Evening Star Newspaper, July 10, 1897, Page 15

15 THE STRIPED CHEST BY CONAN DOYLE. ee (Copyright, 18¥7, by Conan Dole.) Britten for The Evening Star. “What do you make of her, Allardyce?” I asked. My second mate was standing beside me upon the poop, with his short, thick legs stretch, fer the gale had left a considera- ble swell behind it, and our two quarter- boats nearly touched the water with every roll. He steadied his glass against the mizzen shrouds and he looked long and hard at this disconsolate stranger every time she came reeling up on the crest of a roller and hung balanced for a few seconds before swooping down upon the other side. She lay so low in the water that I could gnly catch an occasional gitmpse of a pea- green I'ne of bulwark. She was a brig, but her mainmast had beeen snapped short off some ten feet above the deck and no effort seemed to have been made to cut away the wreckage, which floated, sails and yards, like the broken wing of a wounded gull, upon the water beside her. The foremast was still standing, but the foretopsall was flying loose, and the headsails were stream- of those terrible unmarked reefs which have sent so many stout vessels to the hot- tom. “In that case there is no danger in your going below, Mr. Allardyce,” said I. “See what you can make of her, and find out how much cf her cargo can be saved. I'll look through these papers while you are gone.” The bills of lading and some notes and letters which lay upon the desk sufficed to inform me that the Brazilian brig Nossa Senhora da Victoria had cleared from Ba- hia a month before. The name of the cap- tain was Texeira, but there was no record as to the number of the crew. She was bound for London, and a glance at the bills of lading was sufficient to show me that we were not likely to profit much in the way of salvage. Her cargo consisted of nuts, ginger and wood, the latter in the shape of great logs of valuable tropical growths. It was these, no doubt, which had prevented the ill-fated vessel from going to the bottom, but they were of such a size as to make it impossible for us to extract them. Besides these, there were a few fancy goods, such as a number of ornamental birds for millinery purposes, and a hundred cases of preserved fruits. And then as I turned over the papers I came upon a short note in English which arrested my attention. “It is- requested,” said the note, ‘that the various old Spanish and Indian curi- osities which came out of the Santarem collection, and which are consigned to Prontfoot & Neuman of Oxford stréet, London, should be put in some place where “rLe Ing ovt In long white pennons in front of ver have I seen a vessel which ap- to have gone through rougher han- 1 not be surprised at that, for een times during the last three on whether our land again. For thirty-six hour had kept her nose to it, and if the Mar: lair had“not been as Food a seaboat as ever left the Clyde we could not have come through. And yet | here we were at the end of it with the I only of our gig and of part of the star- | own t ds bulwark. It did not astonish us, | ever, when the smother had cleared | away to find that others had been less and that this mutilated brig, stag- about a blue sea and under a cloud- | ‘ky, had been left, Hke a blinded man after a lightning fiash, to tell of the ter- ror which is past. Allardyce, who was a slow and meth- odical »tchman, stared long and hard at the little craft while our seamen lined the bulwark or clustered upon the fore shrouds to have a view of the stranger. In lati- tude 2 aegrees and longitude 10 degrees, which were about our bearings, one be- comes a little curious as to whom one meets, for one has left the main lines of Atlantic commerce to the north. For ten « we had been sailing over a solitary he’s derelict, I'm thinking,” said the second mate. I had come to the same conclusion, for I could see no sign of life upon her deck, and the was no answer to the friendly ‘She can't last long,” continued Allar- dyce, in his measured way. “She may put her nese down and her tail up any minute. ‘The water's Hpping up to the edge of her Fall.” “What's her flag?" I asked. “I'm trying to make out. It's got all ted and tangled with the halliards. s. I've got it now, clear enough. It’s the Brazilian flag, but it’s hehe | side up.” She had hoisted a signal of distress, then, before her people had abandoned her. Per~ haps they had only just gone. I took the mate's glass and looked round over the | tumultuous face of the deep blue Atlantic, | still veined and starred with white -lines @nd spoutings of foam. But nowhere could | I see anything human beyond oursel “There may be living men aboard,” said I. “There may be salvage,” muttered the fecond mate. “ “Then we will run down upon her lee side, and lie to.” We were not more than a hundred from her when we swung our foreyards fback, and there we were, the bark and the brig. ducking and bowing like two clowns in a dance. “Drop one of the quarter boat said I “Take four men, Mr Allardyce, and see what you can learn of her.’" But just at that moment my first officer, Mr. Armstrong, came on deck, for seven bells had struck, and {t was but a few min- utes off his watch. It would interest me to go myself to this abandoned vessel and to see what there might be aboard of her. So, with a word to Armstrong, I swung my- self over the side, slipped down the falls, and took my place in the sheets of the boat. It was but a Iittle distance, but it took some time to traverse, and so heavy was the roll that often when we were in the trough of the seas we could not see either | the bark which we had left or the brig which we were approaching. The sinking fun did not penetrate down there, and it wi cold and dark in the hollows of but the ach passing billow heaved us warmth and the sunshine once of these moments, as we white-capped ridge between dark valleys, I caught a glimpse ong peagreen line and the nodding pas: of the brig, and I steered go as to round by her stern so that we might | determine which was the best way of boarding her. As we passed her we saw s. nhora da Victoria print- »ping counter. side, sir,” said the second y with the boathook, car- stant later we had jumped bulwarks, which were hardly | n our boat, and found ourselvos - deck of the abandoned vessel. thought was to provide for our in case—as seemed very p-ob- sel should settle down beneath "ith this object two of our men painter of the boat and fend- | ed her off from the vessel's side, so that she | might be ready in case we had to make a hurried re The carpenter was sent to find out much water there was, and whether it was still gaining, while the other s Nardyce and myself made a rapid fon of the vessel and her cargo. k was littered with wreckage and 3. In which the dead birde out. The boats were gone, tion of one. the bottom of en stove, and it was certain had abandoned the vessel. cabin was in a deck house, one side of which hal been beaten in by a heavy sea. Allardyce and 1 entered it, and found the captain's table as he had left it, his books ré—all Spanish or Portu- Buese— 1 over it, with piles of ct- farette ash everywhere. I looked about for the log, but could not find it. “As likely as not, he never kept one,” said Allardyce. “Things are pretty slack aboard a South American trader, and they dou't do more than they can help. If there was one, it must have been taken away the boat.’ d like to take all these books and sald I, “Ask the carpenter how much time we have,” His report was reassuring. The vessel was full of water, but some of the cargo | that “| beard. | OCughly examine it. there may be no danger of these very val- uable and unique articles being injured or tampered with. This applies most partic- ularly to the treasure chest of Don Ra- mirez di Leyra, which must on no account be placed where any one can g2t at it.” The t chest of Don Ramirez! Unique able articles! Here was a chance of salvage after all! I had risen to my feet with the paper in my hand when my Scotch mate appcared in the doorway. “I'm thinking all isn’t quite as it should be aboard of this ship, sir,” said he. He was a hard-faced man, and yet I could see he had been startled. “Whet's the matter?” “Murder’s the matter, sir. There's a man here with his brains beaten out.” “Killed in the storm,” sald I. ‘Maybe so, sir. But I'll be surprised if think go after you have seen him.” ‘Where is he, then?” “This way, sir—here in the main deck house.” There appeared to have been no accom- modation below in the brig, for there was the after house for the captain, another by the main hatchway with the cook's gal- ley attached to it, and a third in the fore- castle for the men. It was to this middle one that the mate led me. As you entered, the galley, with its litter of tumbled pots ard dishes, was upon the right, and upon the left was a small rocm with two bunks for the officers. Then beyond there was a place about twelve foot square, which was littered with flags and spare canvas.’ All round the walls were a rumber of packets acne up in coarse cloth and carefully lash- ed to the woodwork. At the other end was a great box, striped red ard white, though the red was so faded end the white so Girty that it was only where the light fell Girectly upon it that one could see tho coloring. The box was by subsequent measurement 4 feet 8 inches in length, 3 feet 2 inches in height and 3 feet across— considerably larger than a seaman's chest. But it was not to the box that _my eyes or my thoughts were turned as I entered the storeroom. On the floor, lying across the litter of bunting, there was stretched a small dark man, with a short curling He lay as far as it was possible from the box with his feet toward !t and his head away. A round crimson halo was printed upon the white canvas on which his head was resting, and little red ribbons wreathed themselves round his swarthy neck and trafled away on to the floor, but there was no sign of a wound that I could see. and his face was as placid as that of a sleeping child. It was only when I stoop- ed that I could perceive his injury, and then I turned away with an exclamation of herror. He had been poleaxed apparentl; by some person standing behind him. frightful blow had smashed in the top of his head and penetrated deeply into his train. His face might well be plactd, for éeath must have been absolutely instan- teneous, and the position of the wound showed that he could never have seen the person who had inflicted ft. “Is that foul play or accident, Captain Barclay?” asked my second mate demurely. “You are quite right, Mr. Allardyce. The man has been murdered—struck down from above by a sharp and heavy weapon. But Lie EEE he, and why did they murder him?” ‘as a common sailor, sir,” said the mate. “You can see that if you look at his fingers.” He turned out his pockets = he spoke and brought to light @ pack o! cards, some tarred string and a bundle of Brazilian tobacco. “Hullo, look at this!" said he. It was a large open knife with a stiff spring blade which he had picked up from the floor. The steel was shining and bright, so that we could not associate It with the crime, and yet the dead man had apparently held it in his hand when he was struck down, for it still lay within his gtasp. “It looks to me, sir, as if he knew he was in danger, and kept his knife handy,” said the mate. “However, we can’t help the poor beggar row. I can't make these things out that are lashed to the wall. They seem to be idols and weapons and curios of all sorts done up in old sack- ing.” “That's right,” said I. ‘They are the enly things of value that we are likely to get from the cargo. Hail the bark and tell them to send the other quarter boat to help us to get the stuff aboard.” While he was eway I examined this cu- rious plunder which had come into our pessession. The curiosities were so wrap- ped up that I could only form a general idea as to their rature, but the striped box stood in 2 geod light where I could thor- On the a, which was clamped and cornered with metal work. there was engraved a complex coat o: arms, ard beneath it was a line of Span- ish which I was able to decipher as mean- ing “the treasure chest of Don Ramirez di Leyra, knight of the Order of St. James, governor and captain general ofTerra Firma and of the province of Veraquas.” In one corner was the date 1696, and on the other a large white label upon which was written in English, “You are earnestly re- quested upon no account to open this box.” The same warning was repeated under- neath in Spanish. As to the lock, it was a very complex and heavy one of engraved steel with a Latin motto, which was above @ seaman’s con prehension. By the time I had finished this examina- tion of the pecullar box the other quarter boat with Mr. Armstrong, the first offi- cer, had come alongside, and we began to carry out and place in her the various curiosities which appeared to be the only objects worth moving from the derelict ship. When she was full I sent her back to the bark, and then Allardyce and I, hasan hy cernentee and one seaman, car- vv e striped box, which was the oi thing left, to our boat and lowered it ome balancing {t upon the two middle thwarts, was buoyant, and there was no immediate danger of her sinking. Probably she would never sink, but would drift about es one for it was so heavy that it would have given the boata rous. tilt hi plac- ed it at either end. ne che left him where we had found him. The mate had a theory that at the moment of the desertion of the ship this fellow had start- ed plundering and that the captain in an attempt to preserve discipline had struck him down with a hatchet or some other heavy weapon. It seemed more probable than any other explanation, and yet it did not entirely satisfy me either. But the ocean is full of mysteries, and we were content to leave the fate of the dead sea- man of the Brazilian brig to be added to that long list which every sailor can re- call. The heavy box was slung up by ropes on to the deck of the Mary Sinclair, and was carried by four seamen into the cabin, where, between the table and the after lockers, there was just space for it to stand. There it remained during supper, and after that meal the mates remained with me and discussed over a glass of grog the event of the day. Mr. Armstrong was a long, thin, vulture-like man, an excellent seaman, but famous for his nearness and cupidity. Our treasure trove had excited him greatly, end already he had begun, with glistening eyes, to reckon up how much it might be worth to each of us when aie shares of the salvage came to be d!- vided. “If the paper said that they were unique, Capt. Barclay, then they may be worth anything that you may like to name. You wouldn't believe the sums that the rich collectors give. A thousand pounds is noth- ing to them. We'll have something to show for our voyage, or I am mistaken.” “I don’t think thet,” said I. “As far as I can see they are not very different from any other South American curios.” “Well, sir I've traded there for fourteen voyages, and I have never seen anything like that chest before. That's worth a pile of money just as it stands. But it’s so heavy that surely there must be some- thing valuable inside it, Don’t you think that we ought to open it and see?” “If you break it open you will spot! it, as likely as not,” said the second mate. - Armstrong squatted down in front of it, with his head on one side and his long, thin nose within a few inches of the lock. “The wood is oak,” said he, “and it has shrunk a little with age. If I had a chisel or a strong-bladed knife I could force the a back without doing any damage at The mention of the long-bladed knife made me think of the dead seaman upon the brig. “I wonder if he could have been on the job when some one came to interfere with him,” I said. “I don’t know about that, sir, but I am perfectly certain that I could open the box. There's a screwdriver here in the locker. Just hold the lamp, Allardyce, and I'll have it done in a brace of shakes.” “Wait a bit,” said I, for already, with eyes which gleamed with curiosity and with avarice, he was stooping over the lid. “I don’t sce that there is any hurry over this matter. You've read that card which warns vs not to open it. It may mean anything or it may mean nothing, but somehow I feel inclined to obey it. After all, whatever is'in it will keep, and if it is valuable it will be worth as much if it is opened in the owner's offices as in the cabin of the Mary Sinclair.” The first officer seemed bitterly disap- Pointed at my decision. “Surely, sir, you are not superstitious about it,” said he, with a slight sneer upon his thin lips. “If it gets out of our own hands and we don't see for ourselves what is inside it we may be done out of our rights, besides— “That's enough, Mr. Armstrong,” said i, abruptly. dence that will not “You may have every confi- ‘ou will get your rights, but I that box opened tonight.” bel itself shows that the box en examined by Europeans,” Allar- dyce added. “Because a box is a treasure box is no reason that it has treasures in- side it now. A good many folk have had a peep into it since the days of the old governor of Terra Firma.” Armstrong threw the screwdriver down upon the table and shrugged his shoulders, “Just as you like,” said he, but for the rest of the evening, although we spoke up- cn many subjects, I ncticed that his eyes were continually coming round with the same expression of curiosity and the old striped box. pictues And now I come to that portion of my story which fills me even now with a shud- dering horror when 1 think of it. ‘The main cabin had the rooms of the officers round it, but mine was the furthest away from it at the end of the little passage which led to the companion. No regular watch was kept by me, except in cases of emergency, and the tkree mates divided them among them. Armstrong had the middle watch, which ends at 4 in the mcrning, and he was relieved by Allardyce, For my part | have alweys been one of the soundest of sleepers and it is rare for anything less tiene @ hand upon my shoulder to arouse ie And yet I was aroused that night, or rather in the early gray of the morning. It was just 4:30 by my chronometer when something caused me to sit up in my berth wide awake, and with every nerve tingling. It was a scund of some sort, a crash with @ human cry at the end of it, which still Jarred upon my ears. I sat listening but all was now silent. And yet it could not have been imagination, that hideous cry, for the echo of f{t still rang in my head, and it seemed to have come from some place quite close to me. I sprang from my bunk, and pulling on some clothes, I made my way into the cabin. t first I saw nothing unusual there. In the cold gray light I made out the red- clothed table, the six rotating chairs, the walnut lockers, the swinging barometer and there at the end the dig striped chest. I was turning away with the intention of going upor deck and asking the second mate if he had heard anything when my eyes fell suddenly upon something which projected from under the table. It was the leg of a man, a leg with a long sea boot upon it. I stooped, and there was a figure sprawling upcn his face, his arms thrown forward and his body twisted. One glance told me that it was Armstrong, the first officer, and a second that he was a dead man. For a few ncments I stood gasping. Then I rivhed on to the deck, called. AL lardyce to my assistance, and’came back with him into the cabin. Together we pulled the unfortunate fel- low from under the table, and ag we look- ed at his dripping head we exchanged glances, and I do not know which was the paler of the two. “The game as the Spanish sailor,” said “The yery same. God preserve us! It’ that infernal chest! Look at Armstrong's handl” the mate's right hand, and He held wy there was the screwdriver which he had wished to use the night before. “He's been at the chest, sir. He knew that I wes on deck and you asleep, He knelt down in front of it and he pushed the lock beck with that tcol. Then some- thing happened to him and he cried out so that you heard him.” “Allardyce,” I whispered, have happened to him?” ‘The second mate put his hand upon my sleeve and drew me into his cabin. “We can talk here, sir, and we don’t know who may be listening to us in there. pies do you suppose is in that box, Capt. relay?" “I give you heve no idea.” “Well, I can only find one theory which will fit all the facts. Look at the size of the bex. Look at all the carving and meta] work which may conceal any number of holes. Look at the weight of it. It took four men to carry it. On the top of that remember that two men have tried to open it, and both have come to their end through “what could ,my word, Allardyce, that I it. Now, sir, what can ft mean except one thing?” Wi e1 ae ‘You mean that there is @ man in it?’ ‘Of cow there is a:tan-in it. You know how it is in these:South American states, sir. A man may be president one week and hunted like a dog the next. They are forever flying for thelr lives. My idea is that there is some fellow in hiding there, who is armed and spans and who will fight to the death before, he is taken.” “But his food and drink?” ° “It’s a roomy chest, sir,°an@ he may have some provisions stowed .away.: As to his Grink, he had a friend among the crew ‘upon the brig, who saw that he had what he needed.” ne “You think, then, that'‘the label asking people not to open the «box was simply written in his interest?” “Yes, sir; that is my idea. Have you any other way of explaining the facts?” I had to confess that I had not. “The question is what are we to do?” I asked. “The man’s a dangerous ruffian who sticks at nothing. I'm thinking it wouldn't be a bad thing to put a rope round the chest and tow it alongside for half an hour, Then we could open it at our ease. Or, { we just tied the box up end kept him from getting_any water, maybe that would do as well. Or the carpenter could put a coat of varnish over it and stop ali the blow holes."” “Come, Allardyce,” satd I, angrily; “you dcn’t seriously mean to say that a whole ship's company are going to be terrorized by a single man in a box. If he's there I'll engage to fetch him out!" I went to my room and came back with my vevoiver in my hand. “Now, Allardyce.” said “do you open the lock and I'll stand on guard.” “For God's sake, think what you aré do- ing, sir,” cried the mate. “Two men have lost their lives over it, and the blood of one not yet dry upon the carpet.” “The more reason why we should re- venge him.” “Well, sir, at least let me call the car- penter. Three are better than two, and he is a good stout man.” He went off in search of him, and I was left alone with the striped chest in the cabin. I don’t think that I'm a nervous man, but I kept the table between me and this solid old relic of the Spanish main. In the growing light of morning the red and white striping was beginning to appear, and the curious scrolls and wreaths of metal and carving, which showed the lov- ing pains which cunning craftsmen had ex- pended upon it. Presently the carpenter and the mate came back together, the former with a hammer in his hand. “It's a bad business this. sir,” said he, shaking his head as he looked at the body of the mate. “And you think there’s some cne hiding in the bo: “There's no doubt about it,” said Allar- dyce, picking up the screwdriver and set- ting his jaw like a man who needs to brace his courage. “I'll drive the lock back if ycu will both stand by. If he rises let him have it on the head with your hammer, carpenter! Shoot at once, sir, if he raises his hand. Now!" Iie had knelt down in front of the striped chest and passed the biade of the tool un- der the lid. With a sharp snick the lock flew back. “Stand by!’ yelled the mate, and with a heave he threw open the mas- sive top of the box. As I swung it up we all three sprang back. I, with my pistol leveled, and the carpenter, with the ham- mer above his head. Then, as nothing bap- pened, we each took a step forward and Peeped in. The box was empty. Not quite empty, either, for in one cor- ner was lying an old yellow candlestick, elaborately engraved, which appeared to be as old as the box itself. It's rich yel-- low tone and artistic shape suggested that it was an object of value. For the rest there was nothing more weighty or valu- able than dust in the old striped treasure hest. . os 5 “Well, I'm blessed!” cried)" Allardyce, staring blankly into it.'*Where does the weight come in, then?” a “Look at the thickness*of the sides and look at the lid. Why; it's:\five inches through. And see that great metal spring across it.” tt ae “That's for holding thé lid up,” said the trate. “You see it will only stand straight. It won't lean back. What's that German printing on the inside?’ ‘ “Tt means that it was:made:by Johann Rothstein of Augsburg in 1606.” “And a solid bit of work, ‘too. But it dcesn’t throw much light on what has passed, does it, Capt. Barclay? That can- dlestick lovks like gokk- We-shall have something for our trouble, after all.” He leaned forward to grasp jt, and from that moment I have never doubted as to the reality of inspiration, for°on the in- stant I caught him by the collar and pulled him straight again. It may have been some story of the middle ages which had come back to my mind, or it may haye been that my eye caught some red which was not that of rust upon the upper part of the lock, but to him and to me it will always seem an inspiration, 80 prompt and sud- den was my action. “There's deviltry here,” said I. “Give me the crooked stick from the corner.” It was an ordinary walking cane with a hooked top. I passed it over the candle- stick and gave it a pull. With a flash a row of polisned steel fangs shot out from below the upper lip, and the great striped chest snapped at us like @ wild animal. Clang came the huge lid into its place, and the glasses on the swinging rack sang and tinkled with the shock. The mate sat down on the edge of the table and shivered like a frightened horse.. “You've saved my life, Capt. Barclay,” said he. So this was the secret of the striped treasure chest of old Don Ramirez di Ley- Ta, and this wes how he preserved his ill- gotten gains from the Terra Firma and the province of Veraquas. Be the thief ever so cunning, he could not tell that golden. candlestick from the other articles of value and the instant that he laid hand upon it the terrible spring was unloosed and the murderous steel spikes were driven into his brain, while the shock of the blow sent the victim backward and enabled the chest to automatically close itself. How many, I wondered, had fallen victims to the inge- nulty of the mechanic of Augsburg. And as I thought of the possible history of that grim striped chest my resolution was very quickly taken. “Carpenter, bring three men and carry this on deck.” “Going to throw it overboard, sir?” “Yes, Mr, Allardyce. I'm “not supersti- tious, as a rule, but there are some things which are more than a sailor can be called upon to stand.” “No wonder that brig made heavy weath- er, Capt. Barclay, with such a thing on board. The glass is dropping fast, sir, and gare only just in time.” we did not even wait for the three sailors, but we carried it out, the mate, the carpenter and I, and we pushed it with our hands over the bulwarks. There was = white spout of water, and it was gone. here it lies, the striped chest, a thousand fathoms deep, and if, as some say, the sea will some day be dry land, I grieve for the man who finds that old box and tries to penetrate into its secret. —_+—_ Picturesque African Expressions. “Africans,” writes a misstonary, “have some very striking expressions, showing that they are full of poetical ideas. The Moongues call thunder ‘the sky's gun,’ and the morning is with them ‘the day’s child.’ The Zulus call the twilight ‘the eyelashes of the sun.’ An African who came to Amer- ica was shown some ice, which he had not seen before, and he called it ‘water fast asleep.’ ”” - — “Want” ads, in The Star = because they bring answers. z THE PERILS OF CYCLING. . From Punch, A KNIGHT OF THE KEY Old “Hank” Bogardus is Known in Every Telegraph Office FROM THE ATLANTIC 70 THE PACIFIC Would Rather Tramp Than Hold Down a Regular Job: BUT HECAN WORK THE WIRE —— x66 ANK"” BOGARDUS, He tramp telegra- pher, has not made his annual visit to Washington this year, and the key manipulators are wondering what bas become of him. Bo- “gardus’ yearly ap- pearance in Wash- ington is usually contempor a neous with the sprouting of the first crocuses; yet the lilacs and snow balls and the early roses and hollyhocks of 1897 have come and gone, and no Bogardus has shown up. Stranger still, he missed the inauguration of Mr. McKinley. The old-time telegra- phers working here can’t understand this, for Hank is said not to have previously missed the installation of a President for nearly thirty years. They say that some- how or another, it did not seem natural in the main operating room of the big office here on the night of the last inauguration day, because, as on so many former in- auguration nights, Hank was not stowed away in a corner at one of the special } tables, with a short and aged corn-cob pipe stuck in his teeth and burning his nose, rattling off press stuff with a light- ning speed that scarcely a dozen operators in the country could handle. “a guess Bogardus is ali right somewhere, though,” said one of the old-timers to a Star reporter, in talking of the non-ap- pearance here this year of “Hobo Hank,” @s veterans of the key have been calling him for the past quarter of a century, ‘Hank don’t belong to the dying class. He always turns up in some old place, like the Wandering Jew, just when all of us have begun to believe that he has been finally incased in a wooden overcoat and planted beneath the sod. Every one of us would own a pretty good-sized wad if we had a dollar for every time we've heard that Hank was dying in a hospital some- where or other, and we have learned just to grin and say nothing when these yarns work their way around to us. He does get into the hospitals, of course; I’ve Tlaced him in two or three myself; but tie always gets out of them again, stronger’n a wolf, and with more go in him than ever, and ready for more interoceanic campaigns. “He was taken pretty sick in Chic BO three years ago, though even the hospital people never seemed to me to be able to figure out what ailed Hank, often as he heid down beds in hospital wards. But this time the Chicago papers had it that Bogardus was right sick for fair, and likely to die; and most of them published ad- vance obituary sketches of him. Well, all of us here figured then that Hank was due to peter out for a fact, and we were only waiting for the announcement of his death to telegraph to Chicago the money chipped in by all hands for the purchase of a ‘Good- night’ wreath to be placed on his grave. The announcement didn’t come, so after waiting for a couple of weeks we wired to | of the thing as could have been a chief night operator out in Chicago, ask- ing if Hank wasn't pretty near ready to let us decorate his tomb with those flowers. ‘The Chicago man wired us back: All Right This Time. “You'd better put the soft pedal on the wheels in your heads, and then divide the flowers up and send ’em to your girls. Hank Jeft here for St. Paul over a week ago, and I can hear him burning up the Southern Press wire right now.’ “Hank turned up here a few months later in the early spring, just as he had been doing since the early seventies, and he then broke the record by remaining at a key here for a whole three weeks. ‘Teleg- raphers can always tell about a month in advance when Hank is liable to show up, for whenever he gets into a division he makes all hands put their hustling clothes on to take him, and he usually sticks to about the same general path in making his tours, rarely ever staying in any one oftice for more than ten days. He is known by all the old-time telegraphers from Maine to California end from Canada to the gulf, and by a good many of the recruits, and he never has any trouble getting a ‘subbing’ Be at any place he strikes. He has never een blacklisted, and he could have any crack regular job in the country that he had a mind to take. But he never wanted any regular job, and I don’t believe he could be tied to ihe chair of the president. To be contented, he’s got to be on the move. he has an odd system of working his way through the western country. He'll hop off a train at some little station in the mid- dle of Colorado or Wyoming, and the first thing the young operator of the telegraph shack. knows he'll see the head of an elder- ly man stuck through the window. “ ‘Hello, there,’ says Hank. ‘Want to go on a vacation for a couple of weeks?’ “ ‘Huh?’ says the young operator. “Hank repeats the question. “Do I? says the young operator. ‘Well, I gvess I do! But how can I go when they won't send a man here to relieve me” “Well, I'm Hank Bogardus,’ says the hobo operator, ‘and I’ll sub for you while you're gore.’ With Hank Standing By. “Now, every operator in the country has of course heard of Hank, even if he hasn't met him, and all telegraph operators stuck away in little jay stations snatch eagerly at a chance to go on a vacation. So the young operator calls up the ‘old man’ in charge of the main office of the division, tells him that Hank Bogardus is standing by, and asks for a couple of weeks’ leave. The old man wires back, asking the young operator if he knows Hank when he sees him. If he says ‘yes,’ it’s all right, and he is given permission to go on leave without any more ado. If the young: operator re- plies that he doesn’t know Hank, the old man wires, ‘Call him to the key.’ “Hank sits down to the key with a grin, and he never sends more’n two words before the old man breaks him, wires, ‘Hello, Hank. How are you?’ and the young operator is cracking his heels over the chance to get away—for there is no manager of a division who doesn’t know Bogardus’ magical work at the key. All the managers also know that when Hank is put in charge of an of- fice he is as responsible as any man in the business and able to handle anything that comes along right up to the limit. He has often happened into small, isolated towns at times when big railroad accidents, crimes or other hefty matters cf news have brought the eyes of the country on such towns, and his work on these occasions has always been astonishing. When the scene of tne news happened to be within hitting distance of the big cities, so that the re- ‘}-porters from the metropolitan papers had @ show to get there in time to shake the ‘facts together for their sheets, Hank would handle the enormous gobs of stuff turned in ‘to him without turning a hair or ever whimpering to the main office for help or a relief. But if, as has often happened in Hank's nomadic career, he would find him- self in the middle of a big news feature ’way off from anywhere, he would just stick his old cob pipe in ‘his face upside down, send off queries to the newspapers, and, on getting back his orders for stut }-would rattle off, without ever touching Pencil to paper, as fine and readable stories chased in- to shape by first-rate newspaper men, had they been on the spot; for he is a well- educated man, has worked a key in a lot “ofnewspaper offices all over the country in the course of his career, he knows how @ telegraphic news story ought to be cast up. A Startling Metamorphosis. ~ © never met a man like Hank for look- ing altogether on the bum one hour and then turning up the next hour groomed like several different kinds of E. Berry Wall. I was working in the day shift in| the Montreal office a few years ago, when ROBERT AMMANN, SR. ROBERT AMMANN, JR. The Father Tells of the Cure of Himself and Son— Jacob Kerper’s Interesting Story of His Deaf- ness and Its Cure—Doctor McCoy Makes the Uniform Rate of $3 a Month for the Summer. Father Cured of Catarrh, Son Cured of Deafness. Robert Ammann, 1001 F at. n.e. Mr, Ammann for many years had charge of the Gale School, and is very well known in the north- east. “Doctors McCoy and Cowden have restored the hearing of my son—his right car was totally deaf— and have also cured me of very severe Catarth of the throat. The Son’s Cane. “My son, Robert, jr., when mine years of age had an attack of the measles. After recovering bis right ear ached and discharged; at the same time began to lose his hearing, and grew deaf more rapidly. In a short while his right ear became Thought Himself Beyond Help, When His Hearing Suddenly Returned. Jacob N. Kerper, 613 G overseer for the Childs Brick Company been under Doctor Mc(oy's treatment at. Ress for months with no apparent benefit and bad become dixcouraged. I began to think my case was beyond help, and to add to my discouragement all my friends tried to persuade me to give up the treatment, saying that I was making no progress and would never be cured. I finally thonght myself that they were right and o lauded to step, but the treatment had had its effect; quietly and un- consciously work of restoration had been going on and in a few days after I discontinoed my visits to the doctor's office Suddenly My Hearing Came to Me. “One afternoon T went down town on When I returned to the shop the machines od stone deaf. He could not hear a sound with it. to be making a terrific noise. I thought that somer “Doctors McCoy and Cowden have restored the heariog of my son (Robert Ammann, jr.) also cured me of very severe Cat AMMA whore right ear was totally teat, and have arrh of the throat.” ROBERT 1001 F st. ne., Washington, D. C. He also complained of ccrstant rinzing and buzzing noises In his head. “For a long time we did not realize what the | trouble was with Lim; we thought he was only in- | attentive. | “After being urder treatment for a tine the dis- | charge stopped, and after that his hearing began to improve, unt!l now he hears plainly wien spoken to in an ordinary tone The noises, he tells us, have entirely stopped. The Father's Case. “About my own case: I had long been annoyed by the constant tickling sensation in my throat | with a desire to cough. I felt as though there was | something in my throat which should be removed. At times a hard scab or crust would form, and after persistent aloughing would become dislodged. “The treatment has done me a wonderful lot of good. The irritation in my throat is gone. I no longer have the hacking cough and I am perfectly well in every way.” $3 a Month For the Summer. During the summer months Doctor McCoy will diseases—not only Catarrh, but Deafnes: da all those diseases in the treatment of treat which he has made his fame—at the uniform rate of $3 a month until cured. thing was wronz wi found it was all hearing hed retary unusual that I could 1 standing that it at, nd then but after exa Ir make me bea could not bear a thing. Now 1 can he conversation and can hear a watel tick pliluly, even With Ear That Had Been Stone ent. “My deafness began f Were affected. and it becomi absolutely sto b oT pressed my watch against that ear I could not hear the faintest tick “At the time when T began Dr Ment my right ear had bee the left, and I was constant! Peat, for I could not hear ordinary conversation. would get up and leave the room in disgust because I could not bear what was being said. I had ter rible noises in my head, usually a sound like escap- ing steam. With my restored hearing these noises have left me ertirely.” DR. McCOY’S BOOK FREE 0 ALL CONSULTATION FREE. McCoy SystemofMedicine PERMANENT OFFIC DR. McCOY’S NATIONAL PRACTICE, Dr. J. Cresap McCoy, Dr. J. M. Cowden, Consulting Physicians, 715 13th Street Northwest. Office Hours, 9 tot to 8 p.m.,daily. Sunday,10 a. Imest as bad as y asking as seedy as they make ’em. He didn’t have the price of anything, either, so we chipped in for his temporary needs, intending to tog him out in some duds when we got loose in the evening—for Hank never failed to Mquidate every centime thus expended upon him when he got in working order again. Well, we turned him loose with two or three dollars, and told him where to meet us in the evening. He had a full beard, his shoes were falling off him, and his clothes were a sight. I don't know what had gotten into him to let himself get in that shape. Well, sir, in about three hours, early in the afternoon, a tall, fine- looking, smooth-shaven, elderly. man stroll- ed in behind the cage. He was such 2 well- groomed, courtly-looking kind of a man that we all glanced up from our keys to take him in. He wore a long frock coat, creased worsted trousers of fine cut, patent leather shoes, plug hat, spotless linen, and had a natty light overcoat thrown over his arm. When he passed around at our tables with a peculiar sort of gria—none of us had ever seen him smooth-shaven before— ‘we didn’t know what to make of nim, and the ‘old man’ was looking at him and won- Gering what he was doing behind the cesk in the operating room. Finally, he dropped on the tables’ of the fellows who had chip- ped in for him in the morning the amount of each loan. “Well, if it ain’t Hank!’ we all said at once, and I never in my life heard in an operating room such a roar as went up. We couldn't dig it out of him where he had made the stake, but I afterward learned that he had some rich relatives in Mon- treal who took him in hand and fixed him up on this occasion. ‘ “Bogardus, wherever he is, is one of the lightning telegraphers of this country, beth as a sender and as a receiver. In all his experience as a telegrapher he has never been known to ‘break’ @ sender, no matter how sizzling the speed might be, although there are few operators in the country who can take him, especially when he is work- ing a press key, without ‘breaking’ him constantly. He never knew how to go slow in sending. I*ve often been in offices in which Hank was working a press key, when the manager would get wire notes something like this from chief operators: ‘Can't you do~something with that man Bogardus—take him off that “flimsy”key.for instance? He's wedring out and Killing all the hot stuff in the office here, and they're ee Am Effort That Fatled. “I was in the Saratoga office with Hank once when three of the swiftest senders in the New York office got together with the determination to set a pace so hot for Bo- gardus as to simply compel him to break them. Hank was then handling the In- ccming press service. It was before the days of typewriters, and Hank wrote his stuff on flimsy with a stylus. The speediest man of the three in New York took the wire first, and the way he put it over the plate was certainly a caution. Hank took it all as if it was only warming up exercise. The man in New York didn't know, for all of Hank, that there was anybody at the Saratoga key. Finally he stopped. ‘Why don’t you break there once in a while, you Indian? is what he fired into Bogardus. “Go on; keep a-moving; you want to watch out or I'll go to sleep,’ is what Hank sent back. Then the New York man went at it again like a house afire, using all sorts of abbreviations and fancy kinks; and every once in a while he stopped to find out if Hank was still holding his end of the wire. He always found that Hank was. Then New York man No. 2 got at it, the pu: being to wear Bogardus out. It didn’t work. The hobo just leaned back and jot- ted down the stuff like a man scribbling on a blotting pad, and it was beautiful, swing- ing copy, too, punctuated and paragraphed in a style to make a telegraph editor's heart glad. Once Hank broke his stylus. But he didn’t break his man. He leaned over, asked the man beside him for another stylus, caught up with the thirty or forty words that had gone ahead of him mean- while, and went on. New York Hot Stuff No. 3 had the same experience on the Sara- toga wire, and the chain-lightning work of all three of them went for nothing except to make an exceedingly hot August night for themselves. “All this talk about Hank'll probably bring him around, for it’s a funny thing that we never get to talking about him that he doesn’t turn up a short time after- ward, soinewhere along the division. After ‘good-night’ in the Pittsburg office on @ frightfully cold night a few years ago half a dozen of us got to wondering at a some- what protracted disappearance of Bogar- dus, when in he walked, wearing a buffalo overcoat that he had got from a soldier at Cheyenne a few days befor ——— Attempted Gallantry. From the Philadelphia North American. Mrs. Scareface—“Why, general, think you would remember me. memory you have for faces!” Gen. Blunt—Madam, yours is a face one I didn’t What a could never forget ———___+e- Mrs. Eastlake—“You visited Venice while you were in Europe, I hear, Mrs. Trotter?” Mrs. tter—“Yes, indeed, and we were rowed about by one of the chandeliers for which that city is noted.”—Harper’s Bazar. second time I saw him I was engaged to him.” What Caused the