Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-07-20
A LUMP
OF COAL
what Happened to an Engineer
ON the Eve of Crime.

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The cattleboat Goshawks midday
sights had shown her to be in latitude
II degrees "a minutes south by 36 de-
grees ~ minutes west longitude. which
meant that she was coming up to that
dangerous collection of reefs and rocks
known as the Ahrolhos 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
insect, Captain Grimshaw was very
much on the qui viye so long as his
ship was in the neighborhood. For.
being wise master mariner. he de-
pended 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 reasons
relating to navigation. the third engi-
neer did for purposes of his own. In
short. he hoped to earn the ships in
surance money and couple of hun
dred pounds for himself somewhere in
the vicinity. 1t was an excellent local
ity for plausible story about the Cos
hawk running on some uncharted
shoal and sinking as she hacked into
deep water. So when he was relieved
of his half watch at O'Clock by the
chief engineer he went straight to the
engine room mess table for his tea.
carefully forgetting his blue jacket
where 1t hung on rail- on the forward
side Of the engine room bulkhead.
Having partaken hastily and spar
iDgly of the bad tea and potato hash
supplied. he turned into his own room,
locked the door and arranged pair Of
trousers 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 un-
pack it. till at length he reached a
small wooden box with a sliding top
At first sight it did not appear why his
hand should tremble little as be pull
ed the lid aside and drew from its well
wadded cradle very commonplace
lump of coal
II was exactly like any other piece Of
coal, about the size of large fist saF
the mate's-and it had all the jetty
sparkle and shine of the newly broken
article. The only difference between It
and the other humps in the bunkers
was that 100000 worth and few
mems lives lay in its nascent possibili-
ties. On closer inspection. 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
key, which he now tried upon it to see
If everything was in proper working
order, fitted 1t exactly as a matter of
fact.
"Another hour. and it will be pretty
nearly dark. That will be my time" be
thought to himself with anything but a
fiendish chuckle. As yet he was consid-
erably removed from the villain teres
atque rotundus of a sanguinary fiction
OF truth he was conscious at the mo-
ment of curious sickness. a tickling
Ia his stomach which not even the re-
cent potato stew could account for No.
1t was the thought of the coming ap-
palling moment Of flame and death
and the captains daughter.
Course the captains daughter! When
he had entered into this nefarious con-
tract with certain unnamable people at
home he had not counted on this dis
turbing element That he hard heart
ed and hard headed scoundrel as he
was. should feel this immense tender
ness for pretty ailing girl. away with
her father for voyage on account of
her health, was an alteration beyond
all calculation. Was it love? 1t wor-
ried and pricked him. and 1t awakened
old unwelcome chords in the atrophied
sense of fitness which had been his
conscience Yes. it was love. and
bless Alice. the captains daughterl
IF she hadn't been so hard on me
last night. could never have done it. I"
ran his thoughts. waking a fierce ten
derness in his sallow handsome face
IA touch of her hand. and the Cos.
hawk would have stemmed 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 ] don't mind
sending an old fireman or a trimmer to
hotter furnaces But the flop Of the
brutes round her sweet body! It's hor
rible. BY heayens. can't do it. after
aIlr
He bent his forehead against the
raised lid OF his trunk. But I'm talk
ing bethel rot. The cursed thing is cal
cuIated to give the ship half an hour.
There'll be lots of time for everybody
to get clear except the poor fellows
who get blown to atoms from the
stokehole. Then the weather's quiet.
and we're right In the track of ships
certain to be picked up within IS
hours"