Connecticut western news., 1889-02-06

going on about me, and I felt an over whelming terror at my possible fate.
 "It was soon made known to me. The Captain entered my room. l could hear indistinctly, as if it were afar off, his footsteps on the deck. Then the steward also came in. heard them consulting together, and both came to the conclusion that I was dead; that my neck was broken by the fall.
 Tell Sails to come in and take his measure. We must bury him tomorrow while the fine weather lasts, heard the Captain say, and presently the sailmaker came in and measured me for the last hammock I should ever sleep in. l could not feel him, but 1 knew bY his motions what he was doing. I will not describe how they laid me out on the cabin table and left me there, while Sails, close by, made my shroud. Stitch, stitch, stitch, went his needle, seeming to enter into my brain every time instead of the thick canvas. I can distin ctly remember that while I lay there the steward tried to close my eyes, but, thank God, they flew up every time and left the poor consolation of seeing the preparations for my doom.
 "At last all was finished. The canvas spread on the deck and was laid in it. Then the sailmaker began to stitch me up. He had stitched up all but my face, when heard him say he had lost his knife. A rigid search was made every where, but it could not be found, so Sails returned to work, and all that time I was thinking in my dull way what fools they were for not looking into my shroud for the lost knife. As I after ward learned it was next day at noon that was carried on deck and laid on plank, preparatory to being shot over board. The men one by one took a look at my face, and then it was covered up forever. The burial service was read by the Captain, there was little delay, and then the plank was tilted, and I shot into the bitter cold water off the Diego Ramirez. It must have been the shock that brought me to my senses, for, as I sank down, dragged lower by the shot at my feet, felt my feeling and action return. At the same moment my right hand, re- leased from its dread inertia, grasped what I instantly knew to be a knife. Me chanically forced the blade and ripped my canvas shroud so that the shot fell and I began to rise to the surface. In a few seconds, I suppose, although it seemed years, opened my eyes-for it is curious fact that while I lay in a state of coma they remained open, yet when my feelings returned with the shock closed them at once-and saw once more the light of day, which I had never expected to see again. I was an excellent swimmer, and had soon regained my breath and cast from me the canvas which impeded my movements. Then I looked around over the waters, and saw that my miraculous escape had been all for nothing. The ship, looking like great swan, getting smaller and smaller even as looked. There arose from my lips frenzied curse against the God that had abandoned me thus, but almost inn mediately afterward, as if to rcbuke me for my wickedness, I noticed piece of wreckage floating toward me. Hope once more filled my breast, and I swan toward the piece of deckhouse, as it proved to be, and clambering on top threw myself on my face and wept for very wretchedness.
 "Alone on the wide ocean, piece of wood the only thing between me and death, dazed and weak from my last terrible experience, what else could I do but weep2 Soon I began to feel an in tense hunger. By the lowest calculation I must have been comatose for three days, so for that time I had had no nourishment. The thick mist that sud- denly came down satisfied my thirst, but there was nothing to eat, nothing to eat. I nearly went crazy as the day wore on.
 ''At last night fell and added the ter TOTS of the blackness of darkness to the bangs of hunger. I could never tell the horrors of that first night. It was a wonder l was not stark, staring mad when day broke. The second day passed like the first. Nothing to eat, something to moisten my lips, but no sail in sight. The third day broke with an angry sky and angrier sea, and I saw that before the day closed a Cape Horn gale would be raging with its attendant sleet and cold. I trembled then, for, even though was almost dead and quite
 without hope, wanted to live. By noon
 the sea had risen tremendously, and it
 was with great difficulty that managed
 to keep on my raft. By nightfall the gale was raging fercely, and I was expecting every moment to
 be engulfed in one of the terrible abys
 sos into which my raft slipped con-
 stantly. This was the most awful night
 I ever spent--worse even than when
 lay to all appearances dead on the cabin table of the OSnrev The fyinor srnnn-