Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1895-03-09
FROsTBURG, Md, SATURDAY, MARCH g. 1895.

t1on OF dropping him ON the cased cargo
Is feet below, and one insupportable
night the sheathknife dropped from the
foe sic, and this time it drew blood.
So Nurkeed made complaint, and when
the Saarbruck reached Bombay fled and
buried himself among 800, 900 people
and did not sign ARTICLES till the ship
had been month gone from the port.
Pambe waited, too, but his Bombay
wife grew clamorous, and he was forced
to sign in the Spicheren to Hongkong,
because he realized that all play and no
work gives Jack ragged shirt. In the
foggy China seas he thought a great
deal of Nurkeed. and when Elsass-Lo-
thringen steamers lay i'll port with the
Spicheren inquired after him and found
he had gone to England via the cape
on the Gravelotte. Pambe went to Eng
land on the Worth. The Spicheren met
her by the More Light. Nurkeed was
going out with her to the Calicut coast
4
"Want to find friend, my trap
mouthed coal scuttle?" said gentle
man in the mercantile service. Moth
ing easier. Wait at the Nyanza docks
till he comes. Every one comes to the
Nyanza docks. Wait, you poor heath
en-" The gentleman spoke the truth.
There are three great doors in the world
whereat, if you stand long enough, you
shall meet any one you wish. The head
of the Suez canal is one, but there death
comes also. Charing Cross station is
the second-for inland work-and the
Naynza docks are the third. At each of
these places are men and women look
ing eternally for those who will surely
come. So Pambe waited at the docks.
Time was no object to him, and the
wives could wait, as he did from day to
day, week to week, month to month,
by the Blue Diamond tunnels, the Red
Dot smokestacks, the Yellow Streaks
and the nameless dingy gypsies of the
sea that loaded and unloaded, jostled,
whistled and roared in the everlasting
fog. When money failed, a kind gentle
man told Pambe to become Christian,
and Pambe became one with great speed,
getting his religious teachings between
ship and ships arrival and 6 or shil
lings week for distributing tracts to
mariners. What the faith was Pambe
did not in the least care, but he knew
if he said, Native Kills an, sar,
to men with long black coats he might
get few coppers, and the tracts were
vendible at a little public house that
sold shag by the 'dottel," which is
even smaller weight than the ''half
screw" which is less than the half
ounce and most profitable retail trade.
But after eight months Pambe fell
sick with pneumonia, contracted from
long standing still in slush, and much
against his will he was forced to lie
down i'll his two and sixpenny room,
raging against fate.
The kind gentleman sat by his bed
side and grievod to find that Pambe
talked in strange tongues, instead of
listening to good books, and almost
seemed to become benighted heathen
again, till one day he was reused from
semistupor by a voice i'll the street by
the dockhead. MY friend-he, wlis-
pered Pambe. Call now-cail IL ur.>, d.
Quick! God has sent him. lie w..ni-
gentleman, and going out he called
''Nurkeedo' at the top of his voice,
and an excessively colored man in
rasping white shirt and brand new slops,
a shining hat and a breastpin turned
round. Many voyages had taught Nur
keed how to spend his money and made
him a citizen of the world.
''Hi! Yes! said he when the situa-
tion was explained. Command him
black nigger-when / was on the Saar-
bruck. Ole Pambe. Good old Pambe.
Dam lascar. Show him up, sar," and
he followed into the room. One glance
told the stoker what the kind gentleman
had overlooked. Pambe was desperately
poor. Nurkeed drove his hands deep into
his pockets, then advanced with clinch-
ed fists on the sick, shouting: "Hya,
Pambe! Hya! Hee, ah! HULA! Heb!
Takilo! Takilo! Make fast aft, Pambe!
You know Pambe. You know me. Dek
no, jee! Look! Dam big fat lazy las
carI'
Pambe beckoned with his left hand.
His right was under his pillow. Nur-
keed removed his gorgeous hat and
stopped over Pambe till he could catch
a faint whisper. "How beautifulr' said
the kind gentleman. "How these orien-
tails love like childrenr'
'Spit him out, said Nurkeed, lean
ing over Pambe yet more closely.
Touching the matter of that fish and
onions" said Pambe-and sent the
knife home under the edge of the rib
bone, upward and forward.
There was "a thick, sick cough, and
the body of the African slid slowly from
the bed, his clutching hands letting fall
shower of silver pieces, which ran
across the room.
Now l can die!" said Pambe.
But he did not die. He was nursed
back to life with all the skill which
money could buy, for the law wanted
him, and in the end he grew sufficient
ly convalescent to be hanged in due and
proper form.
Pambe did not care particularly, but
it was sad blow to the kind Christian
gentleman. st. James Gazette.
FlanneIs.