THE TROUBLE HUNTER;

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2550, 10 July 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE TROUBLE HUNTER;

,<)LD BILL kfeoLS AND HIS ONE- ' elephant ciecus. .

.(I3v Frederick Upham Adams, in "Collier’s Weekly." Tlio proprietor of Simms’ International Circus,and Menagerie waved a gnarled hand in a sweeping threequarter circle. "There they are, Cap’a’n,” he announced. Jed Bloat, captain and. owner of the .three-masted trading schooner Daisy D gazed doubtfully at the twelve waggons which contained tlic fauna be;louging to old Bill Simms. Then the cves ojyAlic sailor wandered to tlie. gigantiefonn of the lone elephant who lent a shade of real distinction to tho .aggregation. This enormous brute was contentedly extracting wisps of hay and hoisting them into, his triangular mouth, pausing occasionally to sweep ■ from his leathery back and flanks a swarm of Fijian Hies. The Simms 111I ternational Circus and Menfgerie. was closing a successful engagement in Suva, metropolis of Vita Leva of tho Fiji group of islands. "That’s a thunderin’ big elephant," Captain Blent said, cautiously moving a- little nearer the huge pachyderm. - "Bi ggest and best in' tho world," proudly agreed Bill" Simms, grabbing the twisting trunk with one hand and slapping the huge beast in rough affection with the other. "That’s no pressagent yarn, neither. Speak, up ter Cap’a’n Blout, John Li!” he commanded. pushing up the trunk with all his strength. "Saluts tlie Cap’a’n, you big, overgrown eater of my money ! Speak up, you —!” The monster suddenly reared on his hind legs, swung the tip of his trunk high in air, opened his month, swelled his sides, and then gave vent to a trumpet blast which shook every yard • of canvas in the tent. Captain Blout instinctively backed away when "John L." poised for this vocal effort, and retreated until he stood less than threq, feet from the bars which restrained tho Numidian. lion from devouring an .-appreciative public. The echoes of the elephantine salute still crashed through the tent when the awakened lion rose and roared forth a -not subdued note. Captain Blout felt the hot and sickening blast of breath •on higjy . An instant later the whole*®enagerie joined in the tumult. Hyenas barked, leopards snarled, tigers threw themselves -against their bars, -and the deep bass of a grizzly hear mingled in a chorus which welled savagely un from every angle of the canvas enclosure. Captain Blout was a brave- man, but his sky was not the fluttering top of a •menagerie tent. "I’m going to get out of,this!’’ he ■exclaimed, looking wildly for the exit. "And let me tell you right now that I wouldn’t carry this bunch of animals on the Daisy D. for all the money you’ve got! How do I vet out?” Old Bill Simms had reached for a .stout stake. With it he gave the Numidian lion a dexterous jab in the ribs, another blow silenced a vociferous leopard, and a moment later he hurled it across the open space and hit the bars Of the- hyenas’ cage. "Shet up! Sliet up; the whole blanked passcl of ye!” he yelled, jumping on a barrel and shaking his fists at the -occupants of the various cages. "Ye blamed fools, don’t ye know you’ve got company P Stay right where ye are, Cap’a’n! Lord bless ye; if they was alt turned loose not a one of ’em would dare come near ye! They’re only showin f off; they thought ye’d like it!’’ Comparative silence fell in the 'tent. The elephant complacently resumed ; ’his manipulation of the hay, tho Numidian lion sorrowfully inspected his bruised side, and only the parrots dared disregard the mandate of their owner. I Captain. Blout paused in his flight and looked a’bit sheepish. v "You can never tell what will happen,” he said, still keeping an eye on the lion. "Happen! .Happen!” cried old' Bill Simms, viciously punching the prop Ejecting nose of the grizzly. "I’ve been ■ in this business forty years an’ not a blamed thing has happened. It’s like ' herdin’ a flock of sheep. You see that lion ? Well, I can walk right intew his I cage an’ pull what few teeth, he’s got "left, an’ he wouldn’t life, a paw in anger. Why, Cap’a’n, I own him an’. | .can lick him, an’ blamed well he knows ‘1; it!” "Every man to his “trade,” muttered the captain of the Daisy D., "but I don’t believe I want to freight ’em on iny ship.” "Yes, ye dew,” eagerly insisted Bill Simms. "Cum right over tew the ■company tent an’ we’ll talk it over.” Possibly a desire to exact higher 1 rates may have influenced Captain Btout’s, hesitation, but' he finally agreed rto transport the effects and employees ;J of the Simms International Circus and | Menagerie from Suva to Sydney, Australia —some seventeen hundred miles I of island-dotted waters—for a price more, than old Bill Simms had suggested, but which was considerably less ' than that demanded 'by the steamship ( company. "Of course,” commented 'Bill Simms, |. a 3 he scrjVled his name to the contract ;. and hancfecl* over a part of-the stipulatij ed amount —"of course ..1., Ipse some m time, an’ time runs mighty,Last.. intew money for Y<?laries and. fer feed tew p the, animals ;. ! but still, somethin’' excitfj in’ may. happen, vlf somethin’ worth j scein’ would-only happen I wouldn’t |j care how much it> cost —in reason, of ■ course.” \ , .. I' "What do you want to happen? I asked Captain,' Blout, carefully -stowfi’ing the bills, jiv a well-wom wallet. , | "Any old kind of stimulatin’ tron- | ble,” slowly explained. the circus man.

“Don't you go pullin’ for any trouble on the Daisy D.,” growled the commander. “If that’s what you’re looking for we’ll call this deal off right here!” ,

“I don’t mean disasters,” hedged old Bill Simms. “I’ve ilist got or hankerin’ that this here trip might turn up somethin’ tew break the deadly monopoly—as my daughter ’Sally would say of keepin’ a boardin’-house forty years for, a passel of mangy animals. That’s all I mean, Cap’a’n. I ain’t lookin’ fer much; a small hurricane or an attack by a few canibals would help perk me up er lot.” Three days later the menagerie was snugly stowed away in the second-deck of the Daisy I)., and cramped accommodations found for the employees and performers. For months tlio weather had Deen ideal... Day after day the thermometer had stopped short of eighty. Occasionally showers had freshened the tropical vegetation, the winds had the proper force for -full sails, and the. nights were cool and delicious. Such were the. conditions . when the stout little'schooner trailed her wake away from the south shore of Yita Leva.

Simms and Captain Bloat went below to inspect the menagerie. The 'waggons were closely arranged in the forward part of the second deck. The elephant was housed in a barricade constructed of heavy_upr.igilts, in .front of which was an inclined walk which took the place, of the companionway.

A group of Fijian sailors clustered in this passage and gazed with open mouths and eyes as Bill Simms thrust his hands through the bars and familiarly greeted the lion, the tigers, leopards, and the snarling hyenas. The men began jabbering to one another, and as they talked their excitement grew. Captain Blent caught the drift of their comments, shouted a command to them in'their native language, and they scuttled to the deck. “What was them benighted heathen sayin’ ?” asked Bill Simms. “What in tarnation’s worryin’ ’em?” “They say that you’re a devil, and that you have bewitched these beasts,” frankly explained the captain. “They are afraid that you have hoodooed the ship.” Bill Simms leaned back against the cage of the grizzly beak and laughed long and loud. “Them poor pagans don’t know much erbout, me an’ this here collection of man’eaters,” he said, wiping his eyes on a red bandana handkerchief. “Sit down, Cap’a’n, an’ let me. unload some of my woes on ye. A ship that carries me an’ this bunch of critters surely don’t need , tew take out no insurance. The Lloyds should hire me tew sail steady on ships which are supposed tew take risks. Why? Because nothin’ ever happens tew that ship. I’m the opposite, as ’twere, of the Flyin’ Dutchman. My just bein’ on board breeds good -weather an’ steady breezes. Me ’an these here animals soothes nature an’ stills the savage passions ih the breasts of men*. Darned if it ain’t er fact, Cap’a’n! My daughter Sally —who lives in Boston and knows a lot —she says I’m the harbinger of peace, an’ I reckon she has it sized up erbout right. It makes me plumb disgusted —it shure dew"!”

“What makes you disgusted,” asked the puzzled seaman. “My fool luck,” growled old Bill Simms. ■ “Here. I am sixty years old —• an’ nothin’ has happened tew me yet. I come from a venturesome an’ enterprisin’ family, Cap’a’n. My father Avas shot up five times before he was forty-five. He participated in a flock er shipwrecks, he got smashed up in railroad accidents,, a crocodile bit off two of his toes before he was married, he dropped a hundred feet outer a balloon —say, Cap’a’n, it would take me a week tew tell ye half the amazin’ things that happened tew my dad —an’ he’s alive yet, an’ well, or was when I left. Frisco.”

The old man paused and relit his pipe.. ‘ ■ . “Then look at me,” he continued.

started out tew keep up the family record. I looked ’round fer some dangerous occupation, an’ finally picked out animal trainin’ an’ the circus business. It looked interestin’ and was reputed tew be hazardous. Cap a’n, if ever a man deliberately insulted lions and picked trouble with tigers, leopards, an’ other big oats, I m that man —an’ after forty years of it darned if live got er scratch more’n half an inch deep! Fact! No gang of toughs ever gave me a fight worth thinkin 1 erbout; none of my performers ever got killed; none of my animals ever escaped an’ attacked the audience not a dodgasted thing has happened worth puttin’ in the. papers. I tell ye, Capa’n, it’s mighty tough on a man who’s honestly tried tew hunt up excitement.”

The captain seemed unable properly to express his sympathy. “So I have made this here final ef-, fort to change my tough luck,” the circus man went on. “I had quite a wad of money, an’,'' thinks I,* I’ll take this blame’ circus, part way. ’round the world an’ see if anythin’ will happen. Says I tew myself, I’ll but intew savages, run afoul er cannibals, 'get in the path er hurricanes, monkey ’round where there’s apt tew bo earthquakes —lose money, perhaps, an perhaps my fool life, hut I' may strike sumthin’ worth while. Dew ye know, Cap an, I’ve toted this circus an’ menagerie clear ’round; South America, an’ not a blame’ thing, has happened yet.' It was tame as a Sunday-school picnic. So when I saw this- little tradin’ schooner of yours back there in Suva harbor, I says tew myself that on a slow voyage tew Australia, duckin’ in between them islands on the map, perhaps we might bat intew sum kinder interestin’ -rumpus, but I ain’t got much hope, dap’a’n; I’ve erbout gi-

yen, it up. Funny thing is that instead of losin’ money, as I naturally expected, we’ve made money every place we’ve stopped.” Old Bill Simms returned to the. deck, looked with disgust at the cloudless sky, and then began the seventh rereading of “Foul Play.” On the third day out the Daisy ID. encountered a head wind, but. otherwise tlie -weather continued perfect. This wind gradually died away, and finally the schooner rolled lazily on a glassy , sea. The blue peaks of distant islands lifted themselves above the horizon, a full moon made, the nights, glorious, but these placid beauties of nature had no charm for old Bill Simms.

“I’ve never seen anythin’ else,” he repeatedly complained to Captain Biout. “Lord how I 'wish it would blow er dew somethin’.!'” v ’ , ' ■». “Unless the barometer lies you’ll get a bellyful of that wish,” was the grim response of that mariner. '“I don’t believe it,” said the dejected Simms. “The only hurricanes an’ typhoons I’ll ever see is right here in this hook. Hurricanes,.- earthquakes, pirates, cannibals, etc., arc only in novels. I don’t believe, this old mill-pond ever kicked up a sea,” and he buried liis wrinkled face again in tlio pages of “Foul Play.” Four hours'’later it. began to blow, and the end of the afternoon found the. Daisy D. scudding along under bare poles. As the gale increased a fierce joy possessed old Bill-Simms. Hatless and coatless, he clung to ai stay 'and shouted at the wind-torn crests which swept past the schooner. “Blow, darn ye, blow!” he yelled, bracing himself against each fiercer blast. “Is this the best ye can dew? Darn it; I’ve seen it blow harder than this up in old Vermont! Dew ye call this a real hurricane, Cap’a’n?” That officer paid little attention to him. Not so the Fijian sailors, who glowered at him with frightened or angry looks as they brushed past. They translated his cries as an invocation to their Storm Devil and Captain Blout finally t®ld him so. “Stop that fool yellin’ of yours!” lie ordered, shouting in Simms’ ears. Don’t you know that my men are afraid of you? They think that you brought on this storm. You’ll get enough of it before morning! Go below and look after your confounded menagerie.”

Until midnight the storm was nothing more serious than a stiff gale, then the Daisy D. entered the zone of 3 well-developed typhoon. Long, black fingers of cloud lifted themselves above the horizon and sped 'with inconceivable rapidity to the zenith. To add to the herror of the spectacle the moon would at intervals suddenly burst forth and cast a fleeting and uncanny refulgence on this' toy of a ship tossed on a lacerated sea beneath a crazy sky. Simms lashed himself to a stanchion near the wheel. Fear had not yet stricken his stout heart, But awe had crept into his brain.

“Be there any islands ahead of us, Cap’a’n?” he asked. “If there are, we’re due to bump ’em,” was the gruff response. “This ain’t a steamer, and where she blows we goes!” Half an hour later a furious squall ripped away the foretopmast, and it carried with it a poor wretch of a Fijian sailor, who gave one shriek of despair and was seen no more.

“Ye can call this hurricane off any time ye like, so far’s I’m concerned, Cap’a’n,” old Bill Simms said in the slight lull which followed this tragedy. “I’m not altogether selfish in matters of this kind, anl I’ll take yer word fer it that it can blow harder! Gee-whili-kins! "What’s coinin’ now?” A flash of moonlight .revealed the jagged and writhing base of a waterspout not a quarter of a mile ahead of the, plunging bow of the Daisy D. A second later a- solid wall! of rain cut it from view. Captain Blout threw his weight on the wheel, and for two awful minutes the schooner lay half-smother-ed in a trough of 'a maddened sea. They missed that waterspout by a few rods! . ■ '>

It was four o’clock in the morning when the rain suddenly ceased, and later the wind dropped a bit. Bill Simms peered anxiously ahead, scanning the scudding clouds and drew a long breath. “Thank God! She’s; done her worst!” he said .fervently. “Pm through pullin’ fer hurricanes, Cap’a’n, an’ if ye think I’m anyways ter blame fer this here one, why, I apologises. Guess I’ll mosey down below an’ see how the menagerie has stood the racket.”

He cautiously loosened the lashings, stretched his long legs and arms, and waited for a chance, to make the dangerous dash for the comp anion wa y. At that moment the sky was illumined with an unearthly glare. For an instant the watchers thought it lightning, but only for an instant. The entire firmament flared and pulsated in its weird glow,/but the source of this eruption of light seemed to be directly ahead of the .path of thd gale-driven schooner. The first burst was of a tawnv yellow; then came vivid flashes of violet and green, and throbbing pulsations of other colors. Simms gazed at it for a minute in silence. “What in thunderation is it.?” ha finally demanded. Captain Blout shook his head.

“If I was on shore,” volunteered the circus man, “an’ saw a thing like that L should make up my mind that hell had broken loose, or that the biggest chemical shop on earth was on fire an that the .firemen was squirting oil on it. Great Scott! Look at it now! There came a blinding glare of light as if the writhing clouds had hurst into dazzling flame. Simms remembers that the -viggmg of t?:e schooner was sharply silhouetted

against the celestial conflagration. He recalls that the awful light was so diffused and all-pervading that it cast no shadows; he saw tlio agonised faces of the' Fijian sailors as they knelt on the deck of' the Daisy D. and wildly invoiced their heathen gods to save them —and then he remembers hearing a moan in the air, of feeling the lifting of the schooner to an incredible, height, of resisting a rush of something which seemed to deaden his faculties '•—the universe rocked in a cataclysmic explosion, and then he felt himself picked up and hurled into space. ' Simms was stunned only for a moment. Half • straggled by a wave which had swept hint fifty feet a‘o:-g the declc, lie clutched a stay, staggered to his feet and came back, not to earth, but to Inferno. It was hailing meteors. Net the. fuzzy things of white across a peaceful sky, not ’ the silent ‘-shooting stars” with which he had been familiar for nearly three-score years, but huge masses of sizzling and white-hot rock.'which hissed and screamed overhead,' and which exploded with deafening roars and clouds of steam as they hurled themselves into a sea which looked like nothing else save boiling gold. There were thousands upon thousands of these meteors, some ■Ol them no larger than a hat, and others bigger than his village church back in Vermont. One of these huge masses of burning rock came so near tlio schooner that its heat blistered Simm’s face and singed his thin grey beard. Terrific detonations deafened him; the air was choked with particles of. dust which glistened like gold, and was rank with the stench of sulphur and unknown chemicals. It distressed old Bill Simms to realise that an irreverent thought possessed him in this awful and probably final moment. “"VVe surely have located he’!,” he muttered to himself over and over again, “an’ it looks just erbout like

I thought it did.” He had resigned himself to his fate when he heard the crash of splintering wood. He looked and saw the huge hatch, which had been battened over the. menagerie companionway, rise in the air, and as it fell to the deck he saw the" unwieldly form of “John L.” He looked a glorified elephant. The burnished heavens turned his ugly hide to layers of overlapping and undulated gold.

' The elephant steadied himself by a massive effort, raised his trunk, and added to the universal din one defiant blast, and, as if that were the signal, the Numidian lion, the two Bengal tigers, the spotted leopards, the laughing hyenas, and most of the other animals belonging to the Simms International Circus and Menagerie scrambled up from below and instinctively clustered around the swaying and slipping “John L.”

Bill Simms was of the good old Yankee type which believes in conserving persona! property rights until the last breath is drawn. It was not a dead sure thing that the end of the world had come, but it was an absolute certainty that the menagerie was in danger. “Things surely are happening fast enough now,” he gasped as he dashed forward.

He had grabbed “John L.” by the tip of his trunk when something els> happened. A wall of water r-«e high over the port quarter of the schooner, and when that stout craft had finally struggled up from beneath it, Bill •Simms and most of his menagerie were in the spume of the South Pacific Ocean. Captain Blout caught one glimpse of the elephant as a surge lifted. his bulk on its crest, and he thought he saw old Bill Simms, but the master of the Daisy D. had other than a, vain attempt at rescue cut out at that moment.

It is well to give the later experiences of Mr William Simms in his own language. He Has told it many times, and his account never varies— fairly conclusive proof of its approximate, truth: “It’s a funny thing,” so he relates, “but the minute that wave tumbles me an’ ‘John L.’ an’ the .rest of my menagerie intew the ocean I savays ivhat was .happening. We had been headin fer one of them tropical islands with a live volcano on it, an’ the old mud drum had just turned loose with a select assortment of eruptions, earthquakes an’ other things such as hot rocks shot outer its crater—which I had -mistook for meteors. I know it made me kinder mad as I come tew the surface, tew think that I hadn’t thought what was up before. “I don’t rightly know whether I saw ‘John L.’ first or if ho saw me, but we come together like two long-lost brothers. He grabbed me with his trunk an’ was for puttin’ me on his back, but I dissuaded him from that, an’ took a tierht grip on a leather collar lound His neck! Just erbout that time, Prince, my Numidian lion, hove inter view, an’ he was mailin’ bad weather of it. Elephants is wonderful swimmers hut padchin’’ in the water ain t no speciality of lions, tigers, an’ the’ like. “Seems like ‘John L.’ knowed it was up tew him. He slowed down er bit an’ let Prince come alongside. The next wave, lands him on that elephant’s hack, an’ a minute more I’ll bo blame’ if one of the tigers an’ both the leopards didn’t get aboard. The hyenas was able to take care fer themselves, besides they, couldn’t stick on- an elephant’s hack nohow. One of the acts in the circus- ‘was lew '-havc ‘John -L.^ tote a lot of thorn-cats ’-round the ring, so it came natural for ’em' to -perch there. *; „ .. e . ... “There wasn’t room tor all or - > an' they -kept knockin’ each otter off fid,tin’ lor a place, or avas washed oil W the waves, hnt these temporary «*t ; in’ spoils helped ’em a lot. JU*e> scratched 'John I,.’up pretty bad. an

once in a while he’d let out a roar an’ swat ’em with his trunk, but I suppose he kncMvod it AA'as hard work for them poor beasts tew 'hang ontew his roof without sinkin’ their claws" in, so he made alknvances. “ ‘John L.’ seemed to knoAV what lie. was erbout, an’ headed a straight course for somo spot lie seemed tew have in mind. At times the Avater was boilin’ hot where them blamin’ rocks had dropped, au‘ ‘John L.’ had tew swim ’round ’em. In erbout ten minutes the waves got lots smaller, an’ it seemed tew me -that the wind died doAvn complete. All at once ive struck almost still water, an’ the first tiling I knew ‘John L.’ began tew rise up, an’ blame’ if I didn’t roach down and strike my feet on a sandy bottom. VVe was saved!

“Well, sir, sometimes I almost weeps toiv think that nobody Avas on tlio shore of that tropical island Avitli a camera teiv take u-s when avc landed. ‘John L’ reached out an.’ picked me up when he felt solid ground under him. He gave one snort of joy an’ tossed me up Avhere I’ve been many a time before an’ since, right in back of his ears. “A heap of things had happened—or rather had quit happening while lie Avas in the water. In the first place, the gale stopped about the time he went ■overboard, an’ a smart breeze sprung up from, another direction that bloived the smoko an’ dust of that volcano away. The worst of the eruption was over an’ no more hot rocks fell. The sun also was cornin’ up, an’ when avc Avent ashore that mornan’ hell was stopped up an’ things took on a mighty heavenly tinge. “I wish you could have seen us that lovely mornin’ —me, Avho had been kickin’ an’ biffin’ all- my fool life because nothin’ excitin’ AA'ould happen — you should have seen me on the back of that clawed an’ happy elephant as Are riz up outer the storm-tossed ocean an’ hit the sandy shore of that tropical South Sea island. I should explain that ‘John L.’ had swum inteAv a sorter cove-like place, an’ that Avas why there was no Avaves teAV .amount tew 'anythin’ . He Avas bleedin’ some, but elephants don’t mind little things like that.

“That intelligent elephant beat it along the beach, the big cats jumping up an’ down on liis back, an’ me sAvayin’ an’ shoutin’ fer joy on the post of honour on his noble forehead. In our rear howled the hyenas, and the parade was later joined by the sacred ox, three Angora goats, an’ tivo drippin’ Siberian bloodhounds. The rest of the shoAV had managed to stick tew the schooner.

“I was some dazed, of course, as was natural. Things had been cornin’ rather precipitate fer a man Avho had ahvays led an uneventful life, so I lc-t ‘John L.’ have his own way. He acted ns if he had returned to liis boyhood heme. Finally lie turned intew a sorter trail leadin’ inteAv the jungle, an’ the first thing T knOAved he ploAved plump against a native cannibal village. The king was goin’ teAV have breakfast served when Ave unexpectedly arrove. “Perhaps the eruption had made the old guy an’ his subjects a leetle nervous, an’ then again mebbe he’d never seen a bunch er tigers, lions, an’ leopards displayed on the back of a thumpin’ big! elephant, an’ I also presumes our advent was more or less unconventional an’ informal—as my daughter Sally would say —anyhow, that savage cannibal king gave one yell, an’ his loyal subjects an’ queens squelled out some more, an’ the whole outfit hit the jungle, an’ they’re there yet fer all I know or oare.

“’John L.’ shook them cats off his back an’ I herded ’em up in a stout hut where I presume the cannibal king kept his prisoners before fattenin’ an’ eatin’ ’em. Then ‘John L.’ and I foraged er grub. There Avas somethin’ stewin’ over a fire in front of the royal palace. . It smelled good and tasted good, an’ I hope it was all right, hut of course I don’t know. Anyhow I ate a lot of it an’ fed the, rest of it to the menagerie, an’ I never saw enT enjoy anythin’ better. “Taao hours later ‘John L.’ an’ I Went back teAV the beach, an’ the first thing I saAV was the Daisy D. anchored out in that cove lookin’ as peaceful as a canal-boat' froze in a slip. Cap’a’n Blout was swearing pleasantly at them Fiji sailors, who w.as fittin’ in a hoav topmast. ‘John L.’ an’ I yelled at ’em, an’ the cap’a’n seemed mighty glad tew see us. “I reckon that’s all there is ivortli tellin’. Hoav did the animals get out on deck ? Why, them locoed heathen sailors just naturally let ’em loose when my men Avasn’t watchin’ 'em. Those Fijians thought that me an 5 my menagerie brought on the hurricane, the eruptioq, meteor shower, an’ them other frills of nature, an’ I suppose they figured it AA'ould let up when they got rid of us—and I’ll be blamed if it didn’t!

“The way avc happened tew be washed overboard was explained .later teAV me by Cap’a’n Blout. It seems that just as I ran forward tew look after Them animals tlio cap’a’n caught sight of the cliffs of that island. So he brought] the Daisy D. up sharp tew port, an’ one of them big seas saa opt plump over her forward works, an me, ‘John L.,’ and the rest of us just naturally went sAvashin’ teAVstarboaid an intew the briny. Then tlio Daisy D. slid into the lagoon an’ was saved, and ‘John L.’ swum after lier as.f;(st as ho could. ; . -A. ‘•‘Lots of interestin’ things have happened tew me since. That was the brealdn’ up, as ’twere, of my uneventful career, but nothin’ has left such a sharp impression on my recollections as Avhcn mo an’ my menagerie was dumped intew what I thought was the middle of the South Pacific -Ocean at a time when important things surely was happenin’, an’ happenin’ in a hurry.”