Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-06-25

SOth parallel six men were sitting-much
as they had sat. evening after evening, for
months. They had clock, and by it they
divided the hours into day and night. As
a matter of fact. 1t was always night But
the clock said $50. and they called the time
evening.
The hut was built of logs, with an inner
skin OF rough notwithstanding, daubed with
pitch. 1t measured seventeen feet by four
teen; but opposite the door four hunks
two above and two below-took a yard of
the length, and this made the interior ex-
actly square. Each of these hunks had
two doors, with brass latches on the inner
side; that the owner, if he chose, could
shut himself up and go to sleep in sort of
cupboard. But, as rule, he closed one of
them only-that by his feet. The other
swung back, with its brass latch showing.
The men kept these latches in a high state
of polish.
Across the angle of the wall, to the left
of the door, and behind it when 1t opened,
three hammockS Were slung, one above
another. No one slept in the uppermost.
place: and this was merely square hearth
stone raised slightly above the floor, in
the middle of the room. Upon this.
growing mountain of soft gray ash, the fire
burned always. 1t had no chimney, and so
the men lost none of its warmth. The
smoke assembled steadily, and spread itself
the beams ana rOO1-DO9r0S
in dense blue layers But about eighteen
inches below the spring of the roof there
ran a line of small trapdoors with sliding
panels. TO admit the cold air, and below
these the room was almost clear of smoke.
"A newcomers eyes might have smarted,
but these men stitched their clothes and
read In comfort. To keep the up-draft
steady they had plugged every chink and
crevice in the understanding below the
trapdoors with moss. and paved the seams
with pitch. The fire they fed from a stack
OF drift and wreck wood piled to the right
of the door, and fuel for the fetching
strewed the frozen beach outside-whoIe
trees notched into lengths by lumberers'
axes, and washed thither from they knew
not what continent. But the wreck wood
came from their own ship, the j. r. Mac
Neill, which had brought them from Dun
dee.
They were Alexander Williamson of
dundee. better known as the CATER; David
Faed, also of Dundee; George Lashman of
Cardiff, Long Eide of Hayle, in Cornwall
Charles Silchester, otherwise the Snipe, of
Ratchf1e highway or whereabouts, and
Daniel Cooney, shipped at Tromsoe six
weeks before the wreck. an Irish-American
by birth. and of no known address.
The CATER reclined in his bunk, reading
by the light of smoky and evilsmelIing
lamp He had been mate of the ]. R. Mac
patriarch of the party. He possessed three
books-the Bible. Millions Paradise Lost
and an odd volume of The Turkish Spy
Spy. The lamplight glinted on the rim of
his spectacles and on the silvery hairs in
his beard. the slack of which he had tuck
ed under the edge of his blanket. His lips
moved as he read. and now and then he
broke on to glance mildly at Faed and the
Snipe, who Were busy beside the fire with
greasy pack of cards. or to listen to the
peeVlsh grumbling of Lashman in the bunk
beioW him. Lashman had taken to his bed
SIX weeks before with scuryy and COM
Piained necessarily, and, though they hard
~ knew II, these complaints were wearing
his comrades nerves to fiddle strings-do.
Ing the mischief that cold and bitter hard
work and the cruel loneliness had failed to
90 Long Eide lay stretched by the fire in
bundle of skins reading in his only hook
the Bible, open now at the Song of Sole
mon Cooney had finished patching a pair
u cIousess ana rolled himself in his ham
mock whence he stared at the roof and
the moonlight streaming I'D there throuph
the little trap doors and chivying the law
e ers ! ud s.noke- whenever Lashman broke
out INTO fresh quaverings of self pity Coo
ney hands opened and shut again tiTl the
nails dug hard into the palm He groaned
at ..G length, exaSperated beyond endurance
- stow 1t. George Din it all msn,-''
he checked himself sharp and short rn-
pehtant and rebuked by the silence of the
oihers- Ihey were good seamen all. and
tender dealing with a sick shiprnare w.
part of their code.
L-dshnan voice. more querulous than
ever. cut into the silence like a knife:
mat II You've thought it for weeks,
ara now you say it. I've knowed IL ali
along I'm just an incurnbrance and the
sooner you're shut of me the better ssys
you, You needn't to fret. I'll be soon out
Bill" e'iue VI
Easy there. matey." The Snipe glanced
over MS shoulder and laid his cards face
downward Here. let me give the bed a
Snake up 1tll ease yer"
It'll make me quiet you mean. PIuckv
oeal you care about easin' me- any of yer,''
Get out with yer nonsense. Dan didn't
mean me II. Inc Snipe slipped an arm under
low OF skins and gunny bags
then" soy H.
Inc CATER read on. his lips moving 81
iently- Heaven knows how he had ac-
qoired this strayed and stained and dIthv
little deIni-octave with the arms of Saum-
arez on its bookplate: The Sixth Volume
9i letters writ by Turkish Spy. Who
Lived rive and Forty Years Undiscovered
AT faris: Giving an Impartial Account to
the DiVan at Constantinople of the Most
remarkable Transactions of Europe. and
discovering Several Intrigues and Scorers
OF the Christian Courts Especially of that
OF france)." etc. etc. Written originally
In Arabick. Translated into Italian. and
IRON ~ thence into English by the translator
OF the nrst volume The eleventh edition
London: Printed for G.. Strahan s Rail
Iard and score of observation-disclosures
NIL Heaven knows why he read IL:
since since ne understood about one-half and adj
mired less than one-tenth. The oriental
rehections struck him as mainly bias
phemous. But the CATERS religious he
lief marked down nine-tenths of mankind
Tor perdition, which perhaps made him tol-
Grant AT any rate. he read on gravely be-
tween the puts of his short clay
On the 18th of this Moon, the king and
the whole Court were present at Ballet.
representing the grandeur of the French
monarchy About the Middle of the Enter
tdihnent, there was an Antique Dance per
form d by twelve Masqueraders in the sup
pos,d form OF Daemons. But before they
mad advanced far in their Dance, they
FOUND an 1nterloper amongst EN- who BY
INCREASING the Number to thirteen put
them quite out Of their Measure: For thew
practise every Step and Motion beforehand.
TIL they are perfect. Being abash'd there
1ore at the unavoidable Blunders the thir-
teenth Antique made 'em commit they
stood still like Fools. gazing at one an
other: None daring to unmask or speak
q Word: for that would have put ali the
Spectators into a Disorder and Confusion
Cardinal Mazarini (who was the chief Com
triver of these Entertainments to divert
the king from more serious Thoughts)
stood close by the young Monarch, with
the Scheme of the Ballet In his Hand.
knowing therefore that this Dance was
TO consist but of twelve ANTIQUES and
taking notice that there were actually thir-
teen. at first imputed 1t to some Mistake
rdl Uh he