Ensign Merrill — page 90: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i "Merrill ; Save fiir directions similar to those he had E piven the surgeon, but concerning only the engine- room, fire-room and the coal-bunkers. It was his in- - tention to settle, once for all, the perplexing question of the men’s disappearance. Leaving Watson ;in charge of the deck he went below to give a personal super- - vision to the quest. Miller had already begun on his task.. With the wa _ of a block and tackle, he was whipping out the various _easks and boxes filling the hold, carefully examining each one as they were lifted on deck. Taking a couple ot sailors, Mark went forward on the berth-deck and examined the chain-lockers. The layers of rusty iron . cable stretched from end to end of the foul smelling in- _ closure was the sole object revealed by hislantern. The fuigtives were not there. Going farther aft, Mark paused near a couple of — hatchways flush with the deck. Selecting a skeleton key from a bunch drawn from his pocket, he bent over A STARTLING DISCOVERY. =——8.— and unlocked one of them. Sunken in the middle of the wooden door was a plate reading: ~ **Powder Magazine No. 2.”’ One of the sailors opened it, revealing a short flight of steps leading out of sight in the gloom. The air coming up indicated a system of ventilation, but there was an all-pervading taint of the bilge, a most peculiar odor, which once experienced is never forgotten. Re- moving their shoes, an invariable precaution on account of possible sparks from the iron nails, Mark and one ‘man started down the ladder. Holding the light care- fully, the ensign descended several: steps and then paused to look around. A slight noise over in one corner quickly attracted his attention. _ There, crouching over an open canvas bag of powder, _ was John Blood, holding a lucifer match in is hand. “-Eecomicbooks.co m