As for the Jasper B., although his wife urged him to keep the ship for
the sake of old associations, Cleggett had the hole in its side built
in and gave it to the Rev. Simeon Calthrop for a gospel ship. George
the Greek, who married Miss Medley, shipped with the preacher in his
cruise around the world, and he and his wife eventually reached Greece,
as he had originally intended. Elmer went with the Rev. Mr. Calthrop to
assist him in his missionary work.
But it was some time before the Jasper B. sailed. Besides the hole
which was the entrance to the tunnel it was discovered that the vessel
rested on a brick foundation. The man who had used her for a saloon
and dancing platform in years past had dug away part of the bank of the
canal to fit the curve of her starboard side and had then jammed her
tight into the land. Even then she would move a trifle at times, so he
had built a dam around her, pumped the water out of the inclosed space,
jacked the hulk up, built the brick foundation, and let her down
solidly on it again.
With the dam removed the water covered this masonry work, and she
looked quite like a real ship. Mr. Goldberg had known about this
foundation, but he had forgotten it, he explained to Cleggett.
The Rev. Mr. Calthrop fitted her out as a floating chapel and filled
her with Bibles printed in all languages, which he distributes in many
lands. When his fatal attractiveness for women threatens to involve
him in trouble he hastily puts to sea. He has never become a really
accomplished sailor, and the Jasper B. is something of a menace to
navigation in the ports and harbors of the world. The suggestion has
frequently been made that she should be set ashore permanently and put
on wheels. But she has her features. She is, possibly, the only ship
extant with a memorial skylight to her cabin. Cleggett wished her to
carry some sort of memorial to the faithful Teddy, the Pomeranian dog,
who perished of a stray shot in the fight at Morris's. And as a
memorial window did not seem feasible a compromise was made on the
memorial skylight. The glass is by Tiffany.
Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, still followed by Reginald Maltravers,
made their way to Brooklyn, where all three were arrested and lodged in
the observation ward of the Kings County Hospital on the suspicion that
they were insane. The two gunmen were able to get free through
political influence, but Maltravers was sent to England. He was
maintained for some time in a private institution through the
generosity of the Cleggetts, but finally went on a hunger strike and
died.
Wilton Barnstable smiles and prospers. He gained great additional fame
for his clever work in the Case of Logan Black.
Cleggett, in 1925, was the father of four boys named D'Artagnan, Athos,
Porthos, and Aramis Cleggett; and the owner of the Claiborne estates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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