The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-10-29

II
in Chill The Captain, whose boy-
hood was passed in Pittsfield, Mass.
left the bark w. Robinson at Idai-
que, Peru, on the occasion mentioned
and with four other men ofthe same
vessel, made his way overland to Val
Iparaiso- 1t was during the long
tramp that the adventure occurred.
The captain, now master of the
steamer Santa Cruz, is quoted:
AT about 4 in the afternoon one
day when We were getting pretty
well down into Chill, we found our
selves empty-stomacbed and strand
ed at the base of a promontory that
jutted well out into the sea. We
hadn't come across house or man for
several days past, and there wasn't
crumb left in the provision bag,
the last scrap haying been divided
that morning. While climbing
among the rocks we found spring
of water to which a path ran down
We secuted carefully up the path,
to the queerest looking man / ever
saw.
He was haggard, dried-up, old
body, whose age might have been
anywhere from so to 100, aud he sat
on the plateau, a little back from
the edge OF the cliff, nursing his knee
and staring out to sea in a vacant
sort of way. He had nothing on
his head, and his hair and beard,
which evidently hadn't been
cut for many years, had changed
through age from white to a moldy
sort Of yellow, and made him.
LOOK LIKE HERMIT
in a picture e-book. His only
ing was a ragged sheepskin, loosely
hung upon his shoulders, and bits
of sheepskin bound around his legs
and feet. | can't describe to YOU
how CHASTITY and miserable the poor
old man looked, with his withered
flesh, dim eyes, and toothless gums,
as he sat there muttering to himself
and ignorant of the fact that we
stood within few feet of him.
guess we all felt creepy sensation,
for several minutes must have pas
sed before one plucked up courage
enough 20 touch the old boy on the
shoulder. He slowly glanced up at
US, took one indifferent sort of look
and then turned to sea-gazing again.
Then some one made q remark in
English, which seemed 20 give the
old fellow galvanic shock, for he
reused himself all of a sudden,
struggled on to his feet and appeared
as though on the point Of trying to
run. Then he shook his head in a
weary fashion and collapsed to. his
original position.
Our Spanish talker now asked
him some things in that language.
He didn't say a word, but fumbled
around under his sheepskin until
he got hold OF a razor and notion
Us to sharpen it for him. 1t was of
English make and had the dullest
blade you ever saw, with hicks all
over it. One of the boys had a
small oilstone in his kit and we all
sat down there while he ground
away at the razor. After another
failure to get word from the old
man we began chatting in English
over our bad luck in the grub line
and wondering if our ueighbor
couldn'tput us in the way
OF EATING SQUARE MEAL.
When a .oierable edge had been
got on the razor the old man stood
up and motioned US to follow him.
den denly "Rfldf9 shd9adr l@Hgrth lafssss laafsse" "sigstbB
skin hung on the face of low cliff.
Lifting the skin he showed us hole
in the soft rock behind it and signed
US to crawl in. We hung back
trifle, but felt rather ashamed of
showing any superstitious fear, and
did crawl in TO what was an artifi-
cial cave.
at was. perhaps, some twelve
feet square and so low that we
stand up. At the far end
another sheepskin divided this
cave from an inner one, and when
one of US was about to lift this the
Did man stopped him, and mutter-
ed angrily something we couldn't
understand. Then hei pointed out
to one chap where some brushwood
could be got, and handed another
one a rough crockery pot 10 get wa
ter with. There wasn't the least
trace of furniture in the cave, where
we sat on the ground, and nothing,
in fact. but two or three pots of
crockery and iron and few rude
wooden platters. While fire was
building in the outer cave the old
man went into the inner cave aud
returned with small supply of
jerked meat and dried fish. There
wasn't a scrap of bread. and not
enough of the other stuff to go de-
Gently around, but we made as much
as We could of it aud filled in the
chinks with cold water the poor old
boy wouldn't eat anything, but af-
ter supper he seemed to get a good
deal of satisfaction out of a pipe that
one Of US passed to him. Not a
word did he speak, mind you. but
he sat there
STARING AT US.
"As it got quite dark outside our
asked if we might stay in
the cave all night and the old man
assent. Shortly after this
he passed into the inner cave and
didn't come out again. We bunked
on the bare floor around the fire and
were tired enough to sleep as though
il was in a feather bed. About 2
O'Clock we were aroused by awful
groans from the inner cave and gasp
ing sounds that made our flesh
crawl. After chucking some dry
brush on the FIRE and raising a blaze
we pulled away the sheepskin and
found the old man writhing with
pain on a rough pallet. He seemed
to be suffering intensely with
cramps and stretched his hands out
to US. | thought | heard him say:
Forgive me, o LordW We covered
him up well and went into the
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