The Carlisle independent., 1917-07-26

felt sure that escape was feasible
 anywhere.
 If we could lower that boat, for instance" he suggested, indicating a little craft swung out near the stern.
 "If you could escape the bullets of the guards, you'd die of thirst" said
 the other.
 "There's a water cask inside" said Jerry.
 How about food?" sneered his com panion.
 During succeeding days Jerry saved scraps of the coarse food that was flung to the prisoners. During the course of their walks on deck he man. aged to slip these scraps inside the craft.
 On the third morning after Jerry had spoken about the boat the old man, attempting to rise, fell back with a groan. Jerry laid his hand upon his forehead and found that he was in a burning fever.
 Half dozen similar cases had de- veloped among the convicts. The ships doctor knew at once what the trouble was. It was the dreaded prison fever. or typhus.
 The epidemic ran riot. Weakened i by their hardships and privations, the sick men were unable to resist the rav- ages of the disease.
 Two more men died that day To- ward nightfall it was evident to Jerry that his friend was sinking fast. The old man called him to his side. "Bend over me, lad" he said. "Tm gone. Thanks be to God, I'm going to better place than the world has been."
 Thirty years ago." whispered the old man, 1T killed man. That's what I have suffered for. man who insulted my daughter. If he hadn't been a government employee I'd have gone free. Curse himl
 Lad, don't know what you've done. but it can't have been worse than me. l The time will come when you'll grow resigned, too, as I did. The time will come when it'll have scared your heart numb like mine. I'm going now. You'll l stay Dy me tlll US over. Jerry promised. And suddenly there | came into his brain a hope so weird and so grotesque, that at first he flung | it from him as the dream of a mad man.
 It returned with renewed force. It was the most desperate scheme that had ever entered human brain. Toward midnight the old man, who | had been muttering in his delirium | ceaSelessly since sunset, sat up sud- denly, shouted. and pointed into the darkness.
 Maria Angela !" he cried exultantly. Next moment he fell back dead into Jerry's arms.
 The body would be buried at night, after it had been placed in the rough hewn coffin.
 All Jerry's schemes depended on whether the coffin was flung from the bow or from the stern. The former event meant life; the latter death.
 He raised the hardly yet cold body of the old man in his arms and laid it on the bench where the dead were placed. None of the guards would penetrate more than few feet beyond the door, and then they drove back the prisoners with whips and curses About half an hour later the door was opened, and two men appeared, carrying the coffin, a mere shell of wood. They took the old mans body and thrust it within. afterward fasten- ing down the lid with nails. It was fortunate for Jerrys scheme that some interval occurred between the mailing down of the coffin and the burial. This was due to the fact that the two functions were performed by different men; the first by the guards, the second by the seamen, who had re- fused to enter the plague-hole. AS soon as the guards had with the lid with fiat piece of wood which he had found in the hold. It was not a difficult task, foi the mailing had been task hurriedly performed, and the wood was fiimsy. Within a short space of time, working in the dark, he had managed to open the coffin.
 Gently he took out the body of his friend and deposited it in corner of the hold. Then he entered the coffin and pulled on the lid again. To fasten it in any way was diff ficult task, but by inserting his fingers into the rough edges of the under part of the lid, he contrived, after much effort, to secure it in some degree. And he lay there, choking in the nar- row space, with his mouth against a crack between the lid and the casket.
 Then he saw the glimmer of lan- tern near him and heard the voices of the guards.
 ''Get hold of your endr'
 Say, this lid ain't on. Where's the hammer?"
 Hurry up. Do you want us to die of the plague?" yelled one of the two