The daily gazette., 1880-05-19
CAST ADRIFT.
BY A SAILOR.

One evening was standing on tn
quarterback of a steamer ieisurel
watching the sea gulls, and now an
then lazy porpoise rolling itself owe
on the gentle wave. The rest of tn
passengers were chatting together il
little groups of two or three. The cap
tain was pacing the deck in thought
full mood, a slight breeze just filled til,
sails, and we were making way by the
help of wind and steam as fast as DOS
sible. There was no appearance of {
storm, and yet from the look of the
captains face l judged there was
something amiss. At last he came
near me, and as | knew him very well,
l said, Captain, l am no judge OF
weather, as you are; tell me, is there O
storm brewingP"
NO" said he. "No! why do you
ask ?"
"Simply because see you look anx-
ious and not like your old merry self.
thought something was the mat
ter"
"Oh, no, nothing is the matter" re-
piled he; 81 was only thinking of by
Bouo NdJo, duu VII CoIOdlu OCCdSlO0H
ones thoughts make one feel a little
sad" He saw Hooked interested, but
of course did not venture to inquire
into his private sorrow, but he began,
"This evening is the anniversary of
the death Of my father. Thirty years
ago to-day he died-he was murder
ed p'
"Do not tell me about it," said /,
eff it harnesses your mind"
"Yes, l will tell you, if you care to
hear the story; it will do me good to
tell it this evening""
'My father was the captain and
owner of small trading vessel bound
from Liverpool to America. We had
on board a cargo of hardware from
Birmingham, which was consisned to
merchant at New York. My moth
or had died, and my father had deter
mined to take me with him. was
fond of the sea, and, therefore, I was
delighted to go the voyage. Our crew
consisted of six men; one was Span
lard named Lopez, one a Dane, a
Scotchman and three Englishmen.
"They were quarrelsome set, but
VIC COuio Hob ilO OCbbCIs ITO
was man l very much feared the
Dane was the quietest of the crew, and
l had got into his favor by teaching
him several little things, and by assist
lug him in his efforts to speak Eng
lish. My father was stern and Sc
we're man, and during the voyage had
punished the Spaniard for laziness and
neglect of his work. / could see plain
ly that the man hated my father, and
hatred in Spaniard's mind is certain
to bring the keenest desire for revenge
The Spaniard seemed also to hate me,
because | was my fathers son; but
while the Spaniard was my enemy, the
Dane was my friend. During the voy-
age, of several weeks, I taught him
much of my language, and he was
grateful to me and kind. 1t happened
one evening my father was very un-
well and not able to come on deck he
had been taken with violent fit of
sickness and cold shivering fits came
over him constantly. was much alarm
ed, and gave him brandy; it seemed to
do him no good.
"sNorman, my son. he said, Il have
been poisoned, and Lopez has done it.
Tomorrow the ship will be yours. but l
fear they will not give you peaceable
possession. Take those papers, and if
you ever escape the treachery of these
bad men, the papers may be of some use
to you.'
That night my father died, and Lo-
peg took the command of the ship
The first thing he did was to take pos