Show THE CAPTAIN’S FLAT CANDLESTICK-- A SAILOR’S BTORY r -- The horrors laid hold of me from' head to foot and the ing the truth and I don’t mind ackti o wlcdging that the pilot frightened me ' IlThe fright and the bonds and" the gag and the not being' able to stir hand or foot had pretty nigli 'worn me out by the time the Spaniards gave over work This was just as the dawn broke They had shifted good part of our cargo on hoard their vessel but nothing like and they were sharp all of it enough to be off with what they had got before daylight 'I need hardly say that I had made up my mind by this time to the worst I could think of The pilot ‘it was clear enough was one of the spies of the enemy who had wormed himself into the confidence cf our consignees without being suspected' He or more likely his employers had got knowledge enough of us to suspect what our cargo was we had been anchored for the night in the safest xbcrtli for them8 to surprise us in and we had paid the penalty of having a barrels : sweat poured off my face like water I saw him go nest to one of the barrels of powder standing against the side of the vessel in a line with the candle and about three feet or rather better away from it He bored a hole in the side of the barrel with bis awl and the horrid powder came trickling out as black as hell and dripped into the hollow' of his band which lie held to catch it W1 ion he had got a good handful he stopped up the hole by jamming one end of bis oiled twist of cotton-var- n fast into it and he then rubbed the powder into the whole lenghth of the yarn till he had’ blackened every liairsbreadth of it The next thing he did— as true as I sit here as true as the heaven above us ail — the next thing lie did was to carry the free end of his long lean black frightful to the lighted candle alongside-min several folds face and to round the tallow dip about a third of the distance down measuring from the flame of the wick to the lip of the candlestick He did that he looked to sec that my lashings were all safe and then he put his face down close to mine and whispered in my ear “Blow uox with the brig !” tne mo- He "was cn a wu the two others shoved the hatch on over me At the farthest end from where I ' slow-matc- h tiit smalh crew and consequently an insufficient watch All this was clear enough — but what did the pilot mean to do with me ? " On the word of a' man it makes my flesh creep now only to" tell you what lie did with me After all the rest of them wcVc out of the brig except the pilot and two Spanish seamen ’these last took me lip bound and gagged as I' was lowered me in the hold of the vessel' and laid me along on the floor dashing inc to it with ropes’ ends so that 1 could just0 turn from one side to the other but could not roll myself fairly over so as to change my place They then left me 'Both of them were the worse for liquor but the devil of a pilot was sober — mind that! — as sober as I am at the pres- - quite true ! ent moment I lay in the dark for a little while with my heart thumping pis if it was going to jump out of me "I lay about five minutes so wliei the pilot came down into the hold alone He had the captain’s curs- -' ed fiat candlestick and a carpen- ter’s awl in one hand and a long thin twist of cotton yarn well oiled in the other lie put the Candlestick with a new “dip” lighted in it down on the floor about two feet from my face and close against the side of the vessel The light was feeble enough but it was sufficient to show a dozen barrels of gunpowder or more left all around me in the hold of the brig I began to suspect what he was after the moment I noticed the slow-matc- ' 1 they had not fitted it down and I saw a blink of daylight glimmering in when I I heard looked in that direction the sweeps of the schooner fall into the water — splash splash" for a quarter of ail hour or more "While those sounds were in my ears my eyes were fixed on 'the candle It had been freshly lit — if left to itself it would bum from between six and seven hours — the h was twisted roundit about a third of the way down — and therefore the flame would be liours reaching about two it There 1 lay gagged hound lashed to the floor seeing my own life burning down with the candle by my side — there I lay alone on the sea doomed to be blown to atoms and to see that doom drawing on nearer and nearer with' every fresh second of time through' nigli on two hours to come pjowerless to help myself and speechless to call The wonfor help to others der to me is that I didn’t cheat the and the flame the lay ' t slow-matc- h V 45 r ' powder and die of the horror of my situation before my first half-hou- r was out in the hold of the brig I can’t exactly say liow long I kept the command of my senses after I had ceased to hear the splash of the schooner’s sweeps in the water I can trace back every thing I did and everything I thought up to a ftrtain point but once past that 1 get all abroad and lose myself in my memory now much as I lost myself in my own feelings at the time The moment the hatch was covered over me o 1 began as every other man would have begun in f my piace with a frantic effort to free my hands In the mad panic I was in I cut my flesh with tlio lashings as if they had been knife-blad: but I never stirred them ‘There was less chance still ‘of freeing my legs or of tearing myself from the fastenings that held me to the floor I ‘gave in when I wa3 all blit suffocated for want of breath The gag you will please to Tc- member was a terrible enemy to me I 'could only breathe freely through my nose — and that is but a poor vent when a man is strain ing Ills strength as far as ever it will go I gave in and lay quiet and got my breath again my eyes glaring and straining at the candle all the time While I was staring’ at it the notion stiuck re of trying to blow out the flame Vy ’pumping a long breath at it suddenly through my nostrils It was too high above me and too far away from me to be reached in that fashion I tried caul tried and tried — and then I gave in again and lay quiet again always with my eyes glaring at the candle and the candle glaring at vie The splash’ of the schoonfaint by this er’s sweeps time I- could only just hear them-i- n the morning stillness Splash ! fainter and- fainter splash! splash! splash Without exactly feeling my mind going I began to feel it getting queer as early as this The snuff of the candle was growing taller and taller and the length of tallow between the flame and the which was the length h of my life was getting shorter and shorter I calculated that I had rather less than an hour and a half to live An hour and a half ! Was there a chance in that time " of a boat pulling off to the brig from shore? Whether the land Uiear which the vessel’ was anchored was in possession of our sid was-ver- ! slow-matc- i |