The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1895-09-03
IN MID-ATLANTIC.

mo, sir, said the night watch
man as he took o seat on post at
the end of the jetty and slowed a
huge piece of tobacco in his cheek.
mo; man an boy / was at sea 40
years afore / took on this job, but
can't say as ever I saw a real down
right ghost. F"
This was disappointing, and I said
so. Previous experience of the power
of Bills vision had led me to expect
something very different.
mot but what I've known some
queer things happen, said Bill, fix
ing his eyes on the Surrey side and
going off into q kind of trance,
"Queer things"
WAITED patiently. Bills eyes, aft
er resting some time on Surrey, be-
gan to slowly cross the river, paused
midway in reasonable hopes of col
lision between a tug with its fiotille
of barges and penny steamer and
then came back to me.
"You heard that yarn old Cap'n
Harris was telling the other night
about the skipper he knew having a
warning one night to alter his course
an doing so picked up five live men
an three skeletons in open boat?"
he inquired.
/ nodded.
1.-THE yarn, in various forms, is an
old one," said 1.
Its all founded on something
told him once" said Bill. 81 don t
wish to accuse Cap'n Harris of TAX
ing another mans true story an
spelling it. He's got bad memory;
that's all. Fust of all, he forgets he
ever heard the yarn; secondly, he
goes an spoils it. "
1 gave a sympathetic murmur.
Harris was as truthful an old man
as ever breathed, but his tales were
terribly restricted by this circum-
stance, whereas Bills were limited
by nothing but his own imagination.
1T was about Is years ago, now,"
began Bill, getting the quid into
q byway of his cheek, where it
would not impede his utterance. II
was A. B. on the Swallow, a bark
trading wherever we could pick up
stuff. On this wage we was bound
from London to Jamaica with a gen.
eral cargo.
1.-THE start of that wage was ex-
cellent. We was towed out of the St
Katherine's docks here to the More,
an the tug left US to a stiff breeze,
which fairly raced us down channel
an out into the Atlantic. Everybody
was saying what fine wage we
was having an what quick time we
should make, an the fust mate was
in such lovely temper that you
might do anything with him a'most
We was about ten days out an still
slipping along in this spanking way
when all of sudden things changed,
I was at the wheel with the second
mate one night when the skipper,
whose name was Brown, came up
from below in an uneasy sort O
fashion an stood looking at us for
some time without speaking. Then
atlast he sort O. makes up his mind,
an ses he:
"'Mr. Mcmillan, I've just had a
most remarkable experience, an /
don't know what to do about it.
"'Yes, sir, says Mcmillan.
"'Three times I've been woke up
this night by something shouting in
my ear, "Steer nor nor west, says
the cap'n very solemnly, '"Steer
nor nor west" that's all it says.
The first time I thought it was some
body got into my cabin slylarking,
an laid for 'em with stick, but
I've heard it three times, an there's
nothing there.
Its a supernatural warning,
says the second mate, who had a
greatuncle once who had the second
sight an was the most unpopular
man of his family, because he al
ways knew what to expect an LAID
his plans according.
"'That's what / think, ses the
cap'n. There's some shipwrecked
fellow creatures in distress.
sits vera grave responsibeel-
ity, says Mcmillan. I should just
ca up the fust mate.
"'Bill, ses the cap'n, just &c
down below an tell Mr.. Salmon I'd
likes few words with him partikler.
well, ] went down below an
called up the fust mate, an as soon