Mexico Missouri message., 1913-01-23

There's your bit OF wreckage." / OBJ
served. smiling
Poor devill" he exclaimed, sym
pathetcally. He seems more dead
than alive.
He's breathing, sir" announced
Brandon. the first officer. and not
much more. Wen take him below,
and zee what can be done for him,
sir"
lie appeared to be about forty years
OF age. a somewhat shrunken, wealth
er-beaten creature, with face deeply
lined and half hidden behind possibly
a weeks growth of dark beard. II is
not easy to read man with his eyes
closed. but | was far from prepos-
sessed by what Of this fellows fea-
lures was on view. Ordinarily
should have given him scant heed. but
today was no ordinary day, and my
suspicious were superactive. Even the
, most trivial occurrences took on sig
nincance. And this was not a trivial
| occurrence. Certainly 1t was not
usual. Fishermen blown TO sea in
storms and overcome by exposure,
| hunger and thirst were common
enough. perhaps, but within the past
week there had been no storm; the
weather had been as mild as that Of
June, with an August day or two
thrown In. How was It possible. then,
| for This bit Of notsam 10 have come
where II was and in the condition II
was?
To Cameron gave no hint Of my
reasoning, but to Captain Macleod |
put the question without hesitation.
ut does seem a bit odd. Mr.. Clyde, "
he returned. tDdicially, but you see
his mast ana sail had gone by the
board and his oars, too. 1t looks to
me, sir, as II he'd been run down, may
be. and nigh swamped. or course we
can't tell till he gets his senses and
let's us know"
Though this put the matter In n
new light, 1t did not by any means re-
lieve my anxiety; and | asked Mac
Leod to have sharp watch kept on
the fellow, adding that would come
TO him later for anything lie might
learn. | took care, too, to caution him
to make no mention of the affair in
the presence of Cameron.
II was not until after dinner that
evening that / found opportunity again
to question the captain. | came upon
him In his stateroom, a comfortably
commodious cabin, far forward on the
upper deck. On his table was spread
a chart, over which he was bending
when entered. A briarwood was
gripped firmly between his teeth and
the grateful odoT of clean pipe smoke
greeted me as | entered.
He's come around. Mr.. Clyde" he
informed me, turning about In his
swivel chair, "and I'm Just trying to
check up some OF his statements by
means Of this chart here, and our
weather record"
And how do they check so far?'
| asked. little obviously.
quite TO dot. sir" was his an.
swer. There's no breakdown any.
where, so far According to his story
he sailed out of Gloucester harbor on
Monday morning. His names Peter
Johnson. and he lives in East Glouces-
ter. He says the wind was strong from
the westward, and he made the banks
all right without mishap. But about
noon, the wind died. and a thick fog
came In from the northeast, chill and
sopping, sir He kept moving about
and finally in the thick OF Il lost his
bearings. Il had clouded over and
after little il began 10 rain. He
made try for Gloucester harbor, but
must have sailed southeast instead OF
northwest Then the night came
down. and the fog was Ike q dozen
blankets, he says. His food was gone
and most OF his water, but he said
he'd seen worse than that many a
time. and just prayed for the fog to
lift and give him n sight OF the stars
And the next thing that happened was
what I suspected. sir. He heard a
steamers whistle. He had his sheet
on; and was running before the wind
and that steamer coming upon him
out OF the fog. caught his boom, ripped
out his mast and nearly capsized his
dory. When she righted, the steam
er's lights were fading into the fog
again. his boat was half full Of water
and his oars were washed away. Well
sir. to make 2 long story short, be
must have caught current that car
ried hin well out beyond Cape Cod
and then slowed him around the
southermost end OF Nantucket island
! questioned him about lights and foe
3 SIGNALS and making due allowance for
his condition. his yarn works ont pref
~ straight He'd been drifting about
for three Gays when We picked him
NJ and was half dead OF thirst and
hunger. But he's come around better
than might be expected. and
And then ] interrupted him.
Three days without WATER" I CUES
toned
And without food Yes, sir"
When did he tell you this story
About six o'clock, STR"