The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-03-18
CAST OF CHARACTERS
CHAPTER TX

When Jerry Whitfield opened ms eyes he was not conscious of him. self as person but only as a cramped body and bruised head that ached intolerably. He was those things, and those things were him. self. He lifted his arm in the dark ness. His hand touched planked ceiling. Under him was flooring equally hard and strangely slimy with mud. He was aware next of a swaying motion and the continuous slap of water against wood. The odor was dank and oppressive.
 ship" he said to himself aloud, but duly and without sur prise. "-ship's hold"
 It was only when he became aware of himself as personality that surprise gripped him. This was Jerry Whitfield that ached sorely and lay in the darkness of ! ships hold Where ought Jerry Whitfield to be? What ought he be doing?
 "-Unicorn and Crown he groaned aloud. And then, Polly Polly Chelsey-"
 He arose to his knees and began to pound the blanks above him, Savagely and frantically.
 A voice somewhere near in the blackness said, Stop it, you fool Don't scratch His Majesty's pretty sloop." The voice had Yankee drawl, but cityficd It was bit terly humorous and very weary.
 Who are you?" Jerry asked. Where are we?"
 I'm Cabell Banks from Boston, Continent of America. We're defi- nitely below decks on brig sloop named the Sunrise. British ship, I mean-or have you caught on?"
 God help mel" Jerry muttered.
 T doubt if He does for a while yet. Lie down and think things over. You've got plenty of time. .
 Jerry lay down, heavily. To ease h;5 throbbing head he put his right 6, m beneath 1t. If you know how yot here" he muttered impatiently as his unseen companion, then tell me and have done."
 You came rolled in a blanket, retorted Cabell Banks. ''Very cozy. A couple of pressmen brought you ol board an hour ago, and four marines slowed you down here. Ie happened after my bedtime, you might say. I'm not allowed on deck after sundown, so I didn't see what happened. But I've got ears. I gathered you were choice deserter and had been picked up in a London street fight"
 There was a long silence filled with labored thinking. Then Jerry's voice, heavy with the dia- lect of an outraged Yankee: De serter! Fight! There was not even fight. I was hit on the head from behind and went out like a candle. I'd walked into a dark side street, like fool, to help woman.'
 "Ah, my unseen friend my fel- low countryman, how naive!"
 If that's a French word" Jerry complained, don't use it. I'm as good sailor as ever hauled a rope or steered a course, but I'm not educated It appears you are. ?
 'Yes and no," said Cabell Banks, and he could be heard shifting his position in the dark ness. T studied the classics at Harvard. Also the French lan- guage, mathematics, and astron- omy. But I'd not learned how to shave with a razor or how to relish wormy ship biscuits. No, nor how to sleep without a mat tress. It appears that while Brit ain rules the seas, every young man about to take a voyage should master these subjects"
 You talk like a drunk man, Jerry stated.
 I'm not drunk, but loW-spirited and glad to have an audience. I've had two days of my own company if I calculate right
 How did you get here?"
 
 T was on the Hardy, a small merchantmen out of Boston that had just cleared Ostend. On the day news of the war reached the North Sea, an English ship -of-the-l line came down on us from one direc- ton and this brig sloop Sunrise from another. The ship line T learned afterward she carried 1lO guns-signaled to the sloop to take us. Navy courtesy, you might