Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-04-01
CHAPTER Y.
ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY.

ANOTHER STARTLING DISCOVERY.
This hatch formed the entrance to the
cabin, and there was no other roaC to it
that | COuld see. Ii | wanted TO use it |
mast first scrape away the snow; but IN
happily had left my knife in the boat,
and was withOuta any instrument that would
serve me 10 scraps with. / thought Of
breaking the beer bottle that was In my
pocket aud scratching with a piece Of The
glasS; but before doug this it occurred TO
lie TO search the body on the stsrbodrd
side.
| approached him as if he were alive and
mprdercusiy fierce, and | own | did net
like tO touch him. He resembled the Eg-
ure of q giant nodded in SNOW. In life he
must have been SIX feet and q half tall.
The snow he'd bloatcd him, and though he
leaned he stood as high as T. who wa OF q
toierable stature. The snow was on his
beard ani mOustAche aud on his hair; but
these features were merged and compac:ed
into the snow on hiS coat, and as his cap
came low and was covered with snow too,
he, with the littIefragment Of countenancs
that remaiued--the flesh whereof had the
color and toughness of the skin of q drum
that has been we'll beateu-submitted as
terrible an object as mortal sight ever
RI sted on. / say | did not like to touch
him, and one reason was I feared he would
tumble, and though | know not why /
should have dreaded this, yet the appre-
| hersiou of il so worked in me that for
some time it held me idly staring at him.
Bat | could not enter the cabin without
first ocraping the snow from the companion
door; and tie cold, after l had stood a few
moments inactive, was go bitter as to set
me cravipgfOr shelter. SO l put my hand
upon the body, and discovered it, as might
have forsseen, frozen TO the hardness
of steel. His coat i if l may call
that = coat which rrsemhled a robe of snow
fell to within q few inches of the deck.
Steadying the body with one hand, l heart
liz tweaked the coat with tue other, hoping
thus TO rupture the ico upon tin doing
which / slipped aud fell on my back, and
in falling gave a conVuisive kick, which,
striking the feet OF the figure, dislodged
them from their frozen hold of the deck.
and it fell WITH q mighty bang alongside of
me, and with a loud cracking noise like
the rending If a sheet OF silk.
Il was hOb hAAti hhN SHAahk III lNCt
with TIE alacrity If fright, and looking at
the hcdy raw that it bad managed by its
fall much better than ny hands could
have comprised; for the snow shr0ud was
cracked and crumbled, slabs of it had
broken away, leaving the cloth Of the coat
visible; and what best pleased me was the
sight Of the end OF a hanger, forking
ont from the skirt Of the coat.
Yet to come at it so as to draw the blade
from its scsbclrd required an intoIerable
exer;ion of strength. The clothes on his
body were indeed like a suit of mail. l
never could lave believed that frost served
cloth 80. At last l managed to pull the
coat clear of the hilt Of the hanger; the
blade was stuck, but after l had tugged a
bit it slipped out, and l found it a good
piece Of steel.
The corpse was habited 10 jack boots, a
coat Of coarse, thick cloth lined with fan
mel; under this q kind OF blouse or doublet
of red cloth, confined by a belt with leath-
loops for pistols. His apparel gave me no
clew to the age no belonged to; it was no
better, indeed, than q sort of masquerad-
ing sttire-as though the fashions Of more
than n country, ard perhaps of more
than n age, had gone to the habiting of
him. He looked a burly, immense crea-
ture, as he lay upon the deck in the same
bent attitude in which he bsd stood at the
rail; and so dreadful was his face, with q
singular diabolieal expression of leerine
malice, caused by the lids of his eyes being
half closed, that having taken one peep /
hsd no mind to repeat it, though l was
above ten minutes wrestling with his
cloak and hanger before 1 had the weapon
fair in my band.
walked to the companion, and fell to
scraping the snow away from it. Twas
like scratching at mortar between bricks.
But l worked hard, and presently, with
the point Of the hanger, felt the creviee
'twixt the door and the j&mb, after which
it was not long before l had carved the
door out of its plate of ice and snow.
/ toiled on, and having cleared the door
Of the snow that bound il, I pried it apart
with the hang ger and then dragged at it.;
but the snow On the deck would not let il