Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1892-10-06

As | had anticipated, the captain
came round little few hours after
his insulting attack upon me. think
his temper frightened him when it had
reference to me. Like others of his
breed he was II bit Of cur at the bot
tom. My character was triilc beyond
him, and he was ignorant enough to
hate and fear what he could not I'M
derstand. BE this as it may, he made
some rough attempts ut rude kind Of
politcness when | went below to get
some grog, and condesccnded to say
that when had been TO sea rs long
as he. would know that the most
ungratcful rascals in tho world were
sailors; that every crew he had sailed
with had always taken care to invent
some grievance TO growl over-ether
the provisions were bad, or the work
too heavy, or tho ship unseaworthy;
and that long ago he had made up his
mind never to pay attention to their
complaints, since no sooner would
one wrong be redressed than another
would be coined and showed under his
nose.
took this opportunity Of assuring
him that had never willingly listened
to the complaints OF the men, and that
was always annoyed when they spoke
to me about the provisions, as / had
nothing whatever to do with that mat
ter; and that, so far as my wishing to
stir up the men into rebellion, my con-
duct had been uniformly influenced by
the desire to conciliate them and rep-
resent their conditions as very tolcr-
nh 40 -,
disallcction which they might foment
among themselves
To this he made no reply, and soon
we parted; but the next day he was
sullon again, and never addressed me
save to give an order.
On the evening of the third day the
gale brofo. Next morning I found
the weather bright and warm, with a
blue sky shining among heavy white
clouds and the ship making seven knots
an hour under allplain sail. The decks
had been washed down and were dry
and comfortable while the ship had q
habitable appearance which was quite
a change from tho hundred hours of
severe work and constant storm. II
was half after nine o'clock and | was
standing near the tailrail sweeping sea
and sky with the glass when suddenly
there leaped into the field OF vision the
hull of a ship, deep as her main-chains
| in the water, which came and went be-
fore my eye as the long seas lifted or
/ dropped In the foreground. / man
aged to keep her sufficiently long in
view TO perceive that she was totally
| dismastod.
"lts wreck" said l, turning to the
man at the wheel; "let her come TO
again and luif a point. There may be
living creatures aboard of her."
Knowing what sort of man Captain
CoXon was, i do not think that /
should have had the hardihood to lufl
the ship point out OF her course, had
1t involved the bracing of the yards;
for the songs of the men would GER
tainly have brought him on deck, and
might have provoked some ugly in
science. But the ship was going free.
and would head more westerly with
out occasioning further change than
slightly slackening the weather-braces
of the upper yards. This did quiet
| ly, and the dismantled hull was
, brought right dead on end with our
flying jib-boom. The men now
caught sight OF her, and began TO stare
and point but did not sing out, as
they saw by the telescope in my hand
that l perceived her. Tho breeze un-