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JURY RIG. A Short Story - 45 Old style versus modern seamanship.

Meigs O. Frost - - 56 Dope smuggling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ernest Haycox - - 80 Mutiny and piracy on the Pacific coast.

A CALENDAR OF SEA HISTORY - 108 m Chronology for the first half of July. THE RUSTY CUTLASS. A Short Story - Captain A. E. Dingle . 109

1 .

THE ARREST OF CAPTAIN BANGS. Morgan Robertson - - 120 A Short Story A policeman's revenge on a bucko captain.

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Please mention this magazine when answering advertisements Sea Stories Magazine PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH

Vol. V July 5, 1923 (No. 5

You have all read whaling stories, but you have never read one like this. It is one of the most exciting yarns which the good ship Sea Stories ever carried. We wish that it was longer. It would spoil the story utterly if we told you anything about it now beyond saying that it’s a whale of a story. So we leave to you the pleasure of reading this with a mind that is utterly innocent of any idea of the plot. A NOVELETTE

IT was a fine evening in the second dog “How did these grounds get their watch on the whaling bark Banshee. name ?” I asked. Mr. Brown, the mate, and my- “They’re named after the Arethusa. self were standing by the mainmast talk- Captain Worth filled her right up ing. “I hope we raise whales to-morrow here, taking two thousand two hundred ” and get one to our boat, ‘Spunyarn,’ barrels in fifteen months. That was said Mr. Brown to me. “So do I, sir,” twenty years ago and as far as I know was my reply. they haven’t been cruised on for the last “Well,” said the mate, “we’ve had four or five years. good . luck so far. A month on these “These grounds are a big eddy circling grounds, and we’ve taken two hundred around, and moving somewhat to the barrels, not half bad for that length of north or. south according to the season time. The old man claims that the par- of the year. They are between two rot, which he bought at Atacamas ocean currents, known to sperm whale- brought us good luck.” men as the ‘east set’ and the ‘west set.’ 4 Sea Stories Magazine

The speed of the circular current is fine, clear night, not a breath of air about two or three knots. In very light stirring, and as still and quiet as only the

airs or calms it would be impossible for sea can be during an oil calm in the a disabled vessel to work out of it. tropics. A man named Patsy had the “The nearest land, if you except Salav wheel. Mr. King, his boat steerer, a

Gomez Rocks, is Easter Island, which is Nantucketer whom we called “Skeezix,” about one thousand miles distant. The and myself, were yarning by the main old man tells me that hie aims to keep rigging. We had been at this for some about fifty miles from the center of the time when Mr. King remarked that the eddy. Sperm whales seem to know just time semed to be dragging very slowly.

where this eddy is, and visit it regularly. “It surely seems as though it ought to be I’ve heard men who have cruised here two bells,” said he. “I wonder if Patsy before speak of one big bull known as has gone to sleep at the wheel. If he has ‘Old Smokestack.’ He gets this name I’ll skin him alive; guess I’ll go aft and from having an overgrown spouthole see.” With that he went aft. We waited rising about a foot higher than any or- silently for him to return. In about dinary whales. three or four minutes he was back with “Boats from several ships have suc- us, saying in a nervous fashion, “Dam-

ceeded in getting their irons in Old mit, he’s not there ; did either of you see Smokestack, but they always lost him. him go for’ard?” We both answered They generally lost the boat, too, and “No.” sometimes a couple of men. He cuts the “He must be skulking around some- boats in two by a peculiar sideswiping where. It would be impossible for him motion of his jaw. Bill Manchester, to leave the wheel and sneak for’ard who was mate of the Golconda some without being seen. I’m beginning to

years ago told me a weird yarn about feel creepy about it. Perhaps he’s these grounds. Bill said they had been slipped down into the cabin to try to steal cruising here for several, days when one something to eat out of the steward’s

night the man at the wheel disappeared. pantry, and is keeping out of sight be- Apparently he vanished into thin air, for cause he heard me come aft, and is wait- they never found a trace of him. This ing his chance to slip back to the wheel was strange enough in itself, but about as though nothing had happened. But a week later the man at the wheel dis- we’ll get him. Skeezix, you take the port appeared again. In both cases the side, look in the bosun’s locker, and on weather was calm and clear, so that there top of the hurricane house, in the port, was no possibility of the men falling waist and bow boats, and aloft, too, as overboard, and if they had made any you go along. Spunyarn, you do the outcry it would have been heard by the same on the starboard side. Look into watch on deck forward. These occur- the potato pen and galley. Both of you rences were so strange, and the thought look over the side, too. If we don’t find of the men disappearing so completely him, we’ll know he’s down in the fo’- frightened all hands to such an extent c’s’le, or got scared over our hunting for that they left the grounds in a hurry. him and has hidden himself in the fore Have you ever heard the story ?” peak.” “No, sir, I haven’t,” I answered. With the aid of the watch below, Several nights after the above-men- which had been aroused by the commo- tioned conversation took place, the port tion of our search, we combed the ship watch, of which I am a member, went on thoroughly, but no trace of Patsy could deck at midnight This watch is headed we find. Mr. King then called the old by the third mate, Mr. King. It was a man and we searched again with the The Devil’s Nest 5 same result, the only trace which we Marie Celeste? or last night’s happen- found was a few wet spots on the rim of ings? What was it? What did it? the wheel. “I guess he must have Something, of course, but what? jumped over the side,” said the old man, I can’t make myself believe that Patsy as he ordered us to give up the search committed suicide perhaps the old man ; for the night, “but we’ll try once more doesn't. Maybe he just put it that way in the morning just for luck.” to keep us from getting panicky. But

The next morning we hunted over the this much I do know, and that is that the old bark from lazarette to fore peak, Golconda lost two men in this very place and from her trucks to the hold, but no some years ago. They disappeared in Patsy did we find. So Captain Allen exactly the same manner that Patsy did. made an entry in the log to the effect •Just vanished one night when they were that Patsy had committed suicide by at the wheel. After the second man was jumping overboard. lost, the Golconda lost no time in leaving At noon that day, after working up these grounds, which is what we should his sights, the old man said that we were do. Here we are in the same place and at least twenty-five miles nearer to the have the same experience that they had center of the eddy than he had expected on the Golconda. A man goes to the us to be. This he attributed to some wheel at night, and what happens? He cross or counter current which was apparently evaporates, absolutely no working across the eddy. trace left to show how he met his fate; That night we of the port watch had simply vanished in the twinkling of an the deck from eight to twelve. It was eye. No cry, no splash, nothing broken, just such a night as the one previous, a no blood, nothing that leaves any clew little warmer, perhaps, but no different as to his passing. aside from that. Because of the oppres- As he paused, a wild half-stifled cry sive heat, the Captain had ordered the reached our ears, coming from Bowser, carpenter to open the big stern windows the man at the wheel, which plainly that day, and he had left them open for meant trouble or fright. We rushed aft the night, as he was one of those unfor- to where he stood, just forward of the tunate people who suffer intensely from wheel, holding it by one hand as he the heat. He was seated in the cabin stared with bulging eyes, down into the reading, the first mate had turned in and after-cabin. the third was talking to Skeezix and “What is it? What’s the matter, myself about the strange disappearance Bowser?” asked the third mate. Bowser of Patsy, and other similar occurrences was speechless. He gulped like he’d had at sea. a stroke of apoplexy, then wilted as his Hundreds and perhaps thousands of knees gave way, and he went down in a ships have gone to sea, well found in heap, collapsed. “He’s had a shock, poor every respect, but after leaving port fellow, I’m afraid he’s gone. Get a have never been heard from again. Of bucket of water and douse him perhaps ; course, there are many ways in which we’ll have to bleed him,” said Mr. King. they could be lost, collision with others, By this time the other officers, aroused by icebergs, striking uncharted reefs, by the cry, and the unusual disturbance fire, explosion, pirates, mutiny, light- over their head's, had come on deck. ning, sudden squalls, or running aground “What’s up?” asked Mr. Brown. “I on uninhabited islands. These are all think Bowser’s had a shock, sir,” an- natural causes, though they are liable to swered Mr. King. happen to most any ship. But, how are Just then Skeezix came up with a we going to explain the case of the bucket of water, and soused it onto :

6 Sea Stories Magazine

Bowser’s face and chest, Bowser gasped The officers came up from the cabin, and shuddered, his eyes opened, he one glance at their putty-like faces con- struggled weakly to get up, and then fell firmed our worst fears. Mr. Brown was back. leading and holding something in his “What is it? What’s the trouble? hand. He opened his hand as he stag- Where do you feel sick, Bowser?” asked gered over to me and said hoarsely Mr. King. For a few seconds Bowser “The Old Man’s gone, and that’s all he tried to speak. He seemed unable to left behind to tell how he went. It’s the make his voice work at first, but when he same damned thing that got the Gol- finally got it back, he wailed despair- conda’s men, whatever that may be.

ingly : “The Old Man, the Old Man’s With a man right here at the wheel, it gone, gone, gone!” and he pointed with would be impossible for the Old Man his finger toward the cabin. to get out of the cabin unobserved, un-

“By thunder! That’s it, he’s been less he went through one of the stern frightened out of his wits, there’s some- windows. They’re plenty big enough, thing wrong with the Old Man,” shouted but why should he do such a thing, un- Mr. King. less there is some unknown mental “I was thinking that nobody has seen disease round here that gets into a man’s or heard him,” said the second mate. mind, and makes him want to commit “Where in hell is the Old Man, any- suicide secretly?”

way,” roared Mr. Brown. “Come on! “I can’t say, but if the rest of us want Let’s go and see what’s wrong with to see home again, we’ve got to leave this him,” he added, as he started down the place, sir,” I answered. companionway, followed by the other “Look at these : Here’s a broken clay officers. pipe, which, with a little tobacco, still The alarm had by this time become smoldering on the cabin floor in front general, and all hands from the steerage of his chair, is all that is left to tell us

and fo’c’s’le were on deck and clustered what he did or why he did Tt. So we are around the passageways on either side all in the dark, and I wonder which of us of the cabin skylight. will go next,” said Mr. Brown. Bowser started to rise again failing ; “Bowser was right when he told us in that, he began to talk, saying: “As that he thought he’d heard something I’d nothing to do but hold the wheel, I break or fall, just as the Old Man dis- was watching the Old Man. He was appeared,” I told him. sitting in his chair beside the chart table “How’s that? I understood Mr. King cutting some tobacco, which he put into to say that Bowser had had a shock,” his pipe. After lighting the pipe he sat Mr. Brown said. “It was a shock, but and smoked for a few minutes, staring not an apoplectic one, as we first thought. at his stateroom door. I was looking He recovered enough to tell us about it, straight at him, when he vanished before while you were hunting for the Old my eyes, and there was his empty chair. Man,” I replied. “I believe that what- I think I heard a sound as though some- ever it was, the same thing happened to thing had snapped or broken, but I’m Patsy, but, anyway, we all need some- not sure. Perhaps it was all a dream, thing to brace us up after this, for the but it frightened me so I’ll never forget devil knows what follows. it. Where’s the captain? Don’t you

“Steward ! Go below and get that jug know ? Why is everybody aft ? What’s in the bring it happened ? Why don’t you tell me what of rum Old Man’s room, the trouble is? Did I fall overboard? up, and serve a stiff drink to all hands,” I’m all wet.” No one answered. ordered the mate. !

The Devil’s Nest 7

“I’m afraid to go down there, sir,” had happened, we began to get our wits said the steward. back a little, and Mr. Brown called all “Then I'll go myself,” snapped Mr. hands to the mainmast. Hardly had we Brown, starting for the companionway. gathered there, when we felt the ship’s As he put his foot inside, the binnacle- stern rise suddenly, without the slightest lamp went out, leaving us in darkness, sound or jar, just as if she had been and this capped the climax. pushed up aft, from beneath, by some Several of the more superstitious unknown enormous power, or as if she yelled, some muttered a prayer, others had been instantly relieved of many tons kept silent, knowing that no noise from of weight at the stern, and yet without a human mouth would be able to change any noise. the pending course of events. “It’s death, we’re all dead, or crazy “Who in hell blew that lamp out?” and don't know it,” bawled Skeezix, as asked Mr. Brown, angrily. he flung himself prostrate on the deck. “No one, sir,” answered Mr. Folger. Something hard and solid then struck An ear-piercing scream— from Mr. the port bow, bumped amid ships on the King cut the air, then “Look ! There starboard side, then here and there on

On the taffrail ! My God! What is it!” both sides. Once more a new terror as- he shrieked. sailed us, and our frayed-out nerves Low down against the faint star-lit screeched in agony. skyline, a huge black shape showed a After the thumping ceased, we then semicircle outline over the taffrail, blott- brought Bowser for’ard and laid him

ing out the stars behind it as the ship’s out. He was conscious, but weak and stern lifted to the swell, allowing them bleeding slowly where his scalp was cut to come into view again, as it fell, and open. Strangely, his senses seemed to two great round luminous spots, eyes, a be sharpest now. Something’s sucking fathom apart, near its middle. air, something’s sucking air. He heard

Jet-black, coal-black, soot-black, it it. It grew louder and came nearer, then

was, as- if all the blackness ever made it was on us and we were in the midst of had been pounded together by a thou- sounds which came from all sides. sand ton trip-hammer in an effort to “It’s a Soul Sucker, the Soul Sucker produce something blacker than human of the South Seas, I’ve heard about it,” eyes had ever seen. It nauseated every screamed the steward, and fell in a faint. drop of blood in my body, and then, even The ship then began to turn around,

while we frozenly stared at it, Bowser slowly at first, then faster and faster, the went nutty, commenced giggling loudly, end of her flying-jibboom swept the cir- and in a few seconds to laugh up- cle of low lying stars, while a dozen men !” roariously. cried out, “We’re lost, we’re lost

“Great God! Stop it!” yelled Mr. “Oh, Lord ! Save my soul,” howled Folger. Antone, a big ear-ringed Cape Verder, Then, too excited to understand, and as he dropped to the deck a limp lump snarling like an animal, he smashed of terrified humanity. Bowser on the head with a belaying pin, Uniting with the sound of the Soul knocking him out. Sucker, clarion clear, and loud, came Some of us started for the try-works, Bowser’s voice, singing joyously: others for the fore-rigging, none know- “My wife’s got the fever, and I hope

ing what to do, running like a flock of it won’t leave her, for I want to be single sheep, leaving .Bowser unconscious on again.” the deck, near the mizzenmast. Mr. Folger wrung his hands, looked at In a few minutes, as nothing further Bowser, and then at the mate, saying: !

8 Sea Stories Magazine

“He’s the cause of it all, he’s a damned time that all hands jumped like marion- Jonah, we’ve got to throw him over- ettes when the strings are pulled. board if we want to save ourselves.” Our reaction to the sound of a human “Gag him, and lash him up if you voice was so great that some of the men like,” said Mr. Brown. began to laugh hysterically, while one This was done. sobbed in a high uneven key, as we ran After a few moments had passed the to carry out the mate’s orders. As there ship seemed to be revolving more slowly, was no wind the light was soon going and we noticed that the sound of the full blast. The bright blaze from the Soul Sucker grew fainter and fainter, oily “scraps” shot up and made the en- until it died away completely. The cir- tire deck almost as light as day. cular motion ceased and for a minute The sense of relief, obtained by ac- we sat motionless in expectation of we tion, hearing human voices once more knew not what dread manifestation of and seeing in clear light, all of the old the evil powers of darkness which ap- familiar and homely details of the bark’s peared to be leagued against us. deck fittings, was great beyond expres- Nor had we long to wait, for presently sion. As the light mounted aloft we a cold clammy mist seemed to rise from searched the masts and rigging with our the sea, spreading upward, which com- eyes, expecting to see, we knew not pletely hid the spars and sails from our what. view. We stared at each other with The bright light seemed to assume a blanched faces, speechless, stricken dumb definite personality which fought in our with fear of the awful powers which behalf. We thought we could feel the seemed to be loose on that frightful nameless foes which had beset us re- night. treat before the attack of its darting It seemed to me that evil spirits were rays. using all of their hideous powers to strip Any ship coming on the Banshee in us of our reason. And. as if in proof of that horrible mist, all ablaze with “Bug this, the ghastly silence was split by a Light,” must assuredly have imagined raucous voice high aloft in the mist: “All that the Lord of the Nether Regions was hands on deck, ho, ho, eight bells, tumble on a yachting trip. For surely Dante out all hands !” We sat or stood around in his wildest flight of imagination never the main hatch like statues. Fear of the conceived a more weirdly startling pic- dread unknown left us without even the ture than the old bark presented that power of thought. night.

“Eight bells ! hi there ! all hands on Great soldiers have spoken of that deck!” Again the awful disembodied rare quality, “two o’clock in the morning voice floated down to us from out of the courage,” but the morale of the bravest impenetrable mist overhead. God man on earth would have quailed before What was it? the fearful manifestations which we had Another pregnant silence ensued. experienced during those two awful This was broken by the mate’s voice: nights. “We won’t be sane by sunrise if we The entire crew had been in such a don’t turn to and do something,” said he. state of hypnotic fear and hysteria, that “First we’ve got to have some light, and had the “voice” commanded them to leap the more the better. Mr. King set up over the side, they would probably have the chimneys on the try-works and get done so to a man. the light going. Fill it with scraps, and As the night wore qn we busied our- don’t be stingy with them.” selves keeping the light going and carry-

We were keyed to such a pitch by this ing up fuel for it. Bowser, still tied The Devil's Nest 9 and gagged, was propped against the plained, but time will tell. We’ll leave mainmast, in the full glare of the light. this accursed ground as speedily as pos- The poor fellow presented a wild spec- sible, as soon as we get wind enough. tacle in the lurid light of the dancing Finally, as it began to grow light, we flames, his hair matted, -and his face let the Bug Light out. Within three- streaked with blood. quarters of an hour the mist had thinned

Though our spirits were somewhat perceptibly, and daylight increased till raised by the light, and action, we were we knew that the sun had risen and was still too frightened to go below during “drying up” the excessive moisture in the hours of darkness, and no one went the air. We then regained courage off by himself. enough to move more freely about the Although the Banshee had ceased her deck. The cook and steward were told strange antics of a few hours before, to get breakfast for all hands, and the dull thumps were still occasionally felt officers went down into the cabin to- on the ship’s bottom. gether, making another fruitless search “I believe,” said Mr. Brown to the rest for the Old Man, or any evidence as to of us, “that I can explain one or two of how or where he had gone, but not the the different things that have happened slightest clue could they discover. Noth- to-night, but not all. I think that we have ing was disturbed, and the steward drifted, or been drawn into, the very found, as the mate had suspected, that center of a shifting eddy, and the suck- there was not a drop of oil in the bin- ing sound which we heard was due to the nacle lamp. indrawn air in its moving vortex, which On the ocean, here and there, a few would account also for our being turned cocoanuts, and an occasional tree, or log, round and round for awhile. We got rose and fell with the light swell. The out of it somehow, but why we were not officers returned to the deck; Mr. Brown carried along with it, I can’t say. I think glanced aloft, then clapped his hand on that the bumps we felt against the ship, Mr. Folger’s shoulder, saying: were due to the flotsam and jetsam of “There he is, up on the after edge of the sea, such as cocoanut trees, lumber, the main-top, that’s the supernatural spars from wrecks, etc., moving along voice which spoke to us.” And, as we with the eddy. This mist may be caused all looked, the parrot nodded his head, by an unusually large amount of cold clawed his beak, and—'“Lay aloft, lay water driven up here by continued aloft, damn you,” he croaked. southerly gales, too far away for us to “Spunyarn,” said Mr. Brown, “Go up feel, and, meeting with the warm tropi- there and see if you can get him, put cal current, has brought about a sudden him back in his cage, and give him half atmospheric condensation producing this a hardtack.” mist. I may not be right, but it is pos- It took some time and lots of coaxing, sible. Further, I’ve got a strong sus- but I finally got him, and put him in his picion that the voice we heard calling cage again. In the meantime they’d to us from aloft belongs to that damned searched the ship, fore and aft, finding parrot of ours. He got out of his cage nothing. Then we had our breakfast, a while he had everything to himself aft, man was sent to the wheel, and as we and took advantage of the chance to could now see for a distance of four or stretch his wings and his mouth at the same time. That binnacle-lamp may five hundred feet, Mr. Brown ordered have gone out for the lack of oil, we’ll one of the men to take the “masthead” see in the morning. The other things in the “fore-crows-nest,” saying, “If are beyond me, and may never be ex- you see anything, report it, but we won’t :

10 Sea Stories Magazine

bother with whales if you raise any.” steer south. Don’t wr ait for me, you’ll Just as the man was over the “futtock- have to pass us, we’ll head you off and shrouds” to the fore-top, Mr. King get aboard,” ordered Mr. Brown. I

yelled, “Sail Ho ! broad on the port took the steering-oar, as we started off, beam.” Mr. Brown beside me, and “Bob-stay” We looked in the direction in which Frank,' Sam and “Ratlin” at the oars. his finger pointed, and saw the hazy out- With no wind, the sea was like glass, a lines of some kind of a vessel, coming long, low swell running as easily as if into view more clearly as the minutes it had been oiled, ahead the grisly wreck, went by, till we could see that it was a astern, our own ship, each a home of derelict lying with her head about West horrors, known and unknown, we sped and perhaps a quarter of a mile due along. Pointing to a low-lying bank of south of us. She had quite a list to clouds, far to the north, Mr. Brown starboard, that is toward us, her bowsprit said was gone, close to the knightheads, fore- “If that keeps on rising, we may get mast broken off a few feet above the a good breeze before sunset.” deck, main-topmast carried away at the “I hope we do, for none of us will

“cap.” Nothing left standing but the ever- feel right till this devilish place is

mainmast, and mainyard, mizzenmast, hundreds of miles behind us,” I replied. with the spanker-boom and gaff and “She’s one of the old ‘kettle-bot- mizzen-topmast. Evidently, or at least tomed’ type of ships, they need no as far as we could make out, all of the ballast, as they can sail on their own wreckage, such as spars, sails and beam, and won’t sink if water-logged,

rigging, had been cleared away. No provided that their cargo is all in casks. boats* could be seen, but we knew that We’ll take a look at the port side,” said she was, or had been, a whaler, by her Mr. Brown. “hurricane-house,” “bearers” and “boat- “Wonder why, or what, burned all davits.” the paint off her stern,” I asked him,

“Good God ! what a sight she looks as we went round it. ; as if she had been drifting around here “I don’t know, maybe they wanted to

for the last ten or twelve years. I won- hide her identity. By thunder ! look at der if that’s what our fate is going to that, she’s been stove in all the way from be ?” said Mr. Long. the main-chains, to forward of the fore- “She was a whaler all right, and a big chains. Timbers and planking all gone, one, too, close to five hundred tons, I from the upper edge of her sheathing should guess,” Mr. Folger put in. down to, and several feet below, her “She may have been dismasted in a present waterline. What under the sun gale, away to the south’ard, then drifted could have made a hole thirty-five or north, caught by the current, and' forty feet long, and ten or twelve feet

dragged into this eddy, with or without wide in the side of a ship, is beyond me. her crew they may have escaped in the Broken spars didn’t do it, as they would ; boats, but if they didn’t, then they must have battered her up in other places have starved to death on board, for she’s while dragging alongside. Pull up, and been adrift a long, long time,” Mr. King we’ll get aboard by the main-chains,” opined. said Mr. Brown. “Clear away the port-boat, I’m going We climbed aboard, and made the aboard and look her over. We can’t do boat’s painter fast around a swifter. I anything else while it’s dead calm, Mr noticed that she was “honey-combed” by Folger! If a breeze springs up before I w'orms wherever the water could reach come back, set everything that’ll draw. the wood, and “sea-grass” ten or twelve The Devil’s Nest 11

feet long trailed from the worm-eaten Taking the cutlass which I handed planking, where the copper had been him, he scanned it carefully, then called torn away. Back and forth it swung, attention to the increased girth at the pendulum-like, to the swell, typifying middle of the hilt, where a perfect dupli- the pulsating heart of a new life to a cate of the face of a skull of the Miru

dead ship. Tick-tock, tick-tock, it went Clan was carved on its outer surface, silently, unceasingly, impelled by the and carrying the strange insignia. Then “mainspring” of the sea. with his knife he scraped the greenish A strange odor tainted the air, and the corrosion off the brass, and engraved “back-wash” coming from the great* deeply, we read, “Don Benito.” wound in her side was black. “Ever heard of him, Spunyarn?” he Here and there, a frayed and rotten asked me. rope swayed idly, like a self-strangled “No, sir,” I replied. corpse, hung on its own gallows. The “Well,” said Mr. Brown, “Don Pedro abandoned deck seemed to be weeping at Benito, or Pedro the Pirate, as some the desolation of its own desertion. called him, was reputed to be one of While standing on the rail, Mr. Brown the gayest of the old pirates in these swept her with the quick searching waters, many years ago. I’ve heard that glance of a sailor, fore and aft, alow and he raided a convict station once, ironed aloft, and remarked, “Not a boat left, all the guards, freed the prisoners, and took her hatches are gone, even the booby- them aboard to serve with him under hatch, but the cabin skylight is all right. the Jolly Roger. This cutlass must have

That’s odd, I don’t understand it ! Main- been an heirloom owned by some des- yard squared with chain lifts and braces, cendant, or friend of his. maybe.” single parts, no blocks, must have been “Hey! Look at this!” exclaimed Sam, a jury-rig. after she was dismasted, but who had taken a few steps further aft, I can’t see why they should use all that as he picked up a Peruvian dollar from chain, which must have been top-sail- the deck. Excitedly, we joined him and sheet, and halyard chain, when they found ten or twelve smaller coins of should have had plenty of running rope Spanish silver, scattered about.

or standing rigging left.- Come on! “Hooray !” yelled Ratlin, and yanked Let’s look her over,” he added, and as away a bunch of old rope that partly we half walked, half slid across the slop- covered a canvas-bag lying on the star-

ing deck, we saw a human skull, a couple board planksheer. But, as he lifted, it of muskets, a cutlass, and some other burst in half a dozen places, spilling the things lying in the starboard scuppers. contents around our feet.

Picking up the weather-beaten skull, “This is interesting! Get that old Mr. Brown said, “By George! Here’s deck-bucket there by the head-chain bitt,

more mystery ! That skull came from and put the money in it,”’ ordered the Rapa-Bui, better known as Easter mate. Bob-stay straightened up, looked Island, and its owner once belonged to from side to side across the deck and, the Miru Clan. See that unique symbol “Say !” he yelled. “What in hell does this which is carved into the forehead after mean? We're almost on an even keel.” death? Nowhere else in the world is “Damned if we ain’t,” responded Mr. that strange rite known. Brown, as he shot a glance aloft, then “These muskets,” he continued, as he over the deck. “What the devil makes

picked up one and looked it over, “are her act this way, I swear I can’t imagine. the old Tower Hill type, that South Sea We’ve got to watch her, sharp. I don’t black-birders carried for trade with the believe she can sink as most, if not all natives.” of her cargo, has worked out, or been 12 Sea Stories Magazine taken out, somehow. She may roll over, “Spunyarn! You take Frank and but we’ve got our boat, the ship is near, Sam, search the fo’c’s’le first, then look there’s no wind, and almost no swell. all around for’ard on deck, under the She’ll hold together anyway, for she’s arches in the try-pots, and everywhere, dry, and solid as a rock everywhere while the rest of us hunt through things above the waterline. I think that a part aft here.” Then, “Damn my eyes! If of her worm-eaten bottom on the star- we ain’t heeled back to starboard again, board side has just fallen or some heavy What in hell is the matter with this old stuff dropped through it, which would hulk? We’ll find out later, anyway,” he explain the list she had before, and her* added, as the three of us started for- coming up to an even keel now. There ward, to carry out his orders. may be a lot of money in her yet, and we We stopped as we went along, to look want to get it if we can,” he added. down the main hatchway. “I wonder We were so excited, thinking of what makes that peculiar smell?” ques- treasure, that we paid no further atten- tioned Frank, as he sniffed the air over tion to the matter of lists or even keels. it. Just then the old iron-hoop on the bot- “I don’t know', never smelt anything tom of the bucket burst with a snap and like it before, and I can’t imagine what all the silver coins rolled over the deck makes the water ifi her hold so black. again. As we picked them up, Ratlin I’ve seen black bilge water, and if smelt said, “That’s bad luck; everything acts rotten, but not a bit, like this, and this so damned queer on this packet, that I’d can’t be bilge-water, with the ocean be willing to jump overboard and swim W'ashing right in and out through a for land if I thought I could make it.” twelve by forty foot hole in her side,”

“See if you can’t find a pot, or a responded Sam. “Come on ! We’ll go kettle, or something that’ll hold, to put through the fo’c’s’le first,” said I, and

this money in,” snapped the mate, be- we start for it with Frank leading. coming annoyed. As he was about to put his foot on the As Ratlin opened the door, he jumped first step of the fo’c’s’le ladder he back yelling, “The cook’s coppers are stopped, drew back, and peering down full of skulls, just like that one,” point- intently, said: “The water’s up to the ing to the one we had first seen. edge of the lower bunks on the port “Come on!” said the mate to me, side.” Kicking off his shoes, he rolled “We’ll see what’s what!” and in we up his pants, Sam and I following suit. went. “Ratlin’s right,” he continued, as We then went down to the foot of the we looked around. He took hold of a ladder, into the semi-darkness of the skull to lift it out of one of the coppers gloomy hole, which looked as uncanny as

and, “Thunderation ! what makes this so the den of an Ogre. cussed heavy,” he asked, speaking About four feet forward of us, an old

mostly to himself. Then he gave it a “bread-barge” hung from a rusty spike, shake, and something rattled inside. driven into the solid oak powl-post of “It’s filled with money !” he cried, and the windlass. On the starboard side, the

so it was. lower tier of bunks were all under water. “More money, and more mystery. The deck was as slippery as if greased. We’ll leave these right where they are, “This is a helluva big fo’c’s’le, even put what we found on deck, in the cop- for a large ship. That damned smell is

pers, they’ll hold it. Now we’ll divide getting stronger all the time, and there’s and search her fore and aft, and when a scumrlike stuff floating around over we find how much there is, we’ll hunt up there,” said Frank, pointing to the after-

something to get it aboard the ship in. part of the starboard side of the fo’c’s’le. The Devil’s Nest 13

“The bulkhead between us and the well up over their knees, when I heard fore-hold is all gone, just like it had been Frank say, “It’s all bones, human bones. torn out purposely. Maybe she’s been a There’s a heap of them here.” black-birder. There’s no trace of any Again, came that strange smell, cargo, but they’d carry it in the lower stronger than ever. Instantly my skin hold and the slaves between decks, began to tingle and creep. At the same though with no bulkheads, there’d be time, my right foot planted itself on the nothing to prevent them from attacking lower step of the fo’c’s’le ladder, with no

the crew, unless they were shackled ; it’s help from me. Chills, heat waves, goose- all guesswork, anyway.” flesh, and fevers, came in rotation, as my like left lifted “Come on, let’s get busy ; I don’t foot itself, hung for the frac- it down here,” said Sam, and we went at tion of a second in the air, then rested on our job. the next step, while my palsied fingers, Taking the port bunks first, we found like bones of the dead, were beating a nothing but a few old clothes and tatoo on the sides of the ladder, a stream blankets, with a donkey’s breakfast, till of saliva welled from my lips, and all we came upon a heap of rubbish in the this, without knowing why. upper forward one, where we found a That strange smell must have been an small notebook, damp, stained, and rot- emanation of something like an anaes- ten with mold. As I slipped it into the thetic, intended to paralyze or stupefy a hip pocket of my dungarees, we heard victim in advance, and acting as a power- several sharp thumps, the sounds seem- ful stimulant to the salivary glands. ing to come from the port side of the Then, gradually, I began to realize wreck, and some distance aft of us. consciously, that I was hearing a noise, “What in hell’s that?” asked Sam, seeming to come from abaft the pile of nervously. bones, and sounding as if the propeller “Guess it’s our boat, bumping along- of a big tramp steamer, in ballast, was side,” returned Frank. churning up the water.

“Seems to me that the swell is too Suddenly, it stopped, and nearer a light to make her bump as hard as that, wild scream spit the air, stabbing its way and besides, I haven’t heard it before,” to my brain. remarked Sam. Instinct and reason both cursed me “Maybe she’s swung in, fore and aft for a fool, demanding that I run, neither alongside, and her gunnel caught on seeming to comprehend that I could not something as a swell lifted her, and she move. Then, “Help! Oh, my God! bumped as she dropped down,” I inter- Help !” came a cry almost beside me, and jected. turning, I saw Sam and Frank both “That’s it all right. Come on, we’ll see gripped, steel tight, in the coils of a if there’s anything in the bunks on the monster black octupus, jet-black arms, starboard side, then we’ll get out of coal-black body, soot-black eyes, a beast here,” said Frank, and as they started of black rubber. for the forward part of the other side A fathom of the outer end of one ten- of the fo’c’s’le I took the bread barge tacle, wound round and round Sam’s from the spike on which it hung, looked neck, like a living collar, from his in, and seeing that it was half full of shoulders to his chin, with the broadened cockroach skeletons, I tossed it on deck, tip covering his mouth and nostrils. thinking we might have some use for it Held just above the water, limp, and al- later. ready dead of strangulation. He’d got Frank and Sam had got to the after- Frank’s arms and body completely ban- end of the fo’c’s’le, where the water was daged with another tentacle, and was !!

14 Sea Stories Magazine holding him horizontally, half way be- other one came out, and back and forth tween the water and the deck above, they went, quickly and nervously, as with his head forward, while he though they were hunting for some !” screamed : “Help ! Oh, my God, help heaven-sent human meat—both “hands” The great beast apparently sensed that running around in a “bare closet” where

it he was calling for help ; maddened food had been. Suddenly they became him, and made him want to finish Frank still, and the boat was drawn inside, out quickly. He swung him sternwards a of sight, under the deck beneath me. few feet for leverage, and then, like a I knew now what it was that had flash, he launched him forward head made the boat bump while we were- first, with all his strength, right against down in the fo’c’s’le, and that the strange the solid oaken “pawl post,” smashing smell was due to the octopus, that had his skull to a pulp. It was all over, two blackened the water in the hold, to con- men and a half dead, and the half was ceal himself, by expelling the liquid in me. its “ink” sack. And I knew, too, that Somewhere a spring released itself in- somewhere on, in, or near the ends of side of my body, and, without knowing his tentacles, this black monster could how, I shot up and through the fo’c’s’le duplicate all human senses. scuttle, just as something hit or pulled Then I fainted. When I came to I at the foot of the ladder and it fell, while heard the mate’s voice saying: “What is I rolled away on deck to semi-safety, it, Spunyarn? What is it? What is the lock- jawed with fright. matter?” A second, or minute later, too weak to “How’d I get aft here?” said I stand, yet driven by the fear of death, I wanting to be answered first. crawled on hands and knees over to and “We’d found a box of gold in the along the port bulwark, heading aft. galley, and while we were overhauling

One thought was dominant in my it, Ratlin happened to look out of the brain : “The boat, the boat, get into the forward wdndow, and he saw you fall boat, and get away.” Seeing no one, by from the rail, so we picked you up, and the time I got abreast of the after part brought you aft here. Now, tell me, of the try-works, I wondered if they what’s the matter with you? Where's had gone away with the boat, leaving me, Frank and Sam?” I or were they all dead, too? “They’re dead, our boat’s stolen ; Then I reached for a belaying-pin, guess I fainted when I saw it go,” I an- drew myself up, and looked over the swered. rail for the boat. She was alongside For a moment his keen eyes scanned

all right ! Oh, yes ! and with a venge- me critcially. “Where did it go?” he ance, held by two tenacles, one around asked. the stern, the other clamped on the “log- “Inside of us,” I replied.

gerhead,” both trying to drag her into “Hell ! You’ve got rats in your attic the big hole, right under me. The octo- You’re nutty! What we went through pus had got her. He’d planned intel- last night has gone to your head and put ligently to steal the boat, cut off our es- you off soundings, Spunyarn. Our boat cape, and thus make sure of getting all ain’t gone adrift in a calm,” he asserted. of us. “Look over the rail. See if the boat’s

Then another tentacle came out, and it there, but watch out for your life was ten feet longer than the boat. Toss- Frank and Sam are dead, down the ing the mast, sail, boat-keg, and some of fo’c’s’le. A big black cuttlefish did it

the oars overboard, it began feeling all and he nearly got me, too,” I said. over and under the thwarts, then an- Leaving me sitting on deck, with my :

The Devil's Nest 15 back against the starboard side of the over and over, while the sucker-mouths hurricane-house, and near the closed opened and shut, gulping and gasping, door to the storeroom in its after part, and the hooked claws rose and fell, till Mr. Brown ran across to the port rail, a sharp whistle-like sound came from it, mounted it, glanced fore and aft along- and the dammed thing relaxed, straight- side, then, taking hold of the “painter” ened out, and lay still. that had held the boat, he pulled it “This is the devil’s nest, and we’re aboard. Seeing that it had been “parted” trapped in it," yelled Ratlin, as I strug- or snapped in two, he dropped it, jumped gled to my feet. to the deck and rushed aft, shouting as “Run! Run! It’s coming again! he came to Bob-stay and Ratlin, who Quick ! All hands up the mizzen rig- wfcre smashing the cookstove in hope of ging, follow me,” shouted Bob-stay, as finding more money. “Get out here, he led the way up the starboard shrouds, and stand by! Two men killed, boat with the mate next, Ratlin and myself gone, escape cut off, we’ve got to signal bringing up the rear. for help damned quick. We’re in a hell Half way up to the mizzen masthead, !” of a hole Bob-stay stopped, waiting for us to catch He stopped, as he spoke, just forward up with him, and saying as he watched of the open door to the cabin com- “That black devil is too big to get

panionway and hooked it back. He was through the companionway, and is try- directly across from me, with his right ing to break out through the cabin sky- hand resting on the brass hook that held light. ' He knocked the compass down,

the door. As both Bob-stay and Ratlin I heard it smash as it struck the cabin came out of the galley, Bob^stay lead- floor, when I yelled to you to run.” ing and carrying a heavy hatchet he’d As he spoke the last words we heard been using as a hammer to smash the a noise of wood splitting and cracking stove, the broad tip of a sinuous black below us. Looking down we saw the tentacle shoved swiftly out of the com- cabin skylight lifted, torn from its fas- panionway, and, smelling or seeing that tenings, and toppled over to starboard,

the mate was nearest, it flashed forward where it fell with a crashing of broken and wound two turns around his right glass, and three tentacles slid greasily

wrist. As it began to pull, the mate out over the skylight coamings on a man- tried to yank his arm away, but he only hunt. succeeded in unhooking the door. “We’re goners, we’re goners,” bawled Crowding his right shoulder between the Ratlin. released door, and the side of the hur- “Keep a-going, keep a-going; don’t

ricane-house, he resisted the pull of the stop till we’re in the top,” shouted the

tentacle, till the door closed and jammed mate. As soon as we got there, he peeled

it, a foot or so from his wrist. off his jumper, waved it in the air, tell- Bob-stay, with instant comprehension, ing us to do the same, and signal the leaped to save him, and, pushing his ship to send a boat to our aid. shoulder against the door to increase the Watching the deck, while doing this,

jam on the tentacle, he hacked it off we saw one tentacle nosing around in with the hatchet, and the door slammed the galley, another going down the com- to with a thud. Pale as a ghost, with panionway, and the third one, half way beads of cold sweat dripping from his up to us, feeling its way along on the face, the mate unwound the serpent-like inner side of the starboard shrouds, as

handcuff from his wrist, and let it fall. though it was smelling out our tracks.

As it struck the deck, it danced and Soon this one was joined by the one that squirmed, wriggled and twisted, turned had been in the galley, while the one in 16 Sea Stories Magazine the companionway withdrew itself, shot agree to you doing that, at least not yet. upward some thirty feet above the deck, We’re still alive and safe as long as that and coiled around the mizzen-mast, black devil keeps quiet. What’ll happen leaving half a fathom of its extreme tip next, or what the outcome will be, I end free to sway and “make faces” at us. don’t know, but you’ve saved me once,

All of them then tautened, contracted, and I thank you for it, so that will do and the black devil started to pull him- for a while. I don’t want you or any self out through the skylight coamings. one to take further risks, unless abso- “We’re done for! We’re done for!” lutely necessary. It’s clear weather now, bellowed Ratlin, and the rest of us and I can’t understand why they haven’t ' thought the same. seen us waving. Perhaps they have, and, “Up! All of you! Up! For the knowing that we came to this hulk in 'our cross-trees,” roared the mate. And, as own boat, they’re probably wondering we got there: “Wave your jumpers for why in hell we don’t come back in her. all you’re worth, we’ve got to make them They never dream what’s taken place on see us. If that devil gets into the lower this wreck already, or that she’s the nest rigging and starts to come up after us, of the same devil that got Patsy and the our only chance will be to slide down Old Man. We’ve got to keep waving the mizzen-topmast stay, and land in the till we make them come. If a breeze main-top, but even if we got out on the springs up, they’ll sail away, and leave main-yardarm and jumped overboard, us to catch them as I ordered. But we he’d follow and get us. We’re in a can't get our boat and, of course, they’d damned bad fix, anyway you look at it.” come back, or heave to and wait, if we “Say !” he yelled to Bob-stay, “he’s did not put in an appearance. In the dropping back, he can’t pull himself meantime that damned thing might get through; he’s too big.” us.” It- was true. The taut tentacles re- Suddenly Bob-stay stopped waving laxed, one by one, and then altogether his jumper. “See !” he shouted. “We’re they slid back, down into the cabin, out heeling back to port. That cussed beast of sight, and we breathed more easily. is moving around, and I’ll bet he’s com- “Wonder what in hell he’ll surprise us ing out.” with next,” said the mate to me. “I hope to God he isn’t,” said Ratlin, “Cussed if I know I hope he’ll stay shaking his head gloomily. But his face ; where he is, and give us a chance to get brightened a bit, as he added : “There’s away, if they’ll only send a boat from the plenty of cutting spades in the spade ship,” I answered. rack, under the boat bearers. I noticed “He won’t give us any opportunity to them before we went into the galley. leave, if he can help it, he ain’t built that They must be pretty rusty, although way,” replied the mate. some of the long-handled ones might

“It’s dead calm, almost no swell, the help us, if we’re cornered. It would be ship ain’t over a quarter of a mile from too risky to get them, I suppose.”

us, and if you’ll say the word, sir, I’ll “That’s a good idea, and worth try- slide down a backstay, drop overboard ing,” said the mate.

from the starboard-quarter and try to “.I’ve got it, and here’s how. We’ll

swim to her; I think I can make it, if go down to the mizzen top, let Mr. that devil don’t chase me,” said Bob- Brown stay there, to receive and hold stay. them, Ratlin further down in the miz- Mr. Brown glanced toward the ship, zen rigging to pass them along, Spun- then looked gravely at him, and said: yarn about ten feet from the deck, to “Bob-stay, you’re all right, but I can’t take them from me, and pass them up to ;

The Devil’s Nest 17

Ratlin. I’ll get them, and you can all “Either he hurt it, trying to get watch sharp while I’m doing it,” snapped through the cabin skylight, or he’s think- Bob-stay, as he swung to a backstay, and ing of a plan to get us. I don’t know went to the deck. I followed, down the which,” answered Bob-stay. Two or mizzen-shrouds, till about ten feet above three minutes later, a fifteen- foot shark the deck, while Mr. Brown and Ratlin came idling along, circling the stern came down to their appointed stations. lazily from starboard, then heading for- Nimble as a cat, Bob-stay yanked the ward on the port side, apparently failing spades from the overhead “rack.” to notice the perfectly quiet devil, which Turning and withdrawing them from we were all watching. When about four the “box” like lightning, he handed fathoms distant from the devil, the them up to me two at a time. He did shark rose, went ten feet upward from a this twice, I handing them up to Ratlin, small swirl in the water, held, head and and he to Mr. Brown. “That’s plenty tail, by two of the devil’s arms. Done !” it’s one apiece. Come on I yelled to right before our eyes, so quickly that we

him, but he grabbed two more, and, as saw nothing till the shark was held in he handed them to me, the old hulk gave the air. Instantly, the tentacle around a lift and rose to port. Bob-stay jumped its head shifted, clamped on the tail, for the rigging below me. Mr. Brown with another, when they both swung the roared, “He’s out! I see him outside! twisting shark horizonward for a lever- Get up here, all of you !” And that we age, and banged him against the mizzen did. chains with a sickening thud, let go, and Gathered in the mizzen cross-trees, the shark dropped into the sea. Amazed armed with six long-handled spades in we stared, dumfounded we wondered. good condition, except for some rust, The black devil raised himself partly and seeing that big devil outside, we felt out of the water, gave vent to four dis- much better, hoping that now he would tinct, separate hisses, each of a different swim away from us, or sink. length and intensity, while we shivered. “Out with your knives and scrape the “He’s spitting a warning, in each hiss rust off those spade blades, as soon as of hate, or he’s just cursing every living you can. We don't know, yet whether thing, not of his own species, on sea or we’ll have to use them, but the cleaner land,” said Bob-stay. they are, the better they’ll cut,” ordered “That’s how he snapped Patsy and the the mate. Old Man, and no one saw anything,”

While we were doing it, the monster said Mr. Brown, with a note of sorrow lay floating on the surface, about three in his voice. fathoms from the after-end of the hole “He’s too fast for us. We’ll be no he’d come out of, facing toward the match for him if he crowds us. If he’d stern, and holding to the wreck with two only go astern, we might get forward to of his huge arms. the main hatch, shove our boat out !” “Holy Caesar ! What a monster ex- through the hole in the side, and, with claimed Bob-stay. Then, “What do you good, luck, get away, but it’s too risky

think he’ll weigh, sir?” asked the mate. to try, so we’ll stay here till something “Ten or twelve tons, maybe,” Mr. new develops. Brown replied. “I’d like to know if he has some un- Occasionally he’d turn a loose tentacle known, peculiar power to make his arms,

inward, and rub the top of his head with or all of him, invisible at will, or if it is

a few feet of the end of it. “What in only due to the rapidity of movement,” hell does he keep scratching his head he added. for ?” says Ratlin to Bob-stay, “If we could only dart a spade into ;

18 Sea Stories Magazine his neck and cut his spinal cord, it would order to give them a decent Furial. Now finish him. I’d like to try it, if you’ll what do you think best?” let me, sir! I’ll take one to the cross- “We’re here to take and follow your trees, slide down the stay into the main- orders, and trust to your judgment, sir,” top, get out to the end of the main yard, answered Mr. Folger. where I’ll be almost over him and can “All right,” said Mr. Brown. Then, steady myself by means of the lift, then turning to Bob-stay, he said : “Bob-stay, let him have it. It’s an even chance if you still want to dart a spade into that whether I’d get him, or he’d get me, but devil, you can have a chance, now that I’ll take it, if you'll let me, sir,” said Mr. Folger is here to help us out, as I Bob-stay to Mr. Brown. can send him round to the port side to “If we could be sure that he wouldn’t lay a safe distance away, while standing move till you’d darted, I’d say yes. As by to pick you up, if you have to jump. it is, it’s a toss-up whether he could But remember, it’s a damned risky job, reach the mainyard from where he is, even with a boat handy, as he may get but if he jumped for the side, and you, or you and the boat together. I’d climbed up a few feet, just as you get almost rather you wouldn’t try, but almost to the end of the yardarm, he’d either we or that devil have got to start have your retreat cut off, and if you something soon, if anything is to be dropped overboard as a last chance, he’d done.” probably follow, and erase your name “I’m ready, sir,” says Bob-stay, look- from the list of live men. You’re ing as pleased as a kid. spunky enough, but I don’t want you to “I’ll take another spade, go with him, try that yet, Bob-stay,” said Mr. Brown. and stay in the maintop, as it’s a good

"Hooray ! They’ve lowered the waist place to make a dart from if that octo- !” boat ! Mr. Folger’s coming shouted pus tries to come up the side after Bob- Ratlin. stay has darted,” said I, ashamed to have

“I’m mighty glad of it. He’ll surely him go alone. be useful,” grimly commented Mr. “Good ! But wait a minute,” ordered Brown. With a smooth sea and no Mr. Brown. Then: “Have you got your wind, they were coming at a good pace, bomb gun and any line with you, Mr. and in a few minutes were within hailing Folger?” distance. Waiting until they were about “Yes, sir!” he replied. one hundred feet from us, Mr. Brown “All right ! Shove a bomb in the gun, yelled. “Hold up! Keep your boat and the stern in close enough to heave headed away from us, your oars ready us the end of your small tub of lines to pull for your lives, and your eyes measure off ten or fifteen fathoms, then peeled, while I tell you what we’re up tuck the ‘bight’ through the open breach against.” of the gun and up over the muzzle, push

And in a few short, crisp sentences he it down till it’s back of the hammer, and gave Mr. Folger a sufficient outline of haul the ‘bight’ up taut. That’ll hold the what had happened, to enable him and gun. When we get the end of the line, his crew to grasp the situation pretty we’ll haul in, while you pull ahead and thoroughly. He continued : “I want you keep enough strain on it, as you pay it to help lay out what is the best thing to out, to hold the gun above the water so do. We must get away safely if we can, we can get it aboard dry, and you can because I’d like to save the money we’ve then let go. And we’ll haul in what line found and left in the galley, and to we need, cut it when we’ve got enough, search for more if possible get our boat, and you can haul your end in,” ordered ; and the bodies of Frank and Sam in Mr. Brown. The Devil's Nest 19

“Aye, aye, sir,” said Mr. Folger. around the head of the mainmast, Bob- Bob-stay had already gone down to stay, barefooted, balancing himself with the starboard sheer pole, to stand by to the coil of towline in one hand and the catch the line* with me just above him to spade in the other, ran out to the end of take its end, when thrown, and hand it the yard, just as the devil shot the end to Ratlin to give to the mate, while Bob- of one of his nearest arms to the rail. stay hauled the gun and the rest of the “Look out for yourself, Bob-stay!” line aboard. In a few minutes it was I said in a low tone. all done, and we had the gun and some “Be careful, men !” cautioned Mr. fifty fathoms of line in the mizzen cross- Brown, as Ratlin handed him the heavy trees. bomb gun. Cutting off a three or four-foot piece, Bob-stay, steadying himself as well as for “rope yarns,” we divided the re- he could against the lift, straightened, mainder into three equal lengths, and aimed his weapon, and darted with all with a couple of turns and a splice fas- his strength. Simultaneously, the devil tened them to the neck of the iron socket shoved himself several feet farther away on three spades, seized the lines to each from the side, using the tentacle clutch- pole near its end with the “yarns,” and ing the rail to push with, and the spade we were then ready. merely cut through the “webbing” be- “Don’t be surprised if I fire at any tween two arms, where they joined his time. He’s so soft that a bomb will body. Instantly he reached over his go right through him without having own back with two tentacles, from op- explode, it time to but may hurt enough posite sides ; one grasped the neck of the to stop him for a moment if he tries to iron-spade socket, and the other grabbed come after you. I think you will do as the wooden pole about three feet higher well, be just as safe, and more out of up. Each yanked against the other, and, sight, if you go down the rigging to as the pole snapped off, he drew the

starboard, then over the ‘bearers’ to the spade out, dropped it in the sea, and main rigging, and up that way to the snatched at the line that Bob-stay had main yard, instead of riding down the previously made fast to the lift. Then, mizzen topmast stay, where he can see as he pulled to lift himself from the ypu every minute, from the time you water, the old hulk commenced to ca- start,” said Mr. Brown to us. reen rapidly to port.

“That’s right, sir ; we’ll take the lower “Cut, for God’s sake, cut, or he’ll cap- route,” replied Bob-stay, for both of us. size us !” yelled Mr. Brown, and the big

“Mr. Folger ! Pull around to the port bomb gun bellowed, but its deadly mis- side, lay off and on, about a hundred sile went wide, and disappeared in the feet or so away with your stern toward deep, as the black devil reached up ten us. Be ready to work quick, and, what- feet higher, and the increased weight

ever happens, watch that devil and these heeled us farther and farther, till Bob- men,” ordered Mr. Brown. stay got his sheath knife out and drew

“Aye, aye, sir!” he answered, and it across the straining line. With a loud

round they pulled, as we went up the snap it parted, and we slowly “righted.” main shrouds. Running in, along the yard, Bob-stay Whether or not the devil saw us as we joined me, white as a sheet, and saying: got into the maintop, I don’t know, but “He’s got more than human cunning. he had seen the boat, and was “tuning We’ll be lucky to get away with our lives.

his muscles up,” as you’ve seen the rip- See ! He’s working aft toward the stern. ples run along a snake’s body. Now we all ought to get to the deck, and I made the end of my spade line fast escape over the starboard bow, after !

20 Sea Stories Magazine first telling Mr. Folger to be ready to turn out that he could be the means of take us in there.” saving us. They might send another As I started to make some reply, a boat, if we signaled, as before, but that loud pandemoniumlike crash sounded would take time that would be wasted, from forward of us, so unexpectedly if they got suspicious about such un- that I nearly jumped from the top. usual actions and refused to come,” I

“What the hell ! Good Godfrey, look said.

Over the try-works ! There’s another “Come on ! Get up here ! Twice I’ve !” one ! Trying to get out of the fore- told you now shouted Mr. Brown. !” hatch !” yelled Bob-stay, and at the same “Aye, aye, sir ! We’re coming I time the mate shouted: “Come up here, answered, and as I spoke another ten- come back here ! Never mind that tacle lifted up forward, and, grabbing !” spade the mainstay, it came crawling along A quick glance forward showed what toward us. the trouble was. Two big black ten- “Cut the line off, and gimme your tacles coming out of the forehatch laid spade. I want to take one try at this across the try-works, reached aft. One new one, and we’ll leave, or you go now, had come over the cooper’s bench, just to pacify the mate,” said Bob-stay

clamped on its underside, and, contract- coolly. Taking it, he sent it with all his

ing, it had turned the bench upside force straight for the tentacles lying down, emptying all the old tools out on “fore and aft” on deck, between the try- deck. As soon as the tentacle had works and the bitt, where their ends had

brought strain enough to break its rot- coiled. It went clean through one, -” ten old “lashings, the other tentacle, parallel with it, and entered the soft pine reaching farther, had taken a turn deck planking. The tentacle uncoiled, around the “belly-chain bitt” just for- lashed back and upward, carrying the

ward of the main hatch, and while I spade with it, whipped to the deck, cut- stared, transfixed at what I saw, the ting the other tentacle deeply on one other released its suction grip on the side, as the spade fell out from the bench and wound its end round the wound in the first. Then the air seemed “bitt” with its fellow. Steadily they filled with writhing black “snakes,” and contracted and slowly all of the head the she-devil lifted her head and higsed !” rose from the forehatch, till it laid with twice : “Uh si-i-ih ! Uh si-i-ih its tentacles on the forward edge of the Instantly responding to the call, the try-works, and stopped. black he-devil answered, “Uh si-i-ih! !” “It’s a female ! It’s that black devil’s Uh si-i-ih and tried to climb aboard on

mate ! Her body is so much wider than the port quarter. his! It’s in the hatchway, and can’t “Hurry or you’re lost!” roared Mr. come at us that way !” yelled Bob-stay, Brown, while Bob-stay and I shinned up with instant comprehension. the mizzen-topmast stay. As we reached “That’s true, but we’re cut off from the crosstrees, the mate and Ratlin the forward part of the deck entirely, joined us, bringing the four remaining and there’s the first one right now, hang- spades. ing to the port quarter, ready to come Handing one of the two he had aboard, or to stay in the water and wait brought to me, Mr. Brown stood up for us, according to which may suit him with the other, and darted it at the devil best. We’re worse off than ever now, coming up on the port quarter. It struck and no one can tell just what to do. him edgeways, fair on the middle of his “If Mr. Folger is sent to the ship to head, just back of the eyes, making a

call the other boats to help us, it might wide gash, an inch or two deep, as it The Devil’s Nest 21 went on and into the water. Maddened, something like a big knob, right on the he stopped tossing his living serpents end of his nose, or spouthole, sir,” I said about, reared his head, opened his to the mate a moment later. menacing beak, and two hisses, each Mr. Brown looked critically for a few scalding with hatred, came from it again. seconds, as the great giant came on Mr. Folger started to pull in closer, majestically. Then he said, low but but Mr. Brown waved him back, say- tensely: “By Godfrey! You’re right! ing: “For God’s sake, don’t start any- And if that’s Old Smokestack, he’s a thing yet, as as he’s still there’s lord of the sea, and a king of the deep; long ; another one trying to get out from the the biggest sperm whale I’ve ever seen, forehatch, and there may be more in and he’s homeward bound, asnoring.” this Devil’s Nest. We’ll be lucky if we “Oh, Spunyarn !” he added delight- get away with our lives. Let the money edly, as he wiggled his toes and slapped go to hell. I don’t know what to do me on the back so hard that I nearly next. We ought to have left when you fell off my perch. “If he only stops, if first got here.” he only stops, he’ll soon have hell’s tea “I can go back to the ship, get the kettle aboiling in the Devil’s nest.” other boats and all the guns, but those “Aye, sir! They’re deadly enemies,” devils might force you to a finish be- I said understandingly. fore we returned,” said Mr. Folger. Then the he-devil on the port quarter “That’s true,” assented Mr. Brown; commenced to wriggle all over. Next he then, “Look out! Pull ahead! He’s hit the surface sharply with the wide, dropping down again, and maybe wants flattened ends of two or three tentacles. to get you !” he yelled. “Tap t-a-p, tap tap t-a-a-p,” they went. “The ship's signaling, sir; there goes He was in the water, and so could the blue flag up at the main, down goes hear better, and he had scented danger her flying jib; they’ve raised whales first, and was warning the other, think- ahead of her somewhere !” yelled Bob- ink perhaps that it was in the water stay, as he decoded the signals. down in the hold. But its head and all “To hell with ’em! If they have, its delicately sensitive “feelers” were we’ve got no use for whales,” snarled still out of the forehatchway, so there Ratlin. was no response.

“There he is, a mile ahead of her,” Again, he rained his blows on the Bob-stay sung out. surface, much louder, and more in- “Headed this way, coming fast, all sistent. Instantly the female sent two alone, and a damned big one. Must be tentacles high into the air, rapidly turn- making a record passage, for he’s shov- ing the wide, tipped ends back and ing junk at A twenty-knot clip. He’ll forth, from right to left, with edges pass us in less than three minutes,” said “cupped,” trying to catch and locate the Mr. Brown. sound of the approaching danger the

“Mr. Folger ! There’s a big lone bull male had warned of. Then one stopped heading right for us, a mile off, coming still with its “palm” toward the oncom- at the double-quick. Get fifty fathoms ing whale, the other stiffened, with its farther away from us, lie still, and don’t “palm” held the same way. Slowly each you move without my orders. If any One turned toward the other; ripples one makes a noise, kill him 1” he ran along their edges then each bent ; snapped. its very tip toward the other, like an af- “Aye, aye, sir!” answered Mr. Fol- firmative nod when an agreement has ger, as he started to carry out the order. been reached, and promptly the big she- “That whale has got a large lump, or devil dropped back into the forehold, 22 Sea Stories Magazine

dragging eight forty- foot black snakes all four clamping on the side 'of the in behind her. wreck, level with or just above the edges Old Smokestack stopped not over of the hole. Then, contracting the ten- three hundred feet away, and acted as tacles clasped around the upright davits, though he were nervous, spouted once, he raised himself quickly till his head sunk his mighty head, and went under; was above the rail. a minute later he shoved his monstrous Again the hisses, “Uh si-i-ih, uh junk skyward from the sea, till his eyes si-i-ih,” shorter, sharper, and more were clear above the surface; then, turn- venomous. ing halfway around to get his “above- Simultaneously Old Smokestack came water bearings,” he slid back, straight- for him, slowly, almost indifferently.

ened out, started for the ship, went a “My God ! Why don’t he rush him t little way, stopped, turned excitedly, That whale’s a damn fool,” whispered and then, as he’d found that he Bob-stay, while I stared spellbound, and was losing the scent, he came back to- made no answer. ward us with a rush. Twenty feet away Old Smokestack When he was within two hundred stopped. Instantly the hissing he-devil feet of the starboard bow, the he-devil sprang, landing squarely on his spout-

outside got inside so damned quick that hole, covering it completely with the we hardly saw him go, and we “heeled” upper, while the middle and lower parts to starboard some, while Old Smoke- of his body hung like an inverted bal- stack rushed round us once to size things loon, over, and in front of Old Smoke- up to suit himself. stack’s enormous junk, with every ten- Finally he stopped on the port side, tacle lying full length along his back and laying “off and on,” heading for the sides, each clinging tightly in a death- wreck, and about twenty fathoms like clasp, and holding the devil’s head distant. Then he came ahead slowly, and body, solid where they were, and out

for us, till his huge junk bumped the of danger from the whale’s jaw or hull at the waterline just abaft the main flukes.

rigging, barely moving, yet it went two Bob-stay whispered: “I told you the or three feet through the honeycombed, whale was a damn fool. That devil had

worm-eaten wood, and so easily that it charmed him, like a snake does a bird, hardly jarred us. and made him come up near enough to Deliberately he backed off, turned, be jumped on, and now he’ll blind or went round the stern to starboard, and, suffocate him. He’s done for, anyway.” swimming easily lengthwise with the “Old Smokestack knows his own hulk, he bumped his head lightly against plans better than we do. He’s had the side two or three times as he swam enough experience to enable him to rea- forward, apparently testing the com- son just as well as humans, and he can parative resistance, in different places, go an hour and a half without breathing, or trying to scare the black devils out you know,” I replied. of the hold. Then he came around the Slowly, easily, as if not wanting to bow, and, just as he took up his old disturb his. “passenger,” and appar- position, four tentacles flashed upward ently satisfied with the situation, Old

out of it, two seizing the davits, while Smokestack “milled” and went ahead, the others swayed, writhing aloft. past the bow, twitching occasionally as “Uh si-i-ih, uh si-i-ih,” came the cough- the devil’s beak tore at his spouthole like hisses from the he-devil, as four wrathfully, while the hooks on the ten- more tentacles shot out. Two laid their tacles clawed at his eyes. length forward, and two extended aft, About fifty fathoms off he swung The Devil’s Nest 23

round, and, with increasing speed, worked himself loose, grabbed the dying headed straight for the starboard bow black devil in his jaws, and, taking it a and side, striking it a long, glancing hundred feet or more away he laid there,

blow, jamming and rasping the ten- slatting it about this way and that way. tacles clinging to his right side between Gripping the middle of a tentacle or himself and the hulk, tearing them to a two, he’d sling him to the right, then frazzle as he shot sternward, while the with all his might to the left, releasing hissing black devil, drew his lacerated his grip and letting him go hurtling “snakes” upward as soon as he could, through the air, and at or after him and laid them lengthwise in the middle again as soon as he’d struck the sea, al- of the whale’s back, safe from a further most but not quite dead. scraping. Again Old Smokestack “He is playing with him just as ‘a cat turned, and, shooting forward, he re- does with a mouse’ !” yelled Mr. Brown. peated the same tactics, with similar re- In a few minutes the devil was dead, sults on his left side. Thus insuring and Old Smokestack bit, crushed, and noninterference with his vision, he then tore him into junks, pausing only now started off, as if bound away for good. and then to swallow a huge morsel of “He’s going to hunt for a nice place the body or several fathoms of a ten- to lay down and die in,” said Bob-stay tacle, leaving the remainder to the in a low tone. sharks already coming. “Now that he’9 “He’s going to do the same with that killed that he-devil things look better devil, as he would if he had met him for us; but there’s no telling what’ll on the bottom of the sea,” said Mr. come next, so we’ll stay here, where we Brown assertively. can be safer and see better.” About five or six hundred feet distant, He had hardly finished speaking be- Old Smokestack swung around with his fore Old Smokestack shook himself, burden, pointing straight for the star- started up, made one complete circle board bow, and yame for us “full speed around us, and shoved half of his huge ahead,” w'hile a solid sheet of water shot head into the hole, which he had previ- over him from the balfbonlike body in ously made in the starboard bow. front. Nothing happened. Then he began

“Hold hard ! Hold hard ! For your striking the sea with his flukes. lives !” roared the mate, anticipating “He’s eithe^ telegraphing to the other what was about to happen, and every whales, or trying to scare the female man’s hand gripped tight. There came out, I’ll bet,” said Mr. Brown. a loud p-lop as the he-devil’s body, “By Christopher! You’re right, sir! caught fair between the whale’s rush- See !” yelled Bob-stay, pointing to the ing head and the bow of the hulk, ex- port side, as two, four, and finally six ploded, scattering its contents high in tentacles slid outward from the open- the air, coupled with the resounding ing, wriggling with nervous agitation. crash of splintering wood as Old Smoke- The head followed, and we could see stack’s mighty junk smashed through that the two tentacles, previously out of till it brought up against the foremast. sight, were still mostly within the hulk. We only felt a very heavy jar; the Then came the great body, and the fe- hulk could not “list” or “heel” to any male devil started away, a writhing mass appreciable extent with the forty-ton of apprehension as it went ahead, drew

head of a monster cachalot inside, and back a little, went ahead still farther

his body outside, to prevent it. than before, drew back again, as if Kicking with his flukes, and “back- afraid to leave, and yet afraid to stay, ing” with his fins, Old Smokestack slowly drawing the two tentacles still 24 Sea Stories Magazine

remainirtg inside of the hulk outward; struggle for the survival of the fittest yet apparently retaining a hold on some- that curses every living species, but, re- thing inside, so that it could pull itself membering that the same causative fac- back instantly, if need be, I thought. tor that gave us the desire to kill every- Some ten or fifteen feet of them had thing that we want for food, gave it emerged from the wreck, and then: equally to the mother of that child in

“Look ! Oh, my God ! Look ! She’s our boat, so all must take whatever fate got our boat, and is dragging it away decides, and call it “Heaven-sent.” with her!” screamed Ratlin, and as we Rome, with all her Caesars, at the watched, half bewildered, out from the topmast pinnacle of her pride and power, hold in the hulk, and following behind could not have staged such a spectacle, the she-devil, came the head of our boat, nor could such titanic contestants have clasped tightly by a tentacle on, over, been obtained or managed. Nero never along each side the both its equal showmen have ever and of bow, dreamed ; coming over the gun’els and inboard at used superlatives to describe to us their or abreast of the bow thwart. comparatively midget spectacles, such as Bob-stay tried to speak, but all that tigers, lions, elephants, et cetera, but he could do was bleat like a frightened words could not do justice to the vast sheep. The mate’s fingers bit into my panorama spread out before us. Ahead arm, deep enough to make me yell, and to the left a mighty mother, a fifteen- I tried to, with no results, as neither of ton ogress, terrible, yet shivering with us could make a sound. Ratlin covered fear, not for herself, but for the safety his eyes with both hands, while the rest of her only child. To the right, a mon- of us stared, stupefied. ster cachalot of more than one hundred Gathering speed, the female now tons, tearing a wreck to shreds, to get swiming away, drew more of the boat at and to rip them to ribbons, while four out after her, and we saw a five-hun- microscopic human beings hung, trapped dred-pound black baby octopus lying on at the masthead, watched the conflict, and over the center-board box, with all and trembled for their lives. its shining tentacles coiled circularly “She’s made a baby carriage out of around itself, looking like a monstrous our boat, to protect, conceal, and save ebonized egg laid in a nest of giant black her offspring in, and stupid shore folks straws, with the broadened tip ends of think they’ve got a mortgage on all the two of its tentacles, palms upward, brain matter,” said Mr. Brown, as the tightly held in the very tip ends of the female moved cautiously off with our two tentacles that its parent towed the boat in tow.

boat with. “Cuss me, if it ain’t holding “There’s something under that young hands with its mother !” said the mate, one, in the bottom of the boat, but I can’t in an awed tone. make out what it is,” Bob-stay re- “Mother love, and childish confidence marked. in her ability to escape from the very Meanwhile Old Smokestack was jaws of death, not forty feet away,” an bumping his great junk around inside unseen voice spoke softly to me from the hole in the starboard bow, and flap- somewhere. Just then the stern of our ping his ponderous flukes on the sea, boat passed outward from the hole, outside, with Mr. Folger keeping a few heading for the horizon, in tow of the hundred feet away on our port quarter, female. awaiting orders. Our hate grew faint, and resentment The octopus with the boat in tow had weakened as we saw that sight. hardly gone twenty fathoms when Old “Mother love” don’t cut much ice in the Smokestack drew his massive head from The Devil’s Nest 25 the hole and gave a suspicious snort as left side, with his jaws wide open. he backed away, “milled” suddenly, shot When forty feet away, the mother-devil forward, made a short turn around the jumped for him like a huge tarantula, bow, swung toward the octupus and but either miscalculating the distance; or boat, then swerved from them, lunged not figuring on being “brought up” ahead for a hundred yards, stopped, somewhat by the “drag” of the boat, sunk his head, lifted his flukes, and went when the towing tentacles tautened, it under. fell short and dropped on the sea. At the He changed his mind when he saw same instant Old Smokestack swerved, our boat held by the devil, and, not un- and synchronously he rolled, sweeping derstanding the new combination, he his tremendous jaw in a lightning half- went down to think it over and study circle through the air, smashing it down- it. He knew what it meant when a boat ward like a bolt from the sky, striking its got into the game with him, but he may end clean across the back of his antagon- have been mystified over the fact that ist, at the junction of its neck and body. there were no men in her, and tackling a Badly hurt, almost paralyzed, the oc- big octopus and a whaler’s boat at the topus released its hold on the boat, and same time presaged a job that was worth at the same time wound the ends of thinking over well in advance. several tentacles around the outer part

“I’m thinking he wouldn’t have killed of the whale’s jaw, just as it started the other cuttlefish if he hadn’t had this to shut, and so was dragged away from hulk to smash up against. That he-devil the boat, as the giant jaw closed and had things well planned for his attack, crushed them, before Old Smokestack but he didn’t figure on a chance of being could check his own rush. crushed to death between this wreck and The mother was weakening rapidly. the whale,” said Bob-stay. In a few seconds Old Smokestack shook “Maybe that whale has got his belly- her loose then, leisurely, ; almost he ful of both foo'd and fight, and decided backed off, made a short turn, slid his let to well enough alone ; I think he’s jaw over her body, bit just once, and gone for good, but I hope he hasn’t,” relaxed his grip. The crushed “bag” of said Ratlin. flesh slipped out and floated in the ink- “If you think that, you’ve got a lot blackened spot on the sea. Again he more to learn about a big sperm whale,” pitilessly pounded it, “side-swiping” said Mr. Brown. with his twenty-five-foot jaw, till he’d

“Stand by! There’s trouble coming. beaten it to a pulp. Then he lay still, Something’s the matter with that cuttle- as we watched. fish; it’s stopped. Look!” shouted Bob- “That side-swiping trick was what stay, as he pointed, and then we saw that whale used when he killed the that it had slacked up, and quit mate of the old Golconda. It isn’t swimming. It’s two “towing” tentacles strange at all, after you’ve seen how he hung in a “bight,” as it reared itself up does it, that no whaleman has ever got backward, closer to the boat. Old Smokestack,” said Mr. Brown.

Instantly all of its six forward ten- “Well, it’s all over, but giving three tacles flashed furiously upward and cheers for Old Smokestack,” Bob-stay over its head, as “Uh si-i-ih, Uh si-i-ih,” broke in. it hissed ferociously. Simultaneously “Not yet ! Not by a damn sight ! See out of the calm, unruffled water rose the what’s coming! By Godfrey! That’s !” huge junk of Old Smokestack, three or some kid ! Listen snapped Mr. four hundred feet away, and coming for Brown. the octopus at top speed, lying on his Rising on the gun’el of our boat was !:

26 Sea Stories Magazine the baby octopus, angrily waving its molest him as long as we live, because shining tentacles aloft, and, hissing at he’s cleared a family of man-eating the whale like a maddened young fiend, devils from the sea.” sprang overboard and went for him. Down to the deck we went, and all so

“Ye Gods and little fishes, that is some excited that we were hardly rational. child,” I heard myself say, as on went Mr. Folger was already at the port

the plucky little fellow. Father and mizzen-chains. “Jump in, quick ! We’ll mother both dead, thrown on his own get our boat and pick up what we can resources, and “digging water” for all find that belonged to her,” ordered Mr. he was worth, he headed straight for the Brown. motionless monster cachalot, a spiritual- “Pull ahead!” Mr. Folger sang out, ized epic of revengeful desire and as soon as we were in his boat. Off we hatred. At six or seven fathoms from went, with Mr. Brown standing in the the whale he stopped short, shoved two bow, and, as we reached our boat, I saw of his chubby black arms straight up- his eyes bulge and his face turn white, ward, full length, then rolled or curled while he murmured brokenly, “My God their broadened tips into solid balls and My God !” and a second later we all saw shook them fiercely with all his childish the dead bodies of Frank and Sam, lying strength, at the whale, while he hissed on the bottom of the boat. his infantile hatred. Turning to me, Mr. Browai said

“Blast me, if that spunky little cuss “Spunyarn, you told the truth. They !” ain’t shaking his fists at that big whale were killed, just as you said. Their

said Mr. Brown. corpses prove it, and I thought you were “Cursing him, too, while he’s doing nutty.” He drew the back of a sun- it,” I added, as the baby lowered its ten- cooked hand across his eyes. Then he tacles, and started ahead, directly for the ordered Bob-stay, Ratlin, and me to get whale’s great junk. into our boat with him, and with Mr. “My hat’s off to him. With his Folger’s help we picke”d up the drifting

parents dead, it looks as if he expects to oars, sail, mast, and boat keg, using the die, and intends to do so bravely facing jib to cover the faces of the dead. his giant foe,” sajd Bob-stay, and as he All this time Old Smokestack had spoke Old Smokestack forged ahead been lying right where he’d killed the slowly, swinging as he went, and keep- baby, and from time to time he munched

ing clear of the baby, till, just at the away at a tender tentacle, as coolly as right distance, his massive flukes rose a cow in her stall chewing a mouthful of skyward, hovered like a pall of doom, timothy hay, and now he “paddled”

and then he sent them roaring down on gently over toward us, till he was about the baby, bursting its soft body open, one hundred feet off. Then he stopped, and scattering its entrails on the sea. turned on his side, and lay there flapping A deep hush fell over us, as the mate himself gleefully with his upper fin. with lifted hat bowed his head, and said “He’s either trying to shake hands softly: “Amen! It’s all over. I hated with himself, or wants to do so with us,” to see Old Smokestack kill that child, said Mr. Brown.

but it had to be.” “Shall we strike, or lance him?” Then, “Mr. Folger! Give that whale rasped Mr. Folger, his cupidity fired by a wide berth, and come alongside,” and the mate’s apparent indifference to a to us, “Throw those spades overboard, chance for a hundred and fifty barrels and lay down from aloft. We’re a lucky of oil. lot of men. We owe that whale a vote “Not unless you’d strike your own of thanks, and a resolution never to mother, or put a lance into me. Think The Devil’s Nest 27 of what he’s done for us? He’s en- counted in the presence of all hands. titled to our lasting friendship, a-a-nd The silver amounted to nearly eight if I could get my arms around his neck hundred dollars, face value. Then he I’d like to hug him,” answered Mr. opened the box, and this in itself wa?a Brown quietly. Then, ‘‘If I catch any- wonderful thing, made of sandalwood, body so much as darting a toothpick at with mortised brass lock and hinges, en- that old boy, I’ll put a lance right tirely sheathed on the outside with tor- through him !” he roared. “Give way toiseshell of the very finest grade. Each for the ship !” he snapped, with shining corner was bound with silver, pounded eyes. out by hand, from old Spanish dollars. “But how about the treasure, sir?” The keyhole was in the center of a asked Mr. Folger, quite subdued. shield of silver, and a similar shield on

“Thunderation ! I’d forgotten all each end was set into the beautifully about that. We’ll board the wreck and mottled tortoise shell. On top of the get it, of course,” replied Mr. Brown, box was an oblong piece of absolutely and, as we returned to her, he ordered black tortoise shell. Again, in the cen- one man to the maintop, to keep watch ter of this black piece, was set a simi- fore and aft, inside and outside, to warn larly shaped piece of pure milk-white us instantly if necessary, while we got mother-of-pearl shell. The four upper the box of gold and the silver that had corners were inlaid triangularly with the been left in the galley. As soon as this same material, and everything fastened was done, Mr. Brown ordered the look- to the wood with tiny rivets of pure out down from aloft, and said: “We’ll silver, sixty-eight of them being used go right aboard of the ship, and explain alone to secure the oblong piece of tor- things to the others as we’re getting toise shell to the top. something to eat. Then we’ll return As Mr. Brown lifted the cover, we here to make a further search, while saw that it was filled with a wealth of the rest can be getting the bodies ready rare shells, and I recalled wonderingly for burial while we are gone.” that he had said that they had found a As we started for our ship, Old' box of gold. There was nothing to be Smokestack sunk out of sight, reappear- seen but shells, beautiful “moss rose ing in a minute or so, and his big head buds,” glorious orange cowries, glisten- shot upward till his eyes were well above ing leopard cowries, gleaming blister the calm sea. He turned deliberately pearls, magnificent maoa’s, red, brown

from right to left and back again, then and purple ; “God’s Eyes” the South Sea stretched himself at full length on the traders call them, as the? natives use them

surface, and lay still. to make eyes for their gods ; two of the “I thought he was going to give chase deadly “Pata” shells from the Pau- to us,” quietly remarked Bob-stay to motus, one small pair of the golden- the mate. yellow pearl shells, from the southern “No, he just wants to keep track of Phillipines, and more besides. what’s going on, that’s all, and I’m As Mr. Brown finished pouring out betting that he’ll be here when we come the shells, he looked at me inquisitively, back to the wreck,” said Mr. Brown. and said: “You think I lied when I told As soon as we got aboard the Banshee, you we’d found a box of gold, Spun- the bodies of Frank and Sam were laid yarn ?” out on the main hatch and covered with “No, sir! But I suppose you’ve got the ensign. an explanation up your sleeve,” I an- After a hasty meal, Mr. Brown or- swered. dered the treasure we had found to be Then, holding the box closer, he said, :

28 Sea Stories Magazine smilingly: “You’ll notice that the bot- pert man in the ship with a palm and tom, inside, is made of a different wood needle.” from that on its outer side. The inner Then I happened to remember the Ghe is TTamano” wood, found mostly in dirty, mouldy old notebook I’d found in the tropical Pacific. Its grain running the fo’c’s’le of the wreck. Pulling it in every possible direction, makes it out of my hip pocket, I started looking it difficult or almost impossible for it to over. Most of the entries were penciled, be split or planed, so it has to be sawed, but a few in ink; all in Spanish, short and made smooth on a grindstone and and jerky, undated, and so disjointed polished with sand.” that I could not make much out of it at This box had a false bottom, and with first, and the pages were soiled, stained, the point of his knife he pried it up, and torn. revealing fifteen “double eagles” in “What you got there, Spunyarn?” American gold, each lying its own depth asked Mr. Brown, coming up to me, and in a circular hole, separately cut for the I told him. purpose in the sandalwood beneath; “That may give us the key to much of three rows of five holes each; three this mystery. We’ll sit down here on hundred dollars all told. “I’ll see that the booby hatch and see what we can each man gets his proper share of what make out of it, as we both know Span-

we’ve found, when he is paid off,” he ish. You read and I’ll write it in Eng- added, and carried the box down into lish.” the cabin. He then ordered the steward to bring When he returned, he gave orders to paper and pencil from the cabin, and, Mr. Folger about sewing the bodies up, while we were waiting, a faint puff of each in a separate canvas shroud, with wind stirred the air, but not enough to a sack of sand at their feet, and saying give us “steerage way,” but causing us further: “Start ‘Beelzebub’ to work on to drift toward the wreck some. Then the job; he’s the best hand we’ve got it died out. with the palm and needle, and we’ll give The steward came back, gave Mr. them a true sailor’s slide from the gang- Brown the paper and pencil, and tossed way board at eight bells sharp, to-night.” a hunk of bread into the parrot’s cage “We won’t get any wind before that hanging under the forward edge of the time, and I doubt if we do then. That bearers just over our heads. “Go to !” bank of clouds to the north’ard hasn’t hell ! Go to hell said the bird, by way risen any since this morning,” remarked of expressing his gratitude, as we Mr. Folger. started the job of translating, making de- Beelzebub set to work by the main ductions, supplying missing or oblit- hatch, with two assistants, and I thought erated words and letters, as best we as I watched how well his name fitted could. And this is what we got him. Slender he was, with clawlike “Diario del viaje del barco Gallenaso, hands and long nails, deep-sunk eyes, de Tumbes, Peru.” sharp nose and chin, narrow, pointed Diary of the voyage of the bark Vul- ears, their tips reaching up to a level ture, Gallenazo, Spanish, of Tumbes, with the top of his head, so that he wore Peru. a cap by compulsion. Wearing a hat ‘‘Intramuros Muchacha hermosura. with a brim would have necessitated his La reina de Sampoloc vaya paseando.” tucking the apex of his ears under the The walled city in old Manila; beau- inside band. Shiny, jet-black hair ha tiful girl; the queen of Sampoloc goes had, in spite of his fifty-five years. He walking. Sampoloc is the red-light dis- was, as the mate had said, “the most ex- trict in Manila. The Devil’s Nest 29

“Zamboanga, Que bullangueros Con “That’s all I can get clearly, sir,” I la querida de Don Romaldo, Todos son said to Mr. Brown. borracho.” “Well, I wish we could make out Zamboanga, Mindanao. Southern- more, but there’s enough now to con- most of the Philippine Islands. What vince me that she was a Peruvian Black- rowdies, with the sweetheart of Don Birder on her last voyage, though she Romaldo. All are drunk. surely was a whaler previously. “Isla de Pascua Craneos, Crancos de “What they were doing in Manila, or lost ‘Midu’s’ Descnbrir mucho plata Zamboanga, or why they went there, I cscondido en ‘ana Kai Tangata’ circa el can’t say, but it’s plain that they had pueblo de ‘Hanga Roa’.” slaves aboard, probably intended for sale Easter Island, Rapa-nui. Polynesian. to work at the Chinchi Islands getting Skulls, skulls of the “Mini's.” Dis- guano. They may have taken a pre- covered much silver hidden in “Ana Kai vious load to the Philippines and dis- Tangata,” cave of the Polynesian man- posed of them. eaters, near the village of “Hanga Roa,” “Easter Island was practically de- Long Bay, Polynesian. populated by these devilish slavers, and,

“It should have been ‘Hangi Roa,’ as it belongs to Chile, it shows why a which means ‘Long Oven,’ where the Chilean cruiser was after them, and she man-eaters cooked their human meat for probably shot that big hole in her, and food,” Mr. Brown interjected. knocked her missing spars away, and it “Dos cientos esclavos abordo ahora; seems as if sooner or later those black ay mi Dios.” devils finished them unless some got Two hundred slaves aboard now. Ah, away in the boats, if she had any boats my God! left. “Don Pedro el capitan, es muy furioso “How they escaped from the cruiser, hoy, y mata dos con su espada.” or how they got wind of the treasure in Don Pedro, the captain, is very furi- the cave of the man-eaters may never ous to-day, and killed two with his be known. Whether some got away in sword. the boats or what became of them, if “Escapamos anoche del crucero Chil- they did, or whether the black devils got eno, pcro ahora somos estropeado lleno them all, can only be guessed at. But de agua y espatos pcrdido.” that big pile of bones in her fo’c’s’le We escaped last night from the proves that those devils must have made Chilean cruiser, but now we are crip- a masacre of many men.” pled, full of water, and spars lost. “If she had slaves aboard when the “El Asesino de la Noche. Todos sen cruiser crippled her, they probably shot espantado; A que ? Nosotros no sabe- and threw or drove them all overboard, ntos.” to save food and water for themselves, The assassin of the night. All are and because dead men tell no tales,” Mr. frightened.. At what? We know not. Brown replied. “Perdido dos; Elios se fueron anoche, “I think that was about the way of pero como? Ninguno sabe. Dios sal- it, sir,” I remarked, as eight bells struck. vamos!” “By George ! I didn’t think we spent Lost two; they went last night, but so much time. Call the boat’s crew, and how? None knows. God save us! we’ll make a final search of the wreck at “Todos se fueron; Estoy solo; Peri- once,” he ordered. dido, Adios.” Off we went and made it, thoroughly All are gone I am alone lost. Fare- ransacking the steerage, hurricane-house ; ; well. lockers, and cabin quarters, finding noth- —

30 Sea Stories Magazine ing of importance, except a small bag of board beyond the gangway opening in English sovereigns, with a few more the bulwarks, with its inboard end rest- scattered around loose in the same ing on a block of wood on the deck tub. tfrawer in the after cabin, about forty of The ensign was lifted, revealing the them, all told. canvas-shrouded bodies lying on the

By this time it was nearly sunset, and main hatch, and lashed back to back. Mr. Brown said: “We’ll set her afire “They died together, and death shall get that hatchet, knock down the not part them place them on the gang- and ; lockers in the galley, split some boards way board, feet outward. At eight bells, up for kindling, make some shavings, on the last stroke, my raised hand will touch a match to them and we’ll go back drop, as a signal to tilt the board.

to the ship.’’ Spunyard ! Stand at the head. You In a few minutes the fire seemed to were with them when they died. Bob- be doing well enough to insure her de- stay at your right, and Ratlin at your struction. “Come on,” said Mr. Brown, left. Be prepared to lift for the slide, and we got into our boat. And as we and fail me not,” said Mr. Brown did so, Old Smokestack went under, and solemnly.

then came up perpendicularly till his Two more of the crew started to take eyes were above water. He then places at the sides of the “board” to dropped back, turned flukes, and assist in lifting it when ready.

sounded. “Back ! None but their boat mates “That’s his sunset dive, guess he’s may stand so close to the sacred dead!” leaving for good now,” remarked Bob- boomed the mate’s deep voice. stay. “Mind your work, and stand by!” “No, not yet. He’ll be back again,” snapped Mr. Brown, as he looked at his said Mr. Brown. watch. By the time we got back to the Ban- Mr. Brown then began the ritual for

shee, and had supper, it was almost sun- the burial service, but became hopelessly set. tangled. “It’s too much for me. Come

“That fire seems to be going it here, Beelzebub. You can do it, and down ;

acts as if it might die out, and it will we’s got no time to lose,” he said chok- soon be dark,” remarked Mr. Folger to ingly. the mate. Slowly, steadily, without a break, in . “Tell Mr. Long to take my boat, some tones of silver, Beelzebub’s voice sent kerosene, a couple of axes, and go over the ritual throbbing into the night. He there. He’d better start another fire, in had almost reached the last lines, when the bo’sun’s locker this time. There’s “Ch-o-o-oh-oh” sobbed the voice of Old

some old paints and oils in it to help Smokestack, not fifty feet from the make a sure job, and he can stir up the gangway, as his great head rose dripping one we made in the galley, if he has out of the water, like a granite tomb-

time,” ordered Mr. Brown. stone of titanic size, till his right eye This was done, and they returned as was above the sea, looking straight at darkness fell, with the wreck now burn- us. He then slid down, and lay at full ing brightly, about six hundred feet length on his back, rolled to his left, away, lighting things up all around us with wide-open jaw. It was a breath- as tongues of flame shot skyward. snatching moment. At seven bells all hands were ordered At a look from the mate Beelzebub to attend funeral in the waist. The resumed: “And we now commit their gangway board was removed and placed bodies to the deep.” As he finished the athwartships, one end projecting out- ship’s bell spoke. The Devil’s Nest 31

As the eighth stroke pealed out into As though the passing of the wreck the tense silence which hung over the had released us from the influence of ship, the mate’s raised hand dropped some evil spell, a fair wind came up and slowly to his side. We silently lifted the our hearts leaped with joy as we heard board and let the remains of our ship- the mate, now the captain, sing out: mates slide down into the deep with a “Square the main yards; brail in the quiet splash. spanker!” We jumped to do his bidding Old Smokestack, who had lain mo- as, it is safe to say, no crew on the old tionless throughout the ceremony, slowly Banshee had ever jumped to an order sounded, and went down, a majestic es- before. cort for our dead shipmates. And a solemn hush of heartfelt When the last ripple marking the pas- thanksgiving spread over the ship as our sage of our shipmates and their regal new captain walked aft and gave the escort disappeared from the surface of course to the man at the wheel. A great the sea, the masts of the derelict fell weight seemed to have been lifted from with a crash, sending up a shower of the ship, also, for she sped on into

sparks, which hissed and died. Soon the fine clear night, with a joyous lilt the face of sea was clear of the awful in her stride as though she, too, shared “Devil’s Nest,” which had been for so our relief at leaving that accursed spot long a blot upon it. forever.

VOYAGES TWO MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND MILES OAPTAIN ANTHONY CADOGAN, commodore of the Lamport & Holt Line, on the completion of a voyage from Buenos Aires, recently, retired from active sea service, which he had followed for forty-six years. Captain Cadogan was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, sixty-three years ago, and went to sea when seventeen years old aboard the full-rigged ship Lord Canning. At this time his father was mayor of Waterford. Forty-four years ago he joined the Lamport & Holt service as fourth officer and has covered over two million miles in its ships. He crossed the equator 320 times, and in his long career at sea has covered approximately two million five hundred thousand miles. He was a friend and ardent admirer of the late . Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, taking him in the steamship Vandyck on the first leg of the famous trip in search of the River of Doubt. He was captured by the German raider Karlsruhe in 1916, while in command of the Vandyck, which was sunk later. It is reported that the young lieutenant in command of the boarding party remarked to Captain Cadogan: “I’m sorry for all this, but you must know that it is war. We have tried to treat you and your passengers and crew in a humane way.” The lieutenant requested Captain Cadogan to shake hands, which he did, saying, “I may tell you that you have done a mean, dirty job in a clean, gentlemanly manner. "Hie Sftiousancltli A\an

Clinton H Stagg

When “Greek meets Greek” is a mild diversion compared with the conflict which ensues between two ‘ down-east” Yankee brothers who meet, after many years, to decide the question of supremacy between them. Granite-hard, cold-blooded and without compunction, the test takes the form of the younger brother attempting to accomplish what eight men had failed to do, and the outcome determines which of the two shall be the one in a thousand to live This is one of the most gripping yarns placed before our readers in many moons.

\TINE hundred and ninety-nine men out on the millstones. And Simeon 1 die. The thousandth lives. In Thatcher did grind it out. Between the the Orient, a man lives only because he devil and the deep blue sea he made a is the thousandth of the thousand. fortune that men only guessed. The If your thoughts have given all the devil was ever at his elbow, directing. white men in China silk shirts and His ships were on the four seas, col- linen, and filled the poppy-laden air lecting. with the sound of tinkly temple bells, The Orient had never changed it is because you have Kipling mixed Simeon. Nothing could. He was cold with your geography. Or it may be and hard as the coast cliffs of his na- that your thoughts have never got above tive Maine. He was tough and wiry the parallel where Singapore sticks its as the steel cables that dropped his nose down toward Australia. ships’ anchors in a hundred ports. At But up in Shanghai, the winter wind sixty his back was as straight as his kicks up the old Kiao-chau till even the conscience was crooked; and his back tubby tovghangs dance on their beams, was bent neither for man nor god. and the junks, with their inch-thick- In his godown office, near the quays rattan sails, keep the llaing joss burn- where his ships had crowded out the ing from one end of the China Sea to Dutch traders, he sat in his straight- the other. backed chair and fingered the reins of Perhaps that is why Simeon Thatcher his hundred pack animals that plowed picked Shanghai, when the devil sent the ocean. In the center of that bare him to the Far East and whispered into house, and his house was as bare as his ear that money was to be ground his heart—a blue-flame German oil The Thousandth Man 33

stove filled the air with the stench of “Eight ships in three years the Jap- Yang-lang petroleum. The windows anese patrols have taken. Eight ships were tight locked. Over his head, the that were filled to the hatches with furs big palm fan waved back and forth, of the seal. Eight ships and five cap- pulled by the string aroung the big toe tains, who fought for the extra money of the Manchu coolie who squatted out- he promised. Always when the holds side the door. were filled. Always the Japanese pa- The door opened softly, and the squat trols. And he says nothing.” Shrug- German clerk, whose eyes stared out ging his shoulders, he went back to his fishily behind the thick lens of his desk. “Perhaps in his silence he prays spectacles, entered. He choked a bit to the devil to send him more of the over the stifling atmosphere. Outside, devils of the sea who are willing to he had a window open. But Simeon take the chances for the money he of- Thatcher did not believe in fresh air. fers—but never gives. The seal furs do It might get into his soul. When the not enter the Kiao-chau. It must be clerk reached the side of the desk, true that the Japanese, too, have devils Simeon raised his eyes, blank eyes that to guide them. Always when the holds !” held neither light nor shade. In all the are filled years the German had entered that office Inside, Simeon Thatcher had taken softly, he had never seen emotion of a thumbed book from a drawer. He any kind in those eyes. They never opened it to a page. A stub of pencil changed. plowed heavily through a name. It was “The Japs have taken the Agatha,” the fifth of a list—the last. He turned he said in his heavy German. “Vincent to another page, then another. At the tried to escape. He iss dead. Ten last page in the book he stopped. That

thousand pounds’ worth of seals.” page was dirtier than the rest, but it The blank eyes lowered to the rice- had no entries, as had the other pages. paper sheet, with its jumbled Chinese Only the name showed at the top. It marks. The German clerk knew that was Jonathan Thatcher. signal of dismissal. But for three years For an instant, only a single instant, he had been silent when he had made the blank eyes seemed to glow and these reports. He spoke again, very flame. Then the fires back of them slowly, and with shakes of his head that were quenched. The granite-gray hard- seemed to make the big eyes blink. ness came again. Minutes passed. The “That is the eighth in thirty-five waving fan overhead swayed the thin months, Herr Thatcher.” rice paper in his hands as he studied it. The eyes raised. “Let nobody through The book lay under his elbow. The the door. I am busy.” Simeon’s voice door opened softly. was as devoid of expression as the Simeon Thatcher looked up as the lit- eyes. tle German stood beside the desk. The The fat German clerk shivered, clerk was staring at him staring as ; though the room was oven hot. The though he would assure himself that door closed behind him, and at the this man whom he had seen in this chair open window he sucked in great gulps for years was a being of flesh and of the cold air from outside, as though blood. His mouth opened. A stam- purging himself of the unclean air he mered syllable came through the stut- had breathed in that inner office. And tering lips. The voice of the seated outside, with no blank eyes to see, he man sounded: shook his head slowly. He spoke “Send him in.” That was all; just softly, almost wonderingly, to himself. three words. —

34 Sea Stories Magazine

"You—you ” Even a greater above the Aleutians. I will bring back thing than those staring eyes which the skins.” Simeon Thatcher might bade him go now compelled him to have uttered those two sentences. His speak. “It is you—you who wait out twin brother’s voice was as flat and dead there to see Simeon Thatcher. You as his own. !” out there “Eight of the best captains on the ‘‘Send him in.” seas have failed,” Simeon Thatcher said

. There was no more change in the in his monotoned voice. “The Japs voice than there was in the words, but seem to know just when to strike. It is the German’s face paled, and his hand- piracy they practice, of course, waiting shook. Never in his years of service for the full ships instead of patrolling had the man at the desk given him a their grounds. But they have the law. second command. Other men had been I will get the skins from under their given second commands in that never- very noses if I have to lose every ship! changing voice—and they had ceased I will not be beaten.” to be other men. For a second the flame leaped to his The clerk stumbled out of the room, eyes again only that seemed to make of ; and between his shoulder blades he the last words a challenge. The voice seemed to feel the eyes of Simeon had never changed. Thatcher. He almost fell over the half- “I will bring back the skins.” Jona- asleep coolie, whose toe waved the fan. than Thatcher repeated his statement Then he beckoned to the man who without any sign of the eye gleam. "I waited. Not until the man had passed do not send men out with orders. I through the door, and it had closed do the thing that is to be done.” once more, did the clerk force his trem- The lips of the man who had not bling lips to words. shown emotion of any kind in twenty "Two!” he choked, and the sound of years curled back from his teeth in a his own voice seemed to frighten him. sneer. “I am the one who has done "The devil has given the world two!” things. I have my ships! You—you Simeon Thatcher rose as the man have your master’s certificate, just as entered the room. Once more his eyes every rum-swilling hound in the South gleamed and glowed; just as the fires Seas has.” He stepped nearer his burned in the eyes of the man whose brother. “Why did you leave the South stare matched his. Simeon Thatcher Seas?” he demanded harshly. might have been gazing at himself in "To bring back the skins.” The a mirror. The same eyes of granite- brother’s eyes were still blank. “Twenty gray, seething like molten stone now, years ago, I opened the Manchurian met his. There was the same thin nose, trade to you when you had failed. I with its turn of cruelty the gash of was the one man of the thousand.” ; mouth; the squareness of chin. For “Bah !” It was a snarl. “The thou- twenty years, Simeon Thatcher had not sandth man ! A captain, like a thou- seen his brother; yet he had known how sand other captains ! It is Simeon he would look. Jonathan Thatcher al- Thatcher who is the one man in a the ways looked the same—the twin of the thousand ; one man who has fought man whose hundred ships sailed the his way to the front; who lives and !” four seas. rules The flames died, and their light left Once more stare met stare. “The the eyes of the two men cold and gray. nine hundred and ninety-ninth man may The newcomer spoke. live a long time, but in the end he “I will take your next poaching ship dies.” Jonathan Thatcher still gazed The Thousandth Man 35 steadily. “Have you a poaching ship Captain Thatcher’s eyelids lowered ready ?” he asked. slightly. No other sign of emotion Simeon walked back to the desk. showed. His sampan was waiting. As Under cover of its top, his hands the coolies rowed him out to the ship, knotted and unknotted as he fought his eyes never left the slow-moving back the rage and hatred he had shown King Fisher as it steamed out slowly, for the first time in twenty years. No rolling heavily as it caught the first man on earth but this one before him sharp winds of the China Sea. He had ever changed a line in his mask of swung up the side of the ship and a face. In a second, he had won his vic- jumped lightly to the deck, to face the tory. stocky Scotch engineer, Monkitrick. “The Brixton will be ready within the The engineer fell back a step, star- week,” he said. ing. “Ar-r ye goin’ with us, master?” “A fast ship,” nodded his brother. he stammered “You will never return.” Simeon Captain Thatcher’s level eyes stared Thatcher picked up the book at his at him. “I am Captain Jonathan elbow. Thatcher,” he said quietly “We sail “I will bring back the skins. I am at midnight.” the thousandth man.” The engineer shook his broad Shoul- Jonathan Thatcher turned on his ders, as though the physical action heel. The door opened and closed would make his mind comprehend more softly. easily the miracle his eyes saw. “Cap- The man inside had opened the book tain Thatcher, of the South Sjea trade?” to the dirty last page. Beneath the he finally stammered. “Th’ br-other?” name of his brother he wrote: “Brix- - A nod answered him. * ton, sailed- ” His eyes were blank, “Then we ar-r goin’ to the south but his dead soul was being fired with routes?” The Scotch engineer’s voice the pit fires of his master. was eager. “Above the Aleutians,” corrected Captain Thatcher stood on the quay Captain Thatcher evenly. at the end of The Street Where Fish The black tan of the engineer’s face Rot and watched the three-funneled lightened. “God, man!” he almost King Fisher limp out toward the China shouted, so great was his amazement Sea for its annual trading trip among and disbelief. “Poaching in the Brix- the Dutch East Indies. He knew the ton? A bright, white ship, and with King Fisher, just as all the South Seas Japs in the stokehold! Death it is, sirl !” knew its long deck house, its dirty white Death !” sides, with the great splotches of rust “We sail at midnight showing through the paint that had been Captain Thatcher turned on his heel put on years before. Some day that and went forward. The engineer leaned ship would go to the bottom, but Sim- heavily against the rail, and his tongue eon Thatcher would collect the insur- licked his thick lips. Then words ance. formed in his throat, and, curiously In her berth, the Brixton lay, taking enough, they were the words the little the last tons of coal. Her sides showed squat German had voiced in the outer unbroken surfaces of fresh white paint. room of Simeon Thatcher’s godown Her two funnels were dark gray, and office.

the short deck house was spotless white. “Two ! The de’il gave the world two !” Even now the painters were coiling of them their ropes and preparing to leave. In his cabin, back of the bridge, Cap- 36 Sea Stories Magazine

tain Thatcher’s gash of mouth tight- “It’s a ’ell of a note !” he said, and ened so that it became invisible. He there was a note of helpless, plaintive stood at the port and stared out over complaining in his voice. “A ’ell of a !” the waters of Kiao-chau. A freshly note painted white ship. Japs in the stoke- “We’ll bring back the skins.” Cap-

hole. And the Aleutians ! It was sui- tain Thatcher’s black eyes made his sec- cide to take such a ship on such a trip ond officer shiver, then he turned and witli the waiting Japanese patrols ready went to the fourth cabin of the nest to pounce when the holds were filled. behind the bridge. Captain Thatcher could see the eyes of The stench of stale opium filled the Simeon Thatcher gleaming and glowing small, white room. The man he had with the twenty years of sto red-up hate. picked up in Shanghai lay like a log on A bigger thing had come than beating the bunk where he had been tossed. For the Japanese. The Brixton, fastest ship seconds Captain Thatcher stared down of all the hundred, would be sacrificed at him. Then he picked up a grimy —but Simeon Thatcher would know hand that dangled limply over the bunk that he alone of all the East was the edge and examined it closely. He

thousandth man. Jonathan Thatcher dropped it, and straightened up. would not turn back. Brother knew “We’ll bring back the skins !” he mut- brother. tered slowly. Captain Thatcher glanced at his For days the Brixton plowed steadily heavy German-silver watch. He walked ahead. On the second day, the opium- to the deck and ordered the cockney sec- dead man had come alive. There had ond officer to lower a boat. For three been a long talk in his cabin. The lit- hours he plied the stink holes of Shang- tle cockney had heard cursing in every hai. In the sampan that took him back dialect in the Far East. He had heard to the Brixton was a great roll of can- the ever-even voice of Captain Thatcher. vas, a dozen big cans. Asprawl on Then the opium smoker had gone the sampan bottom, under the feet of down to the forward hold. After him the rowing coolies, a dirty little white had been lowered the canvas, and the man, with tangled, matted hair, slept big cans. A dozen lanterns filled with off the effects of the opium that reeked petroleum had followed. And for the in the rags that covered his body. And days of the journey following, the third behind came another sampan, with officer sat on the open hatch with a re- bundles of long bamboo poles lashed volver, and kept the slant-eyed crew together. from that hatch. At midnight, the Brixton sailed. Cap- Down in the engine room, the Japa- tain Thatcher was on the bridge. Be- nese gaffir sat on his little stool on the side him, the little cockney gripped at boiler bridge and kept his men steadily the bridge rail and whispered prayers at work. Once the captain had come to the God he had deserted for many down into the hot depths of the ship years. Back in his cabin, the third offi- and watched the brown, naked men at cer, a North Sea pick-up, cursed his work. curses to the devil he had followed all “Satisfact’P” asked the Japanese his life. The Brixton was an instru- gaffir mildly, with a wave of his lean ment of revenge; the trap of brother brown hand toward the men below him. for brother. Captain Thatcher had not answered. The little cockney shifted his eyes, The granite-gray eyes hardened a bit to stare at the man who looked stead- more, then he climbed the iron ladders ily ahead through the darkness. to the open air and the deck. ;

The Thousandth Man 37

Monkitrick followed him. “The imp the long bamboo poles and lashing them will see that the steam falls when the together. The Japs scowled at him, just patrols gi’e us th’ run!” he warned. as they scowled at everything they “An’ there’s no work to be got from the did not understand. But he never dogs if he is not in his chair. Kill spoke. them all; an’ they’ll fair smile at ye. When Captain Thatcher was on the

But ’tis only the gaffir in his seat puts bridge, the three white men in the cabin the fear of their heathen gods in their talked in whispers, and with many breasts. They ha’ a thought of him as shakes of the head. a god, too, ye know, up here in the “A de’il that’s silent as the de’il up North, just as the Malays ha’ of their front !” muttered Monkitrick. “Doin’ zangzai.” his child’s play when there’s work for “We’ll bring back the skins!” a mon.” That was all Captain Thatcher said; The third officer shook his head. that was all he ever said. His eyes and “Painting!” he growled. “Painting! face were as cold as the arctic winds That’s what he was a-doing! Painting !” that were beginning to freeze the spray pictures the bridge rails his chin was as hard “It’s ’ell !” sighed the little cockney on ; as the steel plates under his feet. then his voice rose in bitterness : “Wot On the deck, the sealers—Japs, all good’s the hunder’ pun extra the old of them—were getting ready. The snake offers. Nobody ever gets back! boats were being prepared. The red- An’ wi’ a ship painted corpse white, an’ and-black seal buoys were lined along a crew of yellow monkeys.” “ the deck with their anchor sheets. Monkitrick shook his head. ’Tis There was no sign of the Jap patrols. hate behind it all. The South Sea fair They were waiting, and were careful bristles wi’ stories o’ Captain Thatcher, not to frighten a poacher. On the for- an’ there’s hate in th’ hear-rt o’ the ward hatch, the third officer stared mon in Shanghai. He wants only one glumly out at sea. Beneath him, the Thatcher in the East!” fifth white man on board did his mys- “It’s ’ell !” groaned the second officer. terious task away from the sight of “An’ a little south China girl a-waitin’ !” eyes. fer me, back there

This is not a story of seal catching. Forward, on the bridge, Captain Eight men before Captain Thatcher had Thatcher paced back and forth, back caught their seals. For two months and forth, his lips tight shut, and his the Brixton roved above the Aleutians. eyes sweeping the sea. Sometimes she was near Kamchatka The forward hold took its share of and the rocks of Cape Lopatka, dodg- the green skins. The sealers’ boats ing the Russians a dozen times. Almost were lashed on the deck. The nose of to Dutch Harbor her course took her, the Brixton turned south with the first where the United States patrols were spring winds. vigilant. “Full speed!” ordered the captain, The aft hold was filled with the green and the big engines sent the ship to- skins. A great roll of canvas had been ward Shanghai and the blank-eyed man lifted from the forward hold, and was in his godown office by the quays. On lashed to the deck under many cover- the wide stern deck were piled many ings of tarpaulin. square frames of bamboo that had been On the wide, open stern, the opium lashed together. smoker, clear-eyed and with hands that When the last pole was cut to its were steady, spent the days in cutting length and had gone to make the design :

38 Sea Stories Magazine the rag-clad man’s fingers fashioned he of the skins, an’ ’e’s arfter us. ’E’ll went up to the bridge. catch us, too, with them dorgs down be- “Can I have a smoke of hop now?” low solgerin’ the fires.” he whined. “It’s all done, all ready to Captain Thatcher did not answer. He be put up.” stared down at the forward deck, with Captain Thatcher looked him over its rows of red-and-black seal buoys from head to foot. “You’ve got it out that lay alongside of the rail. Appar- of your system now,” he said quietly. ently he did not know that the second “Straighten up, and go back home, officer was on earth. He raised his where your brush can make a man of voice and called : you.” “Yosi!” The eyes of the man blazed. “Home!” The slant-eyed first sealer sidled he snarled. “I’ve got no home! I from under the bridge and stared up never had any since you needed me in insolently. Astern of them, a ship the South Seas, for just such another filled with his countrymen was crawling trick like this. I was rotting comfort- up steadily. To-:morrow, or next day, ably in a Shanghai opium joint till you his brothers would come over the rails, dragged me out and gave me a few and he would get his share of the green more cursed years to live ! You always skins under the hatches. He had got- drag me out. You always find me when ten his share in five of the eight ships I’ve forgotten that I ever could wield the Japanese patrols had taken from a brush, when I’ve forgotten everything Simeon Thatcher. but the opium dreams ! Why can’t you For a second, Captain Thatcher let me alone?” stared down at the slant-eyed sealer. “I needed you,” Captain Thatcher Then he spoke quietly, almost sleepily. said evenly. “I get what I need.” He “There were twenty-one buoys along turned away from the man and toward the deck when we left the last grounds,” the sleepy-eyed Chinaman, who was he said. keeping the ship on its course. He spoke The Japanese looked down at the over his shoulder long row of read-and-black floaters. “In my cabin, you'll find enough to Then he turned anl shrugged his shoul- keep you going two days. I’ll not want ders. “Eight-ee’, now,” he murmured you after that!” softly, with mocking respect. For two days the ship plowed stead- “Yes,” nodded Captain Thatcher. “I ily. For two days the man who spoke see there’s only eighteen.” He swung to nobody but the captain lay on his around slowly and walked to the bridge bunk while the sickening smell of burn- ladder that led to the deck. ing opium was constantly in the nos- The cockney sucked the air in be- trils of the other white men in the near tween his broken teeth with a loud hiss. cabins. His breath had seemed to stop at the Over the Brixton had suddenly come captain’s first quiet word. The even a tension. It was in the attitude of the question had seemed suddenly to make crew, and the slant-eyed sealers who the air heavy and unbreathable. Its loafed around the deck. It got down to sinister significance was at once appar- the engine room, and Monkitrick cursed ent to the second officer. He knew the steam gauges. where the three missing buoys had On the third day, a speck on the hori- gone, just as he knew the captain knew. zon, came a smudge of smoke. They had been tossed overboard in the “ ’E’s cornin’ !” complained the little wake of the speeding ship: a signal to cockney. “The hatches are a-coverin’ the waiting patrol that the hatches cov- The Thousandth Man 39

ered full holds, and that the course of forward ; then a hysterical laugh the ship was south. sounded in his throat. Captain Thatcher The cockney had expected an explo- needed no pistol to protect him from sion of some kind. Yet Captain the men. “ Thatcher had seemingly dismissed the ’E’s a devil !” stuttered the little whole thing. He had left the bridge, cockney, and with the back of his hand to go to his cabin. he wiped from his eyes the warm per- Again came the hiss of the sucking spiration that had streamed down from breath. Captain Thatcher was on the his forehead. He shook himself as a deck below. The Japs slouched for- dog shakes itself on leaving the water. ward from the shelter of the fo’castle. “But ’e’ll bring back the skins! Gawrd, The chief sealer stared at Thatcher with yes 1” slant-eyed insolence. As the hours passed, the black “Bind Yosi’s arms with that buoy smudge of smoke on the horizon grew anchor rope,” ordered the captain. to the low outlines of a Jap cruiser. The crew hung back, looking at the Every minute it showed more plainly chief sealer. He shrugged his shoul- over the curve of the sea. On the ders, and his lips twisted in a sneer- bridge, Captain Thatcher paced slowly, ing grin. Captain Thatcher’s hand went eyes sweeping the waters. In the cabin, to his pocket. A revolver flashed in the the second and third officers shivered in sunlight. Very slowly his fingers twisted the hot closeness, and drank many the nickled cylinder, and the snapping drams of rum and water. clicks sounded loud in the stillness that “Yosi was a mighty big man!” de- had come over the Brixton. With the clared the third, with heavy shakes of

same calm deliberation the pistol muz- his head. “When they catch us, it zle raised. The report sounded crash- won’t be a pleasant death!” !” ingly. The Japanese chief sealer “Never a word ’e said muttered the crumbled to the deck with uncanny lack little cockney. “Just shot ’im like a of sound. dawrg !” “Gawrd!” gritted the cockney on the “To kill a Jap chief among a crew bridge. of Japs!” murmured the third wonder- “Bind Yosi’s arms to that buoy an- ingly. “I’ve seen men torn to pieces chor rope,” ordered the captain. The for less!” crew huddled back against the fo’castle. Early in the afternoon, Captain For the first time in the twenty years Thatcher summoned the Scotch engi- that the cockney had plied the China neer to the bridge. Seas did he see fear in the expression- “Speed?” he asked curtly. less face of a Jap. But only for a sec- Monkitrick shook his head, and un- ond did the tableau hold. That order der the black tan a lighter shade was came again, cold, icy. The huddled showing. “Th’ steam never gets above !” rats broke, with the fear of the blank- a hunder fifty. We need two-ten eyed captain gibbering on their lips. “I’ll fix that.” The captain turned The arms of the dead chief sealer were to the bridge phone to summon the sec- bound to the anchor rope of a buoy. ond officer. Monkitrick’s hand fell “Overboard!” said the captain heavily on his shoulder. shortly. “We’ll make the course mark- “God, mon !” The engineer’s voice ing plain for the patrol.” shook with the fear that was in him. He turned his back square on them. “Ye’ll no be killin’ the gaffir? Not an

The second officer’s gun slipped from ounce of work we’ll get if ye do ! ’Twill his pocket as the huddled crowd swayed be like shootin’ the entire boiler crews !

40 Sea Stories Magazine

—an’ the de’il back o’ us is creepin’ sudden, hysterical fury. “Why didn’t up fast.” you stay down in th’ South, where you

Thatcher turned on him slowly. His belong ? ’E on’y wanted the skins thin lips curled back, to bare his teeth. But you killed Yosi, an’ now ’e’ll rip us !” “No wonder the skins were never to pieces !” brought back!” he said contemptuously, “We’ll land the skins in Shanghai and that was the only sign of emotion said Thatcher icily. a man on the Brixton ever knew him The first long rays of the setting sun to show. “The blood of you North Sea were aslant the Japanese Sea when men is ice water.” He looked the en- Monkitrick came up to announce he had gineer over from head to foot. “Have fixed the valve. Thatcher followed him you a spare Gerhardt spring pop to the engine room. He tested the Ger- valve?” he asked, and the quiet even- hardt that had the spring reversed so ness was back in his voice. that any pressure less than two hundred The engineer nodded his surprise at and twenty pounds would release the the question. plunger and send forth a jet of steam

“Reverse the spring, so that it will that would rip an hole through an inch open to let out its stream, of steam if board. the pressure falls below two-twenty!” “Bring your Stillson to the stoke- ordered Thatcher. room,” he ordered, and with his own “But I dinna ” The Scotchman hands he tied back the spring with a scratched his head. chain. “Are you competent to do that?” Monkitrick followed silently. The blank eyes held just a hint of On the gafiir’s bridge over the boilers gleam. the Jap eyed them mockingly. Below Monkitrick did not answer. He him, the coalers moved slouchingly, touched the peak of his cap and went sleepily to their passing. The engineer below. The second officer came on the cursed as he saw the gauges. bridge, and Captain Thatcher went back “Hunder twenty !” he snarled. to the small white cabin, where the “Satisfac’?” sneered the Japanese smell of opium was heavy, and the gaffir, but under his loose shirt his fin- man he had picked up in Shanghai slept gers were fumbling at a knife handle. his drugged sleep. The captain’s fingers He hissed a word in his own language. raised the .eyelids, and he bent down The men below dropped their shovels and examined the eyes closely. and stood looking up, their slant eyes “Another day,” he nodded in satis- gleaming threat. faction. He went to his own cabin and Thatcher paid no attention. He was took a pair of steel handcuffs from a examining the great pipe that went drawer, which he pocketed. across the boiler fronts, on a level with From the bridge end, the second was the bridge. watching the Jap patrol astern. He “Cut off the steam here !” he com-

turned as the captain came back. manded. . “ ’E’ll catch us in the morning,” he Monkitrick almost dropped the said gloomily. “We’re only makin’ wrench. “’Twill kill a boiler!” he three-quarters speed, an’ losin’ every gasped. !” minute !” His voice became a complain- “Cut off the steam ing whine. “Why can’t we kill the The engineer went to the end of the gaffir wot’s sittin’ down there with a bridge and turned the great wheel of divil’s grin on his face lettin’ the steam the gate valve. The men below had drop?” He whirled on the captain in grouped together at the foot of the The Thousandth Man 41 narrow iron stairs. The gaffir eyed to the iron upright of the bridge rail in Thatcher with death in his stare. His front of the valve with its chained fingers fumbled at the knife. But steam. Thatcher’s broad back was to him, con- His quiet voice sounded in the silence. temptuous, ignoring the death that “Tell the stokers to make two-twenty waited to spring. pounds !” he said slowly to the gaffir. “Take off this waste cock !’’ ordered The Japanese snarled something, and the captain. “It’s the same size as the writhed. Thatcher went on in his blank pop, isn’t it?” voice: “In fifteen minutes I am going to “Yes, sir.” Monkitrick, past ques- take the holding chain off the valve. tions now, did as he was told. That steam will eat its way through you !” “Screw in the Gerhardt in a second, unless there’s two hundred

It was done. The releasing valve and twenty pounds’ pressure to hold it stuck its nose out over the bridge. closed.” Thatcher tightened the chain that held “God, mon !” Monkitrick staggered the spring back. Then he whirled on back against the rail, and his face was the balls of his feet like a cat and green with the sudden nausea. The pinned the gaffir to the iron rail, rip- gaffir writhed and twisted so that the ping the knife from his shirt and send- bridge shook. Then a screamed com-

ing it clattering to the steel floor. A mand sent the shovels clattering. For sudden movement came below. A shak- fifteen minutes the stokehole was filled ing of the iron stairs. With a swing of with the noise of work. The Japs his arms, Thatcher lifted the gaffir over shoveled as they had never shoveled be- the edge, and held him above the heads fore. The steam rose in the gauges.

of the Jap stokers. Hundred and seventy ! Eighty ! The “Another step, and I’ll throw him Brixton under them pounded and down !” he said. “I’ll break him to bits throbbed with the leaping speed. Two

so his body and soul will never get to- hundred ! The gaffir was screeching, gether in the hereafter!” and drool was showing on his white The Japanese screamed a command. lips. The engineer, against the rail, The men below moved away from the was calling on his deity, over and over. foot of the iron stairs. Two-twenty! Two-twenty-five!” “Turn on the steam!” Captain Thatcher stepped quietly over to the Thatcher lifted the Jap over the rail and gauge and took off the chain. An in- Bet him down. Monkitrick’s hand shook stant’s hiss, and click of the spring as he turned the big wheel. If there sounded like the roar of a big gun. was a single weak link in that chain on Then he faced the gaffir once more. the valve a jet of boiling death would “The instant the gauge falls below leap out at the captain’s chest. The two-twenty, that steam will rip you to !” steam hissed back in the pipes. There pieces, and boil you while it does He

came a warning clink of the chain that spoke to Monkitrick : “Stay here and seemed to press all the life out of the shoot the first man that tries to come up engineer’s lungs. But the valve held. that ladder. Though every one you Once again Thatcher swung the Jap shoot will make the others work harder around as though he was a bag of meal. to keep this dog alive. I’ll send the He held him tight with one arm that third down in a minute.” crushed the gaffir’s ribs. His hand The engineer’s tongue moistened his darted to his pocket. Came a flash of dry lips. “Yes, sir!” he muttered handcuffs. Two clicks, and the gaffir’s through his clenched teeth, and he kept arms were tight behind him, hands held his eyes away from the Jap and the 42 Sea Stories Magazine valve, while the shudders shook his anese crew, whimpering dogs now be- body. cause of the fear for the gaffir below The captain went back to the bridge that would be ripped to pieces with red- and ignored the wondering glances of hot steam if they failed to obey the the little cockney second. Behind them, devil on the bridge, obeyed the com- the cruiser was receding fast. There mands of the cursing man. The bamboo came a futile puff of smoke from a gun frames were lashed into position along as the Japs behind realized that some- the deck at the rear of' the short deck thing had gone wrong. house. A great frame was reared at the “South-southeast!” ordered the cap- deck-house end, abaft the stack. tain of the Chinese helmsman, and the Steadily the Brixton kept her course Brixton shifted toward Guam, and away from Japan and the watching pa- away from China. trols that were scouting the sea. At Through the long hours of the night, midnight, she turned in toward the Chi- the Brixton pounded its way south. nese Sea. At dawn, the great rolls of In the stokehole, a pasty-faced brown canvas were unslung, and the second man clawed at the steel floor of the officer rubbed his eyes and gasped as bridge with his feet, and stared into the the opium smoker and his Japs swung inch hole of the Gerhardt valve, scream- them over the frames. They were ing his orders in a voice that was painted to represent a long addition to cracked and broken. Beside him, the the deck house, and a third smoke- third officer shivered, despite the heat stack ! He watched the thing grow as of the boilers, and edged away every the lashings wr ere made fast. minute to the other end of the bridge, “Gawrd !” he muttered a hundred only to go back sheepishly. And the times. “It’s the King Fisher, the bald- valve held pent its living steam. est ol’ tub on the line ! The King Morning came on the open sea. Fisher, that everybody knows in the There was no sign of the pursuing North and South Seas !” He looked at Japanese. Simeon Thatcher had made the broad back of Captain Thatcher, his one mistake of giving his brother who stood at the other end of the “ !” the fastest of all the hundred ships. bridge. ’E’ll bring back the skins

Only the cockney shook his head. His voice made it something between “The wireless !” he complained bitterly. a curse and a prayer. “ ’E’ll wake every Jap boat on the For half a day, the Brixton plunged islands, an’ we’ll have to round them to on through the warm seas. Then a get into Kaio-chau ! ’E won’t gi’ us a splotch of smoke showed ahead. chancel” Thatcher went into the stokeroom once The northern point of Japan was more. He wasted no glance on the pit- two hundred miles abreast of them iable figure that was handcuffed to the when Thatcher routed a heavy-eyed iron rail. He chained the Gerhardt man who was in his cabin. valve tight, and the red-hot steel burned “Get busy !” he ordered curtly. great welts in his hands and arms, to “There’ll be a thousand boats on the which he paid not the slightest atten- lookout for the Brixton. And no ship tion. ever got around those islands and into “Bring the steam down to a hun- Kiao-chau when the wireless has been dred !” he said quietly. The gaffir working.” screamed an order. The shovels were The opium smoker cursed the blank- laid aside. And when the boat ahead eyed man, but he slouched astern to his came close enough to use glasses, the piles of lashed bamboo poles. The Jap- King Fisher, notorious tub of the The Thousandth Man 43

Thatcher ships, was wallowing and thrown overboard. The Brixton limping into port. The lookout did steamed in, triumphant, with the green not bother to come close. It sheered skins under the hatches. of?, to dash northward. In the godown office, the little Ger- In its lame way, the Brixton picked man clerk rubbed his hands as he left a course around the southern island. A the inner office, after reporting the hundred ships were sighted. A hun- sighting of the poacher. The fan dred ships took one look, and scouted waved slowly, with its string around the northward and westward, for the un- big toe of the Manchu coolie. mistakable Brixton, the first of nine Simeon Thatcher turned to the last ships that had eluded the vigilant patrol dirty page in his little book. He filled up north. out the return date with a stub of pen- Back in his cabin, the opium smoker cil, and laid the book methodically back was again dead to the world, and in its drawer. dreaming of the death that was coming From a little box he took two white in the stink holes of Shanghai On the pellets. For a fractional instant his bridge, little his the cockney sang snatches eyes gleamed and glowed ; then of a coster song, and planned things tongue lifted the two pellets from his for his south China girl. Captain steady palm. His head went 'forward

Thatcher’s blank eyes looked ahead, al- very slowly, until it rested on the rice- ways ahead, toward the quay near The paper sheet, with its squat Chinese Street Where Fish Rot, and the little characters. godown office. His mode of death was perhaps easier Where the yellow waters of Kiao- than the one he knew was speeding to- chau begin to mingle with the blue- ward him on the Brixton. The ques- green of the China Sea, the captain tion of the thousandth man was set- ordered the canvas and lashed poles tled.

THE PASSING OF THE GLORY OF THE SEAS VY/HEN the famous old Glory of the Seas was burned on the beach in Seattle on Sunday, May 13th, it marked the close of one of the most romantic chapters of the history of the American merchant marine. As her builder was the famous Donald McKay of Boston, it also ended the last of the long line of well-known ships turned out by this man. as The burning of the Glory of the Seas marked the close of a great era ; a consequence of this the event entailed considerable comment both in the daily press and shipping circles. Several well-known men in the shipping world en- deavored to form a syndicate to purchase her, restore her to all of her original glory, and moor her in Boston Harbor as a permanent exhibition of the great- ness of the American merchant marine during the clipper-ship era. As the famous British clipper ship Cutty Sark had been restored for a similar purpose it was thought that if the project to restore the Glory of the Seas had been successful a race might have been arranged between these two ships. It is doubtful if a race such as this would have had any practical value, however, all efforts to preserve the Glory of the Seas failed, and she was burned as she lay on the beach. ;

Driftwood

By Cristel Hastings r , HEY sent your ship to distant lands J' For silks and spice and gold; You were to bring a cargo of The riches that men hold Above all else^ and yet I felt No joyful pride to see You in command, though hope ran high, They took you far from me.

And then one night the shore was strewn With bits of wood and sails And some one said, as in a dream, You had encountered gales And jettisoned the cargo that The tides had washed ashore. I knew no matter what the loss —

All sailors are aware of the conscious air of superiority with which the man who has spent all of his time in the deep-water trade looks down upon the man whose life has been spent in steamers, or upon the coast. Much can and has been said about this, pro and con; much of it we are forced to admit is con. Captain Asa Weaver, however, was one man who proved his superiority by deeds. After reading this you will admit that, in spite of his blus- ter, Captain Weaver was every inch a sailor.

L-IUMPH !” snorted Cap’n Asa Weaver it o’course. Mebbe ye’ll be willin’ to as he tipped back in his chair and offer a bit o’ advice, seein’ as how ye’re puffed at his short black pipe in the such an all fired better seaman than I smoking room of the Seamen’s Club. be.” “Humph, I tell ye, as long’s a ship’ll “I don’t aim to be l’arnin’ seamanship float there ain’t no ’arthly excuse fer to others,” replied Cap’n Weaver hotly. desartin’ on her or bein’ towed inter "But ye don’t catch me payin’ salvage to port.’’ no towboat robbers these hard times. Lem Perkins flushed a deeper shade No, sir, bad enough to have to pay ’em of red under his weather-beaten skin. for towin’ out an’ in port.” “ “Meanin’ you’re referrin’ to me, I ’Spect ye’d have fitted her with s’pose,’’ he remarked. sweeps or sculled her in,” retorted Lem “Not pertick’lerly, not pertick’lerly,” sarcastically. rumbled Cap’n Weaver. “But Pm sayin’ “Might ha’ put jury rig onto her,” that I’ve been to sea—man an’ boy declared the other. “Though I don't nigh onto twenty-five years an’ I ain’t ’spect cap’ns o’ fore’n afters could do never ’asked nor took help from any sech things.” blasted steam tea kittle yit. No, sir, Lem burst into a hearty laugh. “Jury long’s the ol Orion ain’t stove an’ don’t rig!” he cried. “Sure, set up the crew’s spring a leak what the pumps can’t keep breeches an’ a couple o’ han’kerchiefs under I’ll git her into port, by gum.” an’ get into port ’bout a year later. Y’re “Like to ha’ seen ye git the Sachem forgettin’ time’s money these days.” in,” muttered Lem. “All four sticks “Wall, ain’t I jury rigged' with this gone plum outen her lessen ten foot here timber leg o’ mine?” exploded old above decks. ’Spect ye could ha’ done Asa. "An' I calc’late I get about as 46 Sea Stories Magazine

lively as most on ye. An’ I>n sayin’ hurricane was racing up from the Carib- again,” he continued, “that any skipper bean and while he did not possess the what’ll give a line to a towboat ’slong’s latest types of instruments and scoffed his hooker’ll float’s no deep water sea- at scientific theories and government man. By Godfrey! I could slam a jury publications on hurricanes, yet he re- rig onto the Orion what’d shove the ol’ alized that the Orion was in for a “rip hooker along better’n that there tub o" snorter” as he put it. your’n could make under full sail.” Sharp orders were bawled out, rapidly Knocking the ashes from his pipe, the sails were furled and made snug, mov- old skipper arose, stretched himself and able objects on deck were secured with stumped off. double lashings, and soon the bark was Two days after this verbal set-to with wallowing along under lower topsails, Cap’n Lem, the one-legged old mariner jib and close reefed fors’l. There was stood upon the broad and spotless little wind, and the sea ran in long oily quarter deck of the bark Orion as, in rollers, the Orion, without enough can- tow of a fussy tug, she dropped down vas to steady her, rolled horribly. But Boston harbor. To the rousing chantey old Asa was not one to take any chances of “Whiskey Johnny” the great topsail or carry sail until too late. He was owner yards rose slowly from the caps, sheets as well as master of the Orion, all his were manned and one by one the huge savings of a lifetime of toil, hardship sails were spread. Then, as with a part- and danger were invested in the bark, ing toot of her whistle, the tug cast off and he believed in shortening sail while the line, the men tallied on the braces the shortening was good. and under a lofty pyramid of snowy “Derned sight easier to put canvas

canvas the Orion headed for the open onto her if it don’t blow than ’tis to

sea. shorten if it does,” he remarked to his She was bound for Matanzas, Cuba, mate, a young Gloucester man named and Cap’n Asa expected to see the hazy Haskell. “An’ looks to me like it’s goin’

coastline of the Pearl of the Antilles to blow fit to take the whiskers offen rising beyond the soaring tip of his ye.” flying jibboom within ten days after And had any of the Orion’s crew passing Provincetown light. The wind worn such facial adornments, Cap’n was fair, the weather perfect, the sea a Weaver’s remark might well have been

vast crinkled sheet of glue, and every- verified, for blow it did with a venge-

thing promised a quick and easy run. ance. Out of the west it came, a screech- But the Atlantic, even in mid summer, ing, howling, maniacal blast, a savage, is capricious, and fate had other plans roaring eighty-mile gale that picked up

for the Orion and boastful Cap’n Asa. the sea and flung it in tons of green Two days after rounding the Cape and water with the force of a battering ram heading southward, the barometer upon the bark and, catching the heavily dropped: rapidly, an ominous swell came laden ship broadside on, forced her over out of the south, the sky became over- until her port rail was burieff in the cast, brownish-gray scud drifted in hissing seas, and green water surged ragged wisps from below the horizon over her decks to the hatches. For a

and the air took on a curious sickly-yel- space it seemed as though she would go low tint. on her beam ends, as if she would never Cap’n Weaver had been too long at right, and then, with a crash like thun- sea and had made far too many voyages der, her main lower topsail split and was to the tropics not to realize what was in instantly torn to ribbons. Relieved of store. He knew that a West Indian the pressure the Orion slowly staggered Jury Rig 47

up, shook the cataracts of water from on, but gradually the wind fell, it came her decks and with two men' straining at in screaming, uneven gusts, the sky

her wheel, swung on the crest of .a huge lightened, and while the seas /an even comber and tore off before the hurri- higher than before, their crests curled cane. and broke less spitefully. She was a stanch, well-built Yankee Apparently the worst of the storm was ship, a fabric of good white oak and past and late in the afternoon the skipper Maine pine, a ship of whom her Booth- went below for a hasty meal and a bay builders might well have been proud quart of steaming coffee. Then, having and *Cap’n Asa had no fear of her smoked and after roughly calculating his weathering the fearful storm sweeping position by dead reckoning, and knowing up from the Antilles and driving the by the motion of the bark that she was bark eastward with the speed of a liner. making as good weather of it as could Great, curling green seas reared to half be expected, he turned in for a few the height of the crojack yard, their hours’ rest. crests sheared off by the terrific gale He was aroused by being rolled un- that was now blowing nearly one hun- ceremoniously from his bunk on to the dred miles an hour. Equally great floor. Instantly wide awake and with combers reared ahead, but as long as a all his faculties on the alert, he clawed stitch of canvas held, the Orion would his way across the room to the door outrun the seas, the captain felt sure, which seemed, somehow, to be near the and even if the bits of remaining canvas ceiling. He half crawled, half scrambled were torn from the boltropes he had through the main cabin and gained the little doubt that his ship, under bare companionway. That his ship was in poles would drive fast enough dire straits he knew the moment he to avoid being pooped. The mizzen top- rolled from his bunk, for the slope of sail had long ago followed the main and the deck told him she was practically on only a bit of jib and fore tops’l showed, her beam ends. Dimly through the thick sodden gray, and hard as sheet iron planking came the roar of the wind and against the flying scud and murk. But the thunderous pounding of seas, and as no canvas ever woven by man could he gained the companion stairs there stand the awful strain, the onslaught of came a muffled, rending crash, a blow the hurricane for long, and within an that shook the bark from stem to stern, hour from the time the gale had burst the and with a jerk that all but threw the fore tops’l flew, like some huge fright- skipper from his feet the bark heaved ened bird, into the turmoil, leaving a few herself up to a nearly level keel. streaming, snapping shreds of canvas “Some gosh-dinged thing carried attached to spars and mast. Quickly the away,” was his mental comment, and the jib followed and the Orion drove on next moment he was straining, tugging, under bare poles that bent and strained exerting all his great strength to open the and swayed like whips to the wild companionway doors. As he did so he pitching, staggering motions of the bark. staggered, grasped the casings for sup- There was nothing to be done. No hu- port and ducked his head as a demoniacal man being could move across the wave- blast of wind and brine struck him with swept, tossing deck. The few men above the force of a solid thing. It was impos- hatches had lashed themselves fast, and sible to stand upright, and dropping on Cap’n Weaver and his mate had secured hands and knees he literally dragged themselves to the mizzen rigging to port himself against the wind onto the deck and starboard. as the doors slammed to with a resound- For hour after hour the Orion raced ing, splintering bang behind him. Hold- ; ;

48 Sea Stories Magazine

ing for dear life to the skylight gratings hurled him with a sickening thud across he peered about. It was inky black, the the slanting deck against the port rail. noise w^ts deafening, great white masses Instantly the skipper began hauling in of roaring foam rose on every side and the halliards, dragging the inert body of vivid lightning split the night incessantly. the mate through the streaming brine By its glare he could see the men, across the decks, until he could reach drenched, buffetted, but straining, at the down and raise him to his feet. He had wheel. He caught a glimpse of Haskell, regained his senses, but his face was half buried in swirling water against the covered with blood from a deep gash starboard rail, and he took a swift glance across his forehead, and he staggered forward. Beyond the main mast no uncertainly. He was in no condition to spars loomed black against the light- attempt the hazardous trip again, and ning’s flash, only a tangle of wreckage Cap’n Asa, without hesitation, lashed the strewn across the deck remained of the befuddled man to the rigging, knotted foremast and its rigging, and above the the line about his own waist and started roar of wind and seas there came a dull, forward. He was no young man, and echoing, crashing sound at regular inter- was handicapped by a wooden leg, but vals. The mast, still fast to the bark by grim determination was in his set face. stays and shrouds, was driving like a He was strong and powerfully built and battering ram against the ship’s planking, the safety of the bark, the lives of the and at any instant the hull might be men and the savings of a lifetime, were stove. To cut free the wreckage, at stake. even to cross the decks, seemed an utter A dozen times he was all but wrenched impossibility and yet it must be done from the rail; seas broke over him, beat- must somehow be acompiished if the ing him to his knees and half smothering bark was to be saved. him. A bit of broken spar, hurled by an Waiting until the ship poised on a onrushing sea, struck his shoulder and, wave crest, the skipper, with a sudden like a javelin, tore through his garments rush, gained the mate’s side and quickly and left a jagged, bleeding cut in his passed a bight of rope about his own flesh. Ropes and rigging whipping, body. Then, bending his head, he placed coiling, writhing like serpents, as the his mouth to Haskell’s ears and bel- water surged back and forth across the lowed his orders. decks, tripped him and all but threw him “Got to clear away that spar,” he down, but still he kept doggedly on. roared. “Kin ye get for’ard to the And at last he triumphed. He reached men ?” the tangled, rent and broken forestays

“Don’t know. I’ll try,” screamed back gained the shelter of the break of the the mate. fo’c’s’le, and with a belaying pin pounded Rapidly uncoiling a line from a belay- loudly on the fo’c’sle door. Cursing the ing pin, and making the end fast about men under his breath for cowards, he his waist, the mate grasped the mizzen kept up his crashing blows until at last rigging* worked inch at a time around it, the door opened and in the flickering secured a grip on the rail and slowly, light a man’s head appeared. watching his chances, taking advantage “Get on deck !” bellowed the skipper. of each momentary lull in the bark’s mad “All hands on ye. Fo’mast’s gone an’s plunging, edged forward. Safely he a-stavin’ o’ the plankin’. Get axes an’ gained the main rigging and was about tumble out.” to start on the most perilous part of his Knowing their lives depended upon journey when a huge comber burst over obeying, realizing that if the skipper the bulwarks, tore him from the rail, and could be on deck so could they, although Jury Rig 49

the watch had been swept overboard as hawser, they slowly paid it out until the the bark had careened ere the mast gave skipper ordered them to make fast. Al- way, the men hurried to do the skipper’s ready the bark was riding easier, taking bidding. Armed with knives and chop- less water on board, and as she swung pers they came crowding out, the bo’sun slowly to the drag of the improvised sea- leading. anchor her bow came into the wind and “Where’s the secon’, Mr. Johnson?” waves, and the weary, exhausted, pant- roared the captain. ing men breathed a sigh of relief. Un- “Gone!” screamed back the bo’sun less the wind increased or shifted sud- with his mouth to the captain’s ear. denly the bark wguld ride in safety as “Went overboard fust thing, along with long as the cable held and there was four of the men.” nothing to be done save wait for the “Get busy,” yelled the skipper, lashing storm to blow itself out. himself to the bitts. Then, under the “Get below if ye mind to,” roared the old seaman’s eye and bellowed orders captain when he saw that everything the crew, risking life and limb each possible had been done. Then, as the second, working like madmen, hacked men gladly did so, he freed himself from and cut and slashed at the tangled ropes the bitts and worked his way aft. Dawn and twisted rigging. It was fearful, was now breaking, and half carrying, desperate work. The seas rushed at half dragging Haskell, the skipper en- them, broken spars seemed possessed of tered the companion way, first gruffly a maniacal, fiendish desire to slay and 'telling the men at the wheel they were the wire rigging, as it parted, lashed no longer needed and could shelter them- viciously with razor-edged strands at the selves in the lee of the deck house, but men’s bodies. But, one by one, the to keep watch and notify him if the sea- shrouds and stays that bound the fallen anchor broke loose or anything went spars and mast were severed, the wrong. wreckage was clear of the ship, the mas- A nip of brandy and a cup of coffee sive sticks no longer pounded cruelly at brought Haskell around and, having the planks and only the steel wire back- bound up the mate’s and his own

stays bound the tangle to the Orion. wounds, the skipper filled and lit his “Don’t cut no more,” bellowed the pipe. “Take a rest,” he advised the mate skipper. “Get out a three-inch cable an’ as he started once more for the deck. bend it onto that there stay. Take a turn “I’ll call ye if I want ye. Mr. Johnson’s o’ cable ’round the fo’must and pass it gone—went over with four hands.” ’round the capstan. Then cut away the When at last the dull day dawned stay an’ pay out ’boiit fifty fathom o’ across the wind-swept, tossing sea, and cable.” Haskell came on deck, he glanced about Quickly his orders were carried out. and uttered a short laugh. The huge hempen cable was bent onto “Looks like a pretty good wreck,” he the straining stay, a turn was taken remarked. about the stump of the mast, it was led Cap’n Asa wheeled. “Wrack !” he ex-

about the capstan and through the for- ploded. “Ain’t no wrack about it.

ward chocks and, snubbing it, the men Soon’s ever this gale lets up a mite we’ll braced themselves as two of their num- be gettin’ erlong.” ber cut through the wires of the stay. Rapidly the wind fell, the second gale Then, as the strands parted, and the full had been but the outer edge—the back weight of the drifting, floating spars and kick—of the hurricane, and by noon the rigging, with the tons of wet furled sails sun was shining brightly, the bark was upon the broken yards, came upon the riding the long oily waves easily, and 50 Sea Stories Magazine

Cap’n Weaver ordered the men to heave better to be eatin’ of it in Cuby than to in on the cable and bring the wrecked be providin’ a meal for the fishes,” re- foremast under the lee of the bark. plied the old skipper. “An’ don’t ye fret Then, for hours, the men toiled and ’bout Thanksgivin’. We ain’t but six sweated, rigging tackles, whipping up hundred mile to the east’ard o’ our the huge foreyards, the foretopgallant course at that.” mast and foreroyal mast and following the orders of Haskell and the skipper. Back in Salem, the hurricane which From the salvaged spars, shears were had swept the North Atlantic had been rigged; by dint of Jierculean labors the reported and incoming ships had brought foretopgallant mast was raised and se- tales and vivid proofs of its severity.

it rails, cured to the foremast stump ; was Shattered smashed boats, stove stayed fast and rigid, and as darkness deckhouses, were almost universal on fell the useless wreckage was cut adrift steamers that had passed through the and the Orion rode to the wind and seas savage storm, and all up and down the by a trysail on the mizzen. coast there were anxious waiters for At daybreak the tired men were at tidings of sailing craft that had been in work once more. The foreroyal mast or near the path of the hurricane. “ was run up and fished and stayed in ’Spect Asa got a touch of it,” com- place, the yards were hoisted, sails bent mented Cap’n Lem as he and his friends on, and before nightfall the bark was discussed the storm. ploughing slowly but steadily toward far “He’ll pull through, right enough,” distant Cuba under a jury foremast and declared Cap’n Small. “The Orion’s a with shortened after sails adjusted to a right good ship and Asa’s as good a sea- nicety to balance her dwarfed canvas man as ever stumped a deck. No need forward. for worry in’. Might ha’ bio wed him a Cap’n Asa was well pleased with the bit offen his course though.” two days’ work, as well he might be. He But when two weeks had passed and rubbed his big calloused hands together, the Orion had not been reported, either cast an appraising eye at the wake and by incoming ships or ffom any port, chuckled. “Wish’t’ Lem could see the Cap’n Weaver’s friends commenced to ol’ Orion now,” he remarked to Mr. be a bit anxious. Cap’n Small, however, Haskell. “By Godfrey, I’ve seed worse still insisted the Orion was safe, that lookin’ hookers than she be that was she had simply been blown off her rigged that way.” course, that she might have had sails “Splendid job,” agreed the mate, “but carried away, but that she would turn up ’twouldn’t stand much of a blow. Guess all right eventually. their ain’t much likelihood of another But day after day slipped by and there hurricane though.’* were no tidings of the bark. Two weeks “Never kin tell,” declared Cap’n passed and she was posted as overdue. Weaver. “I’ve knowed ’em to come in Three weeks went by and those who bunches. Course there mayn’t be an- knew Cap’n Weaver shook their heads other for years an’ then ag’in we may and when forty-five days had come and run slam bang into one o’ the dod-gasted gone since the Orion sailed out of Bos- things to-morrer.” ton and no word had come of the bark, “Ain’t makin’ over five knots,” com- or of wreckage which might have been mented the mate. “Guess we’ll be eatin’ from her, she was posted as missing, and Thanksgivin’ dinner in Cuby at this the old seamen in the club spoke of rate.” Cap’n Asa as of one deceased. All, that

“Wall, consarn it, it’s a heap sight is, .but Cap’n Small. Jury Rig 51

“Must ha’ went down with all hands,” “Wall, it’ll be some days yit,” Lem declared Lem lugubriously. “Mebbe reminded him. “This Spaniard spoke turned turtle first time the gale hit her, him the 14th, and he was a dumb or got pooped. Too bad, too bad! Fine sight closer to Africy than to Cuba then man, Asa. Well, we all got to go some —long about the lat’tude o’ the Azores day, I s’pose.” an’ ’bout two thousan’ mile offen shore. Cap’n Small glanced up from the Putty consid’able o’ a voyage from there paper he was reading, peered over the to Cuby under jury rig.” rims of his spectacles and stroked his “Humph,” muttered the other. “What gray beard. “I’ll bet you the Orion gets me is where in blazes he’s been turns up right as a trivet,” he declared. twixt the time that hurricane hit him and “Yes, sir, you’ll be arguin’ with Asa the 14th. Thirty-eight days out of Bos- right here in this here room afore long, ton then. Must have run into the blow

I’ll bet.” ’bout four days after clearing. Smoth- “Mebbe, mebbe,” muttered Lem. “By erin’ herrin’s, he could most have sailed hookey, I hope ye’re right, Sam’l.” acrost the Atlantic under bare poles in !” The following afternoon Lem fairly thirty days !” burst into the club room. “By glory “Dunno,” replied Lem and then, Cap’n

he shouted. “Seed the news? Orion’s Asa’s taunts regarding seamanship still !” been spoken rankling in his mind, he added sarcas- “No!” exclaimed an old salt. tically, “Mebbe seein’ as how he’s sech

“Yes, sir, here ’tis, right in the Herald. a all-fired fine seaman he anchored in !” Look here mid ocean an’ waited fer it to ca’m down. Wrinkling his forehead, Lem ran a Anyhow, I’m a talcin' the Sachem out to stubby forefinger along the columns of Cuby nex’ week an’ mebbe I’ll see him

the paper while the others gathered down there. Guess I’ll git a rise outen about, reading over his shoulders. him—his talkin’ ’bout the time he kin “Here it be,” announced Lem at last. make under jury rig.” “ ‘Steamship Jose Larrinaga, Spanish,

Captain Jimenez, Cadiz for New York, But instead of waiting for it to calm arrived yesterday. Captain Jimenez re- down as Lem had jocularly suggested, ports that on September 14th, latitude Cap’n Weaver had been bucking the 38 °-io’ N., longitude 37°-i5’ W,, he wildest and most tempestuous weather sighted the bark Orion Boston that had swept the Atlantic in the mem- , Weaver, for Matanzas, thirty-eight days out, ory of the oldest seamen. Under her jury proceeding under jury rig. When rig the Orion had proceeded remarkably spoken Captain Weaver declined assist- well, and as the wind had dropped ance, stating that he would make port to a steady stiff breeze her skipper had under his own sail. He requested fresh cautiously added more and more canvas water and provisions, which were sup- to her. Fore and maintopgallant and plied, and asked that he be reported all mizzen staysails were spread and the well with exception of the second officer, main-topgallant sail set and though her Mr.' Johnson, and four seamen, washed canvas was, of necessity, mainly low, yet Overboard in the hurricane that dis- the bark did very well and sailed steadily ” masted him.’ on her course at a good six knots. The “Didn’t I tell you ?”' cried Cap’n fact that she was more than half a thou- Small triumphantly. “Catch old Asa sand miles to the eastward of where she taking any help from a steamer. I’ll bet should have been was a small matter, for he makes Matanzas at that. Shouldn’t on the long slant which would bring, her be surprised to hear from him any day.” to Cuba, the offing amounted to little and —

52 Sea Stories Magazine

was, in her partially crippled condition, to wreak its fury on the Azores and, di- an adavantage if anything, as it brought rectly in its path was the crippled Orion. the wind fair on her beam, which was It drove her like a mad thing, buffeted her best sailing point. and spun her like a teetotum, hurled her But, as Cap’n Asa had said, hurri- plunging into the green troughs, bore canes are uncertain things, and on the her down until her yardarms were buried fourteenth day after her jury foremast in the waves, overwhelmed her with tons had been rigged, and with the lookout on of hissing green seas, ripped boats from the main crosstrees straining his eyes for davits, wrenched the greenheart rails the hoped-for smudge that would be the free, battered deck houses and then, hav- low-lying Bahamas, the wind dropped ing done its worst, sped screaming, suddenly and left the Orion drifting screeching, howling like a demon, on its motionless upon a flat shimmering sea. way, to lose itself in the vast reaches of “Danged if I like the look o’ this,” de- the North Atlantic. clared the skipper to Mr. Haskell, as he And when it had passed, the Orion paced the deck in undershirt and rose and fell heavily upon the tortured trousers. “Glass’s droppin’ like blazes sea, a battered, sodden, broken thing an’ the’s a dead feelin’ in the air. An’ little more than a hulk—with only three look at that there sun. Jest like a’ ol’ splintered stumps standing above her copper kittle a hangin' up there. Bet ye decks where once had towered the lofty we're in fer another blow.” spars and maze of rigging. A hopeless Cap’n Asa was taking no chances, the wreck she seemed, a water-logged dere- canvas was stripped from yards until lict. But Cap’n Asa Weaver, despite only a scrap of sail showed on main and his age and his wooden leg, was not mizzen, and not any too soon. beaten even yet. The moment it was With sundown the blow came, and by possible for a human being to stand upon eight bells it was a living gale. The the deck the pumps were manned, and skipper knew another hurricane was while the gang sweated and worked at near and had the Orion not been crippled the brakes and the water gurgled and forward the captain might have scudded streamed from the scuppers, Haskell, the far enough to the east to have run out of skipper and the rest of the crew, labored the worst of the storm. But h^ dared desperately to clear away the wreckage sail not spread on the j urymast and with- and to salvage what they could. To out headsails it was a terrific struggle to everyone’s surprise and relief the pumps keep the bark from broaching to and gained on the water in the hold, at last coming up into the wind, to say nothing they sucked and the Orion floated as of working an easting. Each time a huge buoyantly as ever. Only a few spars re- sea would sweep under her counter and mained this time, the greater part having lift her stern soaring on a wave crest been swept clear away by the hurricane, she would swing as on a pivot, and al- but below hatches were spare yards and though her helm was hard over and the royalmasts, as well as a complete suit of weight of two men strained at the wheel, sails. Spurred on by the indomitable the Orion seemed determined to take the captain and by Haskell, the men worked bit in her teeth. incessantly, rigging shears, splicing And this time the whirling, raging, tigging, hoisting spars, until at last, cyclonic storm was not content with fol- above the pathetic stumps of masts, rose lowing up the Gulf Stream and blowing the jury rig—low, outlandish and bizarre itself out off the New England coast. —but a rig that would carry sail, that Instead, it veered eastward off Hatteras, would urge the bark onward and that tore off across the Atlantic as if bound would weather any ordinary blow. Jury Rig 53

“Dunno what ye’d call the ol’ hooker and like a proper seaman and mate he now,” remarked Cap’n Asa as he sur- used his best skill and knowledge in veyed his handiwork. “Sort o’ ’maphro- getting the most out of the plodding old dite barkentine I reckon, with them bark. there yards for’ard an’ for'naft on miz- - Two days later a faint smudge of zen and main. Don’ recollec' ever seein’ smoke showed on the eastern horizon. a barkentine with lug sails though. By Presently masts and funnel rose above Judas, I’d like to have Lem here now!” the rim of the sea and rapidly a dingy But whatever the weird rig of the tramp steamer bore dawn toward the Orion might have been called in mari- wallowing Orion. time parlance, it served its purpose, and Evidently she thought the bark in need to a fair breeze and over a reasonably of assistance and up to her masthead ran calm sea the Orion once more forged a string of bright bunting. ahead toward far distant Cuba. Far to “Wants to know if you want help an’s the east and north, she had driven—more askin’ your name an’ information,” said than halfway across the Atlantic—and Haskell as he slowly deciphered the back to the latitude of Boston, and Has- code flags in the thumb-worn book in kell, absolutely amazed at the skipper’s his hands. course, voiced his surprise. Cap’n Asa snorted. “When I want

“Ain’t you puttin’ into port for re- help from any greasy ol’ steam tank I’ll pairs?” he asked. “It’s a fair wind for set signals,” he retorted. “Reckon I’ll Boston or New York, and Funchal’s git him to report us, though. No use pretty close.” lettin’ the folks at home get a-frettin’ an’ The skipper slowly looked the mate thinkin’ we’ve all gone to Davy Jones. over from top to toe as if studyiny some An’,” he added as an afterthought, strange new specimen. “Puttin’ inter “’pears like we might be some consid’able port!” he exclaimed at last. “Yep, spell gettin’ to Matanzas an’ ye might puttin’ inter Matanzas. Sufferin’ ask him fer water an’ salt po’k. Guess Jonah, d’ye think I’d be a-puttin’ back we’ve got enough else.” to Boston after thirty^six days So, the pork and water having been out an’ weatherin’ o’ two o’ duly delivered, the Jose Larrinaga once the dod-gastedest hur’canes whatever more churned on her interrupted way took the sticks outen a ship? No, by toward New York, and her bearded of- glory ! I ain’t a-flyin’ in the face o’ ficers shrugged shoulders and made Providence I hope—like the Flyin’ various comments on the crazy Yankees. Dutchman—but by the grace o’ God an’ Three weeks after the Larrinaga had that there jury rig I’m a-goin’ fer to left the Orion astern a man peered forth make Matanzas if it takes me all win- across the indigo sea from the lighthouse ter.” at Matanzas and rubbed his eyes. Never Haskell shook his head but said noth- in his life had he seen such a craft as ing. He knew the old skipper too well was now approaching the harbor. Above to argue, but he was beginning to think her long, weather-beaten hull rose three that Asa had taken leave of his senses. short slender spars. Upon the foremast He was forced to admit to himself, was a single square sail upon the others ; however, that, barring accidents or rectangular areas of canvas that seemed severe storms, there was no reason why a cross between lugsails and staysails, the Orion should not make Cuba under and, fluttering from her rigging, was the her jury rig, although he dared not haz- Stars and Stripes. The Orion had ar- ard a guess as to when she would ar- rived.

rive. However, it was not his affair, “Reckon I bust all records fer long 54 Sea Stories Magazine v’ges twixt Boston an’ Cuby,” chuckled decks. But soon they were at it hammer Cap’n Asa to the consul, who was also and tongs again. the skipper’s agent. “Fifty-nine days “Didn’t I tell ye I’d git the old Orion outen Boston, but here safe an’ soun’. into po’t under her own canvas even if Yes, sir, I allers did allow there wa’nt all three sticks was took outen her?” no excuse fer not gettin’ inter po’t’s crowed Cap’n Asa as, in the bark’s cabin, long’s a ship wa’nt sinkin’.” they sat smoking and chinning. “Like “Of course you’ll refit here,” said the fer to see ye ha’ done it with that there consul, after expressing his admiration three sticker o’ yourn.” and amazement at Cap’n Asa’s accom- “Huh,” snorted Lem. “An’ took plishment and complimenting him upon fifty nine day a-gettin’ here. Why, by it. “I can easily secure spars from gum, the Sachem could ha’ drifted here Havana or even from the States while without nary a stick or stitch in three your discharging and loading.” months. Didn’t I tell ye time was money “Refit nothin’,” ejaculated the skip- these days? Why, ye ol’ shellback, ye per. “Look a-here. I’ve brung the ol’ could ha’ made a dozen v’yages back and gal dumb nigh two thousan’ mile under forth in that time. Where’s the savin’ that there misfit rig an’ by glory I’m a- or the sense in what ye done ? An’ now goin’ fer to take her home with it. Yes, ye’re aimin’ to temp’ Providence by a sir, I’ve busted all records for takin’ sailin’ back under these here contrap- time a-gittin’ here an’ derned if I don’t tions. I vow, Asa, I’m beginnin’ fer to break another gittin’ back. Sufferin’ think ye’re plumb crazy.” codfish, I’m a-gittin’ everlastin’ly stuck Asa fairly bristled. “Dod gast ye, on that there jury rig. Yes, sir, slow Lem !” he retorted hotly. “Ain’t ye got but sure, an’ I’m aimin’ fer to prove to no respect fer seamanship? By Judas, some ol’ shellbacks to home jus’ what a ’pears like all ye thought on was money real seaman kin do under jury rig.” same’s them consarned steam skippers. The morning following this declara- An’ ye’re a-sayin’ that there wall-sided tion of the captain’s, Haskell glanced ol’ canal boat o’ yourn could ha’ done seaward to see a trim three-masted better, eht? I swan, I —I—by glory, I’ll schooner slipping into port. The next bet ye the Orion kin outsail ye right instant he bawled down the companion- now, jury rig an’ all.” way to Cap’n Asa. “Look who’s here,” Lem fairly roared with laughter. For he shouted. “The Sachem’s a-coming once he had gotten a “rise” out of old into port!” Asa and he thoroughly enjoyed it. “Wall I vow !” exclaimed the skipper, “Want me to take home a message for as he studied the oncoming schooner. ye?” he asked. “I’m a-clearin’ nex’ Tues- “Derned ef ’taint Lem at that.” day an’ ye might want ter let the folks But upon the Sachem’s deck captain, to home know ye won’t be home to officers and crew stood in absolute Christmas.” amazement as they recognized, in the “Clearin’ Tuesday be ye?” cried Asa, weird and battered craft in the harbor, ignoring the other’s facetious sugges- the bark Orion. Hardly had the anchor tion. Waal, by Judas, I’m a-clearin’ plunged over before Lem was being Sat’rday. An’ by glory I’ll take any pulled rapidly to the bark and despite messages ye min’ to send. Think that their differences of opinion and heated there dumb swizzled barge ye call a arguments the two old salts blew their ship kin sail do ye? An’ think I’m crazy, noses loudly and wiped suspicious mois- eh? By the etarnal, I’ll—yes, sir—I’ll ture from their eyes as they grasped bet ye a hundred dollars the Orion’s into hands once more upon the Orion’s Boston afore the Sachem now!” Jury Rig 55

“Now I know ye’re plumb looney,” Asa came up the companionway. declared Lem chuckling. “But idjits “Think we’d better run in a bit an’ see hadn’t oughta have so denied much if she wants help?” money to throw away, an' I ’If take ye up “Humph, ’spect we might as well have jus’ to l’arn ye a lesson, Asa, an’ I’ll bet a look,” assented the skipper, and the ye another hundred ye don’t sight Orion’s course was shifted a trifle. Minot’s Ledge lessen two weeks arter Gradually the masts of the stranded I’m docked.” vessel grew more distinct and presently Two days later the Orion cleared and a powerful tug was standing by. as she slipped seaward, Lem stood on “Don’t guess we can help none,” an- the Sachem’s quarter deck and cupped nounced the mate. “Must ha’ struck his hands to his lips. “I’ll heave ye a pretty derned hard—took the fo-must towline some’eres nor’ard o’ the Baha- outen her.” mas,” he yelled. “Hate to have ye Cap’n Asa was studying the vessel, missin’ Thanksgivin’ an Christmas to whose hull, wedged fast in the sand and home.” canted over, was now visible. “By But neither north of the Bahamas or Judas!” he burst out suddenly. “Derned elsewhere on the homeward voyage did if ’tain’t. Yep, I’ll be eve’lastin’ly b’iled those on the Orion sight the Sachem. if ’tain’t the Sachem! By glory, Mr. With a fair steady wind and a calm sea Haskell, I’m aimin’ fer to collec’ two the bark kept steadily on, and while old hundred dollars from that there Lem, !” Asa, once he had cooled off, realized that by Godfrey he had as good as thrown away his hun- Ten minutes later the yawl boat was dred dollars—with a fair likelihood of dancing shoreward with Cap’n Weaver, losing the second hundred as well—yet his weater-beaten face wreathed in a he consoled himself with the thought broad grin, in the stern. Approaching that he had not knuckled under to Lem close to the stranded schooner he stood and that he was upholding the traditions up, waved a hand to the figure on the of the old Yankee seamen. And the Sachem’s after deck and bellowed out:

Orion made wonderfully good time con- “Want a tow line, Lem? Waal, I’ll be a sidering her jury rig. Sixteen days after waitin’ fer ye up to the club an’ I kin use clearing from Matanzas she was off two hundred dollars fer Christmas, I Monomoy, and Haskell, gazing shore- reckon. Guess ye got to admit there’s ward through his glasses, described two suthin’ in seamanship arter all —an’ don’ slender masts rising above the horizon fergit time’s money, Lem. ’Pears like and canted at a sharp angle. ye got a-plenty o’ the fust an’ that there “Reckon some craft’s taken the salvage tug’s goin’ fer to git a chunk o’ ground yonder,” he remarked as Cap’n t’other. So long, Lem!”

LAST OF PIRATE GIBBET 17 VER since the Federal government took over Ellis Island many years ago ^ there has been but one tree standing on the island. This tree had an inter- esting history before it was cut down recently to make room for some new build- ings which were being erected.

Years ago Ellis Island was called Gibbet Island, as it was here that pirates and other criminals were executed. A pirate named Gibbs was the last member of this ancient and honorable profession to be executed on the island. The above- mentioned tree was used as the gallows. We’ve not had a Gulf of Mexico story on our manifest for some time. However, this one more than makes up for lost time. And, as the title implies, it has a fine type of Irish sailor as a hero. Jettisoning cargo has often been done in an emergency, but we don’t think that an entire cargo was ever jettisoned before in quite the fashion described in this story.

in one of the small and sfifling and brush with swift precision. His rooms of that rabbit warren of eyes, deep set in a face on which the crowded humanity that New Orleans cynic evil of many years and many cities calls the Old French Quarter-—though was graven for all the world to read, its residents to-day are chiefly Italians, glanced from the chart to paper and Syrians, and the human driftwood from back again. a score of Latin-American ports—sat “There,” said he at last, pushing two men. back from the table. “That’s what I One was splendidly tailored and bar- call a good job.” bered. He leaned back, broad-shoul- He lifted the discolored sheet of pa- dered, in a precariously creaking chair, per. It looked like a roughly drawn smoked a cigarette cork tipped and of chart nearly a century old. Its edges superlength, and gazed through a win- were broken and stained from slightly dow on the mildewed, stone-flagged yellowish to dark brown. courtyard beneath. “Any navigator will spot the place, The other, at a stained and rickety Skee,” said he. “It’s the north shore kitchen table of unpainted pine, its top of Swan Island all right. There’s the covered with bottles of multicolored bearings, too. The big tree and the big inks and an array of pens and small rock and the cross halfway between on brushes, worked away at a discolored the crest of the beach. That clinches

sheet of paper. On the wall in front it to the average boob. And this, espe- of him was pinned a section of a United cially.” States navy chart. He pointed to the lower right-hand His long, nervous fingers handled pen corner of the sheet. O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 57

In the crabbed and shaky hand of the “Skee,” he said, "I might have known semiliterate man of years long gone, was that your kind has to pay in advance. this inscription: It’s the hundred or nothing. And you “D. Chaney. His Chart.” don’t get the chart without the hundred. And the date: That’s final.” “1847.” The purple tide of rage rose above Skee Wintersohn, he of the splendid Wintersohn’s collar. tailoring and the supermanicure, “If you think you can buck me and reached avidly for the paper. get away with it,” he rasped, “you’re “Not yet, Skee,” quoth the other as fuller of hop than usual. Suppose I with swift and nervous movement he telephone the police that the guy who .jerked it out of reach. “One hundred forged those cotton bills of lading is berries first. Then she’s yours.” down here? How long’d you last? “Climb down, Purser; climb down!” And there ain’t no hop where they’d expostulated Wintersohn. “You’re out take you, either. Hand over that chart

on a high limb. Call it twenty fish and before I take it away from you and here’s the sawbuck.” beat you up for luck. Get me? Hand He pulled a bank note, folded, yel- it over!” low backed, from his waistcoat pocket He rose from the creaking chair. His

and held it out. smooth bulk towered above the ema- “Listen, you cheap skate,” said Pur- ciated wreck in front* of him. ser. “You said it was worth a century With a nervous leap Purser had to you. There’s the job. It’s good. rounded the corner of the table, plac-

Come across with the hundred.” ing it between them. In one hand he “Oh, ease off,” said Wintersohn. held the chart. In the other nestled a "If it took you a week, that would be small automatic, flat and sinister as the another thing. P>ut I’ve seen you do it head of a rattlesnake. in two hours. I’m a square sport about “Stick ’em up, you double-crossing !” this. Twenty fish for two hours ain’t crook bad money.” With alacrity almost comic the mani- “Two hours!” said Purser bitterly. cured hands rose high. But there was “It took me ten years in hell to be able nothing comic in Purser’s hard, metallic to do that job in two hours—and to be voice. willing to do it. Come through with “When a guy gets where I am to- the hundred.” day,” said he bitterly, "a little thing like "The double sawbuck’s all you get, croaking you means nothing in his Jim. Don’t be a fool. You can’t bluff young life. Take down your left hand! me. Think of the morph that’ll get You can’t shoot with that if you have

you. And you sure look like you got a gun. Pull out your roll ! Toss !” needed it.” it on the table Shrewdly he was watching the other’s His commands crackled like a ma- twitching lips, his burning eyes, his fin- chine-gun burst. Skee Wintersohn gers ceaselessly moving. Few knew bet- took them. ter than he when a man was in grip Still covering his visitor, Purser of desire for morphine. reached out one of those long-fingered But there was a streak of Purser’s hands to the table. Slowly he stripped being that just then made bitterness at five of the twenty-dollar bills that cov- this petty bilking override even the ered the plethoric roll. yearning for the drug that had brought “I ought to fine you another hundred him to this. for dirty work—or take the whole 58 Sea Stories Magazine

works/’ he grated. “But you wouldn’t “That crimp Schweitzer,” had not understand If I told you why I don’t.” failed him. His voice rose with fury. Down on the New Orleans water “ ‘Square sport !’ A cootie is one of front, at the foot of Esplanade Avenue, nature’s noblemen alongside you. N.ow just past the French Market, where the

pick up your roll and beat it before I great gray United States mint broods bore you. There’s your damned chart, over its ancient memories and the Mis-

too. I don’t know what crooked work sissippi River sweeps past in a seething,

you’re up to with it. But take it from mud-brown arc, at that very moment me, Skee, you’re not even a decent the forty-ton fishing schooner Patsy crook. You’ll try to double cross your- was tugging at her moorings. self some time and break your neck fall- She was just back from a trip to the ing over your own feet. On your way, Campeche Banks. It had not been a you louse !” particularly prosperous trip. His eyes unable to face the blazing Captain Teddy O’Shea, her master, contempt of the emaciated wreck half was a philosopher of parts, however. his weight who had called his bluff, Also, being as Irish as his name, a poet Skee Wintersohn hastily stuffed that at heart. forged “ancient” chart and the rem- That very afternoon, when, “greased” nants of his roll into his pockets. Down by the simple process of a change in the stairs he went. ownership of a hundred-dollar bank “Square sport !” Those were the last note, Schweitzer, keeper of a disrepu- two bitter words he heard. He said no table Tchoupitoulas Street sailors’ word in threat. For Purser was right. boarding house, had mentioned him to Skee Wintersohn, despite his carefully Wintersohn, Captain Teddy had been nurtured reputation as one of Gang- seated on the hatch coaming of his land’s smooth and deadly killers, was battered craft, puffing a black brier

yellow from shoes to hat. He knew it. pipe and chivvying his crew in their

And he knew the little drug addict .. preparations for another voyage.

knew it. The groomed bulk of him It was a queer combination, that crew. was still quivering from the sight of There was Jimmie Cole, who tinkered that automatic muzzle and those blazing eternally with the stout little gasoline eyes. kicker that supplemented the Patsy’s “Well,” he meditated, as he walked dingy sails. There was Jack McKay, down the narrow old street, “he’d got cook, steward, all-around man of the the chart, anyway.” craft. There was Curly, the emaciated Now for the rest of the big plan. deck hand. Captain Teddy might swear Nobody had seen his encounter with at the others or chaff them with rough

Purser. His reputation was still safe. water-front jest, but he went lightly Better steady down now. It took head- with Curly. One would go a bit easily work to put across the big stuff he was with a fellow human who had just after. shaken off the chains of narcotic drugs And this game he was in now was —whose eyes still showed beneath B-I-G—big !—take it from him. a doglike gratitude some glimpses of His twisted mind, turned so many those lower and unmentionable hells years into the corkscrew channels of the into which the human soul can de- underworld, was working at top speed. scend—who sat at odd hours with a “If only that crimp Schweitzer has worn violin and played heart-breaking the right dope on that boat he told me harmonies. about!” he murmured to himself. And that night, while Wintersohn O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 59 was waiting for Purser to complete the A figure clad in tailored garb, sharp chart of “D. Chaney,” Captain Teddy contrast to the dungarees of the Patsy’s was making his way to the “shotgun crew, leaned idly against the foremast. cottage” where Mother O’Shea ruled The visitor stepped forward, flipping as he ruled in his own domain. A overboard a remnant of cork-tipped “shotgun cottage” in certain New Or- cigarette. leans residential districts is one in which “Is this Captain O’Shea?” he asked. you “look straight down the barrel.” The lips of the Patsy’s master, pursed From the front door, through a vista in the unconscious whistling of that of parlor, two bedrooms, and a sitting ancient ditty describing the trouserless room, you see the kitchen sink. condition of one Brian O’Lynn, widened

But it was a pleasant home, at that. into a grin of sheer friendliness.

To it, after every voyage, came Cap- “None other,” said he, thrusting forth tain Teddy, sure of his welcome, sure a scarred and hardened hand. “And of the old-fashioned food, and sure that you ?” there’d be anywhere from two to six “Wintersohn’s my name,” said the neighbors’ children about the place.- The visitor smoothly. “Skee Wintersohn, O’Sheas were childless. And about my friends call me.” children; as about battle, there were “Skee?” Captain Teddy raised quiz- certain chords placed in the heart of zical eyebrows. Teddy O’Shea some ten or twenty Irish “Short for Whisky,” explained Win- generations back, that started to thrum tersohn jocularly. “ and gave the same sort of glow as four ’Tis a pleasant weakness of some fingers of his native but now forbid- great men,” admitted the Patsy’s cap- den Bushmills. tain. “And I’ve had my share. But “Rotten luck this trip,” he called to I’m neither buyin’ nor sellin’ nor yet

Mother O’Shea, as he entered the cot- transportin’ it, if that’s what brings tage, “but we’re sailing in a day or two, you.” and this time we’ll mop up.” The visitor shook a deprecatory “That’s the beauty of the sea,” philos- head. ophized Mother O’Shea. “Ye never “I used to sell it wholesale in the

know what it’ll be next.” old days,” said he. “But I’m not in She didn’t really realize what truth the bootlegging game now.” “ she spoke. ’Twas a fine business once for them as liked it,” opined O’Shea. “But I’m It was a glorious morning in April, thinkin’ th’ competition is gettin’ too soft blue of sky, golden of sun, with strong for th’ health or th’ profits, these air like warm milk, when Captain days, from what I hear along th’ water Teddy strode across the wharf plank- front.” ing. Lightly he stepped over a mass “You’re right,” confirmed Winter- of creosoted piling. Lightly he leaped sohn. “But let’s get down to business. from wharf apron to the deck of his You’re probably wondering what small craft. Scoured as to wood, bur- brought me aboard.” nished as to metal, her galley stocked “I was that, since you ask me,” quoth and her gasoline tanks full, the Patsy Captain Teddy. “Not that we’re ever was ready to leave that day for the sorry to see distinguished visitors, but Campeche Banks and her redfish ren- we’re headin’ out for th’ Campeche dezvous. Banks to-day and there’s much to do.”

Then it was that Captain Teddy “Is there some place we can talk pri- learned his vessel harbored a guest. vately, captain?” 60 Sea Stories Magazine

“Up here in the bow is as good as standing that I have the Patsy under any.” private charter for that trip. Nothing Hospitably the Patsy’s master led the in writing, you understand. This is per- way past the foremast, set two buckets sonal -between you and me—and the upside down, seated himself on one, thousand dollars will be in your hands and indicated the other with a wave of before we start. Your crew will have his hand. some digging to do. But there’ll be

“Shoot th’ works,” said he. enough in it for a bonus for ’em if “I’ve learned on the water front, they work and keep their mouths shut.” Captain O’Shea, that you’re a pretty “Wait a minute,” said Captain square sport,” began the visitor. Teddy. He fished In a pocket and “ ’Tis fine to get th’ flowers before brought out creased envelope and th’ funeral,” philosophized the captain. stubby pencil. “There’s many th’ man has never got “I can get you on this thousand-dol- his bouquets till he was past bein’ able lar stuff,” said he. “I’ve handled that to smell ’em.” much money myself. But when you “So,” continued Wintersohn, smil- get -to talkin’ by th’ million, I want to ing, “I’ve come to put a sporting propo- see th’ figures.” sition up to you.” Fie scribbled for a moment. Then “That sounds like th’ new oil stocks,” he looked up. observed Captain Teddy. “They used “You’re paying me something like to promise you millions. Now they tell two hundred thousand dollars for the ” you it’s a ‘constructive gamble.’ use of Jhe Patsy for one trip ?” he asked. “It’s not oil stock,” said Wintersohn. “If we get what we go after, yes,” “It’s what you can take up to the win- said Wintersohn calmly. “If not, dow of the First National and they take through any accident, then one thou- it and thank you.” sand fish and your expenses.”

“The only thing I know like that is “It beats th’ redfish,” announced money,” said O’Shea out of the wis- O’Shea. “But you gotta come through dom of the years. with more dope than this. Are you “It’s what I’m talking about.” figgerin’ on robbin’ a bank at Havana

“Are you offerin’ to give it to me?” or Vera Cruz?” “It comes pretty near that.” “Nothing like that,” grinned Winter- “Well, what’s your proposition?” sohn. “Now listen. I wouldn’t have “Captain, you could use some money, come here to do business with you unless I take it.” I found you were a square sport. That’s “Always—and then some.” me, too. I’m going to put you wise, “There you are. You want the if I’ve got your promise the news stops money. I want a boat and a captain with you if we don’t do business. Have and a crew that can be trusted. For I got your word?” I know where the money is. I know “You have,” said Captain Teddy where there’s more than a million dol- simply. “No man ever called Ted lars in gold, waiting to be dug up. Just O’Shea a liar yet—-and I’ve dealt with waiting for me to come and get it. a lot of ’em.” Here’s my proposition: If we put it “I know that,” said Wintersohn. “I through and get the money, I’ll give you made it my business to find out. Now twenty per cent of the gold we get. If look here.” anything blows up, i’ll guarantee you From his inner coat pocket he drew one thousand dollars and your expenses out a small packet of oiled silk. From for the trip, with the distinct under- it he produced an ancient, yellowed O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 61 sheet of coarse paper. He spread if Why do you want to pay me so much before Captain Teddy’s eyes for a sec- for the job?” ond, and then folded it over so only “It’s a reasonable question,” conceded a corner showed. Wintersohn. “It gets a reasonable an-

“You see what it is?” he asked. swer. To begin, I know you’re famil- “I see it’s a chart of some coast,” iar with the spot where this stuff is said the Patsy’s master. But his eyes buried. I’ve found out about your outfit were gleaming. before I came to you. Next, the Patsy “Then read this.” is a regular fishing schooner out of Captain Teddy read the brief inscrip- New Orleans. Nobody pays any at- tion aloud. tention to her going and coming. Next, “D. Chaney. His Chart. Eighteen- you’re a navigator. I’m not. Figure forty-seven.” for yourself whether I could buy or fit “Well?” said he, straightening up on out a boat and get a captain and crew his bucket. for that sort of a trip without the word “That’s the map that leads to a mil- leaking. We’d have a navy of treasure lion dollars, if you’re with me,” said chasers on our tails.” Wintersohn calmly. “The gold is “Fair enough,” said Captain Teddy. buried at a spot marked on that map. “Also get this: There are some peo- It’s been waiting nearly a hundred ple mighty close to where we’re going years for somebody to come and get it.” to dig. The stuff isn’t theirs. It be-

“Who put it there?” asked Captain longs to the man who finds it. But Teddy. But the question was need- we’d best slip in quietly and slip out less. His sailor’s mind, filled with the quietly. We can do it on the Patsy. tales of the Louisiana south coast and If we’re found and any questions asked, the old Spanish Mlain he sailed, knew we’re a fishing schooner on the beach the answer. for some emergency repairs. There you “Pirates, of course,” said Winter- are. It’s a square sports’ proposition. sohn. Are you with me?”

“I thought so,” said O’Shea. “I’ve Now the water front is a place where heard the stories before. But never swift decisions and astounding events have I seen the original maps. Let’s grow commonplace. Not for it are the have the story.” cynic deliberations of the region of roll- “Wait a minute,” quoth Skee Winter- top desks. sohn. “Now you know where I stand. “You’re on,” said Ted O’Shea. He I want to know where you stand. thrust out a hardened hand for the grip- You’ve heard my proposition. Twenty ping compact of its kind. The Winter- per cent if we find it. One thousand sohn handshake, it seemed to him, was dollars and expenses if we don’t. It a trifle flabby. But if the Wintersohn ought to take us only a week to bring handshake was flabby,’ the Wintersohn the stuff to light. Let’s allow two weeks voice was not. at this place on the map, and three “Then here’s the whole story,” said weeks sailing for the round trip. You’ll that individual. “This chart shows the not do better than a thousand dollars north shore of Swan Island. You know in five weeks’ redfishing, if I know the the place. The United Fruit Company’s market.” got a big wireless station there. In the “Just one thing.” Captain Teddy was Caribbean off British Honduras as you thinking hard. “You could fit up a go through the Yucatan Straits. About boat for a lot less than two hundred a thousand miles out of New Orleans.” thousand dollars. It’s a big share. “Sure—I know all about Swan Is- 62 Sea Stones Magazine

land,” interrupted Captain Teddy. sport. Just before he died he told the “Know that section like the palm of my cabin boy that the pirate ship had made hand. The island was named after old a lot of fine raids and had buried a lot Bob Swan, one of the worst of those of gold coin and bullion off on Swan murderin’ pirates they ever had.” Island beach. He said it took seven “Right you are,” said Wintersohn. men nine trips to carry the stuff ashore. “Well, I got this chart from old Pete If you figure about sixty pounds of gold

Hansen up in Seattle. Gave it to me to the man, you see that brings it up before he died. Liquor killed him. over a million dollars. Then the ship He'd always planned to get the money headed out for a raid on the settlements some day, but he was a suspicious old farther north to capture a lot of women, Skowegian, never would take anybody in marry ’em pirate style, and settle down with him on shares, and never kept on Swan Island and live happy forever sober long enough to save up for the after.” trip. “What did they want to tackle the “Pete got this map from his uncle merchant ship for?” asked Captain when the old man died. The uncle was Teddy, as Wintersohn paused for breath cabin boy on a merchant ship back in and lit another supercigarette. eighteen-forty-seven. They were com- “I was coming to that. The dying ing up through the Caribbean when a cook said that the merchant ship was pirate sailed up and opened fire. But a bigger, better ship than the pirates’. the merchant ship was loaded for bear. Besides that, they wanted the papers on She licked the pirate in fair fight.” her, so they could enter ports without Captain Teddy was leaning forward, any trouble from port officers, and stay eyes alight. long enough to get their new wives. “The crew was all pepped up,” Win- “Well, as I said, the cook was a tersohn went on. “They fought like square sport, too. Before he died, he demons. When the scrap was over the drew this map on a piece of paper they only living man on the pirate ship was took from the bottom of a ship’s biscuit the cook, a fellow named Daniel Cha- tin. He signed it. You saw the signa- ney, and he was wounded.” ture. Then he died.” “ “That’s it, is it?” said O’Shea. ‘D. “Let’s see the map again,” said Cap- ” Chaney. His Chart.’ tain Teddy. “That’s it,” said Wintersohn. An in- Silently he studied it for a moment. scrutable smile was playing about the “So that’s where the treasure is,” said corners of his mouth. he. “At the cross on the crest of the “The cook was dying, anyway,*” he beach between the big tree, and the big pursued. “All shot up and cut up. So rock, at the head of this cove on the they took him on board the merchant- north shore?” man when he begged them to let him “That’s the place,” said Wintersohn. die among honest folks. He told ’em he “The rock is probably what we’ll spot wasn’t really a pirate, anyway. He had it by,” said O’Shea. “I doubt me if the been captured by the pirates and forced tree has lasted since 1847 in all the hur- to cook for ’em or walk the plank. So ricanes we’ve had.” Pete Hansen’s uncle, the cabin boy, gave He studied the faded, yellowed sheet him water to drink and bathed his once more. wounds. The rest were all too busy to “I wonder why th’ cabin boy never bother about a dying cook, anyway. went after it,” he mused. “It was lucky for us that they were. “You’d not wonder if you’d heard the For that pirate cook, he was a square story Pete Hansen told me,” grinned O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 63

Wintersohn. “That merchantman so interested in getting the boat that I

wound up at Seattle. There Pete’s un- overlooked it. Get some pickaxes and cle married one of those women that spades and crowbars—you’ll know what made the rolling pin famous. She never we need.” let him go to sea again, let alone hunt “Sure,” said Captain Teddy. “Can pirate treasure. She caught him young you be here at nine in the morning? and treated him rough.” We’ll be ready to cast off then.”

Captain Teddy’s answering grin “Nine it is,” quoth Wintersohn smil- flashed out. ingly.

“Pm wise,” said he. “They sure can They gripped hands again. That is, boss their own deck, th’ ladies.” Captain Teddy did the gripping. “Well,” said Wintersohn, “there you Over the wharf side stepped the vis- are.” itor, waved a farewell hand, and started He reached into his pocket, produced cityward. a roll of bank notes, stripped off ten Down in the stuffy interior of the one-hundred-dollar bills, and handed Patsy, Captain Teddy called his crew them to O’Shea. about him and broke the news. “Render me a bill for the expenses “Are you with me?” he asked. when we get back,” said he. “And be They were. To a man. And from sure you don’t overlook anything. the moment they filed out, pledged to Pm a square sport and I pride myself secrecy, the little schooner throbbed with on it.” excitement. “We could settle when we get back,” Then, as Jimmie Cole and Jack Mc- said Captain Teddy, “but if you wish, Kay and Curly, with an unexpectedly I’ll take that thousand. Are you com- idle day on their hands, sat on the ing with us alone ?” Patsy’s deck in the soft April air, “I was about to mention that,” said dreaming dreams more golden than the Wintersohn. “I’ve got three friends I sunlight that bathed them, while their want to take with me. They’re rich cigarette butts flipped into the muddy men—square sports like you and me. river, Captain Teddy went below once They’ve known about this for some more and pulled out his chart of the

time, and I promised ’em I’d take ’em Yucatan Straits. with me whenever I made the trip. His trained navigator’s memory This year’s the first time I’ve been in checked against the faded lines of that

shape to go. Up to my neck in busi- stained paper marked : “D. Chaney. His ness up in Seattle. No time for luxu- Chart. 1847.” ries like hunting pirate treasure. Only “It’s the north shore of Swan Island, two years ago Pete Hansen died and all right,” said he to himself. left me the map.” And he, too, lighting that black old “It’ll crowd us a little,” said the brier, relaxed into dreams of what two Patsy’s master. “But if they don’t mind hundred thousand dollars would mean. roughing it they can make it.” To Mother O’Shea. To the lads they “They’re good sports and square had picked up from the streets, now sports,” said Wintersohn. “They’ll making so splendid a fight for a start take what’s coming. Will to-morrow in life. To the neighborhood kids he morning be right for the start?” loved—and that loved him. To him “Fine,” said Captain Teddy. “I’ll and to his crew, veterans of so many have to get some tools to-day, though.” cruises after the redfish. Wintersohn started. In his heart those chords placed there “That’s one on me,” he said. “I was so many Irish generations back were —

64 Sea Stories Magazine.

thrumming like harp strings plucked by when you split it five ways. Now a master hand. No liquor ever distilled you’ve got your orders. We get aboard could give that glow. at nine o’clock in the morning. Then For the tales of pirate gold at which it’s us for the big clean-up.” a modern and sophisticated world may scoff still ring with truth to the sea- Distinctly right was Captain Teddy. faring men of the Gulf. They may jest. “It’ll crowd us a little,” he had said But at heart they believe. Was it not when first Wintersohn had told him of only yesterday that Jean Lafitte and the three additional passengers. his Baratarian buccaneers swaggered It did. down the Rue Royale in Nouvelle Or- To O’Shea and his men, accustomed leans, scattering the gold they won? to the rough life of the trips after the A sudden racket of raised voices redfish, that crowding meant little. floated down the companionway, break- They were the sort with whom one sails ing through the O’Shea meditations. or camps or fishes frictionlessly. Each Up th& steps he lean*'" had his jobs to do. Each did them. for them complaint at sleep “What’s the rov. . »ie called. Not was “I’m gonna knock Jimmie Cole’s block caught on moss-filled mattresses or on plumb out from under his hat if he bare planking; at the discomforts of don’t lay off’n me, skipper,” growled eight men living close on a forty-ton Jack McKay. “He tells me I don’t schooner built for four. know the difference between a limou- But the three who had come on board sine and a coupe. He’ll damn well find with Skee Wintersohn had evidently in out when he sees me rollin’ down Canal all their sporting lives of wealth, on Street in me limousine after this trip, which he laid such stress, done little the big stiff!” of the living in the open that trains men “Shut up, you blasted fool!” ordered to get along in camp or afloat. Captain Teddy. “I’ll brain the jackass “Gentlemen, meet Captain O’Shea,”

that mentions money till we’re out at Wintersohn had said, when first they !” sea had piled overside that morning, their But his eyes were twinkling as his heavy kitbags dumped on the Patsy’s tongue lashed them. It had just struck deck.—And by name he had presented him that he never had rolled down them “Mister Fred Andrus, captain; Canal Street in a limousine. Mister Joseph Lamantia and Mister Peter Sebastian.” In a room whose windows gave on Now Captain Teddy was not strong the dingy outlook of Rampart Street for most formalities. But he had the dingy by day, though at night it flared average seaman’s belief in a man who with the tawdry glare of one of the grips you clean and looks in your eyes Tango Belt’s thoroughfares—Skee Win- when he talks to you. And the greet- tersohn at that particular moment was ing of this trio was singularly remi- talking with three men. niscent to Ifim of the curiously flabby “So you see what a little brains will handclasp of their introducer. do,” he ended. “You birds stick with But he had been busy, then. Point me and this is the last time you ever by point he had made final check of have to raise a finger unless you want water, gasoline, stores, and equipment to. The poor boob swallowed it, hook, for the two-thousand-mile round trip * •-* line, and 'sinker. The boat’s ours for ahead of the— . "U last, to his the trip. Alcantraz is fixed. Figure snappj orders, mooring lines were cast for yourself what about a million makes off, the engine that was Jimmie Cole’s O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 65 especial charge had snorted its* custom- Will yo’ fo’give me, please? He was my ma-a-a-an, but he done me ary indignant snorts at being disturbed ” wrong.’ and Had settled down to work—and the Patsy was out in mid-stream. All this was passing through Captain There, deftly threading the mass of Teddy’s mind as he held to his course river traffic, ducking astern of the big for Swan Island down through the Esplanade Avenue ferryboat with its Gulf of Mexico. load of passengers, she had straight- All was not well aboard ship, he con- ened out downstream and headed into ceded to himself. It needed the feel of her ninety-mile journey to The Passes, his money belt, with that thousand where her bow first would feel the lift tucked away in it, to comfort him. If of the Mexican Gulf’s big rollers and these men with Wintersohn were the Port Eads light would sink out of wealthy sportsmen, then he was an avia- sight. tor, he told himself. There had been Clustered in the bow as she rounded times before when the Patsy had been Algiers Point had stood Wintersohn and chartered for fishing cruises. Captain his three. They had talked low-voiced O’Shea knew a gentleman and a sports- among themselves. In their city clothes man when he saw one and, above all, they were odd contrasts to the Patsy’s — when he sailed with one. dungaree-clad men. He couldn’t place his finger on the Jack McKay, as the captain thought wrong spot, just yet. But the wrong it over, had been the only boisterous spot was there, he knew. Of that he spirit aboard. He had looked back grew surer and surer. astern as they rounded the first curve There was the matter of Curly, for in the river. There, above the crest of instance. Something was distinctly the Esplanade Avenue levee, they could wrong with Curly. Since first Captain barely see the gray outlines of the roof Teddy had come upon him on the water of the ancient mint. front, a cocaine-ridden wreck of a “We overlooked a bet, cap,” said Jack youth, had given him food and shelter to O’Shea at tfye wheel. and had helped him fight free of the “How come, 'Jack?” drug, he thought he had grown to un- “Got away without reserving part of derstand the youngster. that mint to put our gold in, cap.” “Get on wit’ you, you levee cray- But the past couple of days, since Wintersohn and his come fish,” O’Shea had retorted. “Get for- crowd had aboard, Curly strangely changed. ’ard and coil up those ropes before I was bust you wide open.” There was silence where before had been venturings of cheerful talk. There “Levee crayfish, is it? Many’s the his that did mornin’ I’ve waked up on the levee, was a look on face O’Shea not like. watched a crayfish crawl up on it, an’ Captain told himself, said, 'Good mornin’, breakfast!’ to him. “Well,” Teddy “these thing come out in the wash. All But after we get back this time, it’s me is is this job through for grapefruit and lamb chops at the there to do see !” Saint Charles, me lord and keep both eyes peeled.” Forward he went to coil the rope, his Which he proceeded to do. voice rising in the mournful ballad of his happy hours: Nine days out of New Orleans they made their way, through April weather “Frankie went to Albert's mother, superbly glorious. At last, in the lazy Fell down on her knees; Says: ‘Ah done kill yo’ Albert, afternoon hours that precede the splen- 66 Sea Stories Magazine

dor of a tropical sunset, the palms of way into the bight of the cove. Close Swan Island rose before their eyes like by the white sand beach they an- tiny feather dusters upreared against chored. the sky. Above them slowly rose the great and Through his glasses Captain Teddy gleaming circle of the tropical moon. spotted the tall tower that held aloft The palms in silhouette. Jet black in

the wireless antennae, and pointed it out silhouette the Patsy against a sea of to Wintersohn. placid silver. But none on board the “Judging from the map,” he told little schooner had an eye for this. Ex- him, “the cove we want is some little citement pervaded every man. Winter- way down the north shore. We’d best sohn and his men knew what it was that make it after dark so there’ll be no more was burning in the thoughts of the excitement than we can help. I’ll skirt Patsy’s men. But they alone knew what the coast and spot the place before sun- was in their own veins, flaming like a down.” fever. Slowly they cruised along, parallel- Hasty was the supper that Jack Mc- ing the beach, while Jack McKay held Kay threw together. And then, after the wheel and Captain Teddy, after much overhauling of tackle, they prolonged scrutiny of the chart of D. stretched out for the night’s sleep. Chaney, searched the shore with his Somehow, as he lay on his moss- glasses. stuffed mattress on the Patsy’s deck, “She’s full of coves,” he said. “It’s Captain Teddy felt vaguely perturbed. the big rock I’m watching for. I don’t He would have been more so, had he think the tree has lasted all this heard the whispered passage between time.” Skee Wintersohn and Pete Lamantia up All eyes aboard followed the un- in the bow, a short time before. winding panorama of the shore as the “I never thought of it before,” had Patsy rocked along at half speed. trickled from the corner of Lamantia’s And at last mouth, “t>ut who th’ hell figgered out “There’s your rock, I’m thinking,” that big-rock business ? How’d yuh

said O’Shea quietly. know it was there?” There it stood, a great, gray jutting “Shut up, you mush-brained stiff,” mass of stone to the right of the deep Wintersohn had answered in the same

cove that opened out before them. sibilant undertone. “Jever know me t’ There were a few palm trees of younger sit in on a game I wasn’t wise to? growth about the curve of the shore line, That’s the rock where Alcantraz is but nothing like the big tree marked on headin’ in to meet us. The one he told the chart of Daniel Chaney. me about back in New Orleans last time At a call from Captain Teddy, Jim- he was there. That’s why I had ‘Hop’ mie Cole shut off his engine. Silently Purser put it on the chart.” the Patsy swung on the big swells that brought her nearer and nearer while Up out of the east a faint and tremu- once more they studied the stained and lous light pushed its way. Dim and ragged chart. Then the tropical night misty against the line where sea and shut down on them like a curtain that sky met, the vanguard of purple and

is lowered. mauve skirmishers filtered through the With propeller turning at half speed, dark. A tiny bead, glowing redly as and electric torches flashing from the the peephole into a furnace, climbed bow, where with line and lead Jack Mc- above the horizon. It heightened—wid- Kay took soundings, they nosed their ened—and then with a sudden leap be- O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 67

came the upper arc of a round shield Of sohn drove a stake. Stringing a cord gleaming brass. to it, he marked a great circle, some But the sunrise did not have the world thirty feet in diameter. to itself that morning in that particular Hardly had that circle been completed cove on Swan Island. Down in the when Jack McKay was on the job, dig- Patsy's galley the big, black iron kettle ging like a Texas hound at an armadillo was singing as Jack McKay poured hole. fiercely boiling water into his tall New Wintersohn, standing to one side, lit Orleans coffee dripper. No alarm a cigarette and watched for a moment. clock was needed to awaken Jack that His smile was that of one amused. morning. Beside him stepped Fred Andrus. “Come on, you scissor bills,” rang “I’ll say you made the hole big his cheery call as he stepped on deck enough, boss,” said he, low voiced. with a big coffee pot steaming in one “Had to be,” murmured Wintersohn. hand, a rattling collection of aluminum “The way that bird is making dirt fly, cups, strung by a cord through their there ain’t going to be no island if he handles, jingling from the other. “Wake keeps it up a week.” up! Come on ’n’ get it!” Jack McKay was certainly making

They came and got it. good his boast. His self-annexed title “Shake a leg,” implored Jack. “Tear of King of the Dirt Diggers was never into this pan of hash I’ve got for you in danger after the first score of shov- and get this breakfast over. The cap elfuls. says I get me a thousand-dollar bonus if All that morning the spades delved I uncover the stuff first. Come on ’n’ steadily. When the sun above them

lead me to it. I got my own pet spade proclaimed noon there was a temporary picked out and I’m king of the dirt knock-off, and while dinner was being diggers till we find it.” eaten from the stock of tinned goods That breakfast was finished in jig- brought ashore in the skiff, Captain time. The dishwashing Jack arranged Teddy ranged afar. He returned with with masterly simplicity. Dumping the a sack of coconuts. These, their tops array of tin and aluminum into a sack, sliced with a keen machete, provided he tied the neck of it with a rope and noble drink.

swung it overboard. “They tell me they lace ’em with a “We’ll let the tide of Yucatan Straits shot of gin,” mourned Jimmie Cole, as do the housework to-day,” said he. he emptied his fifth. “Show me where we start that hole.” “Kid, we’ll come back ’n’ lace ’em They were overside in the skiff be- with champagne when this cruel war is fore the day was an hour old. over and we’ve got the loot,” grinned There was a careful survey of the Jack McKay. cove. The big rock was not to be ques- He arose, stretched himself, seized tioned. And there might have been a spade, and drove at his task once more. big tree at the other arm of the cove “Come on, you scissor bills,” he called r back in 1847 when Daniel Chaney made to the crowd. “I smell money. Only his chart, conceded Captain Teddy. thing I ever sweated over like this was There certainly was none now. But a levee crap game.” the “X” on the chart showed at the rise of the beach in the bight o & the cove, The hole was widening—deepening. midway between rock and tree. In the Six days had passed. In the glare of center of that curve, after elaborate pac- the tropical sun, digging in a mixture ings and measurements, Skee Winter- of limestone-rock dust and sand comes 68 Sea Stories Magazine the nearest known to digging in talcum hundred for their work. They’ve earned powder. Even Jack McKay’s irrepres- it. sible spirits were beginning to lag. “D’you suppose,” asked Captain Two days more the Patsy’s men Teddy, as they paused for dinner that fought blazing sun and talcum-powder sixth day, “that we’ve spotted the wrong beach with their spades—and then they cove? There’s a bunch of ’em along had to give it up. The hole was get- this north shore. It might be worth ting too big and. deep for further exca- our time to give ’em the once-over vation without buckets. They had dug again. That man Chaney may have clean from the crest of the beach’s high- made some mistake. For we’re getting est center to water level—and they were pretty deep now, even allowing for the standing nearly knee-deep in water sand that’s washed up in seventy-odd seepage when they quit. years.” That was the night Juan Alcantraz “I’ll say we’re gettin’ deep,” quoth stepped into the scene. Jack McKay wearily. “I heard a sound The moon had been obscured by this mornin’ I swear was somebody clouds, or they would have seen him talkin’ Chinese!” sooner. As it was, the click of his oar- A while they debated. Then it was locks brought them up standing, their agreed that the seventh day be spent in backs to the little fire they had lit, peer- resting on board the Patsy and that the ing out into the darkness of the cove. next day they scout the shore line some Up on the beach ran the bow of a more. battered skiff. Three swarthy Mexicans The search proved fruitless. There were at the oars. Over the thwarts was no cove in all the line of indenta- stepped a small and dapper figure in tions that showed anything as near the white, the brown face with a wispy black great rock of "D. Chaney. His Chart” mustache and swift-moving black eyes as the cove in which now yawned the making swift circuit of the group of giant hole. men as he approached. That night they sat by the base of the “Good evening, senors,” said he. big rock, to which they had returned, “Juan Alcantraz is my name. Captain talking it over. The crew of the Patsy of the schooner El Isleo, veree much in were frankly disgusted. Wintersohn’s distress. Whom have I the honor of crowd loafed about easily, quite uncon- meeting ?” cerned. The rites of introduction were com- “I’ll tell you what,” said Captain pleted. Teddy. “I don’t want to seem a quit- “The schooner Patsee of New Or- ter, but we can’t dig up all Swan Island, leans?” repeated Alcantraz. “Are you and there’s nothing looks better than by any chance filled with cargo?” this cove. I’m for up-anchor and back “That we are not,” said the Patsy’s to New Orleans.” master. “And it’s happy I’d be if we “Not yet,” said Wintersohn. “If had forty tons of redfish under our you’ll recall, I paid you a thousand flat hatches this holy minute.” for the round trip and two weeks here. “Why, captain?” spoke Wintersohn We’ll fight it out for the rest of that to the Mexican. “Why are you inter- two weeks. If we don’t turn up the ested in the Patsy’s cargo? Do you stuff by then—well, I’m out a thousand want to do some business with her? I fish and it’s my funeral.” have the boat under charter.” "We’ll stick,” said Captain Teddy. “That,” said Alcantraz, “by the “I’m giving each of my boys an extra providence of God, seems fortunate.” O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 69

And he launched into his story. only see her way clear to taking on that

The El Isleo, it seemed, was laden transshipped cargo and delivering it to with a cargo precious to science, though those men of science awaiting in New commercially valueless. She- was out of Orleans, his reputation as a mariner Puerto Cortez in Spanish Honduras. who kept agreements would be main- Certain scientists exploring far into the tained. Also there would be profit for interior had gathered specimens of great the Patsee. Not much profit. But still value to them. These, cased, they were some profit. Would El Capitan O’Shea shipping to New Orleans on the El Isleo consider such a proposal? because of that schooner’s extraordi- “It’s up to Mr. Wintersohn,” Captain narily low rate for freights. Teddy informed the Mexican. “He has “These men of science, senors, as you the Patsy under charter for the rest of doubtless know, are rarely men of great the week on Swan Island and for the funds.” trip back to New Orleans. This trans- El Capitan Alcantraz, it appeared, had shipping cargo in mid-voyage is a bit guaranteed delivery at New Orleans irregular, my friend. But I guess it wharves at a specified date. There at might be handled if you’re as full of the seaport would be waiting other men water as you say you are. You’re cer- of science to take over the specimens. tainly in distress.” But misfortune had followed close Alcantraz turned to Wintersohn. upon his heels. Coming up toward the “Shall we talk business, senor?” he Yucatan Straits the El Isleo had known asked. naught but trouble. Trouble with her “We sure will,” said Wintersohn. gasoline engine. Trouble with her “This is what you sailors call an act of seams. Even now in her hull was more God, I guess,” he added, grinning at water than was comfortable. Captain Teddy. “Here’s where I make Coming to Swan Island, El Capitan a stab at covering part of that thousand Alcantraz had made a decision. He I paid you.” would beach his schooner, with his men “More power to you,” said O’Shea, he would do the best job of calking stuffing his pipe. that could be done outside a shipyard, Side by side, Alcantraz and Winter- and would proceed to New Orleans, tak- sohn walked down the beach a short ing his loss for late delivery. That way, talking earnestly. They continued was his misfortune. But no capitan to talk earnestly as they seated them- worthy the name, solicitous for his men selves on a sea-bleached log. So ear- and his craft, would venture from Swarv nestly that they did not notice a form Island crippled as was the El Isleo. scretched in the sand a few feet away Men came ever before profits in the in the darkness. heart of the true mariner. Curly, alone in the body as so often “El Capitan O'Shea, as one mariner he seemed alone in the spirit, had wan- to another, will confirm me to a cer- dered from the fire earlier in the eve- tainty.” ning. Sprawled on the warm sand, he El Capitan O’Shea duly confirmed had been turning over bitter thoughts. him as to the traditions of the sea in Suddenly to his ear cartie the low voices such cases. of Wintersohn and Alcantraz, exchang- However, observed El Capitan Alcan- ing staccato sentences in the “talky-talk” traz, the fates were with him for once. Spanish of Gulf port and Mexican Here on Swan Island he had seen their border. fire. Here they lay with empty hold. It was old stuff to Curly. Familiar So, he continued, if the Patsee could stuff. For in the days before “the hop” 70 Sea Stories Magazine

had fastened its talons on him, before With the dawn they were away. Al- he had “done his hitch’’ in San Quentin, cantraz, from the strip of white sand Curly had been an active figure in a where the El Isleo was beached, waved fantastic world. He had known mem- them farewell. A fine full breeze bel- orable months by the gateway of Ca- lied taut the foresail and mainsail they lexico, where the running of drugs spread. And with Jimmie Cole’s gaso- across the Mexican line and up the Im- line kicker working sturdily, the Patsy perial Valley of California had flour- bored into the long, blue rollers, New ished in a bizarre battle of brains and Orleans bound. There was a nine-day speed between the drug runners and stretch of straight going for her before Uncle Sam’s inspectors. she would sight the twinkle of Port Silent in the sand, Curly lay and lis- Eads light, wind in through South Pass, tened. and so make her twisting way up the Mississippi to New Orleans.

Romance had gilded the flying shov- . Wintersohn stood beside Captain els as that empty-yawning hole on the Teddy at the wheel. beach near by had been dug. But there “I don’t expect we’ll have much trou- was no gilt of romance about the task ble with the customs men about this of transferring wooden boxes from the transshipment business,” said Captain El Isleo’s hold to the Patsy’s. That was Teddy. “It isn’t like a straight com-

plain work. And they went to it, while mercial cargo.” Wintersohn and his trio, who had done “No,” said Wintersohn, “that’ll all little labor during the digging, now be attended to.” sweated with the Patsy’s men at their He smiled a bit ironically. He had

task. arranged it. It would all be attended “And to think,” quoth Jack McKay to. But hardly as Captain Teddy as he labored, “if we’d found that blasted thought. gold we could have sat pretty and And then watched the rest of the world work a “It’s a wonder to me there weren’t while. If I could only get hands on the some men from the wireless station

lad who drew that chart ! I hope he’s in around to see us,” said O’Shea. “We a hotter place than this.” went in quietly enough. But we were But they saw the job through. After there pretty long to pass unnoticed. two days of labor beneath a searing “It’s a sizable island, you know,” said

sun, it was accomplished. Stacked Wintersohn. “And they stick pretty evenly beneath the Patsy’s hatches was close to their station. I don’t think they that cargo of scientific specimens. Some knew a soul was on the place.” were of unusual weight. Others were “Probably you’re right,” said Cap- light. But all were firmly nailed in tain Teddy. “It sure would have wooden cases. sounded foolish to try to explain that Trim and shipshape at last, the Patsy hole to ’em. We’d have got a glorious was ready for her voyage back across ha-ha handed us when we quit. The the Gulf. All was set for starting in story’d have swept the Gulf in no time.” the morning. There had been little Probably it was just as good for the sleep in the nights while the expecta- contentment of both Captain Teddy and tions of the Patsy’s crew had been that Wintersohn that neither of them knew every morning would reveal buried the message that on that very morning gold. But this night, limp from long had gone flashing through the open exertion, they lay about the deck fath- spaces above the Gulf, in the company oms deep in slumber. code. O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 71

“Simmons, General Manager, United meal with Wintersohn and his men talk- Fruit Company, New Orleans,” ran that ing among themselves on topics message. “Fishing schooner Patsy, out shrouded with unfamiliar references to

New Orleans, slipped into north-shore the rest still ; with the Patsy’s crew in cove Swan Island two weeks ago. Kept the slump of reaction from dashed her under observation. Men worked hopes/ like horses for week digging hole in There was the hour of cigarettes on beach big enough for foundation Wool- deck, the desultory and casual chatter. worth Building. Joined later by Presently, save for Captain at . Teddy schooner El Islco, home port unknown. the wheel, the men sought their mat- Transshipped cargo El Isleo to Palsy in tresses. Far forward on the deck Skee two-day job. Patsy sailed north this Wintersohn and his trio were stretched morning. Suggest you advise customs out in the full sweep of the breeze. authorities Gulf ports. El Isleo went Soon there sounded the mingled south four hours after Patsy sailed. chorus of snores that told of heavy What shall we do with hole they left? sleep. “Frank Ryan, Then it was that Curly crept back to “Chief Wireless Operator, the wheel, stood close to Captain Teddy v “Swan Island.” with warning finger upheld, and whis- But nobody on the Patsy knew of that pered long and earnestly. * message. Nor of the answer that “You told us about coming home with flashed back before Swan Island had a million dollars in gold,” he ended. entirely vanished from the horizon: “You’re heading home with a million “Frank Ryan, Chief Wireless Op- dollars, all right. But it ain’t in gold. erator, Swan Island. Thanks for in- It’s in hop.” formation. Customs authorities Gulf “Curly, are you lyin’ to me?” asked ports advised. In regard hole left in Captain O’Shea tonelessly, without heat. North Cove beach suggest you and rest “Open up a box below and look. Any of station crew fill it up in spare time box’ll do,” whispered back Curly. now devoted to shooting crap. Other- “Only don’t let any of those four see wise pull it up by roots, ship to New you do it. There’ll be murder on this York, and sell to some contractor. Use boat if you do.” own discretion. If sold, keep profits “Why didn’t you tell me about this with company’s compliments. before?” whispered O’Shea hoarsely.

“Simmons.” “I’ve been figuring it out in my own Knowing naught of this, however, the mind,” said Curly. “I’ll tell you

Patsy sailed serenely on. There was, straight, captain, I didn’t know whether however, a puzzled nest of lines grow- you were kidding Jack and Jimmie and ing on Captain Teddy’s brow. This epi- me, or whether you were being kidded. sode, ran his hunch, certainly must con- I told myself I was taking a chance tain a woodpile with a nigger in it. Or when I came up here to see you this a bug with a chip above it. The thou- time.” sand dollars in his belt was real. But “Are you sure you’re right, Curly?” something was wrong somewhere. He “Sure?” Curly’s tone was bitter. wished that he knew exactly what it “Captain, I knew him from the minute was. I saw him step out of that skiff. ‘Juan

Alcantraz’ my eye ! He’s Rafael Cal y It was two days out from Swan Is- Mayor, with a dozen monakers up and land that light came to him. down the border. Back in the old days Supper had ended—a dull sort of in Calexico he was one of the busiest 72 Sea Stories Magazine men in the game. You know I’ve been “Why do you suppose he’s got those out of it since you helped me lick the three gunmen with him?” he asked. hop. But it looked to me like you’d “By the time the customs crowd get to gone into it.” the Patsy, if they take the trouble to “Boy, I’m damned if I blame you,” look at a fishing schooner they’ve known admitted Captain Teddy. “But it ain’t for years, she’ll be empty and you’ll going to look like that for long, I’m have a fine story to tell. The minute tellin’ you. What I can’t understand is you get up to the coast they’re going to how they expect to get past the cus- round us all up at the point of their toms with it.” guns and take the boat over themselves. “Get past the customs!” Curly’s And you’ll have a hell of a fine time smile was mirthless. “Didn’t I tell you finding the stuff once they get it out you I got their whole plan when they of the Patsy. Wintersohn has some were talking down on the beach at Swan launches waiting down by Pointe-a-la- Island that night? If they weren’t such hache and when you and the rest of us a double-crossing bunch, I’d have come to, we’ll have nothing but the known what to do then. Now get this memory that they’ve made damned fools straight. out of us. Not that I blame ’em. The “Rafael would be a millionaire if he opium, cocaine, morphine, and heroin wasn’t a. nut on gambling. I’ve heard they’ve got in this cargo is worth enough of his dropping fifty thousand dollars to drive any dope runner crazy, let a night—gold, not pesos—in that Juarez alone a double-crossing bunch like keno game alone. Well, here was where Rafael and Wintersohn.” he was planning to make his clean-up. “So that’s the game,” mused Captain That was one of the big drug cargoes Teddy softly. “I’ve been wonderin’ he was running up to the Louisiana somewhat, since first we started. And coast. And he had the thing fixed with I’ve been wonderin’ more since I first Wintersohn in advance. The drug-ring lamped that greaser schooner. They did gang were to meet Rafael down near a poor job getting that water in her. Grand Isle with three big express cruis- A poor job. And the boy who picked ers and take off his cargo. They know some of the oakum out of her seams when he left Puerto Cortez. They’ll was too careless about the marks he be cruising off shore looking for him. left.” He couldn’t take a chance on slipping “Before. you start anything, captain,” past ’em. So he and Wintersohn had whispered Curly. "Watch that boy La- to get a boat that the cruisers wouldn’t mantia. He’s the hardest-boiled gun- recognize when they saw it, and get man of the lot. And get this straight, the El Isleo’s cargo in that boat. They too. I’m not putting you wise to this had a fellow named Hop Purser up in on account of any reform stuff. That New Orleans fix up that fake map to kind of gang was more or less my gang, put it over on you. For they had to have once—though we weren’t quite so good you down here in time to meet Rafael at double crossing—till the stuff got me. after he left Puerto Cortez. Can’t you That game’ll go on long after you and get it through your thick Irish head? I are dead. But you’re the man helped There never was any gold. They’re me get on my feet when I hit New Or- using you as a cat’s-paw.” leans down and out. I don’t want you “But how’ll they get the stuff past the tangled up in anything that ends in the customs in the Patsy?” persisted Federal pen. Atlanta’s a -pretty place, O’Shea. all right, but not when Uncle Sam’s pay- Curly looked at him pityingly. ing your board.” !

O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 73

“Forget it,” said Captain Teddy. at sundry floating targets that were his Silent again he sat for a space, his delight. From the shelf near by he hand gripping the wheel spokes. Headed took an electric torch. Then, his bare for New Orleans with a million in drugs feet and Jack McKay’s making no

aboard ! And a double-crossing drug sound, they went up the companionway runner and his three gunmen. The like twin shadows of a dream. Patsy! An honest fishing schooner Forward they made their way. whose captain and crew would be the A sudden flare of light bathed the butts of water-front jest for years to faces of the four who slept on the for- come, if anybody knew. Treasure hunt- ward deck. ing for pirate gold. Made a fool of by “Wake up, you crooks! Sit up and a smooth city slicker of a dope-running stick your hands up!” rang Captain crook Teddy’s call. Well, it was six or seven days yet Through the mists of sleep of three before he’d sight the Port Eads light. of them it penetrated. The four fig- The city might be Wintersohn’s home ures stretched on the mattresses grounds. But here was O’Shea’s pri- snapped up like marionettes at the jerk vate back yard, out here in the Gulf of of a string. But one had stayed awake Mexico. —by order. Through Captain Teddy’s being stole From the mattress that had held La- once more the glow that flamed with mantia stabbed a flash of flame. He the dawning of some event beyond life’s had lain with his automatic by his side. redfishing routine. He sat up, shooting.

“Hold her as she is, Curly,” he whis- One with the crack of the pistol was pered. the roar of the shotgun as Captain Teddy pulled trigger, while a searing Softly he slipped off his shoes and pain of a steel- jacketed forty-five’s pas- socks. Softly he stepped down the aft sage racked his ribs. Lamantia’s howl companionway, where slept Jack Mc- rose high. His pistol clattered to the Kay. One muscular hand clamped deck from a mutilated hand.

firmly over Jack’s mouth, while another “Th’ next man gets it in th’ bread gripped his shoulder and a whisper basket,” roared O’Shea. “Who’s start- sounded in his ear. in’ somethin’? Come on!” “Not a sound, lad. It’s me, the cap. But nobody was answering his plea. Are ye awake?” Nobody else was starting anything, just Jack nodded vigorously against the then. muffling hand. “Over there by the bulwark, Jack,” “We’re goin’ to give these high- ordered Captain Teddy. “Frisk ’em, jackin’ crooks aboard the time of their one at a time. You, Wintersohn, step

young lives, Jack,” husked the whisper over first. Keep your hands up ! Shut in his ear again. “It’s too long a story up your trap! You’re lucky you’re to tell you now, but we’ve been double alive.” crossed, me boy. Just you come with Wintersohn stepped over. me and make no noise and follow your Leaping to the deck at the sound of orders.” the shots came Jimmie Cole, flash light From brackets above the bunk Cap- and pistol in hand. tain Teddy softly slipped the pump shot- “Keep your light on ’em, Jimmie,” gun of his winter duck-hunting forays called O’Shea. “You can chuck your down the coast. Always he kept it gun overboard as far’s it’s needed. All aboard, oiled and loaded, for pot-shots it takes is one fightin’ Irishman an’ a 74 Sea Stories Magazine

popgun t’ handle these cross-bred dou- forged steadily ahead, the four of them ble-crossin’ hard guys. Watch ’em step held counsel. lively.” “Bring up a case of those ‘scientific • While the converging beams of the specimens’ from below, Jack,” ordered two torches kept the quartet in sharp O’Shea. relief, Jack McKay went happily about It was on deck a few moments later. his job of frisking. Eight heavy auto- Ax and crowbar worked on the wood. matics he brought to light in hip and The lid came off. There, packed in shoulder holster, and three knives of orderly array, lay tin after tin of those vicious point and length of blade. “five-tael” cans of the poppy’s gum that “It’s a fine bunch of gentleman sports- every narcotic-squad man knows.

men we have with us,” quoted Captain “Look at it, lads,” said Captain O’Shea bitterly. “Get- a length of rope, Teddy. “Here we stand with a cargo

Jimmie. Tie up the three of ’em while of hell’s own dope aboard, fit to ruin a I keep ’em covered. Jack, dig out a few thousand good men. Curly can tell first-aid kit you what it did for and bandage th’ hand _ of him before we took that yelpin’ yellow street cur.” him aboard and he broke loose from it.

Triced up with expert hand, Winter- From all I can find, it’s worth about as sohn, Andrus, and Sebastian lay pres- much as the gold we came to get, chas- ently on the forward deck. Beside ing with a forged chart that’s made a them, his wounded hand bandaged and fool of me. I’ve got me own ideas of his feet tied by a rope that looped up what to do. But we’ve sailed the Patsy around his uninjured wrist, sat La- on shares a long time. I’m not talking mantia. as a captain. I’m talking as a man to Their positions remained unchanged man. I want to know if you’re wit’ me throughout the night. Captain Teddy, to th’ limit an’ willin’ to let me have Jack McKay, Jimmie Cole, and Curly my own way in this?” took their turns at standing guard. “Are you goin’ t’ turn ’em over to Thus the morning found them. th’ police, cap?” asked Jack McKay.

“That I am not, if you’re wit’ me Through the breakfast hour Captain sight unseen,” said O’Shea. “Th’ only Teddy was ominously silent. His si- use an O’Shea ever had for th’ police lence held while the four were fed, as was to join ’em or fight ’em.” the Patsy surged ahead through a sun- Up spoke Jimmie Cole. lit sea. Then, with the ending of their “Play the game your own way, cap. meal, he went forward to give a look- We’re with you to the finish.” see to the prisoners. “And then some,” said Jack McKay. “Captain O’Shea, I’ve got a proposi- “It’s your show, captain,” said Curly. tion to make you .that’s worth the whole “Go to it.” two hundred thousand I first offered “Fine,” said Captain Teddy. “Jim- you,” said Wintersohn as their eyes met. mie, your engine’s runnin’ sweet enough. “You have, have you?” O’Shea’s She’ll go without attention for a while. tone was low and bitter. “You’re in a Curly, you keep the wheel. Jimmie and hell of a fine position to be maltin’ Jack are cornin’ for’ard with me.” propositions to me now, ain’t you? Forward they went. You’re through wit’ makin’ any kind of a proposition till we’re through wit’ “Unfasten that Wintersohn rat’s you, me bucko.” ropes, boys,” said O’Shea. In a mo- And then he called his own men aft ment the job was done, and the prisoner around the wheel. While the Patsy stood on deck. O'Shea Jettisons a Cargo 75

“I hope you’re willing to listen to His share of a million dollars! All reason, captain,” said he. it would give of the freedom of the ‘‘There’s no reason in me this morn- cities of the world; the fawning of the in’,” grated O’Shea. “It’s pure senti- men—and the women—of the only life ment I’m talkin’ now. I’ve .shaken he knew or wanted. hands wit’ you, you dirty scum. I’ve Suddenly the rage of the terrified and talked to you like a friend. You’ve cornered rat surged through him. And made a fool of me and double crossed the craft of one. me in a dirty trade. Now I’ve got to “See here, captain,” he began pla-

do somethin’ t’ take th’ bad taste out catingly, as he stepped forward, hands of me mouth.” hanging loosely at his side, “can’t you ” “What’s that?” asked Wintersohn, and I get together on paling suddenly. There was a gleam in In mid-sentence he struck. the little Irishman’s eyes that looked Had that uppercut landed with the like bad news. snapping weight of the man behind it, “You’ve got forty pounds on me,” said a knock-out had been the only answer. Captain Teddy calmly, “if you’ve got an But even ahead of Jack McKay’s shout ounce. You’ve got the shoulders of a of warning, Captain Teddy’s eye had stevedore. You call yourself a square seen the tensing of the man as he ad- sport. It seems to me you advertise it vanced. a bit too much, but that’s your busi- Wintersohn’s fist barely brushed his ness.” chin as the little seaman’s head snapped “What’s that got to do with it?” back. Before the bigger man had re-

“It’s got this to do wit’ it, you dirty covered his balance from the blow, crook: I’m goin’ to take a chance wit’ O’Shea was on top of him. you. We’re goin’ to mix it right here There was little science of the ring on deck, you and me. If you lick me, about Captain Teddy. But he was hard the cargo’s yours an’ th’ boat’s yours from heart to hide. And the bundle of to run it in wit’, if you can get away steel wires that was his tough little body wit’ it. My men won’t butt in. They’ve was white hot with the flaming spirit given me their word. It’s good, even of battle. Only one strategy he knew if yours ain’t. But if you don’t lick me, —to keep at his man, to hit and hit you slimy whelp, you an’ your gang are and hit again without let-up—never to tossin’ every box of this cargo overside let his foe get set. He went to it like with your own hands five minutes after a whirlwind. the fight is over. There’s good odds One wild swing to the body Winter- ” for you, me ‘square sport’ —and the sohn got home. The sheer impact of biting contempt of Captain Teddy’s it felled O’Shea to the deck. Like a voice would have left its mark on rhi- rubber ball he bounced to his feet again. noceros hide—-‘‘an’ I’m ready when you Like a blazing comet he shot in once are. Hop to it.” more, beneath the bigger man’s guard. Stark fear shone in Wintersohn’s The belt of fat that soft living in eyes. Big as he was, the streak of yel- cities had placed about Wintersohn was low in the core of his being shivered at the target for his driving punches. the sight of the little fighting Irishman Home he hammered at it, again and with the blazing berserker eyes, stand- again and again. ing there calmly, offering him a chance And then Wintersohn, panting, in at a million dollars—a fortune placed distress, seized him about the body in at the mercy of a few minutes’ fight on a the grip that precedes the foul and fishing schooner. deadly drive of swift-raised knee. 76 Sea Stories Magazine

!” “Watch it, cap roared Jack McKay, circle of the blue horizon. Which was himself a veteran of water-front rough- just as well. For there would be mari- and-tumble, who saw what was coming. time curiosity at the sight of three

There is only one defense for that sweating men, shotgun guarded, break- smash of knee at close quarters—and it ing out the cargo of a forty-ton schooner must be lightning quick. Captain Teddy in mid-Gulf and pitching it overside swung into it automatically. His own in a day of calm and sunshine. hands gripped the shoulders of his foe. One by one those cases of “scientific With tensing muscle he jerked his body specimens” splashed into the Gulf of to one side, free from foothold. The Mexico. Hundreds on hundreds of twisting pull of his weight as Winter- those five-tael tins of opium, those car- sohn’s knee rose threw them both to th|| tons of tablets of morphine, cocaine, deck. and heroin, came to light as with ax and Up like a striking snake whipped crowbar the lids of wooden cases were

Captain Teddy’s fist, a knot of wire. pried open.

Squarely it cracked against Winter- Driving his gang to their task, with sohn’s jaw, once, twice, thrice. The a look of calm and holy joy on his face,' big body relaxed. stood Jack McKay. With fist and boot To his feet scrambled Captain Teddy. and happy oath he sped them to their Before him danced Jack McKay, his work. arm rising and falling, as in mockery “And you’re the babies who stood of an invisible referee he counted the around soldierin’ and watched me dig “ten” of the ring’s knock-out. But no halfway to China on a fake chart,” he !” count was necessary. scoffed. “Sweat, you terriers ! Sweat A moment O’Shea stood there, gulp- They sweated. ing great breaths of salt air. Then At last the final case splashed over- “Sluice a bucket of water on him,” side. he ordered. “He’s got some work to Empty as she left, the Patsy was do.” coming home. With a grin of sheer boyishness he Amidships Captain Teddy lined up looked at Jack McKay. the quartet. Into the western horizon “ ’Twas a fine fight while it lasted, the sun was sinking, the sky a riot of was it not?” he asked. splendor. !” “I’ll tell the cock-eyed world it was “I’m minded to be far more decent whooped Jack. “Will you give me the to ye than ye’d ever be to me,” said other three, cap ? I’ll take ’em one at he. “Presently we’ll be sightin’ the a time.” Louisiana coast. I’m puttin’ ye into the His face fell. skiff, wit’ food and water for a couple “No,” said he. “Only two. But I of days. And ye can row for land. might tie a hand behind me to even it Ye’ll find some fishin’ village or a boat with the guy you shot.” somewhere. Tell ’em you’re city fisher- “Not a chance, Jack. They’re just men if they ask questions. I’m thinkin’ the hired men. We’ve handled the ye’ll not be wantin’ any more publicity boss,” said O’Shea. than most crooks.” And then he shook himself, tucked in He stood for a moment, stuffing and a flapping shirt, and drank hugely at lighting his pipe. the water butt. “Ye’re a fine lot of the scum of the “I feel ’cleaner,” said the Patsy’s earth,” said he. “The dirtiest fo’c’s’le master. ever I saw would be insulted t’ have ye Not a hull was in sight in the whole dumped in it. Up for’ard, the lot of O’Shea Jettisons a Cargo 77 ye. Jack McKay, tie ’em up. We’ll proof against the moments when those feed ’em and give ’em water—but we flying banks of cloud temporarily over- ought to use an ax on ’em and let ’em cast the moon. In those moments he give the sharks indigestion.” could not see the efforts Lamantia was putting forth. The sweat of sheer Over the Gulf the Patsy plowed her agony stood out on the gunman’s fore- Way that night. Below, worn out with head as he stretched and reached with his battle, slept Captain Teddy. The the wounded hand. Blit at last he made snores of Jack McKay and Jimmie Cole it. ft*e reached a weapon the search- rose high. At the wheel was Curly, ers had overlooked. sleepless as so often was his wont. Hung by a thin leather thong about Thick scud sped across the sky, ob- his neck and down his back, beneath his scuring the moon for long periods. But undershirt, lying flat between his shoul- now and then, through a rift in the der blades, was a slender knife. For clouds, the long, bright shafts of radi- the man who wields and throws one of ance poured down on the heaving wa- those deadly blades, that position for ters. Sharp black shadows they etched, a weapon was supreme strategy. It touched with silver splendor, along the could be reached without suspicion of Patsy’s deck, from Curly’s station aft movement for weapon, even by those at the wheel to the huddle of figures who watched. It rests concealed, un- forward, where, bound hand and foot, dreamed, when all other possible places Wintersohn and his three gunmen lay of concealment have been searched. on deck. And at last Lamantia worked it free, It was in one of these intervals of though at the price of agony incalcu- clear light that Curly saw movement lable. forward. One of the bound men was For a space he rested, while the moon, struggling to sit up. peering out through a rift in the cloud Hastily he lashed the wheel and made banks, bathed the whole scene with his way toward the bow. It was La- light. But hardly had the scud once mantia who was trying to raise himself. more obscured the deck when he was “Curly,” he said, speaking low, “can’t feverishly at work. And at last the you ease up this cord on my right arm ? four lay there, all cords that bound them It’s hurtin’ like the devil with that severed. wound in my hand.” “Curly!” For a moment Curly considered. Lamantia’s call was not loud. But

Should he awaken Captain O’Shea? it reached to where the steersman stood. From the lips of the gunman came a Curly went forward, his wheel lashed feverish plea. Only loosen that bond again. for a little while. That was all he “Can you get me ^ drink of water?” asked. What could he do with one hand Lamantia asked. “I’m getting fever practically shot to pieces? He’d go from this shot in my hand.” crazy if there wasn’t some relief soon. And in that he spoke no more than And at last Curly consented. For a truth. moment he worked at the knots Jimmie To the water butt by the mainmast Cole and Jack McKay had tied. La- went Curly, filled a tin cup, brought it mantia lay back with a deep sigh of back to Lamantia, and stooped to raise relief. Curly resumed the wheel. his head. He’d keep an eye on them, he told him- An arm curved stranglingly around self. his neck. Three figures leaped upon But even Curly’s vigilant eye was not him. 78 Sea Stories Magazine

"I’ll take his gun,’’ he heard, as fin- leaping to the hatchway, shotgun in gers fumbled at his waistband, where hand, Teddy O’Shea had written the protruded the butt of one of the cap- last chapter in the life of that crook tured automatics Captain Teddy had and his three gunmen—and the little given him when he went below. Irishman had written it in red. One strangling cry choked in his throat—and then things went black for By the light of electric torches the Curly. captain and crew of the Patsy labored He did not see what followed. the night through, in those intervals He lay limp on the deck as the tow- when the moonlight was obscured by sled head of Teddy O’Shea thrust cau- the rack of flying clouds. By dawn the tiously above the hatch coaming. He deck was decently clean. And in the did not hear the little Irishman’s rasp- bow, where they had slept on the voy- ing command: “Stick ’em up, you age, covered now by a sheet of can- dirty murderers !” He did not hear the vas, the four of the underworld slept crack of the automatic pistol in Win- their last sleep. tersohn’s hand that followed, or the “There’s no keeping it quiet from thud of the bullet that splintered the the authorities now,” said Captain coaming a few inches from O’Shea’s Teddy. “It’s me for the custom house head. the minute we land.” Nor did he hear the roar as Captain But he did not have to wait for ar- Teddy’s pump gun swept the deck with rival at the custom house, that reposi- whistling charges of lead. tory of so many strange tales in the Seconds was all it lasted—that series years its gray walls have risen at the 6f stuttering explosions. But they were head of Canal Street. hot seconds, when streaks of flame Entering South Pass soon after, the belched forth and curses and shrieks Patsy was boarded by tbe men in blue rose high. and gold. It was ended before Jack McKay and And there the story was told in full- Jimmie Cole came tumbling out on deck, est detail. pistols in hand. They had no need for It was too much for any inspector to weapons. handle. ‘‘Have they hurt you, lad?” shouted “This goes before the chief,” he said. O’Shea as he rushed forward. Disre- To authority, enthroned on swivel garding the four figures sprawled in chair behind a broad, flat-topped desk, crumpled awkwardness where they fell, the tale was told again, with Jimmie he swooped down upon Curly. And his Cole, Jack McKay, and Curly, ques- joyous oaths of praise rang as under tioned separately, confirming the last sluicing water ^his deck hand came detail. back to consciousness. Beyond a black Even authority can be human. and swollen throat, where the garotter’s “My hat’s off to you, Captain grip had bruised the flesh, and a fine O’Shea,” spoke the chief, “even if assortment of bruises, Curly was un- you’re the most quixotic damned hero injured. I’ve ever met. You’ve mopped up a But about him lay grim tragedy. gang the narcotic division has been bat- Poor Hop Purser, back in New Or- tling a long time. I wish we could leans, had made true prediction. Skee dump all the dope that Wintersohn has Wintersohn had tried one double cross brought into the United States where two many. you dumped that last cargo of his. If Awakened by Curly’s strangled cry, it was war time I’d decorate you. Be- —

O'Shea Jettisons a Cargo 79 yond seeing you through the legal com- told her this, she’d never believe me in plications of these four dead crooks a million years. And you can make it you’ve brought into port, is there any- clear to me what’s the meanin’ of that thing I can do for you.” word quix—quix—whatever it was “There is,” said Teddy O’Shea. you just called me. I’m good at cussin’,

“There’s two things, for that matter. myself, and it sounds like a two-dollar You can come home with me this night word to me.” and explain matters to my wife. If I And the chief did both.

DEAD HORSE

'T'HIS is a custom of the days when the old-fashioned sailors’ boarding house * was the curse of the merchant sailor’s existence during his short periods of living ashore. At one time owing to various circumstances, conditions were such that all of the crews for ships were furnished by boarding-house keepers, and a captain in need of a crew went directly to the boarding house where he would make ar- rangements for as many men as he required. The keeper of the boarding house got the men by having his runners in the shipping office while a ship was paying off. As soon as the men were paid the runners inveigled them to their respective houses. Here they were kept until their money was gone, at which time the keeper of the boarding house would find another ship for them, sign them on, and outfit them for their coming voyage, by allowing them credit on their advance notes. This “advance,” is what gave rise to the expression which is the title of this article. In those days it was customary to give the boarding-house keeper, the sailors’ wages for the first three months of the voyage, for which he had just signed. Out of this three months’ pay the boarding-house keeper was supposed to have furnished the sailor with an outfit of clothing and the material for a final spree before he joined his ship. The seaman was never allowed a cash advance, but was simply given credit with the boarding house to the extent of three months’ wages. As the keeper of the boarding house was rarely an honest man it meant that the sailor was generally cheated very badly. The result of this was that he spent three months on his new ship before he was credited with any pay- This period, which was spent in working off the advance to the boarding- house keeper was called “working off the dead horse,” and on some ships when it was all worked off, an interesting celebration was held. When the day arrived on which the dead horse expired, a few of the leading lights of the crew, aided by “Sails” or “Chips” constructed a fearful and won- derful effigy of a horse. This was escorted aft at noon by all hands, and the old man was serenaded by the assembled crew singing the old song which was sacred to the occasion. Lack of space prohibits our giving the entire song, but it opened up about as follows:

Oh, we say, old man, your horse must die, and we say so, and we know so, Oh, we say, old man, your horse must die, oh, poor old man. We will salt him down for sailors’ use, and we say so, and we know so, Oh, we say, old man, your horse must die, oh, poor old man. :

Mutiny, piracy, and shipwreck all figure in this tale of adventure up to date. We say “adventure up to date" because we have seen several articles in the newspapers recently which make us believe that all of the above-mentioned crimes against the maritime laws are common occurrences on our coasts to-day. It is true that “the old order changeth,” but this gen-

erally is taken to mean that it advances. However, in the case of the waters surrounding this country it seems to have gone back for several hundred years.

A TWO-FART STORY—PART I.

CHAPTER I. ing mildly on the scene, tarrying the moment while on their round of duty. “keep your mouth shut tight.” The second officer looked full at them. 'T'HIS story opens in a Prince Rupert In passing, their eyes fell on him and saloon and the beginnings took place for an instant something like a spark under the eyes and beneath the noses of animosity flared from his eyes in of two of Canada’s prideful Northwest return. The cast of his face became still Mounted. Such was the audacity of the more insolent. He cleared his throat whole thing such was the despera- with a defiant rasp and bellowed in ; and out tion of the men involved. For necessity a heavy voice prompted the performance, else the life “Hey! I want two able seamen. Two of one man would not have been stricken able-bodied men to sail to-night. Step from him in the next forty-eight hours up!” and a good ship set adrift in the open A sudden hush fell on the place and sea. the second officer became the focus of It was started by the second officer, a attention. The second officer toyed sturdy, broad chested and insolent look- with the empty beer mug and looked ing chap with a blue-visored cap pulled about him; the troopers were indiffer- low over one ear. He had been standing ently watching. The sacred law, and at the bar with one elbow propped on the omnipotent force to guard it ! The it. Draining a glass of beer he swung second officer turned his square, rugged around and surveyed the men in front face from them in patient scorn, wait- and to one side. The two troopers of ing for a reply, but the room still the Northwest Mounted Police were gaz- watched him, silently. The Rum Runners 81

“Come on !’’ said he, impatient of the “Damned skuts,” said the mate. “I result. “Two able-bodied men. If you ain’t got any use for them skoovies.” ain’t sailed before you know what the The volunteers plodded along in si- sea looks like, anyhow. A couple of lence. The mate went down the street able-bodied men. Step up! A short a half block from the saloon and turned trip and good found.” into a lodging house. Climbing a flight Over in the corner two men shifted of creeking, illy lit stairs, he followed a their chairs back from a rickety table, still darker corridor down to the very rose, and came toward the mate. Both end, and again kicked open a door, stag- *tvere stocky-looking chaps, not overly gering inside.

tall, but with thick, arms and a capable The room into which they came was swing to their shoulders. One, leading poorly illuminated by an oil lamp. A

the way, was red-headed and the fighting damp, musty smell pervaded it. In the heart of the Irishman displayed itself center, seated at a small round table, a from every angle of his countenance. huge, glowering man, with dark whis- The other, dark of features, carried a kers, gave them sullen attention.

silent, hard-bitten appearance ; his whole “Here y’are,” called out the mate, body gave the air of his having passed jerking his thumb over his shoulder at through some recent, desperate ordeal. the men. “I guess,” said the red-haired one, “I’ll trouble ye not to kick the door coming to a halt in front of the second down, Mr. Lowry,” returned the seated officer, “that’s our ticket.” man. “Sailors?” queried the mate scorn- The mate shrugged his shoulders. fully. Walking to the table he helped himself The room grew noisy and left the trio to the whisky glass and bottle. “Your to themselves. The bartender resumed skipper,” he informed the volunteers his inevitable polishing. The red-haired between gulps. volunteer answered the question. “Able- The man in the chair turned to them. bodied you said, wasn’t it? That’s us. “Seamen ?” But we been to sea.” “Yes, sir,” said the red-haired one. The mate twirled his empty beer mug “Names?” again and looked them over. “Well,” “Bender,” offered the red-haired one said he in a grudging way, “I guess you’ll again. have to do.” “Waycross,” replied the other. “No force about it, matey,” replied “Want to ship?” the one of the flaming locks. “You ain’t “Yes sir.” compelled to take us.” “All right,” The captain turned on That straightened the mate up. A the mate. “Mr. Lowry,” said he in an tug of irritation jerked at his voice. aggrieved fashion. “Why didn’t you get “Oh, you’ll do. I need the men. Come me real seamen. These fellows never along.” He gave the red-haired one a saw a boat.” hostile look and shoved toward the door. The mate went into a rage. “What The troopers followed the trio with do you want? By Godfrey, you must

mild eyes. The mate rolled by and gave think I’m an employment agency ! I did police- them a belligerent stare ; the two the best I could. Want me to shout in men looked bored and turned away. This the middle of the streets what we’re forced the mate’s lantern jaw forward after?” He gulped down another glass a bit more and he kicked his way of whisky. “We ain’t exactly choosers through the swinging doors to the street, of what we want. Got to take what we followed by the two volunteers. can get. Anyhow,” he suggested in a ;

82 Sea Stories Magazine

significant tone, “they’ll do for what “Didn’t know as you asked,” replied work we’ve got.” Bender. The captain swelled in his chair. The mate swore. “That’s enough,” “Keep your tongue in your head,” said he growled. “I’ll have no more of your

he, “or I’ll break your neck ! I’ve had sass. You’re going to have some of it 111 the lip I’m to take from you!” whaled out of you, soon enough, too.” The second mate turned away and Bender said nothing. rolled to the window. “Pull away,” ordered the captain. “All right,” continued the captain, The yawl slid down, the channel, being speaking to the new seamen anger still buffeted now, the ; by short swell and chop flexing the muscles of his face. “Get of the water. A drop of rain fell, and your gear and be at the dock below the shortly the fog evaporated into a steady main wharf at eight o’clock to-night. drizzle. The lights of the city faded There’ll be a yawl waiting. Mind, now, and were lost. Now and then the boat' be on time.” passed a steamer anchored in the road- “Yes, sir,” said Bender touching his stead, and for a moment the blur of the cap. The two left the room as the cap- lights streaming through the portholes tain poured himself a glass of whisky. came to them, soon to die away again At eight, in the black of the evening, in the darkness. The two new men Bender and Waycross stumbled over the could hear the heavy, labored breathing planking of the dock and found the of the captain nearby. The chill of the captain and mate waiting. A half fog night cut into them. covered the channel-like harbor, being The hulk of a boat reared up through whipped thin by a raw wind coming up the rain that now came pelting down; the roadstead. they drifted alongside. Different from “Storming up,” remarked the captain the other boats lying in the harbor this shortly. “All right, let’s go down.” He was bathed in darkness, save for the disappeared over the side of the dock, solitary glimmer of the riding lights going down the ladder. The mate fol- a curious, uncomfortable stillness blan- lowed after, and the two men descended keted everything.

in turn, dropping into the yawl. Two of The second mate hailed it in a low the ship’s crew were at the oars, and voice: “Welsh Castle, ’hoy!” both newcomers noted that they stared A noise above them announced the through the smudge of the night, trying coming of some one to the side. The

to make out their features. yawl bumped ; the captain seized the Bender had been packing, in addition ladder and went up, followed by the to his dunnage bag, a light, elongated mate. Waycross and Bender struggled cage in his left hand. As he set this after, bearing dunnage bags. Bender down in the bottom of the boat, some- had the bird cage hung from his neck, thing from within gave a sudden rustle, making his ascent the more difficult flapping loudly and giving vent to a From below he heard the echo of harsh

low and mournful coo. chuckles ; cursing softly to himself he The mate gave a start, nearly falling abored to the deck. out of the boat. The captain and mate were talking to “What’s that!” he cried. a third person nearby. Some low, tense “Just a pet bird of mine,” answered conversation had been in progress, but Bender. “Always pack him with me.” it ceased the minute the two new men “God! That thing gave me a scare! appeared. The three moved farther Why didn’t you say something about down the deck and began once more. A it?” quarrel seemed to develop in a flash, for The Rum Runners 83 suddenly the captain flamed up and his Bender drew the second mate’s watch heavy, sullen voice boomed out. and went aloft to the crow’s nest. All see either side of him “Hear me ! I may be bound, as ye that he could on say. But I’ll take no more o’ that talk was the tortuous procession of water, from any one. Not even if I hang with occasionally the faint outline of the for it!” jagged and black island shores closing Came a curt reply and they disap- in and retreating from the boat. The peared aft. Behind, the two men heard foremast rose directly in front of the the crew of the yawl climbing up. Sud- bridge. Long ago the captain had gone denly Waycross, the sile'nt one, leaned in, leaving the first officer tramping back close to Bender and gripped his arm. and forth in the darkness. The red- “Keep your mouth shut tight!” headed one saw just the faint bulking

Bender swore again. Together they • of that figure, standing now by the port made for the fo’c’s’le. rail, now to starboard. It was bitter cold work up in the nest, with the sea carrying the ship far over CHAPTER II. to the side and swinging it back again THE FIGHT IN THE FO’c’s’LE. in a crazy circle. He clung to the side At midnight the anchor chains came and strove to keep from becoming sick. clanging up through the hawsepipe; the Yet an incident occurred which banished rumble of the engines woke the frame the idea of self entirely from his mind. of the Welsh Castle to life and set the He had been up almost an hour when, deck members to protesting; slowly the looking below, he saw the outline of an- boat moved down the channel. From other figure come out of the wheelhouse the bridge came the heavy voice of the and join the second. At first he heard skipper calling to the mate, and the nothing, though he caught the fling of latter’s answer from the foredeck an arm now and then but after a while ; sounded clear. On the edge of the the wind whipped bv the tag end of bridge one of the crew heaved the lead. phrases evidently thrown out in anger. The depth grew less and for a time For a bit he hung over the side of hung steady, then fell away again. “No the nest, trying to catch these phrases, bottom !” was the cry. “Pull your line disregarding his watch ahead. But that aboard,” ordered the captain. The was too meager of results, and he turned Welsh Castle picked up speed, emerged about impatiently, stamping his feet and from the harbor channel, and found its staring into the night which seemed to way toward the straits setting out to fall in blacker folds about him. Then

sea. he did a most unseamanlike thing ; seiz- From the starboard beam a heavy ing the nest’s edge, he thrust one foot wind sighed through the shrouds and a over the side and began descending. strong chop caused the ship to roll Some battering wave threw the boat heavily. The rain fell steadily, pattering farther over, a gust of wind carried up the bridge, on the decks ; they were on edge a passionate shout from the and of a squall. The boom of the surf on a curse went flinging by. Bender flat- the rocky isles nearby was borne up on tened himself against the mast, gripping the wind, and occasionally the shrill cry hard. The next moment his foot met of a gull mingling with it added an eerie the shrouds and he caught hold of the sound to the night. The Welsh Castle wire stays and went swiftly down, touch- turned a point north and the wind drew ing the bulwarks for an instant before ahead, buffeting the bow with heavy jumping to the deck. A series of short, seas, causing the ship to pitch badly. lithe strides carried him across to the 84 Sea Stories Magazine

ladder and lie quickly ran up this. Go- but . . . . do as we say .... be !” ing to starboard, past the darkened port- trouble holes of the galley, he caught at the Bender waited for the outburst from hand rail of the ladder leading to the the skipper, but when the latter an- captain’s deck, and flung himself higher swered it was with a bitter and ag- within a moment’s time. He was breath- grieved shout. “. ing laboriously as he crouched in the . . .dirty curs .... won’t play dark, his short and solid body inclined square. I made an agreement ....

forward to catch the words that sounded want you to stay by it . . . .lose my so faintly above him. They rose and certificate if* . . . get with . caught fell, swelling in anger and dying away this on board.” Then the shout rose. in half veiled threats, with the rising “If I’m to be master, I’m to be master. gale snuffing them out at will ; they were Won’t have any back talk from you or not yet distinct enough to be understood. any of . . . . crew. Obey my orders !” A fiery, impatient oath escaped Ben- or I’ll log you for mutinying der. He straightened and observed the “Easy. You’re in a bad way to be narrow ladder standing in front. The logging anything. Look fine, won’t it? ship plunged and the wind ripped across Ship with bum papers .... master of !” the deck; he caught the report of the a rum ship “ ?” slatting canvas tacked around the bridge . doublecrossing me stanchions above. Creeping forward he “No, no, no ! Talk sense. Get off stretched out on the ladder and pushed your high horse. Run the ship where himself along and upward. it’s supposed to be run, and don’t get

Should anyone have business on the stiff-backed. You’re not on ... .

bridge he would most surely be caught. regular voyage. Different . . . . From outside, at least, this was the only sailors have a word to say .... too.” way to gain the deck. By this time he “Run according to orders .... yes. was lying out at full length, his head on Crew free and equal . . . . no ! Not a level with the bridge planking. Only if I have to run this boat on the rocks. !” for a moment did he give a thought to Won't have it Iris awkward position before intrenching “How about your certificate ?” himself by grasping hold of a stanchion. “Never mind it. I’ll have your hide Sooner or later the arguing men would stretched in the sun, if I go!” “ .” come to starboard on their everlasting . always another way . . . march back and forth. “Threatening me? By God, Mr. They came with the roll of the ship Lowry, be careful or I’ll break your

and their feet went clumping by in neck ! Not brought up to take anything !” heavy, protesting steps, passing within from my officers ! Won’t start now a few scant inches of the prone Bender. Bender heard the voice of the second

Yet it was so dark that he caught only mate fall to a lower, more conciliatory a momentary blur of heavy figures be- note. And again the talk rose and fell, fore the gloom swooped down again. He with the angry words spluttering and ex- heard them bring up along the starboard ploding above the storm. They were railing. well in the teeth of the gale and the

“Not .... on my ship . . . . Welsh Castle plunged, twisted and !” jail first bucked, decks buried, for the most part,

fie caught the words now ; the an- under sheets of flinging water. And in swering shout was distinct enough. the midst of all this turmoil the two “Be careful. You’re not so strange officers fought their own quarrel stub-

on board .... be captain but . . . bornly. ” !

The Rum Runners 85

“ . . . .don’t like those men you got. port ladder which he descended in two ” Not seamen . . . . jumps. Another flight carried him to “Best I could do .... good the well deck, where he poised and

. enough . . . waited for the swirling waters to go “Damned impertinence .... talk rushing out. A dash brought him to .” to me in front of seamen like that . . . the rigging and he regained the crow’s “Aw I’m sick of hearing nest to lean against the edge of the that . . . .treat me careful, and I’ll do barrel and struggle for breath. well by you .... otherwise you’re It had been a hard pull and he was liable to get in trouble. Need you to sorely pounded by the mate’s rawboned run the ship .... but one word of fist. He felt a welt rising below one mine to the crew . . . .you hear?” eye. Doubtless they would locate him The bell clanged out in front of the in the morning by that welt. He cursed wheel house. The instant after Bender softly. Things on this ship were very heard a quick give and take of blows, much of a puzzle. Plainly the second followed by an explosion of oaths. The officer and the captain were involved in men came swaying toward the ladder some kind of vendetta which extended and fell against the handrail nearby. even as far as the crew. No self-respect- One had the other bent over, and shortly ing captain would tolerate the kind of he twisted him around and flung him language coming from Lowry; yet the at the ladder’s opening. skipper had mixed his anger with pro- !” “Get off my bridge test and even with remonstrance. A Bender half raised himself and slid strange thing for the commander of a down the steps, but he was too late to boat to do avoid the second mate who came clawing Of course, this was a rum ship, sail- after. They collided, the impact send- ing with double papers and no certain ing them to the deck. A kind of primi- destination. That made discipline and tive protection drew the second mate to- ranking different. Yet, with all that, the gether, and the next instant he was other of old, traditional seamanship hung pounding Bender viciously with his fists. to the captain’s speech, while the second The red-headed one warded the wild officer suggested strongly the rebellious, blows from his face and sought to grasp undisciplined landsman clothed with a the other’s neck. This unsuccessful, he bit of brief authority. drew back, tore free and got to his feet. A shout floated up to Bender; look- In the process the mate’s hand grasped ing over the side of the nest he saw a button of Bender’s oilskins, and it the vague form of the new watch stand- parted company with the rest of the ing on the ladder just below. The red- fabric. A moment after they collided headed one climbed out and went down. again and a roll of the boat sent them They edged past each other with a brief against the side of the cabin. word, Bender letting himself into the It was a short and silent fight, each shrouds carefully and continuing to de- man grimly trying to gain some effective scend. Again he made the swift dash hold on the other. A blow rocked Ben- across to the main deck. Going through der’s head. With a great effort he drew the port alleyway he let himself down the mate’s body away from the cabin into the aft well and brought up at the and, with a raised knee, thrust him back entrance to the quarters. He got through again, jamming the knee into the man’s the door and closed it quickly behind stomach. The latter slid away limply, him to block the whipping spray that and Bender wasted no time in turning slid over. For a moment he stood and going back along the alley to the blinded by the light of the place and 86 Sea Stories Magazine

half dazed by the unaccustomed noise “Sure I’ll take it,” he growled. Reach- going on within. As his eyes cleared ing into his hip pocket he drew out a

he made out a queer, topsy-turvy scene. whisky flask and uncorked it. “Here’s The swaying lamp that rotated wildly to a quick and fat trip !” he cried and in the gimbels threw its guttering rays tilted his head back. Someone kicked from one corner to another of the quar- his boot, beneath the table, and caused ters, now lighting up a dishevelled bunk, him to choke. He hurled the flask away now revealing the hard-set and un- and rolled around on the bench, cough- friendly faces of the half dozen men ing and sputtering, half strangled for scattered about. The rough pine frames air. of the tiers of bunks filled the small “Who did that?” place, save for a spot perhaps twenty Bender, turned from them to remove feet square in the center. Here a table bis wet clothing, heard a murmur. Jud was bolted to the floor, and around it answered it recklessly. “Oh, what’s the were four benches. At present a poker difference. They’ll know soon enough. game was in session and the shifting I guess I c’n handle them, anyhow.” light of the lamp alternately hid and dis- They went on with their playing, now closed the countenances of the men play- and then to break into exclamations of ing. Back in the shadows a fifth man was discontent or glee. Bender got into dry rolled in blankets, smoking and watching clothing and sat on the edge of his bunk, the table. And across from him, Bender smoking. Occasionally he glanced up saw, Waycross reclined, also smoking ^nd caught the eye of Waycross who and watching the table. At the head of was leaning partly out of his bed. But

it the bed frames swung the bird cage. was only a fleeting glance ; for, across Bender took it all in within the space the space, the other man rolled in blan- of a moment. At his entrance all eyes kets watched them closely. were turned to him, and he felt that The ship rolled over; the crowding he had never before been the focus of water piled into the well deck and the so much silent hostility as here. Nothing roar of its spilling, battering force

was said ; it was in the manner they echoed faintly in the fo’c’sle. Jud, the paused from their game and turned in ugly one, made a quick stab for his their places to watch him as he closed pile of chips which tottered toward the

the door; it was in the manner they edge of the table. took their pipes away from lips that be- “By Godfrey, I don’t like this !” he gan to close tightly and distrustfully cried. “I told Lowry I didn’t want re- down ; it was in the way they silently to go out in a storm. He spills his sumed their game. usual line about gettin’ away in a hurry, The red-headed one walked around the and about who’s runnin’ the boat, any- table to his bunk and sat on its edge how.” The fellow’s face grew angrier. to remove his boots. “Next time I’ll not be so easy. I’ll tell runnin’ “Queen full,” announced a player ; he him who’s the boat. I’ll tip him was ugly, lantern- jawed and freckle- a few words about that hard-nosed skip- faced, while a great scar ran its livid per, too. Had just about my bellyful of course from a pock-marked temple his ways.” diagonally across the left cheek to the “Jud Callahan, shut up!” called out the jaw. It gave a sinister cast to the man’s man in the bunk. and made it appear askew. “Ah !” growled countenance Jud ; but he went on “Take ’er away, Jud,” replied an- grumbling in a lower tone, staring mo- other, throwing his cards to the center rosely at the cards he shuffled. His tem- of the table. Jud raked in the chips. per seemed to labor and increase under ;

The Rum Runners 87

the restraint imposed by the other men civil. I’m asking you where I’d put they, in turn, became more silent, eyeing it!” their shipmate carefully. “An’ I say I don’t care where you put The bird cage at the head of Way- it! Throw it overboard—that’s the best !” cross’ bunk swung with the ship, bump- place to put it. But it’s got to go out ing the bulkhead at every roll. The shouted Callahan.

pigeon, in the effort to keep its balance, Bender put out his pipe and laid it on

flapped its wings and the result of their the bunk. “I’m damned if it does,” was hitting on the wire wall of the cage pro- his succinct answer. duced a strange, half startling sound. Of a sudden the atmosphere seemed Time and again Callahan turned and to be charged with an electric current. stared at the bird, to resume his playing The roar of the storm outside boxed in with a low mumbling of oaths. Fre- and compressed a small cell of intense quently Bender rose and tried to readjust and expectant silence. Callahan was the cage, stringing the cord from dif- sliding forward, now on his feet. Ben- ferent beams of the fo’c’sle. But no der rose to meet him, shoulders squared.

matter how he fixed the thing, it swung His eyes took on a dancing, fitful light regardless, and the pigeon kept flapping and he was almost smiling. Waycross its wings. whispered a few low words that only

It was, finally, more than Callahan Bender heard : “Don’t, you fool, don’t. could stand. Bender had just finished Keep your temper down!” But Ben- one of his many attempts to ease the der flung his head back, unheedful. cage, and had relit his pipe. At the “If you want the bird, come after table a sizeable pot had been taken from him,” was his challenge to Callahan. A the ugly sailor, and he cursed his luck moment later both his fists struck the with more than the usual amount of solid, rugged man who plunged forward. violence, flinging the cards away. They were not pigmies, either of them. Hardly had he done so when the pigeon Perhaps Bender was the smaller of the flapped its wings and cooed in a liquid, two, but a single glance at his chest mournful way. Callahan swung about. told of a springy, tireless body, and one “Say,” he called to Bender and breath- saw, in those cheerful, combative eyes, ing hard, “that thing’s got to go out. It the heart of a born fighter. He ducked a gets on my nerves. ’Tain’t healthy to bear-like hug of Callahan’s and came up

have it in the fo’c’s’le.” behind the man. “Here, here,” he The game stopped and all eyes turned called. “You’re a poor slob of a man to the new men. Bender smiled agree- to be usin’ his fists.” ably. “Where’ll we put it?” Callahan turned and rushed again. “Don’t care where you put it, but it A blow rocked the Irishman’s head, his can’t stay here!” guard dropped, and they were whirl- Bender’s mouth closed down on the ing, around and around, in the small pipe, but still he retained part of his place, bringing up against the bunk smile. “This bird’s a warm animal. Got frames and smashing into the bulkhead.

to have heat or it’ll freeze to death.” The table went over with a crash and “Say, young fellow, I ain’t used to be- the benches were inextricably mingled in’ argued with in this place,” broke in with the charging feet. Callahan thrust Callahan. He edged forward in his one foot through the back of one and chair. “I say that bird goes out, now.” made of it a bk of wreckage. The rest The bullying tone acted as an imme- of the crew crawled into their bunks, out diate irritant to Bender. His jaws came of the way and watched in silence. together. “Ease off there, man, and talk Waycross was holding tight to the frame —;

88 Sea Stories Magazine.

of his bed and staring at the couple Bender drew a forearm across his face as if his very life were involved. Once to check the blood coming from his his lips moved, and at a time when Ben- nose. “There’ll be more talk, maybe, der slipped, his own body drew up into about that bird?” he queried. a tight bundle, as if to spring out in There was no talk. The faces he met rescue. were hard and the eyes unsmiling and Bender struggled to get free from the hostile, but no one offered comment. solid hug of his opponent, but only suc- The red-headed one grinned faintly. ceeded in being drawn tighter about the “We’ll get along nicely, I’m thinking. waist. Callahan was using the old, old The bird’s a warm blooded creature, and squeeze on the red-headed one and bit I’m awfullly fond of it.” by bit the latter was forced backwards Callahan rolled over and very slowly toward the floor. The effort brought managed himself to a sitting position. the livid scar out on Callahan’s face “Hey you !” he called out. Blood was his lips turned back, and between rage trickling down from the corners of his and effort his whole countenance was mouth and from his nose, yet even in distorted and swollen. all this vivid color the livid welt still The next thing the intent spectators stood out in sharp contrast, drawing all ^aw was a sudden transformation. Ben- the man’s features into a vengeful, hate- der’s right foot shot out, and at the same ridden knot. moment both forearms were pressed “Hey yourself,” answered Bender, against the left side of Callahan’s neck. turning to his bunk. He went off balance, twisted as he fell, “I’m warning you now,” continued and shortly Bender was on top. Callahan. “I’ll get you, don’t you for- They had fallen with a terrific crash; get that. This ain’t the last of it.” Callahan went limp, while Bender drew His voice filled with pain and rage. “Oh, back and got nimbly to his feet. no ! You’re bucking more’n you c’n “Come on,” he panted. “Get up, you handle. S’help me God I’ll put my mark !” imitation man, and fight. I’m going to on you !” knock the heart out of you “When you get patched up come Callahan drew up, his face twisted in around again,” returned Bender. “We’ll !” pain, and held to the side of a bunk for have a real fight then, you freight train support. He dropped into bed. "Get up your fists!” cried the red- But the threat left the atmosphere of headed one. “I’m going to batter you the fo’c’sle strangely sinister. Perhaps into a different frame o’ mind about that it was because of the deliberate and cold bird. Put up your hands !” And he manner of the men as they turned in rushed once more. their bunks; perhaps it was because of He pounded the larger man at will. the fitful way the light flickered as it there per- The other, bumping against the bulk- thrust its shadows here and ; head, rallied, and fended off the de- haps the sullen boom of the storm structive fists for a bit. Bender low- sounded more ominous. his and came on Callahan Bender dropped off to sleep, but Way- ered head ; was twisted and shot across the small cross kept on smoking, his watchful eyes open space. Again Bender rushed. The roaming from spot to spot. The fire watchers saw him draw up on his toes went out of the heater, and a chill settled for an instant in front of the tottering over the quarters. The light suddenly man, saw both fists shoot swiftly out guttered, struggled, and was ex- then Callahan sagged to the floor. The tinguished, leaving the intermittent glow fight was over. of Waycross’ pipe the only bit of warmth The Rum Runners 89 in the shadows. He felt the lawless im- use for my life. This thing’ll blow up pulses of the men of the fo’c’sle closing some day.” about him. “Aye, didn’t I say we ought to ha’ stayed in port during the blow?” re- CHAPTER III. turned Jud, with increasing heat. “Didn’t I say to Lowry, ‘There ain’t no hurry, THE BLOOD TRAIL. and I vote we wait until we can The morning broke with the Welsh Castle driving through gray seas. The “Stow that!” edge of the storm had worn off, it Callahan turned to catch the warn-

it seemed, and no longer rained ; but a ing circle of the bos’n’s arm toward cold, raw wind whistled across the star- Waycross. He shrugged his heavy board bow, bringing with it long string- shoulders. “Oh, well, you know what

ers of water that spilled into the well I mean. And what did he say ? Gave us deck and churned around and around, the high and mighty airs, and said we’d battering the bulwarks, before pouring go if he said so.” out again. Low scudding clouds went “You talk too much, Jud,” argued the racing past, detaching themselves from bos’n, uneasily. a dark mass in front of the ship and “Well, ain’t it so—ain’t it so?” re- joining a darker mass behind it. It turned Callahan, half rising in his seat. was the dismal beginning of a dreary “What’re we gettin’? Not near what and restless day, marked for evil deeds we ought to. We got some rights and by the sullen and defiant words of the what’ll happen if we’re caught? All watches as they filed into the mess room hung on the same boom. No sirree, if at the head of the upper deck. we takes the dangers we ought to share Waycross came in with his watch and the gravy, and by dad, I’m sayin’ right fell to eating without delay. Callahan, here that we’re a bunch of mutts not !” face marked by the previous night’s bat- to get more for ourselves tle, settled into the bench, directly across By now the dozen odd men at the from him. The black gang—the half table were looking between Jud, the dozen of them off shift—crowded in bos’n and Waycross. The latter con- likewise, their faces smudged with coal tinued his meal, apparently serene and grime and dried sweat. They wolfed oblivious to what was taking place about down the food in silence, anxious to him. But if his countenance appeared get to their bunks in the forward fo’c’sle. unconcerned, his brain and his ears were Callahan reared up as one of them came not. He sought in every word and ges- beside him and jogged his arm in get- ture some clue to the rising tide of ting to a seat. mutiny that seemed to sweep the whole “Take a look where you go,” growled crew on. Here was Jud Callahan, ap- Jud. parently nothing but an able seaman, The stoker reached for the mush. talking with the bos’n on terms of equal- “Shut up, or I’ll lam you over the head ity; speaking of the officers as if they with the sugar bowl,” he returned briefly. were partners instead of men on a higher

“Pass th’ cream. You birds wallowin’ social scale. And the bos’n took it all in in yer hunks and restin’ while we fought with a troubled face, while the rest of th’ damned steam gauge all night. Boil- the crew glowered over their plates. ers on this hooker leakin’ like sieves. “Got to take orders from some one,” Steam floatin’ about below enough to said the bos’n, not at all positive in his choke a man. If th’ chief doesn’t get a manner. new ship next trip, I leave. Got better “Ah, who says we do?” fired back 90 Sea Stories Magazine

Callahan. “Leastwise not from that “Well, six in the crew, not counting dodo-faced captain we got. He’s stepped us; about a dozen in the black gang on my pet corns just about enough. forward a couple of oilers carpenter, ; ; And who made Lowry and Olsen mates bos’n, wirelets man, Chinee cook, mess on this boat—who did it?” boy, first and second engineers, captain Waycross finished his meal in a lei- and mates. About thirty-four or five, surely manner by wiping his mouth with all told.” the back of a coat sleeve. The bos’n “What’s wrong with the skipper?”

seemed to be waiting for him. “You “Haven’t figured it, yet.” there,” he called to Waycross, “go be- “Last night,” said Bender quickly, “I low, will you, and take a look at the had a listen-in and heard him and Lowry lashings on the winches.” quarreling. Lowry ran into me, but “All right.” The latter got free of hasn’t located me, so far.” the bench and sauntered out, buttoning “Man! Will you never keep low? his oilskins. Get on and have your breakfast. If you He started forward, but on looking hear anything try to meet me behind over his shoulder saw Bender come up the wheelhouse, aft.” the ladder from the aft well, so turn- “All right.”

ing, went down to meet him. They They parted ; Waycross kept on down came together near a small jog in the the alleyway, descending to the after well, while alleyway ; Waycross drew Bender into Bender walked into the mess

it, thus screening them both. hall. It seemed to be his fate on this “Bos’n and Callahan chewing the rag ship to interrupt arguments, for as he in the mess room,” said Waycross. entered a flood of hot and angry words “More mutiny in the air. Sent me out came to a full pause, and a dozen hostile

so’s they could argue it out. Something’s eyes turned swiftly to him. The bos’n going to smash. When’ll we do the was leaning against the bulkhead as if trick ?” at bay, the stokers were all looking in “Not time yet, I don’t think,” re- a hungry fashion at Callahan, and that turned Bender. “Never saw such a mad ugly gentleman was leaning far over

house. Can’t dope it all out.” the table, his face contorted with un- “Heard ’em talking of the chief. lovely feeling. He turned to view Ben- Who’s he?” der as the latter shoved himself into “O’Flynn, in Seattle. He’s the head- a seat at the table. piece. They never seen him, though. “Hey there, doctor,” shouted the red- Closest they get is Lowry.” headed man through the galley door, “Callahan crabs him.” “bring in some hot grub.” “Callahan’s a fo’c’sle bully and a sea “All li.” lawyer. Give me another day or so With an exaggerated show of indiffer- and I’ll beat him into different man- ence Callahan turned from the new- ners.” comer and raised his coffee cup. “No—no! Lay low and don’t attract “Never you mind,” he added signifi- so much attention! You’ll have our cantly, to the bos’n. “Never you mind, throats slit.” Waycross grew angry. Holt, we’ll find out to-night!” “For heaven’s sake, man, don’t be a The long, indecisive face of the bos’n

fool. We can’t walk off the boat, you twisted about this phrase and held it

know.” * for a moment. “That’s enough till then,” Bender chuckled and nursed a fist. he said finally, and a sort of authority “No, but we can walk onto another. seemed to fall over him. “Get outside How many on this boat ?” now. There’s work to do.” !

The Rum Runners 91

The crowd got up from the table and body’s splitting the profits on this ship. filed out. Bender, looking up, caught the Am I to be the fall guy and work for malevolent gaze of Callahan. The red- a straight salary ? Share and share headed one beamed. “Well, old merry alike, I say.” sunshine, what’s matter, this fine morn- The bos’n was greatly agitated; his ing ? By the way, there’s a bump on the thin mouth flew open and his eyes side of your face that I didn’t see last popped wide. “Hush up, man !” he cried. night. Fighting again ? Naughty “You want to get your throat split !” naughty open?” He drew a shaky hand across

Callahan paused and teetered on his his forehead. “I’ve seen that, too. I feet, as if desiring to spring on the give ye my last warning: Sing low irritating Irishman. The bos’n prodded around here. You don’t know what him in the back. “Go on—go on,” he you’re into.” ordered, and Callahan went out, swear- Bender emitted a short laugh. “All ing under his breath. right, dad. But listen, I’ve got a couple The bos’n rested in his tracks, looking of good eyes.” soberly at Bender. There was something The bos’n waved a dismissing hand melancholy and discouraged in the man’s and went out the doorway, leaving Ben- eyes and his head drooped a little as der at his coffee. A queer character, this he looked down at the red-headed man. bos’n Holt, thought the red-headed man. The latter swallowed a gulp of coffee Somewhere he must have got his cables and returned the scrutiny. afoul the gang and been drawn more or “Well?” less unwillingly in tow of their half “Young man, I wish you’d not make piratical business. His shambling gait so much trouble with that tongue of and his apathetic, lacklustre air certainly yours,” was the surprising answer, de- did not stamp him as one of the bold livered in a plaintive and dispirited voice. spirits of the crew. He was in a class “It’s a mighty hard job to keep things apart from the second mate and Cal- M goin’. lahan. He seemed to have more in “Say, dad,” urged Bender, “if I was common with the captain and first officer. in your shoes I’d hang a belayin’ pin The latter Bender had seen only once over that Irish yokel’s neck.” and he had got the fleeting impression “You want to be careful he don’t do of a burly and taciturn chap who you up,” returned the bos’n with a sud- eternally debated with himself while den access of energy. “You’re playing pacing the bridge. Strange characters with gingery men. Be careful.” He aboard this boat! stared about him and his voice sank to The red-headed one finished eating almost a whisper. “You better keep and rose to light his pipe. The boom yourself pretty low and silent. Mind of the charging rollers hitting the blunt

now, I’m warning you ! Things ain’t bow came up to him, and as he stepped so easy on this ship!” out of the doorway he also caught the

Bender’s face drew into one of jts mo- low moan of the wind as it flung mentary unsmiling masks, and his eyes through the rigging. When he had gone became clouded and frosty. “Where do into breakfast, a short time before, he I get off at?” had seen the faint smudge of land still The bos’n’s voice dropped again to looming up astern. But now the last its weary, discouraged tone. “Sing low of it had dropped away, and only a low- and you’ll be all right. Maybe they ering black sky closed over the far edge shouldn’t ha’ signed you on.” of water. The air took on a heavier “You must think I’m a ninny. Every- cast as the fog began to creep in. 92 Sea Stories Magazine

He walked down the alleyway and de- “Ay, so would you be, if you’d seen scended to the after well where the bos’n what I have.” And with this parting superintended a group of men working shot Bent walked hurriedly away. on the hatch coamings. Bender watched him until the lank “Work for you to do,” said the lat- and stooped form ducked out of the ter. “Come along.” alleyway’s entrance, stood silhouetted for Bender followed him to the short al- an instant in the gray light of the day, leyway that split the after housing in and disappeared. But very little illumi- twain. On the port side was the fo’c’sle, nation came clown the passage and Ben- with its door opening into the passage. der could hardly see the bulkheads On the starboard side was a similar around him. He found a corner of the compartment, but, in the absence of a iron partition and began slapping on larger crew, this had been converted into the paint. a storeoom. The bos’n opened the door He covered one wall and worked back leading into it and entered. A dark down to begin on the other, now scraping and cluttered place it was, and all that off the scaling rust with the end of his Bender might see was a series of piles, brush, now pausing from work to stamp indiscriminately heaped up. Here rested his feet in an effort to keep the blood a huge coil of new manila rope farther flowing. The boat flung its stern out of ; on was a pile of blocks and tackle; while the water. Bender heard the throb and back against the bulkhead rows of race of the propeller shaft below him canned goods disappeared into the and caught, directly behind the end bulk- gloom. head, the metallic clink of metal on The red-headed man leaned oh the metal. It sounded like the dropping of door sill while the bos’n fished about iron pawls into a huge ratchet. The within. Finally he came out again, car- thing stirred Bender’s inflammable curi- rying a brush and a fresh can of red osity; he set the paint can down and paint. felt around, in the semi-darkness, for “Here,” he said, giving these to Ben- some sort of door in the iron wall. der. “Want to keep the bulkheads along His hand struck hold of a grip and here from rusting.” And he led the latch. He pressed on it and shoved way still farther back down the alley- forward-; the door moved perceptibly to way, reaching at last the very end. The the pressure, and returned his weight. iron walls of the ship enclosed all three “Well, well,” said he, “open up, you sides. “Ain’t been painted here fer a critter,” and he flung the whole of his

long while and the rust is eatin’ in. Run body against it. The door yideled the brush over the whole works, up as a groaning and screeching of hinges. far as the fo’c’s’le door. Take your “Need oil there,” he observed, pausing time—there’s lots of it.” on the threshold to get oriented in the He turned to go; a fresh thought, dark. however, turned him about and lifted A mass of gearing grew out of the his doleful face to the red-headed one gloom. A great iron shaft rod thrust who was now opening the can of paint. itself down through the decking above, “ ’Member what I told you,” he re- was inextricably caught to great cogs iterated. “The fellow that keeps his which stretched out on the floor in semi- ideas under the hatches is the one that circles, and plunged out of sight again, gets through this trip the best.” through to regions below. The clank of Bender swashed his brush through the iron pawls, again drew his atten- the red pigment. “Hell, man, but you’re tion, and lie saw that the great teeth of !” a mournful cuss the largest metal semicircle bit through The Rum Runners 93

the shaft rod which turned slowly, “Yes! Posing as a wireless operator. stopped, and turned again. Was going along the captain’s deck when That much settled. Here was a con- he popped out of the wireless house and tinuation of the steering gear from the gave me the once over. He’s never seen wheelhouse on the deck above. He me before, though. You know, I’ve al- moved about and caught his foot on some ways made it a policy to keep out of his sort of coping. Reaching down he found sight; so he didn’t know me. But you a circular trap door. Again the Irish- should have seen the look he handed man’s curiosity came to the fore and me. Took me in from head to foot. I he tugged at the hand grip. The cover kept going. When I was ten feet or so lifted off, Bender laid it aside, and found past he sang out: ‘You one of the new himself gazing down a manhole, at the men?’ I said, ‘yes,’ and turned about. bottom of which a dim electric light re- He thought of that for a minute, still vealed a twisting, glistening segment of boring into me with his eyes. ‘Strange the propeller shaft. A ladder covered boat for you to be on, isn’t it?’ he asks the distance of about twenty^five feet again. I stalled a bit. ‘Oh, I don’t know. from the top to the bottom of the man- Haven’t found anything so very bad to hole. complain of so far. Chow’s good and “Holy mud !” exclaimed Bender. the mates aren’t bad.’ That seemed to “There sure are lot’s of funny things on satisfy him. ‘Well I just wondered,’ he this hooker.” said. ‘Things seem mighty queer on Abruptly he straightened and whirled board sometimes.’ And he turned back about. Down the alleyway sounded into his house and slammed the door.” sharp, swift footfalls. He lunged to- Bender leaned against the bulkhead and ward the door, intending to draw it stared at the machinery. “Jerusalem!” shut, but his hand reached out and he whispered. “Jerusalem! The worst touched the breast of Waycross, who man in all the world to see me here.” peered through. “He’s seen you before, too. He’d “Who’s that ?” queried the latter, know you at the first glance.” sharply, shading his eyes. Bender’s accompanying laugh was

“You gave me one helluva scare,” re- mirthless. “Last time we met it was in turned Bender, simply. a blind passage in a Portland Chinee “Oh, you, eh? Thought I saw you joint. If I hadn’t been lucky I’d never and the bos’n come in here a while back.” got out alive. Oh, he knows me, all Irritation jumped into his voice and he right. And he’s layin’ for me, too. spoke half angrily. “Now what devil- Jerusalem!” ment has your prying hands got into? Waycross swore softly. “Again,

My God, I wonder we haven’t been again, again ! Bender, I think I’m done killed a dozen times over ! Will you with you after this trip. I’m done, you never use caution ? Suppose I’d been hear? No sense of discretion, no cau- the bos’n or one of the crew?” tion, nothing but your damned temper !” “Thought you were, bedad !” answered and curiosity Bender, chuckling softly. “Ah,” growled Bender—and Way- “Oh, well—listen! Something else' cross—drew up with a startling sudden- rotten on this boat. Somebody else got ness “quit it! Somebody has to take their fingers in the pie!” the risks, and I’m the guy that’s been “Now who?” asked Bender, growing doing most of the taking. You can’t get serious. along without scratching blood now and

“O’Rourke.” then. I haven’t ever yelped about it. !” “The devil Shut up and think of something we can 94 Sea Stories Magazine

do—that’s your long suit. God knows of you, God knows what will happen.” if O’Rourke sees me the game’s all off, And he went down the passageway. and my life ain’t worth a penny.” Bender took up his can of paint and The stern soared up and the screw resumed work. thundered and raced. The pawls clicked, The day passed slowly, with the Welsh were silent, and clicked again. The two Castle bucking the persistent, raw head men stared at the machinery. winds, which sang in a dreary, monot- “What’s his game, you suppose ?” onous fashion through the rigging and queried Bender, half plaintively. “What’s whipped a thick, heavy fog over the he doing here?” crests of the great seas trooping by. “Don’t you see? He’s wireless man. The booms creaked under the roll of the What could be simpler.” ship and more than one of the crew go- “We’re stuck then!” ing across the decks looked aloft with “Not yet,” answered Waycross, an anxious eye. At midday the first grimly. “Not yet. But we can’t be mate appeared on the forward break of standing here. Stay out of sight as best the captain’s deck and ordered preventer you can. We’ll have to trust to luck, stays on the lifeboats and an extra fold and hope for the breaks. And some- of tarpaulin on the hatches. “Aye, aye, thing will break shortly, I figure. Now sir,” shouted Bent. “And I’m thinkin’ I’m going back. Meet you here at eight we’ll tighten down still more,” he mur- to-night.” mured, “before the night’s over. Craigie, “Hold on, want to show you some- Dodson, Merritt, go aft and get spare thing.” Bender pulled him over to the ’paulins for the foredeck hatches.” manhole. “See it.” At five in the evening the Welsh Castle Waycross stared down at the whirling began sounding the whistle through the shaft. “Life escape, I guess. Runs to dense fog. Now the wind had risen to the shaft alley and that goes all the way a shrill wail as it hurtled across the

to the engine room. In case the engine boat, bringing with it the spray snatched

room is flooded they get into the shaft from the crested rollers. The smash of alley, close a trap door behind them and the attacking waters again and again come up here. Sort of water tight com- seemed to resound throughout the frame partment.” of the battling craft, while the throb of At that moment a light wavered across the engines took on a deeper, more labor- the farther corner of the compartment ing note. Bender, skipping across the for- they were in. Turning they saw it ward well, felt the bottom of things drop stream from a small hole in the iron wall. beneath him and heard a great thunder- Bender jumped over and peered through ing of waters behind. He flung himself

it. Shortly he came back and whispered at the ladder and gained the upper deck into Waycross’ ear: “The thing opens one step before a seething, tremendous into the fo’c’s’le. Chap came in for some sea. He ran swiftly down the port pas- tobacco, I guess, and lit the lamp.” sageway, but even before he had reached They drew back and waited, watch- its end, the Welsh Castle heeled far over, ing through the door. Shortly the ray throwing him against the life rail. He of light went out and they saw the man looked out into the dense fog and saw come from the fo’c’sle and disappear nothing; a tongue of water swung itself out of the alleyway’s mouth. Both men aboard the deck, wet his feet, edged far- stepped outside and closed the door. ther back, and slipped off again. The “Mind now,” admonished Waycross, boat recovered with a spring, sending “Keep out of sight as well as you can. Bender to the cabin walls. If you let your curiosity get the best He struggled on, and at the aft break —;

The Rum Runners 95 of the deck ran into the second mate feared event to take place. - He rolled who gripped the hand guards of the over and looked at his watch. Now ladder and looked down at men working seven-fifty and time to go outside and swiftly on a hatch. He effectually wait for Bender. blocked Bender’s progress. He slid out of the blankets and drew “Excuse me, sir, but I’d like to go on the oilskins. Callahan watched him down there.” sharply; Waycross, conscious of this The second swung around. “Eh?” scrutiny, made his progress toward the “I’d like to go down there !” repeated door as casual as the pitching ship would Bender, raising his voice. permit. Once outside, however, he ran The mate nodded and held his posi- back along the alleyway to the very end tion, eyeing the red-headed one. Of a and waited. It was perfectly dark. sudden his hand shot out and gripped the Eight o’clock came, marked by the latter’s oilskin, along the row of but- opening of the fo’c’s’le door and the tons. He pulled the flap back and saw, exit of the new watch. Callahan stood halfway down, that the middle button in the light, buttoning up the slicker, was gone. A grunt of satisfaction came his red face distorted to a still uglier out of him, and he let his hand fall and more debased appearance by the away. sou’wester jammed down over his ears. “I thought so!” he shouted, eyes filling Waycross caught a hearty curse flung him the shut with gusty anger. “Left your watch out by ; door with a slam and came sneaking up to the bridge! and the face was blotted out. Waycross Spying, eh? I thought that was your settled back to wait. breed. You’re not on this boat for any It seemed that a half hour went by good, I that and you’ve heard too still no Bender. He stamped his feet to know ; much for your own safety. Hear me?” keep the blood circulating and walked The mate’s face turned crimson and as far as he dared down the alleyway. vengeful, and his bulking chin protruded The relief had long since gone inside. even more. “Get below, you eavesdrop- He waited perhaps fifteen minutes more, per, and if I ever catch you on the cap- then, propelled 'by a fear that had no

tain’s deck again, spying, I’ll kill you!” substantial basis he could understand, Bender swayed on his heels, looked at went swiftly out to the well. the men below, looked at the mate, and Going up the port ladder he made his turned quietly to the ladder. “That’s way down the passage and brought up one time,” he muttered to himself, de- at the fore break. No one along that

scending, “that I took it from him. Just route. Turning, he walked to star- one time.” board and crawled back that side. Night sifted in with the fog and shut The fear mounted, gave an added keen- all but a great roaring sound away from ness to his eyes, and an extra power to fo’c’s’le paused, the Welsh Castle. Within the his ears ; time and again he the lamp swung in crazier circles than thinking he heard strange noises ever and no one played cards on the mingling with the storm, to go on after table. In their bunks, each man smoked a bit, his mind racing with activity. That his pipe and looked out upon the small passage way explored; still no trace of open area. Watching them all, Way- his partner. Now he felt his way up the cross intercepted sharp, meaningful port ladder—the only way up from aft glances that they frequently cast to each to the captain’s deck. other. He felt an intent and restless He paused here, not certain of his quality in their gestures, as if they ex- way, and with no idea at all of his next pected some uncommon, exciting, half- step. He was seeking Bender in a hit !

96 Sea Stories Magazine or miss fashion perhaps that hot headed haps—his body stiffened and he found, ; and curious man was now poking his that his fists were tightly clenched. His nose into forbidden places again. Way- movement was awkwatd, imperceptible; cross swore at the thought, quietly and sweat broke out on his forehead. Then intensely. Th§ outline of a lifeboat ap- his foot struck the soft, half resistant peared and he guided himself along its bulk of a human body 1 side until he reached the iron arm of a He brought up with a jerk. “Hell!” davit. He put out his hand to take he cried, carrying the foot back in a hold of it; in so doing he leaned for- panic. Havoc wrecked the orderly pro- ward. His right foot slid away, and he cesses of reasoning, and he stood, partly fell to the deck. stooped over and motionless, the wind The fall didn’t hurt him much; but beating against him, while conquering the surprise of losing his balance caught his tottering self-command. With some him up. He drew his hand across the semblance of it restored he reached down deck, and felt the contact of a fluid that and inserted a hand within the shirt of was decidedly not sea water. It was the man the skin was still warm, but ; more solid, stickier and unpleasant to he felt ne heart beat. No life left. He touch. He drew the hand to his nose; withdrew the hand and reached for the the smell was disagreeable and not famil- matchbox again once more waterproof ; iar. He got to his knees and with a free his attempts were fruitless. He tried the hand reached into a pocket for his water- old tactics, placing the last match in the proof matchbox. Now, hovering under close proximity of the dead man’s head, the protection of the lifeboat, he at- and striking it with his thumb nail. tempted a match, and failed. The second The flame spurted and flickered wildly effort was more successful, but the flame in the wind, keeping its queer, jagged was only of an instant’s duration. He shape for the briefest of moments. Yet tried a third match, placed the hand near in that instant Waycross saw the up- it, and struck a blaze with his thumb turned countenance of Bender, discol- nail. ored by blood, a long, misshapen track By the single revealing flash he saw across the head where some blunt instru- this his hand was red with blood ment had crushed in the skull. The red- He dropped the match and got to his headed’s face in death held one of his feet at a single spring. Fear caught infrequent unsmiling expression, and hold of him for ’a bit and it took sev- the eyes were frosty and gray. eral moments of struggle to collect his faculties again. The full, chilling force CHAPTER IV. of an evil premonition was now swaying THE RISING TIDE OF MUTINY. Waycross and he could not argue it off. He must, however, trace this smear of After the flame had flickered out Way- blood. Obviously such a stream couldn’t cross remained in the same attitude for trickle far. He had slipped on it. There perhaps three minutes, his mind whirling was nothing on this side of the lifeboat; between the two or three possible instru- therefor, there might be something on ments involved in his partner’s death. brief bit of the other. He did not attempt to define All fear was now gone ; the that “something” in his mind, as yet. light had confirmed and dispelled it; a Circling the davit he went around. slow, passionate anger, such as only the The advance of his tentative steps silent and grim-featured Waycross was met the solid planking of the deck. Per- capable of, rose in a slow, irresistible haps the blood was only a solitary pul- tide. Something caught in his throat. dle from some injured deck hand. Per- ‘The cursed dogs!” he said, and got to ;

The Rum Runners 97 his feet. With the increasing anger ar- his head lower between the shoulders; rived a cold, hard cast of mind. What- his hands were numb, but no matter, ever his former position had been, he Waycross was stalking big game in the was now by far the most dangerous man interests of his partner. aboard. He turned about and gripped Below he saw the door to the fo’c’s’le the davit, and half jumped from the open and a man slip in; and from the unexpected diversion in front of him. bulky silhouette, Waycross recognized It was an explosive series of clattering, again the form of O’Rourke. His pa-

harsh, droning sounds ; they broke tience had been rewarded. The wireless through the noise of the storm with a man was going aft to the fo’c’s’le, leav- peculiarly metallic effect, drawn-out, ing his set unattended. Not a usual thing short-stopped, varying and pausing, now for a wireless man to do. Waycross de- rising, now falling. Waycross was puz- scended and paused at the bottom of the zled for a moment. The clamor stopped ladder to get his bearings. Above all as suddenly as it had begun it com- things he was grateful for this dark ; menced again, continued its racket for night; he had work to do. an indefinite period, and quit for a sec- Over his head he heard the scraping ond time. Waycross listened for its of feet followed by a long sustained

repetition ; but apparently it had done cough; with one jump he had got away for the occasion. from the ladder’s path and was flattened “Ah !’’ he cried, gripping the davit, against the housing. The body came “now I see. The wireless, of course.” down the ladder and was likewise swal- Hardly had he got the words out of lowed up in the dark. his mouth when he was instinctively “Hell’s bells !” whispered Waycross ducking. The wireless house door and he went forward to the break of the opened, directly in front of him, and not deck, but away from the ladder. He over fifteen feet away. In the high wished to be out of the way of any other blaze of light streaming out the opera- straying member of the crew. tor stood revealed while buttoning up Again the fo’c’s’le door opened and a his oilskins ; it was O’Rourke, man went through. This time Waycross whom Waycross had seen in the after- thought it was the first officer, though noon. The former paused on the he was not positive. threshold of his house, peered along the “Better I wait here a while,” he deck aft, and closed the door behind him. murmured. “Something’s up.” Waycross ducked still lower behind the And something was up, for within the boat. His eyes were dazzled by the next five minutes the fo’c’s’le door sudden exposure to light, so he could see opened a half dozen times to admit oth- nothing. But he heard O’Rourke’s ers of the crew, while he heard swift, heavy, rapid steps go pounding along cautious feet go past him toward the on the other side of the lifeboat and ladder. He saw the second mate go in, die out. pausing at the door with something that “You devil !” swore Waycross. “I’ll resembled reluctance. He saw the ugly !” bet your finger’s in this face of Callahan work into a grin as he He slipped around the davit and got faced the momentary light Callahan was ; aft, finding again the ladder to the deck deserting his post. And finally Waycross below. But he did not go immediately made out some of the black gang. After down, rather hanging to the iron tubing that the door was no longer opened. and waiting. Out here the wind was “General meeting, I guess. And more penetrating and whipped and beat they’re about full up now.” him from both sides. He simply hunched He sought the ladder and went down, 98 Sea Stories Magazine crossed the well in a half dozen swift he was shouting at Lowry. “Not half. strides, and paused before the fo’c’sle We’re th’ boys that do th’ dirty work. door. He was doomed to disappoint- We sweat and we slave an’ we take ment here; for only a confused babble all the chances while that bloated buz- and mingling of noises rose above the zard in Seattle gets all th’ money. It sounds of the night ain’t fair. stormy ; besides, this An’ here you go spoutin’ was a particularly dangerous place to be about mutiny and playin’ square and 'in. Should a late member of the crew finishin’ th’ trip. What th’ hell’s the use come by, or should any of those within —what’s there in it f’r us? Nothin’, desire to come out, he would inevitably and I’m sayin’ once more, we’re a bunch be discovered eavesdropping. of ninnies if we don’t get ours!”

“Ah, sure ! Why didn’t I think of it “Aye, that’s right,” came a voice from before?” the stokers; it trembled, and was filled He slid on down the impenetrably with husky cupidity. “That’s the gospel black alleyway and got to the bulkhead truth. We’re not done right by.” door. A strenuous pull brought it suf- Lowry swung an angry hand out. ficiently open for him to crawl through. “You dirty hyenas!” he cried. “Double

It slammed shut, leaving him standing crossing a man like this ! The chief’s al- confused among the steering gear. The ways given you a fair break. Kept a decking shoved up on his feet,- the lot of you out of the pen, too, if you pounding machinery beneath roared and want to be reminded of little details.

was shut off completely ; the pawls leaped Not a one of you got a bit of kick com- into clattering life and clanked rapidly. ing. Not a bit!” He swung back on The deck fell away with a dizzy drop Callahan. “As for you—you’re nothing and the rumble of the screw awoke again. but a dirty wharf rat looking for The pawls intermittently clicked. trouble. I been watching you, Callahan. The first visible thing to Waycross You’re the cause for all these men spoil- was the thin ray of light shooting dia- ing. I saw you go stale last trip, and gonally across the compartment. He if I hadn’t walloped the meanness out of picked his way very carefully toward your ugly frame you’d spoiled that trip.” it and was rewarded by finding himself The mate’s face grew menacing. “You in a position, on looking through the hole, want me to do it again?” he shouted. to see the entire assembly in the fo’- Callahan’s scar stood out against a c’s’le. sudden pallor. “You—don’t—dare Callahan, he found, had the center of touch me !” he cried. “I’ll have the law the floor. About him were grouped the against you ! A seaman’s got rights.” various members of the crew, sitting on Lowry’s answer was sardonic and the edges of the bunks, squatting on the grim. “You’re a measly kind of bird to floor, leaning against the bulkheads. The be talking about rights. I’ll right you!” ugly agitator was pointing his finger to- He got up and kicked the bench back ward the second officer, and the latter, from the table. “I’ve got a notion to seated on one of the benches, looked end this right here, Callahan.” He ad-

defiantly back. Beyond him, in the shad- vanced ; Callahan fell back against a ows, Waycross saw the uncertain, lack- stoker. lustre face of the bos’n, now twisted “Leave him be, Lowry—leave him into lugubrious, painful lines. In con- be !” cried several voices. “He’s talkin’ trast to his expression was that of the for the rest of us !” added still another, stokers who followed each gesture and stoker. word of Callahan with avidity. Lowry brought up; his face took on “You know we ain’t gettin’ our share,” the cast of many different feelings, and The Rum Runners 99 it was a study to watch him suppress a personal triumph over the- mate. He boiling, domineering wrath and call out detested the mate; his red, gray-green an entreating expression, which patently eyes plainly displayed that. was hard for him to maintain. “We say that the chief’s got enough “Why boys,” he said, “what ails you, plunder off'n us,” remarked another of “ anyway? You’re doing better than you the crew. ’Tain’t exactly mutiny. This ever could ’a done on your own.” boat was never run on a strict, ship-shape “Stuff!” growled some one from the plan. We ’lected Rawling first officer crowd. so’s we wouldn’t be tramped on too Lowry clenched his fist to maintain much. We ’lected Holt bos’n f’r the composure. The strain was severely tell- same reason. You bein’ the chief’s ing on him. “What more do you want?” mouthpiece we couldn’t ’lect you, nor the he asked with a half despairing way. skipper who we got to keep to steer th« “What do you want?” ship straight. But that don’t give no on« This was Callahan’s golden opportu- license to run over us. This ain’t a nity. Here was Lowry, the chief au- strict sea goin’ voyage. It’s different. thority on the boat, knuckling under. Bein’ sort of outside the law, anyway, Once more he took the floor. “This is we can do jest as we please. And I what we want!” he said, triumphantly guess we ’bout decided it was time to looking at the men about him. “We feather our own pockets. Some day want the whole works ! It’s been long we’d get run down by a revenue cutter. enough the other way ’round. We ain’t Best get ours now. The chief’ll never the tools no longer. We’ll not meet the miss it. You’ll get your share; mebbe tugs that come out from Seattle, or from we’ll give you the boat after the trip’s Portland. We’ll just steer off our course, over, and you c’n start a graft of your keep a goin’ and fix it up to land the own. ’Tain’t a bad idea, all around.” liquor ourselves and get the whole money During this soothing, conciliatory ourselves. Everybody share and share speech Lowry had composed his fea- !” alike tures, Waycross saw, as best he could. After this momentous declaration The eyes of the rest of the crew were there was a long silence in which each focused sharply upon him, and the mate man, save Lowry, perhaps, looked self- must have known that the least sign of conscious and a bit guilty. But the die dissent on his part would have imme- was cast; they had issued their ultima- diately placed his life'in jeopardy. The tum, and with the increasing pregnancy affair had become a grim and desperate of the pause the faces of the lawless one indeed; no matter what the con- crew settled down to masks of defiant ciliatory voice had said, this was mutiny and hard determination. on the high seas and punishable as such “That’s so,” breathed a voice; and a under Canadian laws. They could not general stir moved about the fo’c’sle. back out now, and they could not suffer “My God !” said Lowry, his voice one man to hang up their plans. Lowry breaking. “You’re proposing open flung a hand to the ceiling. !” mutiny “All right,” said he, in a weary, re- “Aye, aye,” agreed Callahan, his ani- signed voice. “The chief’ll be gunning mal-like courage now pitched at a maxi- for me for the rest of my life, but if

mum by the success of his declaration. you boys will do it, I guess I can’t stand1 He felt the crew behind him, no doubts in the way.” of the feasibility of disposing of the The tension relaxed. In the far cor- liquor cargo independently had yet en- ner Waycross noted the face of the wire- tered his mind, and he was flushed by his less operator break into a sudden, rmli- 100 Sea Stories Magazine cious smile and sweep a look about the “We can’t do anything without the fo’c’s’le. No one noted him, it seemed, skipper, remember,” said Lowry, coolly. and he grew sober again and self-oc- “Nobody knows enough navigation to cupied. Waycross experienced an in- run this boat. We’ve got to have him. voluntary constriction of muscles each And he won’t consent to what you boys time he looked at the man. have been saying. He’s an old-fashioned “Well,” said Callahan, his blustering skipper.” air resumed, “that’s done. You under- “We’ll show him some new fashions, stand us know, Lowry. Guess you c’n then,” returned Callahan sourly. be second mate, still, but what we say “And here’s something else,” contin- you do.” Then he turned on the wire- ued Lowry. “The chief engineer is also less operator. “An’ as for you, when- like the captain. They go together, and ever they ring in and ask you where we we’ve got to have the chief, too. Now are, don’t you say a word. An’ don’t what’re you going to do? If you try you be sendin’ them any messages to push things too far they’d just as either.” soon run the boat on the rocks. Got “Aye,” replied sparks. “Not a word.” to go easy with them.” Another of the crew sat bolt upright. There was a general silence, broken “Who was you talkin’ to last night ?” he by the reckless Callahan. “Ah, we c’n demanded. get along without them. Lowry, you Again a full wave of suspicion swept c’n persuade him to be reasonable, or ” over the crew and they transferred their else we’ll attention to the big man by the door. The threat was left unfinished, but

“Just tuning up my set, so’s to talk it was perfectly obvious what Callahan to Seattle, in case we did,” replied the meant. “If worst comes to worst, we c’n other in an easy manner. “Don’t look navigate the tub as far as ’Frisco. Won’t at me so hostilely, boys, I’m not slipping need to go any farther.” you any lemons. You’re a ticklish bunch Lowry again broke kn. “You’re an of gents. What ails you?” ignorant fool, Callahan,” said he curtly.

“Better not slip us anything,” whis- “Leave it to you and you’ll make a mess pered a voice. of things. Now if you boys must go

“Never mind,” ordered Callahan, on with this, let’s do this : Lay low “whether we’re ticklish or hot. You just until morning. The storm’s too fresh lay off usin’ the set until we say so. for us to be upsetting things at night. Nobody knows what you’re sayin’. So When dawn comes we’ll rush the cap- don’t you say anything.” tain’s deck and get him, also the first “What about the skipper,” was the engineer. Somehow we’ll manage to general question. “An’ what about those make them do their work.” two other fellows—Bender and Way- A general note of approval ran cross ?” through the crowd. Callahan, with a At the mention of these three men mutter of discontent, looked about him. Callahan’s face turned frightfully ugly. “Shut up!” ordered Lowry, again con- “Damn that skipper!” he half shouted. fident of his power in the fo’c’sle. “An’ damn those cocky boys. I’m f’r “You’ve got no brains to use, so let puttin’ them both in th’ chain locker some one that has plan this thing for’d an’ keepin’ them there until we get out. All right, then, boys; at dawn loose. That captain has stepped on my we’ll go out and get them. Now get toes enough. He’s hard nosed, an’ he back on watch, Callahan.” thinks he’s on a square rigger. He can’t “What about Bender and Waycross ?” !” tell me anything Callahan’s hands closed spasmodi- —

The Rum Runners 101

reflectively at the if he had not understood them before. cally ; the mate looked lamp; in the shadows the wireless man Here was a boat under Canadian shifted back and forth and Waycross registry, with a full cargo of whisky, saw a grim cloud pass over his face. bound for the clear stretch of water “Get ’em and lock ’ em up,” said just of! the entrance to the Strait of O’Rourke unexpectedly. “They’re dan- Juan de Fuca. At that point they were gerous. They’re not sailors—and they’ve evidently to be met by tugs of the smug- got their eyes and ears open for us. gling ring and relieved of their cargo. Get them!” The tugs, quite naturally, could slip into A growl of assent ran over the Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellingham, fo’c’sle again. Waycross grew tense. and the other coast towns, with ease and “That’s right,” said the mate. “Where dispose of the whisky. Or, the ring are they now ?” might have storehouses on the south “Out spyin’, I ’spose, damn ’em!” shore of the strait. It was a wild coun- “Let’s go out and find them!” try in spots and yet not far removed “Hold,” said Lowry. “Do it this from the big towns. A shallow inlet way: One man cover each ladder and would permit a tug to enter, a frame passageway. Then we’re bound to pick shanty would hold the whisky, and a fast them up. I’ll go forward and look automobile would take it away when about.” needed. “No! You stay here!” The whole “Now,” he whispered, “how do I get crew seemed to leap into life. Lowry’s out of here?” face darkened and he caught one fist And that was the pressing question. in the other. He might, of course, successfully leave “You’re a sweet lot of cutthroats! the compartment and go down the alley- My God, what a crowd! All right. way again. But beyond lay danger, for We’ll all stay here, but the watch and the ladders were all guarded by now, and the men to guard the ladders. Hurry men would surely be roaming along the up; Sawtelle, Williamson, Fallon, Dun- decks seeking him—seeking his partner. ton—you take the first watch; be re- A grim bit of humor flashed across the lieved in an hour if you don’t pick them man’s mind as he thought of them seek- up before. Now go on. They may be ing Bender. They would find him if up to some sort of deviltry. Go on.” they looked diligently enough and for Waycross drew back as the fo’c’s’le their pains they would have the task broke out into a’ general discussion. The of sewing him up in a bit of canvas meeting was over, and the mutinous men and tossing him over the rail. Some settled back to wait the night through. one man in that bedlam beyond the bulk- Those on watch crawled into their oil- head, thought Waycross, knew where skins went out. took an- Bender one knew lay stark and Waycross was ; some he other look and saw Lowry seated on the and lifeless to windward of the after bench, head bowed between his hands. starboard lifeboat. Who was it? The wireless operator had sunk to a He stood, irresolute, in the center more comfortable seat on the floor. No of the dark cell, thinking his way out man seemed in the mood for sleep even of the present difficulty. His reasoning ; if any desired it, they would not have was confused for the moment by another been able to get to their bunks. great gust of anger; he’d get the mur-

Waycross had heard enough. For the derer of Bender if it took the rest of second time he withdrew his gaze from his life! the peep hole. Quite clearly he had “Now how do I get out of here?” the facts of this strange cruise now They were attacking at dawn. Dawn 102 Sea Stories Magazine.

was seven hours off. Before then he the screw shaft, indented at short inter- must get to the captain and warn him, vals by bearing cases and oil spouts. make him defend his position; elsewise He took all this in by a few swift Waycross had a scant purchase on life. glances, then started forward. Once Surely in this ship there must be a half in his haste a flange of the shaft casing dozen loyal men; that was plenty for a caught him up and he fell sprawling. defense of the wheelhouse. They could He got to his feet with a grimace and hold the rest of the ship at bay, con- continued his way. The door grew

trol the steering and destiny of larger and shortly he stood near it, look- the boat. ing into the engine room. At first all In turning about Waycross’ foot he saw was the rapid rising and falling struck the metal coping of the man- of the crossheads on the pistons that hole to the life escape. In a flash he drove the shaft round and round; ap- saw his way out. “Sure! Why didn’t I proaching the opening he got a larger think of it before?” view and saw a vast series of cocks and He reached down and fumbled for dials; a grated walk ran around the en-

the hand grip, got it, and wrenched the gines, mounted, circled again, and con- cover away. The roar of the machinery tinued to mount, high overhead. In the flung itself out of the hole; at the far corner he saw an overalled figure bottom the swirling, twisting screw shaft oiling a pump. Off to the right another glistened under the solitary electric light. figure stood at the throttle and when the Waycross paused only long enough to after end of the boat came soaring up- take another last look into the fo’c’s’le. ward he threw the long rod over, held

The assembly had thinned out a bit it, while a vast clanging and roar filled more evidently Lowry posting the great space, and drew it toward him ; was more guards. Waycross could see him again as the stern once more took faintly through the haze of tobacco water. smoke. Waycross dodged out of the alley’s “Look long, you cutthroats,” mur- mouth and followed the staging around. mured Waycross, “here’s a man that’s Neither of the men had seen him come going to put a crimp in your plans.” out, and it was not until he had reached He lowered himself into the hole and the first series of stairs that the one at contracted his shoulders to squeeze past the throttle ventured to shoot a brief the opening. Getting his feet solidly glance of surprise toward him. Way- on the ladder, he paused to drag the cross waved a hand and kept going. As manhole cover back across the opening. he turned to the second landing he This was a strenuous bit of labor taking caught a view of the boiler room through nearly five minutes getting it done he the engine passageway and saw a bare ; continued his way down and dropped shouldered man heave a slice bar into a nimbly to the floor of the shaft alley. flaming furnace. He ran on. It was not high enough to permit his Another flight and another circular, standing erect, but even so it was a ca- grated track. Below him the crossheads

it vernous looking thing. Aft, was swal- rose and fell ; the oiler shrunk to dwarf-

lowed up in gloom from which emanated ish proportions ; Waycross came to a the din of battering water and threshing door. Again he paused. He was not screw. Forward it stretched away under certain where this would let him out, and the' periodical glow of incandescent he did not wish to let himself into dan- lamps until it reached a small opening gerous quarters, nor did he want to come that Waycross could just make out. Be- upon any of the seekers from the neath his feet a boxed runway covered fo’c’sle. The Rum Runners 103

“Can’t do anything standing here. Strength returning he made a final Let’s go.” desperate effort, launching the point of He shoved the door open against the his elbow and his forearm against the wind, slipped out as rapidly as he could other’s face. He did not dare to try

and let it slam behind him. Next, he a straight blow, for fear of crippling jumped sidewise and stood poised; he his hand. A punch of this sort, solidly had revealed himself for the brief mo- landed, would do as much if not more ment that the door had been open. damage. He parried an arm, by chance, Nothing happened. He crawled along and threw his whole weight into a re- and bumped into bulkhead this set turn lunge. It must have been a telling a ;

him to following it and he turned a cor- attack, for his opponent dropped the ner, to find himself full in the teeth of struggle. Waycross wasted no time. He the storm. Now he guessed that he was threw himself forward and again bore on the starboard side of the captain’s the other to the wall with tremendous deck, and at this moment was feeling force. Now he brought up his knee and

his path along the side of that officer’s plunged it into the man’s stomach; the quarters. This cheered him immensely. latter gave a cry and relaxed. Waycross He picked up speed and came in con- caught him around the waist and sup- tact with the knob of a door. First en- ported him there, fearing to let go and

gineer’s cabin ; the skipper’s was directly possibly suffer from trickery. At the ahead. He went on. same time his strength was about ex- It happened without warning.' One pended; he could only hang to the other moment he had stretched out a hand to and labor for his breath. protect himself while advancing; the The situation was abruptly ended. A moment after he had caught the rough- door opened not five feet from him, and skinned fist of some opposing man. Just the captain stood revealed on the one thought occurred to Waycross in threshold, a pistol in his hand, staring

the shock of that contact : “Here’s one out into the night. The two fighters

of them ; I’ve got to do away with him were so close that the cabin light, emerg- or we’re all lost!” With that he swept ing from the opening, fell faintly on his arms wide open and drove forward, them, enabling the officer to see the catching his enemy in a solid grip. strange spectacle. Waycross saw his lips The wall of the cabin was hard by; move, and he lugged his burden forward

he turned the man toward it and with to catch the words. !” a repetition of his old tactics drove him “Let me inside, and I’ll explain this against the planking, exerting his full shouted the latter.

force. Next, he brought an elbow back The captain did not move, still holding and jammed the man’s head viciously to the pistol in a menacing manner. From the bulkhead. He heard the report of his appearance Waycross thought he that, even above the wind. But the other must have been drinking, or lost his was a tough, tenacious opponent. Way- reason, so dreary and worn and bitter cross had lost his grip momentarily, and was the expression of that officer’s face. “ a straight, forearm jab took him across . . . ungodly noise?” the windpipe, knocking his breath away. Waycross came on further. “It’s all He clung on with one hand, weathering right !” he shouted. “There’s mutiny on attack. Another and another short, your ship and I’m warning you. Warn- !” rocking blow smashed against him, ing you ! Let’s go inside reaching his chest, his forehead, his He did not wait for the other’s re- cheeks, but he lowered his head and took ply, but advanced, making the captain them all. retreat before him. Thus they gained 104 Sea Stories Magazine

the shelter of the stateroom. Waycross ner were hauled aboard this boat at the let his captive fall while he turned to last minute. Don’t belong to the regular close the door. When he again moved crowd in the fo’c’sles.” about he saw the captain collapse into The skipper looked at Waycross more a chair and bury his face in his arms closely. “Ah, that’s right. That’s right. on the small table that served as a writ- Your name’s Waycross, eh?” ing desk. The pistol dropped to the “Yes sir.” floor. Their attention was diverted to the man on fhe floor. He rolled over, CHAPTER V. sighed hugely, and struggled to a sitting WHEN DAWN BREAKS. position, glancing about him with a “Hell’s bells!” exclaimed Waycross, dazed appearance. Waycross quickly startled at the sight of this unexpected went over to him, and seizing both arms, breakdown. “You’re not crying?” got a double hammerlock. “Here’s one But the man was. Or, if it wasn’t of them. Get a bit of rope and we’ll tie crying, it was some paroxysm of feeling him down. Make’s one less to bother that shook his whole body, twisted his us.” face into weak lines of defeat, and ren- The captain rose and sought out a dered him a pitiable spectacle indeed as locker, finding therein a long coil of half- he raised his head and stared at Way- inch rope such as is used for sounding

cross. It looked as if he failed to lines. He brought it over to Waycross comprehend the meaning of the intru- and' between the two of them the sion. Some semblance of dignity and prisoner was effectually trussed, not authority gathered in him, Waycross saw without a stream of verbal abuse from an attempt at speech; the first effort him. The captain’s mouth tightened failed. down. “Get out of my stateroom!” was at “Aye, curse if you want,” said he. last managed. “I’ll have you hamstrung before I’m Waycross regarded him calmly. through with you.” “Buck up, sir; there’s mutiny aboard “What about yourself?” asked the this ship.” other in a surly fashion. “You’ll never The word “mutiny” penetrated the command another ship.” captain’s consciousness and straightened “Better than knuckling under to a him up, and recalled his sense of au- band of street sweepings and wharf thority as nothing else possibly could. rats.” The captain looked about him. Here was a direct challenge, an out and “I’m not wanting to have him lying out defiance to the constituted authority about,” he said to Waycross. “Pick of the sea. him up and we’ll lock him in that closet, “Mutiny?” he half shouted. “Who’s there.” talking about mutiny?” The closet was a wardrobe locker; “They’ve done talking,” responded they shoved the prisoner within and the Waycross. “It’s all decided. At dawn captain locked the door. “That makes they intend to storm the bridge, take me feel much better,” said he. “Now, you and the chief engineer and hold Waycross, where’s your partner. He you while they run off with the ship.” with the others?” “How do you come to be here?” was “No, sir. He’s dead—killed by some the sharp question. “Very strange for of the crew on deck not over three hours one of the crew to break awav like ago. this!” “Murder, too?” “Don’t forget, sir, that I and my part- “Aye, they’re a rare bunch of birds. —

The Rum Runners 105

Nothing’s too desperate, and they’re up appearing beaten by the storms of a to their necks now.” rough life’s voyage, Waycross inscru- “And Lowry?” tably watching him. Only one other re- “He’s with them.” mark did the captain make, and that “Too bad.” The captain’s face under- was to justify his chief engineer. went another change; now it was the “You’ll find he’s a loyal man—there’s hard and practical visage of a blue water none better. We’ve had the same ship master. “They’ve bitten off more than for ten years, and he wouldn’t leave they can chew with me. At dawn, eh? me, so he came on this—him jeopardizin’ At dawn I’ll cook their little scheme.” his license the same as I. A loyal man.” He walked over to the speaking tube. Still Waycross remained silent. "Below !” he called. “MacPherson The door burst open, dragging the there? Let me talk to him.” He turned chief engineer within. He put his tall on Waycross. “I’m having the chief spare frame against the thing and got engineer up here. Hello, Mac, come it closed with some difficulty. up here as soon as you can . . . .hey? “Losh,” said he, turning to his su- Well, you’ll have to trust the engines to perior. “It’s a fairish wind to-night. Tell someone else. I want you here, right me what ye will and let me go back. away.” Things are not as well as they mighr Waycross settled into a chair, and the be, below.” captain turned again to him. “You don’t “What’s wrong?” inquired the cap look like a sailor,” said he, bluntly. “I tain. never thought ye were one when Lowry MacPherson shrugged his lean shoul- brought you in.” ders. “Eh, what’s not wrong with this “I been to sea.” boat? It’s not fit for good men to sail

“So’s a fish,” answered the captain in, such as you and I. The boilers be rather tartly. “But you’re no sailor, any leaking, I’m afeard the shaft will break one can see that.” in a hundred pieces, and God knows Waycross chose to remain incommu- what’s taken the strength from the nicative, which visibly upset the captain. stokers. I’ve knocked sense into a lot “It may be you’re a secret service man. o’ men, but these be the worst.” God knows, a man can’t be sure of any “I’ll tell you,” broke hi the captain. one nowadays. Ye’ll be wanting to know, “It’s mutiny!” maybe, how I’m mixed in this crowd.” “Eh?” said the chief mildly. He had He leaned forward, earnestly. “It’s not heard. This was his way of expressing of my choice—remember that. They’re astonishment. devilish clever, the high men in this “Mutiny—and you and I are picked liquor ring, and they found me out as to be trussed up and treated like a couple a man that needed money badly. I had of Christmas fowls when daylight comes. my own family troubles I’ll not explain Nice, isn’t it?” The captain’s eyes to you. They offered me a good berth snapped in anger. on a good ship, under certain conditions. The chief turned to notice Waycross Needing the money I took this job for the first time, apparently. His blue and I’ll regret it to the last day o’ my eyes passed over the sailor and fell away, life.” He brought up rather shortly. to wander back to the captain. “That’s that. A man can’t always have “What’s to be done?” he asked in a things to his choosing. But I’ll never per- calm, matter-of-fact way. “Morn is no mit mutiny—not if I have to hang.” so very far off.” They relapsed into silence, the cap- The call of self-defense brought the tain sitting doggedly in his chair, a figure three of them together shortly and they 106 Sea Stories Magazine

were outlining plans for defense. First later to find out. If he’s no for us, we of all they must have firearms. The can better take care o’ him.” captain got a pistol out of his desk The crew aft were all classed as muti- drawer, rose and fished a high powered nous. “But Holt would come over with rifle from a cabinet, “that I sometimes a little persuading,” noted Waycross. use when we land on the Alaskan coast,” “He’s not of their breed.” he explained to Waycross. For his part “The wireless operator—how about MacPherson silently drew a small thirty- him ?” queried the captain. eight caliber automatic from his hip Waycross looked reflectively at the pocket and laid it on the table. Way- ceiling, before speaking. He seemed to cross seemed to draw a similar gun from be formulating a decision. “Not for some mysterious part of his body. “Ye us,” he decided at last. seem to be unco gude with such wee- “Felton,” said the chief, getting gayer pons,” observed the chief in shrewd ob- all the time, “this is to be ver-r-ry in- servation. Waycross looked noncom- teresting.” The skipper nodded. “But,” mittal. That made four guns, well continued, MacPherson, “have we not enough for three men, but not a sufficient the Chinee cook and the mess boy?” arsenal should they recruit their party The captain slapped the table. “That’s to larger proportions. so; I’d forgotten. There’s four of us.” “ “My second’s below, and I think I ’Tis enough our first officer, of ; know where he keeps a revolver,” ob- course, goes with them. Small loss.” in served the chief ; he rose and went “Now,” broke the captain a second through a door connecting with the other time, “we’ll not try to hold this place. staterooms on the captain’s deck. After We’ll go above to the wheelhouse. It a bit he came back carrying not only will be easy to defend. We’ll command a revolver, but also a box of shells. a view of the whole ship from there, “Lyin’ right on his table,” he chuckled, without exposing ourselves.” and his whole face was transformed by The decks could be watched without an inner excitement. Anticipation difficulty; the rub was to keep tab on seemed to liven him up tremendously. the companionways within the boat’s

So it was with the captain, Waycross shell. Once on the upper deck the muti- observed; the former actually embarked neers might dash for the protection of on some ponderous joke, and the chief the galley or mess hall and storm the chuckled and repeated gayly, “aye, aye, single passage leading up to the central aye, so it is.” As for himself, Waycross corridor of the captain’s deck. Here, grew tenser and quicker of movement still protected, they could attempt to as the time passed. He also became force their way through the captain’s more reticent. stateroom and up the inside stairs from “Ye seem distressed,” observed the that room to the wheelhouse, covered chief to him. “Perhaps ye dinna care by a trap door. Either the defenders for fighting?” must keep the upper decks clear or they “Now,” interrupted the captain, “let’s must effectually barricade the pas- see who we can depend on.” sageways leading up from within. “ They ran over the list of men aboard. ’Twill be hard to keep them from All the black gang were with the muti- coming up the outside ladders,” agreed neers, likewise the second engineer. “A MacPherson; “it’s the inside we must stubborn lad, he,” commented MacPher- think about.” son. The first assistant was doubtful. “We’ll lock all doors of the com- The chief knew very little about him. panionways, just before dawn,” said the “He’s asleep now, and let’s wait until skipper. “Now, Waycross, you go down The Rum Runners 107

and find the Chinee cook and the stew- chief returned, leading his subordinate. ard and bring them up here.” “He’s no fond o’ mutiny,” was Mac- Waycross set out, through the inside Pherson’s comment, tossing another re- door, walked along a short passage, de- volver on the table. scended an abrupt flight of stairs, opened The first assistant, whose name was a door, and found himself in the mess Stevens, looked after the revolver in sul- hall. The cook and the mess boy slept len acquiescence. He did not appear on opposite sides of the hall. Waycross to be overly eager to help the small address- rounded them both up ; the boy, a small- crowd. “Understand,” said he statured lad of about fifteen went ing the captain, “I'm not fighting my

quietly ; the Oriental did not fully awake friends,- but I won’t doublecross the until he crossed the threshold of Fel- chief, nor can I stomach mutiny. So ton’s stateroom. Then he was all re- you just count me as a spectator.” And spect and attention. the man’s not overly strong chin set The captain explained the situation into a stubborn line. “I’ll promise you, in a few brief, simple phrases and put on my word, not to lift a hand against the blunt question to them. you only, don’t ask me to fire against “Which ; side will you have?” anybody.” The boy flared up with an unmistak- “Fair enough,” agreed Felton, albeit !” able enthusiasm. “We’ll fight ’em a bit sourly. “Sho,” agreed the cook. “Bimeby lick For the first time since Waycross hell all out uv ’em.” had broken into the stateroom a bit of “Fine!” agreed the captain. “Now calm invaded the room. Now came the there’s work to do.” most tedious part of the whole eventful The next hour was an arduous one; night—that of waiting. Felton and all four of them set to work packing MacPherson toasted each other silently provisions from the galley to the cap- with a finger of Scotch and settled back tain’s stateroom. “Carry ’em up to the to fitful periods of rest. Waycross wheelhouse when we get ready,” said was immobile in the remaining chair and Felton. They got enough to sustain only the difference of race prevented them for several days before they him from appearing as impassive as the

stopped. By then it was two in the cook who reclined on the floor, seem- morning. “Now,” directed Felton, “you ingly asleep. The mess boy’s wide eyes go and see about your first assistant. roamed continually. Stevens settled in Take along a gun.” a corner and stared doggedly before A quarter hour elapsed before the him. TO BE CONCLUDED.

LOSING THE VACUUM COME years ago, when the battleship Rivadavia, built for the Argentine govern- ment by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, was about ready for the builders’ trials, some of the engine-room instruments had not yet been installed. Among these was the vacuum gauge. The builders thereupon decided to use a U tube temporarily. During the trials this tube was broken, and of course the mercury ran out and was lost in the bilge. One of the yard force on his first trial trip, in describing this incident to some of his fellow workmen on his return, spoke of how the vacuum tube was broken and the “vacuum ran all over the engine room.” —

JULY

July i, 1816.—The French ship Medusa strikes reef off Africa. One hundred and fifty

embark on raft ; only fifteen rescued two weeks later.

July 2, 1895.—Captain Joshua Slocum sails on his voyage alone around the world.

July 2, 1915.—The British submarine E-9 torpedoes the Pommern in the Baltic.

July 3, 1898—The Spanish fleet comes out of Santiago harbor; American ships are waiting.

July 4, 1631.—New England’s first ship launched.

July 4, 1840.—The Britannia sails. The founding of the Cunard line.

July 4. 1878.—The Vega sails from Nordenskiold, rounding the north of Europe and Asia.

July 4, 1898. La Bourgoyne sinks off Nova Scotia with loss of five hundred and fifty,

July 4, 1918.—'Ninety-five merchant vessels and seventeen warships launched in the United States.

July 5, 1801.—The birthday of David G. Farragut.

July 6, 1782. The Ranger, of Salem, repels boarders at the mouth of the Potomac.

July 6, 1908.—Peary sails on the Roosevelt; he found the north pole before he returned.

July 6, 1919.—The U. S. transport Great Northern completes the fastest trip across the Atlantic, a little over twelve days.

July 7, 1798.—Congress authorizes naval warfare against France.

July 7, 1846.—Commodore Sloat raises the U. S. flag at Monterey.

July 8, 1497.—Vasco da Gama sails for India, spreading commerce to other oceans than the Atlantic.

July 8, 1778—A French fleet of eighteen sail arrive off the Delaware to aid the American colonies.

July 9, 1916.—The merchant submarine Deutschland arrives at Baltimore.

July 10, 1690.—The French defeat English and Dutch at Beachy Head.

July 10, 1792.—The Commerce, of Boston, is stranded on Arabian coast. Most of the crew die or are killed after long wandering.

July 10, 1812—The Fame, Captain Webb, brings two British ships to Salem, the first prizas of the war. July io, 1840.—A British fleet blockades Chinese coast.

July 11, 1863.—Four blockade runners elude Union fleet and reach Wilmington, N. C. K Rusty Cutlass C ci_-ptcLi n A. E .D i

After a sufficient period of service it gets in one’s blood, and the instances are very rare where a man can escape the lure of navy life. Frequently, as in Gammon’s case, a fancied or even real grievance will cause a seaman to rebel, but in the emergency they very seldom fail the flag of their country and the service which, deep down in their hearts, they have grown to love. pROM behind a great chunk of con- Half an hour more Tim lingered be- voluted coral rock, gray with age hind his boulder, until the Flamingo and splotched with crimson lichen, had dwindled to a fairylike toy of ivory Tim Gammon peered with lessening and gold on the deep-breathing bosom anxiety at a smart navy cutter sweep- of the Pacific; then he stood erect, ing rhythmically across the glassy blue peered sharply under his hand along of the lagoon. The last trace of worri- the white, level beach at the solitary ment vanished from his rugged face hut nestling in a group of palms on and made place for a self-satisfied grin the southern bluff, and became fever- as the boat sheered alongside the gun- ishly busy. boat Flamingo, tossed oars, and was His cap he had already lost. Now hooked on to the dangling tackles, while he tore off his uniform savagely, with a from the ship’s forecastle head clat- gritted oath for every button and fas- tered the harsh protest of a taut chain tening. cable around the windlass. “Drill and polish and look smart !” he White foam spread across the blue growled, and bundled his jumper under the gunboat’s stern, her bows around a slimed rock, dropping it into a swung to seaward, and the blazing sun- cavity in the rock pile. light made jewels of her port glasses “Jump to a bos’n’s pipe, and salute and polished brasswork, as she pointed yer bloomin’ orficers!’’ And leggins her quarter fair at the beach; her flag and boots and trousers followed the made a stab of vivid color against the jumper. shimmering background of sea and sky, “And ‘ten days in 'the rattle,’ says bringing an involuntary choke- into the snipe of a perishin’ loot’nant, cos I Tim’s throat which he smothered with leaves the boat for five minutes just to a curse. take a handk’chi’f full o’ hard-tack to ;

110 Sea Stories Magazine the littte brown gal as had fed me with ing white skin was hidden by the cool, fruit for more’n a week! Navy! Jail! breeze-stirred foliage. Me for the simple life now—that’s the The broad leaves had barely settled !” finish back into place after Tim’s passage The finish was Tim’s cutlass and belt, through them, when, far along the daz- which he picked up and poised prepara- zling beach, a white-clad figure emerged tory to pitching it far out into deep from a lonely hut and started at a rapid water. Of all his equipment, he had walk toward the spot the seaman had kept only his neckerchief and sufficient just vacated. As he neared the rocks, material from his shirt to make a loin the man paused, gazing hard after the cloth, in which he now stood clothed. receding ship, as if to gauge the pos- The rest he had parted with without a sibility of recalling her. He shook his qualm, unless it was a slight regret that head hopelessly, and proceeded to the he could not keep the cloth for barter; spot to which the flash of Tim’s cut- knowing the danger of such scraps of lass had attracted him. navy goods becoming awkward clews to This white man was good to look his whereabouts, he had cast aside re- upon. Dressed comfortably and coolly gret and clothes at once. But his be- in white drill, his figure revealed in its

loved old cutlass ! It seemed to stick to every movement the virility of clean his hand the belt twisted about his manhood. His face glowed in the sun- ; arm as if imbued with life, making its light like the mask of a bronze god dumb protest, and Tim’s hand sank eyes and chin and the line of the mouth back to his side. He drew the spot- all were as chapters in the story of a less blade from the scabbard, and his strong man in whom power was equally eyes burned as he regarded it. Many divided with human kindness. pictures were evolved out of the mist Nickalls was nominally a? trader, that suddenly swam before his vision: though none of the infrequent visitors homely as well as lurid pictures pic- to the little island of Ulua had ever ; tures of savage, seething conflict and succeeded in discovering how he made blade pictures of loving care a living. Freight came to him, that a dripping ; rotten stone and canvas, was certain but it was for the greater applied, with ; and cleansing after part provisions and clothing and the to the refurbishing ; the fighting was done. quantity was surely no more than would A blinding flash was reflected from suffice for his own needs. The trade to the steel, as it turned in the sun, and be picked up in exchange was little more Tim came back to earth. He started in than enough to pay for the imports. momentary fright at the thought of the Othef traders had tried to get a foot-

far-carrying powers of such a flash : a ing on Ulua; they had usually found heliograph was not a surer signal. it convenient to leave after a brief stay. Then the soft, rolling “Kr-r-r-r-r” of Yet few men could be found in the a parrakeet in the bush behind him re- wide Pacific who would speak other minded him that he had friends at hand than good of Nickalls, though in —that parrakeet’s cry came from a traders’ circles he was damned good- dusky maiden’s throat—and he wrapped humoredly. To get rich quickly in the the belt around the cutlass with a vi- islands, a trader must as a rule judi- cious twist. With set lips, and with- ciously mingle quite a good proportion a second look, he hurled the weapon of alcohol in with his other goods and out ; into the darkest patch of blue water in under the influence of Nickalls, Ulua reach before the ripples the was free from that ; and from doubtful blessing: splash lipped the rocky marge, his flash- the people, against the will of some of The Rusty Cutlass Ill the younger, were in consequence to their peace. It was the same at first healthy, clean, and upstanding. with the traders themselves. But one Even the missionaries, after some man, Punally, the Malay, who by devi- trifling demur, had long been content ous methods had somehow obtained to leave the morals and uplift of Ulua command of a Sydney schooner, still in Nickalls’ capable hands, without vis- in his remained a thorn side ; he was ible detriment to the well-being of the never sure that the Kestrel, Punally ’s islanders. And the gunboat, whose vessel, was not dodging about some- duty it was to show the flag in those where near, watching for the departure far-flung footholds of humanity, never of the gunboat to make one of his swift passed within a day’s sail of the trader’s descents on the blind side of the island lonely hut without altering her course a with his filthy, square-faced trade gin. trifle to pay him a visit. Luckily, it had never yet happened Nickalls gave the rock pile a swift, that the Malay swooped down at the comprehensive scrutiny, found nothing, precise time when a runaway sailor was and, with a harassed expression, swung loose on the island but now, with a dis- ; about and plunged into the bush in the gruntled navy man to put profane direction taken by the deserting seaman. thoughts into the islanders’ receptive His errand was as fruitless as had been minds, Nickalls was shrewd enough to his search of the rocks, and an hour foresee trouble unless he managed to later he was retracing his steps, with unearth the sailor before the Kestrel’s bowed head, along the hard strand to- next appearance. ward his hut. For the next few days the trader as- “I’ll dig him out—they must give him siduously sought for the runaway. To up,” he muttered fiercely, clenching his all his inquiries, the natives replied with brown fists until the knuckles shone furtive, but negative, gestures. They white. “Between runaway sailors and knew nothing of any white sailor, they rascally gin peddlers lies disaster for told him. But Molo, the brown- !” any native community skinned Adonis, who looked after Nick- He strode along in silence for some alls’ hut, knew better. He slept in the moments then, striking fist on palm village with his people, knew that, ; and with almost savage fervor, he gritted: though the sailor kept aloof during the “Why in thunder can’t people leave day, he always passed the night in the me alone to work out my own redemp- chief’s hut. tion ! Why can’t I be permitted to pre- Nickalls took the chief aside one serve this tiny patch of the universe at morning, and charged him with harbor- least as clean and sweet as the Creator ing a deserter, a crime for which there made it?” must certainly come a penalty. The During his stay on the island, Nick- vehemence with which the charge was alls had, in the early days, often been denied, and the shifty leer in the chief’s inflicted with the presence of wastrel eyes, brought a thought to Nickalls that seamen from trading vessels, for Ulua made his kindly face darken with ap- was a tiny paradise, and its soft-voiced prehension. He left the chief with a people were very primitive. At times reiterated warning, and hurried to the he was forced to match his own physical crest of the bluff behind his hut. Here, prowess against that of the beach on the highest spot on the island, he

comber ; sometimes a little straight-out kept his private lookout station in a argument would suffice; but in every tall palm, fitted with a good naval tele- case he had succeeded in ridding his scope. brown people of the threatened danger It was near noon, and the sun, al- ;

112 Sea Stories Magazine most at its zenith, blazed down upon a barnacle had already attached itself to rippleless ocean that glowed like a blue- the cutlass hilt, and a frantic little crab steel shield. There were signs of a dropped from the unrolled jumper and coming breeze, but now sea and sky scuttled from the doorway toward the were motionless as the land. At the whispering sea. southern sea rim, vague to any but a Nickalls handled the cutlass with seaman’s trained vision, a silvery sliver something approaching reverence. of glancing light, poised upon the daz- When Tim flung it into the sea, the zling, metallic horizon, was plainly re- blade had jarred loose from the scab- vealed by the long glass as a becalmed bard, and the salt water had entered,' sailing vessel. and rust was already forming on the “If that’s the Kestrel, I’ve got a fight steel. On the point of ordering Molo on hand!” muttered Nickalls, climbing to clean it, Nickalls refrained, and bade down and entering his hut. “If that the native carry out the other part of fool sailor was just an island roust- his instructions. He stood the cutlass about, I’d go after him and scare him in a corner *he would scour it himself. off but he’s who’s the sunset, the breeze struck ; a navy man—a man With perhaps fought under the old flag and down and with the rising of a full — ; ” I can’t let him moon the sea shimmered as it leaped, He broke off in his musing suddenly, spattered with a thousand gleaming and hailed Molo. foam crests, to fling its frolicking wave- “Here, you Molo; you go one-time lets in musical thunder on the glisten- over by those rocks”—indicating the ing beach. Nickalls left the cutlass for place where Tim Gammon had hidden another time, and betook himself again —“and make good look-see. Search to his lookout palm. The moon flung the rocks, dive if you have to, but try the light of an arc lamp athwart the to find that white fellow’s clothes. You windward ocean, rendering that section bring me what you find. Then, to-mor- of tumbling waters as clear as day; row morning, before you come here, and, after a short delay for focusing, you find out where the white fellow the glass picked out a black shape, goes in the daytime, and follow him.” touched with silver, that flashed and “All can-do, Missey Nicklas,” said became obscured again and again. A Molo, and his white teeth showed in a vessel swinging along to the spanking

wide grin. “S’pose I find um, I bring breeze it was, stealing a radiance from um along?” the moonlight as she rolled.

“No. I’ll get this one myself, Molo. Just find out where he lib, that’s all.” Nickalls was not surprised to learn The sun hung like a crimson ball, two from Molo in the morning that the diameters above the western horizon, Kestrel had anchored in a small harbor when Molo returned from his search. on the leeward side of the island. The But he brought results. Wrapped in a item of news, not altogether unex- bundle of tapa cloth, he carried every pected, but feared, that worried him item of Tim Gammon’s equipment, ex- was that the Malay had brought with cept the hat and one boot. From a him a strong crew of white men, in

1 longer parcel he unwrapped the short place of his usual complement of service cutlass, the parting with which Kanakas. It told him in unmistakable had caused Tim his one qualm. Every terms that Punally was determined to article oozed moisture. About the add Ulua to his list of trading ports bundles hung the tang of ocean, the and what that meant to the population reek of weed-slimed rock ; a tiny Nickalls well knew, from the Kestrel’s The Rusty Cutlass 113 unsavory reputation the wide seas Nickalls realized the magnitude of his over. task. Ulua was one of a thousand tiny But Molo had found the lair of the islets that came under a sort of gen- runaway, and all other matters were eral .beneficent protectorate of the swept from the trader’s mind by the powers. No great nation had thought information that Tim Gammon was en- it worth while to formally hoist the sconced in a snug retreat in the least flag and annex the island; all seemed likely place he would be looked for: to rest content to play policeman for within a hundred fathoms of the hut, morality’s sake. Hitherto, since he had in a dry, well-hidden cave, under the taken up his abode there, Nickalls had rear of the bluff. There he was being experienced little difficulty in recon- supplied with food by the laughing ciling the islanders to the absence of brown maiden for whom he had de- the average trader’s temptations. They serted his ship. Molo added that the looked upon him as a being apart, but chief intended to make use of his guest one who seemed always able to cure any

as a sort of moral support when Pu- little ills which might visit them. His nally came to open trade. Some of the small medicine chest was kept replen- young bloods of the village had set the ished for just that purpose, and, in con- yeast of mischief to working, and the sequence, the island was free from elders were half persuaded already coral sores and most of the other petty that a trial of the Malay’s square-face ailments that accompany primitive might prove a welcome change from island life. The daily fishing, too, had the humdrum respectability of Nick- been rendered doubtly productive, and alls’ kindly sway. just half as laborious, since Nickalls had The trader went alone to the cave. applied good, hard-headed northern

It was empty. Coming to a swift deci- methods to it. sion, Nickalls strode across the island, Most traders making a call had seen a bracing morning walk over a sparsely the quiet, unobtrusive good that was timbered, hogback hill, the northern being done, and gracefully left the self- spur pf which terminated in a precipi- appointed guardian angel to his peace-

tous cliff. In it a deep cleft formed ful labors. But Punally was of a dif-

a snug, deep-water harbor for any ferent breed : he coveted the little craft less than hundred tons’ burden. island Ulua its possibilities of trade a of ; And from the vantage point of the crest were good, and its young men were the trader verified his fears. The white stalwart and strong. Nickalls knew skin of the runaway gleamed pink in now that, with the aid of this runaway the sun, showing already the first ef- sailor, who had got close to the chief’s fects of a tropical scorching which must heart by taking up his abode with him, have convinced him of the manifold ad- instead of holding aloof, as Nickalls vantages of clothing. Standing on the himself had done, Punally was likely to ledge of rock at the cliff base, Tim insert the thin edge of a wedge that Gammon was deep in conversation with would split into splinters the peaceful the Malay skipper of the Kestrel, contentment of his little flock. swinging to her anchor in the glassy He saw two brown islanders steal pool, and near by a square wooden case, from the bush to the sailor’s side, and, with a board ripped off the lid, revealed at a gesture, take up the case between

the familiar square bottles of the vil- them and bear it off toward the village. lainous gin of trade. The Malay remained a while longer in Frizzy, black heads bobbed into sight earnest talk with Tim, and Nickalls took above a clump of buginvillseas, and another snap decision. He hurried 114 Sea Stories Magazine

across the ridge, and, plunging into the storeroom, and smoked a pipe the while pathless undergrowth, got ahead of the he pondered upon the situation. He two natives and reached the village first. knew he would speedily receive a visit, Here he found the chief looking either from the chief and his men, or much like a small boy caught filching the Malay, or possibly Tim. The last apples. The young men standing about possibility he hoped would eventuate, were obviously on thorns of expectancy, for he wanted to talk navy to the delin-

and tried hard to show the trader an quent seaman before it was too late.

insolent face. He coolly ignored them, One thing was very certain: if it going straight into a quiet, earnest re- came to actual encounter with the Kes- monstrance with the chief, who wrig- trel’s people, Nickalls would be over- gled in discomfort between deep-rooted matched. In keeping with his general respect for the white man to whom his mode of living, serene and tending to- people owed so much, and a sneaking, ward good works, he possessed no mouth-watering itch to taste just once weapon of any kind. He had seen the the dissipations hinted at so alluringly more-than-ample boat equipment of the by his new friend Tim. Kestrel, and knew from long experi- The chief was wavering when the two ence that an island schooner with a natives arrived with their burden, and crew of twelve men and boats for fifty his eyes snapped at sight of the bottled almost invariably counted a well-sup- balloon juice. His mouth opened and plied arms chest among her other equip- stayed open, his eyes rounded out like ment. the night orbs of an ancient owl, at He looked up at the slender pole Nickalls’ next move. The trader erected before the hut, which he had stepped up to the bearer of Punally’s rigged as a signal mast for communicat- gift. ing with passing craft that did not stop, “Pick that up again, boys, and carry but which were ever willing to exchange it down to my hut,” he said firmly. The a friendly greeting with a lonely white men stared at him in amazement, and man. His one resource was obvious, from him to the chief. From the young and he passed into the hut and opened ( bloods standing by rose a sullen mut- his camphorwood chest. When he tering. came out, he bore a rolled-up flag which

“Pick it up. Up with it. That stuff he handled lovingly as he bent it on to kills brown men. Come!” the halyards and left it, still bundled up, The natives stood as if stupefied. hanging clear of the ground. The chief grinned sheepishly he could Molo had disappeared upon some ; not avoid hearing the low growling of business of his own, and was still ab- his young men, but neither could he sent. He had, therefore, not seen Nick- avoid the cold eyes of the trader. He alls deposit the case of gin in the store- hesitated to either back up the order or room. Yet when, an hour later, he to forbid his men to obey. turned up in company with Tim Gam- Nickalls solved the problem in char- mon, who wore an aggressive air and acteristic fashion. Thrusting aside the little. else, he evinced signs of incipient bearers with gentle force, he stooped, imbecility indisputably due to alcoholic swung the case to his own broad shoul- indulgence. The Kanaka slunk around ders, and marched off to his hut, deaf the hut, ashamed to meet the trader > to the howl of rage that now went up but Tim was there with a purpose, and unrestrained. stated it belligerently. Arriving at his small home, Nickalls “See here, mister, you swiped some dumped the case of square-face into the goods o’ mine. I want ’em,” announced : : : :

The Rusty Cutlass 115 the sailor, planting himself squarely be- “This—you may as well put it on,” fore Nickalls, and staring into his fac£ returned Nickalls, taking down a sea- with fiery eyes. stained seaman's uniform from a peg. “Swiped is hardly the word. Gam- “I can find a man’s job for you here.” mon,” responded the trader gently. “Not by a dam’ sight!” swore Tim, “Recovered, is better. I’m glad you’ve furious at sight of the hated uniform come to your senses.” he had discarded. “I dunno how you

The sailor started at hearing his got it, but you can burn it or bury it name spoken. Some of the bold ag- as soon as you like. I served ten years gressiveness faded from his face as he in that convict’s rig, and I ain’t keen on stammered wearing it again. I’d a sight ruther go “Who told you my name’s Gammon, to jail outright.” mister? And wot d’you mean by corn- Tim stalked outside, forgetting his in’ to my senses, eh ? I come arter that original errand in the wave of resent- square-face.” ment that surged over him. Nickalls Nickalls forced the sailor to lower his followed him, and went to the foot of gaze by the cool persistence of his own, the flagstaff. The trader dropped the and replied in a tone which Tim had subject of the uniform for the moment, more than once heard from the quarter- but while bending over the rolled-up deck : flag on the halyards, he asked “All the square-face that comes into “After ten years’ service in an hon- Ulua goes out with the tide, as long as orable profession, aren’t you acting a I remain here, Gammon. But come bit childish in throwing off a decent inside. I’ve got other things of yours uniform and enlisting on the side of a inside, which told me your name, and traveling rotgut peddler, who would which you’ll be glad to have again. poison half the people of an island like You’re a white man, Tim you’ll never this to carry the other half away into ; make a good nigger; you brown too slavery ?” suddenly,” he added, with a smile at “Honorable profession! Decent uni- the sailor’s scorched cuticle. Tim was form! Say, mister, you ain’t never had painfully aware of the coloring process to run yer legs off at the orders of a he was undergoing. cub loot’nant as was swingin’ on a gate Entering the cool, dim hut, Nickalls arter you’d learnt a ship frum knight- called loudly for Molo. The Kanaka heads to taffrail. You ain’t never been did not respond, and the trader said clapped in the rattle arter standin’ a quietly double wheel in a sneezer, cos you for- “You see the first effects of square- got to sav ‘sir’ to the pink-faced swab face, Tim. Molo has lived with me in as asked yer why you wusn’t on watch. !” absolute contentment for three years, Honorable profession—hell and for the first time he’s ashamed to Nickalls smiled softly at the sailor’s come before me. I saw he was half heat. He leisurely cast off the turns stupefied, so I suppose I failed to get of the flag halyards from the cleat, and all your stock.” remarked “You got all mine, all right, mister. “I used to think something like that,

Before I tasted it, too. Besides, it Gammon, and with, perhaps, more rea- wasn’t all mine ; I was to divvy up with son than you have. I, too. have served the chief. Your boy got his from one under the old flag. I behaved like a raw o’ the Kestrel’s boats, and you can’t stop youth when I thought promotion went the rest getting theirs in the same way. by favor, and that I was disciminated But what have you got o‘ mine?” against. And yet I had only been rated : ;

116 Sea Stories Magazine lieutenant two years when I got so dis- The trader strode away, and, turn- gusted as to let myself go. I didn’t do ing before the hut was quite out of just what you have done; it was booze sight, laughed confidently to himself at with me; and before I could chuck off the little picture on the beach. At the my duds and get out, I was fired out. foot of the flagstaff stood Tim. In one “But I know now that I was a fool, hand he trailed a bundle of sea-stained and I’m paying for my folly.” Nickalls clothes in the other, his brawny right ; straightened up and slowly commenced fist, he gripped his beloved old cut- to hoist the flag, the sailor’s eyes fol- lass, and his bronzed face was a-work lowing the bundle up to the truck in with battling emotions as he switched vague wonder. “I have kept this little his gaze from weapon to flag, and back island sweet and wholesome as part of again. Then he dropped the point of the price, Tim; and the only man who his cutlass to the ground, and leaned refuses to leave me alone with my task upon the hilt, the while he stared hard is the Malay who gave you that square- and long out upon the heaving breast face. I’m alone, and have never found of the sea. it necessary to keep an arsenal at hand “I’ll count on Tim,” smiled Nickalls, but now that the Kestrel has turned up and strode with lighter step toward the again, manned with unwholesome-look- village. ing whites, it looks like trouble, and

I’m up against it. I’ve got to make a The trader’s task with the chief was grand-stand play, and”—the speaker rendered easier than he had expected. paused for an instant, twitched the Since taking away the case of gin, no lower part of the halyards, breaking out more had yet been received, and he the big flag at the masthead—“I think had only expectancy to combat. He was you’re too good a man to refuse to helped still more by the discovery of chip in. The island is annexed. Molo, whom he forthwith proceeded “Tim Gammon, I call on you to sup- to treat to a sound thrashing with his port that flag!” cane. Poor Molo did not need the The sailor flushed hotly from fore- castigation. As he was hauled to his head to feet, shifting uneasily and cast- feet, dragged into the light of day be- ing shamefaced glances aloft, where fore all the old men of the village, the the folds of the old flag blazed against powerful and unaccustomed liquor he the azure of the zenith. Nickalls paid had absorbed got in its deadly work, no further attention to him, but fetched and he presented a doleful object les- out from the hut Tim’s uniform and son to his fellows that added great the rusty cutlass, laying them down on weight to the trader’s words. the sand. Then, procuring a stout cane Nickalls speedily discovered the from the veranda, he turned inland, method to be used by Punajly. The remarking as he started boat that was to bring supplies to the “I happen to know the Kestrel’s chief for the evening’s debauch of the game, Tim. He’s a blackbirder of the elders was to carry aboard the Kestrel worst sort; and if he can manage to all the young men, who were now look- fill the chief and the older men with ing forward eagerly to a night of un- his villainous liquor, he’ll have the restrained license and feasting at the young men aboard his ship and bound white men’s expense. for Queensland before sunup to-mor- With the example of Molo to back row. I’m going over to try to stop him, him up, Nickalls used all his persuasive and when you’re dressed, eloquence with the old men he soon you can come ; down to the little harbor.” convinced them of the peril hanging The Rusty Cutlass 117 over their peaceful island. Most of seeing no sign of him, turned to meet them had heard of other islands being the boat. The Malay wasted no words, ravished of their young men by slavers but hailed the trader in sharp terms, operating under the name of labor re- capable of no misunderstanding. cruiters. All of them had seen the “Better get back home, Nickalls,” he blessings and advantages that had come shouted. “I warn you to keep your to them during Nickalls’ residence on hands off my business 1” Ulua. "Stay right where you are, Punally,” “Tim he say all right—velly fine ship. retorted the trader. “You land no Why he say 60? Why he stopalong us, square-face here, nor will you take one s’pose ship he no good, eh? Where man away. Keep off you’re tres- ; Tim go now, eh?” The expression of passing.” doubt came from a wavering relative A roar of grim merriment peeled of the chief, who wanted to stay at from the boat, which dashed in to the home, certainly, but still hankered after beach. Nickalls looked again for Tim; the white man’s gloom dispeller. Nick- the ridge was still bare. On the bluff, alls briefly indicated the groaning a hundred yards to his left, three tall Molo, doubled up in the throes of a re- cocos nodded above the thick bush, and bellious stomach unused to trade gin, there was a faint, though visible, move- and replied: ment going on at the foot of the palms. “Tim belong war canoe my country. But Tim was not expected in that di- He stopalong you to catch this cap- rection it was probably more of the ; tain who wants to carry your young young men, bent on seeing everything men away. Bimeby Tim come down by that happened. schooner, then you see.” The boat’s keel grated on the sand, The chief at last returned to his old and her crew sprang into the water to allegiance, promising to support Nick- run her up. Nickalls advanced imper- alls if matters turned out as he said, turbably and laid his hand upon her and Tim showed himself arrayed stem. against the schooner’s people. With “No farther!” he warned, thrusting that promise the trader went down to back the boat a foot. “I advise you to the head of the little harbor, and paced get out. This island has been annexed openly up and down the tiny beach, swinging his cane and calling uncon- A howl of rage burst from the white cerned greetings to the many young man beside Punally, and he stood up men who lurked among the trees wait- with outstretched hand, pointing up at ing for the boat to come ashore. It the three cocos. The trader looked, and was the young men whom he half his whole being surged with relief. feared. If Tim failed him, after all, he From one of the palms, flung out to knew his efforts to prevent these young the warm breeze, fluttered the flag and ; savages from throwing themselves into from the bush around him Nickalls bondage would be futile. caught the deep-breathed “Oh’s” and The afternoon was far gone when a “Ah’s” of the hidden natives, as a stal- boat put off from the Kestrel and wart seaman in sea-stained uniform, pulled ashore. She was manned by lacking one boot and a hat, came leap- four husky white sailors, and in the ing like a goat down the side of the stern sheets another big white sat be- bluff, headed for the boat. side Punally, the Malay. Nickalls sent A snarl of rage broke from the an anxious glance along the ridge, Malay, and he plunged from the boat, where he expected Tim to appear, and, whipped out a murderous creese, and 118 Sea Stories Magazine darted upon Nickalls. The trader, un- rections did they come. Nickalls had armed save for his stout cane, sprang picked himself up from the sand, where back to harder ground, and received the Tim’s timely charge had hurled him, onslaught with a muttered hope that Tim and called to the chief and his men to would not break his neck coming down. appear. He wished at all costs to avoid A sailor in the boat snatched up a further conflict, if without it he could rifle and started to the Malay’s as- make Punally realize that it was to his sistance, but did no more than start. A advantage to pull out. sharp coral rock whizzed past Nick- The chief responded, and advanced alls, took the sailor between the eyes, from the bush, followed by his more and dropped him, rifle and all, over the substantial men, now wholly won round side of the boat. Reassured thus of to Nickalls’ side. But they came too his safety by his own natives, the trader late to save Punally. A shout of tri- faced his attacker. umph burst from Tim’s leathern lungs A fine swordsman in his service days, as steel clashed upon steel with an om- Nickalls still found himself hard inous ring. pressed to ward off that licking creese A flickering flash passed through the with his cane. With thudding feet, the air between the combatants, and the two men circled each other, the trader howl of mortal terror the Malay gave using all his skill to turn Punally’s tongue to froze all hands to a stand- blade without losing his own weapon. still. A lightning glance showed Nick- He saw an opening, and darted in alls that the Malay was disarmed, and swiftly, giving the point of his cane he shouted to Tim to hold his hand. rapier fashion. A sneering grin With the stroke that had hurled the wreathed the Malay’s swart face as he creese from Punally’s tiring hand the mur- caught the stick in his free hand, seaman stepped back ; he had no wrenched the trader nearer, and derous intent toward a defenseless ad- whirled aloft his wave-bladed weapon versary; but the end was out of his for a lethal stroke. hands entirely. "Get out o’ that!” roared Tim Gam- The creeze whizzed straight into the mon, covering the last ten feet of dis- air, turned as it started to fall, and, as tance with a jump, and' hurling Nick- the Malay cringed back with up- alls headlong out of the way. stretched arm, the wicked blade “Now, yuh black-faced slaver!” he plunged to the hilt in the hollow be- shouted, brandishing his old cutlass, tween throat and breast, ending the streaked with rust. “Watch yer left blackbirder’s career right there. !” ear In the evening, when the Kestrel had Tim’s sworsmanship was weird and towed out in silence, taking her fallen effective. His heavy blade rose and fell skipper with her to give him sea burial, with a strength and swiftness that gave Nickalls and Tim Gammon sat outside the Malay little time to attack; a shade the trader’s hut, smoking a soothing of fear came into the lowering, savage pipe and watching Molo break bottles eyes as the creese slithered again and and pour a libation of trade gin to the again against Tim’s sturdy guard. land crabs on the beach. The Kestrel’s men drew nearer, Tim was gloomy, in spite of Nick- growling deep in their throats, seeking alls’ efforts to enliven his spirits. He to render aid to their chief. Their ad- was a deserter, from whichever angle vance brought a shower of clipping, he regarded the matter, and that was bruising rocks that seemed to fly with- the burden of his complaint. out human agency, from so many di- “I’ll get clapped into the rattle as The Rusty Cutlass 119

soon as I get aboard, Mister Nickalls,” Flamingo next time she puts in here, he grumbled, “and when they get me and I promise you I have enough pull home, they’ll shove me in jail properly. with the skipper to smooth over your I’d ruther stop here with you.” little fault in running away. Besides, “But, man, dear, after this affair, Tim, I owe you something for chipping when I tell your skipper about it next in this afternoon, and I hate to think of time he calls, you’ll be right in line for you as a beach comber. You’re too promotion. You can’t make me be- good a man to go to the dogs. What’s lieve you’ve got no love for the old the answer?” service ! That stunt you pulled off of Tim puffed furiously at his pipe, and hoisting the flag where it could be seen rested his eyes in a long look seaward. from the Kestrel perhaps saved a dozen His dreams of an island kingdom were lives. Only for that the whole boat shattered but another vision had taken ; crew would have piled in, and never form—that of advancement in the serv- mind a few rocks. It was the old flag ice—the service he really loved, in spite that made ’em half-hearted about back- of its fancied ill treatment of him. ing up their skipper. “All right, sir,” he replied quietly, “You’re navy from the boots up, rising from the sand. “I’ll get a bit o’ Tim and you could have warrant rank canvas this sand’s fine to polish the old ; ; in no time. You’ll go back aboard the cutlass with.”

ANOTHER VESSEL MISSING pROM the Pacific coast comes news of another ship which has been added 1 to the long list of ships which have put to sea and never been heard of again. The ship in question is the four-masted barkentine Alta. This ship had been in the lumber trade between San Pedro and Bellingham, Washington. The last seen of the Alta, was when she cleared from San Pedro for Bellingham with a cargo of lumber. From that day she has not been seen or reported by any ship. Added to the mystery is the fact that during the time that the Alta has been missing the prevailing weather has been ideal, for a craft of her type. The winds have been fair and there have been no calms. Vessels which left San Pedro at about the same time that the Alta did, have made the run in fifteen days.

DOG HOLDS UP LINER

A N amusing incident recently happened which is illustrative of the intelligence of some dogs. On a recent trip of one of the Bermuda liners, a passenger who had previ- ously made a booking for this voyage, found that he could not arrive at the pier at eleven a. m., the time the vessel was to sail. Doubting the efficacy of sending a messenger he sent his pet dog. When the dog arrived at the pier he hunted up the baggage master who had presented him to the owner some three years ago. When the longshoremen began to take in the gangplank at eleven a. m., the dog started barking, and the baggage master, realizing that the animal would not be there if its owner was not expected, held up the ship for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile the dog’s master arrived and so made the trip which he would otherwise have missed. It is rare that a captain’s actions on shipboard brings him in contact with the shore police. Detective Fitzgerald had never been to sea and didn’t want to go, but, as the sergeant reminded him, “our wants are not considered in the cold, hard world.’’ Since Captain Bangs was “wanted” by the police, it was up to Fitzgerald to become a seaman and get his man. Here’s how he did it.

F)ETECTIVE FITZGERALD, of the or to leeward o’ the mate when you Central Office, in San Francisco, go aft to the wheel?” wandered into the station house at ten in “No. What are you giving me?” the morning in the tranquillity of mind “Know which side the main topsail coming off duty well performed—his halyards leads down?” man was landed, and in a cell —and was “Don’t know anything about it, in- greeted by a vociferous call from the spector. Are you stringing me?” desk. “Not a bit. You acknowledge, Fitz- “What?” he demanded, when he gerald, that you don’t know a blame faced the sergeant. thing about ships and seamanship?” “Inspector Smith wants you. Get in “I acknowledge. I never saw the sea

there quick, and don’t be chesty ; for except when I came over with the old I’m thinking he’ll take it out o’ you.” folks when I was a kid.” Fitzgerald entered the office of the “You’ll do. For I wouldn’t send a inspector, who glared at him over a man on this job who had been ham- polished desk loaded with documents. mered and bullied and starved, as I “Fitzgerald,” he asked sternly, “ever have been, until he forgot that he was been to sea?” human. I’ve been to sea, Fitzgerald, “No, and don't want to be,” answered in my young days, and the effects are Fitzgerald. still with me. I wouldn’t go myself on “Our wants are not considered in this this job, for I couldn’t make good. D’you cold, hard world. Can you box the com- see? Irishman—like you—that I am, I pass ?” had my manhood thumped out o’ me by “I cannot.” bucko mates and skippers, and even now “Know whether to go to windward I would be oppressed and stultified by The Arrest of Captain Bangs 121

the sight and the sound and the contact have the necessary grouch. On with with ’em. See, Fitzgerald? But you’re you, Fitzgerald, and learn fortitude, young, and you’re fresh, and you’re temperance, vegetarianism, and submis- Irish, and you’re lacking in the sailor’s sion of the spirit. Ship ’fore the mast respect for law that hapgs him while in a Blue Noser, commanded by a Yan- it gives the skipper a gold chronometer kee skipper and doubt the existence of —all for the same job. But, I’ve a case a God. Then think it out and revise here that promises a reversal, and I’m yourself. Get out o’ this, and don’t let interested. I want you to get Captain mie see you until you have Captain Jim Bangs.” Bangs, the worst bucko out o’ Boston,

“Where is he, and what’s he done?” who skinned me alive with a deck “Murdered one of his crew, if you scraper when I was ’fore the mast with want the legal explanation of my inter- him in the old Singapore, twenty years est. Nearly murdered me, if you want ago. D’you hear me ?” the human explanation. He towed an The last words were roared at Fitz- ordinary seaman over the stern, just gerald, and he decamped. He had

outside the three-mile limit, and when enough of human • sympathy to be im- they pulled the seaman in he was daffy, pressed by the inspector’s description and died in the hospital ashore here. of Bangs, and on reading the data in The offense was committed on the high the district attorney’s office he was fur- seas, but as the man died ashore, it ther impressed. Bangs, no doubt, de- came under the jurisdiction of the local served the gallows. authorities, and he was indicted by the He learned further details at the grand jury, but had already sailed. He Maritime Exchange, and with five hun- can’t be extradited, because, though a dred dollars in his pocket, the warrant Yankee skipper, he’s in command of a of arrest, his badge, his pistol, and his Blue Noser, a Nova Scotia ship, and, Irish manhood to fortify him, Fitzger- again, though he cleared for Yokohama ald took steamer passage to Yokohama. and a market, we don’t know that he’ll Arriving there, he reported his errand fetch. See?” to the American consul, found small “You’ve got to catch him in some comfort, and loafed along the Bund, American port, or some colonial port, awaiting the arrival of Bangs, in the in the Philippines, Guam, or Alaska. Go Nova Scotia ship Waldemere, and glean- down to the comptroller’s office with ing such gossip and tutelage as he could this order and draw five hundred. Cable from the sailors he met.

for more when you need it. Take your He soon learned that to ship as a badge and your gun, and get that scoun- sailor he must look like one, and, to this drel. He knows he’s wanted, and may end, provided himself with a cheap, dodge American soil for years, or until ready-made suit, a sailor’s canvas bag, he thinks it’s blown over, for he’s con- and an outfit of sea clothing—oilskins, trolling owner in the ship. But you get rubber boots, flannel shirts, etc. Further, him. Take steamer passage for Yoko- that he needed “discharges,” and these hama, and ship with him, and when he he bought of a broken-down old wreck, touches an American port, or comes who had spent a lifetime in procuring

under the American flag, put the dar- them ; but he gave back all but a few bies on him, and bring him back. Go selected ones of a late date, which gave along with you, Fitzgerald.” him the name of John Larsen, Able Sea- “You mean I’m to become a sailor to man. get this man?” Fitzgerald was a well-formed, ath- “I do, and when you’re a sailor you’ll letic, and well-favored young fellow of —

122 Sea Stories Magazine thirty, keen of observation and judg- Fitzgerald, realizing that his bodily ment, quick of speech and action, and comfort was at stake, and his mission in well equipped to master in a short time no danger from conflict with the men, enough of a seaman’s work to escape all thrashed the Swede, quickly and skill- but severe criticism. Yet, within one fully, without in any way interfering hour of his going aboard the Walde- with the work going on. He thrashed mere, two weeks later, as an A. B., he —in the next watch below—one other was thumped into unconsciousness by critic, and proved to the understanding an irate first mate for the simple fault of all, that, though a poor sailor, he of coiling a rope down back-handed. was yet able, of good courage and in- He came to in the scuppers, but de- telligence, and worth developing. ferred rising until he had studied the So the better element of the crew took problem. to him, made him their friend, and Bangs, a mild-mannered gentleman tutored him—which tutelage saved him of middle age, who grievously com- much friction with the afterguard. plained that half of his ingrate crew There were but three of these to deal had deserted, had shipped Fitzgerald in with—for the two boatswains and car- the British consul’s office on his dis- penter were practically of the crew charges and representations, and had the first mate that had floored him, later repleted his crew with a dozen who was a big-shouldered Scotchman, drugged men, who even now, while a second mate under him, but equally Fitzgerald was regaining his faculties, big-shouldered, abusive, and truculent, were unconscious in their bunks. and Captain Bangs, the mild-mannered, Fitzgerald had his badge, and his gun, middle-aged Captain Bangs, who had and the warrant hung to a belt within bewailed his troubles into his ear at the his shirt, but it was no part of his plan consul’s office, but who had remained to show them at present. The big, bluff- out of sight since then, until, with top- bowed, round-sterned Nova Scotiaman gallant sails coming in on the third had only called at Yokohama for provi- morning out, he appeared on deck, no sions and men, and was bound, in the longer mild and gentlemanly, but pur- same ballast, for Shanghai. This was ple-faced, drunk, and temporarily de- not a colonial port, but there were steam- ranged. He pounced upon the man at ers under the American flag running the wheel, who was Fitzgerald. there from San Francisco, and an “How’re you headin’ there, hey?” he American consul, in whose office he demanded. “How you headin’ ?” hoped to catch Captain Bangs. So, he “Southwest by west, sir,” answered rose up, asked a shipmate about the coil- Fitzgerald respectfully, and accurately, ing of ropes, and was instructed and for boxing the compass had been his laughed at; but he held his peace. first lesson after rope coiling. There were about twenty men in that “You lie,” yelled the skipper. “You’re crew, of various nationalities, and some a point off your course.” unable to speak English, but the poorest True enough at the moment. The of the lot was a better sailor than Fitz- ship was swinging before a rising sea gerald, even though, in strength and in- and gale, and the best steering could telligence, he topped them all. His dis- be no more than a balance between the charges had fooled the skipper, but there yaws. She swung back, and a point the was no passing of the test in the fore- other way but by this time the skipper ; castle. He was derided, ridiculed for his had taken his eyes off the compass. ignorance, and even pushed—a little too “I’m doing my best, sir,” answered heavily—out of the way by a Swede. Fitzgerald mildly, —- :

The Arrest of Captain Bangs 123

“Your best!” shrieked the madman “He hit me,” stuttered Bangs wildly, mad from drink, and the evil forces as he felt of his sore chin. “He hit me within him. “Your best won’t do for Put him in irons. Get your irons, Mr. my worst.” He launched out his fist Bruce, and send another man to the and struck Fitzgerald in the face. wheel. Things went red before the eyes of “Did you hit the captain?” asked the Fitzgerald. The binnacle, the cro’jack, big mate, looking sternly into the tense the two lines of rail leading forward, face of Fitzgerald. the house, masts, and deck fittings in “I did. I forgave you for the first of- sight, and the quivering form of the fense, because I was green. But when skipper—all took on the same crimson he hit me, I struck back—that’s all.” hue, and for a moment Fitzgerald went Mr. Bruce lifted his voice. “A man mad. He dropped the spokes, sent forth aft here to the wheel,” he called, and his fist, with the weight of his body be- one of the crew separated himself from hind, and caught the skipper on the the rest and came. And Mr. Bruce, go- chin. ing to his room, returned with a pair Captain Bangs dropped like a log be- of wrist irons by the time the man fore the binnacle, and Fitzgerald, his appeared. environment taking on a more natural “Up with your hands and take these,” hue, seized the wheel, and ground it to he commanded. port. But with all his strength, even Fitzgerald, shocked, enraged, and though he hove the wheel hard over, he helpless against the situation—with his could not bring her back. She breached- mission in mind, obeyed. He had lost to in the trough, and amid slatting of his temper, and made a mistake—which canvas, and the shouts of the mate and was fatal in good detective work. crew, she lay, soggy and helplessf with Captain Bangs looked on until Fitz- no steerage way, and green seas rolling gerald was ironed, then he said over one rail and on over the other. “Trice him up on the after house by Then the slatting upper topsails on the end of the cro’jack buntlines. Let all three masts went to ribbons, the him swing until he gets the conceit out mizzen royal mast went over the side, of him.” and the fore topmast staysail sheet And so, Fitzgerald, with his mission parted at the clew, leaving the sail to still in mind, suffered himself to be led flap like a flag until it went to pieces. to the top of the after house and triced The mate—who had the deck— up with his feet just touching the deck braced the fore yards, set the jib, and when the craft was on an even keel, the ship steerage his crashing against the port payed off ; then, with and body way, Fitzgerald brought her back to or starboard rigging as she rolled. He her course, and the observing mate stood it stoically, hoping that it would squared the fore yards, and sent men soon end, but acquiring, as the inspector aloft to clear away the broken gear and had predicted, a good, wholesome the fluttering shreds of the topsails. “grouch.” And, this going on, he wandered back At the end of an hour he was mut- t-o the wheel to inquire of the helmsman, tering curses upon the head of Bangs. and noted the prostrate form of the At the end of two, he was offering skipper, just regaining life. He lifted mental prayers for deliverance to the him to his feet. whisky-soaked autocrat, stumping Captain Bangs glared at Fitzgerald, around the poop deck; but Fitzgerald while the mate glanced sternly from one made no oral plea, and at the end of face to the other. three hours, he was unconscious, and a

124 Sea Stories Magazine

his body plunged and whirled, from suage the aches and pains in his shoul- rigging to mast and rigging, giving no ders coming from his tricing up. sign that he felt, or thought, or re- The steward demurred. He dared not sented. ask the captain, but would speak to the Then, inert as a dead man, he was first mate, and if authority was granted,

taken down, and, still ironed, lowered he would bring the remedies. to the lazarette, where he lay until his Fitzgerald, in his early life, had been senses returned—in the middle of the a trained nurse in a criminal hospital, night, with his shipmates’ voices sound- and he knew what he wanted ; but he ing in his ears above, as they further was somewhat surprised when, ten min- shortened sail, and the screaming wail utes after the steward had gone, the of the typhoon singing through the gear first mate dropped down the hatch and like the winter song of the kitchen chim- said: ney in his boyhood home. “What d’ye want? Relief from the Few men that ga* to sea escape the medicine chest?” experience that Fitzgerald was under- “Yes, sir,” answered Fitzgerald sul- going, but few that go to sea do so for lenly. “Every bone in my body aches.” other than a living, which living de- “All right. You shall have it; but pends upon the good will of the skip- don’t make your request to the skipper. per, and a “discharge” at the end of the You did the blackguard up, and I wish voyage which will secure further em- that it was me—onlv. I couldn’t afford ployment. it. See ? I’m a mate, with a future.” Fitzgerald was not so bound. He “And I’m a sailor, with none.” was a sailor, temporarily, with other ob- “Right. Sing small for a few days, jects in life than further employment, and I’ll so represent things that he’ll let and all the bitterness of which his soul yotS-out; and, maybe, some day, when I was capable arose in rebellion against see things clear, you’ll have the satisfac- his treatment. A few hours of fuming tion of seeing me do him up in better brought the reaction of tranquillity and shape than you did. Meanwhile, say deep-seated purpose—purpose in no nothing. This is confidential, and I only way connected with the Golden Rule, talk this way because I see you’re no but strongly involved in the old biblical ordinary man. He hit you at the wheel doctrine of an eye for an eye, and a and you knocked him out. Never saw tooth for a tooth. Captain Bangs had it done before by the man at the wheel.” hanged him by the wrists. Captain He departed, and soon Fitzgerald Bangs should hang by the neck. So de- received his remedies, which helped creed Fitzgerald, manacled, sore in ev- him to bodily comfort. But he was not ery joint, and drenched with the wet, released, and the mate visited him no cold drift from the open hatch above. more—not even through the long days At breakfast time he was fed—with and nights after the gale, while the ship hard-tack and water—and he ate as made her offing, took on a pilot, an- would a famished wild beast in cap- chored in the Woosung River, and filled tivity. up with a cargo of tea for Liverpool— It was the steward who fed him. and six weeks’ count of time. And in this when the steward came again at din- time his bread and water had reduced ner time, with more bread and water, him to a dyspeptic wreck, which Fitzgerald, sufficiently composed to be brought about a frame of mind condu- civil, asked him for liniment, witch- cive to amnesty when the captain, on hazel, croton oil with water—anything the tow down the river, dropped into from the medicine chest that would as- the lazarette, and offered him his liberty :

The Arrest of Captain Bangs 125 and his chance to labor with the rest, on At Liverpool the crew was "worked his avowal of penitence. out”—that is, put to such hard, distaste- Fitzgerald was penitent—outwardly, ful, and impossible tasks that the men and so avowed. He was released and shouldered their dunnage and jumped put to work, so weak that he had trou- to the dock, leaving all the pay due them, ble at times in keeping his legs; but it rather than submit. was noticeable that, while the second But one man did not go— Fitzgerald, mate and the captain swore at him, the mlan who wanted Captain Bangs. maligned and ridiculed him, the big- He scraped hard paint from the topgal- shouldered first mate was kind to him. lant crosstrees in zero weather; he Once, when Fitzgerald had the wheel, scoured the copper at the water line on he volunteered this much in the way of a stage so low that his feet were im- explanation mersed. He scrubbed paint work with "He didn’t dare,” he said, "to send sand and canvas, when the sand froze you to jail in Shanghai, because he hit to the canvas, and his knuckles bled you at the wheel—dead against the from the friction, and he swabbed decks law.” among stevedores that continually So, in the sweet and balmy breezes soiled them. of the Pacific, Fitzgerald recovered his But he did not desert. He held on,

strength and his nerves ; and whatever and soon the skipper and the two mates of resentment he had felt toward the gave it up, the first mate probably from big first mate melted away in the at- sympathy for his word went far, both ; mosphere of his sympathy and fellow with his inferior and his superior, and feeling. The mate disliked the skipper, in a few days Fitzgerald, his purpose and so did he—much more. still unrevealed, was let alone, or given But nothing material happened in the light tasks in the forecastle. And he long passage around the Horn and up was the only man left. the two Atlantics to Liverpool. Fitz- A new cargo came aboard—salt, ma- gerald developed into a first-das^, sailor, chinery, bridge material, and farm im- his natural intelligence aiding him in plements for Montevideo—and when mastering seamanly problems that with this was stowed, there came a new crew the ordinary beginner requires years of —a number of Liverpool Irishmen and service and on the run up the Western outlawed Italians, Dutchmen, and ; Ocean, he had occasion to display skill “Sou’wegians,” that promised trouble for of another kind. the aftergaurd. His unofficial friend, the mate, broke But the afterguard met the difficulty his arm in a bad scramble with a green with almost success. Man after man was sea that swept the ship in the Bay of knocked down, and sometimes knocked Biscay, and Fitzgerald was the man who out, and the crew finally adopted a work- set the broken bones, bound them tight ing hypothesis, which, while it involved in splints and plaster bands, and so pre- no surrender of their viewpoint, yet left scribed and directed, that the mate lost them intact from physical tutelage or but a few days from duty. correction. Each side was ready for The still drunk and truculent skipper murder, and each side forebore to act. observed, passed a number of irrelevant And so installed, the ship crept down and blasphemous remarks, and kicked the Atlantic, drifted through the dol- Fitzgerald out of the mate’s room when drums, and reached the southeast trades, the job was done. All of which found with no one, forward or aft, out of com- mental note in the brains of Mr. Bruce mission, and Fitzgerald, the man with a and Fitzgerald. mission, now the leading spirit in the 126 Sea Stories Magazine forecastle, and befriended by the mighty The ship sailed, with a cargo of hides, first mate. a new balance of crew, a rejuvenated Then there came the climax. The skipper, and a sullen first mate, and second mate knocked down an Irish- sneaked and beat her way around Cape man, who retaliated with a belaying pin, Horn without trouble of note. and, the fracas arousing the watch, other But up in the roaring forties, when belaying pins were brought into use, the wet, the cold, and the loss of sleep while the skipper and two mates used told heavily on the temper of all hands, their revolvers. and the whole crew on the fore yard Fortunately for Fitzgerald, he was at wrestled for an hour in getting in the the wheel, and immune from criticism. foresail, Captain Bangs and Mr. Bruce But his immunity did not extend beyond indulged in an argument as to which corporal punishment; in fact, he was clew—the lee or the weather—should the hardest worked man on board for a first be raised in the difficult operation time, bandaging wounds, probing for of furling this sail. bullets, and setting broken bones. In this argument Captain Bangs And among his patients was Captain struck Mr. Bruce in the face, and Mr. Bangs, suffering from concussion of the Bruce in return planted his fist against brain, and wavering between life and the ribs of Captain Bangs with such death, while the ship sailed into the force as not only to knock him down harbor of Montevideo. the poop steps headlong to the main Fitzgerald brought the skipper deck, but to fracture a couple of ribs, around in a manner that won praise the broken end of one puncturing his from the surgeon who came aboard to lungs. Captain Bangs, whining like a repair damages, and in a few days Cap- whipped child, was carried below. tain Bangs was able to go on shore and Mr. Bruce, with thoughts of the pen- transact business—which business em- itentiary dominating his mind, assumed braced the jailing of several members of full command, and Fitzgerald, the em- his crew, and the stopping of liberty bryo surgeon—skilled beyond his nor- and money for the rest; for a fixed, mal powers by the exigencies of the sit- hand-written clause in the articles that uation—was deputed to nurse the in- all had signed contained the proviso: valid. “No money or liberty in foreign ports Mr. Bruce, glaring hatefully into the except at master’s option.” face of Fitzgerald, so decreed. This debarred Fitzgerald from leav- “Give this dog his chance,” he said; ing the ship—a grievous disappointment, “but if he wants to die, let him die. for he had hoped to catch the skipper I’ll stand my share and take my medi- in the British consul’s office, which at cine.” this port was also the American consul’s Fitzgerald, with little sympathy for office, and arrest him upon American the mate, and dominated solely by his soil. And his disappointment was not own hatred and his mission, nursed the lessened by the angry attitude of the stricken skipper, while the ship, under mate, who, when the skipper was ashore, the navigation of the mate, charged up berated him for a fool. the West Coast toward Callao, where “For the dog might have died, and she was bound. I’d got command if you hadn’t been so Fitzgerald could do little, but that lit- almighty handy as a doctor,” he said. tle he did. He drew the fractured bone To which Fitzgerald could put in no away from the punctured lungs by pres- defense except the logic of the Golden sure, massage, and the grip and pull of Rule, unknown to Mr. Bruce. plaster bandages; and, little by little, : : :

The Arrest of Captain Bangs 127

Captain Bangs regained health and ac- the coasting trade, a few tramps, and tivity. Then Fitzgerald resumed his one man-of-war, a ram-bowed white work as a sailor, and bore the usual cruiser showing the Stars and Stripes at abuse of the skipper and the second the flagstaff on the stern. A small steam mate, and even the first, who now held launch was creeping up to the Walde- a secret grudge. mcrc’s gangway, and Captain Bangs was It worked out simply—very simply. speaking to the young officer in the stern Fitzgerald, as the ship sailed into Cal- sheets. lao Harbor, was guilty of passing to “I’ve a man here,” he said, “that I windward of the disgruntled Mr. Bruce, want sent to jail, for assault upon my and was promptly collared. Then, first officer. The whole thing is down pressed against the rail by the officer, in my official log. Will you take us he listened to this ashore?” “You dog, why didn’t you let him “I can only take you aboard my ship,” die? Now, I’ve got to face-court pro- answered the ensign. “Bring your man ceedings.” down the gangway.” “Let up,” choked Fitzgerald. “Let So, Fitzgerald, in irons, and enliv- up, or I’ll do you. D’you hear?” ened by the vicious looks of the first Mr. Bruce heard, but did not respond. mate, went down the steps, followed by He still choked Fitzgerald, and Fitz- Captain Bangs. He was placed in the gerald used his strength. He shook off stern sheets, next to the young officer the officer, struck him in the face, and, in charge, and abreast of Captain in the ensuing conflict, Fitzgerald Bangs. Above them all, on the flagstaff kneeled on the chest of his superior and of the launch, floated the Stars and hammered his face into a pulp before Stripes; and Fitzgerald, bruised and sub- he was interrupted. dued, suddenly came to life. He worked The interruption came from Captain his manacled hands around his waist, Bangs, who, armed with a belaying pin, felt his badge, his money roll, and his Bangs soon reduced Fitzgerald to a condition gun ; then said to Captain more helpless and harmless than that of “Why not take these irons off, cap- Mr. Bruce. Whatever Captain Bangs tain? I’m here, and can’t get away.” may have felt toward Mr. Bruce, this “Sure,” said the confident skipper, was a case of a sailor assaulting an of- “you’re under the American flag, and ficer, and he acted according to the ethics liable to the jurisdiction of America. of seafaring. Off with the darbies, of course. You’ll Fitzgerald, under the captain’s pis- get three months in jail at least.” tol, stood quiet while Mr. Bruce, his And he kindly and considerately un- face puffed and disfigured, with all the locked the irons on Fitzgerald’s wrists. base and conflicting emotions of jeal- Then, before the captain knew what ousy and hatred showing through the was happening, Fitzgerald jerked the contusions, put the irons on him and irons away from him, twisted his pistol led him to the lazarette. Once more out from beneath his shirt, leveled it was Fitzgerald confined, and in dis- in the face of Captain Bangs, and said grace. sternly: “You’re my prisoner. Up

There he remained while the ship with your hands, or I’ll shoot y8u sought her anchorage, and her crew dead.” furled the canvas. Then Fitzgerald was Captain Bangs promptly raised his brought up. He looked around the har- hands, while the ensign in charge of bor. A few ships of various nationalities the launch demanded were there, with American schooners in “What does this mean ?” :

128 Sea Stories Magazine

“It means, sir,” said Fitzgerald, cruiser. Fitzgerald and his protesting “that I, a detective of the San Francis- prisoner went up the ladder, where a co police, have arrested Captain Bangs stern-faced commander received them. for the murder of Hans Hansen, one To him Fitzgerald showed his shield, of his crew on the voyage from Hong- explained his mission, and read the war- kong to San Francisco. He could not rant of his arrest. The commander be extradited, but I’ve got him. This listened quietly. boat is under the American flag, and, “You have got Captain Jimmy under the law, is American soil. Keep Bangs,” he said, “on a charge of mur- your hands up, Bangs, while I put the der. Well, God bless you! I’ve heard darbies on you.” of him for years. Become the guest of The amazed Captain Bangs made no this ship and the government, sir. We resistance. In a flash Fitzgerald had sail for San Francisco in the morning, snapped the irons on his wrists then, and can take your man home under ; you deftly abstracting the key from his the flag.” pocket, he said to the ensign Fitzgerald delivered his prisoner in “We will argue matters on board your San Francisco, and had only this to mar ship, sir,” he said. “I am a policeman, his sense of triumph. It was Inspector who shipped with this man to get him. Smith’s sarcastic remark: “You had 7 have got him. Any question of my him) foul on several occasions. Why amenability to punishment can be offset didn’t you slay him as the Almighty di- by my position as a policeman. Go rected? Now the scoundrel will only ahead with your launch, sir, and we’ll hang! I’m disappointed in you, Fitz- interview your superiors.” gerald.” The ensign smilingly bowed his head, But a month later, when Fitzgerald and while Bangs expostulated, the was rated inspector, he hardly believed launch crept up to the gangway of the Smith.

AN INCIDENT OF THE NAPOLEONIC WARS A MONG the troubles which harassed American shipping during the wars of ** Napoleon were the troubles with French and British privateers. In all fairness it must be acknowledged that the former were the worst offenders. While Commodore Nelson was in command of the Mediterranean station an incident occurred which may be of some interest to students of American mari- time affairs. The American consul at Gibraltar wrote to Nelson asking him to furnish adequate protection for twelve merchant ships of the United States, which were then at anchor in the harbor of Malaga. These ships were afraid to sail because of French letters of marque which were lying in wait for them at the entrance to the harbor. Nelson immediately complied with the consul’s request sending a frigate under orders to convoy the American ships to the Barbary coast, and out through the Straits of Gibraltar if necessary. At the same time he wrote a letter to the American consul, saying: “I am sure of fulfilling the wishes of my sovereign, and, I hope, of strengthening the harmony which at present so happily subsists between the two nations.” —a

It is a common belief that there is no romance to be found on the North Atlantic pas- senger runs. In consequence of this idea we do not often have the opportunity to offer our readers a story of the transatlantic passage. This short story, however, shows that romance is very often found where we least expect it, and that because we live in the twentieth century is no reason why we should believe it dead.

A HEARTLIKE throbbing that deep- we’d ever known, and dropping off the ^ ened and steadied, a shiver that edge of the world!” settled into regular vibrations like the The other woman, gripping the rail play of muscles in a swimmer’s body, with rather shabbily gloved hands, bit and the great ocean liner waked into life. her lips in vain. The thing she was try- Bells clanged, chains rattled, a hundred ing to repress was too strong for her. new sounds and movements mingled, “We shouldn’t have come, mother! and a strip of sparkling water appeared I’m sorry we came!” The words sprang between the deck and the pier, widening out. inexorably. A second’s hush fell on the “Enid!” crowds that banked the pier and on the “I’ve been crazy, I think! Why, I rows along the railing of the decks—the don’t know him. He’s a stranger— involuntary tribute of man, the land total stranger!* And I’m on my way animal, to the mystery and majesty of the sea, into whose silences these few The older woman shot her a glance were venturing. Then the gay clamor of dismay and bewilderment. “Chan- of farewells and jests and final messages ning Morse a stranger? You grew up !” rose again, with a fluttering of handker- together chiefs and a waving of hats. “I haven’t seen him for eleven years. The elder of two women standing on He was a boy then. Now he’s a man an upper deck, somewhat apart from the a man I may not even recognize when others, pressed timorously against her we meet!” companion’s arm. “But you’ve been corresponding off “Oh, Enid!” she murmured. “I feel and on all the while.” exactly as if we were leP : "g go of all “What are letters'? Mother, till this !

130 Sea Stories Magazine minute he has never seemed real to me. gentleman. Aside from his impulsive- I was tired of teaching school and *Sv- ness, there seemed nothing really in- ing in a small town. I wanted to travel, criminating about him—unless it was to see the places he wrote about. I that un-American beard. But Enid didn’t think about him or what it—it stiffened into her sternest schoolroom meant. But now all at once I do, and manner. I—” “You are making a mistake.” !” “Hush, Enid! Folks will notice. “What he exclaimed ; and behind There’s a man staring at me now.” his eyeglasses his eyes began to dance. ” This time the daughter compelled her “You don’t mean lips to obedience, and stood gazing “Come, mother dear.” silently out across the waters, though “One moment !” he persisted. “I as- she saw nothing of the magnificent har- sure you the mistake isn’t being made by ” bor sights. The strengthening breeze me. If loosened curly tendrils of her hair and Ignoring him, she stalked past, her whipped them girlishly about her face, head high and her cheeks pink. He but there was no youth in her ex- made a quick movement to follow, but !” pression; and slim and graceful as her “What a very stupid, annoying person figure was, she had a quaint primness came back to him with stinging distinct- of bearing like that of the old-fashioned ness, and halted him very effectually. woman of forty. “Though perhaps he really did think “Good-looking woman,” a passer-by he knew us,” she admitted later, in the observed casually. But the man with safety of their stateroom. It was im- him shook his head. proper, disgraceful—but after the shock “Looks starved—as if she hadn’t got had come a furtive sense of exhilara- what she needed from life—fun, may- tion. !” be, or friends or frivolous clothes But her mother’s shy, country-bred “Cold, mother?” soul was quaking. “Such a thing never !” Mrs. Norton nodded, blue-nosed, for happened to me before in all my life the breeze had grown into a steady she kept mourning. wind, chill and salt as the miles of water “Nor to me, mother.”

it had crossed. “And he seemed like a gentleman,

“Poor mother ! And you’re tired, too. too ! He was real nice looking, wasn’t We’ll go down to our stateroom and you he?” shall have a cup of tea.” “Perhaps he didn’t mean to be rude. “Oh, that would be nice!” But as You know we’ve always heard that peo- they turned, Mrs. Norton gave a gasp ple speak without introductions on ship- of alarm. “That man—he’s been watch- board.”

ing us, and now I do believe he’s going “Enid ! Rush right up and try to

to speak!” » shake hands, as he did ?” And certainly he was coming toward “N-no. Perhaps not. But if he them, a tall, well-set-up individual, with thought he knew us ” Enid’s lips a much-tanned face, a foreign-looking would persist in curling up at the cor- ” little beard, and an air of always having ners. “Or wanted to so badly his own way. some new-born imp in her was whis- “How do you do?” he said, smiling. pering. There was a queer, only half-repressed “Well, I wish Channing had been elation in his voice, and he was actually there. That’s what I wish !” Mrs. Nor- holding out his hand ton said significantly. “I rather guess They were the hand and voice of a that What’s the matter, dear?” :

At the End of the Voyage 131

“I thought I heard the stewardess.” prim little dress and her primmest Enid closed the door she had sprung up schoolmistress manner. to open, and seized zealously on their An hour later, she came back, out- suit case. “We’d better begin to settle, wardly the same, and yet with a look hadn’t we? You tell .me where you about her that made her mother open ” want your things, and her drowsy eyes. Her energy was commendable, if sud- “Enid, you haven’t been out in that den, and she talked cheerfully and con- wind again?” stantly. But it struck her mother that “No, dear,” she answered—quite she looked pale. truthfully, for it was only the wind of “Don’t fuss so. You’re tired, dear,” romance and adventure that had blown she said once ; and again, uneasily across her, stirring the stiff, tight little “You didn’t mean what you said up on leaves of her nature. the deck, did you, Enid? About being “The dinner? Oh, very nice, in- sorry we’d come?” deed!” Dutifully she described it from Enid winced. “I don’t know, mother. soup to coffee, and the crowd of diners Truly I don’t. For a minute I wanted of every sort, and all her small experi- ” to jump overboard, but ences. Then, at the very last, as if she “Of course. Of course.” Astonish- had just remembered: “And what do ingly her mother beamed. “All girls you think, mother? That gentleman feel like that. I remember the day be- who spoke to us this afternoon sits at ” fore I our table. He apologized over and over. !” “Oh, let’s not talk about it Enid in- It was all a mistake.” terrupted hastily. “We can’t turn back “Enid Norton! You didn’t let him now, anyway. And when we get to Liv- talk to you?” Her mother lifted her erpool But we won’t look ahead. head in horror. We’ll just enjoy this trip, eh, dear? “Everybody talks to everybody else. Think 1 It’s the Atlantic Ocean rocking It was perfectly proper !” Enid laughed us so carefully, and we’re on our way and pushed her gently back on the pil- to Europe —you and I ! What we’ve al- low. “Lie down, dear, before your ways dreamed of! And here comes head begins to ache. Truly he was your tea.” very courteous and sorry he had wor- ried us. He asked me particularly to At dinner time, Mrs. Norton was in explain to you.” her berth, not exactly sick, but dizzy “Well, of course, if it was a mis- and disinclined to move. take ” Mrs. Norton sank back “Have something to eat down here, again, mollified. “But a girl in youi; !” Enid,” she urged. “You can’t go alone position has got to be so careful into that big dining-room—or whatever No answer to that. She closed her they call it.” eyes, opened them aagin. “I know now “Oh, yes, I can!” Enid laughed, all whom he makes me think of! That !” the more valiant on the surface because architect who built the new courthouse underneath she was a-shiver with bash- “Oh, Mr. Ward is much better look- fulness. ing. Though he does remind me of “But that awful man—what if you somebody, too.” Enid’s voice sounded meet him?” as if she might be smiling to herself,

“I can take care of myself, as I fancy and she added irrelevantly : “That is his I’ve taught him!” name—Ward. He’s an American, but And though her knees felt rather his business keeps him abroad most of weak under her, she sallied forth in her the time.” —

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There was more she might have told “It’s perfect—now.” There was teas- —the quick pleasure in his eyes when ing laughter in his voice, which was in- she appeared, the all-but-caressing note timate to the point of affection. in his voice when he spoke to her, the She flushed painfully—as she was to delicately reassuring way in which he flush often at remarks of his. “It’s had set her at ease with her surround- cold, though. I—I was just going in,” ings. But they were intangible things she faltered. perhaps imaginary ! —and, put into “The moment I come? I’ll think words, would sound all wrong. So you’re running away from me!” she sat and smiled over them in the Again her self-distrustful dread of half darkness, and presently her mother saying or doing the wrong thing put went soundly asleep. her at a disadvantage. She hesitated, Only nine o’clock of her first even- feeling wretchedly awkward and un- ing on the ocean, and a full moon, at sophisticated—and was lost. that! Flesh and blood, still under “How did you find your mother feel- thirty, could not go sedately to bed! ing after dinner ?” he asked. And when Wrapping herself in her heavy cape, she had told him: “You’re a good she slipped out, up onto the deck, and sailor yourself, I hope?” into her chair, luckily placed in a quiet, “I don’t know yet,” she had to admit, rather shadowy spot. and then to explain that this was her Somewhere an orchestra was playing, first service- voyage ; which opened up a people sauntered past laughing and able topic that led to another that led chatting, and before her—just as she to still another, till she was enmeshed had always pictured it—hung a great, beyond her power of extricating herself. golden moon at the end of its own sil- Perhaps she did not try very hard. ver path. Best of all, America and the Certainly she did not try long. It was drab, plodding past were safely sunk years since she had sat watching a sum- below the horizon, and Europe, and the mer moon with a man so obviously bent uncertain future would not rise above on detaining and interesting her, and it for six blessed days ! Everything, never with such a man—so traveled, so herself included, seemed a little unreal, worldly-wise, and yet so tactfully oblivi- and she was content, blissfully, irrespon- ous of her limitations that he seemed to sibly content, that it should be so. lift her above them. The wine of it Ward’s coming troubled her at first, went to her head gradually. She lost though clearly he had not come on her her shyness and found her tongue, and account. Twice he strolled by, eyes a gay, frivolous tongue it proved, wag- straight ahead, looking big and formida- ging easily, too. ble in his ulster heavy ; and, shrinking “I talked to him as if I had known !” shyly back into the shadow, she was him all my life ! I felt as if I had she grateful that he had not seen her. But reflected afterward, amazed. the third time he paused, tossed his ci- “To-morrow we’ll go over the boat gar over the rail, and dropped lazily into on a sight-seeing tour, eh? Directly the chair next to hers. She sat as still after breakfast?” he said, when she as a mouse, wondering what she ought could be persuaded to stay on deck no to slip do. Speak? Or quietly away? longer ; and if she did not consent, “Miss Norton?” He was looking at neither did she refuse outright. her now. “Are we neighbors on deck, Sleep came to her late that night. The !” too ? What luck throbbing of the engines, the sound of “A beautiful night, isn’t it?” she mur- the waves, the queer, salty smells, the mured inanely. sense of great energies working on At the End of the Voyage 133 sleeplessly through the silence and dark bracing, they say,” Enid answered de- —these things, so hackneyed to the cal- murely. lous globe-trotter, were all new and But Mrs. Norton had been a girl her- wonderful to her. Her brain was teem- self, and had not forgotten it. A vague ing; the events of the day made them- misgiving seized upon her, connected selves into endless moving pictures rather definitely with the name “Ward” against her closed eyelids. Yet, il- she had been hearing so frequently of logically enough, it was Ward she late. Surely Enid could not be so fool- thought about most, and with the keen- ish as to Even in her mind she did est interest and anticipation. not finish the sentence, but the next day “Does he really like me as much as she lifted her protesting head from its he seems to?” she wondered, a smile pillows and dragged herself up on deck that had no business there curving her to make a few personal observations. lips. “But he takes too much for Naturally there was not so much to see granted. I shall not go sight-seeing as usual—one cannot leave one’s mother with him to-morrow. At least, not di- sitting alone among strangers—but she rectly after breakfast.” saw enough to make her very sober. But she did. After luncheon, too, “Aren’t you seeing a good deal of and again in the evening under a moon that Mr. Ward?” she hinted that night. whose magic path seemed broader and Enid was braiding her hair with great brighter than ever. She had two good assiduity. “Well, his chair is next excuses: First, that she was lonely, for ours,” she said, not looking around. her mother still refused to leave her “And he’s very agreeable. You liked berth; and second, that there was no him, didn’t you?” way short of rudeness by which to “I did. But what about Channing? avoid him. Wherever she was, there What would he think of your being was he, with no apparent object in life such friends?” but to provide her with conforts and Sheer pity for her mother’s disap- entertainment. Moreover, he had pointment made Enid swallow the re- amended his manners, and though some- ply on the tip of her tongue. times his voice turned too caressing or “In less than thirty-six hours we’ll his eyes took on the look that startled be in Liverpool, Enid dear. You aren’t her, as a rule he was discretion itself. forgetting that?” The next day was like unto that, and “No,” Enid said wearily. “No, the next and the next. They walked to- mother, I’m not forgetting.” gether, they ate together, they sat side And if she had been, she made up for by side in their deck chairs, talking or it before daylight, when sleep came at reading. To Enid, tasting a man’s de- last. Thirty-six hours! How cruelly votion for the first time, they were won- short the time seemed, computed so! der days. She moved in a sort of And at the end of it—what? Alter- golden dream, and though she had her nately she was warm with trust and disturbed moments, when she wondered hope, and shivering with dread. how much it all meant, and how it Mrs. Norton—careful mother!—rose would end, she would not allow herself for breakfast and heroically spent the to be wakened completely. entire day on deck. Ward adapted him- “How pink your cheeks are!” her self to the new triangular situation mother observed once. “I declare, you cheerfully, evincing not the slightest look like a young girl again! What’s impatience, but Enid, loyal daughter come over you, Enid?” though she was, fretted internally as she “It’s the air, I suppose. It’s very counted the precious hours slipping 134 Sea Stories Magazine

away barrenly. But, providentially, She nodded. Without looking up, she with night came a chilly rain and symp- knew how his eyes were glowing down toms of neuralgia the most resolute of at her, and his big, protecting figure chaperons could not withstand. Ward’s leaning over her. eyes sent Enid a message as she escorted “I shall never forget it,” he went on, her mother below, and presently, in re- his voice a murmur close to her ear. ply, she appeared again, alone. “And yet—I shall be glad when it is “I — I forgot my rug,” she explained, ended. Can you guess why?” with a queer touch of her first shyness; “A hundred reasons, perhaps !” She but he only laughed and tucked her arm spoke lightly, but instinctively braced under his in the possessive way she half herself. liked, half resented. “Only one—the girl I’m to marry. “Let’s walk a bit.” She will be in Liverpool to-morrow.”

So up and down they paced, the de- “Indeed ! I congratulate you, I’m serted deck wet and slippery under their sure !” The words came with a cool, feet, the mist driving into their faces. sweet composure that amazed Enid her- He was in high spirits, she nervously self. anxious to seem so, yet the talk did not “Thank you. Thank you very much.” run as easily as usual. But there was He laughed again—mockingly, she nothing significant in it—not a hint that fancied—and taking a card from his the next day would see the end of their case, put it into her hand. “There is companionship. A humiliating sense of my London address.” the futility of it gained momentarily on “We’re not going to London. In fact, Enid. we’re going home by the next boat.”

“A flirtation— that’s all it has been to “Going home ! But I understood you him !” she thought, aflame with self- had come over for an indefinite stay 1” contempt. “What am I waiting for? “That was the original plan. But be- !” He has nothing to say fore we were out of the harbor, I had But when she tried to say good night changed my mind.” and leave him, his mood seemed to “Yet only this afternoon your mother change. was saying ” Clearly he was be-

“Oh, not yet ! It’s very early,” he wildered, and far more concerned than urged, and when she positively refused he had any business to be. to keep on walking, drew her with “I haven’t talked it over with her yet. !” gentle force to the rail. “I can’t let you But it is settled—oh, decidedly In go yet. Don’t you know that this is spite of herself, her voice had grown our last night?” strained, but she forced herself to smile There was no sea, no sky—only a up at him. “Now I really must go down vague, heaving grayness beneath that to her. Good night.” ran away into a paler grayness beyond “Just a minute!” He would not let and above. There was a minute of her pass. “Tell me why you have silence between them as listless on the changed your mind. Has anything—er surface, but with much the same heavy —happened ?” surge underneath. “What could? Oh, dear, no! It “And to-morrow, standing here, we changed of itself, I suppose!” With a shall see England !.” He laughed un- quick movement, she sliped by him and der his breath, and suddenly his warm succeeded in making her escape. !” hand closed over hers, that was chilled “Enid, wait ! Enid he exclaimed, and trembling “It’s been a wonderful but she scurried on, tossing him a gay, voyage, hasn’t it?” if rather shaky, laugh over her shoulder. ! —

At the End of the Voyage 135

It seemed miles to her stateroom, he stood smiling encouragement and miles she must walk calmly, if a rem- consolation ! Ward nant of self-respect were to be left her. “Was ever anybody so kind ? Oh, But at last she was there, and, by Heav- Enid, how lucky we knew a man like en’s own mercy, her mother was asleep that !” Mrs. Norton said for the hun- and did not waken. Ward’s card was dredth time. still in her hand, a crumpled wad. “He's sorry for us, I suppose,” Enid

Without glancing at it, she tore it sav- answered, with an irrepressible flash of agely into bits and flung it into a cor- bitterness. “Very likely we have kept ner. Then, undressing somehow, she him from some pleasant engagement, crept into the blessed haven of her berth. and he wishes we were at the bottom of Mrs. Norton was on deck bright and the sea!” early the next morning, goating over She knew ! But though the ache in the first sight of land, but the docks her heart was a savage one, it was her were within stone’s throw before Enid mother and Channing she had to think found courage to join her. Nobody about now. How, how was she ever but herself could know' how she dreaded to tell them? the day, what terrified forbodings were She waited till their door was closed in her mind. behind them, and then, in desperation,

But the first thing she saw was Ward blurted it out: standing in friendliest converse with her “Mother, we must go home. I can’t !” mother. He greeted her exactly as al- I won’t marry Channing !” ways, neither avoiding her nor seeking “Enid an opportunity to resume their talk of “I know ! I know it’s treating him the night before. Apparently he con- shamefully. And I know how hard it sidered it of no importance whatever. will be to go back—-the gossip, the un- The second shock was the failure of certainty of my getting another school Channing Morse to appear. Though so late in the summer, the straits we’ll they waited—Ward waiting with them be in after spending so much money. I as a matter of course ! — till the crowds know all that, and I’m sorry—sorrier had scattered and no possibility re- than I can tell you ! —that you will have mained that they had missed each other, to bear it all with me. But, mother, I no Channing came. can’t marry him—a stranger ! However “He’s been delayed in some way. when I used to like him, I don’t know That’s all,” Ward reassured them cheer- him now. Between us, we’ve all three !” fully “He’ll turn up soon. You’d bet- made a hideous mistake ter let me take you to a hotel where you Mrs. Norton argued a little and got can wait comfortably.” out her handkerchief, but on the whole

“I believe we had better. If you will she took it very well. be so kind,” Mrs. Norton consented “All right, all right. I shan’t say an- promptly and with surprising com- other word,” she sighed at last, and posure. As for Enid, she was ready to went, wiping her eyes, into the bedroom go anywhere, do anything, to postpone and shut the door. the meeting. Channing next! White and shaken,

And so the preposterous thing came but still resolute, Enid sat down at the to pass that presently they were driving desk and wrote him a letter, gently in a cab Ward had called to a hotel he phrased, but very final. And because had chosen, and then ascending sol- she knew now what suffering was, she emnly in an English lift to the rooms gave him what comfort there might be

he had secured for them, while below in an explanation : “I have learned what —

136 Sea Stories Magazine

love is, Channing? and the friendship, voice lost its laughing note, and some- affection, all that I feel for you, can- how he got possession of her hands.

not take its place in marriage.” “Listen, dear ! I crossed simply to Hours later or minutes—sometimes make the return trip with you. I meant there is not much difference between it for a surprise. But when I found them—there came a knock at the door, you didn’t recognize me Well, I and Channing Morse’s card was brought found out, too, that ‘affection and in. She gave the page her letter and sat friendship’ would content me no more down again, with her head in her hands. than they would you. So I determined Another interval—another' knock and to win you, not as the boy you used to another card, on which was written : “I like, but as the man I am. I wanted must see you.” you to love me me! And when your ” “Bring the gentleman up,” she told note came just now the page, and waited lifelessly. “Come “Oh !” She drew back her cheeks in.” flaming. “You’re very sure whom I ?” The door opened, and a tall, clean- meant ! How do you know shaven man entered—a man whom she “Ward told me !” Now he was laugh- knew, and yet did not know at all. ing again. “He saw it in your eyes, “Enid! For goodness’ sake, don’t just as—if you will kindly look at me you know me yet? Have I sacrificed —you will see it in mine!” my nice, new beard all in vain?” he “I—I hate you !” she stormed—but demanded, laughing, and strode toward circumstances spoiled the effect of it. her. Considerably later, she remembered “Mr.—Ward?” she whispered, hands her mother. “Poor dear! Worrying

outstretched to hold him off. all this time ! We must go tell her, “Oh, my dear! And I should have Channing.” !” known you in Tibet “She’s asleep and won’t wake up for “You—you’re not—not Channing?” an hour. How do I know? Because “Why didn’t you look at the card I she promised it this morning, when we gave you last night? But you never were talking over old times,” he said, would listen when I tried to explain, with the utmost composure. “What?

and even when I told you about the girl Oh, no, you don’t ! Come sit down and — I was to meet—and marry ” His we’ll argue it out!”

NEW COMMANDER OE SCHOOL SHIP NEWPORT APTAIN FELIX REISENBERG, well known as the author of probably the C best books on the duties and conduct of the personnel of the merchant marine of to-day, was recently appointed to command the New York State Nautical School

Ship Newport. He succeeded Captain J. S. Bayliss who returned to the United States Coast Guard Service. Captain Reisenberg formerly held this position for four years, and on the return of the Newport from the New York Navy Yard, where she was recon- ditioned, took up his old berth. Residents of New York State between the ages of seventeen and twenty are eligible, and the examinations were held on May 20th. The object of the school- ship is to educate and train officers—both deck and engine room—to pass the Steamboat Inspection Service examinations for licenses of the various grades. Further information is obtained from the Board of Governors, New York State Nautical School, 25 Broadway, New York City. X 'A

flE 7^4- I & .'X /

BembTheTrue Account Of The Adventures Of The Crew And Passervaers Of TKe Good SKip Sea Stories”

This department is designed as a meeting place for all farers on the sea of life who wish to hail one another in passing by, who desire information in connection with maritime matters, or who have had unusual salty adventures, and wish to tell about them. In other words, it is designed to be a sort of get-together club for Sea Stories’ readers, and we feel that the correspondence which follows is full evidence of how interesting this department may be made to all readers of this magazine. We extend to you a cordial invitation to use these columns either to ask or to give information, or to tell some anecdote which you feel would interest or amuse a few hundred thousand fellow creatures. After all, a good yarn usually has a pleas- ant little trick of brightening things up for most of us.

UST why so many people say that all stuck up a mast and a square sail and J the romance has gone from the sea ran before the wind and had to pole or with the passing of the sailing ships is paddle back, down through the ages and something that the Old Man cannot the development of the sailing ship to

fathom. Whether it is because there is the state of perfection reached in our a lack of imagination or that a certain time, and then came steam to take their period of time must elapse to gloss over place, why should romance suddenly the hardships and perils to give the cease ? proper perspective he is not prepared to At one period of his career the Old say. Man was a naval architect and not only Any one who has read Conrad’s designed but actually built with his own “Mirror of the Sea.” that wonderfully hands several small yachts. And he descriptive word picture of the sea in feels, with every other lover of the

all its moods, or, for that matter, all who water, the sense of a living soul that

have followed the sea, realize that it seems to exist in every vessel, some is never the same, always changing, and beautiful and others as cantankerous as yet we have the same calms and storms an old hag. And yet the greatest fasci- that have prevailed since this old world nation of all is the controlling and guid- began. ing of this insensate and yet living body Again we have the same passions in and overcoming the wrath of the ele- the very men, the striving for supremacy in what- ments. Battle ! Competition, us ever field it may be, commerce or world soul of romance, and going on about dominion, and, given all the elements just as much to-day as at any time of that go to make up the sea lore of the the past, and will keep on long after we past, what if the todls used are differ- are all dead and buried. It all depends ent? It is only progress. As the first on how a man makes his first acquaint- man traveled astride a log and paddled, ance. The old sea dogs that were then put two logs together, and later brought up in sailing ships cannot love : ;

138 Sea Stories Magazine

their ships more than a large majority and topgallant yards. Her name was the Bayard, of the present-day personnel. Any one of Liverpool. I wish to inquire for a Charlie Thompson, that thinks that the engineers don’t grow or Thomas. He and I were laid up in Turo to love their throbbing, pulsing ma- Infirmary at New Orleans a year ago last chinery are very much mistaken. They Christmas. He wanted to follow the sea on may cuss and swear at it, but have them sailing ships and I hope he got his wish. But I would not have wished him that try some other field of endeavor and twenty- five years ago at sea. they become wholly miserable. Some of you doubters read “McAndrew’s SONG OF THE SALMON GANG. Hymn,” by Kipling. We’re a frotisy, lousy crew And the mammoth ocean liners of this As head wind ever blew, 11 The scrapin’s of five continents and more day and generation. Don’t you suppose They have gathered us and shipped us, they have their little peculiarities, own And a dirty job they slipped us, queer actions under certain conditions A good two thousand miles from home of wind and water? To some it may ashore.

seem too mechanical, running as they To Naknek, Kvichak, Ugashik, do on almost railroad schedule, but don’t To Togiak and Coofee Crick, overlook the fact that it is a man-made To tundra flats and mud o’ Bristol Bay, contrivance and while the form of To Kagione and Igigak, Wood River, Snake, and Nushagak, power and labor has changed, it does Wind, ’skeeters, drizzle, slavin’, rotten pay.

not run by itself. Romance ! It’s all about us. Probably at some not-very- They have packed us fore and aft, In this rollin’, leaky craft, future date a new form of transporta- For fishin’ like Ike Walton never knew. tion will take the prtace of the present For we’re off to harvest salmon means, by airship, for instance, and un- For our masters, Man and Mammon, doubtedly when this occurs the writers And we’ll work from hell to breakfast till we’re through. of the period will lament the lack of romance and quote the times gone by. Those of you who follow the Calen- Here’s an example. What in times dar of Sea History are a sharp-eyed lot. past differs so very much from the “Song We get numerous queries regarding cer- of the Salmon Gang,” taken from a clip- tain events mentioned therein. Occa- ping sent us from the west coast by our sionally you nail an error and we are

shipmate Louis Sheppard, of Seattle, glad to correct it. At other times some Washington, with the following letter event is questioned and the Old Man

Having been a sailor, and being a rover is tickled pink when we find it is given by soul, I could not stay inland, so I slipped correctly. This is one of the latter in- my cable and came to the coast again. I stances : am now in Seattle working in a shipyard as a rigger. I have been reading for the past two There was an article running in one of the months your magazine of excellent sea sto- Seattle papers, the Star, called “The Price ries, et cetera, and I noted the inquiry of one of Salmon.” It tells of the hardships en- of your readers for information concerning dured by the men who catch and can the the “booby” bird. I thought perhaps you salmon. While this is nothing new to me, would like to know that a full description of having been there myself, to my sorrow, it this interesting, if stupid, bird is given in a would make interesting reading if you could book called “Denizens of the Deep,” by get permission to publish it. I am sending Frank T. Bullen, F. R. G. S., author of “The a clipping of a piece of poetry in connection Cruise of the Cachalot," et cetera. See page with this story. 386, where you will find the greater part of You might tell Mr. Wetjen that I sailed a chapter devoted to the description and on a full-rigged ship in my kid days, when habits of the bird in question. This book was I was eighteen years old, and she carried published by Fleming H. Revell Co., New moonsails and studding sails on her topsail York and Chicago, copyrighted in 1904. The Log Book 139

Now in your sea Calendar for February, the time. Pacifists and small-navy ad- 1923, I note two items as follows: Febru- vocates take note. ary U. S. Constellation defeated 9, 1799, But something had to be done. In French Insurgent in West Indies, and on March, Congress authorized the February 2, 1800, the same United States ship 1794, defeats French Vengeance in a bloody fight. construction of six frigates. These were Personally I was never aware that the the Constitution, President, United United States and France had ever been at States, Chesapeake, Constellation, and war. I inquired about this from several peo- Congress. However, before the ships ple who ought to know and they gave me were finished three of them were sold the invariable answer, “Never heard of it.”» As I think there will probably be some ex- and work on the rest was stopped. This planation regarding this matter and that you was done as a result of the shameful would like to give same to your readers, I Treaty with Algiers. mention same. However, in 1797 the depredations of As I have a well-grounded aversion to the French especially became intolerable, “rushing into print,” I simply sign my ini- and public feeling became extremely tials hereto. D. D. S. warm. The French had the effrontery In to answer the above two questions, to send their privateebs into American the Calendar of Sea History is correct. ports to refit for their raids on the ship- Briefly, the causes which brought ping of the then-infant republic. Along about the trouble at that time were the about this time two French privateers Napoleonic wars. France at this pe- were burned by a mob in Savannah. riod was engaged in a bitter struggle Work was again begun on the frigates with England. These two countries and the first to be launched was the were, at that time, the most powerful United States. nations on earth. Not being satisfied with the three so frequently As happens when two frigates, various towns and cities on the great powers are at war, many smaller coast built several vessels by private and weaker nations suffered greatly. As subscription and presented them to the this country was even then one of the government. largest sources of food supply to both Congress,, at last roused to action by of the warring nations, it suffered more public feeling, issued orders to the com- than any of the others. manders of the several ships of war to Our merchant ships were captured on put to sea and capture all French cruis- the high seas by both the French and ers which they fell in with. The result British cruisers, their cargoes confis- of these orders was that a state of war cated, and where a British frigate made soon existed between the two countries, the capture the crews were “impressed.” although neither the United States nor The French sometimes held the Ameri- France ever made a formal declaration, can crews as prisoners of war. of war.

Added to this unbearable state of af- The first naval encounter of this fairs was the political chaos into which “war” was the capture of the French this country was thrown at the time. privateer Le Croyable by the Delaware, Then, as now, there were two great po- commanded by Stephen Decatur. In litical parties. These were called the connection with the Constellation’s en- Democrats and the Federalists. The gagements, however, we must admit that Democrats were French sympathizers they were not victories in both cases, while the Federalists favored the British. as stated in the Calendar. The Constel- Needless to say, this country was in lation succeeded in capturing the In- no condition to declare war on either of surgent, but her affair with the Venge- the powers, as we possessed no navy at ance could hardly be called decisive. 140 Sea Stories Magazine

This was a night battle. After a hot the majority carry the royal yards on deck, engagement, in which the Constellation as the chances are they won’t use them and so much top weight and hamper are out of was badly shot up, also losing her fore- the way. mast, the ships drew apart in the dark- The double to’gallants without royals were ness. In justice, however, it must be quite popular with the Germans before the said that the Vengeance carried consid- war. It didn’t look good, but it was better erably heavier armament than did the to handle. The old square-riggers that people who Constellation. have never been in, much less seeing one, are writing stories about, is a bit different The days of single topsails, large from the modern ones. The latest one built crews, varnished spars, and studding- that I know about is a five-masted bark, sails have been gone for a long while Danish named Kobnhavn, w’hich came out only actual now. And while there are still a few two or three years ago. The hand pulling done is the hoisting of the jibs square-riggers left these are sometimes and the royals. The rest is done by winches, erroneously spoken of as “old square- the bracing up, too. But it is “beef” just the riggers” or “old-timers.” The present- same, believe me, and not so many men, day square-rigger is very different from either, to supply that beef. the ones built and used sixty or seventy The average Norwegian square-rigger over two thousand register tons carries a crew of years ago. sixteen to eighteen before the mast ; six to Many of the characteristics of the eight of them are A. B.'s and the rest ordi- modern ship are to be found in the fol- nary seamen, young men, as they are called, lowing communication from Mr. H. T. and deck boys. One that I was in had a thirty-six she Eng- Anderson, who was in a five-masted total crew of when was lish and when she became Norgewian this bark. Some of our readers are familiar was reduced to a total of twenty-three, and with the difference between sailing a in her it certainly was “beef.” She was of ship built in the last twenty-five years twenty-three-hundred register tons. and those immediately following the H. E. Anderson. Pioneer clipper-ship period. Norwegian Seaman’s Mission, hi Street, Brooklyn, New York. On the other hand, there are many who are not so well up on the changes Mr. H. T. Weik, of 673 Third Ave- which time has wrought in that grand nue, New York City, who signs him- old class of ships known as “windjam- self as a “Sea Story Fan,” has sent in ers,” and it is for their edification that the following original verse which is we are publishing this letter which treats such an accurate description of the sea of the conditions on the present-day and its lure that we think it well worth ships. Lack of space prohibits our us- reproducing here. ing all of it, but we are giving enough THE LURE OF THE SEA. to hold the attention of those members The azure blue sky looks calmly down. of the ship’s company whose taste runs On the majestic sea the white caps crown. along these lines. There’s a list on the lee of the good old ship, As it lays its course on a gallant trip. In one of your issues last fall Mr. Wetjen You feel the vibration of the engine turning, says he has noticed several square-rigged As the propeller turns on w'ith its mournful vessel minus royals, with bare poles above churning. the to’gallants. Two months ago I passed a full-rigged ship in the Gulf of Mexico. She There are pitfalls of sin that lurk in its was bound across, probably with a load of course, teakwood, as she came up from the south. Oft try to o’erwhelm us with ceaseless force. She had no royals on her bare poles above Yet try as we might the sea casts a spell, the to’gallants, as the squally season was not That no man can shake though he lived quite over yet. through hell. When the big square-riggers are bound This unseen force just goads us on, across from east to west in the summer time, To test its strength till our will is gone. : ; ; ;

The Log Book 141

Yet sanity would perish if we lacked imagi- Indiaman, a bark of six hundred tons register, nation, named the Sylph, at that time forty-eight To build happy worlds with eager anticipa- years old. She had the old-fashioned apple tion. bows and quarter galleries and she carried

For each and every mortal to ;. good God a full suit of stuns’ls alow and aloft. Me prays being young and active, was captain of the To mold his life in happiness, where Para- top in the mate’s watch. With them all set dise lays. in the nor’east trades her best speed was seven knots. How’s that for old times? She One of our old shipmates, who signs made one more voyage after I left her, so himself “An Old Shellback,” comes aft I think I may fairly say I saw the end of stuns’ls. a yarn and a chantey that we think with Now, as many of my shipmates desire to you will all be glad to see hear of some of the old chanteys and sea ditties, I’ve sounded to the bottom of my Having taken the Sea Stories Magazine old sea chest and resurrected some of my from the very commencement of its voyage, I old notebooks. Out of them have culled the think I may claim to belong to the ship’s inclosed, which, should you print them, I company, and a good ship she is proving trust will give them a little pleasure. herself. I find myself spending many golden With all best wishes for a long, successful hours aboard of her. Also I find "some” voyage to the good ship Sea Stories and her good, genuine shipmates among her company. company, An Old Shellback. I’ll qualify that "some they’re all good ship- mates, the only real difference is some have Lack of space prevents our giving all seen longer service than others and conse- the chanteys and ditties in one issue, so their early like mine, were quently years, here’s one that’s a corker, and we will spent in sail, whether under the “Red Duster” give the balance in subsequent issues. or the Stars and Stripes makes no odds.

Personally I spent twenty-five years under the "Red Duster,” four years as a 'prentice HOMEWARD BOUND.

boy in the colliers out of Whitstable, Kent Let go 1 and the white sails rustling fall, eleven years to the south’ard, all grades, in- The windlass clanks merrily, pawl by pawl, cluding command; ten years as a Channel and Long echoing over the tall palm trees, North Sea pilot. I left the sea in the latter The anchor song floats in the morning breeze. part of 1909 through physical disability. Ye ho! that wind will move her keel, are dancing round her Needless to say, I commenced my sea ca- The waves bow;

sails ! her heel, reer at a time when topsail schooners— fore- Sweat high the and give a ’n’-aft schooners in those days were hardly Her forefoot’s talking Spanish now. known on the British coasts—were in their

heyday, and was perfectly familiar with the Cheerily ! Cheerily ! raise the dead fruiters that sailed in the St. Michel’s orange And the anchor up from its coral bed;

trade, the little schooners who, as the say- Cheerily ! Cheerily ! home, sweet home, ing in those days was, “put their lee cathead Till she chases a smother of sparkling under water when they left St. Michel’s and foam. let it come up once a day to say good morn- ing to you.” Crack on ! till the stormy cape is past, The little channel ports of Brixham, Sal- And her bowsprit points to the north at last combe, and Topsham owned scores of them, From stem to stern she’s a smother of foam craft that far more often than not made their As she reels through the Phantom Dutch- passages from St. Michel’s to the docks in man’s home.

London in five and six days. They were Ye ho ! there the Southern Cross sinks fast, sailed by a class of men that were the equal The pole star over the cathead trails of the Gloucesterman. When its silvery points on the topsails cast Captain Jones, of Newport News, mentions Old England’s winds will be kissing her that he was on one voyage shipmates with sails. stuns’ls, as an apprentice. I see he was thirty- six years at sea, therefore he’s senior to me. Cherrily! Cheerily! haul and hold, Would like to mention that in March, 1890, Give her the canvas, fold on fold;

I sailed from London on my first voyage Cheerily ! Cheerily ! wake the dead to the south’ard as an A. B. in an old West See how she buries her lee cathead. ; ! !

142 Sea Stories Magazine

Hot a cast of the lead, for the mist lies not a technical one. And the Old Man strong, is not going to cut up a good yarn for “Watch there, watch,” is the sounding And a the sake of a few slight misstatements, song; little things which only one out of a Down goes the lead in quest of the land, people would notice. Forty-five fathoms ! white shells and sand. thousand her bow, Ye ho ! and again she smothers A couple of months ago I bought a copy See, the land is there where the breakers of Sea Stories and I still “carry on.” Log comb Book entries are my first reading, and it’s The London girls have the towrope now, funny what memories will make a man do, Hand over hand they are hauling us home. and how “reading names” fills one with writ- Cheerily! Cheerily! home at last, ing impulses, my thoughts were stirred by No thought of the toil and the dangers your mention of that grand old packet the past. Thermopylae. Cheerily! Cheerily! rant and roar, In 1885, when I was a “brass bounder” on Here’s love to the girls, we’re home once the so-called slipper ship Soudan lying in more. Port Pirrie, South Australia, I well remem- ber the bark Jane Porter, as I sailed in her under Captain Jack, the Brynhilda, Scotia, •"THERE is an old seafaring yarn about and some of the Stars also. At a later date I tramped the a sailor who went aft to let go the Wallaby. Some of the steamers in which I served at flying jib halyards. When asked why he different times are the Wilton, Highland “Different ships did this, he replied: Chief, Celtic, Optic, Trinidad, Latonia, and different places for the flying jib hal- others. Have taken in “between Brest and yards.” There is a certain class of sea Elbe;” and U. K. ports as well as Australia, Africa, India via Suez, South America, and lawyer, however, who cannot seem to West Indies, with dear old Bermuda on the appreciate this. All of you fellows have side. telling seen them, they will spend hours The biggest burden that I ever carried is the you how things were done on their last knowledge of the days which are no more, ship. But they cannot seem to realize and, being unable to unload, because if I ever speak about those days and places I that things are done differently on differ- am classed with Ananias. Oh, the days ent ships. great many of them have A when a Blue Anchor called at Port Pirrie, written to the Old Man criticizing cer- days when we took in the bazaar in Cal- tain things in some of our stories. cutta, days in Dunkirk However, the Old Man would like to Who remembers poor old Johnny Doyle, of Dennison Street, Liverpool, and other take this opportunity to say that any of hard-up boarding houses? Do Lamport and the criticisms must be constructive, or he Holt and .other lines still use them ? What will come among you with a belaying pin a hard crew ran Brooklyn tramp steamers in each fist. The above-mentioned class Is shanghaiing still practiced in Portland and San Francisco? dear old chanteys of people seem to think that because they Those you print and what nice words you have in have spent a dog watch at sea that they some of them—how things change with time, are at liberty t6 make all sorts of com- eh? plaints about some of our yarns. They Half a pound of flour three times a week. think that because they have spent a Oh, boys, didn’t “dough boys” go good when we pulled them out of the “slumgullion” and short time on a steamer, made one voyr put a little molasses on them. And the cock- age on a tramp or deep-water ship, or roaches and other bunkmates helped “Web- in a couple of voyages along the coast a ster’s Pronouncing Dictionary.” Well, sir, I schooner that they are qualified author- must take my trick at the wheel. So, so long. ities on things maritime. Henry Roberts. Seager Street, Rochester, N. Y. The late discussion about tops’l 123 schooners was a fine example of this. The above letter certainly recalls old And you must realize that the good ship times to the Old Man, all right. But “Sea Stories” is a fiction magazine, and some of the rest of you write in and The Log Book 143 tell us about those days. How called the Glenburn; there the Old Man made a beach comber of many of you have stopped at Johnny my pal, Tommy Riley, and myself. This was because we were too Doyle’s, or Maggie May’s? Let’s have hard to control. It was a good thing for a regular dog-watch muster and tell us both of us that he was not a down-east more about the ships Port Jackson, Ta- skipper, or we would have been controlled mar, Kenilworth, British Isles, Oweenee, all right. In those days there weren’t many laws protecting Monongaliela, Ajax, Atlas, Astral, American seamen, and I for one say God bless the unions that made Crocodile, •And all of the fine old Ben’s, it possible for laws to be made to guard and Fall’s, and Shire’s. You’d be surprised protect the welfare of American sailors. at the number of letters which the Old I think that it is time to bring this palaver Man gets from old “Sou’ Spainers’’ to an end, but before I close here’s hoping that all of my who have “swallowed the anchor” and shipmates of the Glenburn are living and doing well. That are living hundreds is the sincere aye, and thousands hope of their old shipmate, the painter. I of miles from salt water, and who would can still seem to hear their voices ringing out like to know just what has become of over the waters of far-off roadsteads and strange some of these fine old “windbags.” And seas, .making them ring to the tune of Santy Anna,” “Rio these fellows would be tickled to death Grande,” or Blow, ’ Boys, Blow. Hoping that you will to read some letters in the Log Book find space in your Log Book for this poor from a shipmate offering, who has run across I remain, a lover of the sea, some of the old familiar ships. Because . Bob Moncrieff. White Plains, they haven’t all gone yet, even though N. Y. they have may fallen from their once Another error has been called to our proud station. Some, of course, are attention, this is one anent the descrip- barges, others tive have been converted into article in our January 5th issue. auxiliaries. Among the latter, as the The title of the article was “Where Old Man understands, is the Oweenee,' Danger Lurks in the Seven Seas.” In and there’s this one fine ship that will never article Cape Sable is spoken of as again cross three skysail yards. “the graveyard of the Atlantic.” Mr. , And here's another old-timer, it does John Jenney, of Halifax, writes us a the Old Man’s heart good to hear them. very interesting letter pointing out the Frank Moncrieff writes an interesting mistake, and his letter also included a letter and would like very to hear from any interesting chart of all of the of his shipmates on the Glenburn. known wrecks on Sable Island.

“More power to ye,” as our friend Mr. In your January 5th issue of Sea Stories Dooley I discovered would say. How my blood thrills a very serious error. I have been when I read the old chanteys which you watching each issue to see if any one publish else in the Log Book, for the call of would get wise, but apparently it has the sea seems to creep into my blood after been overlooked. Now, being an old shell- back, all the years since I bid it farewell away and therefore entitled to a growl, I back in 1886, when I payed off in New York want to call your attention to a statement from the bark Harvard. We had made the made by the author of “Where Danger Lurks passage from Calcutta in four months, and, in the Seven Seas.” by the way, I heard that she was lost last The statement is as follows: "The grave- year. yard of the Atlantic is Cape Sable, lying I often wonder how many of my ship- at the southern extremity of Nova Sco- mates are alive to-day, and how many have tia.” Cape Sable is not what he has reference gone to Davy Jones. The captain at that to, but rather Sable Island, which carries that time was a down-east Yankee, small in dread name. The Nova Scotia coast is bad stature, but big in every other way. A cap- enough, but the “graveyard of the Atlantic” tain, pray, from New Hampshire. does not form any part of it, neither is it If my memory serves me correctly I went a part of or near the coast of the United from Penarth to Singapore and from there States. to Calcutta, in a Greenock ship that was There is a Cape Sable, also a Cape Sable 144 Sea Stories Magazine

Island, but neither have anything to do with heading. Where a ship’s name occurs the “graveyard of the Atlantic.” Am in- in the manuscript, it should be written closing herewith copy of a chart showing all the known wrecks up to .1900. Personally with capitals. I am very much pleased with your maga- zine, and find some of the stories very in- Being a constant reader of your interest- teresting and, in some instances, fascinating. ing magazine, I am very much interested in But all writers should be careful of their the Log Book, and the discussions which geography and also, unless sailors, of using are taken up in it. nautical terms that they do not know the The discussion which interests me most meaning of, because it destroys the yarn. is that relating to tops’l schooners. In the John Jenney. April 5th number I notice that a new dis- Halifax, N. S. cussion is being taken up. This being the com- parison of the relative merits of the mod- Some of our tentative contributors ern and the old-fashioned sailor. However, have at different times made inquiry of I am going to allow some one else to decide us as to the proper manner in which to that. make up manuscript for the purpose of I should like to make a try at submitting a few stories to use in your magazine.' I submitting same. One of these letters have already written two interesting stories we publish below. of the sea, also a manuscript entitled “The All manuscript should be typewritten Sea;” the latter being nonfiction. with double spacing. All paragraph If you will let me know, either through headings should be set in from the mar- the Log Book or through the mail, the con- ditions under which a manuscript must be gin. Where the story is long enough submitted I shall be very thankful to you. to warrant the use of them chapters Wishing you an endless voyage of success, should indicated. be Each page should I am, sincerely yours, be numbered, and the number of words Howard Spinney. in the story should be written on the Overbrook Station, Wellesly, Mass.

Tlie Next Voyage

The good ship “Sea Stories” is now well under way, with a fair wind, and with the type of cargo which she carries for July 20th she will soon reach the port of success. The “piece de resistance” for this number is a novelette by Walter S. Story. This yarn ought to make some of our readers who are wireless operators sit up and take notice. The two-part serial, the “Rum Runners,” is concluded in this number. There is, however, a splendid assortment of short stories. These narratives take us to most of the waters of the world, for there are stories of the North Atlantic, Pacific, around the Horn in sail, down the coast in schooners, a story of the coast-guard service, and one about gun runners. The crew list contains many names well known to “Sea Stories’ ” readers, there are such names as: J. T. Rowland, Captain Dingle, Park Abott, and several newcomers, whose work we are sure you will like. So don’t miss this next voyage whatever you do, and be sure to have your news dealer reserve you a copy. ! — .

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Louisiana Distributors — Stauffer Eshelman Co., Ltd., New Orleans, La. NEW Second Western Adventure Story By GEORGE OWEN BAXTER

Author of Free Range Fanning “DONNEGAN”

\X7E surely appreciate the good fortune that has fallen to us, as publishers, to be in a position to offer the public another book by an author who is destined to make his way to the very front ranks of writers of Western fiction. It is highly gratifying aside from any consideration of the profit which will accrue from the publication of such a book.

In “Donnegaln,” the author has given us a wonderfully lifelike pic- ture of a big, strapping, red-headed chap, not all good, but such a mixture of good and bad that the reader’s sympathy goes out to him at the start, with the realization that he is intensely human after all.

When Donnegan, general all around down and outer was taken care of at the Landis ranch, the Colonel had no idea of the investment he was making. Donnegan makes a splendid comeback, and repays, a hundredfold, the kindness and sympathy shown him.

A story of the West that is fine, clean, and stimulating.

Price, $1,75 net CHELSEA HOUSE, Publishers

79 SEVENTH AVENUE :: NEW YORK CITY