Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-21
CHAPTER XXI,

| / don't design to weary you with q close
| account of our proceedings. How we opened
| the main deck hatch, rugged up tackles
| clapping purchases on the falls, as the cap
stan was hard frozen and immovable how
| we hoisted the powder barrels on deck, and
then by tackles on the foreyard lowered them
| over the side; how we filled a number of bags
| which we found in the forecastle with pow
| der; how we measured the cracks in the ice,
and sawed couple of spare studiingsaii
| booms into lengths to serve as beams whereby
| to poise the barrels and bags-would make
but sailors talk, half of which would be un-
| Ineligible and the rest wearisome.
| The Frenchman worked hard, and we
| snatched only half an hour for our dinner.
| The split that had happened in the ice during
| the night showed by daylight as a gulf he
| twixt eight and ten feet wide at the seward
end, thinning to width of three feet, never
| less, to where it ended, ahead of the ship, in
a hundred cracks in the ice that showed as if
| a thunderbolt had fallen just there. looked
into this rent, but it was as black as well
past certain depth and there was no CLEAN
of water. When we went over the side to
roll our first barrel of powder to the spot
where we meant to lower it, the Frenchman
marched up to the figure of Trentanove, and
with no more reverence than a boy would
show in throwing a stone at jackass, tum-
bled him into the chasm. He then stepped
up to the body of the Portuguese boatswain,
dragged him to the same 1issure and rolled
him into it.
"There!" cried he; ''now they are properly
buried"
And with this he went coolly on with his
work
l said nothing, but was secretly heartily
disguised with this brutal disposal of his
miserable shipmates remains. However, it
was his doing, not mine; and l confess the
removal of those silent witnesses was n very
great relief to me, albeit when l considered
how Tassard had been awakened, and how
both the mate and the boatswain might have
been brought to by treatment, felt as though
after a manner the Frenahman had COM
mitted a murder by burying them so.
We got our supper and sat smoking and
discussing our situation and chances Tas-
sard was tired, and this and our contempla-
ton of the probabilities of the morrow So
bered his mind, and he talked with a certain
gravity. He drank sparely and forbore the
hideous recollections or inventions he was
used to bestow on me, and indeed could find
nothing to talk about but the explosion and
what it was to do for us. l was very glad
he did not again refer to his project to bury
the treasure and carry the schooner to the
Tortugas. The subject fired his blood, and
it was such nonsense that the mere naming
of it was nauseous to me. Eight and forty
years had passed since his ship fell in with |
thS ice, and not tenfold the treasure in the |
hold might have purchased for him the sight |
of SO much as single bone of the youngest |
of those associates whom he idly dreamed of |
seeking and shipping and sailing in command |
of Yet imbecile was his scheme, having /
regard to the half century that had elapsed, |
| clearly witnessed The menace to me that it
implied. His views were to be read us plainly |
as if he had delivered them. First and fore
most, he meant that l should help him to sail
the schooner to an island and bury the plate
and money-which done he would take the
hrst opportunity to murder me- His chance
oI meeting with ship that would lend him
assistance to navigate the schooner would be
rs good II he We're alone in her as if | wero
On BOARD too. There would be nothing tha,,
~ luls consideration to hinder him from cut
t'us my throat after we had buried the
treasure and were got north. Two motives
would imperatively urge him tn ynal,a -.
with me- hrst that should not he ahie =, !