Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-10

of the water. That the ship was in no
immediate danger of sinking ! was
quite convinced. owing to the nature
of her cargo, and this fact gave me a
ray of hope that | might be picked up
by some passing ship, although, dere-
lict as / was, the possibility of rescue
was but slight, as such craft are usu-
ally given Il wide berth by other ships,
being u menace to navigation.
Storm still Ragged
ut was evident by the violent pitch
ing and rolling Of the sloop that the
storm was still raging outside. The sea
was moving heavily below me and
swept away everything movable in the
cabin 1t was as dark as pitch in the
narrow space / had crawled into. The
air was so foul and oppressive that 1t
was positively dangerous to remain
there long.
"Peering into the weird gloom below
me, my heart gave a sudden joyous
floating in the cabin. They gave me an
inspiration, and l was soon hauling
them up to a place of safety.
1T was very evident that / was not
to perish, at least not for the present,
for soon after I picked up some hemp
rope, which used in lashing the planks
had picked UP together for a scaf-
tened to the keel with two ropes In
such manner as used by painters and
which swung with the motion of the
ship. The scaffold not only made my
footing more secure, but enabled me to
raise or lower myself at will. 1t gave
me sufficient room for my accommoda-
ton and was long enough so that |
could stretch myself out at full length.
"A sudden dizziness came over me
i,c I n nj of ad n
sank utterly worn out and exhausted
upon the platform. l became deadly
sick as 1 lay there. The thought came
to me that l was dying. for my mind
was fast leaving me. l ultimately lost
consciousness, for visions of the most
horrible and ghastly nature appeared
to me, a:.d in my drowsness I fancied
hearing my name called loudly.
Strained to Listen
"Springing to my feet, 1 strained my
ears and listened but my name was
not repeated. All l heard was the
monotonous washing of the water
that must have been dreaming. How
ever to make certain that my imagina-
ton had not played me trick / kept
up a continuous shouting for help. Sat"
isfied finally, I squatted myself down
and gave way to melancholy and de-
spondent reflections.
while sitting thus in stupid lethargy
it occurred to me that 1 had not
touched food or drink for twenty-four
hours. The stirring events through
which I had passed had occupied my
mind so completely that 1 had not felt
the pangs of hunger until now. Being
possessed of a ravenous appetite nor
mally, still | never had felt my stom-
ach so empty as at that moment.
"Why / did not lose my reason when
I made the narrowing discovery can
not understand, for starvation stared
me in the face. Everything in the cabin
had been washed away. But in spite
of NV sad plight l did not entirely
abandon hope. knew that there were
plenty of provisions in the storeroom,
but the difficulty was in reaching the
stores. as the storeroom was located
aft. In my famished condition ! was
willing to undertake almost any risk
as long as could satisfy my craving
hunger. The aperture / had cut in the
roof gave me access to the hold and
/ was soon back there, regardless of the
foul air that had driven me out be-
fore.
"It was so intensely dark in the hold
that it was some time before / could
summon courage to penetrate the
gloom. I dared not push forward too
rapidly for fear of making a misstep,
or perhaps dash my brains out by fall