The Portland daily press., 1895-05-01
FIVE BLACK MARKS.

my life" said DR.. Macpherson one day as
we sat chatting in his cozy drawing room,
''was spent in gunboat off the coast Of
Guinea. I began my professional life as a
surgeon in the navy, you know"
] did moi know. But as the doctor
seemed inten- on telling the story L did
not interrupt him by saying SO,
"We had baan cruising about in the
Mediterranean" he went on, when we
we,as unexpectedly ordered to the bay of
Lagos to Cvera57e some miserable little
tribe near the coast which had not been
behaving itseR as a properly regulated lit
tie tribe u133c tho psotection OF the Brit
ish en- pre- ougs.s to do. kakoga's S tribe it
was called, and Kazoga came in for a good
share of honest abuse rom tho officers and
men of the Dragonhy when our orders
came The worst of it was, as far as the
officers and men were concerned, that we
were not at unity among ourselves. The
engineer called Lashton had been disap-
pointed in love and was naturally morose
in consequence. Wha5 made him more so
was the fact that his successful rival was
the sublieutenant, an awfuliy nice fellow
and the only man on board that I cared
for. Lieutenant Gilby ha6 met Miss Cal.
Ian at Malta. and had become engaged to
her withoL5 the least iGga that the engi-
neer had intentions that way, not that it
would have made any difference to him il
he had. suppose. Lashton's unconcealed
enmity against him made life on board
pretty unpleasant and divided us into two
cliques. The lieutenant's clique, consist
ing of himself and me, certainly had the
hveliest time Of it, for the successful suitor
of Miss Callan was the merriest fellow on
earth, and while we were in the Mediter-
ranean we suffered very little from the en-
gineer's hostility. But directly we steamed
off for Lagos a most remarkable change
came over my FRIEND and he turned as
taciturn as Lashton himself.
sit puzzled me to discover the reason
for though we were all sorry to leave the
Mediterranean still it was not like Gilby
to sulk over it. \ He could not see less of
his fiancee than he had been doing for two
or three months, and we had the prospect
before us Of small fight, for which he
had been wishing. $" Lashton suggested to
me in his. sinister way that it was the pros
pect of fighting which caused the change
in my friend, and though I answered the
suggestion in the tone it deserved still it
seemed the only explanation.
"Gilby said, when I asked him, that it
was the weather, and the irritation with
which he answered prevented me continu-
ing my inquiries and made me more than
ever convinced that it was funk, and a
very severe form of the disease too. In
fact, he took very little pains to conceal it.
"1 hope to goodness that shall not
have to go on shore, he said when we had
nearly reached our destination. Il wish
the commander would lead the party and
L Ill L L.
1T is not likely, I answered gruff1y
and was glad that Lashton was not about
to overhear him. I answered his next
question more gruf1y still.
I suppose you would not like to GER
tify ought to be on the sick list, would
you, Macpherson he asked me hesitat-
ingly.
'I refused fatty.
eff he had told me the true reason of his
fear, might have acted differently, for he
looked ill enough, poor fellow His face
had grown quite white and wan since we
started.
SIT looked whittier still next day when
he had to go in command of the landing
party, which accompanied, of course.
When we were fairly embarked on the
enterprise, his one idea seemed to be to get
it over with all possible speed, and the
haste with which he advanced to Kakoga' S
country would have been impossible if the
men under him had not themselves been
so anxious to get into action and intro
duce a little change into the monotony of
life on gunboat.
However, the change was less than tho
majority of the bluejackets hoped for; the
miserable little tribe did not show fight,
and our business was soon accomplished
In five days from the time we left the
Dragonay we were back again, none the
worse for our trip, except that we were
all worn out by Gilby's forced marches.
THE lieutenant seemed more exhausted
than any of us, and as soon as he had re-
ceived the congratulations of the COM
mander he retired at once to his berth.
What surprised me was that his spirits
did not show any improvement after the
chance of fighting was at an end. 1t
seemed to me as If he were still expecting
some calamity to happen to him, and be-
gan to wonder whether there might not be
something seriously wrong with his health
Z to account for all that had surprised me in
his manner. This explanation which had
not occurred to me while there was any
real danger, struck me forcibly now that
we WorS oSlo oIl uio SunUOaU, anu as soon
as had enjoyed the luxury Of bath after
my five days of discomfort 1 strolled down
to the lieutenant's cabin to have look at
him in the new light of a patient.
The door Of my friends cabin was aiar
as approached it, and when I glanced
into the room before knocking I was sur
prised to catch sight. of Engineer Lashton
standing by the side Of the lieutenant S
bunk.
"The fact of Lashton's enmity for my
friend was SO undisputed that at the sight
Df his figure in his enemy's cabin I felt
quite justified in watching what was 60
ing on before making my presence known
Gilby was lying across his bunk, half un-
dressed and apparently fast asleep. The
engineer was standing over him with a
bottle of some black fluid in his hand.
While watched he made five small marks
with it on the sleeping mans arm. The
operation seemed such mysterious and
inexplcable one that watched him till
he put the cork back into the bottle with
out moving step to interfere with the
man, but pounced upon him as he turned
TO leave the cabin