Journal wanderings of her wild talk would only weary the reader, and I need only repeat its general import. At the time of old Mr Scruby's death, Madge Ralston was, and had been for some years, a servant in Coryton farmhouse. While in this position, and being somewhat handsome in her youth, she had succeeded in ingratiating herself with young Scruby, and in gradually supplanting Mrs Greenwood as housekeeper. The latter, however, was not finally turned off till after the old man's death. The latter events, as already mentioned, occurred somewhat suddenly, Mr Scruby having been stricken down by paralysis, after which he lived only one week, but during that time never spoke a word or showed the slightest symptoms of consciousness. During the days immediately preceding Mr Scruby's death, his son had been actively engaged in making a search of the house, for the purpose of ascertaining if the will, which he knew his father had made, had been preserved by him or not. Up to the very hour of the old man's death, Seth had been unsuccessful in his search, and was evidently pleased to think that the will which gave so large a portion of the property to his sister Mrs Meadows, had apparently been destroyed. After his father's breath was out, Seth could scarcely help indicating to his favourite Madge the delight which he felt at not finding the will, when Madge asked him if he had looked into a little locked recess in the wall at the back of his father's bed, where she knew the old man had sometimes placed money and other valuables for safe custody. Seth had not previously known of this hiding-place, or had overlooked it in his search; but on turning to it now, he found that the will was really there, along with an injunction in his father's handwriting enjoining him as he would hope to have a father's blessing and avoid a father's curse, to see the will faithfully executed, especially as regarded his sister Jane, towards whom the father's heart in these last months of his life had evidently begun to relent. The finding of the will disturbed Seth greatly, pecially as Madge Ralston had been a witness of its recovery. Had he discovered it unobserved, he would at once have destroyed it. Now he was in a measure in his servant's power, and had no alternative but to take her into his confidence. He was determined that neither his sister nor her husband should ever profit by the will, and at once therefore proceeded to engage Madge na plot for the suppression of the document. At first, she was strongly averse to joining in so dangerous and wicked a scheme; but on being reminded by Seth that Edward Meadows' father had at one time turned her and her parents out of house and home-which in a sense was true -her determination was shaken; for though she had loved her young mistress Jane, she hated Edward Meadows with a bitter hatred. Add to this that Madge was young, handsome, a favourite with her young master, and avowedly ambitious-being likewise not without some hope, which had been encouraged by certain expresFons dropped by Seth, that she might herself yet be mistress of Coryton farmhouse-and we have motive enough for a woman of her character engaging in the cruel and heartless scheme to rob poor Mrs Meadows of that which had been bequeathed to her by her father. Entering, therefore, into the scheme, she represented to Seth, with a cunning view to her ultimate power over him, that the will must be kept, for a copy of it might exist somewhere, and that would be awkward for them. Besides, his sister, from her state of health, could not live long, and her husband and child were both weakly persons, and in a few years it might be possible, on pretence of finding the will, to make it known, and thus enjoy the inheritance without danger. Accordingly, it was given out by Seth Scruby that no will could be found, that his father must some time before his death have destroyed it, on account of his sister's undutiful conduct and foolish marriage; and nobody stirring in the matter in behalf of Jane Meadows, her husband, or her child, the gossip that had at first arisen in the district regarding the subject soon died down and was forgot. For some time after his father's death, Seth Scruby was kind and attentive even beyond his nature to his handsome housekeeper, who on her part lost no opportunity of doing what might advance her interests with him. But after some months, it was obvious to her that Seth was not going to commit himself to the final step of marriage with her, and her suspicions on this head were further awakened by a rumour which reached her, to the effect that the young farmer was shortly to be married to an amiable and wealthy young lady, the daughter of a farmer in a neighbouring parish. Revenge now took the place of affection in her breast, and her first step was to secure, before her master's apprehensions were in any way awakened, possession of that will which she had conspired with him to suppress. This she managed to do; as she had, unknown to Seth, a duplicate key of the desk to which the will had been transferred. The document was contained in an open cover indorsed in the handwriting of old Mr Scruby; Madge therefore withdrew the will from this cover, and inserted in its place a packet of paper similar in appearance to that of the real will. The latter she carried with her to her brother's house, whither she had removed on Seth Scruby's bringing home to Coryton his first wife. Madge knew that Scruby would not fail to discover in course of time that the will had been removed from the desk in which he had placed it; and she had a fiendish pleasure in anticipating the agonies he would suffer when he found it was gone. That time came; but singular to say, not till after his first wife's death and the birth of his three children. He seems to have been quite assured of the safety of the document, and perhaps, like the guilty wretch he was, did not care to disturb his conscience by dwelling upon an action which had left his sister and her husband to die in poverty, and their little daughter Phoebe to be dependent for her upbringing upon the charity of others. But previous to the home-coming of a new housekeeper after his wife's death, Mr Scruby, looking over the house, and making an inventory of its furniture and contents, had opened, for the first time for many years, what he supposed was the packet containing his father's will, and to his utter consternation found that the real will had been removed. Madge Ralston was not long in knowing that he had discovered the theft; for one afternoon he came to the cottage and put certain questions to her as to the condition of various things in the house while she was there. The matters were commonplace enough in themselves; but she could see, notwithstanding his assumed outward complacency, that the fires of self-torture were already lighted within him; and that his future, by day and by night, would be rendered horrible to him by the knowledge that the will, in the concealment of which he had sacrificed both his personal honour and his peace of mind, was in the possession of some one else he knew not whom-and might at any moment be brought to light, with the effect of placing him in the felon's dock, and branding his name with merited infamy. To a man in his position, the very thought of this was terrible; and Madge Ralston smiled with wicked delight as she saw him walk away from the cottage, bearing with him the unseen millstone of agony which she had thus hung about his neck. She knew he suspected her, though he dared not speak. Time wore on, and Mr Scruby married again; but Madge could see in his face and his manner -in his restless wanderings hither and thither, and his growing violence and impetuosity of temper that the burden he had to bear was weighing him down, and would eventually crush him into the grave. Yet she made no sign. She would have destroyed the will altogether, but that its destruction would leave Scruby, the man she hated, in the full and free enjoyment of his unlawful possessions. On the other hand, after keeping the will so long, she was afraid to make its existence known, even though it would benefit Phoebe Meadows; for she had by her long silence concerning it, made herself art and part in the felony of its concealment. Indeed, she in turn began to experience anxiety regarding it; and now that the sense of gratified revenge over Scruby had begun to lose its first freshness, she was almost in as deep a state of perplexity as Scruby himself. Yet she spoke not. She had recourse to the bottle; but the temporary alleviation of misery which this afforded her, only sunk her deeper in her own eyes and those of the world. She at length found herself equally shunned by her neighbours and despised by her friends. About this time, it began to be bruited abroad that some friends of the girl Phoebe Meadows were, in the absence of the will in question, to make a claim upon Scruby for the share of money and other movables which of right belonged to Phoebe's mother. This news reached Madge Ralston, and she heard them with mingled feelings. For the first time these many years, her harsh cold heart began to relent-but not towards Seruby. It was towards Phoebe Meadows, as the child of her young mistress in days long past, that her feelings softened; and one evening she resolved to come to me at the vicarage, make a full confession, and let the law against her take its course. It was a wild stormy night, and her resolution more than once failed her on the way. Just as she approached the vicarage, she saw me come out, cross the churchyard and enter the church. All at once the idea flashed upon her, to get rid of the will in a way that would relieve herself, while it might cast suspicion upon Scruby; whereas, to confess to the parson would only incriminate herself. She therefore, shielded by the darkness, stole into the church after me, and proceeded, while I was in the vestry, towards the Scruby pew, where she had resolved to hide the will, and where it was almost certain before long to be discovered by the church-cleaners. In approaching the pew in the darkness, she had unwittingly come into contact with the door of it, which shut with a bang. This bringing me back into the church, she hid in an adjoining pew till I had again entered the vestry; when she once more reached Scruby's pew, and by quietly tearing the will into several portions, she succeeded in stuffing the whole of it in behind the carved woodwork on the front of the reading-desk. She then crept back to the church-door, trembling in turn lest I should see her, and got safely out; but in her trepidation allowing the door to shut heavily behind her. What followed on my part, I have already told the reader. As for Madge, she rushed homewards as if a wild beast had been in pursuit of her; and for the time had a kind of satisfaction that the hated deed was now out of her possession. But this did not continue long. On this, the very afternoon of the day when Scruby's two sons were drowned, and himself laid on a bed of death, she had seen Scruby approach her cottage. He was by himself, his three sons being on the ice; and as he opened the door and walked in, there was a fierce light in his eye such as she had never seen there before. Madge,' he said, 'I am told a will, which is said to be my father's, has been found. Shall I send for the police, and tell them that you were the thief?' 'Yes, you may, if you please, Seth Scruby,' retorted Madge haughtily; and perhaps I shall be able to tell them who it was that suppressed the will, and kept it concealed at the farmhouse for so many years after your father's death.' The retort sent the blood out of the farmer's face, and he was about to speak, when the terrible cry was raised that the ice had given way. He rushed out of the house like a madman, and in a few minutes the terrible catastrophe we have already described had taken place. I need not dwell upon the events of that day, or the closing hours of a career such as that of Seth Scruby's. He died in the course of the evening; and his body was, with those of his two sons, removed to Coryton Farm. That same night, Madge Ralston disappeared, and was never again seen in the district. Mrs Scruby, the stepmother of Walter the young heir, did not remain at Coryton many days after her husband and his two sons were buried, and is now, I believe, living with her friends in one of the western counties. As for the will, it was duly proved and acted upon; Walter, with his natural generosity, rendering every assistance in restoring to Phoebe Meadows the property of which she and her mother had been so unjustly deprived. This that I have told you happened four years ago. Since that time, Phoebe Meadows has been making up for the education she lost in her youth, and Walter Scruby has been outliving the years of his minority. And such has been the happy tenor of events during these years, that the two cousins have resolved to live as such no longer, and I am invited by the worthy Pullingtoft, who is to give the bride away, to perform the ceremony that shall make them husband and wife. OIL AT SEA. FROM correspondence with captains, and others made as much freightage out of her as could After The following letter from Captain Allison, steam-ship Loch Awe, has been addressed to Captain Mitchell, Dundee: At the time the steamship Loch Awe was lost (in the first week of January), there being so little prospect of saving our lives in the remaining boat, it occurred to me to try if a small quantity of oil would smooth the breaking sea, and keep our frail craft as long afloat as possible. Accordingly, before the boat was swung out, a three-gallon can of oil was placed in her. After abandoning the vessel, and drifting before wind and sea, on observing a breaking sea approaching, a small portion of the oil was poured out, and always succeeded in smoothing the broken tip of the sea before it reached the boat. Of course, the boat was proceeding at a considerable rate through the water, which allowed the oil to get to the approaching sea before it reached the boat. It is my opinion that if vessels running before a breaking sea were to pour a small quantity of oil over the stern, or have a strong canvas bag, filled with oakum and saturated with oil, suspended over the stern or side of the vessel in such a position that it would occasionally dip in the water, it would in a great measure keep the sea from breaking on board and doing serious damage. I have seen bags of the above description used in small vessels engaged in the fish-trade between Newfoundland and Europe, and the fishermen all spoke greatly in favour of oil being used to keep the sea from breaking. It is also well known that a dead whale or other oily fish floating on the surface of the water will keep it quite smooth for a considerable distance, even while the sea may be breaking heavily where there is no oil on the surface.' A correspondent writes to us from Marseilles: About twenty-eight years ago, in the month I have just been reading the last article on of May, there arrived in Hobson's Bay a small "The Use of Oil at Sea" in your Journal. You fore-and-aft schooner, which may be called the mention the use made by Mediterranean divers Jeanette. She came from New London, United of oil to procure a still surface, adding that States, was deeply loaded, and carried besides this, with other instances, "were merely hear4 heavy deck-load of timber. She caused a say." As I take an interest in this matter, it good deal of speculation, for the following has struck me to communicate to you the reasons. She was only sixty tons register, was following fact, which might possibly be conloaded like a barge, had had a very stormy sidered worthy of being embodied in a future passage of four months, and reached Melbourne article. without loss of any kind. The captain was 'The sea-urchin, or oursin, is considered a a shrewd Yankee, who knew that vessels of delicacy by the Provençaux. Many fishermen this kind were in great demand in Australia are engaged in fishing for this mollusc during for the coasting-trade, there being then but the season when it is in best condition; their few steamers there. He had brought her small flat-bottomed boats may be seen close out for the purpose of selling her, had to the coast and in the numerous inlets, the humble occupant leaning over the bows holding a pole, which is provided with bent prongs, by which he steadily draws the spiny creatures from the rocks below. 'It can be readily imagined that to be able to see the urchins, the surface of the water must be placid. When the sea is ruffled, he accomplishes his purpose by dropping oil now and again from a little bottle suspended from the bows of the boat. A single drop has an almost instantaneous effect in smoothing the surface for a short distance round him.' of oil was thrown out, and the effect was instantaneous, and considered very satisfactory. The boat was afterwards pulled round by the Annat Bank, on which a heavy sea was dashing, and another quantity of oil being discharged, a like effect was produced. Other experiments were made further out, in every case the waves being smoothed down around the boat. The fishermen expressed themselves highly pleased with the success of the experiments, and agreed that oil should be carried in their boats when going to sea. THE MONTH. From the Hobart Mercury of November 7, 1881, we learn that a Tasmanian ship which had arrived at Hobart from Mauritius, had encountered a terrific storm, and owed her having ridden it out in safety to the use of oil. The ALTHOUGH, happily, we have for many years gale was so fierce and the seas so heavy, that been spared the horrors of war, our military and no food could be cooked for two whole days, naval authorities, as in duty bound, are always every place where water could find ingress prepared for what may happen in the near future. having to be closed up. The vessel was only The implements of war are always being rendered saved, so Captain Leslie firmly believes, by his obsolete by newer patterns or fresh inventions ; using oil to smooth the water and prevent it so that in numberless cases improved arms are breaking on board. The course adopted was saturating swabs in oil every two hours, and approved, made in quantities, and issued to the casting them over the sides of the ship with troops; but before the din of battle overtakes weights attached, to keep them in position. The effect was truly marvellous; for mountainous waves would be seen approaching the little barque, and were expected to completely envelop and crush her; but as they met the oil floating round the vessel, they glided on with merely a heavy swell, from which she suffered no harm. Every drop of oil on board was used for the purpose, and it proved of inestimable worth.' Several interesting experiments were recently made at Peterhead, by the laying of pipes charged with oil, across the bar of the North Harbour. The oil, which exudes from the pipes by force-pumps, rises to the surface and forms a smooth expanse of considerable extent. The invention is due to the sagacity of Mr Shields of Perth, who made the experiments at his own cost, and has now presented, as a free gift, the completed apparatus to the town of Peterhead. This apparatus consists of some hundreds of feet of piping, having three conical valves, seventy-five feet apart from each other, which prevent the oil from escaping, except when the force-pump is in operation. Days most suitable for testing the efficacy of the oil in stilling the troubled waters were selected, the sea coming in and as usual breaking right across the bar. The pipes were charged with oil at high water, and shortly afterwards the oil rose to the surface, covering the sea for a considerable distance, and converting what was previously broken water into a glassy, undulating sheet. The experiments were a complete success; and Mr Shields' invention is one which deserves to be taken into careful consideration by those con nected with harbours. Still another interesting experiment has been made in the harbour of Montrose. On the forenoon of 30th January last, about an hour before high-water, a number of the crew of the lifeboat went out in the Mincing Lane to try the experiment of stilling the waters by pouring oil upon them. After crossing the bar, on which there was a pretty heavy sea running, about a gallon them they are recalled, and new weapons take their place. Huge ships, each representing a rich man's fortune, are devised, launched, and after a butterfly existence, floated to the shipbreaker's yard. The British tax-payer may grumble, but he cannot well point out how this expensive training by experience can be obviated. The history of every important human contrivance, from the electric telegraph and the steam-engine to minor inventions, teaches us that there must be slow and progressive work until anything like perfection can be attained. These remarks are prompted by the publication of an extremely valuable book by Sir Thomas Brassey, The British Navy, its Strength, Resources, and Administration. Here we have an exhaustive account of what has been done, and what is being done at the present time, to maintain the boasted position of Britannia as 'ruler of the waves.' The work comprises a complete history of the building of modern ships of war, from the time of the attack upon Gibraltar in 1782, when iron bars were suspended over ships' hulls, to protect them from the comparatively feeble projectiles then in use, to the present day, when steel plates two feet thick form the protective armour. title of the book does not altogether do it justice; for it includes copious descriptions of the modern ships of war of all nations; and this latter section is one of its most interesting and valuable features. The Every month seems to bring forth some new invention by which armour-plates are made more resistant, or on the other hand, by which the shots which are to pierce them are rendered more penetrating. The battle between the plates and the guns has been waged so long, and with such skill on both sides, and the combatants have grown to such huge and unwieldy proportions, that there is great difficulty in either moving the ships to their destinations, or keeping them afloat when they get there. Perhaps we shall some day reach a time when ship's armour will be considered obsolete; just in the same way that fightingmen have long ago agreed that chain-mail and the heavy cuirass are impediments to their work. In the meantime, we have to record an improvement, or discovery in the science of gunnery, which is likely to lead to important results. when it left its builder's hands, but because the restless sea has undermined the rock on which it is built. It is suggested that this old tower should be removed and built on Plymouth Hoe, or that it should recommence a new lease of life on some spot where its light would continue to be of use to those at sea. It has always been the aim of artillerists so to proportion the size of the powder-chamber in the gun, the amount of powder, and the size of the projectile, that the full power of the explosion shall be brought upon the projectile without any escape of gases, or unburnt material. The cartridge, which would seem to the uninitiated to explode all at once, does not in reality do so. It burns through from end to end, and of the art-science from its first feeble attempts as it does so, the expanding force of the gases to the grand results possible by modern methods, evolved acts with increasing power on the projec- is well illustrated by specimens lent by the tile as it moves along the bore of the gun. Now, pioneers of photography. Photographs burnt in it has been proved by experiment that if slow-upon porcelain by Mr Henderson's method are burning powder be exploded in a vessel suf- specially worthy of notice, and the exhibitor ficiently strong to withstand the shock, it can suggests a very useful field of employment for be ignited-turned into gas-and held, as it were, such pictures. The foundation-stone of a building in subjection for any required time. This fact can have cemented into it a slab or slabs of has been taken advantage of by Captain Maitland, porcelain bearing an inscription with a picture R.A. By means of a metal ring fixed round the of the structure itself or of the buildings which base of the shot, he retains it in the breech of it replaced. Such inserted slabs can also be used the gun until the powder is sufficiently fired to for gravestones, in this case bearing the portrait produce a pressure of about two tons to the square of the deceased. It need hardly be said that the inch. By this means an altogether unprecedented permanence of a burnt-in picture is beyond velocity is obtained. It will be understood that suspicion. the method is only applicable to breech-loading ordnance, and that the retention ring is somewhat larger than the bore through which it has ultimately to be forced by the pent-up In connection with the course of Cantor lectures now being delivered at the Society of Arts (London) by Captain Abney, there is in the same building an interesting exhibition of Photographic Processes and Apparatus. The gradual progress gases. In once more bringing before parliament his Bill for the protection of Ancient Monuments, Sir John Lubbock had the opportunity of a quiet satire on our boasted civilisation. He pleaded that the pay of a competent Commissioner to look after such relics would not amount to more than the cost of a few trial-shots from one of our big guns. In the course of his remarks, he stated that interesting archæological relics had in many instances been destroyed, because the materials were wanted to mend the roads, or to help towards the construction of new buildings Only last year we saw workmen engaged in digging stones out of the wall of the celebrated old Roman camp of Bremenium, in Northumberland, in order to assist in the erection of an additional cottar-house within the limits of the ancient inclosure. It seems strange that Britons should take far more interest in such treagures abroad, than they seem to do in those of their own land. Constantly we hear of the demolition of old buildings which form landmarks in our history, without any effort being made even to preserve their outlines for the pleasure and instruction of posterity. But an honourable exception must be made in the case of 'The Society for Photographing Relics of Old London' (Henry Dixon, 112 Albany Street, N.W.), whose labours we have before noticed. Smeaton's lighthouse on the Eddystone Rock, which has now been superseded by a similar structure, can hardly be looked upon as an archaeological treasure; but the movement which is on foot to preserve it as a national monument is one certainly to be commended. The old building, which has withstood so many storms, must be removed, or it will fall into the sea, not from any structural fault, for it is as strong as In one of his lectures, Captain Abney demonstrated in a very practical manner the intense sensitiveness of a photographic plate as now prepared. A wheel having black-and-white sectors painted upon it, was rapidly revolved in front of the camera, but in complete darkness. An electric spark from a battery of six small Leyden-jars was suddenly caused to illuminate it. The experimenter estimated the duration of the spark at less than five-millionths of a second. The resulting photograph displayed an image of the wheel seemingly at rest! The importance of a knowledge of chemistry to the modern agriculturist has been recently exhibited in a very practical manner in France. In the northern part of the country there are many growers of beetroot who are also distillers. A residue from beet distillation, called vinasses, is found to contain the nitrogen, phosphates, and salts of potash which the plant has originally drawn in from the soil. This liquid is now returned to the ground, and by its aid a good crop of beet can be looked for every two or three years. It is customary to alternate the beet-crops with wheat on the same ground; and it was found that in one case, although the beet maintained its quality, the wheat deteriorated. Upon an analysis of the soil being made, it was found deficient in phosphoric acid. Phosphates of lime were then put on the soil, after which treatment the wheat rapidly recovered its normal vigour. A specimen of the desert land tortoise was recently shown at a meeting of the San Francisco Academy of Sciences. This animal, which is about the size of an ordinary bucket, seems to have some very peculiar characteristics. It carries on each side a membrane attached to the inner portion of the shell, holding about a quart of pure water. Its food is the giant barrel cactus, and from this watery plant it no doubt obtains its supply of liquid. The animal inhabits tracts of country where there is no water, and very little vegetation, with the exception of the cactus just |
