Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1912-03-22
A MYSTERY
OF THE SEA
weird Happening Aboard
a Derelict In the
Pacific
By HAMILTON DRUMMoND
Copyright by Hamilton Drummond

All Sloppleton knew him as "Capn
Towson." Those of my friends to
whom ! have retold his tale have not
scrupled to cali him liar. Well, maybe
so. maybe SO. but then you did not
hear Cap'n Towson tell the story, and
l did.
We had become very good friends,
we two. especially during ten days
wet weather. On the afternoon of the
tenth day straggle of sunshine
tempted us out into the sloppy road,
and when the downpour recommended
Cap'n Towsons cottage was the near
est shelter, and there we retreated.
1t was not the first time ! had been
bis guest. and so the collected treas
ures of his seafaring life were more
or less familiar. Now, as Cap'n Tow
son absented himself to hunt up the
ingredients of friendly grog | wan
dered aimlessly round the room and
took stock of its stale curiosities One
thing only struck me as an oddity, and
1t by reason of its inconsequence
rather than its strangeness. and at it
/ was staring when Cap'n Towson re-
turned with his liquid hospitality.
"Ah," said he, you're deep one,
you are. There you are at the Koe-I
more first thing. I've always said
I'll give the whole shanty to the man
that tells me what 1t is, an now's your
chance, for what l say l stick to-"
"It's bit dark, cap'n," | began.
"Oh, have all the light on the sub
Ject you can," and he chuckled, as II
at Joke. 'T'll pull the blind up.
There-what do you make of 1t now?
To be frank, ! didn't make much. 1t
was an irregular, fattish fragment,
perhaps two inches square and slight
ly curved inward ut top and bottom.
A stout thread held it in place against
a piece of millboard, and the whole
was framed and glazed like picture.
In color it was grayish blue and its
surface smooth, but dull. There was
neither inscription nor mark upon II
| that l could see.
"Well?" and he shook me by the ell
bow with kind of good humored,
triumphant impatience. "Well?"
1T is-that is to say, it looks like
metal"
Cap'n Towson smacked his thigh
noisily.
1.-The shanty's safe for this time.
Guess again, mate"
But shook my head. What was the
use Of guessing. There was no doubt
that Cap'n Towson's mystery went
beyond the mere composition Of the
fragment he preserved so carefully,
and l said as much.
You're right, sir, an. by gum, them
that goes down to the sea in ships see
mortal queer things Metal, says you!
Well, maybe it's; then again maybe it's
glass, maybe it's pottery an maybe it's
somethin' of all three that we folks on
our side of the world know nothin'
about. l give you my word don't
know. and l never met the man as
could tell me. That's bit O the south
pole, that is. Mix your grog an I'll tell
you how came by it.
I'm a manner, dye see, there's two
yarns in it, an I'm not so sure where
to begin. To spin two yarns at once Is
about as bad as to straddle a couple OF
barebacked horses. Sooner or later
they'll part company. an then where
are you? No; I'll drop the bark Julia
X. Anderson, FIVE weeks out from
Frisco an bound round the Horn,
much as she dropped me, an that's
without so much as by your leave,
an begin where she left off with three
of us-Tobias Clark, Joe Brady an my
self-adrift in the Pacific. When say
we were about 40 degrees west and
degrees south you'll know we were
half distance between the Marquesas
an the Galapagos.
"A day an night we had made our
westin', an with the sudden comm o
the mornin' Brady woke me up.
".Glory be- says he. shakin me, tine
trips over afore it's begun. an good
luck go with it. Look ye there. II
that isn't the makin's of land, oh. call
me Bull
by that had my knee on the after
thwart an was starin' east with my
hands as telescope. The sun was up
an point or two to the north. so
chat the black spot was plain enough
helm no more than FIVE miles away
maybe four. the simmer O the sea
IN the sun maxim it hard to guess.
Too plain. for turns to Brady an
saws to him sudden like:
"'Bull! Don't you know derelict
when you see herT
.'By this time Clark had crawled Out
n, the bow an was on his hands an
knees between rs. leanin' over the
starn.
".Irish is right. an Irish is wrong,
savs he. which is a way them Irish
have. She's blamed hulk. that's
what she is sure enough, but l guess
sbe's sound enough. for she rides hlgn'
an tight hulk is better'n crank
cockleshell any day in the week
"Wen. sir. as ! say. ] was steer1n i,
an little by little. as the hulk bulked
against the sky. | liked its looks less
md less. 'Twasn't that 1t had no
mosts an was as bare O bulwarks as
canal borge. That was right enough
In a dcrelict. an I'd seen 1t from the
first. though Brady. in his hot hasie'