The Press., 1901-03-21

or the commanding officer. When the
surgeon passed by the row OF marines
drawn up In their mastering clothes.
eyes straight ahead. I observed that
lie gave one sharp glance at Kingsley.
and that was all.
Below. 10 my stateroom. after in.
spection the surgeon looked AT the out
OF the tail of his eye.
Have you noticed that marine,
apothecaryT he asked me.
yes, SIR replied.
Hum! I'm glad to be corroborat
ed, yet was sure couldn't have been
mistaken said the surgeon. Better
have an extra eye 10 your store OF
morphia. Keep 1t under cover
However. Kingsley didn't become
incapable. He was an admirable SOL
dier Of the sea. He was always right
on the minute. top notcher on guard
duty. a spick and span man always.
The marine officer in charge Of the
guard never. Of course, suspected that
there was anything wrong about Kings
ley. and he thought so much Of the
mans faithfulness that he had him
made corporal q couple Of months
after Kingsley Joined US. Kingsley
was always under the influence Of the
drug Of course. He never ran out of
the stuff. You know how morphine
sla yes provide against that awful con-
tingency. He kept on edge all the
time and never appeared to overshoot
his limit. Kingsley surely was man
of powerful self control in that respect.
However. knew that 1t would get
him In time and throw him. Ii always
does throw Its victims II they give II
rope enough. you know. and morphine
is one of those things that just de-
mands all the rope 1t wants.
kingsley knew by intuition that
knew about his habit. and he avoided
me very deliberately. One noon hour.
however, ! happened to be smoking
pipe at the gangway. Kingsley was
looking out over the bea utiful harbor
Of Acapulco in his dreamy. dopy way
his way. that Is to say. when he was
off duty. Well. l edged over to Kings
ley. We were quite apart from the
rest of the men.
"'Bucko.' said I In as kindly a way
as could felt sorry for Kingsley.
who was most obviously a gentleman
fact. It'll nail you. It's a game you
can't beat. Nobody can beat it. can
reduce you gradually eighth of grain
a day. Better let me take hold Of you
It'll be on the quiet
""rhat's good Of you. pal. replied
Kingsley. never taking his eyes away
from the horizon to look at me. I won't
forget 1t. but I've tried reducing be-
fore. am going to make the fight
alone. I'm going to hang on III II kills
me. Death is only little thing. any
how. compared to this slavery. When
we like away from here for the islands
next week. I'm going 70 heave all I've
got Of the stuff over the side Then
it'll be me or the powder. I'll do the
best know. I'll be trying to win. any
how. Much obliged to you all the
same
"'Bad job breaking it of all of sud-
den I told him. Dangerous, at that.
Yet you're pretty husky looking fell
low. You may beat it.
81 was pretty skeptical about 1t, but
| didn't want to discourage him. Well,
the mudhook came up ten days later,
and away we went for Honolulu. We
started in the morning. l didn't see
Kingsley until along toward night. He
looked pretty bad too. I knew that he
was making the fight.
'Kingsley'll be coming to me for the
stuff tonight I thought. He's been
taking 80 or 40 grains a day. and he
won't be able to stand 1t. But I'll be
beached IL it's found out that I've Civ
en- him a sixteenth Of a grain. I'm sor-
ry for Kingsley, but I wouldn't be able
to help him out
well. Kingsley didn't come to me
until along toward 2 o'clock on the fol-
lowing morning.
Just an Injection he whispered to
me hoarsely. I'm going insane
II couldn't, and told Kingsley 80 as
decently as could. 1t hurt me to turn
him down, but couldn't take the
chance. He shuddered all over and
staggered out Of my little storeroom.
Right for'ard Of my storeroom was
the storeroom Of Wang Woo, the skip
per's steward. Wang. Of course, hit
the pipe. Most Cinnamon in the navy
do in the midnight privacy Of their
storerooms, but no Official notice is tax
en- Of that. It's looked upon as part Of
the Chinaman's game. Well. Kingsley
Woo was cooking himself O pill In the
dark. heard Kingsley beg the Chink
for little Of the gummy stuff. offering
to give up months wages for it. Woo
passed him up, and Kingsley STUN
bled forward, almost mad. as he had a
right to be. He'd already have been
insane had it not been for his great
natural strength.
AT 8 o'clock that morning, the hour
Of sick call. saw Kingsley come down
the after ladder, looking frightful. His
face was drawn to knot from his suf-
ferings. One Of the gun divisions was
breaking out the after magazines, the
matches to which were right at the foot
of the after ladders. The matches were
wide open. Kingsley. coming down the
after ladder, saw that they were open.
But Wang Woo, coming around from
the wardroom at little lope to answer
the call of the shippers messenger
above, was looking aloft through the
main hatch to see the messenger boy.
and he didn't see the open magazine
patches. Well. he had one foot already
over one of the patches and was just
about to plunge to the bottom Of the
fixed ammunition magazine when the
collar of his blouse was gripped by the
hand of a man whose muscles were
like iron. mean Kingsley, Kingsley
raised Wang Woo bodily to the ladder