Tombstone epitaph., 1915-03-21

: Marsh huddled in chair beside the table. feverishly scratching at a pad with the stub of a pencil Already his skin, stretched tightly over his protruding cheek bones. held some thing of the dulling gloss of time stained parchment. As he wrote, he kept speaking his own dictation in a | half-audible whisper.
 Better save your strength" Bar ton cautioned, after observing him ! silently for some moments Marsh slumped in his chair. his | sparse arms tight at his sides. touch ing the floor with his finger tips which still outstretched rigidiy as when they had dropped the pad and pencil at Barton's implied command. The lieu tenant, at the table. tapped with a | paper-knife: then laid it aside with an annoyed look of selfreproof. Rolf sat on the edge of a Nbunk- his normally full lips drawn to a gray i blue line. his starting eyes fixed in stare that seemed plumbing infnity. Corrigan was at the valve. He stood with back to the others, his head so far bowed forward upon his breast that the rolls of fat at the nape of his neck pressed fiat. and the cords showed ivory-white beneath the skin. Now and again his body heaved and a ponderous sigh welled from within to blend sonorously with the seethe of the liberated air.
 Presently he began to hum softly under his breath:
 There's a sunny spot in freland-" This is awful" he said, awful! My God. isn't there anything We can do? Can't we send up a bottle-or something?'
 Nothing" Barton replied with ap- parent effort.
 The torpedoes," Marsh leaped to his feet, his face fairly comforting in his excitement. They'll tear up the surface when they explode" he walled.
 Barton glanced at Rolf. Neither had spoken of that other instrument of destruction outside almost brush lAS me nun lie thsiSh Stiii iOOASa away. He could not speak to dash the old mans hopes.
 I'm afraid it wouldn't do," the lieutenant shook his head reluctantly. The hulk is close aboard. and that's where they'd go of. We might chance them splitting her in pieces before they did us, if she were all I'd thought of it. But we lay within five feet of mine-plant The concussion-no, we can't do that"
 As those in the last death-watch. tolling of with auickened heart beats the seconds before the black-capped march to eternity, the men passed the next afternoon.
 There was a brief relief from tension, while they ate from the plentiful store in the food locker, and occasionally one or another stepped to the big water-tank to drink. Other wise attention centered on the pas sage of time.
 The hands of the ships clock moved forward, and as remorselessly, the hand on the dial toiled in the other direction-pointing nearer and nearer, like the index finger of Fate, to the little zero that meant annihilation. From moment to moment, the hiss ing Of the valve became almost sen sibly fainter
 Their days of living in the small. unyentilated compartment had so fouled the atmosphere that the men breathed pantingly. open-mouthed, in great. whistling gulps. In their pur- pied, swollen veins and their iaundiced eyes and yellow skin, the effect of the toxic cartoons in the air was only too apparent.
 Barton sat at the table-the log outspread before him-7ainfully, yet painstakingly. inscribing the record. His own message had been written a farewell to life and to her for whom he most cherished it. When at length he raised his eyes from the page, they wavered ever So slightly as he ad- dressed tie old boatswain.
 What shall I say. Marsh?" The words came palpitatingly as he strug- 64ru A SNtNNA ~ now-in time"
 The boatswain was at the valve controlling the lever with fingers agitated as the indicator itself, His throat muscles gripped spasmodically at the question, and he seemed about to fall When he turned, his eyes held look of longing so unutter- able, yet withal so hopeless. that Rolf and Corrigan with common impulse glanced away, and Barton clenched his fist until the penholder snapped in two.
 Tell Mary" Marsh fingered falter- ingly over the name, say l didn't think the cid cottage at home was good enough for her; so I'm going to get better one promised us wonder. Tell her I'll keep it waiting, as she did for me. and that I'll try not to mind her not coming for while" The old mans voice failed. and he pressed his face against the wall to hide his feelings
 The broken holder shook in the Q