Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-07-23

Of course, traded through the Java
and Banda seas--that was what his
father had meant by the East-touch-
ing at Shanghai as port of call in a
liner wasn't the same thing.
How that sun burned through the
awning! 1t seemed to stab and drill
into his skull with little shafts of ok
quisite pain. He. could get away from
1t, of course, by going below into the
cabin, by putting the deck between
him and that torturing ball of fire, but
in the cabin one couldn't breathe
One couldn't live in the cabin-Cap-
tain Mitchell was there and Captain
Mitchell was dead.
Had Captain Mitchell anything to
do with those six Cinnamon? Or any
thing to do with Drink House Sam in
Singapore? And where was it those
six Cinnamon had joined-at Shanghai
like himself?
II he could remember that he would
know whether Captain Mitchell had
had hand in the cursed game. Hadn't
Johnson said something about new
hands? But then native crews were
everlastingly shifting about. 1t was a
long way from Singapore to Shanghai.
Who was this Drink-House Sam?
What was it Ting Wah had said?
"Dlink-HOuse Sam-him know"
Him know, him know, him know
the words began to run through his
mind in a singsOng, crazy fashion
and then passionate, merciless anger
seized upon him, and the splendid six
foot bulk Of the man heaved up from
the chair. and, clenched fist raised, he
swayed upon his feet.
They had got him! Not the way
they had thought to get him-but they
had got him. And he could not fight
there was no one to fight-he could
only die like a trapped rat, while this
Drink-House Sam laughed thousand
miles away!
Him know, him know, him know
the words cOursed like fire through his 4
brain. He shouted aloud, and the !
nails of his fingers in his clenched 4
fist bit into the palm of his hand. He \
could not choke the life, as his own |
went out, from this devil in Singapore
that he had never seen-he could only i
die.
The uplifted arm, as though too
heavy for him, fell to his side, ghast-
ly wilderness spread over his face he
rceled, clutched at the skylight fori
support, and slipped prone upon the
deck. It was the nausea upon him
again. Il
The virulence of the attack passed
after while, but for long time he
lay where he had fallen, weak and
4
He was semi-delirious when he
stood up again, and hung Imply
against the skylight. Medicine-yes,I
that was what it meant-that stuff
there spilled all about. He put somes
INTO his mouth. His eyes fastened on;
the ships log open in front of him..
What kind of book was that? What
vas it doing there? Had he been read-1
ng? He couldn't read when he was
sick. il
1t was very strange. No; he rel
rendered now he had been writing in
t. Whenever any of the crew diedt
he wrote it down in the book. 4
And now the crew was all dead, andiI
he would be dead, too, very soon
therefore, he should also write his
'wn name down while he could still
write. He remembered it all perfectly
lOW-that was what the book was for.
He lurched forward and picked up
he fountain pen from where it had
oiled into a broken package of pow
cred quinine. He lurched again
cavity as he leaned over the book. A
ervous twitch of his hand gouged the
en-point into the page and left blot
He shook his head in gravely puz-
led way.
1t was queer that the pen wouldn't
rite as it had written before; it
eemed to travel all over the page,
paused, his hand going to his
yes again-it was strange that he
)uldn't think of his own name!
He was first mate, he knew that:
lt-yes, his name came back to him
DIV. He wrote on laboriously. He