San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-03-29

liquor 20 warm me; Dut III wine ana nam and
cheese froZe in an air i'll which a fire had
been burning, why not l in my sleep, when
there was no fire, and life beat weakly, as it
does in slumber! Those figures in the cabin
were dismal warnings and assurances; they
had been men perhaps stouter and heartier
than ever | was in their day, but they had
been frozen into stony images neverthe
less, under cover, too, with the ma
terials TO make a fire, and as much strong
waters in their lazarette as would serve their
schooner to float in.
1t strangely and approximately entered my
head to conceive that though those men were
frozen and Stirless they were not dead as
corpses are, but as a stream whose current,
checked by ice, will flow when the ice is
melted Might not life in them he suspended
by the cold, not ended? There Is vitality in
the seed, though it lies dead thing in the
hand. Those men are corpses to my eye,
but, said l to myself, they may have the
principles of life in them, which heat might
call into being. Putrefaction is a natural
law, but it is baked by frost; and just as
decay is hindered by cold, might not the
property of life he left unaffected in body,
though it should be numbed in a marble
form for fifty years!
ulS was luIlNy W puoocoo a HAL
situated as 1 was, and it SO worked in me
that again and again caught myself look
ing first forward, then aft as though, heaven
help me! my secret instincts foreboded that
at any moment should behold some form
from the forecastle or one of those figures in
the cabin stalking in, and coming to my side
and silently seating himself. pshawed and
pished, and querulously asked of myself what
pf EpniCh Sailor I tn Suffar Such
womanly terrors to visit me; but it would
not do; | could not smoke; GOODNESS of the
heart fell upon me, and set me trembling
above any sort of shivers which the frost of
the air had chased through me; and presently
hollow creak sounding out of the hold
caused by some movement of the bed of ice
on which the vessel lay, was seized with a
panic terror and sprang to my feet, and Ian
tern in hand made for the companion ladder,
with prayer in me for the sight of a start
| burst not look at the figures, but setting
the light down at the foot OF the ladder
squeezed through the companion door on to
the deck. My fear was fever in its way
and did not feel the cold. There was no
star to be seen; but the whitenesS of the Toe
was flung out in a wild, strange glare by the
blackness of the sky, and made light of its
own. 1t was the most savage and terrible
picture of solitude the invention of man
could reach to, yet l blessed it for the relief
it gave to my ghost enkindled imagination.
Presently, when the cold was beginning to
pierce me, my courage was so much the bet
ter for this excursion into the hoarse and
black and cleaning realities of the night,
that my heart beat at its usual measure as
passed through the hatch and went again to
the cook room
L was, however, sure that if sat here long,
listening and thinking, fear would return.
so, raking out the fire, picked up the lantern
and was about to go, then halted, considering
whether / should not stow the frozen provis-
ions away. 1t was a natural thought, seeing
how precious food was to me. But, alas! it
mattered not where they lay; they were as
secure here as if they were as snugly hidden
in the bottom of the hold. 1t was the white
realm of death; if ever a rat had crawled in
this ship it was, in its hiding place, as stiff
and idle as the frozen vessel So l let the
lump of wine, the ice, ham, and SO forth, rest
where they were, and went to the cabin had
| chosen, involuntarily peeping at the figures
as passed, and hurrying the faster because
of the grim and terrifying liveliness put into
the man who sat starting from the table by
the swing of the lantern in my hand.
shut the door and hung the lantern near
the cot, having the flint and box in my pocket
There was, indeed an abundance of can
dies in the vessel; nevertheless, it was my
business to husband them with the utmost
niggardiness. How long 1 was to be i'm
prlSOned here, if indeed was ever to be de
livered, Providence alone knew; and to run
short of candles would add to the terrors of
my existence by forcing me either to open
the matches and ports for light, and so filling
the ship with the deadly air outside, or living
IN darkness There were a cloak and coat
in the cot, but they would not suffice; there
was, however, plenty of apparel in the cor
ner to serve as wraps, and having chosen
enough to smother me / vaulted into the cot,
and so covered myself that the clothes were
above the level of the sides of the cot
left the lantern burning while | made
sure my bed was all right, and lay musing,
feeling extremely melancholy; the hardest
part was the thought of those two men
watching in the cabin. The most fantastic
alarms possessed me. Suppose their ghosts
came to the ship at midnight and entering
| their bodies quickened them into walkings
l caught myself listening; and there was
enough to hear, too, what with the subdued
roaring of the wind, the splintering of ice,
the occasional creaking-not unlike heavy
booted tread-of the fabric OF the schooner
to the blasts of the gale against her nlastS.