Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1877-10-10

didn't you 2 l asked.
"'Yes, SIR said he, and looked
red and confused.
"'Did he induce you to run
awayp
Ono; no, SIR said he 'but he
told me he was coming in this Ship
That was all l said about it then.
A week or so afterward, when he
was cleaning mp my cabin, he got
hold of photograph of my wife,
which an artist in Liverpool had
undertaken to color and had made
a botch of it.
"'Did you ever do any painting p
l asked. He said he could paint q
little, and | got a box of water
color paints from the third mate,
and some brushes, and gave him a
few photographs to color. You see
how we'll he did it. He surprised
me-
Then the Captain opened his
album and showed the reporter
some photographs which were very
skillfully and artistically retouched.
81 saw him once continued the
CAPTAIN, painting the photograph
of a very fine-looking old lady.
He told me that it was Beans
mother. Well, to come to the day
the accident occurred. l was on
deck at the time, and Bean and
Cotton were sitting for'ard. / was
inst going the call the young chap
aft to help the sailmaker, who was
working on the poop, when a
squall came along. The mate sang
out, the royal halyards were let go,
and Cotton jumped into the rigging
10 get aloft and stow the foreroyal,
for it was darkening up to the
windward. Bean also got into the
rigging and seemed to want to get
up, hut Cotton got ahead of him.
"He laid out on the yard, and
got hold of the canvas, and the
next thing we knew something
came whirling down on deck with
a thub that made me shudder.
The first one at the poor fellows
side was Bean. He turned him
over. for his face was toward the
deck, and then fell down in fit.
and the boatswain attended to him.
The watch carried Colton's body
aft. His neck was broken. i
pulled off the shirt and then /
knew the whole story" and the
skipper took a glass of sherry and
his eyes were moist.
"What was the mystery!" asked
the reporter.
"Well," said the Captain, "just
then Cotton did not belong to our
side of the deck. The body was
sewed up and launched into the
deep as a young woman, and she
was Beans wife, for | found the
marriage certificate In Beams trunk
with some letters that partially ex-
planned the matter. But I'll tell you
about that afterward. AS soon as
Bean got all right he came alt,
looking like ghost, and he knew
by my face that / had discovered
the secret.
"'Captain,' said he, taking off
bis hat, would you have any
objection to letting me stay alone
with it this nightr
II let him stay all night by the
body, and l can imagine what the
poor fellow suffered. never saw
such a face on q man in my life as
that which met me when / opened
the cabin door and the hands were
summoned for the funeral services.
He stood by until the last moment,
and when the body slipped of into
the sea, and the shot carried it
down, down into the blue depths,
he watched 1t until il disappeared.
Then he jumped on the topgallant
rail, and before any one could grab
him he was gone"
"And the letters I"
al hunted through bis trunk"
said the skipper, "and found a
bundle Of letters which am going
to inclose 10 his friends at home.
From what I could learn from them