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The strange adventure of the Polly is not an

improbability of fiction A Bath, Maine, schooner, lumber-

laden, was tripped in exactly this fashion off Hatteras

Captain Boyd Mayo's exploit has been paralleled in real life

in all details My good friend Captain Elliott C Gardner,

former skipper of the world's only seven-master, the Thomas

W Lawson, furnished those details to

this part of the tale I submitted the narrative to him for

confirmation It has received his indorse to do, he decided: take advantage of any

period of truce which their ancient enemy, the sea, had allowed in that

desperate battle

A sailor is prey to hazards and victi moods of the ocean; he rappler of eencies

"Where are your tools--a saw--a chisel?" deed

to repeat that query several times His companions appeared to be wholly

absorbed in their personal woes

At last Mr Speed checked his groans long enough to state that the tools

were in "the lazareet"

The lazaret of a coaster is a storerooeneral odds and ends and spare equiph the deck-hatch?"

"There's a door through, back of the companion ladder," said Mr Speed,