San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-04-07
BOUN D.
BY w. CLARK RUSSELL,
Author of "7he Wreck of the Grosuenor,"
"Jack's Courtshtp," my Watch Be-
lou, "'Ihe Lady Maud :" Etc.

this living thing was 'lnexpresslDly cheering;
it put into my head fancy of ships being at
hand, thoughts of help and of human compan-
IONS In truth, my Imagination was willing
to accept it as the same bird that had fright
ened away when in the boat, now returned
to silently reproach me for my treatment of
it. Nay, my lonely eye, my subdued and suf
fering heart, might even have witnessed the
good angel of my life in that solitary shape
of ocean beauty, and have deemed that,
though unseen, it had been with me through
out, and was now made visible to my gaze
by the light of hope that had broken into the
darkness of my adventure
Well suppOsing it so, should not have
been the only man who ever scared his good
angel away and found it faithful afterward
unlashed the tiller and got the schooner
before the wind, and steered until little be-
fore noon, letting her drive dead before the
Sea, which carried her northeast. Then, Sc
curing the helm amidships, ran for the
quadrant, and while waiting for the sun to
show himself observed that the vessel held
herself very steadily before the wind, which
might have been owing to her high stern and
the great swell of her sides and her round
bottom; but be the cause what it might, she
L
had been at the tiller to check her-a most
fortunate condition of my navigation, for it
privileged me to get about other work, while
at the same time every hour was conveying
a,e nearer to the tracks of ships and farther
from the bitter regions of the souts.
got an observation, and made out that the
vessel had driven about fifteen leagues dur
ing the night. She must do better than that,
T.. Id
ner l took a chopper, and going on to the
forecastle lay out upon the bowsprit, and
after beating the spritsail yard block clear of
the ice, cut away the gaskets that confined
the sail to the yard, heartily beating the can
vas, that was like iron, till clew of it fell
I then came in and braced the yard square,
and the wind, presently catching the exposed
part of the sail, blew more of it out and yet
more, until there was good surface show
ing; then to a sudden hard blast of wind the
whole sail flew open with mighty crack
ling, as though indeed it was formed of ice;
but to render it useful l had to haul the
sheets aft, which 1 could not manage without
the help of the tackles we had used in sling
ing the powder over the side; so that, what
with one hindrance and another, the setting
of that sail took me an hour and half.
Finding that the ship continued to steer
herself very well, and the better for the spirit
sail, l thought would get the body of the
old Frenchman overheard, and so obtain
clear hold for myself, SO far as corpses went.
I carried the lantern into the forecastle but
when pulled the hammock off him confess
it was not without stupid fear that should
find him alive. Recollection of his astound-
ing vitality found something imperishabe in
that ugly anatomy, and though he lay before
me as dead and cold as stone, 1 yet had fancy
that the seeds of life were still in him, that
twas only the current of his being that had
froze, that if were to thaw him afresh he
might recover, and that if / buried him
rhould actually be dispatching him.
But though these fancies possessed they did
not control me. 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
him; could not but handle with awe the
most mysterious corpse the eye had ever
viewed-One who had lived through stupor
or death sleep for eight-and-forty years, in
whom in 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