The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-12-07

''.--sen God help us. Ben johnson as
the leader, would have his say about
things. Tho captain, Haskell, myself
he took command, and as for you and"-
She stopped me with gesture and
quietly said;
II will assist you in any way / can.
None Of the other people seems to be
worried, but for the last two days /
have been almost convinced that there
was something wrong. will watch the
two young wo nen and the doctor and
report to you.
If you are Dosted as to the sailing Of
q ship, you W II understand that while
was acting & captain the second mate
should have stood my watch. This
did not permit, but stood watch and
watch with him. / had my interview
with Mary between and 8 o'clock in
the evening. At 8 1 went below and
turned in for four hours. When came
on deck at midnight, took Haskell
and the third mate and went below to
examine the cages. This was the first
midnight visit ever paid to the convicts
and produced great surprise. had led
the way as quietly as possible, and
though all the convicts appeared to be
sound asleep when / looked into the
cages the positions of some of them
were so unnatural that suspected they
had thrown themselves down only u
moment before. The man York was the
guard ON duty between cages Nos. l
/ and 2, and though he had face of
brass I did not fail to detect signs of
perturbation. / found the cages all
right but was perfectly satisfied that q
minute before my descent York had
been holding conversation with some Of
the convicts. Had it been in his power
to let them on deck should not have
[ found them snoring away and mutter-.
| ing in their dreams.
The midnight visit made no change
in our affairs, but gave me a thought
to be acted OH next day. Among the
crew was malspamed Hawley. had
no fault to find with him as a sailor,
but 1 had sized him up as the most sim
pie minded man of the lot. If l could
90 at him right, I could learn from
him the subject of talk in the forecastle.
Before noon next day, the man being
in my watch and the off watch below,
got him aft under pretense of examin-
ing the cabin stores in the lazarette. |
had placed bottle of rum where he
could not fail to find it, and gave him
time to sample the stuff before follow
ing him through the trapdoor. II
pleased me to discover that he had
taken liberal drink, and when the
stuff had been given time to loosen his
tongue carelessly inquired;
"That man York is considered very
smart man by all the crew, isn't he?"
Nobody could be smarter, sir, he
promptly replied. eff | had tenth OF
his smartness, wouldn't be where | am
now, ,eggin your humble pardon, sir. y
"a has been in the goldfelds OF
Austr. liza, 1 hear?"
"Al over 'em, sir, and has got some
thin | 1e ton of the bloomin stuff
hidden way in hill. He dasn't bring
it out Or fear of robbers, but he can
lead the lot of US straight to the spo
and is willin to divide. Plenty more
where that ton came from. All you've
got to do is to scrape off the surface
dirt, and there's the nuggets. DO yor
mind my akin you question, Mr.
Tompkins?"
go ahead.
81 am no schollard, as you know.
I had lump of gold as heavy as
could carry ON my back, would l be
rich MANI"
"Yes, fairly rich man, ana wisi
you had such lump"
"Thankee, sir; thankee very much
and I'm certainly goin to have 1t
York knows what he's talkin about, ant
we all think he do. Begin your par
don, sir, but isn't there lots and lots o
islands off the coast of Australia"
"Yes, a great many islands. "
"And not inhabited either?"
emo"
"And they are reg lar paradises, will
nuthin fur sailor to do but eat ant
drink and smoke and make luv to tn
wimin. Three months of that and thei