The Winslow mail., 1897-03-20
NJ. S. RAVAGER had mel

sue 0du cOlllueu WIFI DdIh OuI AAO'AA
-; and, though no one could quite tell
how the mishap occurred, it was per-
fectly clear that the bark had gone
down, and that the ram of the Warshlp
was in a damaged condition. H. NJ. 5.
Ravager was accordingly put into dry
dock for repairs.
AS very often happens at this place
where the vessel was dOcked, convicts
were at work upon the quays. They
were mixed lot; but, being good-con-
duct men, they all enjoyed a greater
freedom of action in the discharge OF
their duties than is ordinarily extend
ed to the enforced working guests OF
the nation. Yet, Notwithstanding this
unspoken testimony to their compara-
tive worth, the commander OF the RaV-
ager was less disposed than usual to
place trust in them. He was in fero-
cious humor, for that little affair with
the bark was not unlikely to Interfere
with his promotion. There would be
an inquiry, of course, and what Chris
tian ever could tell what confounded
foolishness and injustice the finding
might yield? He cursed the bark, and
the ill-luck and the navigating lieuten-
ant whom at one time he had left ON
the bridge, each with impartial fury;
and put a double guard of marines
ashore, with fixed bayonets and ball
cartridge, and an emphatic instruction
to play the very devil with those jail
birds if they tried on any of their ours
ed nonsense"
The extra precaution was scarcely
necessary. To do justice to these un-
willing residents within the shadow of
the broad arrow, they had no evil de-
signs upon her Majesty's warship.
Their hostility to an unappreciative
country did not rise to quite so great a
height as that. All the same, the COM
mander might very easily have justi-
fed his course of action (had such been
necessary by the fact that many Of
the convicts were working only a few
yards from the dock side and some
what removed from the warders imme-
date watchfulness; though it would
have been possible to show on the other
hand that, being men whose term of
servitude was almost completed, these
prisoners were perfectly reliable, mas
much as they could not afford to COM
nit any indiscretions calculated to
JeOpardize their expected early release
on ticket-Of-leave.
These conSidera tiOns did not in anv
way concern the commander of III. M,
10 81,
resolved to blow the cOnvicts to the
mischief, individually or collectively. if
they tried on any tricks with his ship;
and in the choicest of quarterback En-
glish gave orders accordingly.
One of the prisoners was working
quite near to the dockside and almost
in the track of one of the sentries from
the Ravager. Though rather refined
person in appearance, the degradation
of his position by no means overwhelm-
ed him with melancholy or distress. 1t
may have been the consciousness of
innocence that enabled him to whistle
softly an air which had served the
street organs some seven years be-
fore and enabled him to view with un-
concern the close proximity of his fel-
low-man. Perhaps he reflected that
those aboard the Ravager were harder
worked prisoners than himself and
that he could afford them a trifie of
pity.
He did not disdain, moreover, to take
advantage of the situation in which he
found himself; nor was his sensitive
ness hurt by the silence of Tommy At
kins when he endeavored to engage
that worthy in conversation. He was
not discouraged by TOmmy's dignity,
and did not hesitate to try again when
guard was changed late in the after
noon and Private Robert Smith COM
menced his mOnotonous sentry-go.
AS it happened Private Smith was in
tensely interested and excited by the
presence of the cOnvicts. He had good
reason to be, for he remembered with
a Vlvldness and horror that set him
shuddering how near he had been some
eight years before to just such a deg
radiation as these men were enduring.
He was different parsonage altogeth-
er now-different even in name-to the
slip of a boy who had thought it a dis
tinction to be the boon companion of
SO clever and so dashing a man as
Louis NaudOis. The service had made
man of him, had effected a complete
change in his personal appearance;
Whlle the narrow escape from the con-
victlon for forgery during the period
OF 'audois' influence had so frightened
him from wild ways that there was
now no steadier member of her Majes-
tvs red marines than Private Smith,
sometime Roger Vanbrugh. But in one
respect he did not alter He remained
staGch to a savage hatred against the
man who had certainly brought ruin
into his life. and by scoundrelly insin-
uatiDS manners and methods had al
most sent him into surroundings like
unto those upon which he had gazed
with such fascination ever since the
Ravager had been fioated into dock. 1t
Is true the charge against him at the
Old Bailey had not been sustained
through n defending counsers clever
manipulation of evidence imperfectly
presented by the prosecutions but he
mated Louis VaudOiS no less passion
ately on that account, for he had but to
recall those terrible hours spent before
his judges-the miSerab ble twistingS,
tellingS, and haltingS of the evidence,
and, above all, the business of the
charge, to fill his heart with such fierce