The St. Johns herald., 1897-03-06
NJ. S. RAVAGER had met
 with an accident. Steaming

-; 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 warship was in a damaged condition. H. NJ. s. 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 or action in the discharge Of their duties than is ordinarily extend cd to the enforced working guests of the nation. Yet, not wirnstanding this unspOken testimony to thelr compara- tive worth, the commander or the Ray ager was Jess disposed than usual to place trust in them. He was iL 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 tan 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 CUTS 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 height as that All the same, the con- mander might very easily have justi- fled his course of action (had such been necessary by the fact that many of the cOnVicts were working only few yards from the dock side and some what removed from the warder's imme- diate watchfulness; though it would have been possible to show on the other
 
 seryitude was almost completed, these prisoners were perfectly reliable inaS- much as they could not afford to com- nit any indiscretions calculated to Jeopardize their expected early release on ticket-Of-leaye
 These cOnSidera tions did not in any way concern the commander of H. NJ. s. Ravager, however. He was merely resolved to blow the convicts to the mischief, individually or collectively. if thev tried ou any tricks with N'= ~rf-7. and ln the choicest or quartD- --u-cA LL- gliSh gave orders accordingly.
 One of the prisoners was working quite near tn tDe docks. 7a and almost in the track of one of the sentries from the Ravager. Though rather q refined person in appearance, the degradation of his position by no means overWhelm cd him with melancholy or distress. It may have been the consciousness of innocence that enabled him to whistle softly an air which had served the fore and enabled him to view with un- concern the close proximity of his fel- bowman. Perhaps he reflected that those aboard the Ravager were harder worked prisoners than himself and that he could afford them a trife 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 vividness 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 a different parsonage altogeth- CT now-different even in name-to the slip of boy who had thought it dis tinctiOn to be the boon companion of so clever and so daShing a man as Louis VaudOis. The service had made q man of him, had effected a complete 1 change in his personal aDDearanCe; ! while the narrow escape from the con- 1 victiOn for forgery during the period ! Of }audOis' influence had so frightened him from wild ways that there was now no SteH9ior member of her MaieS- . tE --- 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- | uatinG manners and methods had al- l most sent him into surroundings like | unto those upon which he had gazed | with such fascination ever since the | RaVager had been floated into dock. It | Is true the charge against him at the | Old Bailey had not been sustained | through defending counserS clever | manipulation of evidence imperfectly 1 presented by the prosecution; but he hated Louis Naudois no less passion | ately on that account, for he had but to recall those terrible hours spent before his JudgeS-the miserable twistings, | ceilings, and haltings of the evidence, 1 and, above all, the justness of the | charge, to fill his heart with such fierce enmity as even now set his pulses leap ing and boiling with the widest desire |