The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-18
TT HAPPENED
 TO HEDDERLEY
By HARRISON CLARK.

]. her crazy aerobaties. and he was glad l of 1t. He liked quiet. Quletf
 Why. there wasn't anything but qnietl There wasn't a sound to be heard not even the tramp of a sailor rect on
 the deck above his headl Slowly
 the realization grew: He was single I soul on a disabled ship
 He felt very lonesome. The silence l awed hfmi it made him hear strange l things, and he found himself starting
 and shrinking at-what must have been nothing, though it was actual enough | for the instant of it's seeming reality.
 After awhile inactivity became unbear-
 able; so with a feeling that he was invading a tomb which was soon to l be also his own, he went forth. It was all as he had expeeted-na- body except himself, no land in sight, no friendly smoke on the horizon-no l hopei So far as he could discover, the Isinglass was entirely seaworthy. She certainly did not appear to be sinking; for at bow and stern she noated high. There was no fire, though there had been a disastrous one The rear half of the deck was burned the blanks gone from an interior that yawned black, the wheel a charred heap of useless spokes and wire, the com pass a melted mass, and all about forest of masts, spars, tunnels and lot of other things which Hedderly know nothing of, rearing stark naked black lengths against the air.
 The passenger cabins had not been damaged. They were much as Hedder- ly remembered them before-Well, be- fore the storml The buffet seemed to be intact; and as Hedderley found the bourbon bottle and separated four fingers for immediate use he gave his first sigh of relief and whispered:
 starvation, drawning - death in many forns-may threaten me- but from the looks of things l shan't die of thirst"
 The clamorings of a sorely tired and thoroughly emptied stomach drove him to search for the 'kitchen." He hadn't the least idea where he might find it. His impression was that 1t was in the neighborhood of what somebody had called the poop deck, but where in blazes was the poop deck? He re- solved that there must be path to it from the dining saloon, and he knew where that was. So from the dining saloon he began his search. It led him long and labrinthian course through pantries and passageways-an brought him to a huge room of black ened woodwork and broken glass and pots. pans and kettles, but no food.
 However, there was bound to be food somewhere. And he made desperate dash for big charred door at the~fur- ther end.
 "Savedr' he cried. For before him and to each side of him, in boxes and crates and buckets and cans, was food! And not a thing was damaged!
 He ripped open a tin of sardines and, standing, ate ravenously. A second tn and he decided to sit down. There was no place to sit except the floor, so he sat there and with fresh cans and car tons of crackers at his hand and in
 solemn silence broken only by the mild
 rasp of the sardine box against the floor
 and the crisp munching of crackers,
 feasted.
 Suddenly his jaws ceased to work, apd the sardine box became still, while his
 overstrained heart thumped desperately. A strange noise had entered-footfalls, muffled, but with a slight scratchiness- | Hedderley turned sharply And
 a bull terrier, with a great black spot encircling his right eye stopped short in | the floor a dozen feet away, wagged his | stub of a tail, and whined beggingly. 1 "You bet your life you may" laughed 1 Hedderley. And a moment later the dog, 1 in his arms, was licking his face while being frantically squeezed and patted. l Gee, but it Is good to meet somebodyv' fervently declared Hedderley, holding the dog off for a good look.
 He divided with his guest, and the in- terrupted feast was resumed. The pile of
 emptied tins grew and grew. The dog,
 eventually, was satisfied, but Hedderley didn't know that he ever would quit eat ing Until a rumble of thunder brought