The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-04-20

Tho heavy, sluggish, sodden movement of
the hull advised me to make haste. She was
nov barely lifting to the swell that came
brim:n:EL; IN broad liquid blue brows to her
stem. 1t seemed as though another ton Of
water would sink her; and il the swell fell
over her bows and filled the decks, down she
would 60 had a small parcel of guineas
in my chest, and was about to fetch this
money, when sort Of staggering sensation
In the upward slide Of the hull gave ME a
fright, and watching my chance, jumped
into the boat and cast the line that held her
adrift.
threw the oar over the stern of the boat
to keep her near to the brig, not SO much be-
cause ! desired to see the last Of her as be-
cause Of the shrinking of my soul within me
from the thought Of heading in my Loneliness
INTO those prodigious leagues Of ocean which
lay stretched under the sky.
had risen to step the boats mast, and was
standing and grasping it while directed a
slow look round the horizon, in God knows
what vain hope Of beholding sail, when, my
eye coming to the brig, observed that she
was sinking. She went down very slowly;
there was horrible gurgling sound Of water
rushing into her, and her main deck blew up
with loud clap or blast of noise. / could
follow the line Of her bulwarks fiuctuating
and waving in the clear dark blue when she
was some feet under. A number Of whirl-
pools spun round over her, but the slowness
of her laundering was solemnly marked by
the gradual descent Of the ruin of masts and
yards which were attached to the hull by
their rigging, and which she dragged down
with her. On a sudden, when the last
fragment of mast had disappeared, and when
the hollows of the whirlpools were fiattening
to the level surface Of the sea, up rose a
body, with a sort of leap. It was the sailor
that had lain drowned on the starboard side
Of the forward deck. Being frozen stiff he
rose in the posture in which he had expired
that is, with his arms extended so that,
whe nh, jumped to the surface, he came with
his hands lifted up to heaven, and thus he
stayed a minute, sustained by the eddies,
whichalso revolved him.
The shock occasioned by this melancholy
object was so great it came near to causing
me to swoon. He sank when the water
ceased to twist him, and was urspeakingly
thankful to see him vanish, for his posture
had all the horror Of a spectral appeal, and
such was the state of my mind that imagina-
tion might quickly have worked the appari-
ton, had 1t fingered, into an instrument for
the unsettling Of my reason.
/ rose from the seat on to which had sunk
and loosed the sail, and hauling the sheet aft
put the oar over the stern and brought the
little crafts head TO an easterly course. The
draught Of air was extremely weak and
scarce furnished impulse enough to the sail
to raise a bubble alongside The boat was
about fifteen feet long; she would DO but
small boat for summer pleasuring in Eng
lish July lake waters-yet here was l in
her In the heart of a vast ocean, many
leagues south and west of the stormiest, most
inhospitable point Of land in the world, with
distances before me almost infinite for such
n boat as this to measure ere could heave a
civilized coast or a habitable island into
view
At the start had q mind to steer north
west and blow, as the wind would suffer, into
the South sea, where perchance might meet
q whaler or a Smithsonian from New Hol-
land; but my heart sank at the prospect of
the leagues Of water which rolled between
me and the islands and the western American
seaboard. Indeed, / understood that my
only hope Of deliverance lay in being picked
up; and that, though by heading east should
be clinging to the stormy parts, was more
likely to meet with a ship hereabouts than by
sailing into the great desolation Of the north
west. The burden of my loneliness weighed
down upon me SO crushingly that cannot
but consider my senses must have been some
what dulled by suffering; for had they been
active to their old accustomed height, am
persuaded my heart must have broken, spd
that should have died of grief
ITO be Continued.l