Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1882-10-06

the bow. He was the only one in the
hont who growled at our late cscapade.
"All your fault, Snwboncs," he NUT
tered, when about half way off. "your
fault entirely"
At that very moment we shipped II sea,
aud Pumpkin got the sharp end OF it on
his neck.
"Confound it all, Sawbones," he cried,
"you did that on purpose
"Quite right, paymaster," | replied,
coolly cts a mere exchange OF civili-
ties
Pumpkin was silent for the rest of the
time
Next morning Crook was in the Cap
taims cabin. We could see them-aye,
and hear them they were both laughing
! like all possessed, and we knew Crook
was giving brilliant account of the
| black mans ball.
That same forenoon the Captain asked
IFS, in his dry, sly way, and with merry
twinkle in his eye:
"How did you enjoy yourselves at the
ball, gentlemen ?"
"And we had to reply
80, very much. 1t was great fun y
Now comes the serious ending to the
story of our mcssmate, which | will re-
late as briefly as possible, for it is by nc
means sunny memory. From the very
night of the ball Crook seemed in many
ways changed man. He gave up prac.
teal joking entirely he did not laugh sc
much ms of yorc indeed, he was often
silent and tristc. He was great deal on
shore and, on the whole, it was evident
to every one OF us that Crook was III love.
Once or twice we attempted to banter
him on the subject, but, as he did moi
take it kindly, we desisted.
We had lain much longer Mt Zanzibar
than we expected we should but at last
came the orders from the Admiral tc
weigh anchor. We were to run down tc
Madagascar with dispatches, and then OF
to the Cape, and thence again right away
up to Bombay.
Tuesday. How well remember it
thunderstorm had been raging all tn,
forenoon, the clouds were still black ant
threatening over the city, aud agains
them the palace of the Sultan looked n,
white ms marble, with the bood-red Hal
dropping against its mast, and ever ant
anon the forked lightning glancing an,
quivering around the square and massiv,
towers
had work to do in the sick bay, an,
was busy writing there, when big gun
was fired right overhead, and present.,
: another, and some time afterward third
] sent my servant on deck to find on
what tide firing was about.
, He returned almost Immediately to sa,
: that Lieutenant Crook had not come oil
and that the guns were merely signal
for his recall. At that very momen
something seemed to whisper to me an
to tell me that poor Crook would retur
to us no more. | had not the slightes
: hope Of his reappearance from the Yer.
) first, and ! said MS much to my mess
mates, though could assign no reasons
We stopped at Zanzibar all the week
but search was unavaiing. The Chic
and his beautiful daughter had sailed
week before, but no one knew where h
had gone-some said Mocha, others Mad
rns.
Had Crook followed them? or had Ii
been foully murdered ? We never knew
He was marked i'll the log ms "Lost,' no
Run = and his fate is mystery unit
this day. He took nothing with him no
even his letters or keys, nor even hi
purse, which, as was his habit, he left il
his scrvrnt's care.
Here is n strange circumstance wei
worth noting daddy, the ape, neve
touched food again after we steamed ava
from Zanzibar ; and one morning he wa
found stark and stiff i'll the very corner q
the main-deck where poor Crooks GO
used to swing Must there not hav
been something good about man thu
even an ape so loved?