The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-01-08

appertaining to the topmast, which
was snapped off at the time the shiI
struck, was dangling over the side MOI
far from where we stood; and a frag
ment of ratline served us in place OF 6
rope ladder. The colonel, in spite of my
efforts, politely but firmly insisted OF
preceding me, and ascended with re
markable agility for man'of his years
l felt that the eyes of the boatmer
and of Charles were upon me- sprane
lightly after him, my head nearly com
ing M contact with his boot-soles, ant
in a moment we stood together on thu
deck. Yes, there we stood; and Still
alive!
We glanced forward and aft. Moth
ing resembling human figure was II
| sight. In the shadow of the high bul
warks however, and along the sides O.
the deck-houses, 1 discerned severa
| dark objects lying like rolls of sail
cloth, or heaps of spare rigging. Upoi
one of these heaps, the colonel flashed
| the light of his lantern.
"Eh?-why. what the deuce" HI
muttered. He inspected another heal
| forward. ''Asleep?-or drunk?-or-'
He stopped; we looked at each othe
and the tenison of my nerves came
very near relieving itself by an alto
gether inopportune fit of laughter.
The colonel, after a pause, deliber
ately knelt on one knee on the deck
| beside one of the heaps, and held thu
lantern close to the whitish appearance,
at one end of 1t. Then he put his hant
upon it, Then he arose rather hurried
ly and said to me:
Dead, by Jove! and dry as last year:
cocoa-nut into the bargain!'
"Dry?" l repeated with a peculiar
shudder. "Dry?-what do you mean?'
THE man Is mummy-that's wha
I mean," returned the colonel. He!
skin and bone; he might have beer
dead a thousand years. And to judge
from the clothes he has on he added
throwing the light over the costume o
the corpse. she ought not to have beer
alive for the last two hundred years
anyway
Prompted by curiosity yet stronger
than my horror, l bent over the re
mains and examined them closely
They We're those of manor of wha
had once been one-of rugged anC
brutal aspect, deeply tanned by the
scorching of countless suns, scanned
with old scars, and shaggy with hail
that hung in masses from his skull, anC
clothed his gaunt visage to the eyes
The flesh, however, had dried into ;
thick integument of the consistency o.
parchment, lying close to the bonl
of figure carved from some dark col
lored wood. The eyes, themselves haC
disappeared, shrunken into their sock
cts; the lips We're like strips of carti
lege, and We're drawn back from tn,
yellow teeth, giving the involuntar.
expression of a savage snarl.
Such was the body; the dress was lik'
none l had ever seen before, unless IL
some stage extravaganza, or repre-
sented in ancient pictures. 1t consisted
mainly of jerkin and short breeche
of some rough material, and a thicl
pair of boots coming up to the knee
The cut and fashion of these garment
showed at glance that they had no
been made in our day, nor for man.
generations before; they might hav'
been the fashion in an age whei
Charles Second sat on the throne o
Spain, and Louis Quartoze and William
of Orange on those of France and Eng
land. How, then, came they to cloth
the body of a man lying on the deck o
vessel in this year 1894?
The colonel and l did not ask eacl
either this question; we were not in TIL
humor for speech. We continued ou
investigations and found the decl
strewn with corpses, all more or les
resembling the one / have described
| They hay in all postures and places a
| if stricken down suddenly where the.
stood by. some comprehensive thunder
bolt. Some had ropes still in thei
hands, as If they had been hauling tn
yards or taking in sail. All wer
armed with weapons of one sort or an
either, burt none of pattern known t.
modern armories. There were cut
lasses, dirks, pixies and many gro
tesque and clumsy pistols and match
locks, whose detomations no living ca
could have heard for centuries. Her
and there, in points of vantage, W
found seven or eight quaint old bronz
cannon, some of them richly carve,
and embossed.
The waist of the ship was low; tn
decks forward and aft We're raise,
above THE middle space to the heish
of man and We're reached by stee
flights of steps. on the poop we dis
covered, leaning against the mizze