The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1902-12-24

| llltO OuCts llltQ w lOt, anu SuNe IL UP.
1 next tried only to shut my eyes and
keep them shut, once, twice, and the
second time l did it. "God bless old
mother and Sister Lizzie. God keep
them both and forgive me-" That was
all l had time to say in my own heart
before my eyes opened again in spite
of me, and the flame of the candle
flew into Them. flew all over me and
burned up the rest of my thoughts in
an instant.
couldn't hear the fish blowing now.
1 couldn't hear the creak Of the spars.
I couldn't think. 1 couldn't feel the
sweat of my own death agony on my
face. 1 could only look at the heavy
charred top of the wick. 1t swelled,
tottered, bent over to one side, dropped,
redhot at the moment Of its fall, black
and harmless, even before the swing
of the brig had canted 1t over into the
bottom Of the candlestick.
1 caught myself laughing.
Yes, laughing at the safe fall of the
bit of wick. But for the gag 1 should
have screamed with laughter. AS it
was, l shook with it inside me-shook
till the blood was in my head and I
was all but suffocated for want Of
breath. 1 had just sense enough left
to feel that my own horrid laughter at
that awful moment was a sign of my
brain going at last. l had Just sense
enough left to make another struggle
before my mind broke loose like
frightened horse and ran away with
me.
One comforting look at the blink Of
daylight through the hatch was what
l tried for once more. The fight to
force my eyes from the candle and to
get that one look at the daylight was
the hardest had had yet, and 1 lost
the fight. The fame had hold of my
eyes as fast as the lashings had hold
of my hands. l couldn't look away
when l tried that next, for the second
time. There was the wick growing
tall once more. There was the space
of unburned candle between the light
and the slow match shortened to an
inch or less.
How much life did that inch leave
me? Three-quarters of an hour? Half
an hour? Fifty minutes? Twenty min
utes? Steady! An inch of tallow can
die would burn longer than twenty
minutes. An inch of tallow! The no
ton of mans body and soul being
kept together by an inch of tallow
Wonderful! Why, the greatest king
that sits on a throne can't keep a
mans body and soul together, and |
here's an inch Of tallow that can do |
what the king can't There's some |
thing to tell mother when 1 get home |
which will surprise her more than all
the rest OF my voyages put together. l
laughed inwardly again at the thought
of that and shook and swelled and suf-
located myself till the light Of the can |
die leaped in through my eyes and |
licked up the laughter and burned it
out of me and made me all empty and
cold and quiet once more.
Mother and Lizzie-I don't know
when they came back, but they did
come back, not, as it seemed to me.
into my mind this time, but right down
bodily before me in the hold Of the
brig.
Yes, sure enough, there was Lizzie.
Just as light hearted as usual, laughing
at me. Laughing? Well, why not?
Who Is to blame Lizzie for thinking
I'm lying on my back drunk in the eel
lar, with the beer barrels all round
me? Steady! She's crying now, spin
ming round and round in fiery mist,
her hands, screeching out for
help, fainter and fainter, like the
splash of the schooner's sweeps. Gone
burned up in the fiery mist! Mist?
Fire? No; neither one nor the other.
It's mother makes the light-mother
with ten flaming points at the
ends of her fingers and thumbs and
slow matches hanging in punches all
round her face instead Of her own
gray hair; mother in her old armchair.
and the pilots long, skinny hands hang
ing over the back Of the chair. drip
ping with gunpowder No! No gun
powder, no chair, no understanding
but the pilots face, shining redhot.
like sun in the fiery mist, turning
upside down In the fiery mist, running
backward and forward along the slow
match in the fiery mist, spinning mil
lions Of miles in minute in the fiery
mist-spinning itself smaller and small
er into one tiny point, and that point
darting on q sudden straight into nv
head, and then all fire and all mist
no hearing, no seeing, no thinking, no
feeling-the brig, the sea, my own self,
the whole world, all gone together!
After what I've just told you know
nothing and remember nothing till I
woke up, as it seemed to me, in a COM
Portable bed, with two rough and
ready men like myself sitting on each
side of my pillow and gentleman
standing watching me at the foot of
the bed. 1t was about 7 in the morn
ing. My sleep, or what seemed like
my sleep to me, had lasted better than
eight months-I was among nv own
countrymen In the island of Trinidad.
The men at each side Of my pillow
mn II k,,~