Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-07
CHAPTER XIV.


While | sat smoking my pipe it entered my
| head to presently turn those two silent gentle
| men in the cabin out of it. 1t was a task
| from which l shrank, but it must be done
| To be candid, l dreaded the effects of their
| dismal compapionship on my spirits. But
| how was to dispose of them! | medtated
| this matter while / smoked. First | thought
| | would drag them to the fissure or rent in
| the ice just beyond the stern of the schooner
and tumble them into it. But even then
| they would still be with me, so to speak,
mean they would be neighbors, though out
of sight; and my eagerness was to get them
away from this island altogether, which was
only to be done by casting them into the sea.
l settled my scheme thus: First, was to
haul the figures as best l could on to the
deck; then, there being three, to get them
over the side, and afterward, by degrees, to
transport the four of them to some steep,
whence they would slide of themselves into
the ocean. Yet so much did | dread the
undertaking, and abhor the thought of the
tedious time | foresaw it would occupy me,
that l cannot imagine any other sort of
painful and distressing work that would not
have seemed actually agreeable as compared
with this.
My pipe being smoked out, stepped into
the cabin, and ascending the ladder throw
off the companion cover and opened the
doors, and then went to the man that had his
back to the steps-but my courage failed me ;
he was SO life like, there was so wild and
fierce an earnestness in the expression of his
face, SO inimitablo picture of horror in his
starting posture, that my hands fell TO my
side and could not lay hold of him. l will
not stop to analyze my fear or ask why
since l knew that this man was dead, he
should have terrified me as surely no living
man could: can only repeat that the pros
pect of touching him, and laying him upon
the deck and then dragging him up the lad
der, was indescribably fearful to me, and /
turned away shaking as if l had the ague.
But it had to be done, nevertheless and
after a great deal of reasoning and self-re-
proach l seized him on sudden, and kicking
away the bench let him fall to the deck. He
was frozen as hard as stone and fell like
stone, and l looked to see him break, as
statue might that falls lumpishly. His arms
remaining raised put him into an attitude Of
entreaty to me to leave him in peace; but
had somewhat mastered myself, and the
hurry and tumult of my spirits were a kind
of hot temper; SO catching him by the collar
dragged him to the foot of the companion
steps, and then, with infinite labor and
number of sickening pauses, hauled him up
the ladder to the deck.
/ let him lie, and returned weary and out
of breath. He had been a very fine man in
life-of beauty, too, as was to he seen in the
shape of his features and the particular ele-
gance of his chin, despite the distortion of his
last unspeakable dismay; and with his clothes
| guessed his weight came hard upon 200
pounds--no mean burden to haul up ladder
l went TO the cook house for dram and to
rest myself and then came back to the cabin
and looked at the other man. His posture
has been already described. He made very
burly figure in his coat, and if his weight did
not exceed the others it was not likely to be
less. Nothing of his head was visible but
the badness on the top and the growth of
hair that ringed it, and the fulfilling up of his
beard about his arms, in which his face was
sunk. touched his beard with a shuddering
finger, and noted that the frost had made
every hair of it as stiff as wire. 1t would
not do to stand idly contemplating him, for
already there was slowly creeping into me
dread of seeing his face; so l took hold of
bin and swayed him from the table, and he
fell upon the deck sideways, preserving his
POSTURE so that his face remained hidden.
dragged him little way, but he was so heavy
and his attitude rendered him as a burden so
surprisingly cumbrous, that was sure could
never of my own strength haul him up the
ladder Yet neither was it tolerable that he
should be there.
Then, thought 1, if was to put him before
the fire, he might presently thaw into some
sort of suppleness, and SO prove not harder
than the other to get on deck l liked the
idea, and without more ado dragged him Ia
boriousy into the cook room and laid him
close TO the furnace, throwing in little pile
of coal to make the fire roar.