Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-09-15
DAILY SHORT STORY
Finding the Magnet.
Copyright, 1908. by c. B. Lewis


ed to keep a lookout for signs of her.
Forty days later one day when l was
aloft in the crows nest l sighted
derelict not over four miles away.
What l made out was a craft with all
her masts, yards, bowsprit and stand
ing rigging gone. She was nearly bows
on to me, so 1 could not make out how
badly her bulwarkS were damaged.
The stump of the foremost was about
twenty feet high, while the others had
broken off lower down. The hull was
very buoyant and fiOated high, but, as
was to be expected, it presented
weather beaten and forlorn appear
ance.
On descending to the deck 1 reported
my discovery TO the captain, and an
hour later, the wind being very light,
we were up with the wreck. To our
great surprise the drifting hulk proved
TO be that of the missing Magnet.
From the time OF sighting her to the
moment of heaving to we looked for
signal to show that some one was still
living aboard of her, but none was
shown When we had her under our
lee the crew ran alOft to look down
upon her decks. The fall of the masts
had crushed her bulwarks, but the
damage had been repaired afterward,
though the new work had not been
painted. AS for the hull. 1t was appar-
emily as tight and buOyant as when it
sailed out of Rio. 1t was terribly
weather worn, however, and seemed to
he sailing in a bed of grass.
y musket was brought up and fired
three or four times. and the crew shout
ed in chorus again and again, but as we
got no response the captain ordered Il
boat lowered to go aboard. We board
ed her at the bows, and when l fol-
lowed the captain over the rail braced
my nerves to meet a grewsome specta-
Gle. Nothing living or dead was in
sight, however. Every bit of the wreck
was gray white in color because of long
exposure to the weather. and here and
there about the decks were black spots
of decay. There were a few coils of
rope, a heap of clothing and bedding
little better than black mold, and three
or four water casks had rolled about
with the hull until demolished.
The door of the cooks galley was
held open by it's hook, and we looked in
to find pots and pans hanging up and
the stove in good condition. The Mag
net left Rio with sixty adventures and
a crew of seventeen men. In the deck
house, where the crew was Quartered,
we found bedding and clothing and sea
chests. but nothing to show what had
been the fate of the sailors. The be-
tween decks had been fitted up for the
passengers. l at least expected to find
dead men down there, but no such
spectacle met our eyes. There were
bedding. clothing, firearms, knives, to-
bacco boxes, bottles and jugs and other
stuff which the passengers wanted for
use on the long voyage or after they
had landed. In some of the hunks the
bedding was nicely arranged. but in
others it was rolled in a heap. The
lamps had been taken down and the
oil poured out of them, i0d we found
on nail some wicks which had been
taken from candles. Neither here nor
in the deckhouse above could we find
so much as the heel of n boot or shoe.
From between decks we proceeded
to the cabin. The first sight to greet
our eyes was that of human body
hanging by n rope around its neck
from hook in the ceiling. There was
no Odor emanating from it. The body
had simply shriveled up until it was
no more than a skeleton. On q table
Just beyond where the man was hang
ing was the ships log, and near it an
ink bottle and a pen. The captain took
the log on deck and very soon announc-
Il "a
Of what had happened aboard. We
then made a closer search and found
the ships papers, about 5000 in gold
pieces and bag containing $125 in sill
yer, together with several watches and
other things of value. Neither the
ships flag nor any charts were to be
found, and not a compass, quadrant or
sextant could be turned up. The en-
tries in the log book for the first two
weeks were in the captains handwrit-
ing. Then came an entry in a different
hand, reading:
We found out that they had deceived us
and sent them adrift in one of the boats.
Ten days later another entry in still
another hand referred to some of the
people sailing away in the longboat
After that many weeks elapsed before
there was another entry. The man
now hanging by the neck and swing
ing to and fro like pendulum had
written in a trembling hand:
have been all alone for the last ten
days. and for the last four 1 have tasted
neither food nor drink.
On the next day, or the next, he had
arranged the rope and put an end to
his sufferlngs After the gold hunters
left the Rio they must have found out
that they had been deceived by the
originator of the adventure, and per-
haps blamed the captain and mate as
well and sent the three adrift. After
that followed a storm and the wreck.
OF the people who left in the boats not
one was ever heard of, and the only
one who refused TO leave the hulk
remained but to commit suicide. We
left the wreck 70 drift WHITTIER she
would. bearing the grewsome burden
In her cabin. aud during the next three