Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-11-09

have spell of frantic humping at the hatchway. But the sounds came back muffied, as if the hatch were buried deep. and if they were heard in the wheel house nobody seemed to heed.
 It was on the fourth night or day they hardly knew which, when the weather had moderated little, that Burton thought he heard muttering in the di- rection of the stewards pantry, and saw a light over the tops of the casks.
 Hello, there, doctor!" he called
 Then the sailor joined in. "Hi, doc! Ahoy, there!" He tried to creep toward the light between the decking and the tops of the casks.
 ''Wha' dat? Who dar?" questioned the steward, Demerara negro.
 "Mr Burton and Fred" replied the sailor, in tone that must have sounded sepulchral.
 "Wow-oo!" moaned the steward. ''I's done been called by dead man." Then came the sound of fall and the jingle of glass.
 He's flew" the sailor reported to Burton, in disgust. Took me for a ghost, I reckon"
 Say he added, moment later, T smell smoke! Say, that fool dropped his lantern! He's set the ship afire!"
 The horror of the situation was in stantly apparent. Not so the means of escape.
 Fred, we must try to reach the fire and put it out!" Burton cried.
 "No use, sir. can't crawl any near CT, and you're fatter than am. Besides, we haven't anything to put it out with. We'd be roasted"
 But we'll be suffocated, anyway!"
 Have to stand it, sir, fit happens so."
 But now they heard on deck the roar of voices and trampling of feet that told that the alarm had been given.
 Commands of officers and answers of seamen showed by the tone that they knew they must battle for life
 No flames had reached the second mate and the sailor as yet, but the heat in the lazaret was rapidly becoming stifing and the smoke seemed to search the farthest corners of their aching lungs.
 They breathed with difficulty through folds of their shirt-sleeves, which they had torn off and wet with mineral water.
 Roberts was first to succumb. As he sank insensible, there were sounds at the , hatchway that foreshadowed the lifting of the hatch, and Burton dragged his companion near 1t.
 Suddenly the hatch was removed An avalanche of hose came through it. The boatswain set his foot on the first step of the ladder.
 Take Roberts on deck first!" Burton cried.
 But with single glance below, the bsatswain yelled and fled!
 Burton seized the nozzle of the hose His laboYing lungs and smarting eyes forgotten, he dragged it forward and df- rected stream toward the flames.
 The water came just in time to ward them from an oil-barrel. Another stream, poured through the sliding door of the stewards pantry, helped to win the fight. Soon it was over
 Burton threw down the hose and tried to crawl back to the hatchway
 But now it was his turn to give out, and Roberts, whom the fresh air had restored to consciousness, pushed and pulled, coaxed and lifted him toward the deck. There the captain met them
 "The dead come to lfe!" he cried, amazed
 Trend to MT. Burton first!" gasped the faithful sailor.
 "Lay aft, four of you!" the captain called. Carry these men into the cabin"
 we thought you two went overheard when the tornado struck us" the cap- tain added. "The men have declared ever since that the ship was haunted, and soon I should have had to take a rope's end to get one of them to go aft. I'm glad the ghosts are laid!''
 But they were not completely laid, so far as the negro steward was concerned. For the rest of the voyage Burton and the sailor were treated like invalids, and whenever the doctor had occasion to serve them he would edge off and hand things at arms length, as if he were not yet sure that they were not spooks from