Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-03-30

thought he was thief, but
he politely informed me that
he had booked n passage to Antwerp
in this very boat, and he went on to
apologize for going into the engine
room without leave. ] might, he
said, be quite sure that he was doing
nothing wrong. The fellow evidently
understood modern machinery, for he
calmly asked me where the eyaporator
coils had got to. l was so thunder
struck that 1 couldn't reply for tho
moment, for there was the evaporator
dome still in the slings-you see, we
had been so Mortified at our charges
condition when we dragged him out,
that we forgot to put it down again.
Noticing my cmbarras sment, ho
smiled and said: $50 the bird has
flown, eh?" Without waiting for an
answer, the stranger quickly ascended
the engineroom ladder and was rowed
ashore. I did not know what to
make of the affair. 1t was evident
that "Him" had been betrayed, how
ever. At any rate, I though we had
got rid of our mysterious visitor pret.
ty easily, and 1 was complimenting
myself on not being quite such fool
as he had evidently taken me for,
when, to my dismay, on leaving the
Golden Horn behind us, L saw the
same man talking to the captain on
on the poop. Evidently he had
found out that no one had left our
steamer at Constantinople, and so had
hurried back, determined not to be
banked of his prey. We held a has ty
consultation as to what was to be done
with "Him" under these very alarm
ing circumstances. The captain
would undoubtedly search the engine
room and stoke holds, and, if found,
put both "Him" and the Russian
officer, for such the polite stranger
was, on to the first steamer we passed
bound for Russia.
"Put Him in the evaporation
again." said the Second.
"What and boil him to death?"
said !, Mortified.
"Not at all, said No. 2. eve can
run jet of water over it, to keep 1t
cool. The water will only wash the
bilges out, and that they sadly need "
"Good," said the Chief. ''And
we'll raise the dome every night when
we have an opportunity, and let Him
have walk around"
These plans were carried out at
once. "Him" protested violently,
poor chap, bnt we thrnst him into his
CHASTITY tomb, with all the food we
could lay our hands upon. 1t Itssemed
partly like burying man alive, and
partly like thrust:pg him into an oven.
All went we'll till The midday watch
next day, by which time we had left
the mouth of the Dardanelles far be-
hind us. [ fancy our captain didn't
want to start the search till we were
quite beyond the power of the Turks,
who will do anything for Russia in a
matter of this kind.
About two o'clock in the after noon
the captain. accompanied by the Rus
sian, came to the engine-room door,
and said he was about to search the
whole place. L called the Chief,
who was lying down just then,
but before he could come to
luy uSSlStuuCc INC ItuoSluu luu S5Ob
round the evaporator Q had shut off
the water as soon as L saw them com
ing) and, good heavens I saw with
beating heart and feeling of indie
scribable horror he was going to open
the steam valve on to the Goals. and
boil poor "Him" to death. L was
about to shrek out, so great was my
| tn,, ,atnt 1tyho q q
attracted my attention. The Chief
with magnificent presence of mind
had dashed on to the boiler top and
shut off the auxiliary valve, a thing
which I had been told to do, but had
forgotten in the excitement.
Quick as lightning, however, the
Chief did it, and our poor, bottled-up
fugitive was saved. The Russian
police officer deliberately opened the
valve, and then, turning round on me,
laughed sardonically in my face.
There was no longer any doubt in my
mind that the whole of our plot
had somehow been given away to the
Russian police. In his pride at hav-
ing, as he thought, baifled US, how
ever, he forgot to feel the dome
, to see if it were getting hot. ]
should say that the anxious look
on my face had told its own tale.
The officer at any rate had fairly done
his work, for when he had kept me
talking for some time, he said, bland
ly, "Well, Mr.. Engineer, You are now
at liberty to have what is left of that
fellow. Good afternoon. And walk
ing out of the engiue-room, he never
troubled us again that run.
We had good laugh at his expense,
though, when, later on, we again re-
stored Him" to liberty. He was an
awful wreck when we lugged him out
and made a nice bed in the waste
locker, for we now wanted the evapora-
tor to do its own legitimate work. Our
next port of call was Algiers, and we
spent our spare time here in maturing
nice little surprise for our Russian
enemy. We created fine, stalwart-
looking man out of waste, using an
old fire. bar for q backbone. This