The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-12-06

scended. He came down the ladder
hastily; but he had no sooner turned
and seen what was going on than he
paused, as if frightened and irreso-
lutte how to act The chief saw him
as soon as / did, and sung out to him:
4-s@ss The pistol The pistoll There,
between the engines Il
- = :. The youth picked up the pistol,
and coming forward, presented It. at
me but T could see, even in that
moment, that he had omitted to cock
it, q He pulled at the trigger, but OF
course without avail. The chief
saw, as I did, the cause of the
failure. u Cock it, Id-n you, cock
it, he cried out; and then l heard
the click as the hammer was, drawn
back, and the chamber reV0lved., 1t
was now or never with me. / am a
C0rnishman, sir; and, like most from
that country, little bit Of wrestler.
1 had fegained my strength little,
and skill took the place Of what was
wanting. 1t was my only chance. So,
quick as lightning, / gave the chief
the t0e,' as we call it In our country,
and turned him over like top to-
wards the side on which the youth
was standing. He fred at the same
instant; but the sudden turn gave
my antagonist changed our positions,
and the bullet, after inficting flesh
wound In my arm, entered his body
instead of mine. The youth gazed
for moment with look of horror,
and then. with scream. threw her.
self on the body. At that same in
slant | saw who it was. 1t was no
youth. but the captains new wife.
But | did not wait to specu-
late. on this, for saw that
the fires must be drawn at once,
and | had no strength left. [
sprang to the handle and sounded the
whistle. There was the well-known
shrill shrek which could not fail to
be heard throughout the ship; and /
fell down fainting on the stoke-hole
floor. ,t4 4e
I remember little more that passed
until / found myself in the hospital at
Panama. The events of that night
my wound, and the want of medical
attendance, for we carried no surgeon
had brought on an attack of fever,
and / had been dangerously i'll. /
had been delirious, and when / did
regain my consciousness, % the
events that had really happened
were so mingled in my brain
with the extravagant fancies
of my delirium that / found it
difficult to distinguish the one from
the other. [ soon discovered, how
ever, that people had been told / had
been guilty Of gross insubordination
towards the chief engineer, and that
he had been so maddened by passion
as to fire his revolver at me; and that
l, having gained possession of the
weapon in the struggle which ensued,
had shot him, to save my own life.
Of course | denied this; but my ideas,
and, no doubt my talk, were still so
incoherent, that but little notice was
taken of what said Soon the cap
tain of the steamer came to nay bed
side, and begged and eDtreated
me in the most earnest, the most
piteous manner, to allow this YER
sion of the story to be believed.
He said he had been bewitched
by the charms and arts of that
woman; and, believing that none of
the crew knew he was already mar
ried, he had agreed to give her pas
sage, and had taken her on board
with him as his wife. She had OBJ
tanned from him, by pretending a
playful, womanish curiosity, knOwl-
edge of where the gold on board was
slowed, and how it could be got at !;
and this vile woman, with her accom-
pkce (the villain whom he had fool
ishly engaged, at her recommends
ton, as chief engineer), and another
man, also shipped at San Francisco,
had between them conceived and at
tempted to carry out that atrocious
project in which they had been so
nearly successful. The engineers hurt
had not been so serious; and the cap
tain said that he had connived at his
escape with his accomplices as soon
as 1.-The ship got into port. The
woman, indeed, had not been seen in
her disguise by any one but himself;
for he had been first in the engine
room when the whistle sounded the
! alarm, and had managed somehow to
get her out of the way unseen.
1T would be useless now, =
he said, to attempt to cap
ture them" and he implored me
not to contradict the account
he had caused to be circulated, and so
cause his ruin, which would be sure
to follow, should his owners learn the
real truth of the story. He made the
most solemn vows of repentance and
! amendment, and ] believe he was
truly sorry for his fault, as well as its
consequences; but | was deaf to all
until he spoke of his sweet. wife and
1 his dear little girl, whom | had seen,
as I have said, at New York. Well,
! sir, at length I yielded, and agreed to
I confirm the account he had given.
4 You may be sure that the crew, and
especially Macpherson and the rest of
4 the watch in the engine room and on