The Press., 1898-03-31

began a new life at that point. All the previous 20 years were plotted out as if they had never been.
 The woman awoke to find herself aboard strange ship with strange men around her. She was a handsome, we'll formed woman, English in looks and speech and about 30 years of age. Her apparel was fine and costly, but she wore no jewelry and had neither purse nor a cardcase. When asked how she came to be at sea ill the gig, what was her name, whether she had visited Ma deira or the Azores, if she lived in Eng land. she could tell nothing absolute ly nothing. She began a new life as she opened her eyes ill the cabin of the Joyce. These things all came to us on deck, because the case was a mystery and because the more it was talked over the sooner a solution might be found. After three or four days both cabin and fo' castle came to the same general con- clusion, which was this: The sailor must have been rowing the woman off to ship or from ship to shore at some of the islands The gig had just been bought by a merchantmen, and her name had not yet been painted on. The boat had been driven ahead of a gale for three or four days and she had not 8 biscuit or drop of water aboard. She must have sighted a score of ships in that great highway, but yet was not picked up. One would have thought the sailor would have borne up better been in good health.
 That's the way we figured it out, and it looked reasonable enough, and of course the right thing to do was to leave the woman at Trinidad and report the case as widely as possible. Queerly enough, she fought and baff1ed this plan. Our captain was 8 good looking man, and, feeling that she owed him her life and doubtless being rather TO- mantle by nature what did she do but fall in love with him! That is only half the story He fell head over heels in love with her. The position was most embarrassing for him, however. All of us were agreed that the woman was or had been a wife, though she had no fin ger ring to prove it, The chances were that she had husband somewhere. And wouldn't the man search the whole world over to find and regain her? Cap tain Clark would not dare marry her under the circumstances. It was crimi- nal even to love her. I think he saw things as an honorable man should, and yet he could not help loving her. When English consul, placed the woman in the household of friend and then sail ed for the port of New York.
 The story of our picking up the living and the dead was published far and wide. First and last it must have ap- peared in 500 newspapers, and sailors talked of it in thousand ships. Three months passed before we returned to Trinidad but no one had identified the woman. She had to have name, and they had given her that of Mrs. Rescue. She was we'll and happy and glad to see her lover, and talk and argue as he would he could not convince her that any other man might have claim on her. She simply repudiated the past. We got a charter for France, went to London in ballast and thence got 6 freight to Demerara. While the ship was discharging cargo Captain Clark went up to Trinidad. There was no news and no change. The publication of that story all over the world had not solved the mystery. No husband had come forward no relatives had written. AS our ship had been chartered to run between New York and Liverpool, Cap tain Clark decided to take Mrs. Rescue home with him, and this was done, and she was placed i'll the family of his sis ter on Long Island. I never saw her after the trip across, but can tell you what followed.
 When almost three years had elapsed and there was still no news, the two were married. The woman had not re- covered one single point of memory. She was stranger to herself. She had no country, no relatives, no name ex- | cept by chance. After marriage the cap- tain left the sea and went into the ship chandlery business in Brooklyn. One l evening, two years after the wedding, the captain of an English tramp steamer just in called to ask for some informa- tion. He complained of not being we'll, and, one thing leading to another, he finally related a tale of woe. Several years before, while his ship was at the Azores, his wife, who had been sent ashore in the morning, attempted to re- turn about nightfall and just as squall was coming up. The boat was upset and the occupants lost. They found neither the boat nor the bodies, but there wasn t the least doubt of the calamity. The loss of the wife so affected the husband that he was ill of brain fever for months, and he had never read line of her res cue in midocean. There was the hus- band at last, and Captain Clark realized that he had rights before him. He had married the woman on chance, and chance had gone against him. They were alone in the office, and perhaps he thought of killing the man who had come to break up his happy home. Il was only step to the edge of the slip, and perhaps he thought of suicide as the best way out. The climax was a curious one, but in keeping. The strange captain, who had given his name as Burke, was looking at Captain Clark in 8 puzzled way and wondering why he should be so affected by the story when a yacht anchor swinging from a beam above his head parted its fastenings and fell upon him and crushed him to the floor, and though he did not die for two or three days he never spoke again.
 c. B. LEWIS | Making 1t Clear.
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