The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1913-06-13
wal awakened by a loud knock Ut my


door. sprang out Of bed, ure that
and, throwing open the door. asked
what was the matter. 70 my aston.
ishment / received no reply. Thinking
that some one had awakened me. then
gone to awaken others in the house, l
listened for more sounds.
All was perfectly still. save for the
ticking of the clock In the hall below.
Trembling, vent back to bed, but not
to sleep. Fire and smoke appeared to
surround me, and 1t seemed that peO-
pie were crowding n another to es-
cape from it. l could not shake OF
the sensation that !, too, was flying
from fire, which grew hotter and hot
ter, the smoke denser and denser.
And now l was rising and falling
and swaying from side to side. My
bed was really stationary, but to me
1t was In constant motion. Yet 1t had
q beneficial effect upon met rock
ed me to sleep. During the whole of
this period since l had first been awak.
ened by running footsteps over my
head | had slept but little, and now
l could not keep awake. slept till
afternoon the next day, and. when I
awoke l felt much refreshed. The air
was for the first time free from the
odor of smoke. Not even was there a
trace In it of partly burned substances.
The sense Of danger l had so long felt
had left me entirely. In short, I had
| rotarpn<l 70 N oD,rool ooud1kin-
This immunity from trouble remain.
ed with me but a short time; then the
trouble returned. though 1t came in an
entirely different form. In the early
morning ! awoke with a cry, believing
that some one had dashed cold water
over me. 1t was light. and. though
could see plainly, no one was in my
room. and | was perfectly dry. But
there was a vague sense of struggling.
seemed to rise and fall, to be thrown
hither and thither, as II in a surging
crowd. Then | began to feel languid.
and all sensation except a normal one
left me.
This was the last Of these singular
impressions. For some time l dreaded
that they would return, but after
awhile ! regained confidence and ceas-
ed to fear them. During the time l
suffered from them l told no one ex-
cept my physician. He listened to my
account of my symptoms, as he called
them. with great attention and inter-
est. but | knew he did not understand
them. He evidently considered that |
was suffering from some mental dis
order. Finally l suspected that he was
about to have me ser to q sanitarium.
This was about the time that my fire
dread left me, and 1t altered his plans
for me. When the trouble returned in
another form l refrained from letting
him know about 1t. l have since real
ized-indeed. learned from him-that l
narrowly escaped being shut up.
1t was about two months after my
last singular sensation that my brother
Jim. who had been a year In South
America, n morning walked into my
place Of business. He had been drift
ing q great deal and during his wan
derings had gone by sea clean around
the continent from Colon to Panama.
He told me the remarkable experience
he had had on the voyage. which natu-
rally astonished me.
Il was awakened one night" he
said. by men running forward over
my staterOom and. bearing a turmoil.
got up. dressed myself and went on
deck. found, to my horror. that the
~hfn v0u nm Aro Thu Oont0fp nrAoso1
the matches W that part battened
down and through holes only large
enough to admit hose pumped In q
stream of water. BY this means he
kept the fire under. though we all
dreaded that it would get ahead Of US.
We were steaming northward. not far
from the coast, and there was no
harbor near The captain was con-
ident that he could keep the fire un-
der till we reached q convenient port
and allayed the fear Of us all as far
as he could. Nevertheless We felt that
we liable to be placed between
death by 6re and death by drowning
at any moment.
THE fire was kept under for several
days. Finally. just before ia WI One
morning, while ! vas asleep in my
berth. there came q loud rap at my
door. knew very well it meant that
the fire had got ahead Of the efforts
Of the crew to keep II under. and.
dressing myself hastily. ran up on
deck. found the crew getting out
the boats and saw flames bursting
from the f0recastle. A rush for each
boat was made as 1t was lowered. but
this was needless. for there was room
for all. We were but a few miles
from shore. with a strong west wind
blowing and no landing. We were
obliged to go on to a beach. and nearly
all the boats were capsized. The boat
! was in was overturned about a hun
dred yards from the shore. and for a
long while ] was driven in. then pulled
out by the waves At last ! lost con-
seriousness and on being thrown on the
sand was drawn from the next wave
by q Of the crew who had got ashore