Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-05

before encountered mortal eyes, and it was terrifying to be alone with it.
 CHAPTER XXIV.
 THE FRENcHMAN DIES.
 However, if I expected my Frenchman to sit very long silent, he soon undeceived me by beginning to complain in his tremu- lous, aged voice of his weakness and aching limbs.
 Iris the terrible cold that has affected me" said he, while his head nodded nerv- ously. II feel the rheumatism in every bone. There is no weakness like the rheu- matic, have heard, and tis true, 'tis true! It may lay me along-yes, by the Virgin, 'tis rheumatism-what else?' Here he was inter- rupted by a long fit of coughing, and when it was ended he turned to address me again, but looked at the bulkhead on my right, as if his vision could not fix me. "But my capers are not over," he cried, setting up his rick ety, shrill throat; mo, no! Tive Pamour! Vive la joie! The sun is coming; the sun is the fountain of life; ay, mon brave, there are some shakes in these stout legs yet!' He shook his head with fine air of cunning and knowingness, grinning very oddly; and then falling grave with startling sudden ness, he began to dribble out a piratical love story he had once before favored me with, describing the charms of the woman with horrid leer, his head holding with the nerv- ous affection of age all the time, while he looked blindly in my direction-a hideous and yet pitiful object!
 I could not say that his mind was gone, but he talked with many breaks for breath, and not very coherently, as though the office of his tongue was performed by habit rather than memory, so that he often went far astray, and babbled into sentences that had no reference to what had gone before, though on the whole managed to collect what he meant. I was sure he had not power enough of vision to observe me in the dim reddish light of the cook room, and this being SO he could not know was present-more particrl- larly as he could not hear me yet he persisted in his poor babble, which was behavior in him that, more than even the matter of his speech, persuaded me of his imbecility.
 He made no reference to our situation, and in solemn truth I believe his memory retained no more than few odds and ends of the evil story of his life-ike bits of tar nished lace and a rusty button or two lying in the bottom of a dark chest that has long been emptied of the clothes it once held.
 But my condition made such heavy de- mands upon my thoughts that I had very AAAOAA ANo phenomenon of senility than it's uncommon merits deserved. It has puzzled every mem Der of the faculty that I have mentioned it to- the supposition being that, given the case of suspended animation, there is no waste, and the person would quit his stupor with the same powers and aspect as he possessed when he entered it, though it lasted a thou sand years. But granting there is no waste, Time is always present, waiting to settle ac- counts when the sleeper lifts his head. There may be an artificial interval, during which the victim might show as my pirate did-but the poised load of years is severed on a sud- den by the scythe and becomes superincum- bent, and with the weight comes the trans formation; and this theory, as the only eye witness of the marvellous thing, I will hold and maintain while have breath in my body to support it!
 left him gabbling to himself-sometimes grinning as if greatly diverted, sometimes lifting trembling hand to help his ghostly recital by an equally ghostly dumb show and went on deck, satisfied that he was too weak to get to the fire and meddle with it, but sufficiently invigorated by bis long nights rest to sit up without tumbling off the bench.
 This time I carried with me an old per- spective glass I had noticed in the chest in my cabin-the chest in which were the nauti- cal instruments, charts and papers-and leveled it along the coast of the island; but it was poor glass, and found could man. age nearly as we'll with the naked eye. There was no change of any kind, only that there was a sensible di1ninution in the blowing of the wind, and corresponding decrease in the height of the seas. The ice stretched in a considerable bed on either hand the ship and ahead of her; the water frothed freely over it, and there was great dangling and flashing of broken pieces, but the hull was no longer heavily hit by them
 I got into the main chains to view the body of the vessel, and noticed with satisfac- tion that the constant pouring of the sea had thinned down the frozen snow to the depth of at least a foot. This encouraged me to hope that the restless tides would sap to her keel at least and put her into posture to be easily launched by the blow of surge upon her bows-that is if fortune continued to keep her head on.
 To determine the hour and our position, I fetched quadrant from my cabin, and was happily just in time to catch the sun crossing the meridian. My watch was half an hour l fast, so had been out of my reckoning to the extent of thirty minutes ever since I had been cast away. I made our latitude to be GA degs. 2S mins south, and the computation 1 was perhaps near enough.
 This business ended, went to the cook house to prepare dinner, and the first object saw was Tassard flat upon his face near the door that opened into the cabin. He groaned when I picked him up-which I managed without much exertion of strength, for SC much had he shrunk that dare say more than half his weight lay in his clothes-and set him upon his bench with his back to the dresser. l put my mouth to his ear and roared, ''Are you hurt?" His head nodded as if he understood me, but I question if he did. He was the completest picture of olc age that you could imagine. I fetched 6 couple of spears from the arms room, and cutting them to his height, put one in eacl hand, that he might keep himself propped and while my own dinner was broiling made him mess of broth, with which I fec him, for now that he had the sticks he would not let go of them But in any case doub
 if his trembling hand could have lifted tht spoon to his lips without capsizing the con tents down his beard.
 With some small idea of rallying the olc
 villain, mixed him very stiff bumper O.
 brandy, which he supped down out of my
 hand with the utmost avidity. The draugh
 soon worked in him, and he began to nov,
 his head ahOrt Seakinp mo in his h1ind vuav