The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-10-19

70 have. you come aft and a~k the stew
ard. who'll have ms orders tu dp What T.
necessary
The man went f0rrard without another
word. and Smedley says 10 me. with an air
~ having done something evEriastfngly
smart j calculate. MIR. Foster. that I've
caught the .Scounlrel this time II he's "a
clergy man. he'll be able to-prelch q genuine
sermon. with firstly. and secondly. and TO
conclude. and finally. and one Nxopd more.
Just like our clergyman At Sm~eliryVile. II
he isn't anything but a sailor. he'll ind
some excuse for not preaching According
To- my way O.: thinking. we'vF- 6eari pretty
near the last of his Ridiculous yarn about
being a shanghaIRd preacher
Mep. Sunday morning came, and at 10
O'clock Thompson llih aft. dressed IN a
tailed GOAT that the steward had lent him.
and looking as solemn as the best clergy
man you ever saw. IHc went up TO the
capstan- and he read the service out OF the
prayerhook. without ever once running foul
OF anything. or getting took ahack. He
gave ugt q hymn and started the tune. and
the men liked IL - much that they en-
cured ~. and sang the whole ten or a dozen
verses over again. Then Thompson gave
Ont his text. which was, n / remember the
exact words. y kidnapcr shall be allowed
L. live / don't know exactly where he
said the text was. hut he gave the latitude
and. Longitude OF IL all right. same as a
regular clergyman would do. when ne had
repeated the text twice. looking the old man
straight in the. face as he did SO. he forged
ahead with his sermon. and preached near
" an hour by the clock
There amt any manner. or doubt that II
was a powerful sermon. II was all about
the sin Of kidnapping human beings. and OF
tyranuizing over them with belayinC-pins
and hard words Thu longer the sermon
lasted. the blackcr old Smediey'S face grew.
for he knew wei enough that Thompson
was preaching straight at him. and getting
square with him every word NJ poke.
When the service was over Smedley called
Thompson. and says 10 him. Ny mani l
don't deny that your sermon was ship
shape in a general way. but I want You 10
understand that nobody Is allowed to
preach against ne on my own quarterback.
Thompson looked as II his feelings had
been badly hurt. hut he only heaved a
sigh. and went forrard with his head down.
and his hands ehind his back. FOR all the
world ike a minister who has lust been at
tending "A particularly had funeral. We
heard no more complaints from him for the
rest OF the passage. hut / could see that
Smeiley was getting more and more
worried about the man every day. He.to X
pains to find out what Sthe crew thought
about Thompson. and. Or course. he found
out that they believed Tnompson's yarn.
and calculated that Smedley was a nrst-
class brute for keeping the man in the
fo'c'sle. To tell the truth after hearing
that sermon. / was feeling a little doubt
ful about Thompson myself. Il didn't seem
hardly probable that he could have work Il
his way through the prayerbook and
preached for an hour on end u he hadn't
been regularly trained 10 -the business. Of
course. ] didn't mind wha the men
thought. They were the usual ignorant lot.
and Thompson. who could talk the legs OF
an iron pot. could naturally make them be-
neve anything. Either Thompson was a
Clergyman and had been shamsfully shang-
hailed. or else ne was the ablest liar In the
whole United States. and l was beginning
TO think that perhaps he might be both.
There are clergvnen who have lied and been
disrated for IL. and IL Was Just possible
that Thompson might be one OF them.
Well, sir, We made a good passage get
ting into Liverpool a lit short % thirty