Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1889-03-22

This sudden confrontment threw me into
such confusion that could not speak. He
moved his head from side to side, taking a
view of the scene. with an expression of the
most inimitable establishment painted upon
his countenunce. He then brought the fiat
of his hand with dramatic blow TO his fore
head the scar on which showed black as ink
TO the fire glow, and sat erect.
"Where have | been" he exclaimed in
French
"Sir," sold |, speaking with the utmost
difficulty, 81 do not understand your Ian
guage. am English. You speak my tongue.
viii you address Inc in it"
"English!" he exclaimed in English, drop
ping his head on one side, and peering at me
with an incredible air of amazement. GLOW
came you here! You are not of our COM
pany? Let me see'--- Here he struggled
with recollection, continuing to stare at me
from under his shaggy eyebrows as if l was
some frightful vision.
al am "a shipwreclied British mariner" said
I, "and have been cast away upon this ice,
where l found your schooner"
CLAP he interrupted, with prodigious
vehemence, "certainly; we are frozen up-I
remember That sleep should serve my
memory son He made rs if to rise, but sat
again. ''The cold is numbing; it would
weaken lion Give me hot drink, sir"
/ filed rannikin with the melted wine,
which he swallowed thirstily.
"Morcm cried he. II seem to want life.''
Again | filled the pannikin.
"Goodln said he, fetching sigh, as he re-
turned the vessel; "you are very obliging,
sir. If you have food there we will eat TO-
gether."
| give the substance of his speech, but not
his delivery of it; nor is it necessary that l
should interpoate my rendering with the
French words he used.
The broth being boiled, I gave him a good
bowl of it along with a plate of bacon and
tongue, some biscuit and pannillin of hot
brandy aud water, all which things l put
upon his knees as he sat upon the mattress;
and to it he fell, making rare meal. Yet
nll the while he ate he acted like man be-
witched, as we'll he might, staring at me and
looking round and round him, and then drop
ping his knife to strike his brow, as if by
that kind of blow he would quicken the &C.
tivitv of memory there.
"There is something wrong" said be, pres
emily. "What is il, sir3 This is TIE cook
room. How does it happen that am lying
herc:'
Itold him exactly how it was, adding that
# it had cot l.een for his posture, which
OBLIGED me to thaw in order to carry HIN, he
would now be c,l deck with the others, await
ing the best funeral could give him.
"NVlo are the others" asked he,
81 know not" said l. "There were four If
al. counting yourself; one sits frozen to deatf
on the rocks met him first, and took hi:
watch from his pocket that | might tell the
timen
He took the watch in his hands, and asked
me to bring the lantern close
"Ha!n cried he "this was Mendozas-tht
captains / remember: he took it for the
sake of this letter upon it. He lies dead OF
the rocks3 We missed him, but did not know
where he had gone.n Then, raising his hanc
and impulsively starting upon the mattress
he cried, while he tapped his forehead, "It
has come back! | have it! Giuseppe Tren
tanove and were in the cabin; he had faller
blind with the glare of tho ice-if that was
it. We confronted each other. On sudder
he screamed out. ! had put my face into my
arms and felt myself dying. His cry aroused
me. / looked up and saw him leaning bacl
from the table with his eyes fixed and horror
in his COuntenance | was too feeble to speal
too langud to rise. | watched him a while
and then the drowsinesS stole over me again
and my head sank and remember nomore.
He shuddered, and extended the pannikir
for more liquor. | filed it with two-third'
oi brandy and the rest water, and he suppet
ii down as if it had been thinbleful of Wine
BY the holy cross cried he, but this il
very wonderful, though! How long have
You been here, SIR
"Three days.
''Three days! and have been in a stupol
all that timc-ucyer moving, never breath
ing:'
You will have been in q stupor Longer
than that, expect" said l.
"What is this month"; he cried.
"July," replied.
"July-JuIy" he muttered. "Impossible
Let me see'-hc began to count on his fingers
I'VE fell in with the ice and got locked IL
November We had six months Of it; | recol
lect no more Six months of it, sir; anC
suppose the stupor came upon mo then th'
month at which my memory stops would b.
April. Yet you call this July-that is to say
| four months of oblivion! Imnossible.n
! "What was the year in which you fell il
/ with the ice" said |.
1.-The yearN he exclaimed, in a voice doel
with the wonder this question raised i'll him
| 1.-THE year! Why, man, what year but 1913.
/ Good God" cried |, jumping to my fee
with terror at a statement had anticipated
though it shocked me rs a new and frightfu
revelation. "Do you know what year this is:
lie looked at me without answering.
at is 1901" l cried; and as | said this re
coiled step fully expecting him to leap VI
and exhibit u hundred demonstrations 0
horror and CONSERVATION; for this, | am per
suaded, would have been my posture had an,
man reused me from slumLCr and told III
had been in that condition for eight an,
forty years.
He continued to view me with a YER
strange and cunning expression in his eyes
the GOODNESS of which was inexpressibly SUI
pristng and bewildering, and even mortify
ing; then presently grasping his beard
looked at it; then put his hands to his fac
and looked at them; then pulled out his fee
and looked Mt them; then very slowly, bu
without visible effort, stood up, swaying
little with an air of weakness, and proceeds
to feel and strike himself all over, swinging
his arms and using his legs-after which h
sat down and pulled his clothes over his make
feet, and, fixing his eyes on me afresh, said