Year: 1877

"
fierce stab In the air, then the knife,
head, and hrogan all vanished The po-
liceman dashed through the room ut my
outcry, and Broughton and I, without
even waiting to pay our bill, Joined In
the hunt. We heard the heavy iron.clad
shoes go clumplng down the pier ahead
Of us, but on reaching the water-side all
was STILL and in the profound darkness
nothing was to be seen. A single wherry
was rowing out, having pulled only
few strokes on her way, but IL seemed
hardly possible that the convict could
have had time to get into her.


Boat ahoy I" hailed one of the Off
GERS. "Who's your passenger 2"


"The second mate of the Orpheus,"
answered clear, manly voice, but the
boat did not stop, she kept on rowing
the faster


The policemen seemed satisfied with
the answer and asked no more ques-
tons.


We all looked about, up and down the
wharf, and peered into every wherry
that was lying idle, but were compelled
to admit to each other that we had lost
the scent and were all astray. Brough-
ton and ! went back to the Jolly Tar
and paid our scot, much TO the relief OF
Hiram. We tried to pump a little con-
cerning his acquaintance with the
strange man, but he declined all such
knowledge, and his stolid face revealed
no more expression than q turnip. /
must confess that / felt little uneasy in
my mind about our adventure with this
desperado, who seemed to have mania
for crime, and would as soon murder
man as look at him. / recalled that
strange, vindictive look which he had
| given me when he flashed the long
knife before my eyes, and felt that was
especially marked as victim for his
vengeance. When Brougton and left
the jolly Tar, pretended that it was
necessary to go on board early, and thus
we parted. / called Waterman, and
stepping into his boat, was rowed Off
into the darkness


/ don't know why had such dread
nay, / must call it downright fear-of
that particular man, for was not usu-
ally timid, but still could not get his
terrible look out of my mind, do what L
would. did not believe that he had
left the pier in the boat that we had
hailed, but rather believed that he was
still lurking somewhere on shore. And
felt SO anxious that resolved to be
very careful about going ashore at night,
until should hear that he had been re-
captured and secured. / should be safe
enough on board the Ambuscade, for it
was hardly likely that this man knew
what ship / belonged TO-. But then /
thought again, if Hiram the Jew was
in his confidence, as feared, he could
find my track easily enough. All this
may have been very foolish, but am
telling you truly just what my feelings
were, and resolved from that time to
go constantly armed, and not to suffer
myself to be taken unawares.


Just before L arrived alongside my
ship, saw wherry drop out from un-
der her quarter, with no one in her but
the man who was rowing. But she
passed swiftly away into the gloom, and
my own Waterman soon followed, as L
paid him and climbed on board. All was
still, and our own boat, which was
usually hauled out to the swinging
boom end at night, was now absent. L
concluded, as saw no one, that Mr..
Randall, the third mate, had gone to
yarn with some crony on board one of
the English ships, and, going forward,
found there was only one of the boys on
board, and he was nodding in the fore
castle, and didn't know of my coming
until woke MIN.


walked aft again, intending to de-
scend into the cabin, where there was
hanging lamp lighted, and its rays
streaming up through the skylight
threw some light upon the objects in
the other end of the ship. My heart
came up into my throat as my eyes
rested upon-the brogans!


Like most ships of her class, the AM
buscade had round-house built over
the rudder-port, close up to the taffrail,
with lockers on each side.


The front of the round-house was
necessarily cut away at the bottom to
allow the tiller to play clear from side
to side. And there at the bottom of the
paint-locker 1 gazed upon those ever
lasting brogans, exactly as 1 had seen