The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-23

| captains face. The acute eye Of Hardy
easily saw that some soothing delusion
was In possession Of the man. He ask
ed two or three questions about the ship,
and quite sanely said:
What did you make the latitude and
longitude to be at noon?"
Hardy answered the question.
The captain began to eat hungrily, and
all the time his face gave token Of an
inward content, lifting, indeed, into the
pleasure Of assured expectation; but
somehow there was visible In this Iunatic
web Of emotion threads of cunning clear
ly perceptible to Hardy, who, perhaps, as
the son Of a doctor whose professional
experiences he had often listened to, was
able to see little deeper thanathe vision
of plain seaman could penetrate.
There is no doubt, Mr.. Hardy" sud-
denly said the captain, that ! shall be
able to find Johnny
IT hope SO, sir,'' answered Hardy,
gravely.
II have no doubt" exclaimed the cap
tain, with a sparkle of triumphant cum
ming lighting up his eyes. 'I must be pa
tient and wait, for I've got to hear where
he is"
Hardy was silent.
"It may come to me in a dream" con-
tinued the poor man, "or 1t may be re-
vealed to me in a whisper. believe with
Milton that the air is thronged with mil
lions Of spiritual beings. 1 have in my
watches, when a mate, heard whispers
In the dark! believe in God the Father
Almighty he recited the Apostles
Greed whilst he stroked the head of his
dog, who sat at his side. It's glori-
Gus confession, Mr.. Hardy. What should
make a man more religious than the sea
life? They think us a breed Of bias
| phemers, but to whom is the glory and
the majesty and the power of the Su-
preme unfolded If not to the sailor? We
behold the birth of the day, and witness
the sublimity of the Spirit in the glitter
! ing temples of the east from which the
| sun springs, tosreveal the marvel of the
ocean and the heavens to the sight of
man; and we witness the death of the
day, gorgeous and kingly in its depart
ure over which the angels spread a fu-
neral pail sparkling with the diamonds
/ of the night
He pressed his. hands to his brow and
sighed with that; long tremor in which
| the broken heart often vents itself
The night passed quietly. The breeze
| yet slackened and was blowing a gentle
wind at midnight. There was a. moon
somewhere in the sky and her light fell
! upon the dark waters, and the SIGHT of
the small seas. curling in frosted silver
through the radiance, was as beautiful as
the picture of the ship stemming softly.
her canvas stiEless as carven shields of
marble.
The captain came and went throughout
the night, and no man aboard saving
! Hardy would have dreamt of holding him
mad and Irresponsible Candy when his
watch was up had nothing to report hut
| this: that the skipper would walk the
! deck fast, abruptly halting at the wealth
er rail TO stare at the ocean In pauses
running into minutes then crossing to
the lee-rail to stare again in passages OF
dumb scrutiny. What more conceivahle
! than that the afflicted man should be fun
of the memory of his lc st child, and that
he should break off in his walk to medi
tate upon the mighty grave in whose
| heart his little one was sleeping?
Candy thought thus and SO did the
helmsman, who would find the men he
! talked to about 1t of his own mind when
lie was relieved at the wheel and went
! forward.
And so the night went into the sad light
| of dawn, which frightened into the glory
i of morning full of sunshine The breeze
had shifted three points, and the ship
was sailing slowly with the yards square
and the weather-clew of the mainsail up
Now was to happen the strangest Incl
dent in THIS ships adventure. 1t was
! Nelson who said that nothing is impos,
sible or improbable in sea affairs. There
| is no invention of man that can top the
! grim, the grofeSque, the beautiful, the
sublime, or thee touching facts which the
great mystery of liquid surface yields to
| human experience
/ A seaman, who was sitting aStride Of
the starboard fDrestopsail yard arm, busy
i with marline spike on some job that the
lift needed, haiIedithe deck
"W-here awav?2l shouted Hardy from
| the quarter deck.
i fright ahead, sir,'' answered the man.
i who looked a toy sailor, his white