Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-11-13
LIKE A SKELETON.

pretty hard on the old man, and mebbe
it is, but we sailors, bein' brought up
that way, we can't git over it, The
rule has Erowed and growed till now
adays e cap'n won't be TOXIN of no
matter how many are around to take
him and how little use there is of his
stayin on the vessel. a master | once
sailed under tried to save hisself afore
the crew when the ship was wrecked,
and he never was the same man arter-
wards.
His act preyed on his mind night
and day, he got thinner and thinner,
his eye got more and more melan-
cholic, till at last he died O. conscience
strickenin' and we h'isted him over
board We all thought that his mind
and his body would be at rest, but they
wasn't, as you'll see by the yarn I'm
goin' to spin about him.
I'VE hadn't more'n dumped him
when the wind hauled out O. the SOU
into the nOr'east and freshened into a
gale. From a gale it riZ into a storm
so student that it swept most O. the
crew often the deck, stove in every
thing breakable, broke away every
mast and left the vessel on her beam
ends.
when the storm had cleared away
there was twelve Of us clingin' to diff
ferent parts, but the whole vessel was
awash, and we hadn't nothin' to eat
or drink. Jim Harkis was holdln' on
to the same ratlines with me, and he
soon gave it up and let go. One after
another the men give in and were
washed overheard. After awhile there
wasn't a man left but me. l suppose
it was because / was born strOnger'n
the rest, and that's the reason I'm alive
today at purity near ninety.
~ disremember how long I was
a-clingin' TO them ratlines, but one time
I looked up and saw what / thOrt was
sea sarpent comm for me. i open
ed and shut my blinkers to git the
salt out of 'em. Somep'n reached
above the sarpent's head, and that
somep'n was sail, square cut. histed
up on loY mast. So l reckOned the
thing was ship with a sarpent for
fgurehead.
when she got near enough I see
only one man on her. He was stand
in on the poop deck. which was sOt
up high. lie hadn't no hat on his
head, and his hair was a-howin' about
in the breeze. The craft kept comm
closer and closer TIL the man standin'
on the poop deck was as plain TO me
as a Lighthouse. His nose was thin,
his cheeks was boiler, his eyes gilt
tered ike drmonds. There was
somep'n SO melancholic in him, spe-
ctally in them eyes O. his'n, that It
give me a sort O nightmare. / looked
away from him. but somehow 1 had
to look back, and there he was still
starin' at me.
HE was the skinniest lookin' thing
! ever see. Eypectin' as ] was that
the next wave that washed over the
ship would put me where my mates
had gone, this malanchoiic teller was
ike a second death.
"Then all on a student I thort I rec
cgnized our captain that had deserted
was goin' down. ! kn0wed be was
dead and wed histed him overheard.
but there be was OF his ghost, 1
ten which. walkin' about On
this queer lookin craft, wringin' his
hands and shakin' his head, while e7-
cry now and then be give faint
groan that sounded Ike a distant bell I.
buoy, though sometimes it swelled up I.
more Ike foghorn.
Ills ship come on toward me. and T.
when ne got q cables length from NE F..
he turned, follerin' with those me!an- .
cholic eyes and KEEP EN- on me till 4
thort they'd burn into my BRAIN He .
didn't say nothin'. and / vas too far .
gone to speak 70 him myself. ! tried .
to. but Ky tongue vas 50 dry It warn't /
70 Use. While be was comm he stood !