The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1899-02-01

Odessa in October, 1889, and the
Chief. the Fourth, and myself II was
acting as third engineer at the time)
were ashore one evening, in ship
chandlef's shop, in company with
many other engineers of different
steamers lying in the port. The pro-
prietof Of this establishment Whom
for the purpose Of this tale will call
George Dimetri) was a man we'll
known to sesfarers trading to that part
OF the world.
Several of those present, who knew
the Greek betteA@than 1 did, had re-
marked that he seemed to be in most
uncomfortable mood that night, and
he had evidently told them the cause
Of his troubles, for much whispering
had been going on between the Eng
lishmen. .Our Chief, who appeared
to be "in the know" later on proposed
that We should go for a walk, in the
course Of which he explained that q
certain Nihilist, who had been cap
tured by the Russian Government,
aud sent to Odessa for transportation
to Siberia, in one of the volunteer
feet,s had escaped, and was actually
at Dimetri's shop in hiding. We were
told, further more. that Dimetri had
be8gsd us Englishmen to get the man
safely out Of the country.
the Chief asked our opinion on the
matter; sounded us, in fact, aud. 1,
for one, was strongly against having
anything to do with the affair. I
cannot say whether 1 was won over
by the pitiful yarn that was spun
about tho poor fellows condition, or
the fact that it was understood that
money was no object; suffice it to say,
that at last we three engineers con-
sented to smuggle this Nihilist to
England. 1t had been decided that
the representatives of those steamers
ia port should draw lots as to which
one was to undertake the risk, for
risk it undoubtedly was. We fully
understood that to be caught aiding
this man would be a serious business
for us.
Well, our Chief lost the toss, and
we had to arrange the matter as best
we could. may mention here that
the looks Of the fugitive himself 1--WE
could never grasp his crack jaw name,
and so always referred to- him as
"Him') were not by any means pre-.
possessing, and so repelled was l
when l first crawled into the hole un-
der Dimetri's roof, and was intro
duced to the man as one OF his would
be sayiours, could have recalled my |
decision there and then to aid and |
abet his escape. You see, there's no
getting away from facts. In fiction |
the fugitive would be really noble
looking fellow, possessed of every at
tribute that commands ones admira-
ti0n.
Him." however, was fully six feet |
in height, with shaggy head OF |
hair, reminding one of the tradi-
tional pictures Of poets; beard that
covered the whole OF his chest, and
had apparently never been trimmed,
and face that generally seemed never
to have known the cleansing proper
ties of soap. His clothes, which had
evidently at one time been Dimetri's,
and were ridicuously too small all
round, by no means improved his APP
pearance. Such were our first impress
sions ofour romantic hero. In dismay,
we decided to leave "Him" where he
was, for that night, at any rate, and
hold a consultation with our second
engineer. who was aboard the ship,
before doing anything further in the
matter. nc
Perhaps it would be as wellsto state
here how matters stood in our steam
or. The c. was new vessel,
owned by Greek firm, and flying the
Greek flag. The whole of the crew,
With the exception of the four ehgin-
sers, were 2zlaks, aud we were put
1n be builders of the ma !
,h Unknown north-country (
cir guarantee men.
T, four English engineer, all /
'ellow-townsmen, and all likely to be {
on this same steamer for
'bout six months only, and then to re-
urn to the same engine-shop together,
we're more than friends. As fact, we q
we're more like four brothers. There .
ore, when we told our second engin- {
'er what had occurred, he readily ac-
Iuiesced, and we all four sat down in G
he mess-room and worked the prob
EN- out. l will not weary you with t
IN epitome Of the suggestions offered; I
ct it suffice to say we decided that l
he best place to stow Him" was in /
he evaporator. i
Without diving into technicalities, q
ct me say that the evaporator is a I
Machine used in modern marine en- S
ineering for making fresh water lin u
he form of vapor) by boiling salt U
Vater. A powerful Jet Of steam is run c
hrough series of coils. When the C
ome is raised, these coils can be re- s
moved, and then a cylindrical space n
left, some six feet in height by three
eet six inches in diameter. OF course,
be machine can be beworked or left un- 9
sed as required, all ingress of steam &
nd water being regulated by valves. \
When we started work as usual s
ext morning at seven o'clock. 1 got q
" men to raise the dome within; we a
hen took out the coils, which, when Il
Tipped, 4 put carefully away in the a