Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-15

to fix a quarrel upon some one of the Of
flcers, and had signaled out Blandford as
the special object of his wrath. Finally.
upon some slight pretext. he sent Bland
ford q challenge; an act of course, which,
had 1t been reported, would have procured
him a court-martiai. But he got neither his
fight nor his court-martial. The challenge
was returned to him without comment. and
he was not reported.
Suffering Affected His Mind.
..All this that am telling you took some
time In the enacting. and when. one day.
we found ourselves lying In Algiers. year
had passed since we sailed from New York
Ia year of ostracism and torment for Pen
don-and 1t was easy to see that the con-
slant strain was telling on him. At first he
had written by every mail to his friends and
relatives in the states, to politicians and to
the department. seeking frantically to be
detached, but finding all his appeals una
vailing, he had given that up and settled
down sullenly to his fate.
while we loitered from port to port In
the Mediterranean Pendon had got some re-
lief from his solitary condition by taking
advantage of shore leave at every stopping
place, but from every trip ashore he came
back to the ship man returning to a
prison. At Algiers We received orders to
start on a long voyage to the coast of South
America.
1--WE had been expecting such orders and
were so well prepared for the trip that we
were able to sail by the afternoon Of the
next day. Until we had passed out through
the straits and were upon the wide waste
of the Atlantic Pendon kept close to his
room with the curtain drawn-when his du-
ties did not oblge him to be on deck-and
his face showed that he was undergoing
extreme mental, If not physical. agony
Save for short stop at one of the western
islands-whch did not count-he knew there
would be no more communication with the
world until we reached Rio. and the pros
pect of that long and speeches. voyage
seemed to scare and horrify him.
Frequently I saw him suddenly put his
hand to his head with sudden start. I
think he feared he would go insane, and. to
tell the truth. 1 did not know ,,ut he would
Fairly at sea, great change came over
him-one which rather appalled, US. He per-
formed his duties quietly. but like an autom-
atom. His manner, from being clustering
or surlY, became meek. deprecatory. appeal
ing. Often he would stand and look. with
hungry longing in his eyes. at group OF
officers talking and laughing together or at
the men EARNING together on the deck or
seated in garrulous groups about their mess
kids.
Before we reached the coast Of Brazil
he had become pale and emaciated, and his
eyes, as he grew whittier and thinner seemed
to become larger and had in them the pa
thetic appealing look of q wounded animal.
His spirit was broken as war or tempest
or the presence Of death itself could not
have broken it. And still his terrible pun
1shment went on.
Died After Heroic Rescue.
ut was rumored about the mess. to which
it had filtered down from the captain 8
cabin, that at Rio he would probably be de-
tached and sent back to the states for a
term of shore duty, and we all longed for
the day when he should go over the side out
Of the ship. But Of this rumor, Of course.
he never knew. The sources of all those
little rumors and gossipings which tend to
alleviate the condition of men shut up to-
gether on board ship were closed to him.
1T was curious to watch Pendon, when
he was giving an order to sailor or re-
ceiving a report from him, struggle be-
tween his desire to hold the man in con-
versation and what was Incumbent on him
as commissioned officer. which was, OF
course, to make the intercourse strictly OFF,
cial and of no unnecessary length.
I'VE caught one corking old storm on the
way over-a bowler. A seaman was wash
ed overheard and would have drowned had
not Pendon jumped to his assistance. He
saved the man all right. but would have
been drowned himself II his old chum.
held him up till we rescued the lot OF them
There was no sign Of life In Pendon when
we got him on board"
Here the captain paused and gazed medi-
tatively at the deck above his head, as II
his thoughts were far away.
And did he come around2" asked one
officer
.Oh, yes, he came around all right: and
after that some of US spoke to him-occa-
sionally and not too publicly. He died in
hospital at a port up the Brazil coast-of
yellow jack, the doctors said, but guess
his punishment had something to do with
the Mediterranean he had forwarded his
resignation to the department. The day
we buried him official notification came
that the resignation had been accepted"