The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

419 _ A SECRET OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC. He held the door open for the old man to pass out, and for days they. scarcely spoke to each other. Miss Latimer seemed to share her father’s feelings, and Thorne found himself fairly companionless aboard the brig. CHAPTER VII.—Miscurer AFoor. IN this state of affairs Thorne began to take more or less notice of Jessop, the sailor from whose account of his meeting with Edgar Thorne the young man had gained such hope. ‘Thorne had before been friendly with him, and often, in the dog watch, which is the one time during the day when sailors are comparatively free, had questioned him minutely about the strange island on which he had been cast and concerning the stranger individual who had rescued and carried him to New Zealand. Jessop had agreed to accompany Thorne on his voyage of exploration, providitig Captain Latimer would release him at Aukland. 3 Feeling himself cut off from the society of the cabin, to a great extent at least, Thorne talked a deal more with the sailor. He bent all his own energies of thought upon plans for his voyage and found that Jessop, because of his long seafaring experience, was no mean adviser. Between them, before the Horn was weathered, they made out a long list of articles to be purchased in addition to the general provisioning of the craft Thorne was to engage, and laid out, with the aid of the charts, their course from Aukland to the vicinity of the mysterious island. As to the crew and the boat—they would depend upon circumstances, “If it’s all the same to you, Mr. Thorne,’’ said Jessop, on one occasion, ‘I wish Tom Shields was a goin’ along.’’ (Tom was the Cockney sailor who had been aboard the Naida when Thorne joined her at Rivermouth. ) ‘If Cap’n Latimer would let Acm go, too,"he would be worth a good deal to you.”’ : 7 “How ?”’ ‘" He’s been a good bit about this ’ere ocean. He was cast away twice on the islands an’ knows all about_’em, though he never hear tell of this islan’ I was on.’’ ‘ I'don’t think Captain Latimer would let me have two men,’’ said Thorne. ‘' Does this Shields want to go with me?’’ 3 » He wouldn’t kick none if he got a chance to leave the brig,’’ replied Jessop. ‘Why not ??’’ ‘Well, he an’ I ain’t one o’ Atwell’s crowd, that’s all,’’ and Jessop turned away, Thorne treasured these words in his memory. He had noticed, with growing concern, the disaffection among the sailors, And that Atwell was at the bottom of it he did not doubt. What he did no know was that the officers of the brig viewed his own friendliness with Jessop with suspicion. The gulf which separates the cabin and the fo’c’sle is well nigh as impassable as that mentioned in Holy Writ as lying between the two conditions of man’s Gomicboo 1S