The Saint Paul globe., 1900-04-02
awake and vlgilant also that two hands

awake and vigilant, also that two hands
paced the forward deck as lookouts.
The air of wind was still northwest; !;
it breathed with just weight enough to
steady the topsails and the foresail. AS
the ship leaned with the languid heaVe
of the sea the sails hanging from the
yards on the caps, and the festooned
clews of the invisible nIainsail, tapped
in strokes of the pinions of mammoth
birds Winging betwixt the masts. The
lap of the brine against the bows, which
were slowly breaking the hidden waters,
saddened the blindness of the night with
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 hclplessness, here is the
sealed eye, the spirit of cropping anxiety
which is a 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 dirty little
crew shouting their CONSERVATION un-
der the foretopmast stay, has been known
to snite 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 Jufia
Armstrong, but 1t 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; mis- 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 bulfs-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 it was as
black and thick as ever after its 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 a VOLTS had for dinner
by squirting down his thrcat!''
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 rest for the eye
but the shadow forward was deeper than
it was aft for up there in the void was
the raven thunder cloud of foresail and
foretopsail, and further forward yet, like
ebon waterspouts soaring from sea to
topmast head, were the midnight dyes Of
the jib and staysail
Hardy found the night lights burning
! brightly, and, going towards the heel of
the bowsprit, he touched the Newfound-
land lookout with his foot. He patted
the invisible shaggy head and passed his
arm around its neck and pressed the
creatures long wet paw to his breast a
token of love and encouragement which
the dog acknowledged by grunt or two
of happiness.
Keep a bright lookout. Sailor" said
Hardy patting the shaggy, invisible head
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 dog
| lay dead upon that forecastle, but he di-
rected them to listen with all their might,
to go often to the headrail and strain
their ears, and they answered, "Ay, ay,
sir,
Very plainly on this forecastle did you