Evening Star Newspaper, June 11, 1898, Page 18

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JUNE KOM OMONE rey ce sek sek se X se) Pei ry NWO ROMS MONO NO NON ONINE Gekse Lord ce) se) seKsel sel se Loe Xsek seh se) »at's an old P. and O. lifeboat,” ®aid Mr. McTodd, “diagonal built of teak, and cuite big enough for the purpose. Of course, something with steam in her would be better, because we're beth steamer men, but that’s out of the question. That wouid an too many to share. So the thing i yeu buy this lifeboat and victual her trip? I'm no’ what ye might call a alist myself just for the moment.” ca fort ytain Kettle eyed the grimy serge of mn with disfavor. “You don't “That last engine 1 from must have been said MeTodd. “Put, as it hap- n't get the sack. I ran from wish to get back ginning to look lke busi Scottie runs away Trom siller eously earned.” " denying it was a specula- if ye come acked sea such a venture. » you'd have much choice heard of either said MeTodd. not have -ck if 1 ha in your head or . I'm to be treated I don’t deal with you.” clothes and be civil mighty dry shop this, cap- no whisky in the place nor spare y to buy it. If we're to go this plan of yours we shall want e lar that can be raised.” “That's true, and neither me nor Tonio have ten shillings between us.”* Kettle gave up pacing the room and sat himself en the edge of the table and frown- ed. “I don't the use of taking either Antonio, if that’s his name, or your other Dago. I don't like the breed of them. You and I would be quite enough to handle an open boat, and quite able to take care of If the wreck’s got the money on ourselves. her, und we finger it, we'll promise to bring them bac! ir share all right; and if the thing's ale. as it's very likely to be, well. th be saved a very unpleasa boat er * said the engir ‘and you p your mind to have them captain, or sit here on y re D'ye think I'v myself? No. sir, ne more i don’t trust them no more than i thre And the on’t trust you. They would Edinboro if 1 ar proposuls to them. ave you no idea where th ut on the lon’t ik Mr and with your overcame m oon"s enjoyment. ettled Yell ken what “I know t the ct “I have ou're a drunken beast when you > for an org ain, or may hater, wh ister. We ain Owen brought us re drink at this when out of a nd the other I 1 taking off their hats as poli td been an archbishop the It's extraordinary hi h s in tinetively go lo an officer Mee, it ts. a met Tonic in Lagos. He was sreaser on a branch boat there. and I her second engineer. “ He's some English— coast English—and he did the talking. The r Dago knew nothing but his own ur righteous and just said see-see when explained to him what was id grinned like a bagful of mo onio credit at out his He hold of a Dag at comt from the River Plate to nd calling me of the western islands en rout nisht they were just going off wate were leaning over the a reath of cool air before tu: ere steaming past some ri there in plain sight of them hard and fast ashore. There was no mi: take about it; they both saw her: a steam- boat of 1,500 tons. other Portugee, 7 Accord! Head i, said he him she was the He'd served in her ‘ages, and he said he'd Duneansby S word isn't worth much for a nat,” said Kettle. a bit. The r of them stayed ey were and looked at the rest waten on deck. The second mate Was staring ahead sleepily rtermaster at the wheel was nod- iking at the binnacle: the look- » Was seated on a fife, one of these had seen the x And e so they themselves didn't talk. Their boat was running short of coal and so she put into Gib here to rebunker; and from « > came al ther Dago on the coal bulk, ard to help trim, they got news. The Duncansby Head had at sea, had picked wu: i got unmanageable, an ft by her crew in the boats. ate’s boat and the second mate's boat were picked up; the old man’s boat had not becn heard of. It was supposed that the Duncansby Head herself foundered immedi: perted.” “Yes; all that’s common gossip on the Rock. Mulready was her skipper—J. R. Mulready: I'd known him year: “Weel, poor deevil, it's perhaps good for him he’s drowned. “Yes, I suppose it ts. He's saved a sight of trouble. D'ye know, Mac, Jimmy Mul- ready and I passed for mate the same day nd Went to sea with our brand new tickets 2 the same ship, him as mate, me as sec- one The an awful poor profession for 4 shipowner that lives ashore. Yes, that’s a true word. It is.” Tis. so A > tha m © was they'd seen the wreck?” ich y kept their heads shut. y in the idea if it could mor ¥ be worked. and a Portugee likes a ¢ as much as a white man. So there you have the wnole yarn, except that they got to know that Duncansby was on her wa me after a long spell at tr: mping when she got trouble, and carsted all the m learned in good solid guld in the charthouse drawer.” “It sounds like « soft thing. I'll not deny,” said Kettle. “But why should Mr. Antonio and his friend come to you?" “They ran from their ship here in Gib and laid low ull she had sailed. It was the natural thing for them to do. But when they began to look round them in -cold od they found themselves a bit on the ch. They'd no money; there's such a bbady crowd here in Gib that everything's well watched, and they couldn't steal, 30 jhere was nothing for it but to take a part- ber into the concern. Of course. being Bagos, they weren't likely to trust one of their own sort.” “Not much. And so <= ‘They knew me,” sai y she came to you the engineer. down for | 1 his mate were in | tonio and his mate told the other | (Copyright, 1898, the S. S. McClure Co.) i i | | ing round them but the blue heaving SALVAGE, Se WRITTEN FOR THE EVENING £TAR BY CUTLIFFE HYNE. i WOWMONE INO MOONE? NA WOW Leek seh sekse) 3} We 22) 22 F827 | “And I came to you because I knew you, captain. I'm no navigator myself, though I can make shift to handle a sailboat: so a navigater was wanted. I said to myself the man in all creation for this job is Capt. Kettle, and then what should Ido but run right up against yo you, Mac “But there's one other thing you'll have to de. and that’s buy, beg, borrow or steal the ship to carry the expedition, because the rest of us can't raise a blessed shilling amongst us. It needn't be a big outlay. That old P. & O. lifeboat which I was talking about would carry us fine, and I think three five-pound notes would buy her.” “Very well,” sata Kettle. “And now let's get a move on us. There's been enough time spent in talk, and the sooner we're on that wreck the less chance there is of any one else getting there to overhaul her before us.” li would be unprofitable to follow in detail the fitting out of a wrecking ex- upon insufficient capital, and so efly st that the old lifeboat had passed through many hands since she was cast from the P. & O. ser- vice) for an and Portuguese, wa: purchased by dint of haggling absurdly small sum, and victualed watered for eighteen days. The wao still refused to disclose the precise location of the wreck, said that it might take a fortnight to reach her, and prudence would have suggested that it was advisable to take at least a month's provisions. But the meagerness of their capital flatly forbade this, and they were only able to furnish the boat with what would spin out to eighteen days on an un- comfortably short ration. They trusted that what pickings they might find in the store rooms of the wreck herself would | provide them for the return voyage. With this slender equipment, then, they sailed forth from Gibraltar bay, an obyious party of adventurers. They were bom- barded by questions and the curious stares of all the shipping interest on the Rock; they were flatly given to understand by a naval busybody (who had been bid- den carry his inquisitivene to the deuce) that they had earned official sus- picion, and would be watched accordingly, and if ever fll-wishes could sink a craft, that ancient P. & ©. lifeboat was full to her mark: The voyage did not begin with pro ty. There is always a strong surface cur- rent running in through the straits, and just then the breezes were light. The life- boat was a dull sailer, and her people, in consequenc@, had the mortification of keep- ing Carnero point and the frowning rock behind in sight for three baking days. The two Portuguese were first profane, then peri- sullen, then frightened: somesaint’s day, it appeared, had been violated b: and the art, to hint at and then To which Kettle re- they began first st on a retur torted that he vas golng to see the mat- ter through now if he had to in the straits for the whole eighteen di and subsist for the rest of the trip upon dew their bel his MeTodd backed him up. away from the Was nothing very dd. Only one com- did Kettle offer to make. He tand aer drop his Portu- ners on th an shore if they, part, would disclose the whero- bouts of the wreck and 1 due time, when the dividends were gathered, he faithfully 4 them their are. But to this they would consent. In fact, there was a good deal of mutual distrust between the two parties. however, a kindly slant of wind ifeboat in charge and hustied her ut into the broad Atlantic, and y had run the shores of Europe and Asia out of sight, and there was noth- ater, 4 there a sail and a steamer enor Antonio saw fit to giv a course. with here a smoke, then C n Kettle Was steamin’ froma Teneriffe to Madeira when we saw thosea rocks with Duncansby Head ashe :m Kettle. “Those'll be the Sal- was pile up on de first. land we pass after.” vs Piton Island, if T remember. have a look at the chart.” He hand- r the tiller to MeTodd, took a t ed admiralty chart from one of the lo ter- d spread it on the damp floor grati two Portuguese helped with their brown paws to keep it from fluttering ay. “Yes-either Little Piton or Gre Piton. Which side did you pass it on? é Antonio thumped a gunwale of the life- poat. “Kept it on the port hand going north, did you en that'll be Great Piton, and a sweet shop it is for reefs, according to t it this chart. 1 h I'd a directory. It will be a regular cat's dance getting in. But, I Say. young man, isn’t there a light there?” ighta? I not understand.” ou savvy light house—faro—show- mark-light in dark?” “Oh, yes, lighta house. no lighta hous: “Well, there's one marked here as ‘pro- jected,” and I was afraid it might have come. I forgot the Canaries were Spanish, and Madeira was Portugee, and that these cks which lie half way would be a sort I got there. No, He Called Down, “Jim of slack cross between the pair of them. Manana’s the motto, isn’t it, Tonio? Never do today what you hope another flat will do for you tomorrow. “Si, si, mana said the Portuguese, who had not understood one word in ten of all this, “Manana we find rich, plenty too much rich. God save queen!’ “Those Canary fishing schooners land on the Salvages sometimes,” said McTodd, “so I heard once in Las Palmas.” “Then there'll be fleas on the Islands, whatever else there is,” said Kettle. “[ guess we got to take our chances, Mac, If the old wreck’s been overhauled be- fore we get there, it's our bad luck; if she hasn't been skimmed clean we'll take what there is, and I fancy we shall be men enough to stick to it. It isn’t as if she was piled up on some civilized beach, with coast guards to take possession, and the rest of it. The fslands are ¢ither Spanish or Portugee; they belong to a pack of thieves anyway, and we've fust as much right to help ourselves as any one else has. What we've got to do at pres- ent is to shove this ol] ruin of a lifeboat along as though she were a racing yacht. At the shortest, we've got 700 miles of blue water ahead of us. Open-boat voyaging in the broad Atlan- tic may have its pleasures, but these, such as they were, did not appeal to efther Ket- tle or his companions. They were thor- ough-going steamer sailors; they despised sails, and the smaliness of their craft gave them qualms, both mertal and physical. By day the sun scorched them with intol- erable glare and violence; by night the clammy sea mists drenched them to the = For a larger vessel the weather ould have been accounted favorable; for their cockle shell it was once or twice ter- rific. In two squalls that they ran into, breaking combers filled the lifeboat to the thwarts, and they had to bale for their bare lives. They were cramped and sore from their constrained position and want of exercise; they got sea sores on their wrists and salt-grime on every inch of their persons; they were growing gaunt on the scanty rations; and, in fact, a bet- ter presentation of a boat full of desperate castaways it would be hard to hit upon. Fiotillas of fridescent pink-safled nautilus scudded constantly beside them, dropping as constantly astern; and these made their only company. Except for the nautilus the Sea seemed desolate. In this guise, then, they ended their voyage, which had spun out to nigh upon 1,000 miles. through contrary winds and the necessity for incessant tacking; and in the height of one blazing afternoon there rose the tops of the islands out of a twinkling turquoise sea. These appeared first as mere dusty black rocks sticking up oute of the calm blue— Great Salvage Island to the northward and Great Piton to the south and beyond— but they grew as the boat neared them, and presently appeared to be built upon a frieze of dazzling feathery whiteness. The lifeboat swept on to reach them, climb- ing and diving over the rollers. She had canvas decks, quarter-mast high, contrived to throw off the sprays; and over these the faces of her people peered ahead, wild and gaunt, salt-crusted and desperate. Great Salvage Island drew absam, and passed away astern; Great Piton lay close ahead now, fringed with a thousand reefs, each with its spouting breakers. The din of the surf came to them loudly up the wind. A flock of sea fowl, screaming and circling, sailed out to escort them in. And ahead, behind the banks of breakers. draw- ing them on as water will draw a choking man, were the rusted smokestack and strip- ped masts of a derelict merchant steamer. There is a yarn about an open boat which had voyaged 1,200 miles over the lonely Pacific, coming upen a green atoll, and be- ing safled recklessly in through the surf THEIR FACES PEERED 11, 1898-24 PAGES, to be all right—by James! did you feel that?” MeTodl stared round him. “What?" he asked! ¥ “She moved.” ' “I took-it for sure she was on the “So did I But she ee i ‘There, you can feel her Jift again,” es They went out on deck. The in was already dipping-in the western sea, behind the central hill of the island, and in an- other few minutes it would be dark. There is little twilight so far south. So they took cross bearing on the and watched in- tently. Yes, there > t_ a doubt about it. The Duncansby He: floated and she was moving across thé deep water lake that held her." 4 “Mon,” said the engineer, enthusiasti- cally, “ye've a great head and a great future before you. Ya never have guessed it.” “I took it for granted she’s beaten her bottom out. in getting» here, but she's blundered in through the reefs without touching, and if she’s come in she can get out again, and we're the fellows to take her.” With engine: “With engines, yes. If she's badly broken down in the hardware shop, we're done. I'd forgotten the -machinery, and that’s a fact. We'll find a lantern’and I'll go down with you, Mac, and give them an inspect.” The two Portuguese had already sworn themselves to a standstill, and had gone below and found bunks; but the men from the little islands in the north had more energy in their systems, and they expend- ed it tirelessly. McTodd overhauled every nut, every bearing, every valve, every rod of the engines with an expert's criti- cism, and found nothing that would pre- vent active workirg; Kettle rummaged the rest of the ship; and far into the morning they foregathered again in the charthouse and compared results. She had been swept, AHEAD, WILD AND) GAUNT. and drowning every soul on board, and the yarn is ¢ believable. Capt. Kettle } and his companions had undergone horrible privations; here a as the Isle of their hopes, and treasure (as It seem- cd) in full view; but by some intolerable fate they were barred from it by relentless walls of surf. Kettle ran In as close as he dared, and then flattened in his sheets jand sailed the lifebeat close-hauled along the noisy Hne of breakers to the norrard, looking for an opening. The two Portuguese grumbled openly, | and, when not a ghost of a landing place howed, and Kettle put her about to sail back again, even the cautious McTodd put up his word to “run in and risk it. But Kettle, though equaliy sick as they were of the boat and her voyage, had all a sailor's dislike for losing his ship, what- ever she might be, and cowed them all with voice and threats, and at last hls forbearance was rewarded. A slim passage through the reefs showed itself at the southern end of the island, and down St they dodged, trimming their sheets six times a minute, with an escort of dangers j always close on either hand, and finally j ran into a rocky bay, which held compara- tively smooth water. There was no place to beach the boat. They had to anchor her off, but with @ whip on’ the cable they were able to step ashore on a ledge of stone and then haul the boat off again out of harm's way. It may be thought that they capered with delight at treading on dry land again, but there was nothing of this. With their cramped limbs and disused joints it was as much as they could do to hobble, and every step was a wrench. But the lure ahead of them was great enough to tri- umph over minor difficulties. Half a mile away along the rocks was the Duncansby head, and for her they raced at the top of their crippled galt. And the seafowl screamed curiously above their heads. They scratched and tore themselves in this frantic progress over the sharp vol- canic rocks, they choked with thirst, they panted with their labor, but none of’ these things mattered. The deserted. steamer, when they came to her, was lying off from the shore at the other side of a lake of deep water. But they were fit for no more wait- ing, and each, as he came opposite her, waded in out to his depth and swam off with eager strokes. Davit falls trailing in the water gave them an entrance way, and up these they climbed with tbe quickness of apes, and then with one accord they made for the pantry and the steward's store room. The gold which had lured them was forgotten; the immediate needs of their famished bodies were the only things they remembered. They found @ cheese, a box of musty biscuit and a filter full of stale and tepid water, and they gorged till they were filled, and swore they had never sat to so delicious a meal. With repletion came the thoughts of for- tune again, and off they went to the chart house to finger the coveted gold. But here was a disappointment ready and waiting for them. They had gone up in a body, neither nationalily trusting the other, and together they ransacked the place with thoroughness. There were papers in abun- dance, there were clothes furry with mil- dew, there was a broken box of cheap ci- gars, but of moncy there was not so much as a bronze piece. “Eh, ‘well,”. said Kettle, sitting back on the musty bed clothes, “we have had our trouble for nothing. Some one’s been here first and skinned the place clean.” Mc- Todd pounced upon the counterpane and caught something which he held between his black thumb and finger. “Look,” he said, ‘that's not a white man’s flea. That's Spanish or Portugee. And neither Tonio nor his mate brought it here, because they have been washed clean on the trip. You remember what I said about fishing schooners from Las Palmas, skipper’ “By James, yes. And look on the floor there. See those cigarette ends? They're new, and dry. Iv the old man had been a cigarette smoker he wouldn’t have chucked his butts on his charthouse deck, and even if he had done they’d have been washed to bits when she was hove down on her beam ends. You can sée by the decks out- side that she’s been pretty cleat swept. No, it’s those fishermen, as you say, who have been here before us.” “Weel,” said MeTodd, rubbing his thumb tightly into his finger’s end, “if I were a swearer I could say a deal.” “The Dagos are swearing enough for the whole crowd of us, to judge by the splutter of them. The money’s gone clean; it’s vex- ing, but that’s a fact. Still, I don’t Hke to go back ‘emptyhanded.” ‘I’m as keen as yoursel’. There's that £8 of my wages [ left when I ran in Gib that's got to be made up somehow. What's wrong with getting off theehatches and seeing how her cargo’s made up?” “She's loaded with hides. I saw it on the manifest. There was Jimmy Mulready’s scrawl at the foot of it. That photo there sit hens ae aoe tnt sa I aid, . He got ‘ore and started his fi surance, too, and if he’s kept them both up he and his widow ought badly swept; everything movable on deck was gone; ‘go had shifted and then shitt- ed back again till she had lost all her list and was in proper trim; the engines were still workable if carefully nursed; and, in fact, though battered, she was entire ly sea- worthy, and while with tired gusto they were comparing these things weariness at last got the better of them, and first one and then the other {ncontinently dropped off into the deadest of steep. That the Duncansby Head had come in unsteered and unscathed through the reefs, and therefore, under steam and control, could go out again, was on the face of it a very simple and obvious theory to make; but to discover a pa fe through the rocks to make it practicable was quite an- other matter. For three days the old P. & O. lifeboat plied up and down from outside the reefs, and had twenty narrow escapes It from being smashed into staves poked as if nature had performed a miracle and taken the steamer bodily in her arms and lifted her over at least a dozen black walls of stone. The two Portuguese were already sick to death of the whole business, but for their feelings nether Kettle nor MeTodd had hy concern whatever. They were useful in the working of the boat, and therefore they were taken along, and when they re- fused duty or did it with too much listless- ness to please, they were cuffed into activi- ty again. There was no verbal argument about the matier. ‘Work or suffer,” was the simple motto the two islanders went upon, and it answered admirably. | They knew the breed of the Portugee of old. At last, by dint of daring and toil, the secret of the passage through the noisy spouting reefs was won; it was sounded carefully and methodically for sunken rocks, and noted in all possible ways; and the old P. & O. lifeboat was hoisted on the Duncansby’s davits. The Portuguese were driven down into the stoKehold to represent double watches of a dozen men and mak+ a requisite steam; McTodd fingered the rusted engines like an artist, and Kettle took his stand alone with the steam wheel on the upper bridge. They had formally signed articles, and apportioned themselves pay, Kettle as mas- ter, MeTodd as chief engineer and the Por- tuguese as firemen, because salvage is ap- portioned pro rata, and the more pay a man Is getting the longer is his bonus. On which account (at McTodd’s suggestion) they awarded themselves paper stipends which they could feel proud of, and put down the Portuguese for the ordinary fire- Mman’s wages then paid out of Gibraltar, neither more nor l¢ss. For as the engineer sald, “There was a fortune to be divided up somehow, and it would be pity for a pair of unclean Dagoes to have more than was absolutely necessary, seeing that they would not know what to do with it.” Captain Kettle felt it to be one of the supreme moments of his life when he rang on the Duncansby’s bridge telegraph to “half speed ahead.” Here was a bit of fortune such as very rarcly came in any shipmaster’s way; not getting salvage, the larger part of which an owner would finger, for mere assistance; but taking to port a veesel which was derelict and descried, the greatest and the rarest plum that the seas could offer. It was a thought that thrilled him. But he had not much time for sentimental musings in this strain. A terribly nervous bit of pilotage lay ahead of him; the mo- tive power of his steamer, was feeble and uncertain, and it would require ali his skill and resourcefulness tb bring her out into deep blue water. wiy she backed or went ahead, dodging found to get a square entrance to the fair Way; ‘And then with a slam Kettle rang on his telegraph to “Full speed ahead,” so as to get her under the fullest possible command. Bhe darted out intorthe narrow winding lane between the walls of broken water, and the roar of the surf closed round her. Rocks sprung up outiof the deep—hungry black rocks as deadly as explosive torpe- does. With a full complement of hands and with a pilot for years,acquainted with the place, it would have been an Infinitely dangerous piece of navigation; with a half- power steamer which had-only one man all told upon her decks. apd he almost a stranger to the place, jt Was a miracle how she got out unscathed. _But it was a miracle assisted with the most brilliant skill. Kettle had surveyed the channel in the lifeboat and mapped eyery rock in his head, and when the test came he was equal to it. It would be hard to come across a mangof more iron nerve. Backing, and going ahead, to get round right-angled turns of the fairway, shaving reefs so closely that the wash from them creamed over her rail, the battered old tramp steamer faced a million dangers for every fathom of her onward way, but never once did she actually touch, and in the end she shot out into the clear deep water and gaily hit diamonds from the wave-tops into the sunshine. : taken off, then there was no more disre- garding the cries. He turned his head, and saw a half-sunk raft which seven men with clumsy paddles were frantically laborin, hovte he him along the outer edge of the reefa. Without a second thought he rang off en- gines, and the steamer lost her way and fell off into the trough and waited for them. From the first he had a foreboding as to who they were; but the men were ob- viously castaways, and by all the laws of the sea and humanity he was bound to rescue them. Ponderously the raft paddled up and got under the steamer’s lee. Kettle came down off the bridge and threw them the end of a halliard, and eagerly enough they scram bled up the rusted plating, and clambered over the rail. They looked around them with curiosity, but with an obvious famil- larity. left my pipe stuck behind that stanchion,” said one, “and, by gum, it's there still. “Fo'c’s'le door’s stove in,’ said another; “I wonder if they've scoffed my chest.” “You Robinson Crusoes seem to be mak- ing yourselves at home,” said Kettle. One of the men knuckled his shock of hair. ‘‘We was on her, sir, when she hap- pened her accident. We got off in the cap- tain's boat and she got smashed to bits landing on Great Salvage, yonder. We've been living there ever since on rabbits and gulls and cockles, till we built that raft and ferried over here. It was tough living, but I guess we were better off than the other poor beggars who got swamped in the other boats.” “The other two boats got picked up. “Did they, though? Then I call it beastly hard luck on us.” “Captain Mulready was master, wasn’t he? Did he get drowned when your boat went ashore?” i. The sailor shrugged his shoulders. ‘No, sir. Captain Mulready’s on the raft down yender. He feels all crumpled up to find the old ship's afloat and you've got her out. She'd a list on when e left her that would have scared Beresford, but she's chucked that straight again, and who's to believe it was ever there?” Kettle gritted his teeth. “Thank you, my jad,” he said. “I quite see. Now get be- low and find yourself something to eat, and then go you forrard and turn to.” Then, leaning his head over the bulwark, he called down, “Jimmy!” The broken man on th “Fiullo, Kettle, that you?” raft looked up. Yes. Come aboard.” “No, thanks. I'm off to the island. I'll start a picnic there of my own.. Good luck, old man.” “If you don't come aboard willingly 1 send and have you fetched. Quit fooling “Oh, if you're set on it,” said the other, tirediy, and scrambled up the rope. He looked around him with a drawn face. “To think she should have lost that list and righted herself like this. I thought she might turn turtle any minute when we quitted her, and I'm not a scary man, either.” “I know you aren't. Come into the charthouse and have a drop of whisky. There's your missis’ photo stuck up over the bedfoot. How's she?” “Dead, I hope. It will save her going to the workhouse.’ “Oh, rats! It's not as bad as that.” “If you'll tell me, why not? I shail lose my ticker over this job, sure, when it comes before the board of trade, and what owner's likely to give me another ship?” “Well, Jimmy, you'll have to sail small and live on your insurance.” “I dropped that years ago and drew what there was. Had to—with eight k you know. They take a lot of feeding. Eight kids? By James!” 2 “Yes, eight kids, poor little beggars, and the missis and me all to go hungry from now onwards. Bui they do say workhouses are very comfortable nowac You'll k in ‘and see us sometimes, won't you, Kettle?” He lifted the glass’ which had been handed him, “Here's luck to you, old man, and you deserve it. I bought that sky from a chandler in Rio. It's a drop of right, isn’t it?” i said Kettle. I'm said Captain Mulready, “but you shouldn't have had me on board. I should have been better picnicking by my- self on Great Piton yonder. I can’t make a cheerful shipmate for you, old man.” Brace up,” said Kett! the Lord, if Td on th that raft,” said t could have taken her out, as you done, and brought her home, and I ve the firm would have kept ‘me on. need have been no inquiry, only ‘de- * that’s all. No one cares so long as a ship turns up some time.” Tt wouldn't have m id Kettle, frowning. isy Portuguese hav out been a day ear- other, musing- a any difference,’ ‘Some of those been on board and yy, what she'd earned. Was here in the chart house di Th> disheveled man gave a tired chuckle. “O, that's all right. T put in at 1 as and transferred it to the bank there and sent home the receipt by the B. and mail boat to Liverpool. No, I'm pleas enough about the mone But it's this other thing I made the bungie of, just b: ing a day too late with that blasted raft Kettle heard a sound : arply turned his head. He saw a grimy man in the doorway. “Mr. MeTodd,” he said, “who the mischief gave you leave to quit your engine room? Am I to understand you've been standing there in that doorway to li n? “Her own engineer's come back, so I handed her over to him and came on deck for a spell. As for listening, I've heard ry word that's been said. ready. lence: “Mr. McTodd,” said Kettle with a sudden Dlaze of fury, “I’m captain of this shi and you're intruding. Get to Hamiet out of here." Hie got up and strode furiously out of the door and McTodd retreated bi fore him. “Now keep your hands off me,” said the engineer when he had been driven as far as the end of the fiddley. “I’m as mad about the thing as yourself, and 1 don't mind blowing off a few rounds of temper. I don’t know Captain Mulready and you do, but I'd hate to see any man all crum- pled up like that if I could help it.” “He could be helped by giving him back his ship, and I'd do it if I was by my self. But I've got a Scotch partner, and I'm not going to try for the impossible. “Dinna abuse Scotland,” said McTodd, wagging a grimy forefinger. “It's your ain wife and bairns ye’re thinking about.” “I ought to be, Mac, but, God help me, I'm not.” “Verra weel,” said McTodd, that’s the case, skipper, just here and we'll have a palave “I'll hear what you've got to say,” said Kettle more civilly, and for tae next half hour the pair of them talked as earnestly as only poor men can talk when they are deliberately making up their minds to re- sign a solid fortune which is already with- in their reach. And at the end of that tall: Captain Kettle put out his hand and took the engineer's in a heavy grip. ‘Mae, he said, “you're Scotch, but you're a genti man right through under your clothes.’ “I was born to that estate, skipper, and I no more wanted to see yon puir deevil pulled down to our level than you do. Bet- ter go and give him the news, and I get our boat in the Water again and revictualed. “No,” said Kettle, “I can’t stand by an: be thanked. You go. I'll see to the boat. “Be hanged if I do,” said the engineer. “Write the man a letter. You're great on the writing line; I’ve se2n you at it.” And so in the tramp’s main cabin below, pt. Kettle penned this epistie: “To Capt. J. R. Mulready: Dear Jimmy—Having concluded rot to take the trouble to work Duncansby Head kome, hav> pleasure in leaving her to your charge. We having other game en hand, have now taken French leave, and shall now bear up for Western Islands. You've ro call to say anything about our being on board at all. Spin your own yarn; it will never be contradicted. Yours truly, “O, KETTLE, Mast A. McTodd, Chief Engineer.—O. K. S.—We take along those two Dagos. If you had them they might talk when you got them home. We having them, they will rot talk. So you've only your own crowd to keep from talking. Good luck, old. tin- tacks.” Which letter '§ s2aled and nailed up in a conspicuous place before the lifeboat left enroute for Grand Canary. It was the two Portuguese who felt them- selves principally aggrieved men. Th>y had been made to undergo a great deai of work ond hardship; they had been defrauded of mucea plunder, which they considered was theirs, for the benefit of an absolute stranger, in whom they took not the slight- est interest; and finally they were induced “not tc tal’ by processes which jarred upon them most unpleasantly. | They did not talk, and in the fullness of time they returned to the avocation of shoveling coal on steam vessels, But when they sit down to think, neither Antonio ror his friend (whose honored name I never learned), regard with affection those Httle the which produced Captain Mui- you have my very deepest condo- “then if Bet ye doon or. FOR BOYS AT THE FRONT Arrangements That Have Been Made for How the Post Office Department ages to Keep Track of the Army and Navy. Written for The Evening Star. The war, with the consequent military and naval movements along the South At- jantic coast, has resulted in materially in- creasing the work of the postal officials throughout the south. The Post Office De- partment is keeping step, figuratively speaking, with the War Department and the Navy Department. Wherever the United States flag goes, the mail sack follows apace. Preparations have been completed for establishing a United States post office upon Cuban soll socn as the first landing of regular troops made, or the first port is seized for per- manent occupation by the fleets. Eben Brewer has been designated by the Postmaster General to take charge of the new post office, with a force of clerks, hang out his shingle designating the office, and proceed at once to handling mail. It will be the first time this government hes located a post office upon foreign soil. As the United States armies advance, the Trice will be extenc nd when th» oc- asion demands it, regular post rouces will be est blished in C and Uncle Sem's mail carrier will go upon his daily rounds. 1t wili be no international arrangement at the outset, but will be conducted solely under the auspices of our own Post OM As progr is made in the conquering of Cuba” connection will be made with the postal system which is now maintained by the insurgents in the re- giens under their control, so that a letter rested in New York or San Francisco will go safely and speedily to its destination in the interior of Cuba. Letters for the Fleet. At the present time the service of the pest office stops at Jackscnville, Tampa, Key West or the ports on the Florida ccast. Connection is made with the ships of the blockading fleet and the flying squadron, but it is from the coast towns only. Letters addressed to the officers and men of the fleets mailed at points north or east of Washington are now carried south in the through postal cars. The depart- ent operates a railway mail service from Springheld, Mass., to Tampa, Fla., on a quick schedule. The postal car starts from Springticid and picks up the sacks at th cities and towns along the line. At Wash- irgton anot car, if necessary, is at- ched to the train, and a crew of mail clerks carry it through to Charleston, 8. C without retay, where another crew takes held. The through sacks frcm the north are sealed and stacked in one end of not to be epened until their desti is reached. in the car which is at Washington open sacks are 1 at every post office the mail aboard the fiyer.. The letters fer ration attached a taken | the way st assorted in the case ard made up into bundles to be sacked aul thrown off as directed, while those for t fleet, the armies, or residents of F tcwns are distributed in the proper On Dispatch Bonts. When Tampa is reached, if that nearest port to the ve is going, the postmaster segregates the nail for the officers and sailors and inakes it up into other sacks, to await the arrival is to which the mail the of the official dispatch boat from the ship. which puts in at convenient opportunities A great deal of the mail gues to Ke West for Admira! Sampson's fleet ar Ccmmodcre Schley’s flying squadron,wh: it is sent out by the fleets and d ered by the beats to the proper officers of each shi who attend to the distribution of Ui ters. The mail for the armies at Tampa goc south in the same ¥ The pouches delivered to th ter and the ar officials must appl m for the mail. Great care is exercised in the handling of the mail after it leaves the post office at Tampa. Spec ers are detailed by each commandirg officer to get the mail for the troops in particular vici nd they transport it to the camps, where it is he local postmaster kept in a ted place, at which the sol- diers call and get their letters. Th» mail Ss through Washing- ton, but goes out on anoth read. Mail for Cuba. communication will be aed until cur troops are landed. It {s not propo: to establish any sys- tem of esp’ > over the mails going to the fleets 0} . When communication is opened with the island. ‘The the seal of an envel pe of -d States postage scamp will be ly observed. As much care taken in the delivery of the ‘nissi addressed to a pea y of the repubii: At this particular junc’ the Post Of Department is maintaining con sabi reserve as to the desitaation of ihe mails. This is for the purpose of « ling the possible whereabouts of vessels of the fleet, which might be divulged through urdue publicity of the movements of the mails. |e ART AND ARTISTS. Following the example of the other ar- tists, Mr. E. H. Miller has been laying pians for his summer vacation, and he will con be at work in the Catskills, where he nas a pleasant summer: home. He had heped to get awey on the Ist of June, bat so many things have interfered with his arrangements that he will probably not find himself in his stemmer retreat until some time after the 15th of the month. In addi- tion to his recent work in portraiture, Mr. Milier haz now in his studio an unfinished cenvas, which cieverly depicts a scene of boy life. He has pictured two barefooted boys hesitating at the fence which sur- re.inds the field where forbidden fruit in- vites the couniry urchins to pillage. Per- heps the twain have been strictly brought up, and pause to combat the warnings of their troublesome consciences, but if they are cast in the usual mold the possibility of getting caught is the oniy thing that has much weight. The picture is well arrang- ed, and has the charm of perfect natural- ness. * * * Mr. Keeling will clese his studio cn the 1s< of July, and will divide his time during the summer between Newport and Narra- gacsett. He is very busy just at present with a number of miniatures, likenesses of New York and Pkilacelphia people. Wash- irgton sitters are claiming a share of his time, however, and he has just finished a striking portrait cf Miss Belknap, who on Tuesday became the bride of Mr. Barktie Henry of Philadelphia. * Miss Bertha E. Bertie has taken up miniature painting only within the last year or so, but she brings to this work so much knowledge gained in the use of other mediums, and so much artistic feeling, that her work in this line is rapidly prov- ing its claim to a high rank. She suc- ceeds in getting a sense of the solidity and actual structure of the heads in her minia- tures, and in this respect she excels not a Since the outbreak of the war 0 mail has gone to Cuba or come out of th island to the United So postal | in this study showing the picturesque @is- order of this old shop. * * Pastel ‘s rapidly “becoming the favorite medium of Miss Aline Solomons, and she now employs it almost exclusively in por- tratture, Just at present she has on her easel a lerge half length portrait which exemplifies her skill in handling the col- ored crayors with their infinite variety of tones and tints. It is a Itkencss of her sis- ter, Miss Isabel Solomons. and possesses the artist's usual charm of color, both in the flesh tints and in the costume and background. Miss Solomons almost invar- fably gets good color effects, but in this canvas she has combined her pleasing col- or qualities with more strength than usual in drawing and modeling. The portrait is full of a quiet dignity, and is one of the most carefully studied things that Miss Solomons has ever done, though it is han- died with a view to broad artistic ¢ tather than with studied detail. * Following in the steps of New York city, Boston is sson to have its permanent art commission, whose business wili be to pass judgment upon ail works ef art to be ac- quired by the city, as well as to determine the sultability of any submitted for public works for the city’s adornment The commission is to be appointed by the mayor, four of its five me lected from nominations made by t ton Art Club, the Society of Architect the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Technolog: spective! one mem designs step forw and it is t j that many oth ities will adc } im the not far distant future. * —- Another item of artistic inter which suggests an opportunity for some ot our Washington artists, also comes from Boston in connection with the competition which has been opened under the oes of the Coionial Dames of Massachusetts. A prize of $250 is offered by this society for the best and most thoroughly represen tive scene from out-door life in colonial or provincial days, no intsrior views being el gible for this competition, which is American artists only. All works s pen to in must be in color and must not have | previously exhibited. An able jury is to be j chosen to decide upon the admission of | thes» works to the exhibition, which is to j be held in Boston some time in December, and to award the prize. Further informa- tion may be had from J. Eastman Chase, 423 Boylston street, Boston. * * * The summer school of the Art Students’ League opened on the first day of June, and a number of pupils have already been en- rolled, though the classes will probably at- tain no great size until after the close of the public schools. It is from the small army of pupils and teachers who are s*t at liberty at the close of school that the league j expects to draw most of its summer stu- dents, and it has been with an eye to their nesds that the in cast drawing, s lif? painting in ofl and water color, out~ | Coor sketching, illustraticn and composit j have been arranged. Mr. E. L. Williams, | Miss B. E. Pertie, Miss M. i Miss Aline mors form a | well-chosen corps of instructors for summer t-rm, Because of the special | ducements offered by th j there is little doubt that a earnest workers will avail this opportunity for study. urse ummer rge on themselves | The French may with some justice | that we have not ta ly na- | tional art, but they do not have to look fur ther un than their own 5: important there of American very notable example production that has commanded the tant praise of nearly all the French erittes, single work kas been as widely | in the newspapers | where. This triumph r Frederick Macmonnies’ huge bronze quad- riga, destined for the big gate of Prospect Park, Brookiyn, and his two dosigns for the pests of the same gate. The subj for j this remarkable production is “Arme Peace,” and according to all accounts the different groups, by their colossal size and the strength with which they have been | conceived and executed, fairly dwarfed « jerything else in the department of sculp- ture. It was this werk of Maemonnies that | called forth th which was repeat- Jed all over Pa ! the Americans j preparing their triumphal arch be War with Spain has lasted a we: > Nurses Chloroformed. From the Philadelphia Record. | A rather remarkable accident with chlor- oform ts reported from the Catholic Hes- pital at Herne, Westphalia. It appears that a man had to be rated upon at j ence for a gunshot wound, and, the opera- j tion being difficult, the time extended to about four hours. The SMuminant in the j room was gas, and it is supposed that it decomposed the chloroform with evolution of chlorinated vapors, with the result of incapacitating the two surgeons and so se riously injuring the sisters in attendance that one died on the second day, and the lives of others were in great’ danger. The matter is of special interest, because operations have to be performed occasion- ally without preparation, and it would scem, from this experience, that only the ieandescent electric lamp can be safe. —_—+e-2 When a man makes a dollar outside his regular income he feels that he can afford te spend two.—Life. In the olden times, physicians accounted wine, -eenschecd vainly for the Elixir of Life, or the knowledge whereby life might be prolonged. We now know that there is no such — as an Elixir of Life. But we have learn that life may be prolonged by those who take the right measures. Any man or woman who will take care of health and take the rij remedies for ill health, may live to a ripe old age. When a man feels out of sorts, when he gets up in the morning tired out after a restless night, and goes home in the evening com- pletely knocked out with his day’s work, without appetite or ambition, he is a sick man. If he does not take the right remedy he will soon be in the grasp of consump- tion, nervous prostration, or some other serious malady. A man in this condition should at once hard-working men and women. It makes the appetite keen and he: It gives and refreshing sleep. tones and strengthéns the whole system. It invigor-