LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3524, 28 July 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

TWICE BURIED.

(Chambers' Journal.) What I am about to relate, incredible as it may seem, is perfectly true, and ocourred come years ago on board a ship in which I was then serving mj time. Wo were thirtyfive or forty days from home, had crossed the line, and were getting the first of the southeast trades, when our second mate began to break down. He had joined tho vessel in bad health, but seemed to get better in the tropics, and now again ho folt himself gradually sinking. There was no doctor on board, our ship not carrying passengers that voyage ; but it was easy to sco he was in a rapid decline. How sorry we nil were ! Everybody liked bim— a kind, considerate officer ; a cool, skilful seaman ; somewhat reserved perhaps, but not cold ; never asking any one to perform a dis sgreeable or dangerous duty without lending a hand himself. And tbcre ho lay dying-Bo young, handsome, strong. Oh, it seemed very hard. The song and laugh wero hushed round the deck B , our steps fell light as w« passed over his head, and of ten through the watches one of us youngsters would look m to sec if Mr Linden winted anything, sometimes coming out palo and scared ; ho looked so white and still we knew not if it was sleep or death. We had passed the Cape of Storms, and were now far down in tbe region of mist and snow, where the vast ice islands wander in lonely awful grandeur, and fierce westerly gales howled after us as we flew on orr westerly course to Australia. Ono night, wild and dark, with every appearance of a heavy storm at hand, I was passing the second mate's berth, when I heard hi_ voice feebly calling after me. He was Bitting up in his bunk hardly able to speak, his lips « r 7 jnd burning. I ran off to fetch him a drink. Alas! there was nothing to bo got but wat^r, thick and reddish, from the ship's iron tanks. Bad as it wa. he drank it eagerly, and becoming more composed, lay down, Btill keeping hold of my hand. Then his mind seemed to wander back to the days of hiß childhood, back to happier times, when, with tho girl ho loved, he strayed through sweet country lanes, and all was peace and rest. Whilo in dreary contrast, tho rising wind moaned and sobbed through our rigging like some living thing in pain, and men's steps were hurrying along the decks preparing for tho battle tbat must soon be fought. At last tho cloud pasced from his mind, and he turned to me, grasping my hand tightly, and spoke of his mother and sister, and that other loved one whom he would never see again. Without him they would bo alone in the world. Lovingly, lingering, ho dwelt on them till he mado me cry liko a child. Then he lay back with his head on my arm, and gradually passod away to the better land. Wo could not bury him that night. It waß fierce struggle all tho time to shorten sail. For nearly five hours wo were on tho foreyard, trying to furl the foresail, which was blown to pieces in the end. At last morning broke on the mad raging sea. The sailmaker, sewed a bag of ranvas round the corpse. We placed two ten pound shot at his feet. Tho seas were breaking too heavily on tho maindeck, so carried him tenderly up on to tho poop. Ne or shall I forget that burial sceno. Tho black lowering sky, tho ship under close reefe.l topsails flying for her lifo from the pursuing snowy crested billows. Near her stern her hands were grouped, tho wind blowing tho old captoin's gray hair wildly about, the rain and hail beating on our bared heods, * and pattering on tho deck liko a thousand feet. The solemn faces stern and cad ; and on tho wheel grating Jay all that was left of tho man we loved. Tho captain read a few words till something seemed to choko him ; ho pointed over the stern and turned away. A dull splash was heard. Liko men in a dream, we gazed at the spot as a sea broke over it.

On How tho vessel,, till many a mile lay between us and that Bad spot on tho lonoly deep. But a chango was coming round by the southward. Tho wind hauled to tho eastward, and before dark we were hove to, tho wind blowing from tho oastward and nothward a perfect hurricane. At about two bells (ono o'clock) in the middlo watch, King (ray messmate) and mysolf wero standing on tho poop, in the loe of tho mizen mast, watching the seas a 9 thoy broko on tho main deck, trying to distinguish objects by tho garish light of tho whito foam. Occasionally a pale lightning flash showed tbo wild waters round üb, tho labouring ship Booming to sweep the inky sky with her mast heads. A scene to us youngsters indescribably terrible. Tho third mate was on watch. Ho was standing over to the windward, stern and silent. Tlio dead man and he had beon closo friends. They had wandered over tho world t.gother for years, and ho seemed to feel his lobb deeply ; suddenly wo heard his voico, "Go for'ard, ono of you, and sco if tho look- out is all right." Rather a disagreeable duty; for though spray and rain had wot us through already, yot tho water in our clothes was warm by this timo ; and going along that main deck exposed us to the probability of a fresh supply of a colder temperature. " Let us both go," Baid King. We stood on tho poop ladder watching our chance, and the moment the vessel soomod steady, made a rush for tho fife rail round the main mast — a sort of holf way house. I reached it in safety, but poor King's foot slippod on tho slimy deck, and tho same instant a huge sea leaped on board at tho weather main rigging. I climbed up tho foretopgallant braces clear of it with a laugh at King's expense ; but it died on my lips as a ory came born to my cars— the cry ot some one in deadly terror. I slid swiftly down the brace to the deck. Tho samo moment a flash of lightning showed mo King still on board, clinging to tho leo mainrigging, his face white and distorted with some awful fear.

" Come out of that, Gcorgo, I implorod. His position was one of great dangor ; but ho did not Btir or answer. Ab the vessel rolled, I was dashed against him. I clung round him to the rigging, holding on till the water had in some degreo subsided through tho ports and scuppers. " What is the matter, old fellow ? " I asked ; " are you hurt ? " " With hia lips at my ear, ho answered hoarsely—" He's on board again, Jack ! " "He! Who?" I cried "wildly. He did not answer, but pointed to the deck. There was about a foot-depth of water on it. Ab tho ship rolled to leeward, I saw, by the now incessant lightning, something washing to and fro in tho wator, with loosely tossing limbs. The ship rolled to windward — it washed away. Again tho ship rolled to leeward—it rolled to our feet. Tangled in the ropos it stayed there. The lightning gleamed full on the upturned face. It was the second mate. Never will the horror of that moment p .ss from my memory. What brought tho doad back again ! Was tho shadow of death never to leavo us ? A horriblo faintnoss scorned creeping over mo. I could not movo. Suddenly tho third mate's voice rang out sharp and anxious— " Whoro aro you, youngstors ? " and broke the spell. Welcome indeed was that voice to our ears ; it Beemod to bring us back to the world of life again. We hurried aft, and rather incoherently, I think, told him what we had seen.

" Nonsense !" ho said angrily ; " did you never see a death on board a ship before, that this has mado tuch an impreeßion on you ? You— tho watch thero " — to the men — " got hold of whatever that is knocking about tho decks, and Becuro it. Get tho deck-light, ono of you." The men went down on the main-deck, hy no means cheerfully though j they soon came up again, carrying something. " It. a corpse, sir," they said in answer to the officer's inquiry ; Bnatching the light, ho directed it on the dead man's face; all cried together—" The second mato !" Ay, thero was the man we had buried the morning of the day before in a strong sailcloth bag, with twenty pounds weight at hiß feet, on board again— our own eyes saw him ; naked and bruised ho lay before us, with the dank sea-slime clinging to his swollen limbs, but nothing to account for the absence of shroud and Bhot. We buried him again next morning in silence and haste; and setting what sail wo dared to the now favouring galo, fled away from tho Bccne of that terrible mystery, iWe are assured by tho writer of this extrainary tale that he was himself an eyewitness, and that the details are all strictly true ; he surmises that the Bhot and the canvas shroud may have boen imperfectly fixed, and bo become disengaged from the body, which, carried along by some ocean current, was at length tossed on board by the waves.— -Ed,]