The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-09-07

Finding that the ship continued to steer
herself very well, and the better for the spirit
sail, / thought l would get the body Of the
old Frenchman overheard, and so obtain q
clear hold for myself, so far as corpses went.
I carried the lantern into the forecastle, but
when / pulled the hammock Off him l confess
it was not without a stupid fear that I should
find him alive. Recollection of his astound-
ing vitality found something i~mperishable in
that ugly anatomy, and though he lay before
me as dead and cold as stone, ! yet had fancy
that the seeds of life were still in him, that
twas only the current of his being that had
froze, tina if 1 were to thaw him afresh he
might recover, and that if I buried him I
should actually be dispatching him
But though these fancies possessed they did
not control me. i took his watch and what
ever else he had in that way, carried him on
deck, and dropped him over the side, using
as little ceremony as he had employed in the
disposal of his ~shipmates, but affected by
very different emotions; for there was not
only the idea that the vital spark was still in
aim; 1 could not but handle with awe the
most mysterious corpse the eye had ever
viewed-one who had lived through a stupor
or death sleep for e~ight-and-forty years, in
whom in a few hours Time had compressed
the wizardry he stretches in others over half
a century; who in a night had shrunk from
the aspect of his prime into the lean, puck
cred, bleared eyed, deaf and tottering ex-
preston of 100 years.
All that day and through the night that
followed the schooner drove, rolling and
~plunging before the seas, into the northeast,
to the pulling Of the spritsail. l made sew
- A. Ea-lAll L-A -.
could hear the sound of water in the vessel.
Her sides in places were still sheathed in ice;
but this crystal armor was gradually drop
ping off her to the working of her frame in
the seas, so that, since she was proving her
| self tight, it was certain her stanchness owed
nothing to the CLASSY plating.
should but fatigue you to follow the sew
eral little stories of these hours one by one
how l got my food, snatched at sleep, stood
ut the helm, gazed around the sea line, and
the like.
The sea ~worthiness of the craft, coupled
with the reasonable assurance of presently
falling in with a ship, rendered me so far
easy in my mind as to enable me to think
very frequently Of the treasure, and how l
was 10 secure it. If l fell in with an enemy's
cruiser or a privateer l must expect to be
4 klIlDDtl. III "OhnO ~ cAS Nh1S vi w.
and / must take my chance. My concern
did not lie that ~way-how was 1 to protect
this property, that was justly mine, against
my own countrymen, suppose 1 had the good
fortune to carry the schooner safely into Eng
lish watersl l had a brother-in-law, Jere-
miah Mason, Esq, a Turkey merchant in a
small way of business, whose Office was in
the city of London, and if I could manage to
-r-,,ry tha -ooe,- eoo~akS- a. h;,o - r-o.,ll
/ knew, find me a handsome account in hi
settlement Of this affair. But it was impos
sible to strike out a plan. Unjust wait, and
attend the course of events.
l was resolved at all hazards to stick TO the
schooner; and, with a view of providing
against the curiosity of ru~mmaging of any
persons who should come aboard, fell to the
following work after getting my breakfast
l hung lanterns in the run n hatchways
and cabin to enable me TO pass easily to and
fro; l then emptied one of the chests in my
cabin, and carried it to where the treasure
was. The chest l filed nearly three parts
full with money, jewelry, ETC., which sank
the contents of the other chests to the depth
I wanted. l then fetched a quantity of small
arms, such as pistols and hangers and cut
lasses, and filled up the chests with them,
first placing a thickness of canvas over the
money and jewelry, that no glitter might
show through. To improve the deception ]
brought another chest to the run, and wholly
filed it with cutlasses, powder horns, pistols
and the like, AID so fixed it that it must be
the first to come to hand. My cunning
amounted to this: that suppose the run to be
rummaged, the contents of the first chest
were sure to be turned out, but, on the other
chests being opened, and what they appeared
to contain observed, it was as likely as not
that the rummagers would be satisfied that
they were arms chests, and quit meddling
with them.
The wind at dawn had weakened and come
into the west. There was a strong swell
indeed there always is in this ocean-but the
seas ran mall. The sky looked like marble,
with its broad s~preadings of high white
clouds and the veins of blue sky between. !
wished to make all the northing that was
possible, but there was nothing to be done in
that way with the spritsail alone. Had not the
capstan been frozen l should have tried to get
the mainsail upon the ship, but without the
aid of machinery I was helpless. So, with
helm amidships, the schooner drove Ian
guidly along with her head due east, lifting
as ponderously as a line-of-battle ship to the
floating launches of the high swell, and the
albatross hung as steadfastly in the wake of
my lonely ocean path as though it had been
SOM messenger sent by God to watch me
into safety.