CHANGES OF FORTUNES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21099, 5 February 1932, Page 6

CHANGES OF FORTUNES.

STOWAWAY'S ADVENTURES.

MEALS AS A PASSENGER.

STORY OF MISSING FINGERS. [raOM OTJE OWN CORRESPONDENT.! SYDNEY, Jan. 28. Tom Walton, a young Englishman with three fingers missing, must agree with Kipling that "fortune changeth as the moon." He had the good luck a few months ago to stow away at Sydney on an overseas vessel which was carrying a passenger also with three fingers missing. This coincidence resulted in Walton get ting as far as Port Said before detection. With the help of a friend returning to England, Walton got his bag aboard the vessel. The four other occupants of the cabin were in his confidence and two agreed to help him. A Welshman, however, took an instant dislike to the stowaway, and a Scotsman washed his hands of the affair. The first thrill came when a steward>< called at the cabin to collect names. Wal- 'J ton overcame this by pretending his berth was on another deck. At the first meal he just went into the saloon with the others and took a seat. No&ing hap. pened. He was served as a passenger until caught nearly three weeks later. If it had not been for the Welshman, Walton says, he would have got through. This passenger resented his presence, and after a few words had passed openly threatened to give him away. Once past Fremantle the stowaway began to breathe more freely. But on deck one afternoon, when a woman said, "I believe there are six stowaways on board," he was surprised to hear a voice say, "Yes! There is one who sleeps on the floor of our cabin." It was his Welsh friend. Later, according to Walton, the Welsh- , man tipped off the head steward that a * man, with three fingers missing, was a stowaway. A hunt started, and a man with three fingers missing was found; but he proved to be a bona-fide passenger. The Welshman was unpopular with the head steward after this, and the stowaway gained, a respite which took him past Colombo. When Walton was finally caught at Port Said, the Scotsman gathered subscriptions to pay his fare on to London. According to Walton, the captain of the ship said that if he gave back the money and took what was coming to him in Port Said he would recommend him to the captain of another vessel for a job which would land him in London. Walton took this advice and did 10 days in ah Egyptian gaol. He came back to Sydney, but did not succeed in getting the job, and is now where he started from.