The Evening World

Engineer of a Freighter Has a Musical Watch Sewed Inside of Him.

IT'S A SELF WINDER.

Doctor Dropped It When He Opened the Man to Remove His Appendix.

This is the worst yet. It should have a musical accompaniment. Old Jonah is a kindergartner in yarn spinning compared to this. The ship news reporter down Nineveh way had nothing on his prototype on The Evening World staff to the limit.

David Thornton is second engineer on the little freighter Kazemba of the Bucknell line, lying at her Bush Stores pier preparatory to an African trip. He was discovered in his cabin playing upon a queer East Indian musical instrument not at all unlike the Greek lyre upon which Homer must have strummed his lyrics. He spoke as follows:

"I have been suffering a pain in my side as the result of an operation performed upon me two years ago and have been seeking solace in music. The operation? Oh, it was for appendicitis. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been opened up once, but a year ago they tried it over. Two appendixes? No, only one, but I'll have to tell you the story before you understand.

"I was third engineer on the Buluwayo at the time my appendix was removed by a surgeon in Calcutta. He Calcutted me all right. About two months after I was able to go to sea I fell on the deck and shook myself up something awful.

Takes the Place of Ship's Chronometer.

"They carried me to my berth and called the ship's doctor. He felt me over a bit to see if I had broken any bones. He placed his ear to my back and to my chest and then my side and suddenly a queer look came over his face. 'Man,' he exclaimed, 'you've got two hearts. I can distinctly hear them both ticking.'

"I sat up startled stiff and sure enough I heard a queer ticking in my waistcoat where the doc had held his ear. The next minute I went off in a dead faint, for from my right side came tinkle, tinkle, tinkle—seven bells—followed by the chiming of 'Rock of Ages.'

"When they brought me to my senses the captain and his mates stood about with blanched faces, for they had been listening to the cathedral chimes and ship's bells coming from my inner self. Even as I woke up the bells struck again and the chimes rang a couple of bars of 'Nearer, My God, to Thee.'

"For the life of me I couldn't tell what was happening. The doctor was just as much at sea. The doc said I would have to sleep and I demanded strong liquor to drown my troubles. I had just about finished half a bottle of Scotch and was dozing off to sleep when two bells of the dog watch struck from my depths, followed by a few notes of 'Where Is My Wandering Boy To-Night?'

"It was at this portion of the proceedings that the captain, his mates and the doc tumbled over each other to get from my cabin and I went off to sleep. With morning began the bells and the hymns. It was a terrible sensation. I wandered about the ship like a man demented ringing the bells and chiming hymns. The bells of Notre Dame or the great

Ship's clock had nothing on me.

"After a few days, when I found that nothing serious was happening to me, I began to pluck up courage. My nerve began to return and I got so I could drink Scotch and soda and listen to my music box chime, 'Where Is My Wandering Boy To-Night?' without a qualm. And then suddenly they found a decided use for me.

Then he Was in a Pretty Fix, indeed.

"A careless mate had allowed the ship's chronometer to run down and the old man was at his wit's end to figure out his course, for we ran into a storm and it was difficult to set observations. So they asked me to come up on the bridge and chime the time away. The quartermaster would come over and place his ear against my waistcoating. Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle would go my internal chronometer and the quartermaster would raise his voice and bawl 'Four bells by Mr. Thornton,' or whatever the time might happen to be.

"It was several weeks before I began to get an inkling into what ailed me. We knocked around the East African coast and finally went to Liverpool. There I found a letter awaiting me from the Calcutta surgeon who had removed my appendix. In it he told of the loss of a very valuable watch upon the very day that he had Calcutted me.

"I pondered long over the letter and gradually a great light began to dawn. While the light was still dawning I received a curt letter from the Calcutta doc in which he charged that I had his timepiece, and unless it was instantly returned he would take action against me. At last the miracle of my subterranean chimes was solved. I had the answer.

"While the doc was removing my appendix his watch had dropped into me from his vest pocket. I wrote to him and he answered that this was probably true. He informed me that the watch was a self-winding Swiss chronometer and the only existing one of three that had originally been made. He stated that the watch had not been running for some time and that my fall on the deck and consequent shock had no doubt stirred up its works and now that it was winding, was liable to run for all time.

He cosgiu Semammins lesI, ro turo te Then HE WAS in a pETtI FIX, INDEED.

"That was a pretty fix for me. Here I was with a self-winding watch inside me. I pictured my future career through life chiming the hours and tinklings of snatches of hymns and I knew that that watch, if it stayed where it was, would no doubt chime my passing from this vale of tears.

"Well, while I was making up my mind to be reopened I fell down a companionway, almost breaking my neck. When I managed to sit up and feel myself for broken bones a terrible commotion broke out inside of me. Bells rang, snatches of hymns tinkled, wheels buzzed and springs jingled.

"They took me to a hospital on the run and took me apart. That's how I got my watch. The pretty music shows to go when I opened my eyes. It was so bonser tinkling and chiming, it to meobaa. um was wrooked. but I bas c4 to bo • beli tower. And when I to Sot on my foet I Gent back to She Caloutle outter cnsI 4 malse, with my sincerest coumeli moma Staooh obain and