Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-09-09

their miseries, fell upon his weak and
trembling knees and raised his hands
in thankfulness and prayer to the
Almighty. Alas! it was not land, but
the omnibus forerunner of the fierce
and sweeping midequatorial gale,
which lay yelled behind. In less than
half an hour it came upon and smote
them with savage fury, and the little
boat was running before q bowling
gale aud maddened, foam whipped
sea.
And then it happened that, ill and
suffering as he was from the agonies
OF hunger and thirst, the heroic ma
ture of old "Boston Ned" came out,
and his bold sailcr's heart cheered
and encouraged his wretched, despair
ing companions. All that night, and
for the greater part of the following
day, he stood in the stern sheets,
grasping the bending steer oar as the
boat swayed and surged along before
the gale, and constantly watching lest
she should breach to and smother in
the roaring seas The others lay in
the bottom, feebly bailing out the
water, encouraged, urged and driven
to that exertion by the gallant old
American seaman.
Towards noon the wind moderated;
in the afternoon it died away alto
gether, and again the boat lay rising
and falling to the long Pacific swell,
and "Boston Ned" flung his exhaust
ed frame down in the stern sheets and
slept.
Again the blood-red sun leaped
from sea of CLASSY smoothness-for
the swell had subsidized during the
highland again the wretched men
looked into each others dreadful
faces and mutely asked what was to
be done. How should they head the
boat? Withouta compass they might as
we'll steer one way as another, for none of
them knew even approximately the
course for the nearest land. Search
the cloudless vault of blue above, or
scan the shimmering sea-rim till their
aching eyes dropped from out their
following sockets, there was no clue.
Twenty days out the last particle
Of food and water had been consumed,
and though the boat was now steer
ing as near westward rs old Ned could
Judge, before gentle southeast
trade, madness and despair were COM
ing quickly upon them, and on the
twenty-third day two of the five
miserable creatures began to drink
copiously of salt water-the drink of
death.
Renton, though he had suffered to
the bitter full from the agonies of
body and mind endured by his ship
mates, was not one of these, and by u
merciful Providence remained sane
enough to turn his face away from the
water. But, as he lay crouched in q
heap in the bottom of the boat, with
a silent prayer in his heart to his
Creator to quickly end his suiTerings,
he heard "Boston Ned" and the
only remaining sane man except him.
self, muttering hoarsely together and
looking sometimes at him and some
times at the two almost dying men
who lay moaning beside him. Presently
the man who was talking to Ned,
pulled out OF his blanket-which lay
in the stern sheets-a razor, and
turning his back to Renton, began
stropping it upon the sole of his
boot, and even ''Boston Ned" himself
looked with awful eyes and blood
baked, twitching lips upon the young
ster.
The lad saw what was coming, and
as quickly as possible made his way
forward aud sat there, with his eyes
fixed upon the two men aft, waiting
for the struggle which he thought
must soon begin. All that day and
the night he sat and watched, deter
mined to make fight for tho little
life which remained in him, and Ned
and the other man at times still NUT
tered and eyed him wollishly.
And so, on and on, these seeming
outcasts of Gods mercy sailed before
the warm breath of the southeast
trade wind, above them the blazing
tropic sun, around them the wide
sailless expanse OF the blue Pacific,
unbroken in its dreadful loneliness
except for a gray-winged BOBBY or
focks of whale birds floating upon
its gentle swell, and within their all
but deadened hearts naught but grim
despair and dulled sense of coming
dissolution.
As he sat thus, supp orting his
swollen head upon his skeleton hands,
Renton saw something astern moving
slowly after the boat--something that
he knew was waiting and following
for the awful deed to be done, so that
it, too, might share in the dreadful
feast.
Raising his bony arm, he pointed
toward the moving fin. To him a
shark meant no added horror or
danger to their position, but possibly
deliverance. Boston Ned" and the
other man first looked at the coming
shark, and then with sunken eyes
again turned to Renton. Voices none
of them had, and Renton's parched
tongue could not articulate but with
signs and lip movements he tried to
make the other two men understand.
No shark hook had they, nor if
they had had one had they anything
with which to bait it. But Renton,
crawling off, picked up the harpoon,
placed it in Boston Ned's" hands,
and motioned to him to stand by.
Then, with eager, trembling hands,
he stripped from his legs the shreds
of trousers which remained on them,
and, sitting upon the gunwale of the
boat, hung one limb over and let it
trail in the water.
Three times the shark came up, and
thrice Ned prepared to strike, but each
time the horrid ranger of the seas
turned aside and dived as 1T caught
sight of the waiting figure with weap-
on poised above. But Mt last hunger
prevailed, and swimming slowly up
till within few yards of the boat, it
made sudden dash for the bait,
4 I'll