Litchfield enquirer., 1879-09-18

board whom he must arrest IF z E1ta s+ -S
 Don't think that there is any great trouble to you in my application, ? said Burton, smill- ing again, for he partly divined the others thoughts; "yet want you to do me a favor very great favor, Captain" z4za.-7-1 sr
 The skipper looked an interrogation and
 Burton went on: Gan your boat doing her
 best, with her half-a-day's start, beat the mail ?" a.i,' -. @..la :. ts9 Y 4l35 a-
 ''She could. perhaps" returned the seaman,
 with an emphasis which implied that she was
 hot very likely to try.
 'I daresay,'' pursued Burton, othat to do so will give you some trouble, more work, and
 perhaps incur extra expense for fuel and the like 2" . a....... ..'....... ..Er ;. ''It would" :" said the Captain, briefly. t.And cause more work to others also, Isup- pose ?" conciaaed Barton 9l1l .s-.-ag= GJae ssIt would,''1 again answered the skipper. ''Tbe engineer would grumble more than a lit- tie, for we have not enough stokers for voy-
 age at full speed. l-~' -.7-.-, -7-.- s.-. -.'f !" Have you sufficient coal?" asked Bur- ton. ,. .-..a.gs>- y.,st. ,s.lry4 ..,5g ....-
 .Why-yes, perhaps we have, :" was the re- ply {; but there was an increasing dryness in
 Captain Bowmans tone which seemed to im- ply that he had had almost enough of the con- versation. ... ......- -.... .. Burton saw this, aod went sraight to the poiat Captain Bowman" he said, s1 have | the most pressing of reasons for wishing to arrive at the Gulf before the mail. My only
 chance was to come by you and now ask you to get every knot out of the Cerberus that canvas and steam can compass, and, to be point-blank with you, let me say it shall be at my expense. will pay, beforehand if you choose to estimate it, for every pound of extra | coal you burn, so your employers shall not | lose 1 will, with your permission, pay your l engineers double wages for the trip; and, if | you will except it, shall be glad to hand you | this bank-note for one hundred pounds" With | dramatic effect, he drew the note from his
 waistcoat pocket as he spoke, and offered it to ] the Captain .... ... The sailor quite staggered back in his snr- prise, and gasped out: "Why-what-wha is | the reason ?" a ,-..,... .... -....... -. .... ''The reason" intercepted Burton, lis sim- ply that it is we'll worth my while, having
 great financial interests at stake, to spend three of four hundred pounds in beating the mail 1 It can do you no harm to comply with my re- quest. No one will suffer; your passengers
 will all be pleased; the money shall be paid whether you win The race or not, which is only l fair as the work will have been done in any
 case. Now, Captain, know yon are good | hearted fellow; you can confer great benefit
 on me and mine by obliging me, and some
 thing tells me you will help me if you can." ''Well," said the skipper, after moments | hesitation, 'I will. It's a bargain. will | take your money, because 1 shall have earned | it. 1 should advise you to speak to the first | officer, Mir. Keeler; he is poor man with
 large family, so he won't object; and to MT. | Mutt, tue chief engineer. Make your own
 terms with them, and they will manage the | rest I think we shall get in before the mail,
 for the Cerbeus is the best of our line; while the Maelstrom, which is luckily running this trip is the smallest and slowest of the mall
 service. Not but what" he added, warpingly, | ''they are all very fast, and we shall have to work very hard to beat her by as many hours
 as we started before her." ".-.t r.... MT. Burton thanked the Captain, and, acting
 upon his advice, sought the first officer and the
 engineer. With them he had no difficulty; | the prospect of double pay for the whole of
 the voyage was sufficient to induce them to un- | dertake any amount of work. The working
 engineers were equally ready; and within two
 hours of his conversation with the skipper the | Cerberus was making couple of kuots ad
 ditlonal per hour, which was equal as Mir.
 Burton kept repeating to himself, to several
 hundred miles per week.
 How earnestly he wished that the crank
 shaft ot the mail would break, her screw get
 out of order, or some casualty, not fatal, but | retarding, would happen to their dreaded pur suer; that is, if she were still the pursuer and
 had not already got ahead of them. It never | seemed possible in all his speculations, that
 any such accidents could happen to his vessel |;
 she was, of course, to run an unchecked and
 uncheckered voyage; and so indeed in happen | ed.
 .-- CHAPTER II.
 | Had Mir. Burton's money been in jeopardy
 but very few years later than the real date,
 the electric telegraph would have laughed to | ol1 offo hl1t ha incl hpf | that marvel-in it's communication with Aus tralia, at any rate, and he was glad to think | he had yet chance. Swift as may be the progress of clipper steamer, yet even by the | swiftcst the voyage to Australia is a long and
 monotonous passage, and to man with such l anxiety in his mind as was the lot of MT. | Burton, 1t seems euuiess ay. Il | Their passage was as prosperous and une-
 ventful as passage could be; yet even then,
 one or two trif1ing incidents occurred to dis
 turh hin, and to fin him with the gloomest forebodings Of failure. One evening-they
 were far on thcirway then, and the greater part | of waste of water which they had to traverse lay behind thenl-Mr Burton was lounging on a bench at the stern of the vessel. watching
 the setting sun, which was spreading sheet
 of gold over the calm sea, and thoughtful]y
 smoking cigar, when he heard aseaman, who
 was engaged in some duty near him, remark
 to his comrade: Il say, Bill, do you see that
 line, right under the sun there ?"
 Bill nodded his assent.
 "Well," continued the other, 'that must be
 the smoke of steamer 1 shouldn't wonder if it's the mail.'' ..f .- .5.- ar....r ......., In an instant Burton was on his feet, the cigar
 was flung into the sea, and he was gazing,
 with his hand shading his eyes, in the direc-
 tion of the setting sun. He could see nothing.
 The practiced eyes ot the seamen were probab- ly able to trace the line of which they spoke; but the passenger could see nothing He did
 not care about speaking to the men on the | subject, lest he should show too much anxiety;
 but he paced the deck until the last of the passengers had retired to his cabin and the moon was full in the sky, yet nothing had he been able to discover: nor did the fresh watch
 who came upon deck refer to any following vessel, so he hoped that, at any rate, the strange ship--if one there really had been
 was not gaining on them. ..atl --u .-.0.z ..a5
 It is certainly not necessary, to dwell on the closeness with which Mr. Burton followed their progress on the chart, or the constancy with which he was present at the heaving of the log: all this goes without telling, as the French say. But another result of his intense anxiety to reach Aurtralia was that he became very nervous, and the least things such as the slightest surmise uttered in his hearing, was enough to startle him; and one morning he [ the officer who had charge of the watch during the night, sayto the officer who relieved him:
 "I thought saw the spoke of 8 steamer about
 two bells. She was to the nor'ard, and going fastar than ourselves-at least so thought at first but could make nothing out for cer- tain; and yet there was no sail in sight at sum-. rise" Yet the Leutenant-they are all Lieu tenants and Captains to landsmen-might have been right in his first conjecture! There might have been steamer ''to the nor'a 'ard," going faster than themselves, and this might have been the dreaded mail sr,a5- :. -s .a...-.
 These examples will give a fair idea of the tension of Mir. Burton's nerves and as they drew nearer their port, as matter of course his anxiety increased But when they steam ed gallantly into the noble bay'on which the town, or rather it's port, stands, and came
 nearer and nearer to the quay, ,and saw no long black hull with double funnel lying there. great weight seemed taken from Burton's | ~.4 -