The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-31
A Srrang Story @f Lowe. and Adj
venture IN RevuiztSunry DAYS.
e-r.-nL ~--~
HAMELEN SEARS



tfouTeaz booking at nothing. thinking
thinking for hours days, weeks az a
time, without speakipgs others to walk
aimleasly about over and among their
fellows. I lay close By the wall trying to
get such afr as could, now and then
frozen with ehnls and with pangs Of lIan-
ger gripping me. But no mersel Of food
came to us that day, ana only by the
generosity Of a man with whefh talk
ed had 1 a bit Of foul bread and salt
beef.
So came the night, without change ex-
cept for q shade less light In the room.
But slept, as 1 had during the aayi In
doze that seemed oven to ME wrong and
unnatural, and when l woke sumew here
In the early hours, my face and body
burned with q fever and the undressed
wound gave me terrible pain
l pitched about while ON a bit Of
straw had got Into my possessleni and
then, turning to one hear me- saldi
Are You awake, my fFlendT'
Always said the ether Immediately.
DO you know aught Of the ehirur-
geons worlx7''
mo, man, that do not. What is it?'
IT have a wound here" answered T..
And If I could but get my clothes away
from IT, twould be less trouble"
Let the cloth stick to It, lad" said he.
THE room Is full of typhus and small
pox. and t were better to keep IL closed.
But walt till daylight when we can see
1t BETTER
So l lay wide awake fer several hours
till tho light came slowly In, my thoughts
/ running riot at times. 80 that l thought
that might go out of my head. Then
would go over every hour Of my life
with her, from the wet night and the
broken eoaeh-wheel to that moment at
the princes soiree when she turned
from me and my heart died within me.
It was all a matter of three short weeks,
yet l could not fancy my existence be-
fore 1t, could not remember much of what
I had thought or felt for twenty years
And then, fancy running on, I would pre-
sent to myself, as enc will, thousands OF
impossible IFS"
II I had now the chance of going OUT
freely into the open air and away from
the city, but to do that must give up
must not know all-my short three weeks
with her, would do it7 And knew In
my heart that would lie down on the
dirty straw and shake my head. Yet
how could she doubt me7 What was she
thinking doing, feeling now, and now
And then what had become of Curtis and
Acton and that foul specimen of man
hood that went with them7 What of the
expedition towards Newport And SO
back again to DEBORAH r4.-lipse and
round her and round her In a circle OF
thought with the fever climbing Into
my veins all night long.
| At daybreak the guards came, bring
ing each man six days rations, and we
were ordered to form in line and march
past, taking our shore one by one. When
1t came to my turn / found lying In my
hand about two pounds of raw pork and
-A.-l.4 = l. And Afah-
ing my friend, we got an iron bucket
wherewith one could heat the water SO
we cooked and ate our meal, saving only
a bit of water with which the kind friend
helped mo get my shirt away from the
wound. And then, tearing e linen up
into ribbons, he wound 1t tight around
my body for a bandage.
As he did SO, his eye frightened a bit.
ct knew a queer bird up the river who
was part chirurgeon and part man of
God-though mostly pirate" said he,
who showed me how thus to tie band
age" / paid little heed to what the man
said, for just then a faintness from the
pain took me. Tie knew somewhat OF
all three trades. A strange beast was
old Marvinl I wonder II he Is hung yet?'
and he smiled quietly to himself
Marvin" said I, suddenly, "wherer
up above Tarrytown in the neutral
country. I was there myself"
Marvin, say you, MANI" cried I again
what sort?"
"a sober villain; solemn of face, but
with the capacity for gallons of good ale
but why? Do you know him?'
Aye, well But is he then of a fact a
minister of the church," and my wound
and the old prison were forgotten as
waited for his answer.
TRUE enough Though, God knows, he
does more honour to hell and its king
| the devil"
'Marvin-Jim Marvin
AYE, lad, old Jim Marvinl You can
see him any day at Gowan's Tavern
What is 1t? Is the cut paining YER
The cutl What pain could touch me
just then? Pain or no pain, dead Oh
alive, one thing las sure There lived
no longer on this earth Deborah Phil.
ipse. But a Deborah there was-aye,
should ever see her again?
So the days passed on, one like anoth-
er, except that the heat ended and grad
uaIly the cold came on, first comfort
| to US all, then disagreeable, and finally
terrible. For we had no sign of fire, ex-
cept perhaps once a week for our boil
ing water. This, too, stopped when, as
I inferred, the want of wood in the town
took what little we were before allowed.
This cold got into my never healing
wound and began to grow too weak to
stand at all. and was so sitting against
the wall one day, close to some new-made
friends, that we might keep one another
warm, when some forty new prisoners
arrived; and I. lying back win my head
to the wall and my eyes closed, heard
one telling some of my companions that
he came from Tappan.
when, manY' I asked, leaning for
ward quicker than I thought could.
But three days ago."
TELL me then, If you can, back two
months now. about the middle Of Octo-
Der, did Clinton move on Newport?'
THAT he did. but got no further thar