Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-07

q let Ineln lhll iutO tut spun 'ihNA ehN
ship, or lower them over the side and leave
the hollow in which the schooner lay TO be
their tomb.
Ii was mighty comforting ON returning tc
the cabin 20 find it vacant 70 be freed from
the scare of the sight of the two silent figures.
| drew my breath more easily and stopped to
glance around 1t was the barest cabin l
was ever in--uncarpeted, with no other seats
than the little benchqS looked at the cru
cifix, and guessed from the sight of 1t that
whatever might be the vessels nation, she
had not been sailed by Englishmen. / peeped
into poor Polly's cage-if a parrot it was
and the sight of the rich plumage carried my
imagination to skies Of brass, to the mystic
rious green solitude OF tropic forests, to
islands fringed with silver surf in whose
sunny flashing sported nude girls of fault
less FORMS showing their teeth OF pearl i'll
merry laughter, winding amorously with the
blue bilow, and filling the aromatic breeze
with the melody of their language of tho sun.
Hal thought l, sailors see some changes in
their time; and with a hearty sigh | stepped
into the cook room.
started, stopped, and fell back a pace
with cry. When l had put the figure be-
fore the fire he was in the same posture in
which he had sat at the table-that is, lean
ing forward with his face hid in his arms; l
had laid him on his side, with his face to the
furnace, and in that attitude you would have
supposed him a man sound asleep with his
arms over his face TO shield it from the heat.
But now to my unspeakable astonishment,
he lay on his back, with his arms sunk to his
side, and resting on the deck, and his face
upturned.
| stared at him from the door as if he was
the fiend himself / could scarcely credit my
senses; and my CONSERVATION was SO great
that cannot conceive of any man ever hav-
ing labored under a greater fright. l family
CALCULATED Good God!n several times and
could hardly prevent my legs from running
away with me. You see, it was certain that
he must have moved of his own accord to
get upon his back. | was prepared for tho
fire to thaw him into limberness, and had |
found him Strengthened somewhat should
not have been surprised. But there was no
power in fire to stretch him to his full length
and turn him over ON his back. What living
or ghostly hand had done this things Did
spirits walk this schooner after allt Had
missed of something more terrible than any
number of dead men i'll searching the vessel:
had made great fire, and its light was
strong, and there was also the light of the
lantern; but the furnace flames played very
lively, completely overmasterinS the steady
illumination of the candle and the mans fig
ure was all a-twitch with moving shadows,
and a hundred fantastic shades seemed to
steal out of the side and bulkheads and disap-
pear upon my terrified gaze. Then, thought
l, suppose after all that man should be alive,
the vitality in him set flowing by the heati
minded myself of my own smile of the
current checked by frost, yet retaining unim-
Uaired the principle of motion; and, getting
my agitation under some small control, | APP
preached the body on tiptoe and held the lam
tern to its face
He looked a man of 60 years of age; his
beard was gray and very long, and lay upon
his breast like cloud of smoke His eyes
were closed; the brows shaggy, and the dark
scar of a sword wound ran across his fore
head from the corner of the left eye to the top
of the right brow. His nose was long and
hooked; but the repose in his countenance,
backed by the vague character of the light in
which l inspected him, left his face almost
eXpressionless. l was too much alarmed to
put my ear to his mouth to mark if he
breathed, if indeed the noise Of the burning
fire would have permitted me to distinguish
his respiration drew back from him, and
put down the lantern and watched him.
Presently his left leg, that was slightly
bent toward the furnace, stretched itself out
to its full length, and my ear caught faint
sound, as of weak and melancholy sigh. |
Gracious heaven, thought |, he Is alive! and
with less of terror than of profound awe,
now that L saw there was nothing of
ghostly or pTeternatural character in this
business, l approached and bent over him. |
His eyes were still shut, and could not hear /,
that he breathed; there was not the faintest |
motion of respiration in his breast nor stir in |
the hair that was now soft, about his mouth. |
Yet so far as the light would suffer me to |
judge, there was a complexion in his face |
such as could only come with flowing blood, |
however lauguid its circulation; and putting |
this and the sigh and the movement of the |
leg together, felt convinced that the man |
was alive, and forthwith fell to work, very |
full Of awe and amazement, to be sure, to |
help nature, thatwas struggling in him.
Ny first step was to heat some brandy, and |
while this was doing pulled open his coat |
and freed his neck, fetching coat from the |
cabin to serve as pillow for his head. 1 |
next removed his boots and laid bare his feet |
(Which were incased in no less than four pairs |
of thick wooden stockings, so that l thought |
when | came to the third pair l should find |
his legs made of stockings), and after bathing |
his feet in hot water, of which there was a
ketteful, rubbed them with hot brandy as
hard as | could chafe. l then dealt with his
hands in the like manner, having once been
shpmate with a seaman who told me he had |
seen a sailor brought to by severe rubbing of |
MS eXLfeHluleS alueT ne llu been carried
below supposed to be frozen to death, and
continued this exercise till could rub no
longer Next opened his lips, and finding |
he wanted some of his front teeth, very
easily poured "A dram of brandy into his
mouth. Though l preserved my astonish-
ment all this while, soon discovered myself
working with enthusiasm, with most pas
sionate longing indeed to recover the man,
not only because it pleased me to think of my
being an instrument under God of calling
n human being, SO to speak, out of his grave,
but because yearned for "a companiOn-some
one to address, to tighten the hideous solitude
of my condition, and to assist me in planning
our deliverance.
1 built up a great fire, and with much
trouble, for he was very heavy, disposed him
in such manner before it that the heat was
reflected all over the front of him from his
head to his feet. l likewise continued to
chafe his extremities, RENTING this work
only to rest; and finding that the brandy had
stolen down his throat, | poured another
dram in, and then another, till think he had
swallowed pint. This went on for an hour
during which time he never exhibited the
least signs of life; but on a sudden he sighed
deep; tremor ran through him; he sighed
again, and partly raised his right hand, which
fell to the deck with blow; his lips twitched,
and IA small CONFUSION of his face compelled
the features into the smilitude of grin
that instantly faded then he fetched a sue
cession Of signs, and opened his eyes full upon
me.
l was warm enough with my work. but
when observed him looking at me turned
Of death like cold, and felt the dew of an