The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-04-24

ask for me. | meant to break him
into it. He'll beg before he'll
starve," l thought, and SO deter
mined to let him stay there. l sup
posed he had crawled forward to the
forecastle bulkhead, in order to
make the sailors hear him. Some of
the men asked leave to go down and
look for him, but l refused, and
threatened to punish the first man
that dared to go down.
At noon l went again, and as he
did not answer me this time, / re-
solved that he should come to the
hatchway and ask for me ere ] went
any more. The day passed away,
and when evening came l began to
be startled. l thought of the many
good qualities the boy had, and of
his widowed mother. He had been
in the hold thlrty-six hours, and all
of forty hours without food or drink.
He must be too weak to cry out
now. 1t was hard for me to give
up, but if he died there from actual
starvation, it might go harder with
me still. SO at length I made up
my mind to go and see him. 1t was
not quite shutdown when | had the
hatch taken off and l jumped down
upon the boxes alone.
A little way forward saw a space
where Jack might easily have gone
down, and to this point | crawled on
my hands and knees. | called out
there, but could get no answer. A
short distance further was q wide
space, which l had entirely forgot
ten, but which l now remembered
had been left open on account of
break in the flooring of the hold,
which would let anything that might
have been stored there rest directly
on the thin planking of the ship.
TO this place | made my way, and
looked down. | heard the splash
ing of water, and thought l could
detect q sound like the incoming of
tiny jet or stream. At first could
see nothing, but as soon as became
used to the dim light, | could dis
tinguish the faint outlines of the
boy at some distance below me. He
seemed to be sitting on the broken
floor, with his feet stretched out
against a cask. l called out to him,
and thought he looked up.
"Jack, are you there?"
And he answered me in faint,
weary tone:
eyes, help me! For heavens
sake help me! Bring men and bring
a lantern-the ship has sprung a
leak"
l hesitated, and he added, in a
more eager tone:
"Make haste! 1 will try and hold
it till you come back
1 waited to hear no more, but
hurried on deck as soon as possible,
and returned with lantern and
three men. l leaped down beside
the boy and could scarcely believe
my own senses. Three of the tim
bers were completely worm-eaten to
the very heart, and one of the outer
planks had been broken, and would
burst in any moment the boy might
leave it, whose feet were braeed
against the plank before him. Half
dozen little jets of water were
streaming in about him, and he was
wet to the skin. l saw the plank
must burst the moment the strain
was removed from it, so l made the
men brace themselves against it be-
fore 1 lifted him up. Other men
were called down, with planks,
spikes, and AIDES, and with much
care and trouble we finally succeed
ed in stopping the leak and avertine
the danger.
The plank which had been stove
in was six feet long by eight inches
wide, and would let in stream Of
water of that capacity. 1t would
have been beyond our reach long
before we could have discovered it
and would have sunk us in very
short time. l knew it must be where
the iceberg struck us.
Jack Withers was taken to thu
cabin, and there he managed to tel
his story. Shortly after | put hin
in the hold he crawled forward, ant
when he became used to the din
glimmer that came through the dead
lights, he looked around for snu!
place in which to lie, for his limb
were very sore. He went to sleep
and when he awoke he heard fain
sound, like water streaming through
q small hole. He went to the opel
place in the cargo and looked down
and was sure that he saw smal
jet of water springing up throug
the ships bottom. He leaped down
and in few moments found that tn
timbers had given wholly away, an
that the stream was increasing j
size. He placed his hand upon til
,,>l f,,nl ~ hrnlyan and die