Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-18
CHAPTER Xxx.

|
the hollow, Tassard was blowing like a
bellows with the uncommon exertion; and,
| swearing that he felt the cold penetrating his
| bones, and that he should be stupeled again
| if he did not mind, he climbed into the ship
and disappeared. l loved him so little that
secretly l very heartily wished that nature
would make away with him-G mean that
something it would be impossible i'll me to
! lay to my conscience should befall him--as
| becoming comatose again, and so lying like
| one dead. Assuredly in such case it was
not this hand that would have wasted drop
of brandy in returning an evil, white livered,
| hectorng old rascal to Il life that smelled
foully with him and the like of him.
entered the ship, and found Tassard roast-
! ing himself in the cook house.
~ have been surveying the ice" said l.,
drawing to the furnace, land have very little
doubt that if we wisely bestow the powder in
great quantities we shall succeed in dislocat-
; ing the bed on which we are lying"
"Goodl" he cried,
"But afterF said |.
"Whatf
"As much of this bed as may be dislodged
| will not be deep; icebergs, as of course you
| know, capsize In consequence of their becom-
| Ing top heavy by the wasting of the bulk that
| is submerged This block will make but a
much fear that the weight of this schooner
will overset it the instant we are launched"
"Body of Moses" he cried, angrily, knit
ting his brows, whereby he stretched the scar
| to half its usual width, whats to be done,
then"
"She is full ship" said /, ''and weighty,
If the liberated ice be thin she may sit up on
it and keep it under. We have right to
hope in that direction, perhaps Yet there
is another consideration. She may leak like
| a sievel"
"Why?" he exclaimed. "She took the ice
smoothly; she has not been strained; she was
as tight as a bottle before she stranded; the
coating of ice will have cherished her; and a
stout ship like this does not suffer from six
months of lying upln
Six months thought 1.
"Well, it may be as you say; but if she
leaks, it will not be in our four arms to keep
her free"
He exclaimed, holly, "Mr Rodney, If we
are to escape we must venture something.
To stay here means death in the end. am
persuaded that this ice is Joined with some
vast main body far south, aud that it does
not move. What is there, them to wait fori
There is promise in your gunpowder proposal
If she capsizes, then the devil will get his
own" And with q savage flourish of the
pannikin he put it to his lips and drained it.
His sullen determination that we should
stand or fall by my scheme was not very use
full to me. l had looked for some shrewdness
in him, some capacity of originating and
weighing ideas; but found he could do little
more than curse and swagger and ply his
can, in which he found most of his anecdotes
and recollections and not a little of his cour~
age. pulled out my watch, as l must call
it, and observed that it was hard upon
o'clock.
"Tis lucky" said he, eying the watch
greedily and coming to it away from the
great subject ofo deliverance, as though the
sight of the fine gold thing with its jeweled
letter extinguished every other thought in
him, that you removed that watch from
Mendoza. But he will have carried other
good things to the bottom with him, fear"
Ellis flask and tobacco box / took away"
said l. "He had nothing Of consequence be-
sidesn
"They must go into the common chest"
cried he; otis share and share, you know"
"Ay," said l, ''but what l found on Men
doza is mine by the highest right under
heaven. If had not taken the things they
would now I've at the bottom of the sea-"
what of thatf" cried he, savagely. "If
we had not plundered the galleon she might
have been wrecked and taken all she had
down with ler. Ell SlOulu SuCn a COuSlueT-
alton hinder fair division as between us
between you, who had nothing to do with
the pillage, and me, who risked my life in itf'
said, VERY well; be it as you say" ap-
pearing to consent, for there was something
truly absurd in an alteration about q few
gulneas worth of booty in the face Of our
melancholy and most perilous position, though
it not only enabled me to send deeper glance
into the mind of this man than had yet been
able to manage, but made me understand a
reason for the bloody and furious quarrels
which have again and again arisen among
persons standing on the brink of eternity, to
whom cup Of drink or the sight of a ship
had been more precious than the contents of
the Bank of England.
set about getting the dinner.
''While you arc at that work, - cried he,
starting up, I'm overhaul the pockets of the
bodies on deck;' and picking up chopper
away be went, and heard him eursing in
his native tongue as he stumbled 10 the com
panion ladder through the darkness in the |
cabin
His rapacity was beyond credence. There |
was on immense treasure in the hold, yet he |
could not leave the pockets of the two poor |
wretches on deck alone. did not envy him |
his task; the frozen figures would bear a |
deal of hammering, and besides he had to |
work In the cold. All, though l. with a |
groan, should have left him to make one |
Of themI .---