Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-05-10

when Capn TOwson returned with his
liquid hospitality.
All said he. you're a deep one you
are There you are at the Koe-I-nore
first thing. I've always said III give the
whole shanty To the man that tells me
what it is. an now's your chance, for what
say l stick to-
It's bit dark, Cap'n," 1 began
Oh! have all the light the subject
You can and he chuckled as if at joke.
I'll pull the blind up. There, what do you
make of II nOT?"
To be frank. ! didn't make much 1t
was an irregular. flattish fragment, per-
haps two inches square, and slightly curry
ed inward at top and bottom. A stout
thread held 1T in place against a piece of
miilboard. and the whole was framed and
glazed like d picture. In color it was
grayish blue, and its surface smooth but
dull There was neither inscription nor
mark upon it that l could see.
''Well?" and he shook me by the elbow
with kind of good-humored, triumphant
impatience. 'Wen?'
TT is-that is to say. IT looks like
metal
Cap'n Towson smacked his thigh noisiIy
The shanty's safe for this time. Guess
again. mate
But 1 shook my head. What was the
use of guessing. There was no doubt that
Cap'n TOwsOn's mystery went beyond the
mere composition or the fragment he pre-
served so carefully. and | said as much.
You're right. sir; an, by gum, them
that goes down to the sea in ships see NOR
TAI queer lNHSS- Metal, says you. w ell,
maybe tits; then again. maybe it's glass,
maybe it's pottery, an maybe it's some
thin of all three. that We folks on side
Of the world know nothin' about. / give
you my word / don't know, and | never met
the could tell me. That's a bit o
the south pole. that is" and again he
chuckled, but checked himself. But, by
gum, It was no laughing matter. When /
die, I'm a-goin' to leave it to the British
museum. | s'pose they'll pound it to bits
to what It's made of. Even then they
won't be any the wiser. an there's no more
where that came from-at least. hope not.
IL what think came In 1t. Mix your grog,
an I'll tell you how came by it.
In manner, dye see, there's two yarns
In II. ard / m not sure where to begin.
To spin two yarns at once Is about as bad
as to straddie couple of barebacked
horses Sooner or later they'll part COM
pany. and then where are you? No, I'll
drop the bark Julia X Anderson. five weeks
out from Frisco and bound round the Horn,
much as she DROPPED NE, and that's with
out so much as by your leave. an begin
where she left off with three of us-Tobias
Clark. Joe Brady an myself-adrift in the
Pacific. When / say We were about 10 de-
grees W and five degrees s. you'll know we
were half distance between the Marauesas
and the Galapagos. Thanks be to good
ness, the ocean stood 10 her name an with
the line so near we had no cold to grumble
at
'Bein' there. there was two things we
might do make east to the mainland or
west to the islands. an the drift o. the cur
rent settled il for us. When God almighty
sets the sea drifting and he raised his
hand reverently as If in salute. why, it 8
only a fool that doesn't say Amen an be
thankful. That means dye see we headed
FOR the islands.
"A day an night we had made our
Wrestling. an with the sudden coming o the
morning Brady woke me up.
Glory be" says he shaking me- the
trips over afore It's begun, an good luck
go with II! Look ye there! If that isn't
the markings of land Oh! call me Bull
BY that | had my knee on the after
thwart. an was staring east with my hands
as telescope. The sun was up, an a point
or two to the north, so that the black spot
was plain enough. being more than five
miles away, maybe four. the simmer o. the
Sea in the sun maxim it hard to guess. Too
plain, for turns to Brady and says to him.
sudden like
Bull, Don't you know a derelict when
You see her?
by this time Clark had crawled out Of
the bow, an was on his hands an knees
betwe us, leaning over the stern
Irish is right, an Irish is wrong says
he. which is way them Irish have. She's
blamed hunt. that's what she Is sure
enough; but l guess she's sound enough.
for she rides high. an tight hulk is bet
tern crank cockle-sheu any day In the
week
Well, sir. as I say, 1 was steerin'. an
little by little. as the hulk bulked again the
SKY l liked its looks less and less
Twasn't that it had no masts an was as
bare o bulwarks as a canal barge. That
was right enough in a derelict, an I'd seen
IL from the first, though Brady, in his hot
haste. had missed that they were missin'
No. 1t wasn't that the decks were swept as
clean as If they'd cen whitfield bare with a
5acknife. but 1t was the unchancy look of
her.
such a craft never saw in all my days
She was driftin portside on an as she rose
on the sky she was more like a brave o.
narrow, two-story cottages gone aWash
than decent ship. High an rounded at