The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-08-02
A LUMP OF COAL.
TFrom the London star

grees 42 minutes west longitude, which
meant that she was coming up to that
dangerous collection of reefs and rocks
known as the Abrolhos Shoals. The
chart which covered them was from a
French survey in 1861, and as any
amount of unrecorded changes might
have been wrought since then by that
minute mason of the deep, the coral in
sect, Captain Grimshaw was very much
on the qui vive so long as his ship was
in the neighborhood. For, being wise
MASTER mariner, he depended but little
on either the chart or the Abrolhos
Light itself.
But if the captain did not fancy this
particular patch of the sea for rea-
sons relating to navigation, the third
engineer did for purposes of his own.
In short, he hoped to earn the ships
insurance money and a couple of hun
Cred pounds for himself some where in
the vicinity. 1t was an excellent local
ity for a plausible story about the
Goshawk running on some uncharted
shoal and sinking as she backed into
deep water So when he was relieved
of his half watch at 6 O'Clock by the
chief engineer, he went straight to the
engine room mess table for his tea,
carefully forgetting his blue jacket
where it hung on a, rail on the forward
side of the engine room bulkhead. Hav-
ing partaken hastily and sparingly Of
the bad tea and potato hash supplied.
he turned into his own room, locked
the door, and arranged a pair of trous-
ers to hang so that one of the legs
might cover the keyhole Then he
knelt, though not exactly in prayer be-
side his sea. chest, and proceeded to
unpack 1t, till at length he reached a
small wooden box with a sliding top.
At first sight it did not appear why
his hand should treTnble a little as he
pulled the lid aside and drew from it's
well-wadded cradle a very common
place lump of coal.
1t was exactly like any other piece of
COAL about the size of a large hst-say
the mates-and it had all the jetty
sparkle and shine of the newly broken
article. The only difference between it
and the other Jumps in the bunkers
was that $40, 600 worth and a few men s
lives lay in its nascent possibilities.
On closer inspection, however, it re-
vealed one little popularity, a little
square projection such as any lady or
gentleman who does not use a stem
winder may see in his watch any night
of the week. Tom Tudor's own watch
ley which he now tried upon it to see
if everything was in proper working
order, fitted it exactly as a matter of
fact.
Another hour and it will be pretty
nearly dark. That will be my time,
he thought to himself with anything
but a fiendish chuckle. AS yet he was
considerably removed from the villain
teres a,tque rotundus of a, sanguinary
fiction. OF a truth he was conscious
at the moment of a curious sickness,
tickling in his stomach which not even
the recent potato stew could account
coming appalling moment of flame and
death-and the captains daughter.
Curse the captains daughterl When
he had entered into this nefariouS con-
tract with certain unnamable people
at home he had not counted on this
disturbing element. That he, hard
hearted and hard-headed scoundrel that
he was, should feel this immense ten
derness for a pretty ailing girl, away
with her father for a voyage on account
of her health, was an alteration beyond
all calculation. Was it love? It Wor-
ried and pricked him, and it awakened
old, unwelcone chords in the atrophied
sense of fitness which had been his
conscience. Yes, it was love, and
bless Alice, the captains daughter!
If she hadn't been so hard on me
last night could never have done it,
ran his thoughts, waking a fierce ten
derness in his sallow handsome face.
"a touch of her hand and the Cos
hawk would have steamed the Thames
river again! Suppose the ship sank in
a couple of minutes, before they had
time to lower the boats! There are
sharks about! I don't mind sending an
old fireman or a trimmer to hotter fur
naces. But the flop Of the brutes around
her sweet body It's horrible. BY heav-
ems, I can't do it, after a11!''
He bent his forehead against the rails
ed lid of his trunk. But I'm talking
bethel rot. The cursed thing is calcu-
lated to give the ship half an hour.
There'n be lots of time for everybody
to get clear except the poor fellows
who get blown to atoms from the stoke
hole. Then the weather's quiet and
we're right in the track of ships-cer-
tain to be picked up within forty-eight
hours
He handled the black mass on his An
'sFive turns of the key, and then five
minutes before the explosion, every
turn a minutei If I push the Job
job through I'll never tackle another.
God of heaven, I wish we were all safe
in the boats!"
He replaced the grim handful Of doom
in its cradle again, replaced it in its
box, and went up to the windy deck.
The heat below laid a fiery hand on his
throat and brain.
A slice of young moon, with a few at
tendant stars, slowly climbed into lun1-
nance against the last ardors of the
sunset, as he leaned modify against
the deckhouse.
How the misery hour caught up its
golden coin of minutes and fed!
"Time-time, time-time, time-time,"
sang the watch bell monstrously soon.
It's got to be done!" ne muttered
between his locked teeth, as he stepped
unsteadily out of the moonlight along
the engine room passage, once more I'M
packed the fatal lump, turned the key
five times, and with a flying heart
descended the steel ladder to the engine
room, the bomb ticking in the loose
breast of his shirt as he went.
'Hullo Tudor. Forgot your jacket?''
sang out the chief as he stopped over
the rails and tried the heat of his bear
ings.
Aye replied the third engineer, as
he passed.
In the fierce tunnel Of light from one
of the open furnaces the nude stokers,
and a trimmer piling forward the coal
to them from behind, seemed like
gnomes of some eastern legend. Poor
devils! A chatter like the sound of q
sewing machine from the thing in his
breast seemed to chant their requiem.
He slipped the black abortion below
an end of one of the boilers, caught up
his jacket and ran on deck. Under the
shadow of one of the after Iifeboats he
ctr SfaI~