Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-06-28

o line athwart the ice past the bows. pro-
pose to sink these barrels twenty feet deep,
where they must hang from piece Of spar
across the aperture
! He nodded.
''Have you any slow matches aboardp
/ 'Plenty among the gunner's stores, y he re-
Piled
7 "There are but you and me,n said l.;
4 these operations viii take time. We must
mind not to be blown up by ono barrel while
7 VIC are suspending another. We shall
have to lower the barrels with their matches
on fire, and thoy must be timed to burn an
hour"
SAY, certainly-at least an hour he ex-
/ claimed. 1.-TWO hours would be bettern
I "Well, that must depend upon the num-
( Der Of parcels of matches we meet with
There viii be good many mines to spring,
and one must not explode before another
4 'Tis the united force of the several blasts
/ which we must reckon on. The contents of
at least four more barrels of powder we
must distribute among the other chinks and
/ splits in such parcels as they will be able to
I receiven
/ "Apa then?'
Sand thcn.n said /, i've must await the
explosion, and trust to tie mercy Of heaven
to help us.n
lie made hideous face, as if this was
sort Of talk to nauseate him, and said: ''Do
I sou propose that we should remain on board,
or watch the effects from distancep
"Why, remain on board, of course" an
swered. Suppose the mines liberated the
ice on which the schooner lies and it fioated
away, what should we, watching at dis
lance, dor
True cried he, ''but it is cursed perilous.
The explosion might blow the ship up"
''No, it win not do that. We shall be bad
engineers il we bring such thing about.
The danger viii be-proyiding the schooner
is releas din her capsizing, as l have before
pointed 34tn
Enough cried be, charging his panni-
kin for the third time eve must chance her
capsiz&gn
IF had crew at my back said l, 81
would carry an anchor and cable to the Shout
der of the cliff at tho end of the slope to hold
the ship il she swan. | would also put
quantity of provisions on the ice along with
materials for makingu shelter and the whole
of the stock Of COAL so that we could go on
supporting life here if the schooner cap
sizedn
"Then,' said he, fyou would remain ashore
| during the explosion9n
''Most certainly. But as all these prepare
lions would mean degree of labor imprac-
ticable by us two men, am for the bold ven
ture-preparo and fire the mines, return to
tho ship, and leave the rest to Providence
He made another ugly face, and INDUCED
himself in piece of profanity that was in
expressibly disgusting and mean in the mouth
of q man who was used to cross himself when
| alarmed and swear by the saints. But per-
haps he knew, even better than |, how little
he had to expect from Providence. He filed
hispipe, exclaiming that when he had smoked
it out we should fall to work
Now that | had settled plan, l was eager
to put it into practice-hot and Wild indeed,
with the Impotence and hope of the cast
away animated with the dream of recovering
his liberty and preserving his life; and was
the moro anxious to set about the business at
once, on account of the weather being fair
and still; for if it came on to blow u stormy
wind again we should be forced, as before,
under matches. But | had to wait for the
Frenchman to empty his pipe. He was so
complete a sensualist that l believe nothing
short of terror could have forced him to
shorten the period of pleasure by a second
of time. He went on putting SO deliberately,
with such leisurely enjoyment of the flavor
Of the smoke that expected to see him fall
asleep; and my patience becoming exhausted,
jumped up, but by this time his bowl held
uothing but black ashes
Now cried he, "to work"
And he rose with a prodigious yawn and
seized the lantern Our first business was to
hunt among the boatswain's stores in the run
for tackles to hoist tho powder barrels up
with. There was a good collection, as might
have been expected in a pirate, whose COM
nerce lay in singing goods from other ships
holds into her own; but the ropes were
frozen as hard as iron, to remedy which we
carried an armful to the cook house, and left
the tackles to lie and soften We also con-
veyed to the cook house quantity of ratline
stuff-a thin rope, used for the making of
steps in the shroud ladders; this being line
that would exactly serve to suspend the
smaller parcels of powder in the splits Be-
fore touching tho powder barrels we put a
lighted candle into the bulls eye lamp over
the door, and removed the lantern to a safe
distance. Tassard was perfectly well &c
quainted with tho contents of this store
room, and on my asking for the matches put
his hand on one of several bags of them.
They varied in length, some being six inches
and some making big coil. There was
nothing for it but to sample and test them,
and this / told Tassard could be done that
evening The main hatch was Just forward
Of the gunroom bulkhead: we seized hand
spike each and went to work to pry the cover
open. 1t was desperate tough labor-as bad
as trying to open an oyster with soft blade.
The Frenchman broke out into many strange
old-fashioned oaths in his Own tongue, imag
ming the hatch to be frozen; but though /
don't doubt the frost had something to do
with it, its obstinacy was mainly owing to
time, that had soldcred it, so to speak, with
the stubbornness that eight and forty years
will communicate to fixture which ice has
cherished and kept sound.
We got the hatch open at last-be pleased
to know that am speaking of the hatch in
the lower deck, for there was another imme-
diately over it on the upper or main deck
and returning to the powder room, rolled the
barrels forward ready for singing and hoist
ing away when we should have rugged a
| tackle aloft. We had not done much, but
what we had done had eaten far into the
afternoon.
II am tired and hungry and thirsty said
the Frenchman. 'Let us knock Off We
have made good progress. No use opening
the main deck hatch tonight; the vessel is
cold enough when Theoretically corked."
very well, Solh ~ OtAlsiliS my NdtOA w
tho lantern and observing the time to be
shutdown; so, carefully extinguishing the
candle in the bulls eye lamp, we took each of
us a bag of matches and went to the cook
room.
There was neither tea nor coffee in the ship.
so pinned for these soothing drinks that
would have given all the wine in the vessel
for few pounds of either one of them-a
senseless, ungracious yearning, indeed, in the
face of the plenty that was aboard! But it
was the plenty, perhaps, that provoked it,
There was chocolate, which the Frenchman
potted and drank with hearty enjoyment; he
also devoured handfuls of succades, which
he would wash down with wine. These
things made me sick, and for drink | was
forced upon the spirits and wine the latter
of which was so generous that it promised to
combine with the enforced laziness of my
life under matches to make me fat; so that l
en- of opinion, had he waited for the ice to
release us, L should have become so corpulent
.1g