The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-02

awake and vigilant, also that two hands
paced the forward deck as lookouts.
The air of wind was still northwest:
1t breathed with just weight enough to
steady the topsails and the foresail. AS
the ship ieaned with the languid heave
of the sea the sails hanging from the
yards on the caps, and the festooned
clews of the invisible mainsail, tapped
in strokes of the pinions of mammoth
birds winging betwixt the masts. The
lap of the brine against the bows, which
We're slowly breaking the hidden waters,
saddened the blindness of the night with
a note Of supernatural pain and grief
The ship was moving slowly, and as be-
fore, nothing of her was distinguishable
but the dim lustre, smoking in hurrying
streams and wreaths of vapor about the
skylight and about the pinnacle stand.
1t was damp, depressing, heart subdu-
ing. The philosophy of the mariner,
which is one of endurance, and that spe-
cies of submission which is attended
with sea blessings and the profanities Of
the ocean parlor, breaks down in the fog.
Here is the helplessness, here is the
sealed eye, the spirit of cropping anxiety
which is sort Of anguish. 1t is not his
ship or himself that he fears; the emo
tions bred by fog are ahead or abeam,
and it need not be steam, for a dirty little
brig or schooner, with her half-dozen of
a crew shouting their CONSERVATION un-
der the foretopmast stay, has been known
to smite and sink an ocean palace full of
light, of superb machinery, Of saloon
tables glowing with fruit and plate and
populous with diners.
The deck was not to be comfortably
measured In a quarterback walk. in
blackness so dense that if you swerved
by so much as two degrees Of angle of
foot you thumped your breast against the
bulwarks. Hardy laid hold OF the wet
weather wang on the quarter and fell
into reflection, for loneliness breeds
thought, and no man is more lonely than
the officer Of the watch on board a mer-
chairman. His mind went again to Jufla
Armstrong, but it had found an unset
ting fascination in Capt. Layard, and it
quickly returned to him. He could not
doubt that he was a little mad; his ideas
were strange, yet his speculations show
ed thought and culture. He was insane
to one to whom he talked freely, but to
his crew, to whom he would not and did
not talk, he must be the commonplace
"old man of the quarter deck, and in
this way Hardy feared he might prove
dangerous even to tragedy.
The ships bell hung in the wake Of
the galley and a little clock, Illuminated
by bull's-eye lamp, was hung up under a
pent house on timber erection just be-
fore it. A lookout man would walk to the
clock to see the time, and at 10 he struck
-four bells" at which hour 1t was as
black and thick as ever after It's first
coming; the light breeze blew, and the
ship swayed softly through the void.
Hardy made his way forward to see to
the dog. He struck between two men
who were walking the deck, and one NUT
tered: What cheer:"
"By God, my lads" said Hardy you'll
not find out what VOLTS had for dinner
by squirting down his throat!''
There was a faint haze about the fore
scuttle; it came up into the inky thick
ness from the forecastle. lamp. 1t was a
slight relief, and even a rest for the eye,
but the shadow forward was deeper than
1t was aft, for up there in the void was
the raven thunder cloud of foresail and
foretopsail, and further Forward SsI. like
ebon waterspouts soaring from sea to
topmast head, were the midnight dves of
the jib and staysail.
Hardy found the night lights hurnine
brightly, and, going TOWARDS the haaI of
the bowsprit, he touched the Newfour6-
land lookout with his foot, He 0et+ed
the invisible shaggy lead and passed his
arm around Its r.eck and pressed the
toITas 20 1Uns wet paw to his breast, q
~ a. A .o| and encouragement which
of bon5 as knowledged by grunt or two
"R piness.
y .eep a bright lookout, Sailor" said
r 1ardy, patting the shaggy, invisible heaC
/ again, and knowing there were two hu.
man lookouts somewhere about he called
and they answered out Of the black
blackness to the leeward. Well, he could
| not tell them to keep their eyes skinned
| for the sight Of man and even Of dos
lay dead upon that forecastle, but he di
rected them to listen with all their might
to go often to the headrail and strait
! their ears, and they answered, "Ay, ay
| sir
| Very plainly on this f0recastls DID xO'