San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-04-03


pose to sink these barrels twenty feet deep,
where they must hang from a piece of spar
across the aperture"
He nodded.
"Have You any slow matches aboardF'
"Plenty among the gunner's stores" he re-
piled.
"There are but you and me-" said I;
these operations will take time. We must
mind not to be blown up by one barrel while
| we are suspending another. We shall
| have to lower the barrels with their matches
| on fire, and they must be timed to burn an
hour"
cay, certainly-at least an hour" he ex-
claimed. 1.-TWO hours would be better"
swell, that must depend upon the num-
Der of parcels of matches we meet with.
There will be good many mines to spring,
and one must not explode before another.
! It's 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
| receive"
Sand thenr'
Sand then," said I, 1--WE must await the
explosion, and trust to the mercy Of heaven
to help u.s."
He made hideous face, as if this was a
sort of talk to nauSeate him, and said: "Do
| you propose that we should remain on board,
or watch the effects from distances"
"Why, remain on board of course" an
| swered. Suppose the mines liberated the
ice on which the schooner lies and it foated
away, what should we, watching at a dis
lance, dor
| 'True," cried he, "but it is cursed perilous.
The explosion might blow the ship up"
"No, it will not do that We shall be bad
engineers if we bring such a thing about.
The danger will be-providing the schooner
is released-in her capsizing, as have before
pointed out"
"Enoughp cried he, charging his panni-
kin for the third time. eve must chance her
capsizing"
''If had a crew at my back" said I, 81
would carry an anchor and cable to the shoul.
der of the cliff at the end of the slope to hold
the ship if she swan. l would also put a
quantity of provisions on the ice along with
materials for making us shelter and the whole
of the stock Of coal, so that we could go on
| supporting life here if the schooner cap
stzed.n
Then" said he, ''you would remain ashore
during the explosion:n
|
t'tiaS would mean degree of labor imprac-
tiCable by us two men, am for the bold ven
ture-prepare and fire the mines, return to
the ship, and leave the rest to Providence"
He made another ugly face, and INDUCED
himself in a piece of profanity that was ill.,
expressibly disgusting and mean in the mouth
of man who was used to cross himself when
alarmed and swear by the saints. But per-
haps he knew, even better than l, how little
he had to expect from Providence. He filed
his pipe, 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 l was
| the more anxious to set about the business at
once, on account Of the weather being fair
and still; for if it came on to blow a stormy
wind again We should be forced, as before,
under matches. But l had 10 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 a pleasure by second
of time. He went on putting SO deliberately,
with such leisurely enjoyment of the flavor
of the smoke, that l expected to see him fall
asleep; and, my patience becoming exhausted,
l jumped up, but by this time his bowl held
Dothing but black ashes.
"Now," cried he, Ito work"
And he rose with prodigious yawn and
| seized the lantern. Our first business was to
hunt among the boatswains stores in the run
| for tackles to hoist the powder barrels up
vita. There was good collection, as might
have been expected in pirate, whose COM
mercs lay in singing goods from other ships
| holds into her own; tut 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 raflins
stuff-a thin rope used for the making Of
steps in the shroud ladders; this being line
that would exactly serve to suspend the
Gmalfer parcels of powder in the splits. Be-
| fore touching the powder barrels we PIT a
| lighted candle into the bulls eye lamp over
| the door, and removed the lantern to a safe
distance Tassard was perfectly well ac-
quainted with the 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 o big coil There was
nothing for it but to sample and test them,
and this 1 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
oldfashioned oaths in his own tongue, mag
| lining the hatch to be frozen; but though