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Show A LETTEli THAT CYME. IT C.WST A GLOOM OVER . NAVY OfFICER'S WHOLE L!'.fE. At o Time Ho Wan Aboard Mmi-o'-Wcif The "rilc.t letter" Tun Did the MUclilef It Was a Well Wr'Atnn Letter, Let-ter, but It Miscarried. The officers of the mess wore Bitting around the wardroom table. It was just after dinner. They wore telling stories j of slupwrock and disaster. Eivh one, it I appeared, had had a more terrifying ox- I periuuee than tho one who spoko iniuio- j diatejy before him. All had spun their j yarn but ono. Ho smoked reflectively In silence for a few minutes. Then ho said: ( "Vell, gentlemen, you have all had i many unpleasant, sonic frightful, experiences. experi-ences. Tho story I urn ubout to relate to jou", however, will prove, as you will all admit when you hear it, far moro terrible terri-ble than uny yet told. Tho events happened hap-pened a number of years ago, but they Lave cast a gloom over my wholo life." Tlioofficcr stopped und pulled upon his cigar in silence for a while. Tho others oth-ers settled into attitudes of attention. The olllcer went on: "Soino hero are young in tho service, mid will not remember when it was the invariable custom for a man-o -war to take a pilot aboard upon leaving port. At this time I was on tho Pacific Nation. Our homo port was Sail Francisco, so I hired a house there mid settled my wife in it. At that period tho 'pilot lettur' was an institution among tho officers of thojihip. After wo weighed anchor and began steaming down tho bay all hands would hurry to their rooms and writo farewell letters to their wives, sweethearts sweet-hearts and mothers. TUB LK.TTKH. ' "These letters were taken ashore by the pilot when ho left us outride. Ono day we were ordered to tho South Pacific for a loivg cruise. I bid farewell to my i weeping wife, who was suro sho would never see lno again, and promised her most faithfully 1 would send her a long j.'ilot letter. That was at night, and wo expected to weigh anchor the next morning. morn-ing. I sHnt the night aboard, and got tip early. I had soino time on my hands. That letter was a burden on i:iy mind, bo I concluded to write it then and pet it iiit of tho way. I did so. 1 wroto at length, for my heart was full. To bo euro, we did not expect to weigh anchor for several hours, but as 1 wanted to bo r.'ulbtie, I described how wo did it, and then proceeded to describe our ncne cut through tho Golden Gate. 1 bad gone out many times before, and knew tho whole scene perfectly. 1 depicted it in graphic colors. ' I told of tho beauties of the city, growing smaller and smaller and finally disappearing; of the harbor fortilica-tious fortilica-tious as they loomed up by turns and by turns fa. led away; of the glorious glo-rious effect of tho late afternoon sun upon the receding California!! shores; of my feelings as 1 rellecled that 1 might never see those lessening shi res or my dear wife again. It was un affecting letter, mid (you will pardon the vanity) a well written ono. It bore upon it tho etamp of sincerity. Finally 1 told her that the pilot was now about to leave us alone upon tho bottomless deep, and that I must (dose. 1 ended with something incoherent, nud signed my name hurriedly. hur-riedly. Thou I directed and stamped it ! and dropped it into the ship's letter box i for tho pilot to take ashore when he loft us in tho evenimr. : HOW THE I.ETTKB MISCARRIKD. "Well, the pilot came aboard about 9 o'clock, and we began to weigh anchor, j Of course everything was confusion j there. About 11 o'clock it was suddenly ! discovered that there was trouble with , the steering gear which had been over- j looked. 1 was detailed to direct the repairing. About noon I reported to the captain that the difficulty of getting at the trouble was such that we would not be able to start before night. It appeared afterward that the captain immediately sent the pilot off, deciding not to start before morning. About sundown I re-orted re-orted everything as ship shaie, and that we were ready for an early start. The captain was pleased, and readily granted the request made by half a dozen of us to go ashore overnight. We were rowed ashore, a jolly crowd, and as I hurried home I pictured to myself . my wife's glad surpriso. ' "But I cannot descrilie to yon the ex-1 tent of my wifo's surprise when sho saw rue. It surprised me, and her curious tearing for the next two hours, some titiioa luf.rTV it1m.Mf 4rt flic Tn.iltit t9 h-a i teria, and then apparently depressed and even sad puzzled me very niucli. After supper she settled down in a calm mood, which, however, seemed only a covering for suppressed feelings of some sort. I stretched myself at ease on the lounge, nd she seated herself heside me. Presently, Pres-ently, without warning, she began to read to me aloud. At the end of the first sentence I bounced up as if 1 had been slapped in the face. "At the end of the second sentence I i reached out for the paper she was reading. read-ing. But she made a gesture of command, com-mand, and actually compelled me to sit still and listen to every word of that wretched pilot letter which I had writ-ton writ-ton her that morning. Ves, notwithstanding notwith-standing our decision to reinniu at anchor overnight, that wretched pilot j had actually brought my letter ashore ut ; tooon and mailed it. I have wished many j times since that I had choked him the ! next morning." Xew York Sua j |