The herald., 1897-09-05

with a dreamy and puzzled stare, as
though he could not distinguish the
still men from their restless shadows.
There were awesome murmurs, "Hallo,
halo! How does it look outside now,
sullivan" Tho who sat on the hatch
lifted their eyes in silence, and the next
oldest seaman in the ship Chose two
understood one another, though they
hardly exchanged three words in day.
gazed up at his friend attentively for a
moment, then taking short clay pipe
out of his mouth. offered it without a
word. Sullivan put out his arm toward
it, missed. staggered. and suddenly fell
| forward, crashing down, stiff and head
long like an uprooted tree. There was
swift rush. Men pushed, crying:
Hes done! Turn him over! Stand
clear, there!" Under crowd Of star
tied faces bending over him he lay on
| his back, staring upward in a continu-
Gus and intolerable manner.
| In the breathless silence Of general
CONSERVATION he said in a grating mur-
mur, IT am all right" and clutched with
his hands. They helped him up. He
mumbled despondently, II am getting
old-old."
| Helped along he reached his bunk.
There was in 1t Shiny, soft heap of
something that smelt like does at dead
| low water a muddy foreshore. 1t was
his soal ed straw bed. With a convul-
sive effort he pitched himself on 1t, and
| in the darkness Of the narrow place
could be heard growing angrily, like
an irritated and savage animal uneasy
in his den, "Bit of breeze-small thing
cant stand up-old!"
He slept at last. Men conversed
about him in quiet, concerned whispers.
This will break i'm UP. Strong as
horse. Aye. But he amt what he used
to be-" In sad murmurs they gave him
up. Yet at midnight he turned out to
duty as if nothing had been the matter,
and answered to his name with
mournful "Here!" He brooded alone
more than ever in an impenetrable 81
lence a with saddened face. For
many years he had heard himself called
"Old Sullivan" and had serenely ac-
cepted the qualification, taking 1t as
tribute of respect due to man who
through half a century had measured
his strength against the favors and the
RACES of the sea. He looked upon the
| immortal sea with the awakened and
cropping perception of its heartless
night; he saw it unchanged black and
| foaming Under the eternal scrutiny Of
the stars; he heard it's impatient voice
calling for him out of a pitiless vastness
full of unrest Of turmoil, and Of terror.
| He looked afar upon 1t, and he saw an
immensity tormented and blind, moan
ing and furious, that claimed all the
days of his tenacious life, and, when
| life was over, would claim the worn
out body of it's slave.
| This was the last of the breeze. 1t
veered quickly, changed to a black
south and blew itself out, CIV
| ing the ship a famous shove to the
northward into the joyous sunshine of
the trade. Rapid and white she ran
homeward in a straight path under a
blue sky and upon the plain of a blue
sea. The hours of ineffective turmoil
We're forgotten; the fear and anguish
of these dark moments were never men,
toned in the loving peace of fine days.
Yet from that time our life seemed to
start afresh as though we had died and
had been resuscitated. All the first part
of the voyage, the Indian Ocean on the
other side Of the Cape, all that was
lost in haze, like an ineradicable sus-
picion of some previous existence. 1t
had ended-then there were blank
hours: a ivid blur-and again we
lived! Sullivan 9vas possessed of sinis-
ter truth; Mr.. Creighton of a damaged
leg; the cook Of fame-and shamefully
abused The opportunities of his distinc-
ton. Donl1in had an added grievance.
He went about repeating with insist
ence:
"'E said e would brain me-did yer
ear? They hare goin' to murder hus
now for the least little thing"
We began at last to think it was rath-
er awful. We decried our officers-who
had done nothing-and listened to the
fascinating Donkin. His care for our
rights, his disinterested concern for our
dignity were not discouraged by the
invariable contumely of our words, by
the disdain of. our looks. Our contempt
for him was northumberland we could
not but listen with interest to that con-