The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-06-08
CHAPTER XIV.
AN EXTRAORDINARILY OcCITRRFNCE

AN EAThAOhDlNAhf OCCUhhENCE.
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 shrank, but it must be done.
To be candid, dreaded the effects of their
dismal compaDionship on my spirits. But
how was to dispose of them2 / meditated
this matter while smoked. First thought
l 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-I
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.
settled my scheme thus: First, was to
haul the figures as best I 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 1 dread the
undertaking, and abhor the thought of the
tedious time foresaw it would occupy me,
that cannot imagine any other sort of
painful and distressing work that would not
have seemed actually agreeable as compared
with this
Ny pipe being smoked out, stepped into
the cabin, and ascending the ladder threw
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 inimitable picture of horror in his
starting posture, that my hands fell to my
side and could not lay hold of him I will
not stop to analyze my fear or ask why,
since / knew that this man was dead, he
should have terrified me as surely no living
man could: can only repeat that tho 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 I
turned away shaking as if had the ague
But it had to be done, nevertheless; and
after great deal of reasoning and self-re-
proach seized him on a 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 a
statue might that falls lumpishly. His arms
remaining raised put him into an attitude of
entreaty to me to leave him in peace; but I
had somewhat mastered myself, and the
hurry and tumult of my spirits were q kind
Of hot temper; so catching him by the collar
uTdSBeu nlHl 10 inc IOOC OF Unc companion
steps, and then, with infinite labor and a
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 q very fine man in
ife-of beauty, too, as was to be seen in the
shape of his features and the particular ele-
gance of his chin, despite thodistortion of his
last unspeakable disrnay; and with his clothes
guessed his weight came hard upon 200
pounds-no mean burden to haul up a ladder
went to the cook house for q dram and t.
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 vas not likely TO be
less. Nothing of his head was visible but
tho badness on the top and the growth Of
hair that ringed it, and the fluffing up of his
beard about his arms, in which his face was
sunk. touched his beard with shuddering
finger, and noted that tho frost had made
every hair of it rs 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 / took hold of
him and swayed him from the table, and he
fell upon the deck sideways, preserving his
posture. 50 that his face remained hidden.