Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-31
CHAPTER XVII.
THE TREASURE,

CHAPTER XVII.
 THE TREASURE.
 When his pipe was out he rose and made several strides about the cook room, then took the lantern, and, entering the cabin, stood awhile surveying the place.
 "So Gnls would have been my coffin but for you, Mir. Rodl.ey?' said he. 'I was in good company, though" pointing over his shoulder at the crucifix with his thumb. "Lord, how the rogues prayed and cursed in this same cabin! In fine weather and when all was well, the sharks in our wake had more religion than they; but the instant they were in danger, down they tumbled upon their quivering knees; and if heaven was twice as big as it is, it could not have held saints enough for those varlets to peti- tion."
 'You were nearly all Spaniards?" "Ay-the worst class of men a ship could enter these seas with. But for our calling they are the fittest of all the nations in the world; better even than the Portuguese, and with truer trade instincts than the trained mulatto-nimbler artists in roguery than ever one of them. despise their srpersti- tion, but they are the better pirates for it. They carry it as man might a featherbed; it enables them to fall soft. 'D'ye take me.' He gave one of his short, loud laughs, and said, II hope this slope won't increase. The angles stiff enough as it is. Twill be like living on the roof of house. I have a mind to see how she lies. What dye say, Mir. Rodney? Shall I venture into the open.''
 "Why not?' said I. "You can move briskly You have as much life as ever yo,, had."
 ''Let's go, then!' he exclaimed, and climb ing the ladder he pushed open the companion fO fl,a with but little solicitude, as you may SUD- pose, as to what might attend his exposure. The blast of the gale, though it was broken into downward, eddying dartings by the rocks, made him bawl out with the sting of it, and for some moments he could think of nothing but the cold, stamping the deck in his boots and beating his hands,
 ''Ha" cried he, grinning to the smart of his cheeks, 'this is not the cook room, ehe Great thunder! you will not have it that this ice has been drifting norths Why, man, 'tis icier by 20 degs. than when we were first locked up."
 ''I hope not" said I, land I think not. Your blood doesn't course strong yet, and you are fresh from the furnace Besides it is blowing bitter cold gale. Look at that sky, and listen to the thunder of the sea!'
 The commotion was indeed terribly up- Ol directions were distinct and fearful. The Frenchman looked about him with conster- nation, and to my surprise crossed himself.
 ''May the blessed Virgin preserve usI" he said. 'Do you say we have drifted north If this is not the very heart of the South Pole, you shall persuade me we are on the equator"
 ''It cannot storm too terribly for us, as you just now said," replied. "I want this island to go to pieces"
 As said this a solid pillar of ice just be- yond the brow of the.hill on the starboard side was dislodged or blown down; it fell with mighty crash, and filled the air with crystal splinters. Tassard started back with faint cry of "Bon Dieu!'
 ''Judge for yourself how the ship lies" :" said I; ''this is freezing work"
 He went aft and looked over the stern, then walked to the sarboard rail and peered over the side.
 'Is there ice beyond that opening?" he asked, pointing over the taffrail
 "No," answered.; "that goes to the sea- There is a low cliff beyond. Mark that cloud of white; it is the spray hurled athwart the mouth of this hollow"
 "Good," he mumbled, with his teeth chat tering. "The change is marvellous There was ice for quarter of mile where that slope ends. 'Tis too cold to converse here."
 ''There are your companions" said I, pointing to the two bodies lying little dis tance before the mainmast.
 He marched up to them and exclaimed. "Yes, this is Trentanove and that is Barros. Both were blind, but they are binder now Would they thank you to arouse them out of their comfortable sleep, and force them to feel as do-this cold, to which they are now as insensible as l was? By heaven, for my part can stand it no longer" and with that he ran briskly to the hatch.
 I followed him to the cook room, and he crept so close to the furnace that I thought he had a mind to roast himself.
 The heat comforted him presently, and he put a lump of wine into the oven to melt, and this comforted him also.
 "I can converse now," said he "Perhaps after all the danger lies more in the imagina- tion than in the fact. But it is a hideous naked scene, and needs no such coloring as the roaring of wind, the rushing of seas, and the crashing falls of masses of ice to render it frightful."
 'You tell me-" said I, 'tthat when you fell asleep"-I would sometimes express his frozen state thus-"there was quarter of a mile of ice beyond the schooner's stern."
 "Atleast quarter of a mile" he answered. "Day after day it would be built up till it came to face of that extent"
 I thought to myself if it had taken forty eight years of the wear and tear of storm and surge to extinguish quarter of mile, how long time must elapse before this island splits upa But then I reflected that, during the greater part of these years, this seat of ice had been stuck very low south, where the cold was so extreme as to make it defy dissolution; that since then it was come away from the main and stealing north, so that what might have taken thirty years to ac- complish in 70 degs. of south latitude might be performed in day on the parallel of 60 degs. ill the summer season in these seas
 Tassard continued speaking with the pam nikin ill his hand, and his eyes shut as if to get the picture of the schooners position fair before his minds vision: "There was Q quarter of mile of ice beyond the ship, I have it very plain in my sight; it was great muddle of hillocks, for the ice pressed thick and hard, and raised us, and vomited up peaks and rocks to the squeeze. Suppose I have been asleep a weeks" Here he opened his eyes and gazed at me-
 "Well2" said I.
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