Show t THE CAPTAIN'S FLAT GANDLESTIOK — A BAILORS 8TOBI or in possession of the enemy’s side I made it out that they must sooner or later send to hail the brig merely because sho was a stranger in those parts The question for me was how soon ? The sun had not risen yet as I could tell by looking through the chink in the hatch TJjere was no coast village near us as we all knew before the brig was seized by seeing no lights on shore There was no wind as I could tell by listening to bring any strange vessel near If I had had six hours to live there might have been a chance for me reckoning from sunrise to noon But with an hour and a half which had dwindled to an hour and a quarter by this time — or in otherwords with the earliest of the morning the uninhabited coast and the dead calm c all against me — there was not the ghost of a chance As 1 felt that I had another strugglc—the last — with my bonds aud only cut myself the deeper for my pains 1 gave in once more and lay quiet and listened for the' splash of the sweeps Gone! Not a Bound could I hear but the blowing of a fish now and then on the surface of the sea and the creak of the brig’s crazy old spars as she rolled gently from side to aide with the little swell there was on the quiet water An hourftnd a quarter The rick grew terribly as the quar-j- r slipped away and the charred top of it began to thicken and It spread out mushroom-shapwould fall off soon Would itfall and would the swing off red-ho- t of the brig cant it over the side of the candle and let it down on ? the If it would I iad about ten minutes to live instead of an hour This discovery eet my mind for a minute on a new tack altogether I began to ponder with myself what sort of a death blowing-u- p might be i'ainful ? Well it would be surely too siidden for that Perhaps just one crash inside me or outride me or both aud nothing more? Perhaps not even a crash that and death and the scattering of this living body of mine into millions of fiery sparks might happen in the saineinstant? I couldn’t ike it out I couldn’t settle how vvmild be The minute of calm-- i in my mind left it before I aud I half done thinking all abroad again hen I came back to my thoughts - hni they came back to me (I say which) the wick was Vtall the flame was burning e slow-match- with a smoke above it the charrtop was broad and red and heavily spreading out to its fall My despair and horror and seeing it took mo in a new way which was good aud rigid at any rate for my poor soul I tried to pray in my own heart you will understand for the gag put all out of my power I tried but the candle seemed to burn it I struggled bard to up in me force my eyes from the slow murdering flame and to look up through the chink in the hatch at the blessed daylight I tried once tried twice and gave it up I tried next only to shut my eyes and keep them shut — once — twice —and tho second time I did it “ God bless old mother and sister Lizzie God keep them both and forgive me? That was' all I had time to say in my own heart before my eyes opened again in spite of me and the flame of the candle flew into them flew all over me and burnt up the rest of my thoughts in aifinstant I couldn’t hear fish blowing now I couldn’t think I couldn’t feel the sweat of my own death agony on my face — I could only look at the heavy charred top of the wick It swelled tottered bent over to one side dropped — t at the moment of its fall —black and harmless even before tho swing of the brig had canted it over the bottom of the candlestick I caught myself laughing Yes ! laughing at the safe fall of the hit of wick But for the gag I should have screamed with laughing As it was I shook with it inside me —shook till the blood was in my 'head arid 1 was all hut suffocated for want of breitth I had just sense enough left to feci that my own horrid laughter at that awful moment was a sign of my brain going at last 1 had just sense enougji left to make another stugglo before my mind broke loose like a frightened horse and unburnt candle between the light and the slow match shortened-tan inch or: less llow much'dife did that inch leave me? Three quarters of an hour? Half an hour? Fifty minutes? Twenty minutes ? Steady an inch of tal- ed - red-ho- ran away with me One comforting look at the blink of daylight through the hatch was what I tried for once more The fight to force my eyes from the candle and to get that one look at the daylight was the hardest I had had yet arid 1 lost the The flame had hold of my fight eyes as fast as1 the lashing had hold of my hands I couldn’t look I couldn’t even away from 'it shut my eyes when I tried that next for the second time: There was the wick 'growing talHonce more There was the rpace of ! candle would burn longer than twenty minutes An inch of tallow candle! the notion of a man’s body and soul being kept together by an inch of tallow ! Wonderful Why the greatest king- that sits on a throne can’t keep a nlan’s body and soul together and here’s an inch of tallow that can do what the king can’t! There’s something to tell mother when I get home which will surprise her more than all the rest of my voyages put together I laughed inwardly again at the thought of that and shook and swelled and suffocated myself till the light of the candle leaped in through my eyes and licked up the laughter and burnt it out of me and made me all empty and cold and quiet once more Mother and Lizzy I don’t know when they came buck but sthey did come back — not as it seemed to me into my mind this time but right down bodily before me in the hold of the brig Yes : sure enough There was Lizzie as just as usual laughing at me LaughWdll why not ? Who is to ing blame Lizzie for thinking I’m on my back drunk in the cellar with the beer barrels all round mo? Steady! she’s crying now — spinning round and round in a fiery mist wringing her hand? schreeching out for help — fainter and fainter like the splash of the schooner’s sweeps Gone —burnt Mist?: fire ? up in the fiery mist no : neither one nor the other It’s mother makes the light— mother knitting with ten flaming points at the ends of her fingers and thumbs and hanging in bunches all round her face instead of her own grey hair Mor ther in her old and the pilot’s long skinny hands hanging over the back of the chair dripping with gunpowder No no gunpowder no chair no mother— nothing hut the pilot’s face shining red lfot like a sun in the fiery mist turning upside down in the fiery mist running backwads and forwards h in the fiery along the mist spinning millions of miles in a minute in the fiery mist— spinning itself— smaller and smaller into one tiny point and that point darting on 'a sudden straight into my he&d —and then all fire anil low : light-hearte- d ! ly--i- p slow-match- ' ann-cliai- ! slow-matc- ' |