The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-05-04

ship, know"
 'I beg you will give yourself no un- easiness, madam" said the captain gravely. 'I have already learned something of his antecedents-that he is disgraced and broken down naval officer. But as he has sailed three voyages with us I had credited his to his craving for liquor, which he could not satisfy without money. How ever. as you think, he may be follow lng you. Was he able to learn of your movements-that you were to take passage in this ship?"
 "Why. notT' exclaimed the husband. "He must know some of Mrs. Self ridges friends"
 ''Yes, yes," she said eagerly. "1 have heard him spoken of several times"
 '"Then 1t is clear," said the captain If you will agree, madam, to testify against him in the English courts will immediately put him in irons for attempted murder
 ooh, do, captain!" she exclaimed. "I cannot feel safe while he is at lib erty. Of course I will testify"
 Whatever you do, captain" said the husband savagely, "rest assured that I shall put a bullet through his head if he meddles with me or mine again. Then you can put me in irons"
 "I will see that he is attended to, colonel" replied the captain as he bowed them out of his office. But as murder charge is not al ways the best way to discredit a man and as the captain did not believe that the man who had defed him would murder a child and as the charge would be difficult to prove in any case and would cause him much trouble and annoyance, he did not order the arrest of John Rowland, but merely directed that for the time he should be kept at work by day in the tween deck out of sight of the passengers.
 Rowland, surprised at his sudden transfer from the disagreeable scrub ping to a soldiers job'' of painting life buoys in the warm tween deck. was shrewd enough to know that he
 
 boatswain that morning, but not shrewd enough to affect any symp- toms of intoxication or drugging, which might have satisfied his anxious superiors and brought him more whis- | ky. As a result of his brighter eyes and steadier voice-due to the curative | sea air-when he turned out for the fo1 of 4 nSn the captain and boatswajn held an in- terview in the chart room, in which the former said: "Do not be alarmed. It is not poison. He is halfway into the horrors now. and this will merely bring them on. He will see snakes, ghosts, goblins, shipwrecks, fire and all sorts of things. 1t works in two or three hours. Just drop it into his drinking pot while the port forecastle | is empty
 There was fight in the port fore i castle-to which Rowland belonged | at supper time, which need not be de scribed beyond mention of the fact that Rowland, who was not partici. i pant, had his pot of tea dashed from i his hand before he had taken three swallows He procured a fresh sup ply and finished his supper, then, talk | ing no part in his watch mates open | discussion of the fight and guarded discussion of collisions. rolled into his bunk and smoked until eight bells when he turned out with the rest.
 Rowland" said the big boatswain as the watch mustered on deck, "take | the starboard bridge lookout" 'It is not my trick, boats'n," said Rowland in surprise.
 "Orders from the bridge. Get ur ] there."
 Rowland grumbled, as sailors may when aggrieved, and obeyed. The man | he relieved reported his name and dis | appeared. The first officer sauntereC 1 down the bridge. uttered the official Keep a good lookout and returned to | his post; then the silence and loneli
 ness of night watch at Sea, intensi' l fed by the never ceasing hum of the engines and relieved only by the sounds of distant music and laughter | from the theater, descended on the | forward part of the ship, for the fresh westerly wind coming with the