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

Chief, the Fourth, and myself II was
acting as third engineer at the time)
were ashore one evening, in a ship
chandlet's shop, in company with
many other engineers of different
steamers lying in the port. The pro-
prietor Of this establishment Whom
for the purpose Of this tale / will call
George Dimetri) was a man well
known to seafarers trading to that part
OF the world.
Several Of those present, who knew
the Greek betteAsthan I 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 lin the know" later on proposed
that we should go for walk, in the
course Of which he explained that q
certain Nihilist, who had been cap
tured by the Russian Government,
and sent to Odessa for transportation
to Siberia, in one of the volunteer
feetss had escaped, and was actually
at Dimetri's shop in hiding We were
told, further more. that Dimetri had
'beggsd us Englishmen to get the man
safely out of the country.
The Chief asked our opinion on the
matter; sounded us, in fact, and. I,
for one, was strongly against having
anything to do with the affair.
cannot say whether 1 was won over
by the pitiful yarn that was spun
about the 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
il port should draw lots as - which
one was to undertake the r..6, for
risk it undoubtedly was. We fully
understood that to be caught aiding
this man would be serious business
for us.
Well, our Chief lost the toss, and
we had to arrange the matter as best
we could. 4 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
when 1 first crawled into the hole un-
der Dimetri's roof, and was intro
duced to the man as one OF his would
be saviours, l 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-
tion.
Him." however, was fully six feet
in height, with a 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 ap-
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. 10
Perhaps it would be as we'll to state
here how matters stood in our steam
er. The c. was a new vessel,
owned by Greek firm, and flying the
Greek flag. The whole of the crew,
with the exception of the four engin-
GERS, were Greeks, aud we were put
on board by the builders of the ma
chinery, a well-known north-country
firm, as their guarantee men.
Now, four English engineer, all
fellow-townsmen, and all likely to be
employed on this same steamer for
about six months only, and then to re-
turn to the same engine-shop together,
were more than friends. AS fact, we
were more like four brothers. There
fore, when we told our second engin-
eer what had occurred, he readily ac-
quiesced, and we all four sat down in
the mess-room and worked the prob
lem out. 1 will not weary you with
an epitome Of the suggestions offered;
let it suffice to say we decided that
the. best place to stow "Him" was in
the evaporator.
Without diving into technicalities,
let me say that the evaporator is
machine used in modern marine en-
gineering for making fresh water lin
the form of vapor) by boiling salt
water. A powerful jet of steam is run
through series of coils. When the
dome is raised, these coils can be re-
moved, and then a cylindrical space
is left, some six feet in height by three
feet six inches in diameter. OF course,
the machine can be worked or left un-
used as required, all ingress of steam
and water being regulated by valves.
When we started work as usual
next morning at seven o'clock, 1 got
my men to raise the dome within; we
then took out the coils, which, when
clipped, l put carefully away in the
locker in the Chiefs cabin. At dinner