward the reaii- zation even of the preliminary funds which such an undertaking would necessitate. its purpose embraces, as already said, the construction of deep water channels of noi less than twenty-one feet in depth to connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic ocean by way of the St. Lawrence river, and aiso by way of the Hudson river. Moreover, the scheme embraces the cor struction of canals connecting Lake Su perior with the Mississippi river and Lak Erie with the Ohio river. It favors th establishment of an international commi sion for determining the method of con- struction and maintenance of waterways of an international character, and also the establishment of an international court for the purpose of hearing and finally deter- mining, under rules of law, all questions arising between the government of the United States, Great Britain, Mexico and Canada, both the commission and court to be established by the joint action of the governments. ———-+e+- Lincoln's Wonderful Memory. Noah Brooks in the Century. One of my cousins, John Holmes Good- enow, of Alfred, Me., was appointed minis- ter to Turkey early in the Lincolm adminis- tration, and was taken to the White House before his departure for his post to be pre- sented to the President. When Lincoln learned that his visitor was a grandson of John Holmes, one of the first Senators from Maine, and a man of note in his day and generation, he immediately began the reci- tation of a poetical quotation which must have been more thar a hundred lies in length. Mr. Holmes, never having met tht President, was naturally astonished at thi outburst, and as the President went on with this long recitation, the suspicion crossed his mind that Lincoln had suddenly taken leave of his wits. But when the lines had been finished the President said: “There, that poem was quoted by your grandfather Holmes in a speech which he made in the United States Senate "and he in : named the date and specified the occasion. As John Holmes’ term in the Senate ended in 1833, and Lincoln was probably im- pressed by reading a copy of the speech rather than by hearing it, this feat of mem= ory appears most remarkable. If he had been by any casualty deprived of his sight, his own memory would have supplied him with an ample library. ses No More Tipping of Barbers. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. A milé sensation has been occasioned among the journeymen barbers by a New Year resolution adopted by the proprietor of one of the shops, which will be most rigidly carried out. His decision, which is announced in placards, abolishes all tip- ping, and makes the penalty for accepting a tip immediate discharge. “It is a very, radical move,” said he, “and one that will be watched with a great deal of interest by barbers all over the city. On the first of the year I raised salaries all around and made the new rule. Some of the men will feel it, but in the end it will be beneficial to“the jcurneymen and the customers. It got to be so that the bar2ers would linger for a ‘tipper,’ and a man who didn’t give the barber something was often hurried through and slighted. To some people a tip means e good deal, and they preferred to shave themselves at home and sav their money. I think the move will event~ ually increase business. The men seem to be satisfied with the new arrangement, and the more sensible of inem admit that they have brought it on themselves. One or two of them, under the old plan, by dint of superior generalship, always managed to get the lion’s share of the extra money, so, on the whole, the new arrangement is fairer all aroun: A Classic Puzzle. From the Boston Journal, fore Cicero and Virgil is now required for admission to Yale.” Why is this? Vir- gil, it is true, reported athletic sports in a manner that would warm the cockles of a hustling managing editor; but where does Cicero come in? He never showed enthu-¥ siasm for throwing the hammer or fot skillful slugging with the cestus.