Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-10

ing into the hold. mapped out mem
tally what / supposed to be direct
course to the state room. Then, get
ting down on my hands and knees
cautiously proceeded on my exploring
expedition.
1T was slow work cropping in the
darkness. More than once my prog
ress was blocked by the confused mass
Of lumber that rose before me, but as
my life depended upon the success of
my mission | kept pushing forward
After many narrow escapes and squeez-
ing through a number of narrow pas
sages, in which | received innumerable
bumps in the darkness, | came to an
abrupt halt. and further passage was
cut off.
Cargo Shifted
"The cargo. which apparently had
shifted during the rolling of the ship
that it was impossible to proceed fur
ther. With might and main l tried to
push the lumber out of my path, but
the boards were wedged in so firmly
that my efforts were all in vain, and
| was Obliged to give up the idea of
reaching the store room.
Disappointed and utterly worn out,
/ dragged myself, more dead than alive,
back to the cabin. Thoroughly discour-
full length upon the narrow platform
and wept like child. My mission for
food had failed and all my hopes were
now blasted. ] suffered great agony
from thirst and would have given
much for a drink of water, but dared
not touch the water in the hold, al
though it looked cool and inviting, for
! knew what the consequences would
be. Besides, had solemnly vowed to
Ino cuff fnrip xxtff1
"Brooding over my i'll luck I must
eventually have fallen into a kind OF
stupor, for l awoke with a sudden
start shortly after and began to shout
and thrash my arms about like luna
tic.
"I'm Saved!"
I'm saved" / yelled at the top of
my voice. Whether it had been my
lamentable brooding or higher power
that was responsible in loosening my
train of thought I know not. but it
dawned on me all at once that there
had been stored in one of the lockers
of my cabin just before we sailed
quantity of provisions. While the odds
were frightfully against me, / prayed
that they were yet safe where they
had been stored.
THE storm had abated and the wa
ter was as calm and smooth as any 1
have ever seen. With feverish anxiety
I bent my energy toward the task of
uncovering the stores. The first thing
did was to rig up a kind of drag
from some of the small boards l had
ripped off the ceiling. After hammer
ing several nails, which 1 found in the
wood. to a crosspiece l attached it to
my drag and then lowered the scaf-
fold as near to the water as was safe.
was soon dragging it about in the
water
Wild with impatience, my heart beat
ing like a triphammer, to my intense
joy after few efforts my drag caught
on TO something. Drawing it up care
fully ! discovered that it was a part of
an old sail, which served me later as a
bedcloth. 1t took considerable patience
to hang over the edge of the scaffold
and drag the heavy sticks to and fro
meeting with any great result
l was about to give up in despair when
my drag fastened into the door of my
locker and in a jiffy I had jerked 1t
open. l regretted this foolhardy act
later, as | fear many of the
provisions that We're in there tumbled
into the ocean and We're lost to me.
Should Have Dived
Had I used my faculties properly
should have tied rope around my body