Part 2 (1/2)
His emaciation was terrible, and it was just perhaps at this nised the fact that he must not only die, but die soon
He turned fro upon his hand, and his eyes fixed on an ink spot upon the table-cloth; then he arose, and crossing the cabin climbed laboriously up the coainst the bulwark rail to recover his breath, the splendour and beauty of the Southern night struck hi He took his seat on a deck chair and gazed up at the Milky Way, that great triumphal arch built of suns that the daould sweep away like a dream
In the Milky Way, near the Southern Cross, occurs a terrible circular abyss, the Coal Sack So sharply defined is it, so suggestive of a void and bottoinative o To the naked eye it is as black and as dismal as death, but the smallest telescope reveals it beautiful and populous with stars
Lestrange's eyes travelled fro cross, and the na to the sea-line, where they paled and vanished in the light of the risingthe quarterdeck It was the ”Old Man”
A sea captain is always the ”old ht have been forty-five He was a sailor of the Jean Bart type, of French descent, but a naturalised Aone,” said the captain as he drew near the uess it's blown a hole in the firmament, and escaped soe,” said Lestrange; ”and I'e for me My port's not 'Frisco; I feel it”
”Don't you be thinking that sort of thing,” said the other, taking his seat in a chair close by ”There's no manner of use forecastin' the weather a lass will rise steady, and you'll be as right and spry as any one of us, before we fetch the Golden Gates”
”I' not to hear the captain's words ”Should anything happen tofor me It's only this: dispose ofIt has been in my mind to ask you this for so of death”
Le Farge moved uneasily in his chair
”Little Emmeline's mother died when she o Her father--my brother--died before she was born dicky never knew ahim birth My God, Captain, death has laid a heavy hand on my family; can you wonder that I have hid his very name from those two creatures that I love!”
”Ay, ay,” said Le Farge, ”it's sad! it's sad!”
”When I was quite a child,” went on Lestrange, ”a child no older than dicky, my nurse used to terrify o to hell when I died if I wasn't a good child I cannot tell you how hts we think in childhood, Captain, are the fathers of the thoughts we think e are grown up And can a diseased father have healthy children?”
”I guess not”
”So I just said, when these two tiny creatures came into my care, that I would do all in my power to protect them from the terrors of life--or rather, I should say, froht, but I have done it for the best They had a cat, and one day dicky caarden asleep, and I can't wake her' So I just took him out for a walk; there was a circus in the town, and I took hiot the cat Next day he asked for her I did not tell hiarden, I just said she otten all about her--children soon forget”
”Ay, that's true,” said the sea captain ”But 'pears to ot to die”
”Should I pay the penalty before we reach land, and be cast into that great, vast sea, I would not wish the children's dreaone on board another shi+p You will take them back to Boston; I have here, in a letter, the name of a lady ill care for theoods are concerned, and so will Eone on board another shi+p--children soon forget”
”I'll do what you ask,” said the seaman
The moon was over the horizon now, and the Northumberland lay adrift in a river of silver Every spar was distinct, every reef point on the great sails, and the decks lay like spaces of frost cut by shadows black as ebony
As the two hts, a little white figure eed from the saloon hatch It was Emmeline She was a professed sleepwalker--a past mistress of the art
Scarcely had she stepped into dreamland than she had lost her precious box, and now she was hunting for it on the decks of the Northuer to his lips, took off his shoes and silently followed her She searched behind a coil of rope, she tried to open the galley door; hither and thither she wandered, wide-eyed and troubled of face, till at last, in the shadow of the hencoop, she found her visionary treasure Then back she cahtdress with one hand, so as not to trip, and vanished down the saloon coet back to bed, her uncle close behind, with one hand outstretched so as to catch her in case she stumbled
CHAPTER III