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diff --git a/23539.txt b/23539.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..892e109 --- /dev/null +++ b/23539.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7772 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other +Stories of the Sea, by Morgan Robertson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea + + +Author: Morgan Robertson + + + +Release Date: November 18, 2007 [eBook #23539] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD" AND +OTHER STORIES OF THE SEA*** + + +E-text prepared by Paul Hollander, David Clarke, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have been + retained. + + + + + +"WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD" + +AND OTHER TALES OF THE SEA + +by + +MORGAN ROBERTSON + + + + + + + +Published by The Century Co. +New York M DCCC XC IX + +Copyright, 1899, by +The Century Co. + +Copyright, 1898, by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. +Copyright, 1898, 1899, by The Curtis Publishing Co. +Copyright, 1899, by Peter Fenelon Collier. +Copyright, 1899, by Street & Smith. +Copyright, 1897, 1898, by The S. S. McClure Co. +Copyright, 1898, by Harper & Brothers. + + + + +TO ITS GODFATHER +JOHN S. PHILLIPS +THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY +DEDICATED + + + + +"'Where Angels Fear to Tread'" was first published in the "Atlantic +Monthly"; "Salvage" in the "Century Magazine"; "The Brain of the +Battle-Ship," "The Wigwag Message," "Between the Millstones," and +"The Battle of the Monsters," in the "Saturday Evening Post"; "The +Trade-Wind" in "Collier's Weekly"; "From the Royal-Yard Down" in +"Ainslee's Magazine"; "Needs Must when the Devil Drives" and "When +Greek Meets Greek" in McClure's Syndicate; and "Primordial" in +"Harper's Monthly Magazine." + +To the publishers of these periodicals I am indebted for the privilege +of republishing the stories in book form. + +MORGAN ROBERTSON. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +"WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD" 1 + +THE BRAIN OF THE BATTLE-SHIP 57 + +THE WIGWAG MESSAGE 88 + +THE TRADE-WIND 111 + +SALVAGE 137 + +BETWEEN THE MILLSTONES 170 + +THE BATTLE OF THE MONSTERS 193 + +FROM THE ROYAL-YARD DOWN 213 + +NEEDS MUST WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES 233 + +WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK 259 + +PRIMORDIAL 272 + + + + +"WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD" + +"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of each; and I +believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." + ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. + + +PART I + +The first man to climb the _Almena's_ side-ladder from the tug was the +shipping-master, and after him came the crew he had shipped. They +clustered at the rail, looking around and aloft with muttered profane +comments, one to the other, while the shipping-master approached a +gray-eyed giant who stood with a shorter but broader man at the +poop-deck steps. + +"Mr. Jackson--the mate here, I s'pose?" inquired the shipping-master. A +nod answered him. "I've brought you a good crew," he continued; "we'll +just tally 'em off, and then you can sign my receipt. The captain'll be +down with the pilot this afternoon." + +"I'm the mate--yes," said the giant; "but what dry-goods store did you +raid for that crowd? Did the captain pick 'em out?" + +"A delegation o' parsons," muttered the short, broad man, +contemptuously. + +"No, they're not parsons," said the shipping-master, as he turned to +the man, the slightest trace of a smile on his seamy face. "You're Mr. +Becker, the second mate, I take it; you'll find 'em all right, sir. +They're sailors, and good ones, too. No, Mr. Jackson, the skipper +didn't pick 'em--just asked me for sixteen good men, and there you are. +Muster up to the capstan here, boys," he called, "and be counted." + +As they grouped themselves amidships with their clothes-bags, the +shipping-master beckoned the chief mate over to the rail. + +"You see, Mr. Jackson," he said, with a backward glance at the men, +"I've only played the regular dodge on 'em. They've all got the +sailor's bug in their heads and want to go coasting; so I told 'em this +was a coaster." + +"So she is," answered the officer; "round the Horn to Callao is +coasting. What more do they want?" + +"Yes, but I said nothin' of Callao, and they were all three sheets i' +the wind when they signed, so they didn't notice the articles. They +expected a schooner, too, big enough for sixteen men; but I've just +talked 'em out of that notion. They think, too, that they'll have a +week in port to see if they like the craft; and to make 'em think it +was easy to quit, I told 'em to sign nicknames--made 'em believe that a +wrong name on the articles voided the contract." + +"But it don't. They're here, and they'll stay--that is, if they know +enough to man the windlass." + +"Of course--of course. I'm just givin' you a pointer. You may have to +run them a little at the start, but that's easy. Now we'll tally 'em +off. Don't mind the names; they'll answer to 'em. You see, they're all +townies, and bring their names from home." + +The shipping-master drew a large paper from his pocket, and they +approached the men at the capstan, where the short, broad second mate +had been taking their individual measures with scowling eye. + +It was a strange crew for the forecastle of an outward-bound, +deep-water American ship. Mr. Jackson looked in vain for the heavy, +foreign faces, the greasy canvas jackets and blanket trousers he was +accustomed to see. Not that these men seemed to be landsmen--each +carried in his face and bearing the indefinable something by which +sailors of all races may distinguish each other at a glance from +fishermen, tugmen, and deck-hands. They were all young men, and their +intelligent faces--blemished more or less with marks of overnight +dissipation--were as sunburnt as were those of the two mates; and where +a hand could be seen, it showed as brown and tarry as that of the +ablest able seaman. There were no chests among them, but the canvas +clothes-bags were the genuine article, and they shouldered and handled +them as only sailors can. Yet, aside from these externals, they gave no +sign of being anything but well-paid, well-fed, self-respecting +citizens, who would read the papers, discuss politics, raise families, +and drink more than is good on pay-nights, to repent at church in the +morning. The hands among them that were hidden were covered with +well-fitting gloves--kid or dog-skin; all wore white shirts and +fashionable neckwear; their shoes were polished; their hats were in +style; and here and there, where an unbuttoned, silk-faced overcoat +exposed the garments beneath, could be seen a gold watch-chain with +tasteful charm. + +"Now, boys," said the shipping-master, cheerily, as he unfolded the +articles on the capstan-head, "answer, and step over to starboard as I +read your names. Ready? Tosser Galvin." + +"Here." A man carried his bag across the deck a short distance. + +"Bigpig Monahan." Another--as large a man as the mate--answered and +followed. + +"Moccasey Gill." + +"Good God!" muttered the mate, as this man responded. + +"Sinful Peck." An undersized man, with a cultivated blond mustache, +lifted his hat politely to Mr. Jackson, disclosing a smooth, bald head, +and passed over, smiling sweetly. Whatever his character, his name +belied his appearance; for his face was cherubic in its innocence. + +"Say," interrupted the mate, angrily, "what kind of a game is this, +anyhow? Are these men sailors?" + +"Yes, yes," answered the shipping-master, hurriedly; "you'll find 'em +all right. And, Sinful," he added, as he frowned reprovingly at the +last man named, "don't you get gay till my receipt's signed and I'm +clear of you." + +Mr. Jackson wondered, but subsided; and, each name bringing forth a +response, the reader called off: "Seldom Helward, Shiner O'Toole, +Senator Sands, Jump Black, Yampaw Gallagher, Sorry Welch, Yorker +Jimson, General Lannigan, Turkey Twain, Gunner Meagher, Ghost O'Brien, +and Poop-deck Cahill." + +Then the astounded Mr. Jackson broke forth profanely. "I've been +shipmates," he declared between oaths, "with freak names of all +nations; but this gang beats me. Say, you," he called,--"you with the +cro'-jack eye there,--what's that name you go by? Who are you?" He +spoke to the large man who had answered to "Bigpig Monahan," and who +suffered from a slight distortion of one eye; but the man, instead of +civilly repeating his name, answered curtly and coolly: + +"I'm the man that struck Billy Patterson." + +Fully realizing that the mate who hesitates is lost, and earnestly +resolved to rebuke this man as his insolence required, Mr. Jackson had +secured a belaying-pin and almost reached him, when he found himself +looking into the bore of a pistol held by the shipping-master. + +"Now, stop this," said the latter, firmly; "stop it right here, Mr. +Jackson. These men are under my care till you've signed my receipt. +After that you can do as you like; but if you touch one of them before +you sign, I'll have you up 'fore the commissioner. And you fellers," he +said over his shoulder, "you keep still and be civil till I'm rid of +you. I've used you well, got your berths, and charged you nothin'. All +I wanted was to get Cappen Benson the right kind of a crew." + +"Let's see that receipt," snarled the mate. "Put that gun up, too, or +I'll show you one of my own. I'll tend to your good men when you get +ashore." He glared at the quiescent Bigpig, and followed the +shipping-master--who still held his pistol ready, however--over to the +rail, where the receipt was produced and signed. + +"Away you go, now," said the mate; "you and your gun. Get over the +side." + +The shipping-master did not answer until he had scrambled down to the +waiting tug and around to the far side of her deck-house. There, ready +to dodge, he looked up at the mate with a triumphant grin on his shrewd +face, and called: + +"Say, Mr. Jackson, 'member the old bark _Fair Wind_ ten years ago, +and the ordinary seaman you triced up and skinned alive with a +deck-scraper? D' you 'member, curse you? 'Member breakin' the same +boy's arm with a heaver? You do, don't you? I'm him. 'Member me sayin' +I'd get square?" + +He stepped back to avoid the whirling belaying-pin sent by the mate, +which, rebounding, only smashed a window in the pilot-house. Then, amid +an exchange of blasphemous disapproval between Mr. Jackson and the tug +captain, and derisive jeers from the shipping-master,--who also averred +that Mr. Jackson ought to be shot, but was not worth hanging for,--the +tug gathered in her lines and steamed away. + +Wrathful of soul, Mr. Jackson turned to the men on the deck. They had +changed their position; they were now close to the fife-rail at the +mainmast, surrounding Bigpig Monahan (for by their names we must know +them), who, with an injured expression of face, was shedding outer +garments and voicing his opinion of Mr. Jackson, which the others +answered by nods and encouraging words. He had dropped a pair of +starched cuffs over a belaying-pin, and was rolling up his +shirt-sleeve, showing an arm as large as a small man's leg, and the +mate was just about to interrupt the discourse, when the second mate +called his name. Turning, he beheld him beckoning violently from the +cabin companionway, and joined him. + +"Got your gun, Mr. Jackson?" asked the second officer, anxiously, as he +drew him within the door. "I started for mine when the shippin'-master +pulled. I can't make that crowd out; but they're lookin' for fight, +that's plain. When you were at the rail they were sayin': 'Soak him, +Bigpig.' 'Paste him, Bigpig.' 'Put a head on him.' They might be a lot +o' prize-fighters." + +Mr. Becker was not afraid; his position and duties forbade it. He was +simply human, and confronted with a new problem. + +"Don't care a rap what they are," answered the mate, who was sufficiently +warmed up to welcome any problem. "They'll get fight enough. We'll +overhaul their dunnage first for whisky and knives, then turn them to. +Come on--I'm heeled." + +They stepped out and advanced to the capstan amidships, each with a +hand in his trousers pocket. + +"Pile those bags against the capstan here, and go forrard," ordered the +mate, in his most officer-like tone. + +"Go to the devil," they answered. "What for?--they're our bags, not +yours. Who in Sam Hill are you, anyhow? What are you? You talk like a +p'liceman." + +Before this irreverence could be replied to Bigpig Monahan advanced. + +"Look here, old horse," he said; "I don't know whether you're captain +or mate, or owner or cook; and I don't care, either. You had somethin' +to say 'bout my eyes just now. Nature made my eyes, and I can't help +how they look; but I don't allow any big bull-heads to make remarks +'bout 'em. You're spoilin' for somethin'. Put up your hands." He threw +himself into an aggressive attitude, one mighty fist within six inches +of Mr. Jackson's face. + +"Go forrard," roared the officer, his gray eyes sparkling; "forrard, +all o' you!" + +"We'll settle this; then we'll go forrard. There'll be fair play; these +men'll see to that. You'll only have me to handle. Put up." + +Mr. Jackson did not "put up." He repeated again his order to go +forward, and was struck on the nose--not a hard blow; just a +preliminary tap, which started blood. He immediately drew his pistol +and shot the man, who fell with a groan. + +An expression of shock and horror over-spread every face among the +crew, and they surged back, away from that murderous pistol. A +momentary hesitance followed, then horror gave way to furious rage, and +carnage began. Coats and vests were flung off, belaying-pins and +capstan-bars seized; inarticulate, half-uttered imprecations punctuated +by pistol reports drowned the storm of abuse with which the mates +justified the shot, and two distinct bands of men swayed and zig-zagged +about the deck, the center of each an officer fighting according to his +lights--shooting as he could between blows of fists and clubs. Then the +smoke of battle thinned, and two men with sore heads and bleeding faces +retreated painfully and hurriedly to the cabin, followed by snarling +maledictions and threats. + +It was hardly a victory for either side. The pistols were empty and the +fight taken out of the mates for a time; and on the deck lay three +moaning men, while two others clung to the fife-rail, draining blood +from limp, hanging arms. But eleven sound and angry men were left--and +the officers had more ammunition. They entered their rooms, mopped +their faces with wet towels, reloaded the firearms, pocketed the +remaining cartridges, and returned to the deck, the mate carrying a +small ensign. + +"We'll run it up to the main, Becker," he said thickly,--for he +suffered,--ignoring in his excitement the etiquette of the +quarter-deck. + +"Aye, aye," said the other, equally unmindful of his breeding. "Will we +go for 'em again?" The problem had defined itself to Mr. Becker. These +men would fight, but not shoot. + +"No, no," answered the mate; "not unless they go for us and it's +self-defense. They're not sailors--they don't know where they are. We +don't want to get into trouble. Sailors don't act that way. We'll wait +for the captain or the police." Which, interpreted, and plus the slight +shade of anxiety showing in his disfigured face, meant that Mr. Jackson +was confronted with a new phase of the problem: as to how much more +unsafe it might be to shoot down, on the deck of a ship, men who did +not know where they were, than to shoot down sailors who did. So, while +the uninjured men were assisting the wounded five into the forecastle, +the police flag was run up to the main-truck, and the two mates retired +to the poop to wait and watch. + +In a few moments the eleven men came aft in a body, empty-handed, +however, and evidently with no present hostile intention: they had +merely come for their clothes. But that dunnage had not been searched; +and in it might be all sorts of dangerous weapons and equally dangerous +whisky, the possession of which could bring an unpleasant solution to +the problem. So Mr. Jackson and Mr. Becker leveled their pistols over +the poop-rail, and the chief mate roared: "Let those things alone--let +'em alone, or we'll drop some more o' you." + +The men halted, hesitated, and sullenly returned to the forecastle. + +"Guess they've had enough," said Mr. Becker, jubilantly. + +"Don't fool yourself. They're not used to blood-letting, that's all. If +it wasn't for my wife and the kids I'd lower the dinghy and jump her; +and it isn't them I'd run from, either. As it is, I've half a mind to +haul down the flag, and let the old man settle it. Steward," he called +to a mild-faced man who had been flitting from galley to cabin, +unmindful of the disturbance, "go forrard and find out how bad those +fellows are hurt. Don't say I sent you, though." + +The steward obeyed, and returned with the information that two men had +broken arms, two flesh-wounds in the legs, and one--the big +man--suffered from a ragged hole through the shoulder. All were +stretched out in bedless bunks, unwilling to move. He had been asked +numerous questions by the others--as to where the ship was bound, who +the men were who had shot them, why there was no bedding in the +forecastle, the captain's whereabouts, and the possibility of getting +ashore to swear out warrants. He had also been asked for bandages and +hot water, which he requested permission to supply, as the wounded men +were suffering greatly. This permission was refused, and the +slight--very slight--nautical flavor to the queries, and the hopeful +condition of the stricken ones, decided Mr. Jackson to leave the police +flag at the masthead. + +When dinner was served in the cabin, and Mr. Jackson sat down before a +savory roast, leaving Mr. Becker on deck to watch, the steward imparted +the additional information that the men forward expected to eat in the +cabin. + +"Hang it!" he mused; "they can't be sailor-men." + +Then Mr. Becker reached his head down the skylight, and said: "Raisin' +the devil with the cook, sir--dragged him out o' the galley into the +forecastle." + +"Are they coming aft?" + +"No, sir." + +"All right. Watch out." + +The mate went on eating, and the steward hurried forward to learn the +fate of his assistant. He did not return until Mr. Jackson was about to +leave the cabin. Then he came, with a wry face and disgust in his soul, +complaining that he had been seized, hustled into the forecastle, and +compelled, with the Chinese cook, to eat of the salt beef and pea-soup +prepared for the men, which lay untouched by them. In spite of his +aches and trouble of mind, Mr. Jackson was moved to a feeble grin. + +"Takes a sailor or a hog to eat it, hey, Steward?" he said. + +He relieved Mr. Becker, who ate his dinner hurriedly, as became a good +second mate, and the two resumed their watch on the poop, noticing that +the cook was jabbering Chinese protest in the galley, and that the men +had climbed to the topgallant-forecastle--also watching, and +occasionally waving futile signals to passing tugs or small +sailing-craft. They, too, might have welcomed the police boat. + +But, either because the _Almena_ lay too far over on the Jersey flats +for the flag to be noticed, or because harbor police share the +fallibility of their shore brethren in being elsewhere when wanted, no +shiny black steamer with blue-coated guard appeared to investigate the +trouble, and it was well on toward three o'clock before a tug left the +beaten track to the eastward and steamed over to the ship. The officers +took her lines as she came alongside, and two men climbed the +side-ladder--one, a Sandy Hook pilot, who need not be described; the +other, the captain of the ship. + +Captain Benson, in manner and appearance, was as superior to the +smooth-shaven and manly-looking Mr. Jackson as the latter was to the +misformed, hairy, and brutal second mate. With his fashionably cut +clothing, steady blue eye, and refined features, he could have been +taken for an easy-going club-man or educated army officer rather than +the master of a working-craft. Yet there was no lack of seamanly +decision in the leap he made from the rail to the deck, or in the tone +of his voice as he demanded: + +"What's the police flag up for, Mr. Jackson?" + +"Mutiny, sir. They started in to lick me 'fore turning to, and we've +shot five, but none of them fatally." + +"Lower that flag--at once." + +Mr. Becker obeyed this order, and as the flag fluttered down the +captain received an account of the crew's misdoing from the mate. He +stepped into his cabin, and returning with a double-barreled shot-gun, +leaned it against the booby-hatch, and said quietly: "Call all hands +aft who can come." + +Mr. Jackson delivered the order in a roar, and the eleven men forward, +who had been watching the newcomers from the forecastle-deck, straggled +aft and clustered near the capstan, all of them hatless and coatless, +shivering palpably in the keen December air. With no flinching of their +eyes, they stared at Captain Benson and the pilot. + +"Now, men," said the captain, "what's this trouble about? What's the +matter?" + +"Are you the captain here?" asked a red-haired, Roman-nosed man, as he +stepped out of the group. "There's matter enough. We ship for a run +down to Rio Janeiro and back in a big schooner; and here we're put +aboard a square-rigged craft, that we don't know anything about, bound +for Callao, and 'fore we're here ten minutes we're howled at and shot. +Bigpig Monahan thinks he's goin' to die; he's bleedin'--they're all +bleedin', like stuck pigs. Sorry Welch and Turkey Twain ha' got broken +arms, and Jump Black and Ghost O'Brien got it in the legs and can't +stand up. What kind o' work is this, anyhow?" + +"That's perfectly right. You were shot for assaulting my officers. Do +you call yourselves able seamen, and say you know nothing about +square-rigged craft?" + +"We're able seamen on the Lakes. We can get along in schooners. That's +what we came down for." + +Captain Benson's lips puckered, and he whistled softly. "The Lakes," he +said--"lake sailors. What part of the Lakes?" + +"Oswego. We're all union men." + +The captain took a turn or two along the deck, then faced them, and +said: "Men, I've been fooled as well as you. I would not have an Oswego +sailor aboard my ship--much less a whole crew of them. You may know +your work up there, but are almost useless here until you learn. +Although I paid five dollars a man for you, I'd put you ashore and ship +a new crew were it not for the fact that five wounded men going out of +this ship requires explanations, which would delay my sailing and incur +expense to my owners. However, I give you the choice--to go to sea, and +learn your work under the mates, or go to jail as mutineers; for to +protect my officers I must prosecute you all." + +"S'pose we do neither?" + +"You will probably be shot--to the last resisting man--either by us or +the harbor police. You are up against the law." + +They looked at each other with varying expressions on their faces; then +one asked: "What about the bunks in the forecastle? There's no +bedding." + +"If you failed to bring your own, you will sleep on the bunk-boards +without it." + +"And that swill the Chinaman cooked at dinner-time--what about that?" + +"You will get the allowance of provisions provided by law--no more. And +you will eat it in the forecastle. Also, if you have neglected to bring +pots, pans, and spoons, you will very likely eat it with your fingers. +This is not a lake vessel, where sailors eat at the cabin table, with +knives and forks. Decide this matter quickly." + +The captain began pacing the deck, and the listening pilot stepped +forward, and said kindly: "Take my advice, boys, and go along. You're +in for it if you don't." + +They thanked him with their eyes for the sympathy, conferred together +for a few moments, then their spokesman called out: "We'll leave it to +the fellers forrard, captain"; and forward they trooped. In five +minutes they were back, with resolution in their faces. + +"We'll go, captain," their leader said. "Bigpig can't be moved 'thout +killin' him, and says if he lives he'll follow your mate to hell but +he'll pay him back; and the others talk the same; and we'll stand by +'em--we'll square up this day's work." + +Captain Benson brought his walk to a stop close to the shot-gun. "Very +well, that is your declaration," he said, his voice dropping the +conversational tone he had assumed, and taking on one more in +accordance with his position; "now I will deliver mine. We sail at once +for Callao and back to an American port of discharge. You know your +wages--fourteen dollars a month. I am master of this ship, responsible +to my owners and the law for the lives of all on board. And this +responsibility includes the right to take the life of a mutineer. You +have been such, but I waive the charge considering your ignorance of +salt-water custom and your agreement to start anew. The law defines +your allowance of food, but not your duties or your working- and +sleeping-time. That is left to the discretion of your captain and +officers. Precedent--the decision of the courts--has decided the +privilege of a captain or officer to punish insolence or lack of +respect from a sailor with a blow--of a fist or missile; but, +understand me now, a return of the blow makes that man a mutineer, and +his prompt killing is justified by the law of the land. Is this plain +to you? You are here to answer and obey orders respectfully, adding the +word 'sir' to each response; you are never to go to windward of an +officer, or address him by name without the prefix 'Mr.'; and you are +to work civilly and faithfully, resenting nothing said to you until you +are discharged in an American port at the end of the voyage. A failure +in this will bring you prompt punishment; and resentment of this +punishment on your part will bring--death. Mr. Jackson," he concluded, +turning to his first officer, "overhaul their dunnage, turn them to, +and man the windlass." + +A man--the bald-headed Sinful Peck--sprang forward; but his face was +not cherubic now. His blue eyes blazed with emotion much in keeping +with his sobriquet; and, raising his hand, the nervously crooking +fingers of which made it almost a fist, he said, in a voice explosively +strident: + +"That's all right. That's _your_ say. You've described the condition o' +nigger slaves, not American voters. And I'll tell you one thing, right +here--I'm a free-born citizen. I know my work, and can do it, without +bein' cursed and abused; and if you or your mates rub my fur the wrong +way I'm goin' to claw back; and if I'm shot, you want to shoot sure; +for if you don't, I'll kill that man, if I have to lash my knife to a +broom-handle, and prod him through his window when he's asleep." + +But alas for Sinful Peck! He had barely finished his defiance when he +fell like a log under the impact of the big mate's fist; then, while +the pilot, turning his back on the painful scene, walked aft, nodding +and shaking his head, and the captain's strong language and leveled +shot-gun induced the men to an agitated acquiescence, the two officers +kicked and stamped upon the little man until consciousness left him. +Before he recovered he had been ironed to a stanchion in the +'tween-deck, and entered in the captain's official log for threatening +life. And by this time the dunnage had been searched, a few +sheath-knives tossed overboard, and the remaining ten men were moodily +heaving in the chain. + +And so, with a crippled crew of schooner sailors, the square-rigger +_Almena_ was towed to sea, smoldering rebellion in one end of her, the +power of the law in the other--murder in the heart of every man on +board. + + + + +PART II + + +Five months later the _Almena_ lay at an outer mooring-buoy in Callao +Roads, again ready for sea, but waiting. With her at the anchorage +were representatives of most of the maritime nations. English ships +and barks with painted ports and spider-web braces, high-sided, +square-sterned American half-clippers, clumsy, square-bowed "Dutchmen," +coasting-brigs of any nation, lumber-schooners from "'Frisco," +hide-carriers from Valparaiso, pearl-boats and fishermen, and even a +couple of homesick Malay proas from the west crowded the roadstead; for +the guano trade was booming, and Callao prosperous. Nearly every type +of craft known to sailors was there; but the postman and the policeman +of the seas--the coastwise mail-steamer and the heavily sparred +man-of-war--were conspicuously absent. The Pacific Mail boat would not +arrive for a week, and the last cruiser had departed two days before. + +Beyond the faint land- and sea-breeze, there was no wind nor promise of +it for several days; and Captain Benson, though properly cleared at the +custom-house for New York, was in no hurry, and had taken advantage of +the delay to give a dinner to some captains with whom he had +fraternized on shore. "I've a first-rate steward," he had told them, +"and I'll treat you well; and I've the best-trained crew that ever went +to sea. Come, all of you, and bring your first officers. I want to give +you an object-lesson on the influence of matter over mind that you +can't learn in the books." + +So they came, at half-past eleven, in their own ships' dinghies, which +were sent back with orders to return at nightfall--six big-fisted, +more or less fat captains, and six big-fisted, beetle-browed, and +embarrassed chief mates. As they climbed the gangway they were met and +welcomed by Captain Benson, who led them to the poop, the only dry and +clean part of the ship; for the _Almena's_ crew were holystoning the +main-deck, and as this operation consists in grinding off the oiled +surface of the planks with sandstone, the resulting slime of sand, oily +wood-pulp, and salt water made walking unpleasant, as well as being +very hard on polished shoe-leather. But in this filthy slime the men +were on their knees, working the six-inch blocks of stone, technically +called "bibles," back and forth with about the speed and motion of an +energetic woman over a wash-board. + +The mates also were working. With legs clad in long rubber boots, they +filled buckets at the deck-pump and scattered water around where +needed, occasionally throwing the whole bucketful at a doubtful spot on +the deck to expose it to criticism. As the visitors lined up against +the monkey-rail and looked down on the scene, Mr. Becker launched such +a bucketful as only a second mate can--and a man who happened to be in +the way was rolled over by the unexpected impact. He gasped a little +louder than might have been necessary, and the wasting of the bucketful +of water having forced Mr. Becker to make an extra trip to the pump, +the officer was duly incensed. + +"Get out o' the way, there," he bawled, eying the man sternly. "What +are you gruntin' at? A little water won't hurt you--soap neither." + +He went to the pump for more water, and the man crawled back to his +holystone. It was Bigpig Monahan, hollow-eyed and thin, slow in his +voluntary movements; minus his look of injury, too, as though he might +have welcomed the bowling over as a momentary respite for his aching +muscles. + +Now and then, when the officers' faces were partly turned, a man would +stop, rise erect on his knees, and bend backward. A man may work a +holystone much longer and press it much harder on the deck for these +occasional stretchings of contracted tissue; but the two mates chose to +ignore this physiological fact, and a moment later, a little man, +caught in the act by Mr. Jackson, was also rolled over on his back, not +by a bucket of water, but by the boot of the mate, who uttered words +suitable to the occasion, and held his hand in his pocket until the +little man, grinning with rage, had resumed his work. + +"There," said Captain Benson to his guests on the poop; "see that +little devil! See him show his teeth! That is Mr. Sinful Peck. I've had +him in irons with a broken head five times, and the log is full of him. +I towed him over the stern running down the trades to take the +cussedness out of him, and if he had not been born for higher things, +he'd have drowned. He was absolutely unconquerable until I found him +telling his beads one time in irons and took them away from him. Now to +get an occasional chance at them he is fairly quiet." + +"So this is your trained crew, is it, captain?" said a grizzled old +skipper of the party. "What ails that fellow down in the scuppers with +a prayer-book?" He pointed to a man who with one hand was rubbing a +small holystone in a corner where a large one would not go. + +"Ran foul of the big end of a handspike," answered Captain Benson, +quietly; "he'll carry his arm in splints all the way home, I think. His +name is Gunner Meagher. I don't know how they got their names, but they +signed them and will answer to them. They are unique. Look at that +outlaw down there by the bitts. That is Poop-deck Cahill. Looks like a +prize-fighter, doesn't he? But the steward tells me that he was +educated for the priesthood, and fell by the wayside. That one close to +the hatch--the one with the red head and hang-dog jib--is Seldom +Helward. He was shot off the cro'-jack yard; he fell into the lee clew +of the cro'-jack, so we pulled him in." + +"What did he do, captain?" asked the grizzled skipper. + +"Threw a marlinespike at the mate." + +"What made him throw it?" + +"Never asked. I suppose he objected to something said to him." + +"Ought to ha' killed him on the yard. Are they all of a kind?" + +"Every man. Not one knew the ropes or his place when he shipped. +They're schooner sailors from the Lakes, where the captain, if he is +civil and respectful to his men, is as good as any of them. They +started to clean us up the first day, but failed, and I went to sea +with them. Since then, until lately, it has been war to the knife. I've +set more bones, mended more heads, and plugged more shot-holes on this +passage than ever before, and my officers have grown perceptibly +thinner; but little by little, man by man, we've broken them in. Still, +I admit, it was a job. Why, that same Seldom Helward I ironed and ran +up on the fall of a main-buntline. We were rolling before a stiff +breeze and sea, and he would swing six feet over each rail and bat +against the mast in transit; but the dog stood it eight hours before he +stopped cursing us. Then he was unconscious. When he came to in the +forecastle, he was ready to begin again; but they stopped him. They're +keeping a log, I learn, and are going to law. Every time a man gets +thumped they enter the tragedy, and all sign their names." + +Captain Benson smiled dignifiedly in answer to the outburst of laughter +evoked by this, and the men below lifted their haggard, hopeless faces +an instant, and looked at the party with eyes that were +furtive--cat-like. The grinding of the stones prevented their hearing +the talk, but they knew that they were being laughed at. + +"Never knew a sailor yet," wheezed a portly and asthmatic captain, "who +wasn't ready to sue the devil and try the court in hell when he's at +sea. Trouble is, they never get past the first saloon." + +"They got a little law here," resumed Captain Benson, quietly. "I put +them all in the guardo. The consul advised it, and committed them for +fear they might desert when we lay at the dock. When I took them out to +run to the islands, they complained of being starved; and to tell the +truth, they didn't throw their next meal overboard as usual. +Nevertheless, a good four weeks' board-bill comes out of their wages. I +don't think they'll have a big pay-day in New York: the natives cleaned +out the forecastle in their absence, and they'll have to draw heavily +on my slop-chest." + +"That's where captains have the best of it," said one of the mates, +jocularly--and presumptuously, to judge by his captain's frown; "we +hammer 'em round and wear out their clothes, and it's the captain that +sells 'em new ones." + +"Captain," said the grizzled one, who had been scanning the crew +intently, "I'd pay that crew off if I were you; you ought to ha' let +'em run, or worked 'em out and saved their pay. Look at 'em--look at +the devils in their eyes. I notice your mates seldom turn their backs +on 'em. I'd get rid of 'em." + +"What! Just when we have them under control and useful? Oh, no! They +know their work now, and I'd only have to ship a crowd of beach-combers +and half-breeds at nearly double pay. Besides, gentlemen, we're just a +little proud of this crew. They are lake sailors from Oswego, a little +port on Lake Ontario. When I was young I sailed on the Lakes a season +or two and became thoroughly acquainted with the aggressive +self-respect of that breed. They would rather fight than eat. Their +reputation in this regard prevents them getting berths in any but +Oswego vessels, and even affects the policy of the nation. There's a +fort at Oswego, and whenever a company of soldiers anywhere in the +country become unmanageable--when their officers can't control them +outside the guard-house--the War Department at Washington transfers +them to Oswego for the tutelage they will get from the sailors. And +they get it; they are well-behaved, well-licked soldiers when they +leave. An Oswego sailor loves a row. He is possessed by the fighting +spirit of a bulldog; he inherits it with his Irish sense of injury; he +sucks it in with his mother's milk, and drinks it in with his whisky; +and when no enemies are near, he will fight his friends. Pay them off? +Not much. I've taken sixteen of those devils round the Horn, and I'll +take them back. I'm proud of them. Just look at them," he concluded +vivaciously, as he waved his hand at his men; "docile and obedient, +down on their knees with bibles and prayer-books." + +"And the name o' the Lord on their lips," grunted the adviser; "but not +in prayer, I'll bet you." + +"Hardly," laughed Captain Benson. "Come below, gentlemen; the steward +is ready." + +From lack of facilities the mild-faced and smiling steward could not +serve that dinner with the style which it deserved. He would have +liked, he explained, as they seated themselves, to bring it on in +separate courses; but one and all disclaimed such frivolity. The dinner +was there, and that was enough. And it was a splendid dinner. In front +of Captain Benson, at the head of the table, stood a large tureen of +smoking terrapin-stew; next to that a stuffed and baked freshly caught +fish; and waiting their turn in the center of the spread, a couple of +brace of wild geese from the inland lakes, brown and glistening, +oyster-dressed and savory. Farther along was a steaming plum-pudding, +overhead on a swinging tray a dozen bottles of wine, by the captain's +elbow a decanter of yellow fluid, and before each man's plate a couple +of glasses of different size. + +"We'll start off with an appetizer, gentlemen," said the host, as he +passed the decanter to his neighbor. "Here is some of the best Dutch +courage ever distilled; try it." + +The decanter went around, each filling his glass and holding it poised; +then, when all were supplied, they drank to the grizzled old captain's +toast: "A speedy and pleasant passage home for the _Almena_, and +further confusion to her misguided crew." The captain responded +gracefully, and began serving the stew, which the steward took from him +plate by plate, and passed around. + +But, either because thirteen men had sat down to that table, or because +the Fates were unusually freakish that day, it was destined that, +beyond the initial glass of whisky, not a man present should partake of +Captain Benson's dinner. On deck things had been happening, and just as +the host had filled the last plate for himself, a wet, bedraggled, +dirty little man, his tarry clothing splashed with the slime of the +deck, his eyes flaming green, his face expanded to a smile of ferocity, +appeared in the forward doorway, holding a cocked revolver which +covered them all. Behind him in the passage were other men, equally +unkempt, their eyes wide open with excitement and anticipation. + +"Don't ye move," yelped the little man, "not a man. Keep yer hands out +o' yer pockets. Put 'em over yer heads. That's it. You too, cappen." + +They obeyed him (there was death in the green eyes and smile), all but +one. Captain Benson sprang to his feet, with a hand in his breast +pocket. + +"You scoundrels!" he cried, as he drew forth a pistol. "Leave this----" +The speech was stopped by a report, deafening in the closed-up space; +and Captain Benson fell heavily, his pistol rattling on the floor. + +"Hang me up, will ye?" growled another voice through the smoke. + +In the after-door were more men, the red-haired Seldom Helward in the +van, holding a smoking pistol. "Get the gun, one o' you fellows over +there," he called. + +A man stepped in and picked up the pistol, which he cocked. + +"One by one," said Seldom, his voice rising to the pitch and timbre of +a trumpet-blast, "you men walk out the forward companionway with your +hands over your heads. Plug them, Sinful, if two move together, and +shoot to kill." + +Taken by surprise, the guests, resolute men though they were, obeyed +the command. As each rose to his feet, he was first relieved of a +bright revolver, which served to increase the moral front of the enemy, +then led out to the booby-hatch, on which lay a newly broached coil of +hambro-line and pile of thole-pins from the boatswain's locker. Here he +was searched again for jack-knife or brass knuckles, bound with the +hambro-line, gagged with a thole-pin, and marched forward, past the +prostrate first mate, who lay quiet in the scuppers, and the erect but +agonized second mate, gagged and bound to the fife-rail, to the port +forecastle, where he was locked in with the Chinese cook, who, +similarly treated, had preceded. The mild-faced steward, weeping now, +as much from professional disappointment as from stronger emotion, was +questioned sternly, and allowed his freedom on his promise not to "sing +out" or make trouble. Captain Benson was examined, his injury diagnosed +as brain-concussion, from the glancing bullet, more or less serious, +and dragged out to the scuppers, where he was bound beside his +unconscious first officer. Then, leaving them to live or die as their +subconsciousness determined, the sixteen mutineers sacrilegiously +reentered the cabin and devoured the dinner. And the appetites they +displayed--their healthy, hilarious enjoyment of the good things on the +table--so affected the professional sense of the steward that he ceased +his weeping, and even smiled as he waited on them. + +When you have cursed, beaten, and kicked a slave for five months it is +always advisable to watch him for a few seconds after you administer +correction, to give him time to realize his condition. And when you +have carried a revolver in the right-hand trousers pocket for five +months it is advisable occasionally to inspect the cloth of the pocket +to make sure that it is not wearing thin from the chafe of the muzzle. +Mr. Jackson had ignored the first rule of conduct, Mr. Becker the +second. Mr. Jackson had kicked Sinful Peck once too often; but not +knowing that it was once too often, had immediately turned his back, +and received thereat the sharp corner of a bible on his bump of +inhabitiveness, which bump responded in its function; for Mr. Jackson +showed no immediate desire to move from the place where he fell. Beyond +binding, he received no further attention from the men. Mr. Becker, on +his way to the lazarette in the stern for a bucket of sand to assist in +the holystoning, had reached the head of the poop steps when this +occurred; and turning at the sound of his superior's fall, had bounded +to the main-deck without touching the steps, reaching for his pistol as +he landed, only to pinion his fingers in a large hole in the pocket. +Wildly he struggled to reclaim his weapon, down his trouser leg, held +firmly to his knee by the tight rubber boot; but he could not reach it. +His anxious face betrayed his predicament to the wakening men, and when +he looked into Mr. Jackson's revolver, held by Sinful Peck, he +submitted to being bound to the fife-rail and gagged with the end of +the topgallant-sheet--a large rope, which just filled his mouth, and +hurt. Then the firearm was recovered, and the descent upon the +dinner-party quickly planned and carried out. + +Have you ever seen a kennel of hunting-dogs released on a fine day +after long confinement--how they bark and yelp, chasing one another, +biting playfully, rolling and tumbling over and over in sheer joy and +healthy appreciation of freedom? Without the vocal expression of +emotion, the conduct of these men after that wine dinner was very +similar to that of such emancipated dogs. They waltzed, boxed, +wrestled, threw each other about the deck, turned handsprings and +cartwheels,--those not too weak,--buffeted, kicked, and clubbed the +suffering Mr. Becker, reviled and cursed the unconscious captain and +chief officer, and when tired of this, as children and dogs of play, +they turned to their captives for amusement. The second mate was taken +from the fife-rail, with hands still bound, and led to the forecastle; +the gags of all and the bonds of the cook were removed, and the +forecastle dinner was brought from the galley. This they were invited +to eat. There was a piece of salt beef, boiled a little longer than +usual on account of the delay; it was black, brown, green, and +iridescent in spots; it was slippery with ptomaines, filthy to the +sight, stinking, and nauseating. There were potatoes, two years old, +shriveled before boiling--hard and soggy, black, blue, and bitter after +the process. And there was the usual "weevily hardtack" in the +bread-barge. + +Protest was useless. The unhappy captives surrounded that dinner on the +forecastle floor (for there was neither table to sit at, nor chests, +stools, or boxes to sit on, in the apartment), and, with hands behind +their backs and disgust in their faces, masticated and swallowed the +morsels which the Chinese cook put to their mouths, while their +feelings were further outraged by the hilarity of the men at their +backs, and their appetites occasionally jogged into activity by the +impact on their heads of a tarry fist or pistol-butt. At last a portly +captain began vomiting, and this being contagious, the meal ended; for +even the stomachs of the sailors, overcharged as they were with the +rich food and wine of the cabin table, were affected by the spectacle. + +There were cool heads in that crowd of mutineers--men who thought of +consequences: Poop-deck Cahill, square-faced and resolute, but +thoughtful of eye and refined of speech; Seldom Helward, who had shot +the captain--a man whose fiery hair, arching eyebrows, Roman nose, and +explosive language indicated the daredevil, but whose intelligent +though humorous eye and corrugated forehead gave certain signs of +repressive study and thought; and Bigpig Monahan, already described. +These three men went into session under the break of the poop, and came +to the conclusion that the consul who had jailed them for nothing would +hang them for this; then, calling the rest to the conference as a +committee of the whole, they outlined and put to vote a proposition to +make sail and go to sea, leaving the fate of their captives for later +consideration--which was adopted unanimously and with much profanity, +the central thought of the latter being an intention to "make 'em +finish the holystonin' for the fun they had laughin' at us." Then +Bigpig Monahan sneaked below and induced the steward to toss through +the store-room dead-light every bottle of wine and liquor which the +ship contained. "For Seldom and Poop-deck," he said to him, "are the +only men in the gang fit to pick up navigation and git this ship into +port again; but if they git their fill of it, it's all day with you, +steward." + +Six second mates on six American ships watched curiously, doubtingly, +and at last anxiously, as sails were dropped and yards mastheaded on +board the _Almena_, and as she paid off from the mooring-buoy before +the land-breeze and showed them her stern, sent six dinghies, which +gave up the pursuit in a few minutes and mustered around the buoy, +where a wastefully slipped shot of anchor-chain gave additional +evidence that all was not right. But by the time the matter was +reported to the authorities ashore, the _Almena_, having caught the +newly arrived southerly wind off the Peruvian coast, was hull down on +the western horizon. + + * * * * * + +Four days later, one of the _Almena's_ boats, containing twelve men +with sore heads, disfigured faces, and clothing ruined by oily +wood-pulp,--ruined particularly about the knees of their trousers,--came +wearily into the roadstead from the open sea, past the shipping, and up +to the landing at the custom-house docks. From here the twelve +proceeded to the American consul and entered bitter complaint of +inhuman treatment received at the hands of sixteen mutinous sailors on +board the _Almena_--treatment so cruel that they had welcomed being +turned adrift in an open boat; whereat, the consul, deploring the +absence of man-of-war or steamer to send in pursuit, took their +individual affidavits; and these he sent to San Francisco, from which +point the account of the crime, described as piracy, spread to every +newspaper in Christendom. + + + + +PART III + + +A Northeast gale off Hatteras: immense gray combers, five to the mile, +charging shoreward, occasionally breaking, again lifting their heads +too high in the effort, truncated as by a knife, and the liquid apex +shattered to spray; an expanse of leaden sky showing between the +rain-squalls, across which heavy background rushed the darker scud and +storm-clouds; a passenger-steamer rolling helplessly in the trough, and +a square-rigged vessel, hove to on the port tack, two miles to windward +of the steamer, and drifting south toward the storm-center. This is the +picture that the sea-birds saw at daybreak on a September morning, and +could the sea-birds have spoken they might have told that the +square-rigged craft carried a navigator who had learned that a whirling +fury of storm-center was less to be feared than the deadly Diamond +Shoals--the outlying guard of Cape Hatteras toward which that steamer +was drifting, broadside on. + +Clad in yellow oilskins and sou'wester, he stood by the +after-companionway, intently examining through a pair of glasses the +wallowing steamer to leeward, barely distinguishable in the half-light +and driving spindrift. On the main-deck a half-dozen men paced up and +down, sheltered by the weather rail; forward, two others walked the +deck by the side of the forward house, but never allowed their march to +extend past the after-corner; and at the wheel stood a little man who +sheltered a cheerful face under the lee of a big coat-collar, and +occasionally peeped out at the navigator. + +"Poop-deck," he shouted above the noise of the wind, "take the wheel +till I fire up." + +"Thought I was exempt from steering," growled the other, +good-humoredly, as he placed the glasses inside the companionway. + +"You're getting too fat and sassy; steer a little." + +Poop-deck relieved the little man, who descended the cabin stairs, and +returned in a few moments, smoking a short pipe. He took the wheel, and +Poop-deck again examined the steamer with the glasses. + +"There goes his ensign, union down," he exclaimed; "he's in trouble. +We'll show ours." + +From a flag-locker inside the companionway he drew out the Stars and +Stripes, which he ran up to the monkey-gaff. Then he looked again. + +"Down goes his ensign; up goes the code pennant. He wants to signal. +Come up here, boys," called Poop-deck; "give me a hand." + +As the six men climbed the steps, he pulled out the corresponding code +signal from the locker, and ran it up on the other part of the halyards +as the ensign fluttered down. "Go down, one of you," he said, "and get +the signal-book and shipping-list. He'll show his number next. Get ours +ready--R. L. F. T." + +While a man sprang below for the books named, the others hooked +together the signal-flags forming the ship's number, and Poop-deck +resumed the glasses. + +"Q. T. F. N.," he exclaimed. "Look it up." + +The books had arrived, and while one lowered and hoisted again the code +signal, which was also the answering pennant, the others pored over the +shipping-list. + +"Steamer _Aldebaran_ of New York," they said. + +The pennant came down, and the ship's number went up to the gaff. + +"H. V.," called Poop-deck, as he scanned two flags now flying from the +steamer's truck. "What does that say?" + +"Damaged rudder--cannot steer," they answered. + +"Pull down the number and show the answering pennant again," said +Poop-deck; "and let me see that signal-book." He turned the leaves, +studied a page for a moment, then said: "Run up H. V. R. That says, +'What do you want?' and that's the nearest thing to it." + +These flags took the place of the answering pennant at the gaff-end, +and again Poop-deck watched through the glasses, noting first the +showing of the steamer's answering pennant, then the letters K. R. N. + +"What does K. R. N. say?" he asked. + +They turned the leaves, and answered: "I can tow you." + +"Tow us? We're all right; we don't want a tow. He's crazy. How can he +tow us when he can't steer?" exclaimed three or four together. + +"He wants to tow us so that he _can_ steer, you blasted fools," said +Poop-deck. "He can keep head to sea and go where he likes with a big +drag on his stern." + +"That's so. Where's he bound--'you that has knowledge and eddication'?" + +"Didn't say; but he's bound for the Diamond Shoals, and he'll fetch up +in three hours, if we can't help him. He's close in." + +"Tow-line's down the forepeak," said a man. "Couldn't get it up in an +hour," said another. "Yes, we can," said a third. Then, all speaking at +once, and each raising his voice to its limit, they argued excitedly: +"Can't be done." "Coil it on the forecastle." "Yes, we can." "Too much +sea." "Run down to wind'ard." "Line 'ud part, anyhow." "Float a +barrel." "Shut up." "I tell you, we can." "Call the watch." "Seldom, +yer daft." "Needn't get a boat over." "Hell ye can." "Call the boys." +"All hands with heavin'-lines." "Can't back a topsail in this." "Go lay +down." "Soak yer head, Seldom." "Hush." "Shut up." "Nothing _you_ can't +do." "Go to the devil." "I tell you, we can; do as I say, and we'll get +a line to him, or get his." + +The affirmative speaker, who had also uttered the last declaration, was +Seldom Helward. "Put me in command," he yelled excitedly, "and do what +I tell you, and we'll make fast to him." + +"No captains here," growled one, while the rest eyed Seldom +reprovingly. + +"Well, there ought to be; you're all rattled, and don't know any more +than to let thousands o' dollars slip past you. There's salvage down to +looward." + +"Salvage?" + +"Yes, salvage. Big boat--full o' passengers and valuable cargo--shoals +to looward of him--can't steer. You poor fools, what ails you?" + +"Foller Seldom," vociferated the little man at the wheel; "foller +Seldom, and ye'll wear stripes." + +"Dry up, Sinful. Call the watch. It's near seven bells, anyhow. Let's +hear what the rest say. Strike the bell." + +The uproarious howl with which sailors call the watch below was +delivered down the cabin stairs, and soon eight other men came up, +rubbing their eyes and grumbling at the premature wakening, while +another man came out of the forecastle and joined the two pacing the +forward deck. Seldom Helward's proposition was discussed noisily in +joint session on the poop, and finally accepted. + +"We put you in charge, Seldom, against the rule," said Bigpig Monahan, +sternly, "'cause we think you've some good scheme in your head; but if +you haven't,--if you make a mess of things just to have a little fun +bossin' us,--you'll hear from us. Go ahead, now. You're captain." + +Seldom climbed to the top of the after-house, looked to windward, then +to leeward at the rolling steamer, and called out: + +"I want more beef at the wheel. Bigpig, take it; and you, Turkey, stand +by with him. Get away from there, Sinful. Give her the upper +maintopsail, the rest of you. Poop-deck, you stand by the +signal-halyards. Ask him if he's got a tow-line ready." + +Protesting angrily at the slight put upon him, Sinful Peck relinquished +the wheel, and joined the rest on the main-deck, where they had +hurried. Two men went aloft to loose the topsail, and the rest cleared +away gear, while Poop-deck examined the signal-book. + +"K. S. G. says, 'Have a tow-line ready.' That ought to do, Seldom," he +called. + +"Run it up," ordered the newly installed captain, "and watch his +answer." Up went the signal, and as the men on the main-deck were +manning the topsail-halyards, Poop-deck made out the answer: "V. K. C." + +"That means 'All right,' Seldom," he said, after inspecting the book. + +"Good enough; but we'll get our line ready, too. Get down and help 'em +mast-head the yard first, then take 'em forrard and coil the tow-line +abaft the windlass. Get all the heavin'-lines ready, too." + +Poop-deck obeyed; and while the main-topsail-yard slowly arose to place +under the efforts of the rest, Seldom himself ran up the answering +pennant, and then the repetition of the steamer's last message: "All +right." This was the final signal displayed between the two craft. Both +signal-flags were lowered, and for a half-hour Seldom waited, until the +others had lifted a nine-inch hawser from the forepeak and coiled it +down. Then came his next orders in a continuous roar: + +"Three hands aft to the spanker-sheet! Stand by to slack off and haul +in! Man the braces for wearing ship, the rest o' you! Hard up the +wheel! Check in port main and starboard cro'-jack braces! Shiver the +topsail! Slack off that spanker!" + +Before he had finished the men had reached their posts. The orders were +obeyed. The ship paid off, staggered a little in the trough under the +right-angle pressure of the gale, swung still farther, and steadied +down to a long, rolling motion, dead before the wind, heading for the +steamer. Yards were squared in, the spanker hauled aft, staysail +trimmed to port, and all hands waited while the ship charged down the +two miles of intervening sea. + +"Handles like a yacht," muttered Seldom, as, with brow wrinkled and +keen eye flashing above his hooked nose, he conned the steering from +his place near the mizzenmast. + +Three men separated themselves from the rest and came aft. They were +those who had walked the forward deck. One was tall, broad-shouldered, +and smooth-shaven, with a palpable limp; another, short, broad, and +hairy, showed a lamentable absence of front teeth; and the third, a +blue-eyed man, slight and graceful of movement, carried his arm in +splints and sling. This last was in the van as they climbed the poop +steps. + +"I wish to protest," he said. "I am captain of this ship under the law. +I protest against this insanity. No boat can live in this sea. No help +can be given that steamer." + +"And I bear witness to the protest," said the tall man. The short, +hairy man might have spoken also, but had no time. + +"Get off the poop," yelled Seldom. "Go forrard, where you belong." He +stood close to the bucket-rack around the skylight. Seizing bucket +after bucket, he launched them at his visitors, with the result that +the big man was tumbled down the poop steps head first, while the other +two followed, right side up, but hurriedly, and bearing some sore +spots. Then the rest of the men set upon them, much as a pack of dogs +would worry strange cats, and kicked and buffeted them forward. + +There was no time for much amusement of this sort. Yards were braced to +port, for the ship was careering down toward the steamer at a ten-knot +rate; and soon black dots on her rail resolved into passengers waving +hats and handkerchiefs, and black dots on the boat deck resolved into +sailors standing by the end of a hawser which led up from the bitts +below on the fantail. And the ship came down, until it might have +seemed that Seldom's intention was to ram her. But not so; when a scant +two lengths separated the two craft, he called out: "Hard down! Light +up the staysail-sheet and stand by the forebraces!" + +Around the ship came on the crest of a sea; she sank into the hollow +behind, shipped a few dozen tons of water from the next comber, and then +lay fairly steady, with her bow meeting the seas, and the huge steamer +not a half-length away on the lee quarter. The fore-topmast-staysail was +flattened, and Seldom closely scrutinized the drift and heave of the ship. + +"How's your wheel, Bigpig?" he asked. + +"Hard down." + +"Put it up a little; keep her in the trough." + +He noted the effect on the ship of this change; then, as though +satisfied, roared out: "Let your forebraces hang, forrard there! Stand +by heavin'-lines fore and aft! Stand by to go ahead with that steamer +when we have your line!" The last injunction, delivered through his +hands, went down the wind like a thunder-clap, and the officers on the +steamer's bridge, vainly trying to make themselves heard against the +gale in the same manner, started perceptibly at the impact of sound, +and one went to the engine-room speaking-tube. + +Breast to breast the two vessels lifted and fell. At times it seemed +that the ship was to be dropped bodily on the deck of the steamer; at +others, her crew looked up a streaked slope of a hundred feet to where +the other craft was poised at the crest. Then the steamer would drop, +and the next sea would heave the ship toward her. But it was noticeable +that every bound brought her nearer to the steamer, and also farther +ahead, for her sails were doing their work. + +"Kick ahead on board the steamer!" thundered Seldom from his eminence. +"Go ahead! Start the wagon, or say your prayers, you blasted idiots!" + +The engines were already turning; but it takes time to overcome three +thousand tons of inertia, and before the steamer had forged ahead six +feet the ship had lifted above her, and descended her black side with a +grinding crash of wood against iron. Fore and main channels on the ship +were carried away, leaving all lee rigging slack and useless; lower +braces caught in the steamer's davit-cleats and snapped, but the sails, +held by the weather braces, remained full, and the yards did not swing. +The two craft separated with a roll and came together again with more +scraping and snapping of rigging. Passengers left the rail, dived +indoors, and took refuge on the opposite side, where falling blocks and +small spars might not reach them. Another leap toward the steamer +resulted in the ship's maintopgallantmast falling in a zigzag whirl, as +the snapping gear aloft impeded it; and dropping athwart the steamer's +funnel, it neatly sent the royal-yard with sail attached down the iron +cylinder, where it soon blazed and helped the artificial draft in the +stoke-hold. Next came the foretopgallantmast, which smashed a couple of +boats. Then, as the round black stern of the steamer scraped the lee +bow of the ship, jib-guys parted, and the jib-boom itself went, snapping +at the bowsprit-cap, with the last bite the ship made at the steamer +she was helping. But all through this riot of destruction--while +passengers screamed and prayed, while officers on the steamer shouted +and swore, and Seldom Helward, bellowing insanely, danced up and down +on the ship's house, and the hail of wood and iron from aloft threatened +their heads--men were passing the tow-line. + +It was a seven-inch steel hawser with a Manila tail, which they had +taken to the foretopsail-sheet bitts before the jib-boom had gone. +Panting from their exertions, they watched it lift from the water as +the steamer ahead paid out with a taut strain; then, though the +crippled spars were in danger of falling and really needed their first +attention, they ignored the fact and hurried aft, as one man, to attend +to Seldom. + +Encouraged by the objurgations of Bigpig and his assistant, who were +steering now after the steamer, they called their late commander down +from the house and deposed him in a concert of profane ridicule and +abuse, to which he replied in kind. He was struck in the face by the +small fist of Sinful Peck, and immediately knocked the little man down. +Then he was knocked down himself by a larger fist, and, fighting +bravely and viciously, became the object of fist-blows and kicks, +until, in one of his whirling staggers along the deck, he passed close +to the short, broad, hairy man, who yielded to the excitement of the +moment and added a blow to Seldom's punishment. It was an unfortunate +mistake; for he took Seldom's place, and the rain of fists and boots +descended on him until he fell unconscious. Mr. Helward himself +delivered the last quieting blow, and then stood over him with a lurid +grin on his bleeding face. + +"Got to put down mutiny though the heavens fall," he said painfully. + +"Right you are, Seldom," answered one. "Here, Jackson, Benson--drag him +forrard; and, Seldom," he added, reprovingly, "don't you ever try it +again. Want to be captain, hey? You can't; you don't know enough. You +couldn't command my wheelbarrow. Here's three days' work to clear up +the muss you've made." + +But in this they spoke more, and less, than the truth. The steamer, +going slowly, and steering with a bridle from the tow-line to each +quarter, kept the ship's canvas full until her crew had steadied the +yards and furled it. They would then have rigged preventer-stays and +shrouds on their shaky spars, had there been time; but there was not. +An uncanny appearance of the sea to leeward indicated too close +proximity to the shoals, while a blackening of the sky to windward told +of probable increase of wind and sea. And the steamer waited no longer. +With a preliminary blast of her whistle, she hung the weight of the +ship on the starboard bridle, gave power to her engines, and rounded +to, very slowly, head to sea, while the men on the ship, who had been +carrying the end of the coiled hawser up the foretopmast rigging, +dropped it and came down hurriedly. + +Released from the wind-pressure on her strong side, which had somewhat +steadied her, the ship now rolled more than she had done in the trough, +and with every starboard roll were ominous creakings and grindings +aloft. At last came a heavier lurch, and both crippled topmasts fell, +taking with them the mizzentopgallantmast. Luckily, no one was hurt, +and they disgustedly cut the wreck adrift, stayed the fore- and +mainmasts with the hawser, and resigning themselves to a large +subtraction from their salvage, went to a late breakfast--a savory meal +of smoking fried ham and potatoes, hot cakes and coffee served to +sixteen in the cabin, and an unsavory meal of "hardtack-hash," with an +infusion of burnt bread-crust, pease, beans, and leather, handed, but +not served, to three in the forecastle. + +Three days later, with Sandy Hook lighthouse showing through the haze +ahead, and nothing left of the gale but a rolling ground-swell, the +steamer slowed down so that a pilot-boat's dinghy could put a man +aboard each craft. And the one who climbed the ship's side was the +pilot that had taken her to sea, outward bound, and sympathized with +her crew. They surrounded him on the poop and asked for news, while the +three men forward looked aft hungrily, as though they would have joined +the meeting, but dared not. Instead of giving news, the pilot asked +questions, which they answered. + +"I knew you'd taken charge, boys," he said at length. "The whole world +knows it, and every man-of-war on the Pacific stations has been looking +for you. But they're only looking out there. What brings you round +here, dismasted, towing into New York?" + +"That's where the ship's bound--New York. We took her out; we bring her +home. We don't want her--don't belong to us. We're law-abidin' men." + +"Law-abiding men?" asked the amazed pilot. + +"You bet. We're goin' to prosecute those dogs of ours forrard there to +the last limit o' the law. We'll show 'em they can't starve and hammer +and shoot free-born Americans just 'cause they've got guns in their +pockets." + +The pilot looked forward, nodded to one of the three, who beckoned to +him, and asked: + +"Who'd you elect captain?" + +"Nobody," they roared. "We had enough o' captains. This ship's an +unlimited democracy--everybody just as good as the next man; that is, +all but the dogs. They sleep on the bunk-boards, do as they're told, +and eat salt mule and dunderfunk--same as we did goin' out." + +"Did they navigate for you? Did no one have charge of things?" + +"Poop-deck picked up navigation, and we let him off steerin' and +standin' lookout. Then Seldom, here, he wanted to be captain just once, +and we let him--well, look at our spars." + +"Poop-deck? Which is Poop-deck? Do you mean to say," asked the pilot +when the navigator had been indicated to him, "that you brought this +ship home on picked-up navigation?" + +"Didn't know anything about it when we left Callao," answered the +sailor, modestly. "The steward knew enough to wind the chronometer +until I learned how. We made an offing and steered due south, while I +studied the books and charts. It didn't take me long to learn how to +take the sun. Then we blundered round the Horn somehow, and before long +I could take chronometer sights for the longitude. Of course I know we +went out in four months and used up five to get back; but a man can't +learn the whole thing in one passage. We lost some time, too, chasing +other ships and buying stores; the cabin grub gave out." + +"You bought, I suppose, with Captain Benson's money." + +"S'pose it was his. We found it in his desk. But we've kept account of +every cent expended, and bought no grub too good for a white man to +eat." + +"What dismasted you?" + +They explained the meeting with the steamer and Seldom's misdoing; then +requested information about the salvage laws. + +"Boys," said the pilot, "I'm sorry for you. I saw the start of this +voyage, and you appear to be decent men. You'll get no salvage; you'll +get no wages. You are mutineers and pirates, with no standing in court. +Any salvage which the _Almena_ has earned will be paid to her owners +and to the three men whom you deprived of command. What you can +get--the maximum, though I can't say how hard the judge will lay it +on--is ten years in state's prison, and a fine of two thousand dollars +each. We'll have to stop at quarantine. Take my advice: if you get a +chance, lower the boats and skip." + +They laughed at the advice. They were American citizens who respected +the law. They had killed no one, robbed no one; their wages and +salvage, independently of insurance liabilities, would pay for the +stores bought, and the loss of the spars. They had no fear of any court +of justice in the land; for they had only asserted their manhood and +repressed inhuman brutality. + +The pilot went forward, talked awhile with the three, and left them +with joyous faces. An hour later he pointed out the _Almena's_ number +flying from the masthead of the steamer. + +"He's telling on you, boys," he said. "He knew you when you helped him, +and used you, of course. Your reputation's pretty bad on the high seas. +See that signal-station ashore there? Well, they're telegraphing now +that the pirate _Almena_ is coming in. You'll see a police boat at +quarantine." + +He was but partly right. Not only a police boat, but an outward-bound +man-of-war and an incoming revenue cutter escorted the ship to +quarantine, where the tow-line was cast off, and an anchor dropped. +Then, in the persons of a scandalized health-officer, a naval captain, +a revenue-marine lieutenant, and a purple-faced sergeant of the +steamboat squad, the power of the law was rehabilitated on the +_Almena's_ quarter-deck, and the strong hand of the law closed down on +her unruly crew. With blank faces, they discarded--to shirts, trousers, +and boots--the slop-chest clothing which belonged to the triumphant +Captain Benson, and descended the side to the police boat, which +immediately steamed away. Then a chuckling trio entered the ship's +cabin, and ordered the steward to bring them something to eat. + + * * * * * + +Now, there is no record either in the reports for that year of the +police department, or from any official babbling, or from later yarns +spun by the sixteen prisoners, of what really occurred on the deck of +that steamer while she was going up the bay. Newspapers of the time +gave generous space to speculations written up on the facts discovered +by reporters; but nothing was ever proved. The facts were few. A tug +met the steamer in the Narrows about a quarter to twelve that morning, +and her captain, on being questioned, declared that all seemed well +with her. The prisoners were grouped forward, guarded by eight officers +and a sergeant. A little after twelve o'clock a Battery boatman +observed her coming, and hied him around to the police dock to have a +look at the murderous pirates he had heard about, only to see her +heading up the North River, past the Battery. A watchman on the +elevator docks at Sixty-third Street observed her charging up the river +a little later in the afternoon, wondered why, and spoke of it. The +captain of the _Mary Powel_, bound up, reported catching her abreast of +Yonkers. He had whistled as he passed, and though no one was in sight, +the salute was politely answered. At some time during the night, +residents of Sing Sing were wakened by a sound of steam blowing off +somewhere on the river; and in the morning a couple of fishermen, going +out to their pond-nets in the early dawn, found the police boat +grounded on the shoals. On boarding her they had released a pinioned, +gagged, and hungry captain in the pilot-house, and an engineer, +fireman, and two deck-hands, similarly limited, in the lamp-room. +Hearing noises from below, they pried open the nailed doors of the +dining-room staircase, and liberated a purple-faced sergeant and eight +furious officers, who chased their deliverers into their skiff, and +spoke sternly to the working-force. + +Among the theories advanced was one, by the editor of a paper in a +small Lake Ontario town, to the effect that it made little difference +to an Oswego sailor whether he shipped as captain, mate, engineer, +sailor, or fireman, and that the officers of the New York Harbor Patrol +had only under-estimated the caliber of the men in their charge, +leaving them unguarded while they went to dinner. But his paper and +town were small and far away, he could not possibly know anything of +the subject, and his opinion obtained little credence. + +Years later, however, he attended, as guest, a meeting and dinner of +the Shipmasters' and Pilots' Association of Cleveland, Ohio, when a +resolution was adopted to petition the city for a harbor police +service. Captain Monahan, Captain Helward, Captain Peck, and Captain +Cahill, having spoken and voted in the negative, left their seats on +the adoption of the proposition, reached a clear spot on the floor, +shook hands silently, and then, forming a ring, danced around in a +circle (the tails of their coats standing out in horizontal rigidity) +until reproved by the chair. + +And the editor knew why. + + + + +THE BRAIN OF THE BATTLE-SHIP + + +Build an inverted Harvey-steel box about eight feet high, one hundred +and fifty feet long, half as wide, with walls of eighteen-inch +thickness, and a roof of three, and you have strong protection against +shot and shell. Build up from the ends of the box two steel barbettes +with revolving turrets as heavy as your side-walls; place in each a +pair of thirteen-inch rifles; flank these turrets with four others of +eight-inch wall, each holding two eight-inch guns; these again with +four smaller, containing four six-inch guns, and you have power of +offense nearly equal to your protection. Loosely speaking, a modern +gun-projectile will, at short range, pierce steel equal to itself in +cross-section, and from an elevated muzzle will travel as many miles as +this cross-section measures in inches. Placed upon an outlying shoal, +this box with its guns would make an efficient fortress, but would lack +the advantage of being able to move and choose position. + +Build underneath and each way from the ends of the box a cellular hull +to float it; place within it, and below the box, magazines, boilers, +and engines; construct above, between the turrets, a lighter +superstructure to hold additional quick-fire guns and torpedo-tubes; +cap the whole with a military mast supporting fighting-tops, and +containing an armored conning-tower in its base; man and equip, +provision and coal the fabric, and you can go to sea, confident of your +ability to destroy everything that floats, except icebergs and other +battle-ships. + +Of these essentials was the first-class coast-defense battle-ship +_Argyll_. She was of ten thousand tons displacement, and was propelled +by twin screws which received ten thousand horse-power from twin +engines placed below the water-line. Three long tubes--one fixed in the +stem, two movable in the superstructure--could launch Whitehead +torpedoes,--mechanical fish carrying two hundred and twenty pounds of +guncotton in their heads,--which sought in the water a twenty-foot +depth, and hurried where pointed at a thirty-knot rate of speed. Their +impact below the water-line was deadly, and only equaled in effect by +the work of the ram-bow, the blow of the ship as a whole--the last +glorious, suicidal charge on an enemy that had dismounted the guns, if +such could happen. + +Besides her thirteen-, eight-, and six-inch guns, she carried a +secondary quick-fire battery of twenty six-pounders, four one-pounders, +and four Gatling guns distributed about the superstructure and in the +fighting-tops. The peculiar efficacy of this battery lay in its menace +to threatening torpedo-boats, and its hostility to range-finders, +big-gun sights, and opposing gunners. A torpedo-boat, receiving the +full attention of her quick-fire battery, could be disintegrated and +sunk in a yeasty froth raised by the rain of projectiles long before +she could come within range of torpedo action; while a simultaneous +discharge of all guns would distribute over seven thousand pounds of +metal with foot-tons of energy sufficient to lift the ship herself high +out of water. Bristling, glistening, and massive, a reservoir of death +potential, a center of radiant destruction, a spitting, chattering, +thundering epitome of racial hatred, she bore within her steel walls +the ever-growing burden of progressive human thought. She was a maker +of history, a changer of boundaries, a friend of young governments; and +it chanced that on a fine tropical morning, in company with three +armored cruisers, four protected cruisers, and a fleet of torpedo-boats +and destroyers, she went into action. + +She was stripped to bare steel and signal-halyards. Davits, anchors, +and cables were stowed and secured. Ladders, gratings, stanchions, and +all movable deck-fittings were below the water-line. Wooden bulkheads, +productive of splinters, were knocked down and discarded, while all +boats, with the plugs out, were overboard, riding to a sea-anchor made +up of oars and small spars. + +The crew was at quarters. Below, in the magazine, handling-rooms, +stoke-holds, and bunkers, bare-waisted men worked and waited in +stifling heat; for she was under forced draft, and compartments were +closed, even though the enemy was still five miles away. The chief and +his first assistant engineer watched the main engines in their twin +compartments, while the subordinate aids and machinists attended to the +dynamos, motors, and auxiliary cylinders that worked the turrets, +pumps, and ammunition-hoists. All boilers were hot and hissing steam; +all fire-pumps were working; all fire-hose connected and spouting +streams of water. Perspiring men with strained faces deluged one +another while they waited. + +In the turrets were the gun-crews, six men to a gun, with an officer +above in the sighting-hood; behind the superstructure-ports were the +quick-fire men, sailors and marines; and above all, in the +fighting-tops, were the sharp-shooters and men who handled the +one-pounders and Gatling guns--the easiest-minded of the ship's +company, for they could see and breathe. Each division of fighters and +workers was overseen by an officer; in some cases by two and three. + +Preparatory work was done, and, excepting the "black gang," men were +quiescent, but feverish. Few spoke, and then on frivolous things, in +tones that were not recognized. Occasionally a man would bring out a +piece of paper and write, using for a desk a gun-breech or -carriage, a +turret-wall, or the deck. An officer in a fighting-top used a +telegraph-dial, and a stoker in the depths his shovel, in a chink of +light from the furnace. These letters, written in instalments, were +pocketed in confidence that sometime they would be mailed. + +From the captain down each man knew that a large proportion of their +number was foredoomed; but not a consciousness among them could admit +the possibility of itself being chosen. The great first law forbade it. +Senior officers pictured in their minds dead juniors, and thought of +extra work after the fight. Junior officers thought of vacancies above +them and promotion. Men in the turrets bade mental good-by to their +mates in the superstructure; and these, secure in their five-inch +protection, pitied those in the fighting-tops, where, cold logic says, +no man may live through a sea-fight. Yet all would have volunteered to +fill vacancies aloft. The healthy human mind can postulate suffering, +but not its own extinction. + +In a circular apartment in the military mast, protected by twelve +inches of steel, perforated by vertical and horizontal slits for +observation, stood the captain and navigating officer, both in +shirt-sleeves; for this, the conning-tower, was hot. Around the inner +walls were the nerve-terminals of the structure--the indicators, +telegraph-dials, telephones, push-buttons, and speaking-tubes, which +communicated with gun-stations, turrets, steering-room, engine-rooms, +and all parts of the ship where men were stationed. In the forward part +was a binnacle with small steering-wheel, disconnected now, for the +steering was done by men below the water-line in the stern. A spiral +staircase led to the main-deck below, and another to the first +fighting-top above, in which staircase were small platforms where a +signal-officer and two quartermasters watched through slits the signals +from the flag-ship, and answered as directed by the captain below with +small flags, which they mastheaded through the hollow within the +staircase. + +The chief master-at-arms, bareheaded, climbed into the conning-tower. + +"Captain Blake, what'll we do with Finnegan?" he said. "I've released +him from the brig as you ordered; but Mr. Clarkson won't have him in +the turret where he belongs, and no one else wants him around. They +even chased him out of the bunkers. He wants to work and fight, but Mr. +Clarkson won't place him; says he washes his hands of Finnegan, and +sent me to you. I took him to the bay, but he won't take medicine." + +Captain Blake, stern of face and kindly of eye, drew back from a +peep-hole, and asked: "What's his condition?" + +"Shaky, sir. Sees little spiders and big spiders crawling round his +cap-rim. Him and the recording angel knows where he gets it and where +he keeps it, sir; but I don't. I've watched him for six months." + +"Send him to me." + +"Very good, sir." + +The master-at-arms descended, and in a few moments the unwanted +Finnegan appeared--a gray-bearded, emaciated, bleary-eyed seaman, who +brushed imaginary things from his neck and arms, and stammered, as he +removed his cap: "Report for duty, sir." + +"For duty?" answered the captain, eying him sternly. "For death. You +will be allowed the honorable death of an English seaman. You will die +in the fighting-top sometime in the next three hours." + +The man shivered, elevated one shoulder, and rubbed his ear against it, +but said nothing, while Mr. Dalrymple, the navigating officer, with his +eyes at a peep-hole and his ears open to the dialogue, wondered (as he +and the whole ship's company had wondered before) what the real +relation was between the captain and this wretched, drunken butt of the +crew. For the captain's present attitude was a complete departure. +Always he had shielded Finnegan from punishment to the extent that +naval etiquette would permit. + +"I have tried for six years," continued the captain, "to reform you and +hold you to the manhood I once knew in you; but I give you up. You are +not fit to live, and will never be fitter to die than this morning, +when the chance comes to you to die fighting for your country. But I +want you to die fighting. Do you wish to see the surgeon or the +chaplain?" + +"No, no, no, cappen; one's bad as t' other. The chaplain'll pray and +the doctor'll fill me up wi' bromide, and it just makes me crazy, sir. +I'm all right, cappen, if I only had a drink. Just give me a drink, +cappen,--the doctor won't,--and send me down to my station, sir. I know +it's only in my head, but I see 'em plain, all round. You'll give me a +drink, cappen, please; I know you'll give me a drink." + +He brushed his knees gingerly, and stepped suddenly away from an +isolated speaking-tube. Captain Blake's stern face softened. His mind +went back to his midshipman days, to a stormy night and a heavy sea, an +icy foot-rope, a fall, a plunge, and a cold, hopeless swim toward a +shadowy ship hove to against the dark background, until this man's +face, young, strong, and cheery then, appeared behind a white +life-buoy; and he heard again the panting voice of his rescuer: "Here +ye are, Mr. Blake; boat's comin'." + +He whistled down the speaking-tube, and when answered, called: "Send an +opened bottle of whisky into the conning-tower--no glasses." + +"Thankee, sir." + +The captain resumed his position at the peep-hole, and Finnegan busied +himself with his troubles until a Japanese servant appeared with a +quart bottle. The captain received it, and the Jap withdrew. + +"Help yourself, Finnegan," said the captain, extending the bottle; +"take a good drink--a last one." Finnegan took the equivalent of three. +"Now, up with you." The captain stood the bottle under the binnacle. +"Upper top. Report to Mr. Bates." + +"Cappen, please send me down to the turret where I b'long, sir. I'm all +right now. I don't want to go up there wi' the sogers. I'm not good at +machine-guns." + +"No arguments. Up with you at once. You are good for nothing but to +work a lever under the eye of an officer." + +Finnegan saluted silently and turned toward the stairs. + +"Finnegan!" + +He turned. The captain extended his hand. "Finnegan," he said, "I don't +forget that night, but you must go; the eternal fitness of things +demands it. Perhaps I'll go, too. Good-by." + +The two extremes of the ship's company shook hands, and Finnegan +ascended. When past the quartermasters and out of hearing, he grumbled +and whined: "No good, hey? Thirty years in the service, and sent up +here to think of my sins like a sick monkey. Good for nothin' but to +turn a crank with the sogers. Nice job for an able seaman. What's the +blasted service a-comin' to?" + +The two fleets were approaching in similar formation, double column, at +about a twelve-knot speed. Leading the left column was the _Lancaster_, +and following came the _Argyll_, _Beaufort_, and _Atholl_, the last +two, like the _Lancaster_, armored cruisers of the first class. On the +_Lancaster's_ starboard bow was the flag-ship _Cumberland_, a large +unarmored cruiser, and after her came the _Marlborough_, _Montrose_, +and _Sutherland_, unarmored craft like the flag-ship, equally +vulnerable to fire, the two columns making a zigzag line, with the +heaviest ships to the left, nearest the enemy. + +Heading as they were, the fleets would pass about a mile apart. Led +by a black, high-sided monster, the left column of the enemy was made +up of four battle-ships of uncouth, foreign design and murderous +appearance, while the right column contained the flag-ship and three +others, all heavily armored cruisers. Flanking each fleet, far to the +rear, were torpedo-boats and destroyers. + +"We're outclassed, Dalrymple," said Captain Blake. "There are the ships +we expected--_Warsaw_, _Riga_, _Kharkov_, and _Moscow_, all of fighting +weight, and the _Obdorsk_, _Tobolsk_, _Saratov_, and _Orenburg_. +Leaving out the _Argyll_, we haven't a ship equal to the weakest one +there. This fight is the _Argyll's_." + +"And the _Argyll_ is equal to it, captain. All I fear is torpedoes. Of +course our ends and superstructure will catch it, and I suppose we'll +lose men--all the quick-fire men, perhaps." + +"Those in the tops surely," said the captain. "Dalrymple, what do you +think? I don't feel right about Finnegan. He belongs in the turret, and +I've sentenced him. Have I the right? I've half a mind to call him +down." He pushed a button marked "Forward turret," and listened at a +telephone. + +"Mr. Clarkson!" he called. "I've put your man Finnegan in the upper +top; but he seems all right now. Can you use him?" + +The answer came: + +"No, sir; I've filled his place." + +"Die, then. On my soul be it, Finnegan, poor devil," muttered the +captain, gloomily. + +His foot struck the bottle under the binnacle, and, on an impulse due +to his mood, he picked it up and uncorked it. Mr. Dalrymple observed +the action and stepped toward him. + +"Captain, pardon me," he said, "if I protest unofficially. We are going +into action--not to dinner." + +The captain's eyes opened wide and shone brighter, while his lip +curled. He extended the bottle to the lieutenant. + +"The apologies are mine, Mr. Dalrymple," he said. "I forgot your +presence. Take a drink." + +The officer forced a smile to his face, and stepped back, shaking his +head. Captain Blake swallowed a generous portion of the whisky. + +"The fool!" mused the navigator, as he looked through the peep-hole. +"The whole world is watching him to-day, and he turns to whisky. That's +it, dammit; that's the bond of sympathy: Blake and Finnegan, Finnegan +and Blake--dipsomaniacs. Lord, I never thought. I've seen him drunker +than Finnegan, and if it wasn't for his position and obligations, he'd +see spiders, too." + +Mr. Dalrymple was not the only one on board who disapproved of "Dutch +courage" for captains. The Japanese servant, whose station was at the +forward-turret ammunition-hoist, reported the service of the whisky to +his mates, and from here the news spread--as news will in a cellular +hull--up to turrets and gun-rooms, through speaking-tubes and +water-tight bulkheads, down to stoke-hold, engine-rooms, and +steering-room; and long before Captain Blake had thought of taking a +drink the whole ship's company was commenting, mentally and openly, and +more or less profanely, on the story that "the old man was getting +drunk in the conning-tower." + +And another piece of news traveled as fast and as far--the whereabouts +of Finnegan. Mr. Clarkson had incidentally informed his gun-captain, +who told the gun-crew; and from them the news went down the hoist and +spread. Men swore louder over this; for though they did not want +Finnegan around and in the way, they did not want him to die. Strong +natures love those which may be teased; and not a heart was there but +contained a soft spot for the helpless, harmless, ever good-natured, +drunk, and ridiculous Finnegan. + +The bark of an eight-inch gun was heard. Captain Blake saw, through the +slits of the conning-tower, a cloud of thinning smoke drifting away +from the flag-ship. Stepping back, he rang up the forward turret. + +"Mr. Clarkson," he said to the telephone when it answered him, +"remember: aim for the nearest water-line, load and fire, and expect no +orders after the first shot." + +Calling up the officer in the after-turret, he repeated the injunction, +substituting turrets as the object of assault. He called to the +officers at the eight-inch guns that conning-towers and superstructure +were to receive their attention; to those at the six-inch guns to aim +solely at turret apertures; to ensigns and officers of marine in charge +of the quick-fire batteries to aim at all holes and men showing, to +watch for torpedo-boats, and, like the others, to expect no orders +after the first shot. Then, ringing up the round of gun-stations, one +after another, he sang out, in a voice to be heard by all: "Fire away!" + +The initial gun had been fired from the flag-ship when the leading +ships of the two fleets were nearly abreast. It was followed by +broadsides from all, and the action began. The _Argyll_, rolling +slightly from the recoil of her guns, smoked down the line like a thing +alive, voicing her message, dealing out death and receiving it. In this +first round of the battle the fire of the eight opposing vessels was +directed at her alone. Shells punctured her vulnerable parts, and, +exploding inside, killed men and dismounted guns. The groans of the +stricken, the crash of steel against steel, the roar of the +turret-guns, the rattling chorus of quick-fire rifles, and the drumming +of heavy shells against the armor and turrets made an uproarious riot +of sound over which no man above the water-line could lift his voice. +But there were some there, besides the dead,--men who worked through +and survived the action,--who, after the first impact of sound, did not +hear it, nor anything else while they lived. They were the men who had +neglected stuffing their ears with cotton. + +A fundamental canon of naval tactics is to maintain formation. Another +is to keep moving, at the full speed of the slowest ship, not only to +disconcert the enemy's fire, but to obtain and hold the most +advantageous position--if possible, to flank him. As these rules apply +equally well to both sides, it is obvious that two fleets, passing in +opposite directions, and each trying to flank the rear of the other, +will eventually circle around a common center; and if the effort to +improve position dominates the effort to evade fire, this circle will +narrow until the battle becomes a melee. + +The two lines, a mile apart and each about a mile in length, were +squarely abreast in less than five minutes from the time of firing the +first gun; and by now the furious bombardment of the _Argyll_ by eight +ships had ceased, for each one found it more profitable to deal with +its vis-a-vis. But there was yet a deafening racket in the _Argyll's_ +conning-tower as small projectiles from the rear battle-ship abreast +impinged on its steel walls; and Captain Blake, his ears ringing, his +eyes streaming, half stunned by the noise, almost blinded and +suffocated by the smoke from his forward guns, did not know that his +ship had dropped back in the line until the signal-officer descended +and shouted in his ear an order signaled from the admiral: "Move ahead +to position." + +"Hang the man who invented conning-towers," he muttered angrily. "Keep +a lookout up there, Mr. Wright," he shouted; "I can see very little." + +The officer half saluted, half nodded, and ran up the stair, while +Captain Blake rang "full speed" to the engines. The indicators on the +wall showed increased revolution, and he resumed his place at the +peep-hole. In a few moments Mr. Wright reappeared with a message from +the flag-ship to "starboard helm; follow ship ahead." + +"All right. Watch out up there; report all you see," he answered. +Peeping out, he saw the _Lancaster_ and the _Cumberland_ sheering to +port, and he moved the lever of the steering-telegraph. There was no +answering ring. "Shot away, by George," he growled. He yelled into a +supplementary voice-tube to "starboard your wheel--slowly." This was +not answered, and with his own hands he coupled up the steering-wheel +on the binnacle and gave it a turn. It was merely a governor, which +admitted steam to the steering-engine, and there was no resisting +pressure to guide him; but a helm indicator showed him the changed +position of the rudder, and, on looking ahead, he found that she +answered the wheel; also, on looking to starboard, he found that he had +barely escaped collision with the _Montrose_, whose fire he had been +masking, to the scandal of the admiral and the _Montrose's_ officers. + +A little unnerved, Captain Blake called down a seven-inch tube to an +apartment in the depths,--a central station of pipes and wires, to be +used as a last resort,--directing the officer on post to notify the +chief engineer of the damage, and to order the quartermasters in the +steering-room to disconnect their wheel and stand by. This was +answered, and the captain resumed his lookout, one hand on the wheel. + +"Reduces the captain of the ship to a helmsman," he muttered. + +The navigating officer approached, indicating by gesture and expression +his intention of relieving him, but was waved away. + +"I want the wheel myself," shouted the captain. "Devil take a +conning-tower, anyhow! Keep a lookout to port. But say, Dalrymple, send +up for Finnegan. I'll not have him killed. Get him down, if he's +alive." + +Mr. Dalrymple ascended the stair to pass the word for Finnegan, but did +not come down. He had reached the signal-platform, where one +quartermaster lay dead, and was transmitting the order to Mr. Wright, +when a heavy shell struck the mast, above their heads and below the +lower top, exploded inside, killed the three men on the platform, and +hurled the upper part of the mast, with both tops full of dead men and +living, high in air. The conning-tower was filled with gas and smoke; +but Captain Blake, though burned and nearly stripped of clothing by the +blast of flame, was uninjured by the flying fragments of the shell. +Smarting, gasping, and choking, fully aware of the complete destruction +above, his mind dwelt for an instant on the man who had once saved his +life, whom he had sentenced to death. He looked up the hollow within +the wrecked staircase, but saw nothing. + +Mr. Clarkson, however, happened to be looking through an upper +peep-hole in the sighting-hood at this moment, and saw the upper half +of the mast lift and turn; also, dimly through the smoke, he noticed, +among the dozen of men hurled from the tops, the blue-shirted figure of +one whom he knew to be Finnegan, clinging at arm's-length in mid-air to +a Gatling gun, which had been torn from its fastenings. Then the smoke +thickened and shut out the view; but a moment later he heard the +rattling crash of the mast as it fell upon the superstructure beneath. + +"The whole mast's gone, boys," he shouted to his crew--"both tops. +Finnegan's done for." + +And the story of Finnegan's finish went down the hoist and through the +ship, everywhere received with momentary sorrow, and increased +malediction on the drunken captain, who thought no more--and knew no +more--of a blue-jacket than to masthead him with the marines. + +The tactics of both admirals being the same, and the speed of both +fleets--that of their slowest ships--being equal, they turned, and, +like two serpents pursuing each other's tails, charged around in a +circle, each ship firing at the nearest or most important enemy. This +fire was destructive. A ship a mile distant is a point-blank target for +modern guns and gunners, and everything protected by less than eight +inches of steel suffered. The _Argyll_ had lost her military mast and +most of her secondary guns. The flag-ship _Cumberland_, raked and +riddled by nine- and eleven-inch shells, surrounded herself with steam +from punctured boilers shortly after the signal to turn, and swung +drunkenly out of line, her boilers roaring, her heavy guns barking. A +long, black thing, low down behind the wave created by its rush, darted +by her, unstruck by the shells sent by the flag-ship and the _Marlborough_. +A larger thing, mouse-colored and nearly hidden by a larger wave, was +coming from the opposite direction, spitting one-pound shot at the rate +of sixty a minute, but without present avail; for a spindle-shaped +object left the deck of the first when squarely abreast of the helpless +flag-ship, diving beneath the surface, and the existence and position +of this object were henceforth indicated only by a line of bubbles, a +darting streak of froth, traveling toward the _Cumberland_. In less +than a minute it had reached her. The sea alongside arose in a mound, +and she seemed to lean away from it; then the mound burst, and out of +it, and spouting from funnels, ventilators, and ports, came a dense +cloud of smoke, which mingled with the steam and hid her from view, +while a dull, booming roar, barely distinguishable in the noise of +battle, came across the water. When the cloud thinned there was nothing +to be seen but heads of swimming men, who swam for a time and sank. The +flag-ship had been torpedoed. + +But the torpedo-boat followed her. Pursued by the mouse-colored +destroyer, she circled around and headed back in the endeavor to reach +her consorts; but she had not time. Little by little the avenger crept +up, pounding her with small shot and shell, until, leaking from a +hundred wounds, she settled beneath the surface. She had fulfilled her +mission; she was designed to strike once and die. + +No armored cruiser may withstand the fire of a battle-ship. The +_Lancaster_, leading the _Argyll_, received through her eight-inch +water-line belt the heavy shot and shell of the _Moscow_ and _Orenburg_. +Nine- and eleven-inch shell fire, sent by Canet and Hontoria guns, makes +short work of eight-inch armor, and the doomed _Lancaster_ settled and +disappeared, her crew yelling, her screws turning, and her guns firing +until the water swamped her. The following _Argyll_ scraped her funnels +and masts as she passed over. + +Eight hundred feet back in the line was the _Beaufort_, armored like +the _Lancaster_. Her ending was dramatic and suicidal. Drilled through +and through by the fire of the _Riga_, she fought and suffered until +the _Lancaster_ foundered; then, with all guns out of action, but with +still intact engine-power, she left the line, not to run, but to ram. +The circle was narrowing, but she had fully four minutes to steam +before she could reach the opposite side and intercept her slayer. And +in this short time she was reduced to scrap-iron by the concentrated +fire of the _Warsaw_, _Riga_, and _Kharkov_. Every shot from every gun +on the three battle-ships struck the unlucky cruiser; but in the face +of the storm of flame and steel she went on, exhaling through fissures +and ports smoke from bursting shells and steam from broken pipes. +Half-way across, an almost solid belching upward and outward of white +steam indicated a stricken boiler, and from now on her progress was +slow. She was visibly lower in the water and rolled heavily. Soon +another cloud arose from her, her headway decreased, and she came to a +stop, two hundred yards on the port bow of the onrushing _Riga_, whose +crew yelled derisively--whose quick-fire guns still punished her. + +But the yells suddenly ceased and the gunners changed their aim. A +small thing had left the nearly submerged tube in the cruiser's stem, +and the gunners were now firing at a darting line of bubbles, +obliterating the target for a moment with the churning of the water, +only to see the frothy streak within their range, coming on at +locomotive speed. They aimed ahead; two five-inch guns added their +clamor, and even a Hontoria turret-gun voiced its roar and sent its +messenger. But the bubbles would not stop; they entered the bow wave of +the battle-ship, and a second later the great floating fort separated +into two parts, with a crackling thunder of sound and an outburst of +flame and smoke which came of nothing less than an exploded magazine. +The two halves rolled far to starboard, then to port, shivered, +settled, turned completely over, and sank in a turmoil of bursting +steam and air-bubbles. Three minutes later the _Beaufort_ lifted her +stern and dived gently after her victim, still groaning hoarsely from +her punctured iron lungs. In her death-agony she had given birth to a +child more terrible than a battle-ship. + +The rear ship of the inner column, the _Atholl_, was officially an +armored cruiser, but possessed none of the attributes of the cruiser +class. She was the laggard of the fleet, and her heaviest guns were of +six-inch caliber; but, being designed for a battle-ship, she carried +this temporary battery behind sixteen inches of steel, and had +maintained her integrity, taking harder blows than she could give. With +the going down of the _Beaufort_ she took a position astern of the +_Sutherland_, and the double line of battle was reduced to a single +line; for the _Argyll_ had left the column when the flag-ship sank. + +And this is why the overmatched, battered, and all but demoralized +cruisers received no more attention from the enemy; it were wiser to +deal with the _Argyll_. The _Saratov_, blazing fiercely from the +effects of a well-planted shell, had drawn out of line, the better to +deal with her trouble. Her place in the line and that of the sunken +_Riga_ were filled by the following ships drawing ahead; but the fleet +still held to double column, and into the lane between the lines the +_Argyll_ was coming at sixteen knots, breathing flame, vomiting +steel--delivering destruction and death. + +She had rounded the _Moscow's_ stern, raking her as she came, and +sending armor-piercing shells through her citadel. Some exploded on +impact, some inside; all did work. An eight-inch projectile entered the +after turret-port, and silenced the gun and gun-crew forever. Before +the _Argyll_ was abeam the _Moscow_ had ceased firing. Rolling and +smoking, her crew decimated, her guns disabled and steering-gear +carried away, she swung out of line; and the appearance in his field of +vision of several rushing waves with short smoke-stacks behind, and the +supplementary pelting his ship was now receiving from the _Marlborough_, +decided her commander to lower his flag. + +On the starboard bow of the _Argyll_ was the armored cruiser _Orenburg_. +Her fire, hot and true, ceased on the explosion of a large shell at her +water-line, and she swung out of the fight, silent but for the roar of +escaping steam, heeled heavily to port, and sank in ten minutes, her +ensigns flying to the last. Mr. Clarkson rejoiced with his gun-crew. He +had sent the shell. + +On stormed the _Argyll_. Her next adversary was the _Kharkov_, a +battle-ship nearly equal in guns and armor to herself, but not +quite--by an inch. And that inch cost her the fight. With her main +turrets damaged, her superstructure, secondary guns, and torpedo-tubes +shot away, she yielded to fate, and, while the _Argyll_ passed on, +hauled down her ensigns at the request of a torpedo-boat. + +Ahead and to starboard was the cruiser _Tobolsk_, leaving the +neighborhood as fast as her twin screws could push her. Her end was in +sight; in her wake were two gray destroyers, and behind, charging +across the broken formation, was the fleet _Marlborough_. The _Argyll_ +ignored the _Tobolsk_; for slowing down to await her coming was the +black and high-sided _Warsaw_, the monster of the fleet, bristling with +guns, somber, and ominous in her silence. + +Ahead of her, and turning to port, was the flag-ship _Obdorsk_, also +slowed down; but she promised to be fully occupied with the _Atholl_, +_Sutherland_, and _Montrose_, who had wheeled in their tracks, no +longer obliged to traverse a circle to reach an enemy. + +On rushed the _Argyll_, and when nearly up to the _Warsaw_, the latter +gave steam to her engines. Breast to breast the gladiators charged +across the sea, roaring, flaming, and smoking. A torpedo left the side +of the _Warsaw_, pointed diagonally ahead, to intercept the _Argyll_. +But it was badly aimed, and the hissing bubbles passed under her stern. +Before another could be discharged, the torpedo-room, located by the +_Argyll's_ officers, was enlarged to the size of three by the +succeeding bombardment and the explosion of the remaining torpedoes. + +Twelve-inch armor cannot keep out thirteen-inch armor-piercing shell, +and torpedoes cannot explode on board without damage to machinery, +steering-gear, and vital connections. The _Warsaw_ yawed, slackened +speed, and came to a stop, her turret-guns still speaking, but the +secondary guns silent. The _Argyll_ circled around her, sending her +thirteen-, eight-, and six-inch shells into her victim with almost +muzzle energy. The two military masts of the _Warsaw_ sank, and dead +men in the fighting-tops were flung overboard. The forward turret +seemed to explode; smoke and flame shot out of the ports, and its top +lifted and fell. Then the _Argyll_ turned and headed straight for her +side. + +There was little need of gun fire now; but the forward-turret guns +belched once during the charge, and the more quickly handled eight- and +six-inch rifles stormed away while there was time to reload. Smoking, +rolling, and barking,--ten thousand tons of inertia behind a solid +steel knife,--she pounced on her now silent enemy. There was a +crunching sound, muffled and continuous. The speed of the _Argyll_ +seemed hardly checked. In went the ram farther and farther, until the +slanting edge began cutting above the water. Then the _Warsaw_, heeled +far over by the impact, rolled back, and the knife cut upward. The +smooth plates at the _Argyll's_ water-line wrinkled like paper, and the +pile of shattered steel which had once been her forward deck and +bulkheads was shaken up and adjusted to new positions; but not until +her nose was actually buried in the wound--until the _Warsaw_ was cut +half in two--did the reversed engines begin to work. The _Argyll_ +backed out, exposing for a moment a hole like a cavern's mouth; then +the stricken ship rolled heavily toward her, burying the sore, and, +humming and buzzing with exhausting steam and rushing air, settled +rapidly and sank, while out from ports, doors, and nearly vertical +hatches came her crew, as many as could. They sprang overboard and +swam, and those that reached the now stationary _Argyll_ were rescued; +for a cry had gone through the latter from the central station in her +depths: "All hands on deck to save life! Bring ladders, life-buoys, and +ropes' ends!" + +The battle was ended; for, with the ramming of the _Warsaw_, the +_Obdorsk_ struck to the three ships circling around her. They had +suffered, but the battle-ship _Argyll_ was reduced to a monitor. Her +superstructure and the bow and stern above the water-line were +shattered to a shapeless tangle of steel. What was left of her funnels +and ventilators resembled nutmeg-graters, and she was perceptibly down +by the head; for her bow leaked through its wrinkled plates, and the +forward compartment below the protective deck was filled. Yet she could +still fight in smooth water. Her box-like citadel was intact, and +standing naked out of the wreck, scarred and dented, but uninjured, +were the turrets, ammunition-hoists, and conning-tower. In the latter +was the brain of the ship, that had fought her to victory and then sent +the call to her crew to save the lives of their enemies. + +Two men met on a level spot amidships and clasped hands. Both were +bare-waisted and grimy, and one showed red as a lobster under the +stains. He was the chief engineer. + +"We've won, Clarkson," he said. "We've won the hottest fight that +history can tell of--won it ourselves; but he'll get the credit." + +"And he's drunk as a lord--drunk through it all. What did he ram for? +Why did he send two millions of prize-money to the bottom? O Lord! O +Lord! it's enough to make a man swear at his mother. We had her licked. +Why did he ram?" + +"Because he was drunk, that's why. He rang seven bells to me along at +the first of the muss, and then sent word through young Felton that he +wanted full speed. Dammit, he already had it, every pound of it. And he +gave me no signal to reverse when we struck; if it wasn't for luck and +a kind Providence we'd have followed the _Warsaw_. I barely got her +over. Here, Mr. Felton; you were in the central, were you not? How'd +the old man appear to be making it? Were his orders intelligible?" + +A young man had joined them, hot, breathing hard, and unclothed. + +"Not always, sir; I had to ask him often to repeat, and then I +sometimes got another order. He kept me busy from the first, when he +sent the torpedoes overboard." + +"The torpedoes!" exclaimed Mr. Clarkson. "Did we use them? I didn't +know it." + +"He was afraid they'd explode on board, sir," he said. "That was just +after we took full speed." + +"And just before he got too full to be afraid of anything," muttered +the lieutenant. "Why don't he come out of that?" He glanced toward the +conning-tower. Other officers had joined them. + +"We'll investigate," said Mr. Clarkson. + +The door on the level of the main-deck leading into the mast was found +to be wedged fast by the blow of a projectile. Men, naked and black, +sprawled about the wreckage breathing fresh air, were ordered to get up +and to rig a ladder outside. They did so, and Mr. Clarkson ascended to +the ragged end of the hollow stump and looked down. Standing at the +wheel, steering the drifting ship with one hand and holding an empty +bottle in the other, was a man with torn clothing and bloody face. In +spite of the disfigurement Mr. Clarkson knew him. Jammed into the +narrow staircase leading below was the body of a man partly hidden by a +Gatling gun, the lever of which had pierced the forehead. + +"Finnegan," yelled the officer, "how'd you get there?" + +The man at the wheel lifted a bleary eye and blinked; then, unsteadily +touching his forehead, answered: "Fe' dow'-shtairs, shir." + +"Come out of that! On deck there! Take the wheel, one hand, and stand +by it!" Mr. Clarkson descended to the others with a serious look on his +grimy face, and a sailor climbed the ladder and went down the mast. + +"Gentlemen," said the first lieutenant, impressively, "we were +mistaken, and we wronged Captain Blake. He is dead. He died at the +beginning. He lies under a Gatling gun in the bottom of the tower. I +saw Finnegan hanging to that gun, whirling around it, when the mast +blew up. It is all plain now. Finnegan and the gun fell into the tower. +Finnegan may have struck the stairs and rolled down, but the gun went +down the hollow within and killed the captain. We have been steered and +commanded by a drunken man--but it was Finnegan." + +Finnegan scrambled painfully down the ladder. He staggered, stumbled, +and fell in a heap. + +"Rise up," said Mr. Clarkson, as they surrounded him; "rise up, Daniel +Drake Nelson Farragut Finnegan. You are small potatoes and few in the +hill; you are shamefully drunk, and your nose bleeds; you are stricken +with Spanish mildew, and you smell vilely--but you are immortal. You +have been a disgrace to the service, but Fate in her gentle irony has +redeemed you, permitting you, in one brief moment of your misspent +life, to save to your country the command of the seas--to guide, with +your subconscious intelligence, the finest battle-ship the science of +the world has constructed to glorious victory, through the fiercest +sea-fight the world has known. Rise up, Daniel, and see the surgeon." + +But Finnegan only snored. + + + + +THE WIGWAG MESSAGE + + +As eight bells sounded, Captain Bacon and Mr. Knapp came up from +breakfast, and Mr. Hansen, the squat and square-built second mate, +immediately went down. The deck was still wet from the morning washing +down, and forward the watch below were emerging from the forecastle to +relieve the other half, who were coiling loosely over the top of the +forward house a heavy, wet hawser used in towing out the evening +before. They were doing it properly, and as no present supervision was +necessary, the first mate remained on the poop for a few moments' +further conversation with the captain. + +"Poor crew, cap'n," he said, as, picking his teeth with the end of a +match, he scanned the men forward. "It'll take me a month to lick 'em +into shape." + +To judge by his physique, a month was a generous limit for such an +operation. He was a giant, with a giant's fist and foot; red-haired and +bearded, and of sinister countenance. But he was no more formidable in +appearance than his captain, who was equally big, but smooth-shaven, +and showing the square jaw and beetling brows of a born fighter. + +"Are the two drunks awake yet?" asked the latter. + +"Not at four o'clock, sir," answered the mate. "Mr. Hansen couldn't get +'em out. I'll soon turn 'em to." + +As he spoke, two men appeared from around the corner of the forward +house, and came aft. They were young men, between twenty-five and +thirty, with intelligent, sun-burnt faces. One was slight of figure, +with the refinement of thought and study in his features; the other, +heavier of mold and muscular, though equally quick in his movements, +had that in his dark eyes which said plainly that he was wont to +supplement the work of his hands with the work of his brain. Both were +dressed in the tar-stained and grimy rags of the merchant sailor at +sea; and they walked the wet and unsteady deck with no absence of +"sea-legs," climbed the poop steps to leeward, as was proper, and +approached the captain and first mate at the weather rail. The heavier +man touched his cap, but the other merely inclined his head, and +smiling frankly and fearlessly from one face to the other, said, in a +pleasant, evenly modulated voice: + +"Good morning. I presume that one of you is the captain." + +"I'm the captain. What do you want?" was the gruff response. + +"Captain, I believe that the etiquette of the merchant service requires +that when a man is shanghaied on board an outward-bound ship he remains +silent, does what is told him cheerfully, and submits to fate until the +passage ends; but we cannot bring ourselves to do so. We were struck +down in a dark spot last night,--sandbagged, I should say,--and we do +not know what happened afterward, though we must have been kept +unconscious with chloroform or some such drug. We wakened this morning +in your forecastle, dressed in these clothes, and robbed of everything +we had with us." + +"Where were you slugged?" + +"In Cherry Street. The bridge cars were not running, so we crossed from +Brooklyn by the Catherine Ferry, and foolishly took a short cut to the +elevated station." + +"Well, what of it?" + +"What--why--why, captain, that you will kindly put us aboard the first +inbound craft we meet." + +"Not much I won't," answered the captain, decidedly. "You belong to my +crew. I paid for twenty men; and you two and two others skipped at the +dock. I had to wait all day in the Horseshoe. You two were caught dead +drunk last night, and came down with the tug. That's what the runners +said, and that's all I know about it. Go forrard." + +"Do you mean, captain----" + +"Go forrard where you belong. Mr. Knapp, set these men to work." + +Captain Bacon turned his back on them, and walked away. + +"Get off the poop," snarled the mate. "Forrard wi' you both!" + +"Captain, I advise you to reconsider----" + +The words were stopped by a blow of the mate's fist, and the speaker +fell to the deck. Then a hoarse growl of horror and rage came from his +companion; and Captain Bacon turned, to see him dancing around the +first officer with the skill and agility of a professional boxer, +planting vicious blows on his hairy face and neck. + +"Stop this," roared the captain, as his right hand sought the pocket of +his coat. "Stop it, I say. Mr. Hansen," he called down the skylight, +"on deck, here." + +The huge mate was getting the worst of the unexpected battle, and +Captain Bacon approached cautiously. His right hand had come out of his +pocket, armed with large brass knuckles; but before he could use them +his dazed and astonished first officer went down under the rain of +blows. It was then, while the victor waited for him to rise, that the +brass knuckles impacted on his head, and he, too, went down, to lie +quiet where he fell. The other young man had arisen by this time, +somewhat shocked and unsteady in movement, and was coming bravely +toward the captain; but before he could reach him his arms were +pinioned from behind by Mr. Hansen, who had run up the poop steps. + +"What is dis, onnyway?" he asked. "Mudiny, I dink?" + +"Let go," said the other, furiously. "You shall suffer for this, you +scoundrels. Let go of my arms." He struggled wildly; but Mr. Hansen was +strong. + +Mr. Knapp had regained his feet and a few of his faculties. His +conqueror was senseless on the deck, but this other mutineer was still +active in rebellion. So, while the approving captain looked on in +brass-knuckled dignity, he sprang forward and struck, with strength +born of his rage and humiliation, again and again at the man helpless +in the arms of Mr. Hansen, until his battered head sank supinely +backward, and he struggled no more. Then Mr. Hansen dropped him. + +"Lay aft, here, a couple o' hands," thundered the captain from the +break of the poop, and two awe-struck men obeyed him. The whole crew +had watched the fracas from forward, and the man at the wheel had +looked unspeakable things; but no hand or voice had been raised in +protest. One at a time they carried the unconscious men to the +forecastle; then the crew mustered aft at another thundering summons, +and listened to a forceful speech by Captain Bacon, delivered in quick, +incisive epigrams, to the effect that if a man aboard his ship--whether +he believed himself shipped or shanghaied, a sailor, a priest, a +policeman, or a dry-nurse--showed the slightest hesitation at obeying +orders, or the slightest resentment at what was said to him, he would +be punished with fists, brass knuckles, belaying-pins, or +handspikes,--the officers were here for that purpose,--and if he +persisted, he would be shot like a mad dog. They could go forward. + +They went, and while the watch on deck, under the supervision of the +second mate, finished coiling down the tow-line, the watch below +finished their breakfast, and when the stricken ones had recovered +consciousness, advised them, unsympathetically, to submit and make the +best of it until the ship reached Hong-Kong, where they could all "jump +her" and get better berths. + +"For if ye don't," concluded an Irishman, "I take it ye'll die, an' +take sam wan of us wid ye; fur this is an American ship, where the +mates are hired fur the bigness o' their fists an' the hardness o' +their hearts. Look pleasant, now, the pair o' ye; an' wan o' ye take +this hash-kid back to the galley." + +The larger of the two victims sprang to his feet. He was stained and +disfigured from the effects of the brass knuckles, and he looked +anything but "pleasant." + +"Say, Irish," he said angrily, "do you know who you 're talkin' to? +Looks as though you don't. I'm used to all sorts of guff from all sorts +of men, but Mr. Breen here----" + +"Johnson," interrupted the other, "wait--it's of no account now. This +man's advice is sound. No one would believe us, and we can prove +nothing. We are thoroughly helpless, and must submit until we reach a +consular port, or something happens. Now, men," he said to the others, +"my name is Breen. Call me by it. You, too, Johnson. I yield to the +inevitable, and will do my share of the work as well as I can. If I +make mistakes, don't hesitate to criticize, and post me, if you will. +I'll be grateful." + +"But I'll tell you one thing to start with," said Johnson, glaring +around the forecastle: "we'll take turns at bringin' grub and cleanin' +up the forecastle. Another thing: I've sailed in these wind-jammers +enough to know my work; and that's more than you fellows know, by the +looks of you. I don't want your instructions; but Mr. Breen, +here--Breen, I mean" (a gesture from the other had interrupted +him)--"Breen's forgotten what you and I will never learn, though he +might not be used to pullin' ropes and swabbing paint-work. If I find +one o' you pesterin' him, or puttin' up any jobs, I'll break that man's +head; understand me? Any one want to put this thing to the test, now?" +He scanned each man's face in turn; but none showed an inclination to +respond. They had seen him fight the big first mate. "There's not the +makin' of a whole man among you," he resumed. "You stand still while +three men do up two, when, if you had any nerve, Mr. ---- Breen, here, +might be aft, 'stead o' eatin' cracker-hash with a lot o' dock-rats and +beach-combers. He's had better playmates; so 've I, for that matter, o' +late years." + +"Johnson, keep still," said the other. "It doesn't matter what we have +had, who we were or might be. We're before the mast, bound for +Hong-Kong. We may find a consul at Anjer; I'm not sure. Meanwhile, I'm +Breen, and you are Johnson, and it is no one's business what we have +been. I'm not anxious for this matter to become public. I can explain +to the department, and no one else need know." + +"Very good, sir." + +"No; not 'sir.' Keep that for our superiors." + +Johnson grumbled a little; then Mr. Hansen's round Swedish face +appeared at the door. + +"Hi, you in dere--you big feller--you come out. You belong in der utter +watch. You hear? You come out on deck," he called. + +"Aye, aye, sir," said Johnson, rising sullenly. + +"All the better, Johnson," whispered Breen. "One can keep a lookout all +the time. Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut." + +So for these two men the work of the voyage began. The hard-headed, +aggressive Johnson, placed in the mate's watch, had no trouble in +finding his place, and keeping it, at the top of the class. He ruled +the assorted types of all nations, who worked and slept with him, with +sound logic backed by a strong arm and hard fist, never trying to +conceal his contempt for them. + +"You mixed nest o' mongrels," he would say, at the end of some petty +squabble which he had settled for them, "why don't you stay in your own +country ships? Or, if you must sign in American craft, try to feel and +act like Americans. It's just this same yawping at one another in the +forecastles that makes it easy for the buckoes aft to hunt you. And +that's why you get your berths. No skipper 'll ship an American sailor +while there's a Dutchman left in the shippin'-office. He wouldn't think +it safe to go to sea with too many American sailors forward to call him +down and make him treat 'em decent. He picks a Dago here, and a +Dutchman there, and all the Sou'wegians he sees, and fills in with the +rakin's and scrapin's o' Hell, Bedlam, and Newgate, knowin' they'll +hate one another worse than they hate him, and never stand together." + +To which they would respond in kind, though of lesser degree, always +yielding him the last word when he spoke it loud enough. + +But Breen, in the second mate's watch, had trouble with his fellows at +first. They could not understand his quiet, gentlemanly demeanor, +mistaking it for fear of them; so, unknown to Johnson, for he would not +complain, they subjected him to all the petty annoyances which +ignorance may inflict upon intelligence. Though he showed a theoretical +knowledge of ships and the sea superior to any they had met with, he +was not their equal in the practical work of a sailor. He was awkward +at pulling ropes with others, placing his hands in the wrong place and +mixing them up in what must be a concerted pull to be effective. His +hands, unused to labor, became blistered and sore, and he often, +unconsciously perhaps, held back from a task, to save himself from +pain. He was an indifferent helmsman, and off Hatteras, in a blow, was +sent from the wheel in disgrace. He did not know the ropes, and made +sad mistakes until he had mastered the lesson. He could box the +compass, in his own way; for instance, the quarter-points between +north-northeast and northeast by north he persisted in naming from the +first of these points instead of from the other, as was seamanlike and +proper; and the same with the corresponding sectors in the other +quadrants. Once, at the wheel, when the ship was heading southeast by +south half-south, he had been asked the course, and answered: +"South-southeast half-east, sir." For this he was profanely admonished +by the captain and ridiculed by the men. Johnson had made the same +mistake, but corrected himself in time, and nothing was said about it; +but Breen was bullied and badgered in the watch below,--the lubberly +nomenclature becoming a byword of derision and contempt,--until, +patience leaving him, he doubled his sore fingers into fists one +dog-watch, and thrashed the Irishman--his most unforgiving critic--so +quickly, thoroughly, and scientifically that persecution ceased; for +the Irishman had been the master spirit of the port forecastle. + +But the captain and mates were not won over. Practical Johnson--an able +seaman from crown to toe--knew how to avoid or forestall their abuse; +but Breen did not. The very presence of such a man as he before the +mast was a continuous menace,--an insult to their artificial +superiority,--and they assailed him at each mistake with volleys of +billingsgate that brought a flush to his fine face and tears to his +eyes; later, a deadly paleness that would have been a warning to +tyrants of better discrimination. Once again, while being rebuked in +this manner, his self-control left him. With white face and blazing +eyes he darted at Mr. Knapp, and had almost repeated Johnson's feat on +the poop when an iron belaying-pin in the hands of the captain +descended upon him and broke his left arm. Mr. Knapp's fists and boots +completed his tutelage, and he was carried to his bunk with another +lesson learned. Johnson, swearing the while, skilfully set the broken +bones and made a sling; then, by tactful wheedling of the steward, +secured certain necessaries from the medicine-chest, with hot water +from the galley; but open assistance was refused by the captain. + +Breen, scarcely able to move, held to his bunk for a few days; then, +the first mild skirts of the trade-wind being reached, the mate drove +him to the wheel, to steer one-handed through the day, while all hands +(in the afternoon) worked in the rigging. But the trade-wind freshened, +and his strength was not equal to the task set for it. With the men all +aloft and the two mates forward, the ship nearly broached to one day, +and only the opportune arrival of Captain Bacon on deck saved the +spars. He seized the wheel, ground it up, and the ship paid off; then a +whole man was called to relieve him, and the incompetent helmsman was +promptly and properly punished. He was kicked off the poop, and his +arm, as a consequence, needed resetting. + +Johnson had been aloft, but there was murder in his dark eyes when he +came down at supper-time. Yet he knew its futility, and while bandaging +the broken arm earnestly explained, as Breen's groans would allow, that +if he killed one the other two would kill him, and nothing would be +gained. "For they've brass knuckles in their pockets, sir," he said, +"and pistols under their pillows. We haven't even sheath-knives, and +the crew wouldn't help." + +Whereupon, an inspired Russian Finn of the watch remarked: "If a man +know his work an' do his work, an' gif no back lip to te mates, he get +no trupple mit te mates. In my country ships----" The dissertation was +not finished. Johnson silently knocked him down, and the incident +closed. + +But they found work which the crippled man could do, after a short +"lying up." With the steward's washboard, he could wash the captain's +soiled linen, which the steward would afterward wring out and hang up. +He refused at first, but was duly persuaded, and went to work in the +lee scuppers amidships. Johnson made a detour on his way to the +main-rigging, and muttered: "Say the word, sir, and I 'll chance it. No +jury'd convict." + +"No, no; go aloft, Johnson. I'm all right," answered Breen, as he bent +over the distasteful task. + +Johnson climbed the rigging to the main-royalyard, which he was to +scrape for reoiling, and had no sooner reached it than he sang out: + +"Sail oh! Dead ahead, sir. Looks like an armored cruiser o' the first +class." + +"Armored cruiser o' the first class?" muttered the captain, as he +carried his binoculars to the weather rail and looked ahead. "More 'n I +can make out with the glasses." + +If three funnels, two masts, two bridges, and two sets of fighting-tops +indicate an armored cruiser of the first class, Johnson was right. +These the oncoming craft showed plainly even at seven miles' distance. +Fifteen minutes later she was storming by, a half-mile to windward; a +beautiful picture, long and white, with an incurving ram-bow, with +buff-colored turrets and superstructure, and black guns bristling from +all parts of her. The Stars and Stripes flew from the flagstaff at the +stern; white-clad men swarmed about her decks, and one of them, on the +forward bridge, close to a group of officers, was waving by its staff a +small red-and-white flag. Captain Bacon brought out the American +ensign, and with his own hands hoisted it to the monkey-gaff on the +mizzen, dipped it three times in respectful salute, and left it at the +gaff-end. Then he looked at the cruiser, as every man on board was +doing except the man washing clothes in the lee scuppers. His business +was to wash clothes, not to cross a broad deck and climb a high rail to +look at passing craft; but, as he washed away, he looked furtively +aloft, with eyes that sparkled, at the man on the mainroyalyard. +Johnson was standing erect on the small spar, holding on with his left +hand to the royal-pole,--certainly the most conspicuous detail of the +whole ship to the eyes of those on board the cruiser,--and with his +right hand he was waving his cap to the right and left, and up and +down. There was method in his motions, for when he would cease, the +small red-and-white flag on the cruiser's bridge would answer, waving +to the right and left, and up and down. + +A secondary gun spoke from a midship sponson, and Captain Bacon +exclaimed enthusiastically, "Salutin' the flag," and again dipped his +ensign. Then, after an interval, during which it became apparent that +the cruiser had altered her course to cross the ship's stern, there was +seen another tongue of flame and cloud of smoke, and something seemed +to rush through the air ahead of the ship. But it was a splash of water +far off on the lee bow which really apprised them that the gun was +shotted. At the same time a string of small flags arose to the +signal-yard, and when Captain Bacon had found this combination in his +code-book, he read with amazement: "Heave to or take the consequences." +By this time the cruiser was squarely across his wake, most certainly +rounding to for an interview. + +"Heave to or take the consequences!" he exclaimed. "And he's firin' on +us. Down from aloft, all hands!" he roared upward; then he seized the +answering pennant from the flag-locker and displayed it from the rail, +begrudging the time needful to hoist it. The men were sliding to the +deck on backstays and running-gear, and the mates were throwing down +coils of rope from the belaying-pins. + +"Man both main clue-garnets, some o' you!" yelled the captain. "Clue +up! Weather main-braces, the rest o' you! Slack away to looward! Round +wi' the yards, you farmers--round wi' 'em! Down wi' the wheel, there! +Bring her up three points and hold her. H----l an' blazes, what's he +firin' on me for?" + +Excitedly, the men obeyed him; they were not used to gun fire, and it +is certainly exciting to be shot at. Conspicuous among them was +Johnson, who pulled and hauled lustily, shouting exuberantly the +formless calls which sailors use in pulling ropes, and smiling +sardonically. In five minutes from the time of the second gun the yards +were backed, and, with weather leeches trembling, the ship lay "hove +to," drifting bodily to leeward. The cruiser had stopped her headway, +and a boat had left her side. There were ten men at the oars, a +cockswain at the yoke-ropes, and with him in the stern-sheets a young +man in an ensign's uniform, who lifted his voice as the boat neared the +lee quarter, and shouted: "Rig a side-ladder aboard that ship!" + +He was hardly more than a boy, but he was obeyed; not only the +side-ladder, but the gangway steps were rigged; and leaving the +cockswain and bow oarsman to care for the boat, the young officer +climbed aboard, followed by the rest--nine muscular man-of-war's-men, +each armed with cutlass and pistol, one of them carrying a hand-bag, +another a bundle. Captain Bacon, as became his position, remained upon +the poop to receive his visitor, while the two mates stood at the main +fife-rail, and the ship's crew clustered forward. Johnson, alert and +attentive, stood a little in the van, and the man in the lee scuppers +still washed clothes. + +"What's the matter, young man?" asked the captain from the break of the +poop, with as much of dignity as his recent agitation would permit. +"Why do you stop my ship on the high seas and board her with an armed +boat's crew?" + +"You have an officer and seaman of the navy on board this ship," +answered the ensign, who had been looking about irresolutely. "Produce +them at once, if you please." + +"What--what----" stuttered the captain, descending the poop steps; but +before more was said there was a sound from forward as of something +hard striking something heavy, and as they looked, they saw Captain +Bacon's bucket of clothes sailing diagonally over the lee rail, +scattering a fountain of soapy water as it whirled; his late laundryman +coming toward them with head erect, as though he might have owned the +ship and himself; and Johnson, limping slightly, making for the crowd +of blue-jackets at the gangway. With these he fraternized at once, +telling them things in a low voice, and somewhat profanely, while the +two mates at the fife-rail eyed him reprovingly, but did not interrupt. + +Breen advanced to the ensign, and said, as he extended his hand: "I am +Lieutenant Breen. Did you bring the clothing? This is an extremely +fortunate meeting for me; but I can thank you--you and your brother +officers--much more gracefully aboard the cruiser." + +The officer took the extended hand gingerly, with suspicion in his +eyes. Perhaps, if it had not been thoroughly clean from its late +friction with soap and water, he might have declined taking it; for +there was nothing in the appearance of the haggard, ragged wreck before +him to indicate the naval officer. + +"There is some mistake," he said coldly. "I am well acquainted with +Lieutenant Breen, and you are certainly not he." + +Breen's face flushed hotly, but before he could reply, the captain +broke in. + +"Some mistake, hey?" said he, derisively. "I guess there is--another +mistake--another bluff that don't go. Get out o' here; and I tell you +now, blast yer hide, that if you make me any more trouble 'board my +ship yer liable to go over the side feet first, with a shackle to yer +heels. And you, young man," he stormed, turning to the ensign, "you +look round, if you like. There's my crew. All the navy officers you +find you can have, and welcome to 'em." He turned his back, stamped a +few paces along the deck, and returned, working himself into a fury. + +Breen had not moved, but, with a slight sparkle to his eyes, said to +the young officer: + +"I think, sir, that if you take the trouble to investigate, you will be +satisfied. There are two Breens in the navy. You know one, evidently; I +am the other. Lieutenant William Breen is on shore duty at Washington, +I think. Lieutenant John Breen, lately in command of the torpedo-boat +_Wainwright_, with his signalman Thomas Johnson, are shanghaied on +board this ship. There is Johnson talking to your men." + +The young man's face changed, and his hand went to his cap in salute; +but the mischief was done. Captain Bacon's indignation was at +bursting-pressure, and his mind in no condition to respond readily to +new impressions. He was captain of the ship, and grossly affronted. +Johnson, noting his purple face, wisely reached for a topsail-brace +belaying-pin, and stepped toward him; for he now towered over Breen, +cursing with volcanic energy. + +"Didn't I tell you to go forrard?" he roared, drawing back his powerful +fist. + +Breen stood his ground; the officer raised his hand and half drew his +sword, while the blue-jackets sprang forward; but it was Johnson's +belaying-pin which stopped that mighty fist in mid-passage. It was an +iron club, eighteen inches long by an inch and a half diameter; and +Johnson, strong man though he was, used it two-handed. It struck the +brawny forearm just above the wrist with a crashing sound, and seemed +to sink in. Captain Bacon almost fell, but recovered his balance, and, +holding the broken bones together, staggered toward the booby-hatch for +support. He groaned in pain, but did not curse; for it requires a +modicum of self-respect for this, and Captain Bacon's self-respect was +completely shocked out of him. + +But Mr. Knapp and Mr. Hansen still respected themselves, and were +coming. + +"You keep back, there--you two," yelled Johnson, excitedly. "Stand by +here, mates. These buckoes 'll kill someone yet. Look out for their +brass knuckles and guns." + +And the two officers halted. They had no desire to assert themselves +before nine scowling, armed men, an angry and aggressive mutineer with +a belaying-pin, and a rather confused, but wakening, young officer with +drawn sword. Johnson backed toward the latter. + +"Don't you know me, Mr. Bronson," he said--"Tom Johnson, cocks'n o' the +gig on your practice-cruise? 'Member me, sir? This is Lieutenant +Breen--take my word, sir." + +"Yes--yes--I understand," said the ensign, with a face redder than +Breen's had been. "I really beg your pardon, Mr. Breen. It was +inexcusable in me, I know--but--I had expected to see a different face, +and--and--we're three months out from Hong-Kong, you see----" + +Breen smiled, and interrupted with a gesture. + +"No time for explanations, Mr. Bronson," said he, kindly. "Did you +bring the clothes? Thoughtful of Johnson to ask for them, wasn't it? It +really would be embarrassing to join your ship in this rig. In the grip +and bundle? All right. Form your men across the deck, please, forward +of the cabin. Keep these brutes away from us while we change. Come, +Johnson." + +Taking the hand-bag and the bundle, they brazenly entered the cabin by +the forward door. In ten minutes they emerged, Johnson clad in the blue +rig of a man-of-war's-man, Breen in the undress uniform of an officer, +his crippled arm buttoned into the coat. As they stepped toward the +gangway, Captain Bacon, pale and perspiring, wheezing painfully, +entered the cabin and passed out of their lives. The steward followed +at his heels, and the two mates, with curiously working faces, +approached Breen. + +"Excuse me, sir," said Mr. Knapp, "but I want to say that I had no +notion o' this at all; and I hope you won't make no trouble for me +ashore." + +Breen, one foot on the steps while he waited for the blue-jackets to +file over the side, eyed him thoughtfully. + +"No," he said slowly. "I hardly think, Mr. Knapp, that I shall exert +myself to make trouble for you personally, or for the other two. There +is a measure now before Congress which, if it passes, will legislate +brutes like you and your captain off the American quarter-deck by its +educational conditions. This, with a consideration for your owners, is +what permits you to continue this voyage, instead of going back to the +United States in irons. But if I had the power," he added, looking at +the beautiful flag still flying at the gaff, "I would lower that +ensign, and forbid you to hoist it. It is the flag of a free country, +and should not float over slave-ships." + +He mounted the steps, and, assisted by the young officer and Johnson, +descended to the boat; but before Johnson went down, he peered over the +rail at the two mates, grinning luridly. + +"And I'll promise you," he said, "that I'm always willing to make +trouble for you, ashore or afloat, and wish I had a little more time +for it now. And you can tell your skipper, if you like, in case he +don't know it, that he got smashed with the same club that he used on +Mr. Breen, and I'm only d----d sorry I didn't bring it down on his +head. So long, you bloody-minded hell-drivers. See you again some day." + +He descended, and Mr. Knapp gave the order to brace the yards. + +"Give a good deal," he mused, as the men manned the braces, "to know +just how they got news to that cruiser. Homeward bound from +Hong-Kong--three months out. Couldn't ha' been sent after us." + +But he never learned. + + + + +THE TRADE-WIND + + +The orgy was finished. The last sea-song had resounded over the smooth +waters of the bay; the last drunken shout, oath, and challenge were +voiced; the last fight ended in helplessness and maudlin amity, and the +red-shirted men were sprawled around on the moonlit deck, snoring. +Though the barrel of rum broached on the main-hatch was but slightly +lowered, their sleep was heavy; scurvy-tainted men at the end of a Cape +Horn passage may not drink long or deeply. Some lay as they fell--face +upward; others on their sides for a while, then to roll over on their +backs and so remain until the sleep was done; for in no other position +may the human body rest easy on a hard bed with no pillow. And as they +slept through the tropic night the full moon in the east rose higher +and higher, passed overhead and disappeared behind a thickening haze in +the western sky; but before it had crossed the meridian its cold, +chemical rays had worked disastrously on the eyes of the sleeping men. + +Captain Swarth, prone upon the poop-deck, was the first to waken. There +was pain in his head, pain in his eyes,--which were swollen,--and a +whistling tumult of sound in his ears coming from the Plutonian +darkness surrounding him, while a jarring vibration of the deck beneath +him apprised his awakening brain that the anchor was dragging. As he +staggered to his feet a violent pressure of wind hurled him against the +wheel, to which he clung, staring into the blackness to windward. + +"All hands, there!" he roared! "Up with you all! Go forward and pay out +on the chain!" + +Shouts, oaths, and growls answered him, and he heard the nasal voice of +his mate repeating his order. "Angel," he called, "get the other anchor +over and give her all of both chains." + +"Aye, aye, sir," answered the mate. "Send a lantern forrard, Bill. +Can't see our noses." + +"Steward," yelled the captain, "where are you? Light up a deck-lantern +and the binnacle. Bear a hand." + +He heard the steward's voice close to him, and the sound of the +binnacle lights being removed from their places, then the opening and +closing of the cabin companionway. He could see nothing, but knew that +the steward had gone below to his store-room. In a minute more a shriek +came from the cabin. It rang out again and again, and soon sounded from +the companionway: "I'm blind, I'm blind, capt'n. I can't see. I lit the +lantern and burned my fingers; but I can't see the light. I'm blind." +The steward's voice ended in a howl. + +"Shut up, you blasted fool," answered Captain Swarth; "get down there +and light up." + +"Where's that light?" came the mate's voice in a yell from amidships. +"Shank-painter's jammed, Bill. Can't do a thing without a light." + +"Come aft here and get it. Steward's drunk." + +The doors in the forward part of the cabin slammed, and the mate's +profanity mingled with the protest of the steward in the cabin. Then +shouts came from forward, borne on the gale, and soon followed by the +shuffling of feet as the men groped their way aft and climbed the poop +steps. + +"We're stone-blind, cappen," they wailed. "We lit the fo'c'sle lamp, +an' it don't show up. We can't see it. Nobody can see it. We're all +blind." + +"Come down here, Bill," called the mate from below. + +As Captain Swarth felt his way down the stairs a sudden shock stilled +the vibrations caused by the dragging anchor, and he knew that the +chain had parted. + +"Stand by on deck, Angel; we're adrift," he said. "It's darker than ten +thousand black cats. What's the matter with you?" + +"Can you see the light, Bill? I can't. I'm blind as the steward, or I'm +drunker." + +"No. Is it lit? Where? The men say they're blind, too." + +"Here, forrard end o' the table." + +The captain reached this end, searched with his hands, and burned them +on the hot glass of a lantern. He removed the bowl and singed the hair +on his wrists. The smell came to his nostrils. + +"I'm blind, too," he groaned. "Angel, it's the moon. We're +moonstruck--moon-blind. And we're adrift in a squall. Steward," he said +as he made his way toward the stairs, "light the binnacle, and stop +that whining. Maybe some one can see a little." + +When he reached the deck he called to the men, growling, cursing, and +complaining on the poop. "Down below with you all!" he ordered. "Pass +through and out the forrard door. If any man sees the light on the +cabin table, let that man sing out." + +They obeyed him. Twenty men passed through the cabin and again climbed +the poop stairs, their lamentations still troubling the night. But not +one had seen the lantern. Some said that they could not open their eyes +at all; some complained that their faces were swollen; others that +their mouths were twisted up to where their ears should be; and one man +averred that he could not breathe through his nose. + +"It'll only last a few days, boys," said the captain, bravely; "we +shouldn't have slept in the moonlight in these latitudes. Drop the lead +over, one of you--weather side. The devil knows where we're drifting, +and the small anchor won't hold now; we'll save it." Captain Swarth was +himself again. + +But not so his men. They had become children, with children's fear of +the dark. Even the doughty Angel Todd was oppressed by the first horror +of the situation, speaking only when spoken to. Above the rushing sound +of wind and the smacking of short seas could be heard the voice of the +steward in the cabin, while an occasional heart-borne malediction or +groan--according to temperament--added to the distraction on deck. One +man, more self-possessed than the rest, had dropped the lead over the +side. An able seaman needs no eyes to heave the lead. + +"A quarter six," he sang out, and then, plaintively: "We'll fetch up on +the Barrier, capt'n. S'pose we try an' get the other hook over." + +"Yes, yes," chorused some of the braver spirits. "It may hold. We don't +want to drown on the reef. Let's get it over. Chain's overhauled." + +"Let the anchor alone," roared the captain. "No anchor-chain'll hold in +this. Keep that lead a-going, Tom Plate, if it's you. What bottom do +you find?" + +"Quarter less six," called the leadsman. "Soft bottom. We're shoaling." + +"Angel," said the captain to his mate, who stood close to him, "we're +blowing out the south channel. We've been drifting long enough to fetch +up on the reef if it was in our way. There's hard bottom in the north +channel, and the twenty-fathom lead wouldn't reach it half a length +from the rocks." + +The mate had nothing to say. + +"And the south channel lay due southeast from our moorings," continued +the captain. "Wind's nor'west, I should say, right down from the +hilltops; and I've known these blasted West India squalls to last three +days, blowing straight and hard. This has the smell of a gale in it +already. Keep that lead a-going, there." + +"No bottom," answered the leadsman. + +"Good enough," said the captain, cheerfully. + +"No bottom," was called repeatedly, until the captain sang out: +"That'll do the lead." Then the leadsman coiled up the line, and they +heard his rasping, unpleasant voice, cursing softly but fiercely to +himself. Captain Swarth descended the stairs, silenced the steward with +a blow, felt of the clock hands, secured his pistols, and returned to +the deck. + +"We're at sea," he said. "Two hands to the wheel. Loose and set the +foretopmast-staysails and the foretopsail. Staysail first. Let a man +stay in the slings to square the yard by the feel as it goes up." + +"What for?" they answered complainingly. "What ye goin' to do? We can't +see. Why didn't you bring to when you had bottom under you?" + +"No arguments!" yelled Swarth. "Forrard with you. What are you doing on +the poop, anyway? If you can't see, you can feel, and what more do you +want? Jump, now. Set that head-sail and get her 'fore the wind--quick, +or I'll drop some of you." + +They knew their captain, and they knew the ropes--on the blackest of +dark nights. Blind men climbed aloft, and felt for foot-ropes and +gaskets. Blind men on deck felt for sheets, halyards, and braces, and +in ten minutes the sails were set, and the brig was charging wildly +along before the gale, with two blind men at the wheel endeavoring to +keep her straight by the right and left pressure of the wind on their +faces. + +"Keep the wind as much on the port quarter as you can without broaching +to," yelled the captain in their ears, and they answered and did their +best. She was a clean-lined craft and steered easily; yet the off-shore +sea which was rising often threw her around until nearly in the trough. +The captain remained by them, advising and encouraging. + +"Where're ye goin', Bill?" asked the mate, weakly, as he scrambled up +to him. + +"Right out to sea, and, unless we get our eyes back soon, right across +to the Bight of Benin, three thousand miles from here. We've no +business on this coast in this condition. What ails you, Angel? Lost +your nerve?" + +"Mebbe, Bill." The mate's voice was hoarse and strained. "This is new +to me. I'm falling--falling--all the time." + +"So am I. Brace up. We'll get used to it. Get a couple of hands aft and +heave the log. We take our departure from Kittredge Point, Barbados +Island, at six o'clock this morning of the 10th October. We'll keep a +Geordie's log-book--with a jack-knife and a stick." + +They hove the log for him. It was marked for a now useless 28-second +sand-glass, which Captain Swarth replaced by a spare chronometer, held +to his ear in the companionway. It ticked even seconds, and when +twenty-eight of them had passed he called, "Stop." The markings on the +line that had slipped through the mate's fingers indicated an +eight-knot speed. + +"Seven, allowing for wild steering," said the captain when he had +stowed away his chronometer and returned to the deck. "Angel, we know +we're going about sou'east by east, seven knots. There's practically +no variation o' the compass in these seas, and that course'll take us +clear of Cape St. Roque. Just as fast as the men can stand it at the +wheel, we'll pile on canvas and get all we can out o' this good wind. +If it takes us into the southeast trades, well and good. We can feel +our way across on the trade-wind--unless we hit something, of course. +You see, it blows almost out of the east on this side, and 'll haul +more to the sou'east and south'ard as we get over. By the wind first, +then we'll square away as we need to. We'll know the smell o' the +trades--nothing like it on earth--and the smell o' the Gold Coast, +Ivory Coast, Slave Coast, and the Kameruns. And I'll lay odds we can +feel the heat o' the sun in the east and west enough to make a fair +guess at the course. But it won't come to that. Some of us 'll be able +to see pretty soon." + +It was wild talk, but the demoralized mate needed encouraging. He +answered with a steadier voice: "Lucky we got in grub and water +yesterday." + +"Right you are, Angel. Now, in case this holds on to us, why, we'll +find some of our friends over in the Bight, and they'll know by our rig +that something's wrong. Flanders is somewhere on the track,--you know +he went back to the nigger business,--and Chink put a slave-deck in his +hold down Rio way last spring. And old man Slack--I did him a service +when I crippled the corvette that was after him, and he's grateful. +Hope we'll meet him. I'd rather meet Chink than Flanders in the dark, +and I'd trust a Javanese trader before either. If either of them come +aboard we'll be ready to use their eyes for our benefit, not let 'em +use ours for theirs. Flanders once said he liked the looks of this +brig." + +"S'pose we run foul of a bulldog?" + +"We'll have to chance it. This coast's full o' them, too. Great guns, +man! Would you drift around and do nothing? Anywhere east of due south +there's no land nearer than Cape Orange, and that's three hundred and +fifty miles from here. Beginning to-morrow noon, we'll take deep-sea +soundings until we strike the trade-wind." + +The negro cook felt his way through the preparing of meals and served +them on time. The watches were set, and sail was put on the brig as +fast as the men became accustomed to the new way of steering, those +relieved always imparting what they had learned to their successors. +Before nightfall on that first day they were scudding under foresail, +topsail and topgallantsail and maintopsail, with the spanker furled as +useless, and the jib adding its aid to the foretopmast-staysail in +keeping the brig before the quartering seas which occasionally climbed +aboard. The bowsprit light was rigged nightly; they hove the log every +two hours; and Captain Swarth made scratches and notches on the +sliding-hood of the companionway, while careful to wind his chronometer +daily. + +But, in spite of the cheer of his indomitable courage and confidence, +his men, with the exception of a few, dropped into a querulous, whining +discontent. Mr. Todd, spurred by his responsibility, gradually came +around to something like his old arbitrary self. Yank Tate, the +carpenter, maintained through it all a patient faith in the captain, +and, in so far as his influence could be felt, acted as a foil to the +irascible, fault-finding Tom Plate, the forecastle lawyer, the man who +had been at the lead-line at Barbados. But the rest of them were dazed +and nerveless, too shaken in brain and body to consider seriously Tom's +proposition to toss the afterguard overboard and beach the brig on the +South American coast, where they could get fresh liver of shark, goat, +sheep, or bullock, which even a "nigger" knew was the only cure for +moon-blindness. + +They had not yet recovered from the unaccustomed debauch; their clouded +brains seemed too large for their skulls, and their eyeballs ached in +their sockets, while they groped tremblingly from rope to rope at the +behest of the captain or mate. + +So Tom marked himself for future attention by insolent and disapproving +comments on the orders of his superiors, and a habit of moving swiftly +to another part of the deck directly he had spoken, which prevented the +blind and angry captain from finding him in the crowd. + +Dim as must have been the light of day through the pelting rain and +storm-cloud, it caused increased pain in their eyes, and they bound +them with their neckerchiefs, applying meanwhile such remedies as +forecastle lore could suggest. The captain derided these remedies, but +frankly confessed his ignorance of anything but time as a means of +cure. And so they existed and suffered through a three days' damp gale +and a fourth day's dead calm, when the brig rolled scuppers under with +all sail set, ready for the next breeze. It came, cool, dry, and faint +at first, then brisker--the unmistakable trade-wind. They boxed the +brig about and braced sharp on the starboard tack, steering again by +the feel of the wind and the rattling of shaking leeches aloft. The +removal of bandages to ascertain the sun's position by sense of light +or increase of pain brought agonized howls from the experimenters, and +this deterred the rest. Not even by its warmth could they locate it. It +was overhead at noon and useless as a guide. In the early morning and +late afternoon, when it might have indicated east and west, its warmth +was overcome by the coolness of the breeze. So they steered on blindly, +close-hauled on the starboard tack, nearly as straight a course as +though they were whole men. + +They took occasional deep-sea soundings with the brig shaking in the +wind, but found no bottom, and at the end of fifteen days a longer +heave to the ground-swell was evidence to Captain Swarth's mind that he +was passing Cape St. Roque, and the soundings were discontinued. + +"No use bothering about St. Paul Rocks or the Rocas, Angel," said he. +"They rise out o' the deep sea, and if we're to hit, soundings won't +warn us in time. I take it we'll pass between them and well north of +Ascension." So he checked in the yards a little and brought the wind +more abeam. + +One day Yank Tate appeared at the captain's elbow, and suggested, in a +low voice, that he examine the treasure-chests in the 'tween-deck. "I +was down stowing away some oakum," he said, "an' I was sure I heard the +lid close; but nobody answered me, an' I couldn't feel anybody." + +Captain Swarth descended to his cabin and found his keys missing; then +he and the carpenter visited the chests. They were locked tight, and as +heavy as ever. + +"Some one has the keys, Yank, and has very likely raided the diamonds. +We can't do anything but wait. He can't get away. Keep still about it." + +The air became cooler as they sailed on; and judging that the +trade-wind was blowing more from the south than he had allowed for, the +captain brought the wind squarely abeam, and the brig sailed faster. +Still, it was too cool for the latitude, and it puzzled him, until a +man came aft and groaned that he had lifted his bandage to bathe his +eyes, and had unmistakably seen the sun four points off the port +quarter; but his eyes were worse now, and he could not do it again. + +"Four points off!" exclaimed Swarth. "Four o'clock in the afternoon. +That's just about where the sun ought to be heading due east, and far +enough south o' the line to bring this cool weather. We're not far from +Ascension. Never knew the sou'east trade to act like this before. Must +ha' been blowing out o' the sou'west half the time." + +A week later they were hove to on the port tack under double-reefed +topsails, with a cold gale of wind screaming through the rigging and +cold green seas boarding their weather bow. It was the first break in +the friendly trade-wind, and Swarth confessed to himself--though not to +his men--that he was out of his reckoning; but one thing he was sure +of--that this was a cyclone with a dangerous center. + +The brig labored heavily during the lulls as the seas rose, and when +the squalls came, flattening them to a level, she would lie down like a +tired animal, while the aeolian song aloft prevented orders being heard +unless shouted near by. Captain Swarth went below and smashed the glass +of an aneroid barometer (newly invented and lately acquired from an +outward-bound Englishman), in which he had not much confidence, but +which might tell him roughly of the air-density. Feeling of the +indicator, and judging by the angle it made with the center,--marked by +a ring at the top,--he found a measurement which startled him. Setting +the adjustable hand over the indicator for future reference, he +returned to the deck, ill at ease, and ordered the topsails +goose-winged. By the time the drenched and despairing blind men had +accomplished this, a further lowering of the barometer induced him to +furl topsails and foretopmast-staysail, and allow the brig to ride +under a storm-spanker. Then the increasing wind required that this also +should be taken in, and its place filled by a tarpaulin lashed to the +weather main-rigging. + +"Angel," said the captain, shouting into the mate's ear, "there's only +one thing to account for this. We're on the right tack for the Southern +Ocean; but the storm-center is overtaking us faster than we can drift +away from it. We must scud out of its way." + +So they took in the tarpaulin and set the foretopmast-staysail again, +and, with the best two helmsmen at the wheel, they sped before the +tempest for four hours, during which there was no increase of the wind +and no change in the barometer; it still remained at its lowest +reading. + +"Keep the wind as much on the port quarter as you dare," ordered +Swarth. "We're simply sailing around the center, and perhaps in with +the vortex." + +They obeyed him as they could, and in a few hours more there was less +fury in the blast and a slight rise in the barometer. + +"I was right," said the captain. "The center will pass us now. We're +out of its way." + +They brought the brig around amid a crashing of seas over the port +rail, and stowing the staysail, pinned her again on the port tack with +the tarpaulin. But a few hours of it brought an increase of wind and a +fall of the barometer. + +"What in d--nation does it mean, Angel?" cried the captain, +desperately. "By all laws of storms we ought to drift away from the +center." + +The mate could not tell; but a voice out of the night, barely +distinguishable above the shrieking wind, answered him. + +"You--all-fired--fool--don't--you--know--any--more--than--to--heave--to +--in--the--Gulf--Stream?" + +Then there was the faintest disturbance in the sounds of the sea, +indicating the rushing by of a large craft. + +"What!" roared Swarth. "The Gulf Stream? I've lost my reckoning. Where +am I? Ship ahoy! Where am I?" + +There was no answer, and he stumbled down to the main-deck among his +men, followed by the mate. + +"Draw a bucket of water, one of you," he ordered. + +This was done, and he immersed his hand. The water was warm. + +"Gulf-Stream," he yelled frantically, "Gulf Stream--how in h----l did we +get up here? We ought to be down near St. Helena. Angel, come here. +Let's think. We sailed by the wind on the southeast trade for--no, we +didn't. It was the northeast trade. We caught the northeast trade, and +we've circled all over the Western Ocean." + +"You're a bully full-rigged navigator, you are," came the sneering, +rasping voice of Tom Plate from the crowd. "Why didn't you drop your +hook at Barbados, and give us a chance for our eyes?" + +The captain lunged toward him on the reeling deck; but Tom moved on. + +"Your time is coming, Tom Plate," he shouted insanely; then he climbed +to the poop, and when he had studied the situation awhile, called his +bewildered mate up to him. + +"We were blown out of the north entrance o' the bay, Angel, instead of +the south, as we thought. I was fooled by the soundings. At this time +o' the year Barbados is about on the thermal equator--half-way between +the trades. This is a West India cyclone, and we're somewhere around +Hatteras. No wonder the port tack drifted us into the center. Storms +revolve against the sun north o' the line, and with the sun south of +it. Oh, I'm the two ends and the bight of a d--d fool! Wear ship!" he +added in a thundering roar. + +They put the brig on the starboard tack, and took hourly soundings with +the deep-sea lead. As they hauled it in for the fourth time, the men +called that the water was cold; and on the next sounding the lead +reached bottom at ninety fathoms. + +"We're inside the Stream and the hundred-fathom curve, Angel. The +barometer's rising now. The storm-center's leaving us, and we're +drifting ashore," said the captain. "I know pretty well where I am. +These storms follow an invariable track, and I judge the center is to +the east of us, moving north. That's why we didn't run into it when we +thought we were dodging it. We'll square away with the wind on the +starboard quarter now, and if we pick up the Stream and the glass don't +rise, I'll be satisfied to turn in. I'm about fagged out." + +"It's too much for me, Bill," answered Mr. Todd, wearily. "I can +navigate; but this ain't navigation. This is blindman's-buff." + +But he set the head-sail for his captain, and again the brig fled +before the wind. Only once did they round to for soundings, and this +time found no bottom; so they squared away, and when, a few hours +later, the seas came aboard warm, Swarth was confident enough of his +position to allow his mind to dwell on pettier details of his business. + +It was nearly breakfast-time now, and the men would soon be eating. +With his pistols in his coat pockets he stationed himself beside the +scuttle of the fore-hatch,--the entrance to the forecastle,--and waited +long and patiently, listening to occasional comments on his folly and +bad seamanship which ascended from below, until the harsh voice of Tom +Plate on the stairs indicated his coming up. He reached toward Tom with +one hand, holding a cocked pistol with the other; but Tom slid easily +out of his wavering grasp and fled along the deck. He followed his +footsteps until he lost them, and picked up instead the angry plaint of +the negro cook in the galley amidships. + +"I do' know who you are, but you want to git right out o' my galley, +now. You heah me? I'se had enough o' dis comin' inter my galley. Gwan, +now! Is you de man dat's all time stealin' my coffee? I'll gib you +coffee, you trash! Take dat!" + +Captain Swarth reached the galley door in time to receive on the left +side of his face a generous share of a pot of scalding coffee. It +brought an involuntary shriek of agony from him; then he clung to the +galley-lashings and spoke his mind. Still in torment, he felt his way +through the galley; but the cook and the intruder had escaped by the +other door and made no sound. + +All that day and the night following he chose to lie in his darkened +state-room, with his face bandaged in oily cloths, while Yank Tate +stood his watch. In the morning he removed the bandages and took in the +sight of his state-room fittings: the bulkhead, his desk, chronometer, +cutlass, and clothing hanging on the hooks. It was a joyous sight, and +he shouted in gladness. He could not see with his right eye and but +dimly with his left, but a scrutiny of his face in a mirror disclosed +deep lines that had not been there, distorted eyelids, and the left +side where the coffee had scalded puffed to a large, angry blister. He +tied up his face, leaving his left eye free, and went on deck. + +The wind had moderated, but on all sides was a wild gray waste of +heaving, white-crested combers, before which the brig was still +scudding under the staysail. Three miles off on the port bow was a +large, square-bowed, square-yarded ship, hove to and heading away from +them, which might be a frigate or a subsidized Englishman with painted +ports; but in either case she could not be investigated now. He looked +at the compass. The brig was heading about southeast, and his judgment +was confirmed. Two haggard-faced men with bandaged eyes were grinding +the wheel to starboard and port, and keeping the brig's yaws within two +points each way--good work for blind men. Angel Todd stood near, his +chin resting in his hand and his elbow on the companionway. Forward the +watch sat about in coils of rope and sheltered nooks or walked the deck +unsteadily, and a glance aloft showed the captain his rigging hanging +in bights and yards pointed every way. She was unkempt as a wreck. The +same glance apprised him of an English ensign, union down, tattered and +frayed to half its size, at the end of the standing spanker-gaff, with +the halyards made fast high on the royal-backstay, above the reach of +bungling blind fingers. Tom Plate was coming aft with none of the +hesitancy of the blind, and squinting aloft at the damaged +distress-signal. He secured another ensign--American--from the +flag-locker in the booby-hatch, mounted the rail, and hoisted it, union +down, in place of the other. Then he dropped to the deck and looked +into the glaring left eye and pepper-box pistol of Captain Swarth, who +had descended on him. + +"Hands up, Tom Plate, over your head--quick, or I'll blow your brains +out!" + +White in the face and open-mouthed, Tom obeyed. + +"Mr. Todd," called the captain, "come down here--port main-rigging." + +The mate came quickly, as he always did when he heard the prefix to his +name. It was used only in emergencies. + +"What soundings did you get at the lead when we were blowing out?" +asked the captain. "What water did you have when you sang out 'a +quarter six' and 'a quarter less six'?" + +"N-n-one, capt'n. There warn't any bottom. I jess wanted to get you to +drop the other anchor and hold her off the reef." + +"Got him tight, cappen?" asked the mate. "Shall I help you hold 'im?" + +"I've got my sight back. I've got Tom Plate under my gun. How long have +you been flying signals of distress, Tom Plate?" + +"Ever since I could see, capt'n," answered the trembling sailor. + +"How long is that?" + +"Second day out, sir." + +"What's your idea in keeping still about it? What could you gain by +being taken aboard a man-of-war?" + +"I didn't want to have all the work piled on me jess 'cause I could +see, capt'n. I never thought anybody could ever see again. I slept +partly under No. 2 gun that night, and didn't get it so bad." + +"You sneaked into my room, got my keys, and raided the treasure-chests. +You know what the rules say about that? Death without trial." + +"No, I didn't, capt'n; I didn't." + +"Search him, Mr. Todd." + +The search brought to light a tobacco-pouch in which were about fifty +unset diamonds and a few well-jeweled solid-gold ornaments, which the +captain pocketed. + +"Not much of a haul, considering what you left behind," he said calmly. +"I suppose you only took what you could safely hide and swim with." + +"I only took my share, sir; I did no harm; I didn't want to be driftin' +round wi' blind men. How'd I know anybody could ever see any more?" + +"Sad mistake, Tom. All we wanted, it seems, was a good scalding with +hot coffee." He mused a few moments, then continued: "There must be +some medical virtue in hot coffee which the doctors haven't learned, +and--well--Tom, you've earned your finish." + +"You won't do it, capt'n; you can't do it. The men won't have it; +they're with me," stuttered the man. + +"Possibly they are. I heard you all growling down the hatch yesterday +morning. You're a pack of small-minded curs. I'll get another crew. Mr. +Todd," he said to the listening mate, "steward told me he was out of +coffee, so we'll break a bag out o' the lazarette. It's a heavy +lift--two hundred pounds and over--'bout the weight of a man; so we'll +hoist it up. Let Tom, here, rig a whip to the spanker-gaff. He can +see." + +"Aye, aye, sir," answered the mate. "Get a single block and a strap and +a gant-line out o' the bo's'n's locker, Tom." + +"Is it all right, capt'n?" asked Tom, lowering his hands with a deep +sigh of relief. "I did what seemed right, you know." + +"Rig that whip," said Swarth, turning his back and ascending the poop. + +Tom secured the gear, and climbing aloft and out the gaff, fastened the +block directly over the lazarette-hatch, just forward of the binnacle. +Then he overhauled the rope until it reached the deck, and descended. + +"Come up here on the poop," called the captain; and he came. + +"Shall I go down and hook on, sir?" he asked zealously. + +"Make a hangman's noose in the end of the rope," said Swarth. + +"Eh--what--a runnin' bowline--a timber-hitch? No, no," he yelled, as he +read the captain's face. "You can't do it. The men----" + +"Make a hangman's knot in the end of the rope," thundered the captain, +his pistol at Tom's ear. + +With a face like that of a death's-head he tied the knot. + +"Pass it round your neck and draw it tight." + +Hoarse, inarticulate screams burst from the throat of the man, ended by +a blow on the side of his face by the captain's iron-hard fist. He +fell, and lay quiet, while Swarth himself adjusted the noose and bound +the hands with his own handkerchief. The men at the wheel strained +their necks this way and that, with tense waves of conflicting +expressions flitting across their weary faces, and the men forward, +aroused by the screams, stood about in anxious expectancy until they +heard Swarth's roar: "Lay aft here, the watch!" + +They came, feeling their way along by rail and hatch. + +"Clap on to that gant-line at the main fife-rail, and lift this bag of +coffee out o' the lazarette," sang out the captain. + +They found the loose rope, tautened it, hooked the bight into an open +sheave in the stanchion, and listlessly walked forward with it. When +they had hoisted the unconscious Tom to the gaff, Swarth ordered: +"Belay, coil up the fall, and go forrard." + +They obeyed, listlessly as ever, with no wondering voice raised to +inquire why they had not lowered the coffee they had hoisted. + +Captain Swarth looked at the square-rigged ship, now on the port +quarter--an ill-defined blur to his imperfect vision. "Fine chance we'd +have had," he muttered, "if that happened to be a bulldog. Angel," he +said, as the mate drew near, "hot coffee is good for moon-blindness, +taken externally, as a blistering agent--a counter-irritant. We have no +fly-blisters in the medicine-chest, but smoking-hot grease must be just +as good, if not better than either. Have the cook heat up a potful, and +you get me out a nice small paint-brush." + +Forty-eight hours later, when the last wakening vision among the twenty +men had taken cognizance of the grisly object aloft, the gaff was guyed +outboard, the rope cut at the fife-rail, and the body of Tom Plate +dropped, feet first, to the sea. + +Then when Captain Swarth's eyes permitted he took an observation or +two, and, after a short lecture to his crew on the danger of sleeping +in tropic moonlight, shaped his course for Barbados Island, to take up +the burden of his battle with fate where the blindness had forced him +to lay it down; to scheme and to plan, to dare and to do, to war and to +destroy, against the inevitable coming of the time when fate should +prove the stronger--when he would lose in a game where one must always +win or die. + + + + +SALVAGE + + +She had a large crew, abnormally large hawse-pipes, and a bad +reputation--the last attribute born of the first. Registered as the +_Rosebud_, this innocent name was painted on her stern and on her +sixteen dories; but she was known among the fishing-fleet as the +_Ishmaelite_, and the name fitted her. Secretive and unfriendly, she +fished alone, avoided company, answered few hails, and, seldom filling +her hold, disposed of her catch as her needs required, in out-of-the-way +ports, often as far south as Charleston. And she usually left behind +her such bitter memories of her visit as placed the last port at the +bottom of her list of markets. + +No ship-chandler or provision-dealer ever showed her receipted bills, +and not a few of them openly averred that certain burglaries of their +goods had plausible connection with her presence in port. Be this as it +may, the fact stood that farmers on the coast who saw her high bow and +unmistakable hawse-pipes when she ran in for bait invariably +double-locked their barns and chicken-coops, and turned loose all tied +dogs when night descended, often to find both dogs and chickens gone in +the morning. + +Once, too, three small schooners had come home with empty holds, and +complained of the appearance, while anchored in the fog, of a flotilla +of dories manned by masked men, who overpowered and locked all hands in +cabin or forecastle, and then removed the cargoes of fish to their own +craft, hidden in the fog. Shortly after this, the _Ishmaelite_ disposed +of a large catch in Baltimore, and the piracy was believed of her, but +never proved. + +Her luck at finding things was remarkable. Drifting dories, spars, +oars, and trawl-tubs sought her unsavory company, as though impelled by +the inanimate perversity which had sent them drifting. They were sold +in port, or returned to their owners, when paid for. In the early part +of her career she had towed a whistling buoy into Boston and claimed +salvage of the government, showing her logbook to prove that she had +picked it up far at sea. The salvage was paid; but, as her reputation +spread, there were those who declared that she herself had sent the +buoy adrift. + +As poets and sailors believe that ships have souls, it may be that she +gloried in her shame, like other fallen creatures; for her large, +slanting oval hawse-pipes and boot-top stripe gave a fine, Oriental +sneer to her face-like bow, and there was slur and insult to +respectable craft in the lazy dignity with which she would swash +through the fleet on the port tack, compelling vessels on the starboard +tack to give up their right of way or be rammed; for she was a large +craft, and there was menace in her solid, one-piece jib-boom, thick as +an ordinary mainmast. An outward-bound coasting-schooner, resenting +this lawlessness on one occasion, attempted to assert her rights, and +being on the lawful starboard tack, bore steadily down on the +_Ishmaelite_,--who budged not a quarter-point,--and, losing heart at +the last moment, luffed up, all shaking, in just the position to allow +the ring of her port anchor to catch on the bill of the _Ishmaelite's_ +starboard anchor. As her own ring-stopper and shank-painter were weak, +the patent windlass unlocked, and the end of the cable not secured in +the chain-locker, the _Ishmaelite_ walked calmly away with the anchor +and a hundred fathoms of chain, which, at the next port, she sold as +legitimate spoil of the sea. + +As her reputation increased, so did the hatred of men, while the number +of ports on the coast which she could safely enter became painfully +small. To avoid conflict with local authority, she had hurried to sea +without clearing at the custom-house from Boston, Bangor, Portland, and +Gloucester. She had carried local authority in the persons of +distressed United States marshals to sea with her from three other +ports, and landed it on some outlying point before the next meal-hour. +With her blunt jib-boom she had prodded a hole in the side of a +lighthouse supply-boat, and sailed away without answering questions. +The government was taking cognizance, and her description was written +on the fly-leaves of several revenue cutters' log-books, while Sunday +newspapers in the large cities began a series of special articles about +the mysterious schooner-rigged pirate of the fishing-fleet. + +The future looked dark for her, and when the time came that she was +chased away from Plymouth harbor--which she had entered for +provisions--by a police launch, it seemed that the end was at hand; for +she had done no wrong in Plymouth, and the police boat was evidently +acting on general principles and instructions, which were vital enough +to extend the pursuit to the three-mile limit. Her trips had become +necessarily longer, and there was but two weeks' supply of food in the +lazarette. The New England coast was an enemy's country, but in the +crowded harbor of New York was a chance to lie unobserved at anchor +long enough to secure the stores she needed, which only a large city +can supply. So Cape Cod was doubled on the way to New York; but the +brisk offshore wind, which had helped her in escaping the police boat, +developed to a gale that blew her to sea, and increased in force as the +hours passed by. + +Hard-headed, reckless fellows were these men who owned the _Rosebud_ and +ran her on shares and under laws of their own making. Had they been of +larger, broader minds, with no change of ethics they would have acquired +a larger, faster craft with guns, hoisted the black flag, and sailed +southward to more fruitful fields. Being what they were,--fishermen gone +wrong,--they labored within their limitations and gleaned upon known +ground. + +They were eighteen in number, and they typified the maritime nations of +the world. Americans predominated, of course, but English, French, +German, Portuguese, Scandinavian, and Russian were among them. The cook +was a West India negro, and the captain--or their nearest approach to a +captain--a Portland Yankee. Both were large men, and held their +positions by reason of special knowledge and a certain magnetic mastery +of soul which dominated the others against their rules; for in this +social democracy captains and bosses were forbidden. The cook was an +expert in the galley and a thorough seaman; the other as able a seaman, +and a navigator past the criticism of the rest. + +His navigation had its limits, however, and this gale defined them. He +could find his latitude by meridian observation, and his longitude by +morning sights and chronometer time; his dead-reckoning was +trustworthy, and he possessed a fair working conception of the set and +force of the Atlantic currents and the heave of the sea in a blow. But +his studies had not given him more than a rudimentary knowledge of +meteorology and the laws of storms. A gale was a gale to him, and he +knew that it would usually change its direction as a clock's hands will +in moving over the dial; and if, by chance, it should back around to +its former point, he prepared for heavier trouble, with no reference to +the fluctuations of the barometer, which instrument to him was merely a +weather-glass--about as valuable as a rheumatic big toe. + +So, in the case we are considering, not knowing that he was caught by +the southern fringe of a St. Lawrence valley storm, with its center of +low barometer to the northwest and coming toward him, he hove to on the +port tack to avoid Cape Cod, and drifted to sea, shortening sail as the +wind increased, until, with nothing set but a small storm-mainsail, he +found himself in the sudden calm of the storm-center, which had +overtaken him. Here, in a tumultuous cross-sea, fifty miles off the +shore, deceived by the light, shifty airs and the patches of blue sky +showing between the rushing clouds, he made all sail and headed west, +only to have the masts whipped out as the whistling fury of wind on the +opposite side of the vortex caught and jibed the canvas. + +It was manifestly a judgment of a displeased Providence; and, glad that +the hull was still tight, they cut away the wreck and rode out the +gale,--now blowing out of the north,--hanging to the tangle of spar and +cordage which had once been the foremast and its gear. It made a fairly +good sea-anchor, with the forestay--strong as any chain--for a cable, +and she lay snug under the haphazard breakwater and benefited by the +protection, as the seas must first break their heads over the wreckage +before reaching her. The mainmast was far away, with all that pertained +to it; but the solid, hard-pine jib-boom was still intact, and not one +of the sixteen dories piled spoon-fashion in the four nests had been +injured when the spars went by the board. So they were content to +smoke, sleep, and kill time as they could, until the gale and sea +should moderate, and they could rig a jury-foremast of the wreck. + +But before they could begin,--while there was still wind enough to curl +the head of an occasional sea into foam,--a speck which had been +showing on the shortened horizon to windward, when the schooner lifted +out of the hollows, took form and identity--a two-masted steamer, with +English colors, union down, at the gaff. High out of water, her +broadside drift was faster than that of the dismasted craft riding to +her wreckage, and in a few hours she was dangerously near, directly +ahead, rolling heavily in the trough of the sea. They could see shreds +of canvas hanging from masts and gaffs. + +"Wunner what's wrong wid her," said the cook, as he relinquished the +glasses to the next man. "Amos," he called to another, "you've been in +the ingine-room, you say. Is her ingine bus' down?" + +"Dunno," answered Amos. "Steam's all right; see the jet comin' out o' +the stack? There! she's turnin' over--kickin' ahead. 'Bout time if she +wants to clear us. She's signalin'. What's that say, Elisha?" + +The ensign was fluttering down, and a string of small flags going aloft +on the other part of the signal-halyards, while the steamer, heading +west, pushed ahead about a length under the impulse of her propeller. +Elisha, the navigator, went below, and returned with a couple of books, +which he consulted. + +"Her number," he said. "She's the _Afghan Prince_ o' London." As the +schooner carried no signal-flags, he waved his sou'wester in answer, +and the flags came down, to be replaced by others. + +"Rudder carried away," he read, and then looked with the glasses. +"Rudder seems all right; must mean his steerin'-gear. Why don't they +rig up suthin', or a drag over the stern?" + +"Don't know enough," said an expatriated Englishman of the crew. "She's +one o' them bloomin', undermanned tramps, run by apprentices an' Thames +watermen. They're drivin' sailors an' sailin'-ships off the sea blarst +'em!" + +"Martin," said Elisha to the cook, "what's the matter with our bein' a +drag for her?" + +"Dead easy, if we kin git his line an' he knows how to rig a bridle." + +"We can show him, if it comes to it. What ye say, boys? If we steer her +into port we're entitled to salvage. She's helpless; we're not, for +we've got a jury-rig under the bows. Hello! what's he sayin' now?" +Other flags had gone aloft on the steamer, which asked for the +longitude. Then followed others which said that the chronometer was +broken. + +"Better 'n ever!" exclaimed Elisha, excitedly. "Can't navigate. Our +chronometer's all right; we never needed it, an' don't now, but it's a +big help in a salvage claim. What ye say? Can't we get our hemp cable +to him with a dory?" + +Why not? They were fishermen, accustomed to dory work. A short confab +settled this point; a dory was thrown over, and Elisha and Amos pulled +to the steamer, which was now abreast, near enough for the name which +Elisha had read to be seen plainly on the stern, but not near enough +for the men shouting from her taffrail to make themselves heard on the +schooner. Elisha and Amos, in the dory, conferred with these men and +then returned. + +"Badly rattled," they reported. "Tiller-ropes parted, an' not a man +aboard can put a long splice in a wire rope, an' o' course we said we +couldn't. They'll take our line, an' we're to chalk up the position an' +the course to New York. Clear case o' salvage. We furnish everything, +an' sacrifice our jury-material to aid 'em." + +"What'll be our chance in court, I'm thinkin'," said one, doubtfully. +"Hadn't we better keep out o' the courts? It's been takin' most of our +time lately." + +"What's the matter wi' ye?" yelled Elisha. "We owe a few hundreds, an' +mebbe a fine or two; an' there's anywhere from one to two hundred +thousand--hull an' cargo--that we save. We'll get no less than a third, +mebbe more. Go lay down, Bill." + +Bill subsided. They knotted four or five dory rodings together, coiled +the long length of rope in the dory, unbent the end of their water-laid +cable from the anchor, and waited until the wallowing steamer had +drifted far enough to leeward to come within the steering-arc of a +craft with no canvas; then they cut away the wreck, crowded forward, +all hands spreading coats to the breeze, and when the schooner had paid +off, steered her down with the wind on the quarter until almost near +enough to hail the steamer, where they rounded to, safe in the +knowledge that she could not drift as fast as the other. + +Away went the dory, paying out on the roding, the end of which was +fastened to the disconnected cable, and when it had reached the +steamer, a heaving-line was thrown, by which the roding was hauled +aboard. Then the dory returned, while the steamer's men hauled the +cable to their stern. The bridle, two heavy ropes leading from the +after-winch out the opposite quarter-chocks to the end of the cable, +was quickly rigged by the steamer's crew. + +With a warning toot of the whistle, she went ahead, and the long +tow-line swept the sea-tops, tautened, strained, and creaked on the +windlass-bitts, and settled down to its work, while the schooner, +dropping into her wake, was dragged westward at a ten-knot rate. + +"This is bully," said Elisha, gleefully. "Now I'll chalk out the +position an' give her the course--magnetic, to make sure." + +He did so, and they held up in full view of the steamer's bridge a +large blackboard showing in six-inch letters the formula: "Lat. 41-20. +Lon. 69-10. Mag. Co. W. half S." + +A toot of the whistle thanked them, and they watched the steamer, which +had been heading a little to the south of this course, painfully swing +her head up to it by hanging the schooner to the starboard leg of the +bridle; but she did not stop at west-half-south, and when she pointed +unmistakably as high as northwest, still dragging her tow by the +starboard bridle, a light broke on them. + +"She's goin' on her way with us," said Elisha. "No, no; she can't. +She's bound for London," he added. "Halifax, mebbe." + +They waved their hats to port, and shouted in chorus at the steamer. +They were answered by caps flourished to starboard from the bridge, and +outstretched arms which pointed across the Atlantic Ocean, while the +course changed slowly to north, then faster as wind and sea bore on the +other bow, until the steamer steadied and remained at east-by-north. + +"The rhumb course to the Channel," groaned Elisha, wildly. "The nerve +of it! An' I'm supposed to give the longitude every noon. Why, dammit, +boys, they'll claim they rescued us, an' like as not the English +courts'll allow them salvage on our little tub." + +"Let go the tow-line! Let 'em go to h----l!" they shouted angrily, and +some started forward, but were stopped by the cook. His eyes gleamed in +his black face, and his voice was a little higher pitched than usual; +otherwise he was the steadiest man there. + +"We'll hang right on to our bran-new cable, men," he said. "It's ours, +not theirs. 'Course we kin turn her adrif' ag'in, an' be wuss off, too; +we can't find de foremast now. But dat ain't de bes' way. John," he +called to the Englishman of the crew, "how many men do you' country +tramp steamers carry?" + +John computed mentally, then muttered: "Two mates, six ash-cats,[1] two +flunkies, two quartermasters, watchman, deck-hands--oh, 'bout sixteen +or seventeen, Martin." + + [1] Ash-cats: engineers and firemen. + +"Boys, le' 's man de win'lass. We'll heave in on our cable, an' if we +kin git close enough to climb aboard, we'll reason it out wid dat +English cappen, who can't fin' his way roun' alone widout stealin' +little fishin'-schooners." + +"Right!" they yelled. "Man the windlass. We'll show the lime-juice +thief who's doin' this." + +"Amos," said Martin to the ex-engineer, "you try an' 'member all you +forgot 'bout ingines in case anything happens to de crew o' dat +steamer; an', Elisha, you want to keep good track o' where we go, so's +you kin find you' way back." + +"I'll get the chronometer on deck now. I can take sights alone." + +They took the cable to the windlass-barrel and began to heave. It was +hard work,--equal to heaving an anchor against a strong head wind and +ten-knot tideway,--and only half the crew could find room on the +windlass-brakes; so, while the first shift labored and swore and +encouraged one another, the rest watched the approach of a small tug +towing a couple of scows, which seemed to have arisen out of the sea +ahead of them. When the steamer was nearly upon her, she let go her +tow-line and ranged up alongside, while a man leaning out of the +pilot-house gesticulated to the steamer's bridge and finally shook his +fist. Then the tug dropped back abreast of the schooner. She was a +dingy little boat, the biggest and brightest of her fittings being the +name-board on her pilot-house, which spelled in large gilt letters the +appellation _J. C. Hawks_. + +"Say," yelled her captain from his door, "I'm blown out wi' my barges, +short o' grub an' water. Can you gi' me some? That lime-juice sucker +ahead won't." + +"Can you tow us to New York?" asked Elisha, who had brought up the +chronometer and placed it on the house, ready to take morning sights +for his longitude if the sun should appear. + +"No; not unless I sacrifice the barges an' lose my contract wi' the +city. They're garbage-scows, an' I haven't power enough to hook on to +another. Just got coal enough to get in." + +"An' what do you call this--a garbage-scow?" answered Elisha, +ill-naturedly. "We've got no grub or water to spare. We've got troubles +of our own." + +"Dammit, man, we're thirsty here. Give us a breaker o' water. Throw it +overboard; I'll get it." + +"No; told you we have none to spare; an' we're bein' yanked out to +sea." + +"Well, gi' me a bottleful; that won't hurt you." + +"No; sheer off. Git out o' this. We're not in the Samaritan business." + +A forceful malediction came from the tug captain, and a whirling +monkey-wrench from the hand of the engineer, who had listened from the +engine-room door. It struck Elisha's chronometer and knocked it off the +house, box and all, into the sea. He answered the profanity in kind, +and sent an iron belaying-pin at the engineer; but it only dented the +tug's rail, and with these compliments the two craft separated, the tug +steaming back to her scows. + +"That lessens our chance just so much," growled Elisha, as he joined +the rest. "Now we can't do all we agreed to." + +"Keep dead-reckonin', 'Lisha," said Martin; "dat's good 'nough for us; +an', say, can't you take sights by a watch--jess for a bluff, to show +in de log-book?" + +"Might; 't wouldn't be reliable. Good enough, though, for log-book +testimony. That's what I'll do." + +Inch by inch they gathered in their cable and coiled it down, unmoved +by the protesting toots of the steamer's whistle. When half of it lay +on the deck, the steamer slowed down, while her crew worked at their +end of the rope; then she went ahead, the schooner dropped back to +nearly the original distance, and they saw a long stretch of new Manila +hawser leading out from the bridle and knotted to their cable. They +cursed and shook their fists, but pumped manfully on the windlass, and +by nightfall had brought the knot over their bows by means of a +"messenger," and were heaving on the new hawser. + +"Weakens our case just that much more," growled Elisha. "We were to +furnish the tow-line." + +"Heave away, my boys!" said Martin. "Dey's only so many ropes aboard +her, an' when we get 'em all we've got dat boat an' dem men." + +So they warped their craft across the Western Ocean. Knot after knot, +hawser after hawser, came over the bows and cumbered the deck. + +They would have passed them over the stern as fast as they came in, +were they not salvors with litigation ahead; for their hands must be +clean when they entered their claim, and to this end Elisha chalked out +the longitude daily at noon and showed it to the steamer, always +receiving a thankful acknowledgment on the whistle. He secured the +figures by his dead-reckoning; but the carefully kept log-book also +showed longitude by chronometer sights, taken when the sun shone, with +his old quadrant and older watch, and corrected to bring a result +plausibly near to that of the reckoning by log and compass. But the +log-book contained no reference to the loss of the chronometer. That +was to happen at the last. + +On stormy days, when the sea rose, they dared not shorten their +tow-line, and the steamer-folk made sure that it was long enough to +eliminate the risk of its parting. So these days were passed in +idleness and profanity; and when the sea went down they would go to +work, hoping that the last tow-line was in their hands. But it was not +until the steamer had given them three Manila and two steel hawsers, +four weak--too weak--mooring-chains, and a couple of old and frayed +warping-lines, that the coming up to the bow of an anchor-chain of +six-inch link told them that the end was near, that the steamer had +exhausted her supply of tow-lines, and that her presumably sane skipper +would not give them his last means of anchoring--the other chain. + +They were right. Either for this reason or because of the proximity to +English bottom, the steamer ceased her coyness, and her crew watched +from the taffrail, while those implacable, purposeful men behind crept +up to them. It was slow, laborious work; for the small windlass would +not grip the heavy links of the chain, and they must needs climb out a +few fathoms, making fast messengers to heave on, while the idle half of +them gathered in the slackened links by hand. + +On a calm, still night they finally unshipped the windlass-brakes and +looked up at the round, black stern of the steamer not fifty feet +ahead. They were surrounded by lights of outgoing and incoming craft, +and they knew by soundings taken that day, when the steamer had slowed +down for the same purpose, that they were within the hundred-fathom +curve, close to the mouth of the Channel, but not within the three-mile +limit. Rejoicing at the latter fact, they armed themselves to a man +with belaying-pins from their still intact pin-rails, and climbed out +on the cable, the whole eighteen of them, man following man, in close +climbing order. + +"Now, look here," said a portly man with a gilt-bound cap to the leader +of the line, as he threw a leg over the taffrail, "what's the meaning, +may I ask, of this unreasonable conduct?" + +"You may ask, of course," said the man,--it was Elisha,--"but we'd like +to ask something, too" (he was sparring for time until more should +arrive); "we'd like to ask why you drag us across the Atlantic Ocean +against our will?" + +Another man climbed aboard, and said: + +"Yes; we 'gree to steer you into New York. You's adrif' in de trough of +de sea, an' you got no chronometer, an' you can't navigate, an' we come +'long--under command, mind you--an' give you our tow-line, an' tell you +de road to port. Wha' you mean by dis?" + +"Tut, tut, my colored friend!" answered the man of gilt. "You were +dismasted and helpless, and I gave you a tow. It was on the high seas, +and I chose the port, as I had the right." + +Another climbed on board. + +"We were not helpless," rejoined Elisha. "We had a good jury-rig under +the bows, and we let it go to assist you. Are you the skipper here?" + +"I am." + +Martin's big fist smote him heavily in the face, and the blow was +followed by the crash of Elisha's belaying-pin on his head. The captain +fell, and for a while lay quiet. There were four big, strong men over +the rail now, and others coming. Opposing them were a second mate, an +engineer, a fireman, coal-passer, watchman, steward, and cook--easy +victims to these big-limbed fishermen. The rest of the crew were on +duty below decks or at the steering-winch. It was a short, sharp +battle; a few pistols exploded, but no one was hurt, and the firearms +were captured and their owners well hammered with belaying-pins; then, +binding all victims as they overcame them, the whole party raided the +steering-winch and engine-room, and the piracy was complete. + +But from their standpoint it was not piracy--it was resistance to +piracy; and when Amos, the ex-engineer, had stopped the engines and +banked the fires, they announced to the captives bound to the rail +that, with all due respect for the law, national and international, +they would take that distressed steamboat into New York and deliver her +to the authorities, with a claim for salvage. The bargain had been made +on the American coast, and their log-book not only attested this, but +the well-doing of their part of the contract. + +When the infuriated English captain, now recovered, had exhausted his +stock of adjectives and epithets, he informed them (and he was backed +by his steward and engineer) that there was neither food nor coal for +the run to New York; to which Elisha replied that, if so, the foolish +and destructive waste would be properly entered in the log-book, and +might form the basis of a charge of barratry by the underwriters, if it +turned out that any underwriters had taken a risk on a craft with such +an "all-fired lunatic" for a skipper as this. But they would go back; +they might be forced to burn some of the woodwork fittings (her decks +were of iron) for fuel, and as for food, though their own supply of +groceries was about exhausted, there were several cubic yards of salt +codfish in the schooner's hold, and this they would eat: they were used +to it themselves, and science had declared that it was good +brain-food--good for feeble-minded Englishmen who couldn't splice wire +nor take care of a chronometer. + +Before starting back they made some preliminary and precautionary +preparations. While Martin inventoried the stores and Amos the +coal-supply, the others towed the schooner alongside and moored her. +Then they shackled the schooner's end of the chain cable around the +inner barrel of the windlass and riveted the key of the shackle. They +transhipped their clothing and what was left of the provisions. They +also took the log-book and charts, compass, empty outer +chronometer-case,--which Elisha handled tenderly and officiously by its +strap in full view of the captives,--windlass-brakes, tool-chest, +deck-tools, axes, handspikes, heavers, boat-hooks, belaying-pins, and +everything in the shape of weapon or missile by which disgruntled +Englishmen could do harm to the schooner or their rescuers. + +Then they passed the rescued ones down to the schooner, and Martin told +them where they would find the iron kettle for boiling codfish, with +the additional information that with skill and ingenuity they could +make fish-balls in the same kettle. + +Martin had reported a plenitude of provisions, and anathematized the +lying captain and steward; and Amos had declared his belief that with +careful economy in the use of coal they could steam to the American +coast with the supply in the bunkers: so they did not take any of the +codfish, and the hawsers, valuable as fuel in case of a shortage, were +left where they would be more valuable as evidence against the lawless, +incompetent Englishmen. And they also left the dories, all but one, for +reasons in Elisha's mind which he did not state at the time. + +They removed the bonds of one man--who could release the others--and +cast off the fastenings; then, with Amos and a picked crew of pupils in +the boat's vitals, they went ahead and dropped the prison-hulk back to +the full length of the chain, while the furious curses of the prisoners +troubled the air. They found a little difficulty in steering by the +winch and deck-compass (they would have mended the tiller-ropes with a +section of backstay had they not bargained otherwise), but finally +mastered the knack, and headed westerly. + +You cannot take an Englishman's ship from under him--homeward bound and +close to port--and drag him to sea again on a diet of salt codfish +without impinging on his sanity. When day broke they looked and saw the +hawsers slipping over the schooner's rail, and afterward a fountain of +fish arising from her hatches to follow the hawsers overboard. + +"What's de game, I wunner?" asked Martin. "Tryin' to starve deyselves?" + +"Dunno," answered Elisha, with a serious expression. "They're not doin' +it for nothin'. They're wavin' their hats at us. Somethin' on their +minds." + +"We'll jes let 'em wave. We'll go 'long 'bout our business." + +So they went at eight knots an hour; for, try as he might, Amos could +get no more out of the engine. "She's a divil to chew up coal," he +explained; "we may have to burn the boat yet." + +"Hope not," said Elisha. "'Tween you an' me, Amos, this is a desperate +bluff we're makin', an' if we go to destroyin' property we may get no +credit for savin' it. We'd have no chance in the English courts at all, +but it's likely an American judge 'ud recognize our original +position--our bargain to steer her in." + +"Too bad 'bout that tarred cable of ours," rejoined Amos; "three days' +good fuel in that, I calculate." + +"Well, it's gone with the codfish, and the fact is properly entered in +the log as barratrous conduct on the part of the skipper. Enough to +prove him insane." + +And further to strengthen this possible aspect of the case, Elisha +found a blank space on the leaf of the log-book which recorded the +first meeting and bargain to tow, and filled it with the potential +sentence, "Steamer's commander acts strangely." For a well-kept logbook +is excellent testimony in court. + +Elisha's knowledge of navigation did not enable him to project a course +on the great circle--the shortest track between two points on the +earth's surface, and the route taken by steamers. But he possessed a +fairly practical and ingenious mind, and with a flexible steel +straight-edge rule, and a class-room globe in the skipper's room, laid +out his course between the lane-routes of the liners,--which he would +need to vary daily,--as it was not wise to court investigation. But he +signaled to two passing steamships for Greenwich time, and set his +watch, obtaining its rate of correction by the second favor; and with +this, and his surely correct latitude by meridian observation, he hoped +to make an accurate landfall in home waters. + +And so the hours went by, with their captives waving caps ceaselessly, +until the third day's sun arose to show them an empty deck on the +schooner, over a dozen specks far astern and to the southward, and an +east-bound steamship on their port bow. The specks could be nothing but +the dories, and they were evidently trying to intercept the steamship. +Elisha yelled in delight. + +"They've abandoned ship--just what I hoped for--in the dories. They've +no case at all now." + +"But what for, Elisha?" asked Martin. "Mus' be hungry, I t'ink." + +"Mebbe, or else they think that liner, who can stop only to save +life,--carries the mails, you see,--will turn round and put 'em in +charge here. Why, nothin' but an English man-o'-war could do that now." + +They saw the steamship slow down, while the black specks flocked up to +her, and then go on her way. And they went on theirs; but three days +later they had reasoned out a better explanation of the Englishmen's +conduct. Martin came on deck with a worried face, and announced that, +running short of salt meat in the harness-cask, he had broken out the +barrels of beef, pork, and hard bread that he had counted upon, and +found their contents absolutely uneatable, far gone in putrescence, +alive with crawling things. + +"Must ha' thought he was fitting out a Yankee hell-ship when he bought +this," said Elisha, in disgust, as he looked into the ill-smelling +barrels. "Overboard with it, boys!" + +Overboard went the provisions, for starving animals could not eat of +them, and the odor permeated the ship. They resigned themselves to a +gloomy outlook--gloomier when Amos reported that the coal in the +bunkers would last but two days longer. He had been mistaken, he said; +he had calculated to run compound engines with Scotch boilers, not a +full-powered blast-furnace with six inches of scale on the +crown-sheets. + +"And they knew this," groaned Elisha. "That's why they chucked the +stuff overboard--to bring us to terms, and never thinkin' they'd starve +first. They were dead luny, but we're lunier." + +They stopped the engines and visited the schooner in the dory. Not a +scrap of food was there, and the fish-kettle was scraped bright. They +returned and went on. With plenty of coal there was still six days' run +ahead to New York. How many with wood fuel, chopped on empty stomachs +and burned in coal-furnaces, they could not guess. But they went to +work. There were three axes, two top-mauls, and several handspikes and +pinch-bars aboard, and with these they attacked bulkheads and spare +woodwork, and fed the fires with the fragments; for a glance down the +hatches had shown them nothing more combustible and detachable in the +cargo than a few layers of railroad iron, which covered and blocked the +openings to the lower hold. + +With the tools at hand they could not supply the rapacious fires fast +enough to keep up steam, and the engines slowed to a five-knot rate. As +this would not maintain a sufficient tension on the dragging schooner +to steer by, they were forced to sacrifice the best item in their claim +for salvage: they spliced the tiller-ropes and steered from the +pilot-house. They would have sacrificed the schooner, too, for Amos +complained bitterly of the load on the engines; but Elisha would not +hear of it. She was the last evidence in their favor now, their last +connection with respectability. + +"She and the pavement o' h----l," he growled fiercely, "are all we've +got to back us up. Without proof we're pirates under the law." + +However, he made no entry in the log of the splicing, trusting that a +chance would come in port to remove the section of wire rope with which +they had joined the broken ends. + +And, indeed, it seemed that their claim was dwindling. The chronometer +which they were to use for the steamer's benefit was lost; the tow-line +which they were to furnish had been given back to them; the course to +New York which they chalked out had not been accepted; the abandoning +of their ship by the Englishmen was clearly enforced by the pressure of +their own presence; and now they themselves had been forced to cancel +from the claim the schooner's value as a necessary drag behind the +steamer, by substituting a three hours' splicing-job, worth five +dollars in a rigging-loft, and possibly fifty if bargained for at sea. +Nothing was left them now but their good intentions, duly entered in +the log-book. + +But fate, and the stupid understanding of some one or two of them, +decreed that their good intentions also should be taken from them. The +log-book disappeared, and the strictest search failing to bring it to +light, the conclusion was reached that it had been fed to the fires +among the wreckage of the skipper's room and furniture. They blasphemed +to the extent that the occasion required, and there was civil war for a +time, while the suspected ones were being punished; then they drew what +remaining comfort they could from burning the steamer's log-book and +track-chart, which contained data conflicting with their position in +the case, and resumed their labors. + +Martin had raked and scraped together enough of food to give them two +scant meals; but these eaten, starvation began. The details of their +suffering need not be given. They chopped, hammered, and pried in +hunger and anxiety, and with lessening strength, while the days passed +by--fortunately spared the torture of thirst, for there was plenty of +water in the tanks. Upheld by the dominating influence of Elisha, +Martin, and Amos, they stripped the upper works and fed to the fires +every door and sash, every bulkhead and wooden partition, all chairs, +stools, and tables, cabin berths and forecastle bunks. Then they +attempted sending down the topmasts, but gave it up for lack of +strength to get mast-ropes aloft, and attacked instead the boats on the +chocks, of which there were four. + +It was no part of the plan to ask help of passing craft and have their +distressed condition taken advantage of; but when the hopelessness of +the fight at last appealed to the master spirits, they consented to the +signaling of an east-bound steamer, far to the northward, in the hope +of getting food. So the English ensign, union down, was again flown +from the gaff. It was at a time when Elisha could not stand up at the +wheel, when Amos at the engines could not have reversed them, when +Martin--man of iron--staggered weakly around among the rest and struck +them with a pump-brake, keeping them at work. (They would strive under +the blows, and sit down when he had passed.) But the flag was not seen; +a haze arose between the two craft and thickened to fog. + +By Elisha's reckoning they were on the Banks now, about a hundred miles +due south from Cape Sable, and nearer to Boston than to Halifax; +otherwise he might have made for the latter port and defied alien +prejudice. But the fog continued, and it was not port they were looking +for now; it was help, food: they were working for life, not salvage; +and, wasting no steam, they listened for whistles or fog-horns, but +heard none near enough to be answered by their weak voices. + +And so the boat, dragging the dismal mockery behind her, plodded and +groped her way on the course which Elisha had shaped for Boston, while +man after man dropped in his tracks, refusing to rise; and those that +were left nourished the fires as they could, until the afternoon of the +third day of fog, when the thumping, struggling engines halted, +started, made a half-revolution, and came to a dead stop. Amos crawled +on deck and forward to the bridge, where, with Elisha's help, he +dragged on the whistle-rope and dissipated the remaining steam in a +wheezy, gasping howl, which lasted about a half-minute. It was answered +by a furious siren-blast from directly astern; and out of the fog, at +twenty knots an hour, came a mammoth black steamer. Seeming to heave +the small tramp out of the way with her bow wave, she roared by at six +feet distance, and in ten seconds they were looking at her vanishing +stern. But ten minutes later the stern appeared in view, as the liner +backed toward them. The reversed English ensign still hung at the gaff; +and the starving men, some prostrate on the deck, some clinging to the +rails, unable to shout, had painted to the flag of distress and +beckoned as the big ship rushed by. + + * * * * * + +"There's a chance," said the captain of this liner to the pilot, as he +rejoined him on the bridge an hour later, "of international complications +over this case, and I may have to lose a trip to testify. That's the +_Afghan Prince_ and consort that I was telling you about. Strange, +isn't it, that I should pick up these fellows after picking up the +legitimate crew going east? I don't know which crew was the hungriest. +The real crew charge this crowd with piracy. By George, it's rather +funny!" + +"And these men," said the pilot, with a laugh, "would have claimed +salvage?" + +"Yes, and had a good claim, too, for effort expended; but they've +offset it by their violence. Their chance was good in the English +courts, if they'd only allowed the steamer to go on; and then, too, +they abandoned her in a more dangerous position than where they found +her. You see, they met her off Nantucket with sea-room, and nothing +wrong with her but broken tiller-ropes; and they quit her here close to +Sandy Hook, in a fog, more than likely to hit the beach before morning. +Then, in that case, she belongs to the owners or underwriters." + +"Why didn't they make Boston?" asked the pilot. + +"Tried to, but overran their distance. Chronometer must have been 'way +out. I talked to the one who navigated, and found that he'd never +thought of allowing for local attraction,--didn't happen to run against +the boat's deviation table,--and so, with all that railway iron below +hatches, he fetched clear o' Nantucket, and 'way in here." + +"That's tough. The salvage of that steamer would make them rich, +wouldn't it? And I think they might have got it if they could have held +out." + +"Yes; think they might. But here's another funny thing about it. They +needn't have starved. They needn't have chopped her to pieces for fuel. +I just remember, now. Her skipper told me there was good anthracite +coal in her hold, and Chicago canned meats, Minnesota flour, beef, +pork, and all sorts of good grub. He carried some of the rails in the +'tween-deck for steadying ballast, and I suppose it prevented them +looking farther. And now they'll lose their salvage, and perhaps have +to pay it on their own schooner if anything comes along and picks them +up. That's the craft that'll get the salvage." + +"Not likely," said the pilot; "not in this fog, and the wind and sea +rising. I'll give 'em six hours to fetch up on the Jersey coast. A mail +contract with the government is sometimes a nuisance, isn't it, +captain? How many years would it take you to save money to equal your +share of the salvage if you had yanked that tramp and the schooner into +New York?" + +"It would take more than one lifetime," answered the captain, a little +sadly. "A skipper on a mail-boat is the biggest fool that goes to sea." + +The liner did not reach quarantine until after sundown, hence remained +there through the night. As she was lifting her anchor in the morning, +preparatory to steaming up to her dock, the crew of the _Rosebud_, +refreshed by food and sleep, but still weak and nerveless, came on deck +to witness a harrowing sight. The _Afghan Prince_ was coming toward the +anchorage before a brisk southeast wind. Astern of her, held by the +heavy iron chain, was their schooner. Moored to her, one on each side, +were two garbage-scows; and at the head of the parade, pretending to +tow them all,--puffing, rolling, and smoking in the effort to keep a +strain on the tow-line,--and tooting joyously with her whistle, was a +little, dingy tugboat, with a large gilt name on her pilot-house--_J. +C. Hawks_. + + + + +BETWEEN THE MILLSTONES + + +He stood before the recruiting officer, trembling with nervousness, +anxious of face, and clothed in rags; but he was clean, for, knowing +the moral effect of cleanliness, he had lately sought the beach and +taken a swim. + +"Want to enlist?" asked the officer, taking his measure with trained +eye. + +"Yes, sir; I read you wanted men in the navy." + +"Want seamen, firemen, and landsmen. What's your occupation? You look +like a tramp." + +"Yes," he answered bitterly, "I'm a tramp. That's all they'd let me be. +I used to be a locomotive engineer--before the big strike. Then they +blacklisted me, and I've never had a job above laborin' work since. +It's easy to take to the road and stay at it when you find you can't +make over a dollar a day at back-breakin' work after earnin' three and +four at the throttle. An engineer knows nothin' but his trade, sir. +Take it away, and he's a laborin' man. + +"I'd ha' worked and learned another, but they jailed me--put me in +choky, 'cause I had no visible means o' support. I had no money, and +was a criminal under the law. And they kept at it,--jailed me again and +again as a vagrant,--when all I wanted was work. After a while I didn't +care. But now's my chance, sir, if you'll take me on. I don't know much +about boats and the sea, but I can fire an engine, and know something +about steam." + +"A fireman's work on board a war-vessel is very different from that of +a locomotive fireman," said the officer, leaning back in his chair. + +"I know, sir; that may be," the tramp replied eagerly; "but I can +shovel coal, and I can learn, and I can work. I'm not very strong now, +'cause I haven't had much to eat o' late years; but I'm not a drinkin' +man--why, that costs more than grub. Give me a chance, sir; I'm an +American; I'm sick o' bein' hunted from jail to jail, like a wild +animal, just 'cause I can't be satisfied with pick-and-shovel work. +I've spent half o' the last five years in jail as a vagrant. I put in a +month at Fernandina, and then I was chased out o' town. They gave me +two months at Cedar Keys, and I came here, only to get a month more in +this jail. I got out this mornin', and was told by the copper who +pinched me to get out o' Pensacola or he'd run me in again. And he's +outside now waitin' for me. I dodged past 'im to get in." + +"Pass this man in to the surgeon," said the officer, with something +like a sympathetic snort in the tone of his voice; for he also was an +American. + +An orderly escorted him to the surgeon, who examined him and passed +him. Then the recruit signed his name to a paper. + +"Emaciated," wrote the surgeon in his daily report; "body badly +nourished, and susceptible to any infection. Shows slight febrile +symptoms, which should be attended to. An intelligent man; with good +food and care will become valuable." + +The tramp marched to the receiving-ship with a squad of other recruits, +and on the way smiled triumphantly into the face of a mulatto +policeman, who glared at him. He had signed his name on a piece of +paper, and the act had changed his status. From a hunted fugitive and +habitual criminal he had become a defender of his country's honor--a +potential hero. + +On board the receiving-ship he was given an outfit of clothes and +bedding; but before he had learned more than the correct way to lash +his hammock and tie his silk neckerchief he was detailed for sea duty, +and with a draft of men went to Key West in a navy-yard tug; for war +was on, and the fleet blockading Havana needed men. + +At Key West he was appointed fireman on a torpedo-boat, where his +work--which he soon learned--was to keep up steam in a tubular boiler. +But he learned nothing of the rest of the boat, her business, or the +reason of her construction. Seasickness prevented any assertion of +curiosity at first, and later the febrile symptoms which the examining +surgeon had noted developed in him until he could think of nothing +else. There being no doctor aboard to diagnose his case, he was jeered +by his fellows, and kept at work until he dropped; then he took to his +hammock. Shooting pains darted through him, centering in his head, +while his throat was dry and his thirst tormenting. + +Life on a torpedo-boat engaged in despatch duty and rushing through a +Gulf Stream sea at thirty knots is torture to a healthy, nervous +system. It sent this sick man into speedy delirium. He could eat very +little, but he drank all the water that was given him. Moaning and +muttering, tossing about in his hammock, never asleep, but sometimes +unconscious, at other times raving, and occasionally lucid, he +presented a problem which demanded solution. His emaciated face, +flushed at first, had taken on a peculiar bronzed appearance, and there +were some who declared that it was Yellow Jack. But nothing could be +done until they reached the fleet and could interview a cruiser with a +surgeon. + +The sick man solved the problem. He scrambled out of his hammock at +daylight in the morning and dressed himself in his blue uniform, +carefully tying his black neckerchief in the regulation knot. Then, +muttering the while, he gained the deck. + +The boat was charging along at full speed, throwing aside a bow wave +nearly as high as herself. Three miles astern, just discernible in the +half-light, was a pursuing ram-bowed gunboat, spitting shot and shell; +and forward near the conning-tower were two blue-coated, brass-buttoned +officers, watching the pursuer through binoculars. + +The crazed brain of the sick man took cognizance of nothing but the +blue coats and brass buttons. He did not look for locust clubs and +silver shields. These were policemen--his deadliest enemies; but he +would escape them this time. + +With a yell he went overboard, and, being no swimmer, would have +drowned had not one of the blue-coated officers flung a lifebuoy. He +came to the surface somewhat saner, and seized the white ring, which +supported him, while the torpedo-boat rushed on. She could not stop for +one man in time of war, with a heavily armed enemy so near. + +A twenty-knot gunboat cannot chase a thirty-knot torpedo-boat very long +without losing her below the horizon; but this pursuit lasted ten +minutes from the time the sick man went overboard before the gunboat +ceased firing and slackened speed. The quarry was five miles away, out +of Spanish range, and the floating man directly under her bow. He was +seen and taken on board, with Spanish profanity sounding in his +unregarding ears. + +He lay on the deck, a bedraggled heap, gibbering and shivering, while a +surgeon, with cotton in his nostrils and smelling-salts in his hand, +diagnosed his case. Then the gunboat headed north and dropped anchor in +the bight of a small, crescent-shaped sand-key of the Florida Reef. For +the diagnosis was such as to suggest prompt action. Two brave men +bundled him into the dinghy, lowered it, pulled ashore, and laid him on +the sand. + +Returning, they stripped and threw away their clothing, sank the boat +with a buoy on the painter, took a swim, and climbed aboard to be +further disinfected. Then the gunboat lifted her anchor and steamed +eastward, her officers watching through glasses a small, low +torpedo-boat, far to the southeast,--too far to be reached by gun +fire,--which was steering a parallel course, and presumably watching +the gunboat. + +An idiot, a lunatic, with bloodshot eyes glaring from a yellow face, +raved, rolled, and staggered bareheaded under the sun about the sandy +crescent until sundown, then fell prostrate and unconscious into the +water on the beach, luckily turning over so that his nostrils were not +immersed. The tide went down, leaving him damp and still on the sands. +In about an hour a sigh, followed by a deep, gasping breath, escaped +him; another long inhalation succeeded, and another; then came steady, +healthy breathing and childlike sleep, with perspiration oozing from +every pore. He had passed a crisis. + +About midnight the cloudy sky cleared and the tropic stars came out, +while the tide climbed the beach again, and lapped at the sleeping +man's feet; but he did not waken, even when the Spanish gunboat stole +slowly into the bay from the sea and dropped anchor with a loud +rattling of chain in the hawse-pipe. A boat was lowered, and a single +man sculled it ashore; then lifting out a small cask and bag, he placed +them high on the sands and looked around. + +Spying the sleeping man, half immersed now, he approached and felt of +the damp clothing and equally damp face. Not noticing that he breathed +softly, the man crossed himself, then moved quickly and nervously +toward his boat, muttering, "Muerto, muerto!" Pushing out, he sculled +rapidly toward the anchored craft, and disposed of the boat and his +clothing as had been done before; then he swam to the gangway and +climbed aboard. + +Shortly after, the sleeping man, roused by the chill of the water, +crawled aimlessly up the sand and slept again--safe beyond the +tide-line. In three hours he sat up and rubbed his eyes, half awake, +but sane. + +Strange sights and sounds puzzled him. He knew nothing of this starlit +beach and stretch of sparkling water--nothing of that long black craft +at anchor, with the longer beam of white light reaching over the sea +from her pilot-house. He could only surmise that she was a war-vessel +from the ram-bow,--a feature of the government model which had +impressed him at Key West,--and from the noise she was making. She +quivered in a maze of flickering red flashes, and the rattling din of +her rapid-fire and machine guns transcended in volume all the roadside +blastings he had heard in his wanderings. Dazed and astonished, he rose +to his feet, but, too weak to stand, sat down again and looked. + +Half a mile seaward, where the beam of light ended, a small craft, low +down between two crested waves, was speeding toward the gunboat in the +face of her fire. The water about her was lashed into turmoil by the +hail of projectiles; but she kept on, at locomotive speed, until within +a thousand feet of the gunboat, when she turned sharply to starboard, +doubled on her track, and raced off to sea, still covered by the +search-light and followed by shot and shell while the gunners could see +her. + +When the gun fire ceased, a hissing of steam could be heard in the +distance, and a triumphant Spanish yell answered. The small enemy had +been struck, and the gunboat slipped her cable and followed. + +The tired brain could not cope with the problem, and again the man +slept, to awaken at sunrise with ravenous hunger and thirst, and a +memory of what seemed to be horrible dreams,--vague recollections of +painful experiences,--torturing labor with aching muscles and blistered +hands; harsh words and ridicule from strong, bearded men; and running +through and between, the shadowy figures of blue-coated, brass-buttoned +men, continually ordering him on, and threatening arrest. The spectacle +of the night was as dream-like as the rest; for he remembered nothing +of the gunboat which had rescued and marooned him. + +His face had lost its yellowish-bronze color, but was pale and +emaciated as ever, while his sunken eyes held the soft light which +always comes of extreme physical suffering. He was too weak to remain +on his feet, but in the effort to do so he spied the cask and bag +higher up on the beach and crawled to them. Prying a plug from the +bunghole with his knife, he found water, sweet and delicious, which he +drank by rolling the cask carefully and burying his lips in the +overflow. Evidently some one in authority on the gunboat had decreed +that he should not die of hunger or thirst, for the bag contained hard +bread. + +Stronger after a meal, he climbed the highest sand-dune and studied the +situation. An outcropping of coral formed the backbone of the thin +crescent which held him, and which was about half a mile between the +points. To the south, opening out from the bay, was a clear stretch of +sea, green in the sunlight, deep blue in the shadows of the clouds, and +on the horizon were a few sails and smoke columns. West and east were +other sandy islets and coral reefs, and to the north a continuous line +of larger islands which might be inhabited, but gave no indication of +it. + +Out in the bay, bobbing to the heave of the slight ground-swell, were +the three white buoys left by the Spaniards to mark the sunken boats +and slipped cable; and far away on the beach, just within the western +point, was something long and round, which rolled in the gentle surf +and glistened in the sunlight. He knew nothing of buoys, but they +relieved his loneliness; they were signs of human beings, who must have +placed him there with the bread and water, and who might come for him. + +"Wonder if I got pinched again, and this is some new kind of a choky," +he mused. "Been blamed sick and silly, and must ha' lost the job and +got jailed again. Just my luck! S'pose the jug was crowded and they run +me out here. Wish they'd left me a hat. Wonder how long I'm in for this +time." + +He descended to the beach and found that repeated wettings of his hair +relieved him from the headache that the sun's heat was bringing on; and +satisfied that the strong hand of local law had again closed over him, +he resigned himself to the situation, resenting only the absence of a +shade-tree or a hat. "Much better 'n the calaboose in El Paso," he +muttered, "or the brickyard in Chicago." + +As he lolled on the sand, the glistening thing over at the western +point again caught his eye. After a moment's scrutiny he rose and +limped toward it, following the concave of the beach, and often pausing +to rest and bathe his head. It was a long journey for him, and the +tide, at half-ebb when he started, was rising again when he came +abreast of the object and sat down to look at it. It was of metal, long +and round, rolling nearly submerged, and held by the alternate surf and +undertow parallel with the beach, about twenty feet out. + +He waded in, grasped it by a T-shaped projection in the middle, and +headed it toward the shore. Then he launched it forward with all his +strength--not much, but enough to lift a bluntly pointed end out of +water as it grounded and exposed a small, four-bladed steel wheel, +shaped something like a windmill. He examined this, but could not +understand it, as it whirled freely either way and seemed to have no +internal connection. The strange cylinder was about sixteen feet long +and about eighteen inches in diameter. + +"Boat o' some kind," he muttered; "but what kind? That screw's too +small to make it go. Let's see the other end." + +He launched it with difficulty, and noticed that when floating end on +to the surf it ceased to roll and kept the T-shaped projection +uppermost, proving that it was ballasted. Swinging it, he grounded the +other end, which was radically different in appearance. It was long and +finely pointed, with four steel blades or vanes, two horizontal and two +vertical,--like the double tails of an ideal fish,--and in hollowed +parts of these vanes were hung a pair of unmistakable propellers, one +behind the other, and of opposite pitch and motion. + +"One works on the shaft, t' other on a sleeve," he mused, as he turned +them. "A roundhouse wiper could see that. Bevel-gearin' inside, I +guess. It's a boat, sure enough, and this reverse action must be to +keep her from rolling." + +On each of the four vanes he found a small blade, showing by its +connection that it possessed range of action, yet immovable as the vane +itself, as though held firmly by inner leverage. Those on the +horizontal vanes were tilted upward. Just abaft the T-shaped +projection--which, fastened firmly to the hull, told him nothing of its +purpose--were numerous brass posts buried flush with the surface, in +each of which was a square hole, as though intended to be turned with a +key or crank. Some were marked with radiating lines and numbers, and +they evidently controlled the inner mechanism, part of which he could +see--little brass cog-wheels, worms, and levers--through a fore-and-aft +slot near the keyholes. + +Rising from the forward end of this slot, and lying close to the metal +hull in front of it, was a strong lever of brass, L-shaped, connected +internally, and indicating to his trained mechanical mind that its only +sphere of action was to lift up and sink back into the slot. He +fingered it, but did not yet try to move it. A little to the left of +this lever was a small blade of steel, curved to fit the convex +hull,--which it hugged closely,--and hinged at its forward edge. This, +too, must have a purpose,--an internal connection,--and he did not +disturb it until he had learned more. + +To the right of the brass lever was an oblong hatch about eight inches +long, flush with the hull, and held in place by screws. Three seams, +with lines of screws, encircled the round hull, showing that it was +constructed in four sections; and these screws, with those in the +hatch, were strong and numerous--placed there to stay. + +Fatigued from his exertion, he moistened his hair, sat down, and +watched the incoming tide swing the craft round parallel with the +beach. As the submerged bow raised to a level with the stern, he +noticed that the small blades on the horizontal vanes dropped from +their upward slant to a straight line with the vanes. + +"Rudders," he said, "horizontal rudders. Can't be anything else." With +his chin in his hand and his wrinkled brow creased with deeper +corrugations, he put his mind through a process of inductive reasoning. + +"Horizontal rudders," he mused, "must be to keep her from diving, or to +make her dive. They work automatically, and I s'pose the vertical +rudders are the same. There's nothing outside to turn 'em with. That +boat isn't made to ride in,--no way to get into her,--and she isn't big +enough, anyhow. And as you can't get into her, that brass lever must be +what starts and stops her. Wonder what the steel blade's for. 'T isn't +a handy shape for a lever,--to be handled with fingers,--too sharp; but +it has work to do, or it wouldn't be there. That section o' railroad +iron on top must be to hang the boat by,--a traveler,--when she's out +o' water. + +"And the fan-wheel on the nose--what's that for? If it's a speed or +distance indicator, the dial's inside, out o' sight. There's no +exhaust, so the motive power can't be steam. Clockwork or electricity, +maybe. Mighty fine workmanship all through! That square door is fitted +in for keeps, and she must ha' cost a heap. Now, as she has horizontal +rudders, she's intended to steer up and down; and as there's no way to +get into her or to stay on her, and as she can't be started from the +inside or steered from the outside, I take it she's a model o' one o' +those submarine boats I've heard of--some fellow's invention that's got +away from him. Guess I'll try that lever and see what happens. I'll +bury the propellers, though; no engine ought to race." + +He pushed the craft into deeper water, pointed it shoreward, and +cautiously lifted the curved blade to a perpendicular position, as high +as it would go. Nothing happened. He lowered it, raised it again,--it +worked very easily,--then, leaving it upright, he threw the long brass +lever back into the slot. A slight humming came from within, the +propellers revolved slowly, and the craft moved ahead until the bow +grounded. Then he followed and lifted the lever out of the slot to its +first position, shutting off the power. + +Delighted with his success, he backed it out farther than before and +again threw back the brass lever, this time with the curved blade down +flat on the hull. With the sinking of the lever into the slot the +mechanism within gave forth a rushing sound, the propellers at the +stern threw up a mound of foam, and the craft shot past him, dived +until it glanced on the sandy bottom, then slid a third of its length +out of water on the beach and stopped, the propellers still churning, +and the small wheel on the nose still spinning with the motion given it +by the water. + +"Air-pressure!" he exclaimed, as he shut it off. He had seen a line of +bubbles rise as the thing dived. "An air-engine, and the whole thing +must be full o' compressed air. The brass lever turns it on, and if the +steel blade's up it gives it the slow motion; if it's down, she gets +full speed at once. Now I know why it's blade-shaped. It's so the water +itself can push it down--after she starts." + +He did not try to launch it; he waited until the tide floated it, then +pushed it along the beach toward his store of food, arriving at high +water too exhausted to do more that day than ground his capture and +break hard bread. And as the afternoon drew to a close the fatigue in +his limbs became racking pain; either as a result of his exposure, or +as a later symptom of the fever, he was now in the clutch of a new +enemy--rheumatism. + +Then, with the coming of night came a return of his first violent +symptoms; he was hot, shivery, and feverish by turns, with dry tongue +and throat, and a splitting headache; but in this condition he could +still take cognizance of a black, ram-bowed gunboat, which stole into +the bay from the east and dropped anchor near the buoys. + +A half-moon shone in the western sky, and by its light the steamer +presented an unkempt, broken appearance, even to the untrained eye of +this castaway. Her after-funnel was but half as high as the other; +there were gaps in her iron rail, and vacancies below the twisted +davits where boats should be; and her pilot-house was wrecked--the +starboard door and nearest window merged in a large, ragged hole. + +Officers on the bridge gave orders in foreign speech, in tones which +came shoreward faintly. Men sprang overboard with ropes, which they +fastened to the buoys; then they swam back, and for an hour or two the +whole crew was busy getting the boats to the davits and the end of the +cable into the hawse-pipe. + +The man on the beach recognized the craft he had seen when he wakened. + +He felt that she must in some way be connected with his being there, +and he waited, expecting to see a boat put off; but when both boats +were hoisted and he heard the humming of a steam-windlass, he gave up +this expectation and tried to hail. + +His voice could not rise above a hoarse whisper. The anchor was fished, +and after an interval he heard the windlass again, heaving in the other +chain. They were going away--going to leave him there to die. + +He crawled and stumbled down to the water's edge. The tide was up +again, rippling around the strange thing he had resolved to navigate. +It was not a boat, but it would go ahead, and it would float--it would +possibly float him. + +With strength born of desperation and fear, he pushed it, inch by inch, +into the water until it was clear of the sand, and tried the engine on +the slow motion. The propellers turned and satisfied him. He shut off +the power, swung the thing round until it pointed toward the steamer, +and seated himself astride of it, just abaft the T-shaped projection in +the middle. The long cylinder sank with him, and when it had steadied +to a balance between his weight and its buoyancy he found that it bore +him, shoulders out; and the position he had taken--within reach of the +levers behind him--lifted the blunt nose higher than the stern, but not +out of water. This was practicable. + +He reached behind, raised the blade lever, threw back the large brass +lever, and the craft went ahead, at about the speed of a healthy man's +walk. He kept his left hand on the blade lever to hold it up, and by +skilful paddling with his right maintained his balance and assisted his +legs in steering. He had never learned to swim, but he felt less fear +of drowning than of slow death on the island. + +In five minutes he was near enough to the steamer to read her name. He +pulled the starting-lever forward, stopping his headway; for he must be +sure of his welcome. + +"Say, boss," he called faintly and hoarsely, "take me along, can't you? +Or else gi' me some medicine. I'm blamed sick--I'll die if I stay +here." + +The noise of the windlass and chain prevented this being heard, but at +last, after repeated calls on his part, a Spanish howl went up from +amidships, and a sailor sprang from one of the boats to the deck, +crossed himself, and pointing to the man in the water, ran forward. + +"Madre de Dios!" he yelled. "El aparecido del muerto." + +Work stopped, and a call down a hatchway stopped the windlass. In ports +and dead-lights appeared faces; and those on deck, officers and men, +crowded to the rail, some to cross themselves, some to sink on their +knees, others to grip the rail tightly, while they stared in silence at +the torso and livid face in the moonlight on the sea--the ghastly face +of the man they had marooned to die alone, who had been seen later dead +on the beach. + +"Take me with you, boss," he pleaded with his weak voice. "I'm sick; I +can't hold on much longer." + +It was not the dead man's body washed out from the beach, for it moved, +it spoke. And it was not a living man; no man may recover from advanced +yellow fever, and this man had been found afterward, dead--cold and +still. And no living man may swim in this manner--high out of water, +patting and splashing with one hand. It was a ghost. It had come to +punish them. + +"Por que nos atormentan asi, hombre, deja?" cried a white-faced +officer. + +"Can't you hear me?" asked the apparition. "I'll come closer." + +He threw back the starting-lever, and the thing began moving. Then a +rifle-barrel protruded from a dead-light. There was a report and a +flash, and a bullet passed through his hair. The shock startled him, +and he lost his balance. In the effort to recover it his leg knocked +down the blade lever, and the steel cylinder sprang forward, leaving +him floundering in the water. Pointed upward, it appeared for a moment +on the surface, then dived like a porpoise and disappeared. In five +seconds something happened to the gunboat. + +Coincident with a sound like near-by thunder, the black craft lifted +amidships like a bending jack-knife, and up from the shattered deck, +and out from ports, doors, and dead-lights, came a volcano of flame and +smoke. The sea beneath followed in a mound, which burst like a great +bubble, sending a cloud of steam and spray and whitish-yellow smoke +aloft to mingle with the first and meet the falling fragments. These +fell for several seconds--hatches, gratings, buckets, ladders, +splinters of wood, parts of men, and men whole, but limp. + +A side-ladder fell near the choking and half-stunned sick man, and he +seized it. Before he could crawl on top the two halves of the gunboat +had sunk in a swirl of bubbles and whirlpools. + +A few broken and bleeding swimmers approached to share his support, saw +his awful face in the moonlight, and swam away. + +A few hours later a gray cruiser loomed up close by and directed a +search-light at him. Then a gray cutter full of white-clad men +approached and took him off the ladder. He was delirious again, and +bleeding from mouth, nose, and ears. + + * * * * * + +The surgeon and the torpedo-lieutenant came up from the sick-bay, the +latter with enthusiasm on his face,--for he was young,--and joined a +group of officers on the quarterdeck. + +"He'll pull through, gentlemen," said the surgeon. "He is the man +Mosher lost overboard, though he doesn't know anything about it, nor +how he got on that sand-key. I suppose the _Destructor_ picked him +up and landed him. He found bread and water, he says. You see, the +first symptoms are similar in Yellow Jack and relapsing bilious fever. +I don't wonder that Mosher was nervous." + +"Then it _was_ the _Destructor_?" asked an ensign, pulling out a +note-book and a pencil. "And Lieutenant Mosher was right, after all?" + +"Yes; this man read her name before she blew up; and a Spanish sailor +has waked up and confirmed it. She was the _Destructor_, just over, and +trying to get into Havana. Instead of blowing up in Algeciras Bay, as +they thought, she had left with despatches for Havana, only to blow up +on the Florida Reef." + +"The _Destructor_," said the ensign, as he pocketed his note-book and +pencil, "carried fifty-five men. Don't we get the bounty as the nearest +craft?" + +"Not much," said the young and enthusiastic torpedo-lieutenant. "We +were not even within signal distance, and came along by accident. +Listen, all of you. When an American war-craft sinks or destroys a +larger enemy, there is a bounty due her crew of two hundred dollars for +every man on board the enemy. That is law, isn't it?" They nodded. "If +a submarine boat can be a war-craft, so may a Whitehead torpedo, and +certainly is one, being built for war. A war-craft abandoned is a +derelict, and the man who finds her becomes her lawful commander for +the time. If he belongs to the navy his position is strengthened, and +if he is alone he is not only commander, but the whole crew, and +consequently he is entitled to all the bounty she may earn. That is +law. + +"Now, listen hard. Lieutenant Mosher sent one torpedo at the gunboat; +it missed and became derelict, while Mosher escaped under one boiler. +This man found the derelict adrift, puzzled out the action, waited +until the gunboat came back for her anchor, then straddled his craft, +and rode out with the water-tripper up. They shot at him. He turned his +dog loose and destroyed the enemy. If the _Destructor_ carried +fifty-five men he is entitled to eleven thousand dollars, and the +government must pay, for that is law." + + + + +THE BATTLE OF THE MONSTERS + + +Extract from hospital record of the case of John Anderson, patient of +Dr. Brown, Ward 3, Room 6: + + August 3. Arrived at hospital in extreme mental distress, having + been bitten on wrist three hours previously by dog known to have + been rabid. Large, strong man, full-blooded and well nourished. + Sanguine temperament. Pulse and temperature higher than normal, due + to excitement. Cauterized wound at once (2 P.M.) and inoculated + with antitoxin. + + As patient admits having recently escaped, by swimming ashore, from + lately arrived cholera ship, now at quarantine, he has been + isolated and clothing disinfected. Watch for symptoms of cholera. + + August 3, 6 P.M. Microscopic examination of blood corroborative of + Metschnikoff's theory of fighting leucocytes. White corpuscles + gorged with bacteria. + +He was an amphibian, and, as such, undeniably beautiful; for the +sunlight, refracted and diffused in the water, gave his translucent, +pearl-blue body all the shifting colors of the spectrum. Vigorous and +graceful of movement, in shape he resembled a comma of three +dimensions, twisted, when at rest, to a slight spiral curve; but in +traveling he straightened out with quick successive jerks, each one +sending him ahead a couple of lengths. Supplemented by the undulatory +movement of a long continuation of his tail, it was his way of +swimming, good enough to enable him to escape his enemies; this, and +riding at anchor in a current by his cable-like appendage, constituting +his main occupation in life. The pleasure of eating was denied him; +nature had given him a mouth, but he used it only for purposes of +offense and defense, absorbing his food in a most unheard-of +manner--through the soft walls of his body. + +Yet he enjoyed a few social pleasures. Though the organs of the five +senses were missing in his economy, he possessed an inner sixth sense +which answered for all and also gave him power of speech. He would +converse, swap news and views, with creatures of his own and other +species, provided that they were of equal size and prowess; but he +wasted no time on any but his social peers. Smaller creatures he +pursued when they annoyed him; larger ones pursued him. + +The sunlight, which made him so beautiful to look at, was distasteful +to him; it also made him too visible. He preferred a half-darkness and +less fervor to life's battle--time to judge of chances, to figure on an +enemy's speed and turning-circle, before beginning flight or pursuit. +But his dislike of it really came of a stronger animus--a shuddering +recollection of three hours once passed on dry land in a comatose +condition, which had followed a particularly long and intense period of +bright sunlight. He had never been able to explain the connection, but +the awful memory still saddened his life. + +And now it seemed, as he swam about, that this experience might be +repeated. The light was strong and long-continued, the water +uncomfortably warm, and the crowd about him denser--so much so as to +prevent him from attending properly to a social inferior who had +crossed his bow. But just as his mind grasped the full imminence of the +danger, there came a sudden darkness, a crash and vibration of the +water, then a terrible, rattling roar of sound. The social inferior +slipped from his mouth, and with his crowding neighbors was washed far +away, while he felt himself slipping along, bounding and rebounding +against the projections of a corrugated wall which showed white in the +gloom. There was an unpleasant taste to the water, and he became aware +of creatures in his vicinity unlike any he had known,--quickly darting +little monsters about a tenth as large as himself,--thousands of them, +black and horrid to see, each with short, fish-like body and square +head like that of a dog; with wicked mouth that opened and shut +nervously; with hooked flippers on the middle part, and a bunch of +tentacles on the fore that spread out ahead and around. A dozen of them +surrounded him menacingly; but he was young and strong, much larger +than they, and a little frightened. A blow of his tail killed two, and +the rest drew off. + +The current bore them on until the white wall rounded off and was lost +to sight beyond the mass of darting creatures. Here was slack water, +and with desperate effort he swam back, pushing the small enemies out +of his path, meeting some resistance and receiving a few bites, until, +in a hollow in the wall, he found temporary refuge and time to think. +But he could not solve the problem. He had not the slightest idea where +he was or what had happened--who and what were the strange black +creatures, or why they had threatened him. + +His thoughts were interrupted. Another vibrant roar sounded, and there +was pitch-black darkness; then he was pushed and washed away from his +shelter, jostled, bumped, and squeezed, until he found himself in a +dimly lighted tunnel, which, crowded as it was with swimmers, was +narrow enough to enable him to see both sides at once. The walls were +dark brown and blue, broken up everywhere into depressions or caves, +some of them so deep as to be almost like blind tunnels. The dog-faced +creatures were there--as far as he could see; but besides them, now, +were others, of stranger shape--of species unknown to him. + +A slow current carried them on, and soon they entered a larger tunnel. +He swam to the opposite wall, gripped a projection, and watched in +wonder and awe the procession gliding by. He soon noticed the source of +the dim light. A small creature with barrel-like body and innumerable +legs or tentacles, wavering and reaching, floated past. Its body +swelled and shrank alternately, with every swelling giving out a +phosphorescent glow, with every contraction darkening to a faint red +color. Then came a group of others; then a second living lamp; later +another and another: they were evenly distributed, and illumined the +tunnel. + +There were monstrous shapes, living but inert, barely pulsing with +dormant life, as much larger than himself as the dog-headed kind were +smaller--huge, unwieldy, disk-shaped masses of tissue, light gray at +the margins, dark red in the middle. They were in the majority, and +blocked the view. Darting and wriggling between and about them were +horrible forms, some larger than himself, others smaller. There were +serpents, who swam with a serpent's motion. Some were serpents in form, +but were curled rigidly into living corkscrews, and by sculling with +their tails screwed their way through the water with surprising +rapidity. Others were barrel- or globe-shaped, with swarming tentacles. +With these they pulled themselves along, in and out through the crowd, +or, bringing their squirming appendages rearward,--each an individual +snake,--used them as propellers, and swam. There were creatures in the +form of long cylinders, some with tentacles by which they rolled along +like a log in a tideway; others, without appendages, were as inert and +helpless as the huge red-and-gray disks. He saw four ball-shaped +creatures float by, clinging together; then a group of eight, then one +of twelve. All these, to the extent of their volition, seemed to be in +a state of extreme agitation and excitement. + +The cause was apparent. The tunnel from which he had come was still +discharging the dog-faced animals by the thousand, and he knew now the +business they were on. It was war--war to the death. They flung +themselves with furious energy into the parade, fighting and biting all +they could reach. A hundred at a time would pounce on one of the large +red-and-gray creatures, almost hiding it from view; then, and before +they had passed out of sight, they would fall off and disperse, and the +once living victim would come with them, in parts. The smaller, active +swimmers fled, but if one was caught, he suffered; a quick dart, a +tangle of tentacles, an embrace of the wicked flippers, a bite--and a +dead body floated on. + +And now into the battle came a ponderous engine of vengeance and +defense. A gigantic, lumbering, pulsating creature, white and +translucent but for the dark, active brain showing through its walls, +horrible in the slow, implacable deliberation of its movements, floated +down with the current. It was larger than the huge red-and-gray +creatures. It was formless, in the full irony of the definition--for it +assumed all forms. It was long--barrel-shaped; it shrank to a sphere, +then broadened laterally, and again extended above and below. In turn +it was a sphere, a disk, a pyramid, a pentahedron, a polyhedron. It +possessed neither legs, flippers, nor tentacles; but out from its +heaving, shrinking body it would send, now from one spot, now from +another, an active arm, or feeler, with which it swam, pulled, or +pushed. An unlucky invader which one of them touched made few more +voluntary movements; for instantly the whole side of the whitish mass +bristled with arms. They seized, crushed, killed it, and then pushed it +bodily through the living walls to the animal's interior to serve for +food. And the gaping fissure healed at once, like the wounds of +Milton's warring angels. + +The first white monster floated down, killing as he went; then came +another, pushing eagerly into the fray; then came two, then three, then +dozens. It seemed that the word had been passed, and the army of +defense was mustering. + +Sick with horror, he watched the grim spectacle from the shelter of the +projection, until roused to an active sense of danger to himself--but +not from the fighters. He was anchored by his tail, swinging easily in +the eddy, and now felt himself touched from beneath, again from above. +A projection down-stream was extending outward and toward him. The cave +in which he had taken refuge was closing on him like a great mouth--as +though directed by an intelligence behind the wall. With a terrified +flirt of his tail he flung himself out, and as he drifted down with the +combat the walls of the cave crunched together. It was well for him +that he was not there. + +The current was clogged with fragments of once living creatures, and +everywhere, darting, dodging, and biting, were the fierce black +invaders. But they paid no present attention to him or to the small +tentacled animals. They killed the large, helpless red-and-gray kind, +and were killed by the larger white monsters, each moment marking the +death and rending to fragments of a victim, and the horrid interment of +fully half his slayers. The tunnel grew larger, as mouth after mouth of +tributary tunnels was passed; but as each one discharged its quota of +swimming and drifting creatures, there was no thinning of the crowd. + +As he drifted on with the inharmonious throng, he noticed what seemed +the objective of the war. This was the caves which lined the tunnel. +Some were apparently rigid, others were mobile. A large red-and-gray +animal was pushed into the mouth of one of the latter, and the walls +instantly closed; then they opened, and the creature drifted out, limp +and colorless, but alive; and with him came fragments of the wall, +broken off by the pressure. This happened again and again, but the +large creature was never quite killed--merely squeezed. The tentacled +non-combatants and the large white fighters seemed to know the danger +of these tunnel mouths, possibly from bitter experiences, for they +avoided the walls; but the dog-faced invaders sought this death, and +only fought on their way to the caves. Sometimes two, often four or +more, would launch themselves together into a hollow, but to no avail; +their united strength could not prevent the closing in of the +mechanical maw, and they were crushed and flung out, to drift on with +other debris. + +Soon the walls could not be seen for the pushing, jostling crowd, but +everywhere the terrible, silent war went on until there came a time +when fighting ceased; for each must look out for himself. They seemed +to be in an immense cave, and the tide was broken into cross-currents +rushing violently to the accompaniment of rhythmical thunder. They were +shaken, jostled, pushed about and pushed together, hundreds of the +smaller creatures dying from the pressure. Then there was a moment of +comparative quiet, during which fighting was resumed, and there could +be seen the swiftly flying walls of a large tunnel. Next they were +rushed through a labyrinth of small caves with walls of curious, +branching formation, sponge-like and intricate. It required energetic +effort to prevent being caught in the meshes, and the large +red-and-gray creatures were sadly torn and crushed, while the white +ones fought their way through by main strength. Again the flying walls +of a tunnel, again a mighty cave, and the cross-currents, and the +rhythmical thunder, and now a wild charge down an immense tunnel, the +wall of which surged outward and inward, in unison with the roaring of +the thunder. + +The thunder died away in the distance, though the walls still +surged--even those of a smaller tunnel which divided the current and +received them. Down-stream the tunnel branched again and again, and +with the lessening of the diameter was a lessening of the current's +velocity, until, in a maze of small, short passages, the invaders, +content to fight and kill in the swifter tide, again attacked the +caves. + +But to the never-changing result: they were crushed, mangled, and cast +out, the number of suicides, in this neighborhood, largely exceeding +those killed by the white warriors. And yet, in spite of the large +mortality among them, the attacking force was increasing. Where one +died two took his place; and the reason was soon made plain--they were +reproducing. A black fighter, longer than his fellows, a little +sluggish of movement, as though from the restrictive pressure of a +large, round protuberance in his middle, which made him resemble a +snake which had swallowed an egg, was caught by a white monster and +instantly embraced by a multitude of feelers. He struggled, bit, and +broke in two; then the two parts escaped the grip of the astonished +captor, and wriggled away, the protuberance becoming the head of the +rear portion, which immediately joined the fight, snapping and biting +with unmistakable jaws. This phenomenon was repeated. + +And on went the battle. Illumined by the living lamps, and watched by +terrified non-combatants, the horrid carnival continued with +never-slacking fury and ever-changing background--past the mouths of +tributary tunnels which increased the volume and velocity of the +current and added to the fighting strength, on through widening +archways to a repetition of the cross-currents, the thunder, and the +sponge-like maze, down past the heaving walls of larger tunnels to +branched passages, where, in comparative slack water, the siege of the +caves was resumed. For hour after hour this went on, the invaders dying +by hundreds, but increasing by thousands and ten thousands, as the +geometrical progression advanced, until, with swimming-spaces nearly +choked by their bodies, living and dead, there came the inevitable turn +in the tide of battle. A white monster was killed. + +Glutted with victims, exhausted and sluggish, he was pounced upon by +hundreds, hidden from view by a living envelop of black, which pulsed +and throbbed with his death-throes. A feeler reached out, to be bitten +off; then another, to no avail. His strength was gone, and the +assailants bit and burrowed until they reached a vital part, when the +great mass assumed a spherical form and throbbed no more. They dropped +off, and, as the mangled ball floated on, charged on the next enemy +with renewed fury and courage born of their victory. This one died as +quickly. + +And as though it had been foreseen, and a policy arranged to meet it, +the white army no longer fought in the open, but lined up along the +walls to defend the immovable caves. They avoided the working jaws of +the other kind, which certainly needed no garrison, and drifting slowly +in the eddies, fought as they could, with decreasing strength and +increasing death-rate. And thus it happened that our conservative +non-combatant, out in midstream, found himself surrounded by a horde of +black enemies who had nothing better to do than attack him. + +And they did. As many as could crowd about him closed their wicked jaws +in his flesh. Squirming with pain, rendered trebly strong by his +terror, he killed them by twos and threes as he could reach them with +his tail. He shook them off with nervous contortions, only to make room +for more. He plunged, rolled, launched himself forward and back, up and +down, out and in, bending himself nearly double, then with lightning +rapidity throwing himself far into the reverse curve. He was fighting +for his life, and knew it. When he could, he used his jaws, only once +to an enemy. He saw dimly at intervals that the white monsters were +watching him; but none offered to help, and he had not time to call. + +He thought that he must have become the object of the war; for from all +sides they swarmed, crowding about him, seeking a place on which to +fasten their jaws. Little by little the large red-and-gray creatures, +the non-combatants, and the phosphorescent animals were pushed aside, +and he, the center of an almost solid black mass, fought, in utter +darkness, with the fury of extreme fright. He had no appreciation of +the passing of time, no knowledge of his distance from the wall, or the +destination of this never-pausing current. But finally, after an +apparently interminable period, he heard dimly, with failing +consciousness, the reverberations of the thunder, and knew momentary +respite as the violent cross-currents tore his assailants away. Then, +still in darkness, he felt the crashing and tearing of flesh against +obstructing walls and sharp corners, the repetition of thunder and the +roar of the current which told him he was once more in a large tunnel. +An instant of light from a venturesome torch showed him to his enemies, +and again he fought, like a whale in his last flurry, slowly dying from +exhaustion and pain, but still potential to kill--terrible in his +agony. There was no counting of scalps in that day's work; but perhaps +no devouring white monster in all the defensive army could have shown a +death-list equal to this. From the surging black cloud there was a +steady outflow of the dead, pushed back by the living. + +Weaker and weaker, while they mangled his flesh, and still in darkness, +he fought them down through branching passages to another network of +small tunnels, where he caught a momentary view of the walls and the +stolid white guard, thence on to what he knew was open space. And here +he felt that he could fight no more. They had covered him completely, +and, try as he might with his failing strength, he could not dislodge +them. So he ceased his struggles; and numb with pain, dazed with +despair, he awaited the end. + +But it did not come. He was too exhausted to feel surprise or joy when +they suddenly dropped away from him; but the instinct of +self-preservation was still in force, and he swam toward the wall. The +small creatures paid him no attention; they scurried this way and that, +busy with troubles of their own, while he crept stupidly and painfully +between two white sentries floating in the eddies,--one of whom +considerately made room for him,--and anchored to a projection, luckily +choosing a harbor that was not hostile. + +"Any port in a storm, eh, neighbor?" said the one who had given him +room, and who seemed to notice his dazed condition. "You'll feel better +soon. My, but you put up a good fight, that's what you did!" + +He could not answer, and the friendly guard resumed his vigil. In a few +moments, however, he could take cognizance of what was going on in the +stream. There was a new army in the fight, and reinforcements were +still coming. A short distance above him was a huge rent in the wall, +and the caves around it, crushed and distorted, were grinding fiercely. +Protruding through the rent and extending half-way across the tunnel +was a huge mass of some strange substance, roughly shaped to a +cylindrical form. It was hollow, and out of it, by thousands and +hundred thousands, was pouring the auxiliary army, from which the black +fighters were now fleeing for dear life. + +The newcomers, though resembling in general form the creatures they +pursued, were much larger and of two distinct types. Both were light +brown in color; but while one showed huge development of head and jaw, +with small flippers, the other kind reversed these attributes, their +heads being small, but their flippers long and powerful. They ran their +quarry down in the open, and seized them with outreaching tentacles. No +mistakes were made--no feints or false motions; and there was no +resistance by the victims. Where one was noticed he was doomed. The +tentacles gathered him in--to a murderous bite or a murderous embrace. + +At last, when the inflow had ceased,--when there must have been +millions of the brown killers in the tunnel,--the great hollow cylinder +turned slowly on its axis and backed out through the rent in the wall, +which immediately closed, with a crushing and scattering of fragments. +Though the allies were far down-stream now, the war was practically +ended; for the white defenders remained near the walls, and the black +invaders were in wildest panic, each one, as the resistless current +rushed him past, swimming against the stream, to put distance between +himself and the destroyer below. But before long an advance-guard of +the brown enemy shot out from the tributaries above, and the tide of +retreat swung backward. Then came thousands of them, and the massacre +was resumed. + +"Hot stuff, eh?" said his friendly neighbor to him. + +"Y-y-y-es--I guess so," he answered, rather vacantly; "I don't know. I +don't know anything about it. I never saw such doings. What is it all +for? What does it mean?" + +"Oh, this is nothing; it's all in a lifetime. Still, I admit it might +ha' been serious for us--and you, too--if we hadn't got help." + +"But who are they, and what? They all seem of a family, and are killing +each other." + +"Immortal shade of Darwin!" exclaimed the other sentry, who had not +spoken before. "Where were you brought up? Don't you know that +variations from type are the deadliest enemies of the parent stock? +These two brown breeds are the hundredth or two-hundredth cousins of +the black kind. When they've killed off their common relative, and get +to competing for grub, they'll exterminate each other, and we'll be rid +of 'em all. Law of nature. Understand?" + +"Oh, y-yes, I understand, of course; but what did the black kind attack +me for? And what do they want, anyway?" + +"To follow out their destiny, I s'pose. They're the kind of folks who +have missions. Reformers, we call 'em--who want to enforce their +peculiar ideas and habits on other people. Sometimes we call them +expansionists--fond of colonizing territory that doesn't belong to +them. They wanted to get through the cells to the lymph-passages, +thence on to the brain and spinal marrow. Know what that means? +Hydrophobia." + +"What's that?" + +"Oh, say, now! You're too easy." + +"Come, come," said the other, good-naturedly; "don't guy him. He never +had our advantages. You see, neighbor, we get these points from the +subjective brain, which knows all things and gives us our instructions. +We're the white corpuscles,--phagocytes, the scientists call us,--and +our work is to police the blood-vessels, and kill off invaders that +make trouble. Those red-and-gray chumps can't take care of themselves, +and we must protect 'em. Understand? But this invasion was too much for +us, and we had to have help from outside. You must have come in with +the first crowd--think I saw you--in at the bite. Second crowd came in +through an inoculation tube, and just in time to pull you through." + +"I don't know," answered our bewildered friend. "In at the bite? What +bite? I was swimming round comfortable-like, and there was a big noise, +and then I was alongside of a big white wall, and then----" + +"Exactly; the dog's tooth. You got into bad company, friend, and you're +well out of it. That first gang is the microbe of rabies, not very well +known yet, because a little too small to be seen by most microscopes. +All the scientists seem to have learned about 'em is that a colony a +few hundred generations old--which they call a culture, or serum--is +death on the original bird; and that's what they sent in to help out. +Pasteur's dead, worse luck, but sometime old Koch'll find out what +we've known all along--that it's only variation from type." + +"Koch!" he answered eagerly and proudly. "Oh, I know Koch; I've met +him. And I know about microscopes, too. Why, Koch had me under his +microscope once. He discovered my family, and named us--the comma +bacilli--the Spirilli of Asiatic Cholera." + +In silent horror they drew away from him, and then conversed together. +Other white warriors drifting along stopped and joined the conference, +and when a hundred or more were massed before him, they spread out to a +semi-spherical formation and closed in. + +"What's the matter?" he asked nervously. "What's wrong? What are you +going to do? I haven't done anything, have I?" + +"It's not what you've done, stranger," said his quondam friend, "or +what we're going to do. It's what you're going to do. You're going to +die. Don't see how you got past quarantine, anyhow." + +"What--why--I don't want to die. I've done nothing. All I want is peace +and quiet, and a place to swim where it isn't too light nor too dark. I +mind my own affairs. Let me alone--you hear me--let me alone!" + +They answered him not. Slowly and irresistibly the hollow formation +contracted--individuals slipping out when necessary--until he was +pushed, still protesting, into the nearest movable cave. The walls +crashed together and his life went out. When he was cast forth he was +in five pieces. + +And so our gentle, conservative, non-combative cholera microbe, who +only wanted to be left alone to mind his own affairs, met this violent +death, a martyr to prejudice and an unsympathetic environment. + + * * * * * + +Extract from hospital record of the case of John Anderson: + + August 18. As period of incubation for both cholera and hydrophobia + has passed and no initial symptoms of either disease have been + noticed, patient is this day discharged, cured. + + + + +FROM THE ROYAL-YARD DOWN + + +As night descended, cold and damp, the wind hauled, and by nine o'clock +the ship was charging along before a half-gale and a rising sea from +the port quarter. When the watch had braced the yards, the mate ordered +the spanker brailed in and the mizzen-royal clued up, as the ship +steered hard. This was done, and the men coiled up the gear. + +"Let the spanker hang in the brails; tie up the royal," ordered the +mate from his position at the break of the poop. + +"Aye, aye, sir," answered a voice from the group, and an active figure +sprang into the rigging. Another figure--slim and graceful, clad in +long yellow oilskin coat, and a sou'wester which could not confine a +tangled fringe of wind-blown hair--left the shelter of the +after-companionway and sped along the alley to the mate's side. + +"The foot-rope, Mr. Adams," she said hurriedly. "The seizing was +chafed, you remember." + +"By George, Miss Freda!" said the officer. "Forgot all about it. Glad +you spoke. Come down from aloft," he added in a roar. + +The sailor answered and descended. + +"Get a piece of spun yarn out o' the booby-hatch and take it up wi' +you," continued the mate. "Pass a temporary seizing on the lee royal +foot-rope. Make sure it's all right 'fore you get on it, now." + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +The man passed down the poop steps, secured the spun yarn, and while +rolling it into a ball to put in his pocket, stood for a moment in the +light shining from the second mate's room. The girl on the poop looked +down at him. He was a trim-built, well-favored young fellow, with more +refinement in his face than most sailors can show; yet there was no +lack of seamanly deftness in the fingers which balled up the spun yarn +and threw a half-hitch with the bight of the lanyard over the point of +the marlinespike which hung to his neck. As he climbed the steps, the +girl faced him, looking squarely into his eyes. + +"Be careful, John--Mr. Owen," she said. "The seizing is chafed through. +I heard the man report it--it was Dutch George of the other watch. Do +be careful." + +"Eh, why--why, yes, Miss Folsom. Thank you. But you startled me. I've +been Jack for three years--not John, nor Mister. Yes, it's all right; +I----" + +"Get aloft to that mizzenroyal," thundered the mate, now near the +wheel. + +"Aye, aye, sir." He touched his sou'wester to the girl and mounted the +weather mizzen-rigging, running up the ratlines as a fireman goes up a +ladder. It was a black night with cold rain, and having thrown off his +oiled jacket, he was already drenched to the skin; but no environment +of sunshine, green fields and woodland, and flower-scented air ever +made life brighter to him than had the incident of the last few +moments; and with every nerve in his body rejoicing in his victory, and +her bitter words of four years back crowding his mind as a contrasting +background, he danced up and over the futtock-shrouds, up the +topmast-rigging, through the crosstrees, and up the topgallant-rigging +to where the ratlines ended and he must climb on the runner of the +royal-halyards. As the yard was lowered, this was a short climb, and he +swung himself upward to the weather yard-arm, where he rolled up one +side of the sail with extravagant waste of muscular effort; for she had +said he was not a man, and he had proved her wrong: he had conquered +himself, and he had conquered her. + +He hitched the gasket, and crossed over to the lee side, forgetting, in +his exhilaration, the object of the spun yarn in his pocket and the +marlinespike hung from his neck, stepped out on the foot-rope, passed +his hands along the jack-stay to pull himself farther, and felt the +foot-rope sink to the sound of snapping strands. The jackstay was torn +from his grasp, and he fell, face downward, into the black void +beneath. + +An involuntary shriek began on his lips, but was not finished. He felt +that the last atom of air was jarred from his lungs by what he knew was +the topgallant-yard, four feet below the royal; and, unable to hold on, +with a freezing cold in his veins and at the hair-roots, he experienced +in its fullness the terrible sensation of falling,--whirling +downward,--clutching wildly at vacancy with stiffened fingers. + +The first horror past, his mind took on a strange contemplativeness; +fear of death gave way to mild curiosity as to the manner of it. Would +he strike on the lee quarter, or would he go overboard? And might he +not catch something? There was rigging below him--the lee +royal-backstay stretched farthest out from the mast, and if he brushed +it, there was a possible chance. He was now face upward, and with the +utmost difficulty moved his eyes,--he could not yet, by any exercise of +will or muscle, move his head,--and there, almost within reach, was a +dark line, which he knew was the royal-backstay; farther in toward the +spars was another--the topgallant-backstay; and within this, two other +ropes which he knew for the topgallant-rigging, though he could see no +ratlines, nor could he distinguish the lay of the strands; the ropes +appeared like solid bars. This, with the fact that he was still but a +few feet below the topgallant-yard, surprised him, until it came to him +that falling bodies travel over sixteen feet in the first second of +descent, which is at a rate too fast for distinct vision, and that the +apparent slowness of his falling was but relative--because of the +quickness of his mind, which could not wait on a sluggish optic nerve +and more sluggish retina. + +Yet he wondered why he could not reach out and grasp the backstay. It +seemed as though invisible fetters bound every muscle and joint, though +not completely. An intense effort of will resulted in the slow +extension of all the fingers of his right hand, and a little +straightening of the arm toward the backstay; but not until he had +fallen to the level of the upper topsail-yard was this result reached. +It did no good; the backstay was now farther away. As it led in a +straight line from the royal-masthead to the rail, this meant that he +would fall overboard, and the thought comforted him. The concussion +would kill him, of course; but no self-pity afflicted him now. He +merely considered that she, who had relented, would be spared the sight +of him crushed to a pulp on the deck. + +As he drifted slowly down past the expanse of upper topsail, he noticed +that his head was sinking and his body turning so that he would +ultimately face forward; but still his arms and legs held their +extended position, like those of a speared frog, and the thought +recalled to him an incident of his infancy--a frog-hunt with an older +playmate, his prowess, success, wet feet, and consequent illness. It +had been forgotten for years, but the chain was started, and led to +other memories, long dead, which rose before him. His childhood passed +in review, with its pleasures and griefs; his school-days, with their +sports, conflicts, friends and enemies; college, where he had acquired +the polish to make him petted of all but one--and abhorrent to her. +Almost every person, man or woman, boy or girl, with whom he had +conversed in his whole life, came back and repeated the scene; and as +he passed the lower topsail-yard, nearly head downward, he was +muttering commonplaces to a brown-faced, gray-eyed girl, who listened, +and looked him through and through, and seemed to be wondering why he +existed. + +And as he traversed the depth of the lower topsail, turning gradually +on his axis, he lived it over--next to his first voyage, the most +harrowing period of his life: the short two months during which he had +striven vainly to impress this simple-natured sailor-girl with his good +qualities, ending at last with his frantic declaration of a love that +she did not want. + +"But it's not the least use, John," she said to him. "I do not love +you, and I cannot. You are a gentleman, as they say, and as such I like +you well enough; but I never can love you, nor any one like you. I've +been among men, real men, all my life, and perhaps have ideals that are +strange to you. John,"--her eyes were wide open in earnestness,--"you +are not a man." + +Writhing under her words, which would have been brutal spoken by +another, he cursed, not her, nor himself, but his luck and the fates +that had shaped his life. And next she was showing him the opened door, +saying that she could tolerate profanity in a man, but not in a +gentleman, and that under no circumstances was he to claim her +acquaintance again. Then followed the snubbing in the street, when, +like a lately whipped dog, he had placed himself in her way, hoping she +would notice him; and the long agony of humiliation and despair as his +heart and soul followed her over the seas in her father's ship, until +the seed she had planted--the small suspicion that her words were +true--developed into a wholesome conviction that she had measured him +by a higher standard than any he had known, and found him wanting. So +he would go to her school, and learn what she knew. + +With lightning-like rapidity his mind rehearsed the details of his +tuition: the four long voyages; the brutality of the officers until he +had learned his work; their consideration and rough kindness when he +had become useful and valuable; the curious, incongruous feeling of +self-respect that none but able seamen feel; the growth in him of an +aggressive physical courage; the triumphant satisfaction with which he +finally knew himself as a complete man, clean in morals and mind, able +to look men in the face. And then came the moment when, mustering at +the capstan with the new crew of her father's ship, he had met her +surprised eyes with a steady glance, and received no recognition. + +And so he pleaded his cause, dumbly, by the life that he lived. Asking +nothing by word or look, he proved himself under her eyes--first on +deck; first in the rigging; the best man at a weather-earing; the best +at the wheel; quick, obedient, intelligent, and respectful, winning the +admiration of his mates, the jealous ill will of the officers, but no +sign of interest or approval from her until to-night--the ninety-second +day of the passage. She had surrendered; he had reached her level, only +to die; and he thought this strange. + +Facing downward, head inboard now, and nearly horizontal, he was +passing the cross-jack yard. Below him was the sea--black and crisp, +motionless as though carved in ebony. Neither was there movement of the +ship and its rigging; the hanging bights of ropes were rigid, while a +breaking sea just abaft the main chains remained poised, curled, its +white crest a frozen pillow of foam. "The rapidity of thought," he +mused dreamily; "but I'm falling fast enough--fast enough to kill me +when I strike." + +He could not move an eyelid now, nor was he conscious that he breathed; +but, being nearly upright, facing aft and inboard, the quarter-deck and +its fittings were before his eyes, and he saw what brought him out of +eternity to a moment of finite time and emotion. The helmsman stood at +the motionless wheel with his right hand poised six inches above a +spoke, as though some sudden paralysis gripped him, and his face, +illumined by the binnacle light, turned aloft inquiringly. But it was +not this. Standing at the taffrail, one hand on a life-buoy, was a girl +in yellow looking at him,--unspeakable horror in the look,--and around +her waist the arm of the mate, on whose rather handsome face was an +evil grin. + +A pang of earthly rage and jealousy shot through him, and he wished to +live. By a supreme effort of will he brought his legs close together +and his arms straight above his head; then the picture before him shot +upward, and he was immersed in cold salt water, with blackness all +about him. How long he remained under he could not guess. He had struck +feet first and suffered no harm, but had gone down like a deep-sea +lead. He felt the aching sensation in his lungs coming from suppressed +breathing, and swam blindly in the darkness, not knowing in which +direction was the surface, until he felt the marlinespike--still +fastened to his neck--extending off to the right. Sure that it must +hang downward, he turned the other way, and, keeping it parallel with +his body, swam with bursting lungs, until he felt air upon his face and +knew that he could breathe. In choking sobs and gasps his breath came +and went, while he paddled with hands and feet, glad of his reprieve; +and when his lungs worked normally, he struck out for a white, circular +life-buoy, not six feet away. "Bless her for this," he prayed, as he +slipped it under his arms. His oilskin trousers were cumbersome, and +with a little trouble he shed them. + +He was alive, and his world was again in motion. Seas lifted and +dropped him, occasionally breaking over his head. In the calm of the +hollows, he listened for voices of possible rescuers. On the tops of +the seas,--ears filled with the roar of the gale,--he shouted, facing +to leeward, and searching with strained eyes for sign of the ship or +one of her boats. At last he saw a pin-point of light far away, and +around it and above it blacker darkness, which was faintly shaped to +the outline of a ship and canvas--hove to in the trough, with +maintopsail aback, as he knew by its foreshortening. And even as he +looked and shouted it faded away. He screamed and cursed, for he wanted +to live. He had survived that terrible fall, and it was his right. + +Something white showed on the top of a sea to leeward and sank in a +hollow. He sank with it, and when he rose again it was nearer. + +"Boat ahoy!" he sang out. "Boat ahoy!--this way--port a +little--steady." + +He swam as he could, cumbered by the life-buoy, and with every heaving +sea the boat came nearer. At last he recognized it--the ship's dinghy; +and it was being pulled into the teeth of that forceful wind and sea by +a single rower--a slight figure in yellow. + +"It's Freda," he exclaimed; and then, in a shout: "This way, Miss +Folsom--a little farther." + +She turned, nodded, and pulled the boat up to him. He seized the +gunwale, and she took in the oars. + +"Can you climb in alone, John?" she asked in an even voice--as even as +though she were asking him to have more tea. "Wait a little,--I am +tired,--and I will help you." + +She was ever calm and dispassionate, but he wondered at her now; yet he +would not be outdone. + +"I'll climb over the stern, Freda, so as not to capsize you. Better go +forward to balance my weight." + +She did so. He pulled himself to the stern, slipped the life-buoy over +his head and into the boat, then, by a mighty exercise of all his +strength, vaulted aboard with seeming ease and sat down on a thwart. He +felt a strong inclination to laughter and tears, but repressed himself; +for masculine hysterics would not do before this young woman. She came +aft to the next thwart, and when he felt steadier he said: + +"You have saved my life, Freda; but thanks are idle now, for your own +is in danger. Give me the oars. We must get back to the ship." + +She changed places with him, facing forward, and said wearily, as he +shipped the oars: "So you want to get back?" + +"Why, yes; don't you? We are adrift in an open boat." + +"The wind is going down, and the seas do not break," she answered, in +the same weary voice. "It does not rain any more, and we will have the +moon." + +A glance around told him that she spoke truly. There was less pressure +to the wind, and the seas rose and fell, sweeping past them like moving +hills of oil. Moonlight shining through thinning clouds faintly +illumined her face, and he saw the expressionless weariness of her +voice, and a sad, dreamy look in her gray eyes. + +"How did you get the dinghy down, Freda?" he asked. "And why did no one +come with you?" + +"Father was asleep, and the mate was incompetent. I had my revolver, +and they backed the yards for me and threw the dinghy over. I had +loosened the gripes as you went aloft. I thought you would fall. +Still--no one would come." + +"And you came alone," he said in a broken voice, "and pulled this boat +to windward in this sea. You are a wonder." + +"I saw you catch the life-buoy. Why did you fall? You were cautioned." + +"I forgot the foot-rope. I was thinking of you." + +"You are like the mate. He forgot the foot-rope all day because he was +thinking of me. I should have gone aloft and seized it myself." + +There was no reproof or sarcasm in the tired voice. She had simply made +an assertion. + +"Why are you at sea, before the mast--a man of your talents?" + +It was foolish, he knew; but the word "man" sent a thrill through him. + +"To please you if I may; to cultivate what you did not find in me." + +"Yes, I knew; when you came on board I knew it. But you might have +spoken to me." + +There was petulance in the tone now, and the soul of the man rejoiced. +The woman in her was asserting itself. + +"Miss Folsom," he answered warmly, "I could not. You had made it +impossible. It was your right, your duty, if you wished it. But you +ignored my existence." + +"I was testing you. I am glad now, Mr. Owen." + +The petulance was gone, but there was something chilling in this +answer. + +"Can you see the ship?" he asked after a moment's silence. "The +moonlight is stronger." + +"We will not reach her. They have squared away. The mate had the deck, +and father is asleep." + +"And left you in an open boat," he answered angrily. + +"He knew I was with you." + +What was irrelevant in this explanation of the mate's conduct escaped +him at the time. The full moon had emerged from behind the racing +clouds, and it brightened her face, fringed by the tangled hair and +yellow sou'wester, to an unearthly beauty that he had never seen +before. He wondered at it, and for a moment a grisly thought crossed +his mind that this was not life, but death; that he had died in the +fall, and in some manner the girl had followed. + +She was standing erect, her lithe figure swaying to the boat's motion, +and pointing to leeward, while the moonlit face was now sweetened by +the smile of a happy child. He stood up, and looked where she pointed, +but saw nothing, and seated himself to look at her. + +"See!" she exclaimed gleefully. "They have hauled out the spanker and +are sheeting home the royal. I will never be married! I will never be +married! He knew I was with you." + +Again he stood up and searched the sea to leeward. There was nothing in +sight. + +"Unhinged," he thought, "by this night's trouble. Freda," he said +gently, "please sit down. You may fall overboard." + +"I am not insane," she said, as though reading his thought; and, +smiling radiantly in his face, she obeyed him. + +"Do you know where we are?" he asked tentatively. "Are we in the track +of ships?" + +"No," she answered, while her face took on the dreamy look again. "We +are out of all the tracks. We will not be picked up. We are due west +from Ilio Island. I saw it at sundown broad on the starboard bow. The +wind is due south. If you will pull in the trough of the sea we can +reach it before daylight. I am tired--so tired--and sleepy. Will you +watch out?" + +"Why, certainly. Lie down in the stern-sheets and sleep if you can." + +She curled up in her yellow oil-coat and slumbered through the night, +while he pulled easily on the oars--not that he had full faith in her +navigation, but to keep himself warm. The sea became smoother, and as +the moon rose higher, it attained a brightness almost equal to that of +the sun, casting over the clear sky a deep-blue tint that shaded +indefinitely into the darkness extending from itself to the horizon. +Late in the night he remembered the danger of sleeping in strong +moonlight, and arising softly to cover her face with his damp +handkerchief, he found her looking at him. + +"We are almost there, John. Wake me when we arrive," she said, and +closed her eyes. + +He covered her face, and, marveling at her words, looked ahead. He was +within a half-mile of a sandy beach which bordered a wooded island. The +sea was now like glass in its level smoothness, and the air was warm +and fragrant with the smell of flowers and foliage. He shipped the +oars, and pulled to the beach. As the boat grounded she arose, and he +helped her ashore. + +The beach shone white under the moonlight, and dotting it were large +shellfish and moving crabs that scuttled away from them. Bordering the +beach were forest and undergrowth with interlacery of flowering vines. +A ridge of rocks near by disclosed caves and hollows, some filled by +the water of tinkling cascades. Oranges snowed in the branches of +trees, and cocoa-palms lifted their heads high in the distance. A +small deer arose, looked at them, and lay down, while a rabbit +inspected them from another direction and began nibbling. + +"An earthly paradise, I should say," he observed, as he hauled the boat +up the beach. "Plenty of food and water, at any rate." + +"It is Ilio Island," she answered, with that same dreamy voice. "It is +uninhabited and never visited." + +"But surely, Freda, something will come along and take us off." + +"No; if I am taken off I must be married, of course; and I will never +be married." + +"Who to, Freda? Whom must you marry if we are rescued?" + +"The mate--Mr. Adams. Not you, John Owen--not you. I do not like you." + +She was unbalanced, of course; but the speech pained him immeasurably, +and he made no answer. He searched the clean-cut horizon for a moment, +and when he looked back she was close to him, with the infantile smile +on her face, candor and sanity in her gray eyes. Involuntarily he +extended his arms, and she nestled within them. + +"You _will_ be married, Freda," he said; "you _will_ be married, and to +me." + +He held her tightly and kissed her lips; but the kiss ended in a +crashing sound, and a shock of pain in his whole body which expelled +the breath from his lungs. The moonlit island, sandy beach, blue sea +and sky were swallowed in a blaze of light, which gave way to pitchy +darkness, with rain on his face and whistling wind in his ears, while +he clung with both arms, not to a girl, but to a hard, wet, and cold +mizzentopgallant-yard whose iron jack-stay had bumped him severely +between the eyes. Below him in the darkness a scream rang out, followed +by the roar of the mate: "Are you all right up there? Want any help?" + +He had fallen four feet. + +When he could speak he answered: "I'm all right, sir." And catching the +royal foot-rope dangling from the end of the yard above him, he brought +it to its place, passed the seizing, and finished furling the royal. +But it was a long job; his movements were uncertain, for every nerve in +his body was jumping in its own inharmonious key. + +"What's the matter wi' you up there?" demanded the mate when he reached +the deck; and a yellow-clad figure drew near to listen. + +"It was nothing, sir; I forgot about the foot-rope." + +"You're a bigger lunkhead than I thought. Go forrard." + +He went, and when he came aft at four bells to take his trick at the +wheel, the girl was still on deck, standing near the companionway, +facing forward. The mate stood at the other side of the binnacle, +looking at her, with one elbow resting on the house. There was just +light enough from the cabin skylight for Owen to see the expression +which came over his face as he watched the graceful figure balancing to +the heave of the ship. It took on the same evil look which he had seen +in his fall, while there was no mistaking the thought behind the gleam +in his eyes. The mate looked up,--into Owen's face,--and saw something +there which he must have understood; for he dropped his glance to the +compass, snarled out, "Keep her on the course," and stepped into the +lee alleyway, where the dinghy, lashed upside down on the house, hid +him from view. + +The girl approached the man at the wheel. + +"I saw you fall, Mr. Owen," she said in a trembling voice, "and I could +not help screaming. Were you hurt much?" + +"No, Miss Folsom," he answered in a low though not a steady tone; "but +I was sadly disappointed." + +"I confess I was nervous--very nervous--when you went aloft," she said; +"and I cleared away the life-buoy. Then, when you fell, it slipped out +of my hand and went overboard. Mr. Adams scolded me. Wasn't it +ridiculous?" There were tears and laughter in the speech. + +"Not at all," he said gravely; "it saved my life--for which I thank +you." + +"How--why----" + +"Who in Sam Hill's been casting off these gripe-lashings?" growled the +voice of the mate behind the dinghy. + +The girl tittered hysterically, and stepped beside Owen at the wheel, +where she patted the moving spokes, pretending to assist him in +steering. + +"Miss Freda," said the officer, sternly, as he came around the corner +of the house, "I must ask you plainly to let things alone; and another +thing, please don't talk to the man at the wheel." + +"Will you please mind your own business?" she almost screamed; and +then, crying and laughing together: "If you paid as much attention to +your work as you do to--to--me, men wouldn't fall from aloft on account +of rotten foot-ropes." + +The abashed officer went forward, grumbling about "discipline" and +"women aboard ship." When he was well out of sight in the darkness, the +girl turned suddenly, passed both arms around Owen's neck, exerted a +very slight pressure, patted him playfully on the shoulder as she +withdrew them, and sped down the companionway. + +He steered a wild course during that trick, and well deserved the +profane criticism which he received from the mate. + + + + +NEEDS MUST WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES + + +Hogged at bow and stern, her deck sloped at the ends like a truck's +platform, while a slight twist in the old hull canted the foremast to +port and the mizzen to starboard. It would be hard to know when she was +on an even keel. The uneven planking, inboard and out, was scarred like +a chopping-block, possibly from a former and intimate acquaintance with +the coal trade. Aloft were dingy gray spars, slack hemp rigging, +untarred for years, and tan-colored sails, mended with patch upon patch +of lighter-hued canvas that seemed about to fall apart from their own +weight. She was English-built, bark-rigged, bluff in the bow, square in +the stern, unpainted and leaky--on the whole as unkempt and +disreputable-looking a craft as ever flew the black flag; and with the +clank of the pumps marking time to the wailing squeak of the +tiller-ropes, she wallowed through the waves like a log in an eddying +tideway. + +Even the black flag at the gaff-end wore a makeshift, slovenly air. It +was a square section of the bark's foreroyal, painted black around the +skull-and-cross-bones design, which had been left the original hue of +the canvas. The port-holes were equally slovenly in appearance, being +cut through between stanchions with axes instead of saws; and the +bulwarks were further disfigured by extra holes smashed through at the +stanchions to take the lashings of the gun-breechings. But the guns +were bright and cared for, as were the uniforms of the crew; for they +had been lately transhipped. Far from home, with a general cargo, this +ancient trader had been taken in a fog by Captain Swarth and his men an +hour before their own well-found vessel had sunk alongside--which gave +them just time to hoist over guns and ammunition. When the fog shifted, +the pursuing English war-brig that had riddled the pirate saw nothing +but the peaceful old tub ahead, and went on into the fog, looking for +the other. + +"Any port in a storm, Angel," remarked Captain Swarth, as he flashed +his keen eyes over the rickety fabric aloft; "but we'll find a better +one soon. How do the boys stand the pumping?" + +Mr. Angel Todd, first mate and quartermaster, filled a black pipe +before answering. Then, between the first and second deep puffs, he +said: "Growlin'--dammum." + +"At the work?" + +"Yep, and the grub. And they say the 'tween-deck and forecastle smells +o' bedbugs and bilge-water, and they want their grog. 'An ungodly +witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth +iniquity.'" Mr. Todd had been educated for the pulpit; but, going out +as a missionary, he had fallen into ungodly ways and taken to the sea, +where he was more successful. Many of his old phrasings clung to him. + +"Well," drawled the captain, "men get fastidious and high-toned in this +business,--can't blame them,--but we've got to make the coast, and if +we don't pick up something on the way, we must careen and stop the +leak. Then they'll have something to growl about." + +"S'pose the brig follows us in?" + +"Hope she will," said Captain Swarth, with a pleasant smile and a +lightening of his eyes--"hope she will, and give me a chance. Her +majestic widowship owes me a brig, and that's a fine one." + +Mr. Todd had never been known to smile, but at this speech he lifted +one eyebrow and turned his saturnine face full at his superior, inquiry +written upon every line of it. Captain Swarth was musing, however, and +said no more; so the mate, knowing better than to attempt probing his +mind, swung his long figure down the poop-ladder, and went forward to +harass the men--which, in their opinion, was all he was good for. + +According to his mood, Mr. Todd's speech was choicest English or the +cosmopolitan, technical slang of the sea, mingled with wonderful +profanity. But one habit of his early days he never dropped: he wore, +in the hottest weather, and in storm and battle, the black frock and +choker of the clerical profession. Standing now with one foot on the +fore-hatch, waving his long arms and objurgating the scowling men at +the pumps, he might easily have seemed, to any one beyond the reach of +his language, to be a clergyman exhorting them. Captain Swarth watched +him with an amused look on his sunburnt face, and muttered: "Good man, +every inch of him, but he can't handle men." Then he called him aft. + +"Angel," he said, "we made a mistake in cutting the ports; we can't +catch anything afloat that sees them, so we'll have to pass for a +peaceable craft until we can drift close enough to board something. I +think the brig'll be back this way, too. Get out some old tarpaulins +and cover up the ports. Paint them, if you can, the color of the sides, +and you might coil some lines over the rail, as though to dry. Then you +can break out cargo and strike the guns down the main-hatch." + +Three days later, with Cape St. Roque a black line to the westward, a +round shot across her bows brought the old vessel--minus the black +emblem now, and outwardly respectable--up to the wind, with maintopsail +aback, while Captain Swarth and a dozen of his men--equally respectable +in the nondescript rig of the merchant sailor--watched the approach of +an English brig of war. Mr. Todd and the rest of the crew were below +hatches with the guns. + +The brig came down the wind like a graceful bird--a splendid craft, +black, shiny, and shipshape, five guns to a side, brass-bound officers +on her quarter-deck, blue-jackets darting about her white deck and up +aloft, a homeward-bound pennant trailing from her main-truck, and at +her gaff-end a British ensign as large as her mainroyal. Captain Swarth +lazily hoisted the English flag to the bark's gaff, and, as the brig +rounded to on his weather beam, he pointed to it; but his dark eyes +sparkled enviously as he viewed the craft whose government's protection +he appealed to. + +"Bark ahoy!" came a voice through a trumpet. "What bark is that?" + +Captain Swarth swung himself into the mizzen-rigging and answered +through his hands with an excellent cockney accent: "_Tryde Wind_ +o' Lunnon, Cappen Quirk, fifty-one dyes out fro' Liverpool, bound to +Callao, gen'ral cargo." + +"You were not heading for the Horn." + +"Hi'm a-leakin' badly. Hi'm a-goin' to myke the coast to careen. D'ye +happen to know a good place?" + +An officer left the group and returned with what Captain Swarth knew +was a chart, which a few of them studied, while their captain hailed +again: + +"See anything more of that pirate brig the other day?" + +"What! a pirate? Be 'e a pirate?" answered Captain Swarth, in agitated +tones. "Be that you a-chasin' of 'im? Nao, hi seed nothink of 'im arter +the fog shut 'im out." + +The captain conferred with his officers a moment, then called: + +"We are going in to careen ourselves. That fellow struck us on the +water-line. We are homeward bound, and Rio's too far to run back. +Follow us in; but if you lose sight of us, it's a small bay, latitude +nine fifty-one forty south, rocks to the north, lowland to the south, +good water at the entrance, and a fine beach. Look out for the brig. +It's Swarth and his gang. Good morning." + +"Aye, that hi will. Thank ye. Good marnin'." + +In three hours the brig was a speck under the rising land ahead; in +another, she was out of sight; but before this Captain Swarth and his +crew had held a long conference, which resulted in sail being +shortened, though the man at the wheel was given a straight course to +the bay described by the English captain. + +Late on the following afternoon the old bark blundered into this bay--a +rippling sheet of water, bag-shaped, and bordered on all sides by a +sandy beach. Stretching up to the mountainous country was a luxurious +forest of palm, laurel, and cactus, bound and intertwined by almost +impassable undergrowth, and about half-way from the entrance to the end +of the bay was the English brig, moored and slightly careened on the +inshore beach. Captain Swarth's seamanly eye noted certain appearances +of the tackles that held her down, which told him that the work was +done and she was being slacked upright. "Just in time," he muttered. + +They brought the bark to anchor near the beach, about a half-mile from +the brig, furled the canvas, and ran out an anchor astern, with the +cable over the taffrail. Heaving on this, they brought the vessel +parallel with the shore. So far, good. Guns and cargo lightered ashore, +more anchors seaward to keep her off the beach, masthead tackles to the +trees to heave her down, and preventer rigging and braces to assist the +masts, would have been next in order, but they proceeded no further +toward careening. Instead, they lowered the two crazy boats, +provisioned and armed them on the in-shore side of the bark, made +certain other preparations--and waited. + +On the deck of the English brig things were moving. A gang of +blue-jackets, under the first lieutenant, were heaving in the cable; +another gang, under the boatswain, were sending down and stowing away +the heavy tackles and careening-gear, tailing out halyards and sheets +and coiling down the light-running rigging, while topmen aloft loosed +the canvas to bunt-gaskets, ready to drop it at the call from the deck. + +The second lieutenant, overseeing this latter, paced the port +quarter-deck and answered remarks from Captain Bunce, who paced the +sacred starboard side (the brig being at anchor) and occasionally +turned his glass on the dilapidated craft down the beach. + +"Seems to me, Mr. Shack," he said across the deck, "that an owner who +would send that bark around the Horn, and the master who would take +her, ought to be sequestered and cared for, either in an asylum or in +jail." + +"Yes, sir, I think so too," answered the second lieutenant, looking +aloft. "Might be an insurance job. Clear away that bunt-gasket on the +royal-yard," he added in a roar. + +Captain Bunce--round, rosy, with brilliant mutton-chop +whiskers--muttered: "Insurance--wrecked intentionally--no, not here +where we are; wouldn't court investigation by her Majesty's officers." +He rolled forward, then aft, and looked again through the glass. + +"Very large crew--very large," he said; "very curious, Mr. Shack." + +A hail from the forecastle, announcing that the anchor was short, +prevented Mr. Shack's answering. Captain Bunce waved a deprecatory hand +to the first lieutenant, who came aft at once, while Mr. Shack +descended to the waist, and the boatswain ascended the forecastle steps +to attend to the anchor. The first lieutenant now had charge of the +brig, and from the quarter-deck gave his orders to the crew, while +Captain Bunce busied himself with his glass and his thoughts. + +Fore-and-aft sail was set and head-sheets trimmed down to port, square +sails were dropped, sheeted home, and hoisted, foreyards braced to +port, the anchor tripped and fished, and the brig paid off from the +land-breeze, and, with foreyards swung, steadied down to a course for +the entrance. + +"Mr. Duncan," said the captain, "there are fully forty men on that +bark's deck, all dressed alike--all in red shirts and knitted caps--and +all dancing around like madmen. Look!" He handed the glass to the first +lieutenant, who brought it to bear. + +"Strange," said the officer, after a short scrutiny; "there were only a +few showing when we spoke her outside. It looks as though they were all +drunk." + +As they drew near, sounds of singing--uproarious discord--reached them, +and soon they could see with the naked eye that the men on the bark +were wrestling, dancing, and running about. + +"Quarters, sir?" inquired Mr. Duncan. "Shall we bring to alongside?" + +"Well--no--not yet," said the captain, hesitatingly; "it's all +right--possibly; yet it is strange. Wait a little." + +They waited, and had sailed down almost abreast of the gray old craft, +noticing, as they drew near, an appreciable diminution of the uproar, +when a flag arose from the stern of the bark, a dusky flag that +straightened out directly toward them, so that it was difficult to make +out. + +But they soon understood. As they reached a point squarely abreast of +the bark, five points of flame burst from her innocent gray sides, five +clouds of smoke ascended, and five round shot, coming with the thunder +of the guns, hurtled through their rigging. Then they saw the design of +the flag, a white skull and cross-bones, and noted another, a black +flag too, but pennant-shaped, and showing in rudely painted letters the +single word "Swarth," sailing up to the forepeak. + +"Thunder and lightning!" roared Captain Bunce. "Quarters, Mr. Duncan, +quarters, and in with the kites. Give it to them. Put about first." + +A youngster of the crew had sprung below and immediately emerged with a +drum which, without definite instruction, he hammered vigorously; but +before he had begun, men were clearing away guns and manning flying-jib +downhaul and royal clue-lines. Others sprang to stations, anticipating +all that the sharp voice of the first lieutenant could order. Around +came the brig on the other tack and sailed back, receiving another +broadside through her rigging and answering with her starboard guns. +Then for a time the din was deafening. The brig backed her main-yards +and sent broadside after broadside into the hull of the old craft. But +it was not until the eighth had gone that Captain Bunce noticed through +the smoke that the pirates were not firing. The smoke from the burning +canvas port-coverings had deluded him. He ordered a cessation. Fully +forty solid shot had torn through that old hull near the water-line, +and not a man could now be seen on her deck. + +"Out with the boats, Mr. Duncan," he said; "they're drunk or crazy, but +they're the men we want. Capture them." + +"Suppose they run, sir--suppose they take to their boats and get into +the woods--shall we follow?" + +"No, not past the beach--not into an ambush." + +The four boat-loads of men which put off from the brig found nothing +but a deserted deck on the sinking bark and two empty boats hauled up +on the beach. The pirates were in the woods, undoubtedly, having kept +the bark between themselves and the brig as they pulled ashore. While +the blue-jackets clustered around the bows of their boats and watched +nervously the line of forest up the beach, from which bullets might +come at any time, the two lieutenants conferred for a few moments, and +had decided to put back, when a rattling chorus of pistol reports +sounded from the depths of the woods. It died away; then was heard a +crashing of bush and branch, and out upon the sands sprang a figure--a +long, weird figure in black frock of clerical cut. Into their midst it +sped with mighty bounds, and sinking down, lifted a glad face to the +heavens with the groaning utterance: "O God, I thank thee. Protect me, +gentlemen--protect me from those wicked men." + +"What is it? Who are you?" asked Mr. Duncan. "Were they shooting at +you?" + +"Yes, at me, who never harmed a fly. They would have killed me. My name +is Todd. Oh, such suffering! But you will protect me? You are English +officers. You are not pirates and murderers." + +"But what has happened? Do you live around here?" + +It took some time for Mr. Todd to quiet down sufficiently to tell his +story coherently. He was an humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. +He had gleaned among the poorest of the native population in the +outskirts of Rio de Janeiro until his health suffered, and had taken +passage home in a passenger-ship, which, ten days out, was captured by +a pirate brig. And the pirate crew had murdered every soul on board but +himself, and only spared his life, as he thought, for the purpose of +amusement; for they had compelled him to dance--he, a minister of the +gospel--and had made him drink under torture, and recite ribald poetry, +and swear, and wash their clothes. All sorts of indignities had been +heaped upon him, but he had remembered the injunction of the Master; he +had invariably turned the other cheek when smitten, and had prayed for +their souls. He told of the flight from the English war-brig, of the +taking of the old bark in the fog and the sinking of the pirate craft, +of the transfer of guns and treasure to the bark, and the interview at +sea with the English brig, in which Captain Swarth had deceived the +other, and of Captain Swarth's reckless confidence in himself, which +had induced him to follow the brig in and careen in the same bay. He +wound up his tale with a lurid description of the drunken debauch +following the anchoring of the bark,--during which he had trembled for +his life,--of the insane firing on the brig as she passed, and the +tumbling into the boats when the brig returned the fire, of the flight +into the woods, the fighting among themselves, and his escape under +fire. + +As he finished he offered an incoherent prayer of thankfulness, and the +sympathetic Mr. Shack drew forth his pocket-flask and offered it to the +agitated sufferer; but Mr. Todd, who could probably drink more whisky +and feel it less than any other man in the pirate crew, declined the +poison with a shiver of abhorrence. Then Mr. Duncan, who had listened +thoughtfully, said: "You speak of treasure; did they take it with +them?" + +Mr. Todd opened wide his eyes, looked toward the dark shades of the +forest, then at the three masts of the bark rising out of the water, +and answered impressively: + +"Gentlemen, they did not. They were intoxicated--mad with liquor. They +took arms and a knapsack of food to each man,--they spoke of an inland +retreat to which they were going,--but the treasure from the +passenger-ship--the bars of gold and the bags of diamonds--they forgot. +They transferred it from their sinking vessel when sober, but when +intoxicated they remembered food and left it behind. Gentlemen, there +is untold wealth in the hull out there which your fire has sunk. It is, +verily, the root of all evil; let us hope that it remains at the bottom +of the sea." + +"Bars of gold--bags of diamonds!" said Mr. Duncan. "Come on board, Mr. +Todd; we'll see what the captain thinks." + +At dinner in the brig's cabin that evening--as a prelude to which Mr. +Todd said grace--his account of the wealth spread out on Captain +Swarth's cabin table after the taking of the passenger-ship was +something to arouse interest in a less worldly man than Captain Bunce. +Virgin gold--in bars, ingots, bricks, and dust--from the Morro Velho +mines of Brazil was there, piled up on the table until the legs had +given way and launched the glittering mass to the floor. Diamonds +uncut, uncounted, of untold value,--a three years' product of the whole +Chapada district,--some as large as walnuts, had been spread out and +tossed about like marbles by those lawless men, then boxed up with the +gold and stowed among the cargo under the main-hatch. Again Mr. Todd +expressed the hope that Providence would see fit to let this treasure +remain where the pirates had left it, no longer to tempt man to kill +and steal. But Captain Bunce and his officers thought differently. +Glances, then tentative comments, were exchanged, and in five minutes +they were of one mind, even including Mr. Todd; for it may not be +needless to state that the treasure and the passenger-ship existed only +in his imagination. + +Pending the return of the boats the brig's anchor had been dropped +about two hundred yards from the bark; now canvas was furled, and at +eight bells all hands were mustered aft to hear what was in store. +Captain Bunce stated the case succinctly; they were homeward bound and +under general orders until they reported to the admiral at Plymouth. +Treasure was within their reach, apportionable, when obtained, as +prize-money. It was useless to pursue the pirates into the Brazilian +jungle; but they would need to be watchful and ready for surprise at +any moment, either while at work raising the bark or at night; for +though they had brought out the two boats in which the pirates had +escaped, they could find other means of attack, should they dare or +care to make it. The English sailors cheered. Mr. Todd begged to say a +few words, and enjoined them not to allow the love of lucre to tempt +their minds from the duty they owed to their God, their country, and +their captain, which was also applauded and forgotten in a moment. +Then, leaving a double-anchor watch, provided with blue fire and strict +instructions, on deck, the crew turned in to dream of an affluent +future, and Mr. Todd was shown to a comfortable state-room. He removed +his coat and vest, closed the door and dead-light, filled and lighted +his black pipe, and rolled into the berth with a seaman's sigh of +contentment. + +"That was a good dinner," he murmured, after he had filled the room +with smoke--"a good dinner. Nothing on earth is too good for a +sky-pilot. I'd go back to the business when I've made my pile, if it +wasn't so all-fired hard on the throat; and then the trustees, with +their eternal kicking on economy, and the sisters, and the +donation-parties--yah, to h----l with 'em! Wonder if this brig ever +carried a chaplain? Wonder how Bill and the boys are making out? Fine +brig, this,--'leven knots on a bow-line, I'll bet,--fine state-room, +good grub, nothin' to do but save souls and preach the Word on Sunday. +Guess I'll strike the fat--duffer--for the--job--in--the--morn----" The +rest of the sentence merged into a snore, and Mr. Todd slept through +the night in the fumes of tobacco, which so permeated his very being +that Captain Bunce remarked it at breakfast. "Smoke, Captain Bunce? I +smoke? Not I," he answered warmly; "but, you see, those ungodly men +compelled me to clean all their pipes,--forty foul pipes,--and I do not +doubt that some nicotine has lodged on my clothing." Whereupon Captain +Bunce told of a chaplain he had once sailed with whose clothing smelled +so vilely that he himself had framed a petition to the admiral for his +transfer to another ship and station. And the little story had the +effect on Mr. Todd of causing him mentally to vow that he'd "ship with +no man who didn't allow smoking," and openly aver that no sincere, +consistent Christian clergyman would be satisfied to stultify himself +and waste his energies in the comfort and ease of a naval chaplaincy, +and that a chaplain who would smoke should be discredited and forced +out of the profession. But later, when Captain Bunce and his officers +lighted fat cigars, and he learned that the aforesaid chaplain had +merely been a careless devotee of pipe and pigtail twist, Mr. Todd's +feelings may be imagined (by a smoker); but he had committed himself +against tobacco and must suffer. + +During the breakfast the two lieutenants reported the results of a +survey which they had taken of the wreck at daylight. + +"We find," said Mr. Duncan, "about nine feet of water over the deck at +the stern, and about three feet over the fore-hatch at low tide. The +topgallant-forecastle is awash and the end of the bowsprit out of +water, so that we can easily reach the upper ends of the bobstays. +There is about five feet rise and fall of tide. Now, we have no +pontoons nor casks. Our only plan, captain, is to lift her bodily." + +"But we have a diving-suit and air-pump," said Mr. Shack, +enthusiastically, "and fifty men ready to dive without suits. We can +raise her, captain, in two weeks." + +"Gentlemen," said Captain Bunce, grandly, "I have full faith in your +seamanship and skill. I leave the work in your hands." Which was +equivalent to an admission that he was fat and lazy, and did not care +to take an active part. + +"Thank you, sir," said Mr. Duncan, and "Thank you, sir," said Mr. +Shack; then the captain said other pleasant things, which brought other +pleasant responses, and the breakfast passed off so agreeably that Mr. +Todd, in spite of the soul-felt yearning for a smoke inspired by the +cigars in the mouths of the others, felt the influence of the +enthusiasm and bestowed his blessing--qualifiedly--on the enterprise. + +Every man of the brig's crew was eager for the work, but few could +engage at first; for there was nothing but the forecastle-deck and the +bark's rigging to stand upon. Down came the disgraceful black flags the +first thing, and up to the gaff went the ensign of Britain. Then they +sent down the fore and main lower and topsail yards, and erected them +as sheers over the bow and stern, lower ends well socketed in spare +anchor-stocks to prevent their sinking in the sand, upper ends lashed +together and stayed to each other and to the two anchors ahead and +astern. To the sheer-heads they rigged heavy threefold tackles, and to +the disconnected bobstays (chains leading from the bowsprit end to the +stem at the water-line) they hooked the forward tackle, and heaving on +the submerged windlass, lifted the bow off the bottom--high enough to +enable them to slip two shots of anchor-chain under the keel, one to +take the weight at the stern, the other at the bow, for the bobstays +would pull out of the stem under the increased strain as the bark +arose. + +Most of this work was done under water; but a wetting is nothing to men +looking for gold, and nobody cared. Yet, as a result of ruined +uniforms, the order came from Captain Bunce to wear underclothing only +or go naked, which latter the men preferred, though the officers clung +to decency and tarry duck trousers. Every morning the day began with +the washing of the brig's deck and scouring of brasswork--which must be +done at sea though the heavens fall; then followed breakfast, the +arming of the boats ready for an attack from the shore, and the descent +upon the bark of as many men as could work. + +Occasionally Captain Bunce would order the dinghy, and, accompanied by +Mr. Todd, would visit the bark and offer interfering suggestions, after +the manner of captains, which only embarrassed the officers; and Mr. +Todd would take advantage of these occasions to make landlubberly +comments and show a sad ignorance of things nautical. But often he +would decline the invitation, and when the captain was gone would +descend to his room, and, shutting the door, grip his beloved--though +empty--black pipe between his teeth and breathe through it, while his +eyes shone fiercely with unsatisfied desire, and his mind framed silent +malediction on Bill Swarth for condemning him to this smokeless +sojourn. For he dared not smoke; stewards, cooks, and sailors were all +about him. + +In three days the bark's nose was as high as the seven-part tackle +would bring it, with all men heaving who could find room at the +windlass-brakes. Then they clapped a luff-tackle on the fall, and by +heaving on this, nippering and fleeting up, they lifted the fore-hatch +and forecastle scuttle out of water--which was enough. Before this +another gang had been able to slip the other chain to position abaft +the mizzenmast, hook on the tackle, and lead the fall through a +snatch-block at the quarter-bitts forward to the midship capstan. +Disdaining the diving-suit, they swam down nine feet to do these +things, and when they had towed the rope forward they descended seven +feet to wind it around the capstan and ship the bars, which they found +in a rack at the mainmast. + +A man in the water weighs practically nothing, and to heave around a +capstan under water requires lateral resistance. To secure this they +dived with hammers and nails, and fastened a circle of cleats to catch +their feet. Then with a boy on the main fife-rail (his head out) +holding slack, eighteen men--three to a bar--would inhale all the air +their lungs could hold, and, with a "One, two, three," would flounder +down, push the capstan around a few pawls, and come up gasping, and +blue in the face, to perch on their bars and recover. It went slowly, +this end, but in three days more they could walk around with their +heads above water. + +The next day was Sunday, and they were entitled to rest; but the flavor +of wealth had entered their souls, and they petitioned the captain for +privilege to work, which was granted, to the satisfaction of the +officers, and against the vigorous protest of Mr. Todd, who had +prepared a sermon and borrowed clean linen from Mr. Shack in which to +deliver it. + +With luff-tackles on the fall they hove the stern up until the cabin +doors and all deck-openings but the main-hatch were out of water, and +then, with the bark hanging to the sheers as a swinging-cradle hangs +from its supports, some assisted the carpenter and his mates in +building up and calking an upward extension of the main-hatch coaming +that reached above water at high tide, while others went over the side +looking for the shot-holes of eight broadsides. These, when found, were +covered with planking, followed by canvas, nails being driven with +shackles, sounding-leads, and stones from the bottom in the hands of +naked men clinging to weighted stagings--men whose eyes protruded, +whose lungs ached, whose brains were turning. + +Then, and before a final inspection by the boatswain in the diving-suit +assured them that the last shot-hole was covered, they began bailing +from the main-hatch, and when the water perceptibly lowered--the first +index of success--a feverish yell arose and continued, while nude +lunatics wrestled and floundered waist-deep on the flooded deck. The +bark's pumps were manned and worked under water, bailing-pumps--square +tubes with one valve--were made and plunged up and down in each hatch, +whips were rigged, and buckets rose and fell until the obstructing +cargo confined the work to the bark's pumps. Can-hooks replaced the +buckets on the whips, then boxes and barrels were hoisted, broken into, +and thrown overboard, until the surface of the bay was dotted with +them. They drifted back and forth with the tide, some stranding on the +beach, others floating seaward through the inlet. And all the time that +they worked, sharp eyes had watched through the bushes, and a few miles +inland, in a glade surrounded by the giant trees of the Brazilian +forest, red-shirted men lolled and smoked and grew fat, while they +discussed around the central fire the qualities of barbecued wild oxen, +roast opossum and venison, and criticized the seamanship of the +Englishmen. + +With a clear deck to work on, every man and boy of the brig's crew, +except the idlers (stewards, cooks, and servants), was requisitioned, +and boxes flew merrily; but night closed down on the tenth day of their +labor without sign of the treasure, and now Mr. Todd, who had noticed a +shade of testiness in the queries of the officers as to the exact +location of the gold and diamonds, expressed a desire to climb the +rigging next afternoon, a feat he had often wished to perform, which he +did clumsily, going through the lubber's hole, and seated in the +maintop with Mr. Duncan's Bible, he remained in quiet meditation and +apparent reading and prayer until the tropic day changed to sudden +twilight and darkness, and the hysterical crew returned. Then he came +down to dinner. + +In the morning the work was resumed, and more boxes sprinkled the bay. +They drifted up with the flood, and came back with the ebb-tide; but +among them now were about forty others, unobserved by Captain Bunce, +pacing his quarter-deck, but noted keenly by Mr. Todd. These forty +drifted slowly to the offshore side of the brig and stopped, bobbing up +and down on the crisp waves, even though the wind blew briskly with the +tide, and they should have gone on with the others. It was then that +Captain Bunce stepped below for a cigar, and it was then that Mr. Todd +became strangely excited, hopping along the port-rail and throwing +overboard every rope's end within reach, to the wonder and scandal of +an open-eyed steward in the cabin door, who immediately apprised the +captain. + +Captain Bunce, smoking a freshly lit cigar, emerged to witness a +shocking sight--the good and godly Mr. Todd, with an intense expression +on his somber countenance, holding a match to a black pipe and puffing +vigorously, while through the ports and over the rail red-shirted men, +dripping wet and scowling, were boarding his brig. Each man carried a +cutlass and twelve-inch knife, and Captain Bunce needed no special +intelligence to know that he was tricked. + +One hail only he gave, and Mr. Todd, his pipe glowing like a hot coal, +was upon him. The captain endeavored to draw his sword, but sinewy arms +encircled him; his cigar was removed from his lips and inserted in the +mouth of Mr. Todd alongside the pipe; then he was lifted, spluttering +with astonishment and rage, borne to the rail and dropped overboard, +his sword clanking against the side as he descended. When he came to +the surface and looked up, he saw through a cloud of smoke on the rail +the lantern-jaws of Mr. Todd working convulsively on pipe and cigar, +and heard the angry utterance: "Yes, d--n ye, I smoke." Then a vibrant +voice behind Mr. Todd roared out: "Kill nobody--toss 'em overboard," +and the captain saw his servants, cooks, and stewards tumbling over to +join him. + +Captain Bunce turned and swam--there was nothing else to do. Soon he +could see a black-eyed, black-mustached man on his quarter-deck +delivering orders, and he recognized the thundering voice, but none of +the cockney accent of Captain Quirk. Men were already on the yards +loosing canvas; and as he turned on his back to rest--for, though +fleshy and buoyant, swimming in full uniform fatigued him--he saw his +anchor-chains whizzing out the hawse-pipes. + +He was picked up by the first boat to put off from the bark, and +ordered pursuit; but this was soon seen to be useless. The clean-lined +brig had sternway equal to the best speed of the boats, and now +head-sails were run up, and she paid off from the shore. Topsails were +sheeted home and hoisted, she gathered way, and with topgallantsails +and royals, spanker and staysails, following in quick succession, the +beautiful craft hummed down to the inlet and put to sea, while yells of +derision occasionally came back to the white-faced men in the boats. + +A month later the rehabilitated old bark also staggered out the +entrance, and, with a naked, half-starved crew and sad-eyed, +dilapidated officers, headed southward for Rio de Janeiro. + + + + +WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK + + "Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just." + BARD OF AVON. + + "But 4 times he who gits hiz blo' in fust." + JOSH BILLINGS. + + +Captain William Belchior was more than a martinet. He was known as +"Bucko" Belchior in every port where the English language is spoken, +having earned this prefix by the earnest readiness with which, in his +days as second and chief mate, he would whirl belaying-pins, heavers, +and handspikes about the decks, and by his success in knocking down, +tricing up, and working up sailors who displeased him. With a blow of +his fist he had broken the jaw of a man helplessly ironed in the +'tween-deck, and on the same voyage, armed with a simple belaying-pin, +had sprung alone into a circle of brandishing sheath-knives and quelled +a mutiny. He was short, broad, beetle-browed, and gray-eyed, of +undoubted courage, but with the quality of sympathy left out of his +nature. + +During the ten years in which he had been in command, he was relieved +of much of the executive work that had made him famous when he stood +watch, but was always ready to justify his reputation as a "bucko" +should friction with the crew occur past the power of his officers to +cope with. His ship, the _Wilmington_, a skysail-yard clipper, was +rated by sailormen as the "hottest" craft under the American flag, and +Captain Belchior himself was spoken of by consuls and commissioners, +far and near, as a man peculiarly unfortunate in his selection of men; +for never a passage ended but he was complainant against one or more +heavily ironed and badly used-up members of his crew. + +His officers were, in the language of one of these defendants, "o' the +same breed o' dorg." No others could or would sign with him. His crews +were invariably put on board in the stream or at anchorage--never at +the dock. Drunk when coerced by the boarding-masters into signing the +ship's articles, kept drunk until delivery, they were driven or hoisted +up the side like animals--some in a stupor from drink or drugs, some +tied hand and foot, struggling and cursing with returning reason. + +Equipped thus, the _Wilmington_, bound for Melbourne, discharged her +tug and pilot off Sandy Hook one summer morning, and, with a fresh +quartering wind and raising sea, headed for the southeast. The day was +spent in getting her sail on, and in the "licking into shape" of the +men as fast as they recovered their senses. Oaths and missiles flew +about the deck, knock-downs were frequent, and by eight bells in the +evening, when the two mates chose the watches,--much as boys choose +sides in a ball game,--the sailors were well convinced that their +masters lived aft. + +Three men, long-haired fellows, sprawling on the main-hatch, helpless +from seasickness, were left to the last in the choosing and then +hustled into the light from the near-by galley door to be examined. +They had been dragged from the forecastle at the mate's call for "all +hands." + +"Call yourselves able seamen, I suppose," he said with an oath, as he +glared into their woebegone faces. + +"No, pard," said the tallest and oldest of the three, in a weak voice. +"We're not seamen; we don't know how we got here, neither." + +The mate's answer was a fist-blow under the ear that sent the man +headlong into the scuppers, where he lay quiet. + +"Say 'sir' when you speak to me, you bandy-legged farmers," he snarled, +glowering hard at the other two, as they leaned against the water-tank. +"I'm pard to none of ye." + +They made him no answer, and he turned away in contempt. "Mr. Tomm," he +called, "want these Ethiopians in your watch?" + +"No, sir," said the second mate; "I don't want 'em. They're no more use +'an a spare pump." + +"I'll make 'em useful 'fore I'm done with 'em. Go forrard, you three. +Get the bile out o' yer gizzards 'fore mornin', 'f ye value yer good +looks." He delivered a vicious kick at each of the two standing men, +bawled out, "Relieve the wheel an' lookout--that'll do the watch," and +went aft, while the crew assisted the seasick men to the forecastle and +into three bedless bunks--bedless, because sailors must furnish their +own, and these men had been shanghaied. + +The wind died away during the night, and they awoke in the morning with +their seasickness gone and appetites ravenous. Somber and ominous was +their bearing as they silently ate of the breakfast in the forecastle +and stepped out on deck with the rest in answer to the mate's roar: +"All hands spread dunnage." Having no dunnage but what they wore, they +drew off toward the windlass and conferred together while chests and +bags were dragged out on deck and overhauled by the officers for whisky +and sheath-knives. What they found of the former they pocketed, and of +the latter, tossed overboard. + +"Where are the canal-drivers?" demanded the chief mate, as he raised +his head from the last chest. "Where are our seasick gentlemen, who +sleep all night--what--what----" he added in a stutter of surprise. + +He was looking down three eight-inch barrels of three heavy Colt +revolvers, cocked, and held by three scowling, sunburnt men, each of +whom was tucking with disengaged left hand the corner of a shirt into a +waistband, around which was strapped a belt full of cartridges. + +"Hands up!" snapped the tall man; "hands up, every one of ye! Up with +'em--over yer heads. That's right!" The pistols wandered around the +heads of the crowd, and every hand was elevated. + +"What's this? What d' ye mean? Put them pistols down. Give 'em up. Lay +aft, there, some o' ye, and call the captain," blustered the mate, with +his hands held high. + +Not a man stirred to obey. The scowling faces looked deadly in earnest. + +"Right about, face!" commanded the tall man. "March, every man--back to +the other end o' the boat. Laramie, take the other side and round up +anybody ye see. Now, gentlemen, hurry." + +Away went the protesting procession, and, joined by the carpenter, +sail-maker, donkey-man, and cook, "rounded up" from their sanctums by +the man called Laramie, it had reached the main-hatch before the +captain, pacing the quarter-deck, was aware of the disturbance. With +Captain Belchior to think was to act. Springing to the cabin skylight, +he shouted: "Steward, bring up my pistols. Bear a hand. Lower your +weapons, you scoundrels; this is rank mutiny." + +A pistol spoke, and the captain's hat left his head. "There goes your +hat," said a voice; "now for a button." Another bullet sped, which cut +from his coat the button nearest his heart. "Come down from there--come +down," said the voice he had heard. "Next shot goes home. Start while I +count three. One--two----" Captain Belchior descended the steps. "Hands +up, same as the rest." Up went the captain's hands; such marksmanship +was beyond his philosophy. "'Pache," went on the speaker, "go up there +and get the guns he wanted." The steward, with two bright revolvers in +his hands, was met at the companion-hatch by a man with but one; but +that one was so big, and the hand which held it was so steady, that it +was no matter of surprise that he obeyed the terse command, "Fork over, +handles first." The captain's nickel-plated pistols went into the +pockets of 'Pache's coat, and the white-faced steward, poked in the +back by the muzzle of that big firearm, marched to the main-deck and +joined the others. + +"Go down that place, 'Pache, and chase out any one else ye find," +called the leader from behind the crowd. "Bring 'em all down here." + +'Pache descended, and reappeared with a frightened cabin-boy, whom, +with the man at the wheel, he drove before him to the steps. There was +no wind, and the ship could spare the helmsman. + +"Now, then, gentlemen," said the tall leader, "I reckon we're all here. +Keep yer hands up. We'll have a powwow. 'Pache, stay up there, and you, +Laramie, cover 'em from behind. Plug the first man that moves." + +He mounted the steps to the quarter-deck, and, as he replaced empty +shells with cartridges, looked down on them with a serene smile on his +not ill-looking face. His voice, except when raised in accents of +command, had in it the musical, drawling, plaintive tone so peculiar to +the native Texan--and so deceptive. The other two, younger and rougher +men, looked, as they glanced at their victims through the sights of the +pistols, as though they longed for the word of permission to riddle the +ship's company with bullets. + +"You'll pay for this, you infernal cut-throats," spluttered the +captain. "This is piracy." + +"Don't call any names now," said the tall man; "'t ain't healthy. We +don't want to hurt ye, but I tell ye seriously, ye never were nearer +death than ye are now. It's a risky thing, and a foolish thing, too, +gentlemen, to steal three American citizens with guns under their +shirts, and take 'em so far from land as this. Hangin''s the fit and +proper punishment for hoss-stealin', but man-stealin''s so great a +crime that I'm not right sure what the punishment is. Now, we don't +know much 'bout boats and ropes,--though we can tie a hangman's knot +when necessary,--but we do know somethin' 'bout guns and human +natur'--here, you, come 'way from that fence." + +The captain was edging toward a belaying-pin; but he noticed that the +speaker's voice had lost its plaintiveness, and three tubes were +looking at him. He drew inboard, and the leader resumed: + +"Now, fust thing, who's foreman o' this outfit? Who's boss?" + +"I'm captain here." + +"You are? You are not. I'm captain. Get up on that shanty." The small +house over the mizzen-hatch was indicated, and Captain Belchior climbed +it. The tubes were still looking at him. + +"Now, you, there, you man who hit me last night when I was sick, who +are you, and what?" + +"Mate, d---- you." + +"Up with you, and don't cuss. You did a cowardly thing, pardner--an +unmanly thing--low down and or'nary. You don't deserve to live any +longer; but my darter, back East at school, thinks I've killed enough +men for one lifetime, and mebbe she's right--mebbe she's right. Anyhow, +she don't like it, and that lets you out--though I won't answer for +'Pache and Laramie when my back's turned. You kicked 'em both. But I'll +just return the blow." The mate had but straightened up on top of the +hatch-house when the terrible pistol spat out another red tongue, and +his yell followed the report, as he clapped his hand to the ear through +which the bullet had torn. + +"Hands up, there!" thundered the shooter, and the mate obeyed, while a +stream of blood ran down inside his shirt-collar. + +"Any more bosses here?" + +The second mate did not respond; but 'Pache's pistol sought him out, +and under its influence, and his guttural, "I know you; get up," he +followed his superiors. + +"Any more?" + +A manly-looking fellow stepped out of the group, and said: "You've got +the captain and two mates. I'm bo's'n here, and yonder's my mate. We're +next, but we're not bosses in the way o' bein' responsible for anything +that has happened or might happen to you. We b'long forrard. There's no +call to shoot at the crew, for there's not a man among 'em but what 'ud +be glad to see you get ashore, and get there himself." + +"Silence, bo's'n," bawled the captain. But the voice of authority +seemed pitifully ludicrous and incongruous, coupled with the captain's +position and attitude, and every face on the deck wore a grin. The +leader noticed the silent merriment, and said: + +"Laramie, I reckon these men'll stand. You can come up here. I'm +gettin' 'long in years, and kind o' steadyin' down, but I s'pose you +and 'Pache want some fun. Start yer whistle and turn loose." + +Up the steps bounded Laramie, and, with a ringing whoop as a prelude, +began whistling a clear, musical trill, while 'Pache, growling out, +"Dance, dance, ye white-livered coyotes," sent a bullet through the +outer edge of the chief mate's boot-heel. + +"Dance," repeated Laramie between bars of the music. _Crack, crack_, +went the pistols, while bullets rattled around the feet of the men on +the hatch, and Laramie's whistle rose and fell on the soft morning air. + +The sun, who has looked on many scandalous sights, looked on this, and +hid his face under a cloud, refusing to witness. For never before had +the ethics of shipboard life been so outrageously violated. A squat +captain and two six-foot officers, nearly black in the face from rage +and exertion, with hands clasped over their heads, hopped and skipped +around a narrow stage to the accompaniment of pistol reports +harmoniously disposed among the notes of a whistled tune, while bullets +grazed their feet, and an unkempt, disfigured, and sore-headed crew +looked on and chuckled. When the mate, weak from loss of blood, fell +and rolled to the deck, the leader stopped the entertainment. + +"Now, gentlemen," he said in his serious voice, "I'm called Pecos Tom, +and I've had considerable experience in my time, but this is my fust +with human creatur's so weak and thoughtless that they'll drug and +steal three men without takin' their guns away from them. And so, on +'count o' this shiftless improvidence, I reckon this boat will have to +turn round and go back." + +They bound them, rolled and kicked the two mates to the rail, lifted +the captain to his feet, and then the leader said significantly: + +"Give the right and proper order to yer men to turn this boat round." + +With his face working convulsively, Captain Belchior glanced at his +captors, at his eager, waiting crew, at the wheel without a helmsman, +at a darkening of the water on the starboard bow to the southward, up +aloft, and back again at the three frowning muzzles so close to his +head. + +"One hand to the wheel! Square in main and cro'-jack yards!" he called. +He was conquered. + +With a hurrah which indicated the sincerity of these orders, the crew +sprang to obey them, and with foreyards braced to starboard and +head-sheets flat, the ship _Wilmington_ paid off, wore around, and +bringing the young breeze on the port quarter, steadied down to a +course for Sandy Hook, which the captain, with hands released, but +still under the influence of those threatening pistols, worked out from +the mate's dead-reckoning. Then he was pinioned again, but allowed to +pace the deck and watch his ship, while the two officers were kept +under the rail, sometimes stepped upon or kicked, and often admonished +on the evil of their ways. + +Early passengers on the East River ferryboats were treated to a novel +sight next morning, which they appreciated according to their nautical +knowledge. A lofty ship, with sky-sails and royals hanging in the +buntlines, and jibs tailing ahead like flags, was charging up the +harbor before a humming southerly breeze, followed by an elbowing crowd +of puffing, whistling, snub-nosed tugs. It was noticeable that whenever +a fresh tug arrived alongside, little white clouds left her +quarter-deck, and that tug suddenly sheered off to take a position in +the parade astern. Abreast of Governor's Island, topgallant-halyards +were let go, as were those of the jibs; but no cluing up or hauling +down was done, nor were any men seen on her forecastle-deck getting +ready lines or ground-tackle. She passed the Battery and up the East +River, craft of all kinds getting out of her way,--for it was obvious +that something was wrong with her,--until, rounding slowly to a +starboard wheel, with canvas rattling and running-gear in bights, she +headed straight for a slip partly filled with canal-boats. Now her +topsail-halyards were let go, and three heavy yards came down by the +run, breaking across the caps; and amid a grinding, creaking, and +crashing of riven timbers, and a deafening din of applauding tug +whistles, she plowed her way into the nest of canal-boats and came to a +stop. + +Then was a hejira. Down her black sides by ropes and chain-plates, to +the wrecked and sinking canal-boats,--some with bags or chests, some +without,--came eager men, who climbed to the dock, and answering no +questions of the gathering crowd of dock-loungers, scattered into the +side-streets. Then three other men appeared on the rail, who shook +their fists, and swore, and shouted for the police, calling +particularly for the apprehension of three dark-faced, long-haired +fellows with big hats. + +In the light of later developments it is known that the police +responded, and with the assistance of boarding-house runners gathered +in that day nearly all of this derelict crew,--even to the cautious +boatswain,--who were promptly and severely punished for mutiny and +desertion. But the later developments failed to show that the three +dark-faced men were ever seen again. + + + + +PRIMORDIAL + + +Gasping, blue in the face, half drowned, the boy was flung +spitefully--as though the sea scorned so poor a victory--high on the +sandy beach, where succeeding shorter waves lapped at him and retired. +The encircling life-buoy was large enough to permit his crouching +within it. Pillowing his head on one side of the smooth ring, he wailed +hoarsely for an interval, then slept--or swooned. The tide went down +the beach, the typhoon whirled its raging center off to sea, and the +tropic moon shone out, lighting up, between the beach and barrier reef, +a heaving stretch of oily lagoon on which appeared and disappeared +hundreds of shark-fins quickly darting, and, out on the barrier reef, +perched high, yet still pounded by the ocean combers raised by the +storm, a fragment of ship's stern with a stump of mizzenmast. The +elevated position of the fragment, the quickly darting dorsal fins, and +the absence of company for the child on the beach spoke, too plainly, +of shipwreck, useless boats, and horrible death. + +Sharks must sleep like other creatures, and they nestle in hollows at +the bottom and in coral caves, or under overhanging ledges of the reefs +which attract them. The first swimmer may pass safely by night, seldom +the second. Like she-wolves, fiendish cats, and vicious horses, they +have been known to show mercy to children. For one or both reasons, +this child had drifted to the beach unharmed. + +Anywhere but on a bed of hot sand near the equator the sleep in wet +clothing of a three-year-old boy might have been fatal; but salt water +carries its own remedy for the evils of its moisture, and he wakened at +daylight with strength to rise and cry out his protest of loneliness +and misery. His childish mind could record facts, but not their reason +or coherency. He was in a new, an unknown world. His mother had filled +his old; where was she now? Why had she tied him into that thing and +thrown him from her into the darkness and wet? Strange things had +happened, which he dimly remembered. He had been roused from his sleep, +dressed, and taken out of doors in the dark, where there were frightful +crashing noises, shoutings of men, and crying of women and other +children. He had cried himself, from sympathy and terror, until his +mother had thrown him away. Had he been bad? Was she angry? And after +that--what was the rest? He was hungry and thirsty now. Why did she +not come? He would go and find her. + +With the life-buoy hanging about his waist--though of cork, a heavy +weight for him--he toddled along the beach to where it ended at a +massive ridge of rock that came out of the wooded country inland and +extended into the lagoon as an impassable point. He called the chief +word in his vocabulary again and again, sobbing between calls. She was +not there, or she would have come; so he went back, glancing fearfully +at the dark woods of palm and undergrowth. She might be in there, but +he was afraid to look. His little feet carried him a full half-mile in +the other direction before the line of trees and bushes reached so +close to the beach as to stop him. Here he sat down, screaming +passionately and convulsively for his mother. + +Crying is an expense of energy which must be replenished by food. When +he could cry no longer he tugged at the straps and strings of the +life-buoy. But they were wet and hard, his little fingers were weak, +and he knew nothing of knots and their untying, so it was well on +toward midday before he succeeded in scrambling out of the meshes, by +which time he was famished, feverish with thirst, and all but +sunstruck. He wandered unsteadily along the beach, falling +occasionally, moaning piteously through his parched, open lips; and +when he reached the obstructing ridge of rock, turned blindly into the +bushes at its base, and followed it until he came to a pool of water +formed by a descending spray from above. From this, on his hands and +knees, he drank deeply, burying his lips as would an animal. + +Instinct alone had guided him here, away from the salt pools on the +beach, and impelled him to drink fearlessly. It was instinct--a +familiar phase in a child--that induced him to put pebbles, twigs, and +small articles in his mouth until he found what was pleasant to his +taste and eatable--nuts and berries; and it was instinct, the most +ancient and deeply implanted,--the lingering index of an arboreal +ancestry,--that now taught him the safety and comfort of these woody +shades, and, as night came on, prompted him--as it prompts a drowning +man to reach high, and leads a creeping babe to a chair--to attempt +climbing a tree. Failing in this from lack of strength, he mounted the +rocky wall a few feet, and here, on a narrow ledge, after indulging in +a final fit of crying, he slept through the night, not comfortably on +so hard a bed, but soundly. + +During the day, while he had crawled about at the foot of the rocks, +wild hogs, marsupial animals, and wood-rats had examined him +suspiciously through the undergrowth and decamped. As he slept, howling +night-dogs came up, sniffed at him from a safe distance, and scattered +from his vicinity. He would have yielded in a battle with a pugnacious +kitten, but these creatures recognized a prehistoric foe, and would not +abide with him. + +A week passed before he had ceased to cry and call for his mother; but +from this on her image grew fainter, and in a month the infant +intelligence had discarded it. He ate nuts and berries as he found +them, drank from the pool, climbed the rocks and strolled in the wood, +played on the beach with shells and fragments of splintered wreckage, +wore out his clothes, and in another month was naked; for when buttons +and vital parts gave way and a garment fell, he let it lie. But he +needed no clothes, even at night; for it was southern summer, and the +northeast monsoon, adding its humid warmth to the radiating heat from +the sun-baked rocks, kept the temperature nearly constant. + +He learned to avoid the sun at midday, and, free from contagion and +motherly coddling, escaped many of the complaints which torture and +kill children; yet he suffered frightfully from colic until his stomach +was accustomed to the change of diet, by which time he was emaciated to +skin and bone. Then a reaction set in, and as time passed he gained +healthy flesh and muscle on the nitrogenous food. + +Six months from the time of his arrival, another storm swept the beach. +Pelted by the warm rain, terror-stricken, he cowered under the rocks +through the night, and at daylight peered out on the surf-washed sands, +heaving lagoon, and white line of breakers on the barrier reef. The +short-lived typhoon had passed, but the wind still blew slantingly on +the beach with force enough to raise a turmoil of crashing sea and +undertow in the small bay formed by the extension of the wall. The +fragment of ship's stern on the reef had disappeared; but a half-mile +to the right--directly in the eye of the wind--was another wreck, and +somewhat nearer, on the heaving swell of the lagoon, a black spot, +which moved and approached. It came down before the wind and resolved +into a closely packed group of human beings, some of whom tugged +frantically at the oars of the water-logged boat which held them, +others of whom as frantically bailed with caps and hands. Escorting the +boat was a fleet of dorsal fins, and erect in the stern-sheets was a +white-faced woman, holding a child in one arm while she endeavored to +remove a circular life-buoy from around her waist. At first heading +straight for the part of the beach where the open-eyed boy was +watching, the boat now changed its course and by desperate exertion of +the rowers reached a position from which it could drift to leeward of +the point and its deadly maelstrom. With rowers bailing and the +white-faced woman seated, fastening the child in the life-buoy, the +boat, gunwale-deep, and the gruesome guard of sharks drifted out of +sight behind the point. The boy had not understood; but he had seen his +kind, and from association of ideas appreciated again his +loneliness--crying and wailing for a week; but not for his mother: he +had forgotten her. + +With the change of the monsoon came a lowering of the temperature. +Naked and shelterless, he barely survived the first winter, tropical +though it was. But the second found him inured to the surroundings--hardy +and strong. When able to, he climbed trees and found birds' eggs, which +he accidentally broke and naturally ate. It was a pleasant relief from +a purely vegetable diet, and he became a proficient egg-thief; then the +birds built their nests beyond his reach. Once he was savagely pecked +by an angry brush-turkey and forced to defend himself. It aroused a +combativeness and destructiveness that had lain dormant in his nature. + +Children the world over epitomize in their habits and thoughts the +infancy of the human race. Their morals and modesty, as well as their +games, are those of paleolithic man, and they are as remorselessly +cruel. From the day of his fracas with the turkey he was a hunter--of +grubs, insects, and young birds; but only to kill, maim, or torture; he +did not eat them, because hunger was satisfied, and he possessed a +child's dislike of radical change. + +Deprived of friction with other minds, he was slower than his social +prototype in the reproduction of the epochs. At a stage when most boys +are passing through the age of stone, with its marbles, caves, and +slings, he was yet in the earlier arboreal period--a climber--and would +swing from branch to branch with almost the agility of an ape. + +On fine, sunny days, influenced by the weather, he would laugh and +shout hilariously; a gloomy sky made him morose. When hurt, or angered +by disappointment in the hunt, he would cry out inarticulately; but +having no use for language, did not talk, hence did not think, as the +term is understood. His mind received the impressions of his senses, +and could fear, hate, and remember, but knew nothing of love, for +nothing lovable appealed to it. He could hardly reason, as yet; his +shadow puzzled, angered, and annoyed him until he noticed its +concomitance with the sun, when he reversed cause and effect, +considered it a beneficent, mysterious Something that had life, and +endeavored by gesture and grimace to placate and please it. It was his +beginning of religion. + +His dreams were often horrible. Strange shapes, immense snakes and +reptiles, and nondescript monsters made up of prehistoric legs, teeth, +and heads, afflicted his sleep. He had never seen them; they were an +inheritance, but as real to him as the sea and sky, the wind and rain. + +Every six months, at the breaking up of the monsoon, would come squalls +and typhoons--full of menace, for his kindly, protecting shadow then +deserted him. One day, when about ten years old, during a wild burst of +storm, he fled down the beach in an agony of terror; for, considering +all that moved as alive, he thought that the crashing sea and swaying, +falling trees were attacking him, and, half buried in the sand near the +bushes, found the forgotten life-buoy, stained and weather-worn. It was +quiescent, and new to him,--like nothing he had seen,--and he clung to +it. At that moment the sun appeared, and in a short time the storm had +passed. He carried the life-buoy back with him--spurning and +threatening his delinquent shadow--and looked for a place to put it, +deciding at last on a small cave in the rocky wall near to the pool. In +a corner of this he installed the ring of cork and canvas, and remained +by it, patting and caressing it. When it rained again, he appreciated, +for the first time, the comfort of shelter, and became a cave-dweller, +with a new god--a fetish, to which he transferred his allegiance and +obeisance because more powerful than his shadow. + +From correlation of instincts, he now entered the age of stone. He no +longer played with shells and sticks, but with pebbles, which he +gathered, hoarded in piles, and threw at marks,--to be gathered +again,--seldom entering the woods but for food and the relaxation of +the hunt. But with his change of habits came a lessening of his cruelty +to defenseless creatures,--not that he felt pity: he merely found no +more amusement in killing and tormenting,--and in time he transferred +his antagonism to the sharks in the lagoon, their dorsal fins making +famous targets for his pebbles. He needed no experience with these +pirates to teach him to fear and hate them, and when he bathed--which +habit he acquired as a relief from the heat, and indulged daily--he +chose a pool near the rocks that filled at high tide, and in it learned +to swim, paddling like a dog. + +And so the boy, blue-eyed and fair at the beginning, grew to early +manhood, as handsome an animal as the world contains, tall, straight, +and clean-featured, with steady eyes wide apart, and skin--the color of +old copper from sun and wind--covered with a fine, soft down, which at +the age of sixteen had not yet thickened on his face to beard and +mustache, though his wavy brown hair reached to his shoulders. + +At this period a turning-point appeared in his life which gave an +impetus to his almost stagnant mental development--his food-supply +diminished and his pebble-supply gave out completely, forcing him to +wander. Pebble-throwing was his only amusement; pebble-gathering his +only labor; eating was neither. He browsed and nibbled at all hours of +the day, never knowing the sensation of a full stomach, and, until +lately, of an empty one. To this, perhaps, may be ascribed his +wonderful immunity from sickness. In collecting pebbles his method was +to carry as many as his hands would hold to a pile on the beach and go +back for more; and in the six years of his stone-throwing he had found +and thrown at the sharks every stone as small as his fist, within a +sector formed by the beach and the rocky wall to an equal distance +inland. The fruits, nuts, edible roots, and grasses growing in this +area had hitherto supported him, but would no longer, owing to a +drought of the previous year, which, luckily, had not affected his +water-supply. + +One morning, trembling with excitement, eye and ear on the alert,--as a +high-spirited horse enters a strange pasture,--he ventured past the +junction of bush and tide-mark, and down the unknown beach beyond. He +filled his hands with the first pebbles he found, but noticing the +plentiful supply on the ground ahead of him, dropped them and went on; +there were other things to interest him. A broad stretch of undulating, +scantily wooded country reached inland from the convex beach of sand +and shells to where it met the receding line of forest and bush behind +him; and far away to his right, darting back and forth among stray +bushes and sand-hummocks, were small creatures--strange, unlike those +he knew, but in regard to which he felt curiosity rather than fear. + +He traveled around the circle of beach, and noticed that the moving +creatures fled at his approach. They were wild hogs, hunted of men +since hunting began. He entered the forest about midday, and emerging, +found himself on a pebbly beach similar to his own, and facing a +continuation of the rocky wall, which, like the other end, dipped into +the lagoon and prevented further progress. He was thirsty, and found a +pool near the rocks; hungry, and he ate of nuts and berries which he +recognized. Puzzled by the reversal of perspective and the similarity +of conditions, he proceeded along the wall, dimly expecting to find his +cave. But none appeared, and, mystified,--somewhat frightened,--he +plunged into the wood, keeping close to the wall and looking sharply +about him. Like an exiled cat or a carrier-pigeon, he was making a +straight line for home, but did not know it. + +His progress was slow, for boulders, stumps, and rising ground impeded +him. Darkness descended when he was but half-way home and nearly on a +level with the top of the wall. Forced to stop, he threw himself down, +exhausted, yet nervous and wakeful, as any other animal in a strange +place. But the familiar moon came out, shining through the foliage, and +this soothed him into a light slumber. + +He was wakened by a sound near by that he had heard all his life at a +distance--a wild chorus of barking. It was coming his way, and he +crouched and waited, grasping a stone in each hand. The barking, +interspersed soon with wheezing squeals, grew painfully loud, and +culminated in vengeful growls, as a young pig sprang into a patch of +moonlight, with a dozen dingoes--night-dogs--at its heels. In the +excitement of pursuit they did not notice the crouching boy, but +pounced on the pig, tore at it, snapping and snarling at one another, +and in a few minutes the meal was over. + +Frozen with terror at this strange sight, the boy remained quiet until +the brutes began sniffing and turning in his direction; then he stood +erect, and giving vent to a scream which rang through the forest, +hurled the two stones with all his strength straight at the nearest. He +was a good marksman. Agonized yelps followed the impact of stone and +hide; two dogs rolled over and over, then, gaining their feet, sped +after their fleeing companions, while the boy sat down, trembling in +every limb--completely unnerved. Yet he knew that he was the cause of +their flight. With a stone in each hand, he watched and waited until +daylight, then arose and went on homeward, with a new and intense +emotion--not fear of the dingoes: he was the superior animal, and knew +it--not pity for the pig: he had not developed to the pitying stage. He +was possessed by a strong, instinctive desire to emulate the dogs and +eat of animal food. It did not come of his empty stomach; he felt it +after he had satisfied his hunger on the way; and as he plodded down +the slope toward his cave, gripped his missiles fiercely and watched +sharply for small animals--preferably pigs. + +But no pigs appeared. He reached his cave, and slept all day and the +following night, waking in the morning hungry, and with the memory of +his late adventure strong in his mind. He picked up the two stones he +had brought home, and started down the beach, but stopped, came back, +and turned inland by the wall; then he halted again and retraced his +steps--puzzled. He pondered awhile,--if his mental processes may be so +termed,--then walked slowly down the beach, entered the bush a short +distance, turned again to the wall, and gained his starting-point. Then +he reversed the trip, and coming back by way of the beach, struck +inland with a clear and satisfied face. He had solved the problem--a +new and hard one for him--that of two roads to a distant place; and he +had chosen the shortest. + +In a few hours he reached his late camping-spot, and crouched to the +earth, listening for barking and squealing--for a pig to be chased his +way. But dingoes hunt only by night, and unmolested pigs do not squeal. +Impatient at last, he went on through the forest in the direction from +which they had come, until he reached the open country where he had +first seen them; and here, rooting under the bushes at the margin of +the wood, he discovered a family--a mother and four young ones--which +had possibly contained the victim of the dogs. He stalked them slowly +and cautiously, keeping bushes between himself and them, but was seen +by the mother when about twenty yards away. She sniffed suspiciously, +then, with a warning grunt and a scattering of dust and twigs, scurried +into the woods, with her brood--all but one--in her wake. + +A frightened pig is as easy a target as a darting dorsal fin, and a fat +suckling lay kicking convulsively on the ground. He hurried up, the +hunting gleam bright in his eyes, and hurled the second stone at the +little animal. It still kicked, and he picked up the first stone, +thinking it might be more potent to kill, and crashed it down on the +unfortunate pig's head. It glanced from the head to the other stone and +struck a spark--which he noticed. + +The pig now lay still, and satisfied that he had killed it, he tried to +repeat the carom, but failed. Yet the spark had interested him,--he +wanted to see it again,--and it was only after he had reduced the pig's +head to a pulp that he became disgusted and angrily threw the stone in +his hand at the one on the ground. The resulting spark delighted him. +He repeated the experiment again and again, each concussion drawing a +spark, and finally used one stone as a hammer on the other, with the +same result--to him, a bright and pretty thing, very small, but alive, +which came from either of the dead stones. Tired of the play at last, +he turned to the pig--the food that he had yearned for. + +It was well for him, perhaps, that the initial taste of bristle and fat +prevented his taking the second mouthful. Slightly nauseated, he +dropped the carcass and turned to go, but immediately bounded in the +air with a howl of pain. His left foot was red and smarting. Once he +had cut it on a sharp shell, and now searched for a wound, but found +none. Rubbing increased the pain. Looking on the ground for the cause, +he discovered a wavering, widening ring of strange appearance, and +within it a blackened surface on which rested the two stones. They were +dry flint nodules, and he had set fire to the grass with the sparks. + +Considering this to be a new animal that had attacked him, he pelted it +with stones, dancing around it in a rage and shouting hoarsely. He +might have conquered the fire and never invoked it again, had not the +supply of stones in the vicinity given out, or those he had used grown +too hot to handle; for he stayed the advancing flame at one side. But +the other side was creeping on, and he used dry branches, dropping to +his hands and knees to pound the fire, fighting bravely, crying out +with pain as he burned himself, and forced to drop stick after stick +which caught fire. Soon it grew too hot to remain near, and he stood +off and launched fuel at it, which resulted in a fair-sized bonfire; +then, in desperation and fear, he hurled the dead pig--the cause of the +trouble--at the terrible monster, and fled. + +Looking back through the trees to see if he was pursued, he noticed +that the strange enemy had taken new shape and color; it was reaching +up into the air, black and cloud-like. Frightened, tired mentally and +physically, and suffering keenly from his burns, he turned his back on +the half-solved problem and endeavored to satisfy his hunger. But he +was on strange territory and found little of his accustomed food; the +chafing and abrading contact of bushes and twigs irritated his sore +spots, preventing investigation and rapid progress, and at the end of +three hours, still hungry, and exasperated by his torment into a +reckless, fighting mood, he picked up stones and returned savagely to +battle again with the enemy. But the enemy was dead. The grass had +burned to where it met dry earth, and the central fire was now a +black-and-white pile of still warm ashes, on which lay the charred and +denuded pig, giving forth a savory odor. Cautiously approaching, he +studied the situation, then, yielding to an irresistible impulse, +seized the pig and ran through the woods to the wall and down to his +cave. + +Two hours later he was writhing on the ground with a violent +stomach-ache. It was forty-eight hours after when he ate again, and +then of his old food--nuts and berries. But the craving returned in a +week, and he again killed a pig, but was compelled to forego eating it +for lack of fire. + +Though he had discovered fire and cooked food, his only conception of +the process, so far, was that the mysterious enemy was too powerful for +him to kill, that it would eat sticks and grass but did not like +stones, and that a dead pig could kill it, and in the conflict be made +eatable. It was only after months of playing with flints and sparks +that he recognized the part borne by dry grass or moss, and that with +these he could create it at will; that a dead pig, though always +improved by the effort, could not be depended upon to kill it unless +the enemy was young and small,--when stones would answer as well,--and +that he could always kill it himself by depriving it of food. + +It is hardly possible that animal food produced a direct effect on his +mind; but the effort to obtain it certainly did, arousing his torpid +faculties to a keener activity. He grasped the relation of cause to +effect--seeing one, he looked for the other. He noticed resemblances +and soon realized the common attributes of fire and the sun; and, as +his fetish was not always good to him,--the sun and storm seeming to +follow their own sweet will in spite of his unspoken faith in the +lifebuoy,--he again became an apostate, transferring his allegiance to +the sun, of which the friendly fire was evidently a part or symbol. He +did not discard his dethroned fetish completely; he still kept it in +his cave to punch, kick, and revile by gestures and growls at times +when the sun was hidden, retaining this habit from his former faith. +The life-buoy was now his devil--a symbol of evil, or what was the same +to him--discomfort; for he had advanced in religious thought to a point +where he needed one. Every morning when the sun shone, and at its +reappearance after the rain, he prostrated himself in a patch of +sun-light--this and the abuse of the life-buoy becoming ceremonies in +his fire-worship. + +In time he became such a menace to the hogs that they climbed the wall +at the high ground and disappeared in the country beyond. And after +them went the cowardly dingoes that preyed on their young. Rodent +animals, more difficult to hunt, and a species of small kangaroo +furnished him occupation and food until they, too, emigrated, when he +was forced to follow; he was now a carnivorous animal, no longer +satisfied with vegetable food. + +The longer hunts brought with them a difficulty which spurred him to +further invention. He could carry only as many stones as his hands +would hold, and often found himself far from his base of supply, with +game in sight, and without means to kill it. The pouch in which the +mother kangaroo carried her young suggested to his mind a like +contrivance for carrying stones. Since he had cut his foot on the +shell, he had known the potency of a sharp edge, but not until he +needed to remove charred and useless flesh from his food did he +appreciate the utility. It was an easy advance for him roughly to skin +a female kangaroo and wear the garment for the pocket's sake. But it +chafed and irritated him; so, cutting off the troublesome parts little +by little, he finally reduced it to a girdle which held only the pouch. +And in this receptacle he carried stones for throwing and shells for +cutting, his expeditions now extending for miles beyond the wall, and +only limited by the necessity of returning for water, of which, in the +limestone rock, there were plenty of pools and trickling springs. + +He learned that no stones but the dry flints he found close to the wall +would strike sparks; but, careless, improvident, petulant child of +nature that he was, he exhausted the supply, and one day, too indolent +to search his hunting-tracts to regain the necessary two, he endeavored +to draw fire from a pair that he dug from the moist earth, and failing, +threw them with all his strength at the rocky wall. One of them +shivered to irregular pieces, the other parted with a flake--a six-inch +dagger-like fragment, flat on one side, convex on the other, with sharp +edges that met in a point at one end, and at the other, where lay the +cone of percussion, rounded into a roughly cylindrical shape, +convenient for handling. Though small, no flint-chipping savage of the +stone age ever made a better knife, and he was quick to appreciate its +superiority to a shell. + +Like most discoveries and inventions that have advanced the human race, +his were, in the main, accidental; yet he could now reason from the +accidental to the analogous. Idly swinging his girdle around his head, +one day, and letting go, he was surprised at the distance to which, +with little effort, he could send the stone-laden pouch. Months of +puzzled experimenting produced a sling--at first with a thong of hide +fast to each stone, later with the double thong and pouch that small +boys and savages have not yet improved upon. + +To this centrifugal force, which he could use without wholly +understanding, he added the factor of a rigid radius--a handle to a +heavy stone; for only with this contrivance could he break large flints +and open cocoanuts--an article of good food that he had passed by all +his life and wondered at until his knife had divided a green one. His +experiments in this line resulted in a heavy, sharp-edged, solid-backed +flint, firmly bound with thongs to the end of a stick,--a rude +tomahawk,--convenient for the _coup de grace_. + +The ease with which he could send a heavy stone out of sight, or bury a +smaller one in the side of a hog at short range, was wonderful to him; +but he was twenty years old before, by daily practice with his sling, +he brought his marksmanship up to that of his unaided hand, equal to +which, at an earlier date, was his skill at hatchet-throwing. He could +outrun and tomahawk the fastest hog, could bring down with his sling a +kangaroo on the jump or a pigeon on the wing, could smell and +distinguish game to windward with the keen scent of a hound, and became +so formidable an enemy of his troublesome rivals, the dingoes,--whose +flesh he disapproved of,--and the sharks in the lagoon, that the one +deserted his hunting-ground and the other seldom left the reef. + +He broke or lost one knife and hatchet after another, and learned, in +making new ones, that he could chip them into improved shape when +freshly dug, and that he must allow them to dry before using--when they +were also available for striking fire. He had enlarged his pocket, +making a better one of a whole skin by roughly sewing the edges +together with thongs, first curing the hide by soaking in salt water +and scraping with his knife. His food-list now embraced shellfish and +birds, wild yams, breadfruit, and cocoanuts, which, even the latter, he +cooked before eating and prepared before cooking. Pushed by an +ever-present healthy appetite, and helped by inherited instincts based +on the habits and knowledge of a long line of civilized ancestry, he +had advanced in four years from an indolent, mindless existence to a +plane of fearless, reasoning activity. He was a hunter of prowess, +master of his surroundings, lord over all creatures he had seen, and, +though still a cave-dweller when at home, in a fair way to become a +hut-builder, herdsman, and agriculturist; for he had arranged boughs to +shelter him from the rain when hunting, had attempted to block up the +pass over the wall to prevent the further wanderings of a herd of hogs +that he had pursued, and had lately become interested in the sprouting +of nuts and seeds and the encroachments and changes of the vegetation. + +Yet he lacked speech, and did his thinking without words. The +deficiency was not accompanied by the unpleasant twisted features and +grimacing of mutes, which comes of conscious effort to communicate. His +features were smooth and regular, his mouth symmetrical and firm, and +his clear blue eye thoughtful and intent as that of a student; for he +had studied and thought. He would smile and frown, laugh and shout, +growl and whine, the pitch and timbre of his inarticulate utterance +indicating the emotion which prompted it to about the same degree as +does an intelligent dog's language to his master. But dogs and other +social animals converse in a speech beyond human ken; and in this +respect he was their inferior, for he had not yet known the need of +language, and did not, until, one day, in a section of his domain that +he had never visited before,--because game avoided it,--down by the sea +on the side of the wall opposite to his cave, he met a creature like +himself. + +He had come down the wooded slope on the steady jog-trot he assumed +when traveling, tomahawk in hand, careless, confident, and happy +because of the bright sunshine and his lately appeased hunger, and, as +he bounded on to the beach with a joyous whoop, was startled by an +answering scream. + +Mingled with the frightful monsters in the dreams of his childhood +had been transient glimpses of a kind, placid face that he seemed +to know--a face that bent over him lovingly and kissed him. These +were subconscious memories of his mother, which lasted long after +he had forgotten her. As he neared manhood, strange yearnings had +come to him--a dreary loneliness and craving for company. In his +sleep he had seen fleeting visions of forms and faces like his +reflection in a pool--like, yet unlike; soft, curving outlines, +tinted cheeks, eyes that beamed, and white, caressing hands +appeared and disappeared--fragmentary and illusive. He could not +distinctly remember them when he wakened, but their influence made +him strangely happy, strangely miserable; and while the mood lasted +he could not hunt and kill. + +Standing knee-deep in a shallow pool on the beach, staring at him with +wide-open dark eyes, was the creature that had screamed--a living, +breathing embodiment of the curves and color, the softness, brightness, +and gentle sweetness that his subconsciousness knew. There were the +familiar eyes, dark and limpid, wondering but not frightened; two white +little teeth showing between parted lips; a wealth of long brown hair +held back from the forehead by a small hand; and a rounded, dimpled +cheek, the damask shading of which merged delicately into the olive +tint that extended to the feet. No Venus ever arose from the sea with +rarer lines of beauty than were combined in the picture of loveliness +which, backed by the blue of the lagoon, appeared to the astonished +eyes of this wild boy. It was a girl--naked as Mother Eve, and as +innocently shameless. + +In the first confusion of his faculties, when habit and inherent +propensity conflicted, habit dominated his mind. He was a +huntsman--feared and avoided: here was an intruder. He raised his +hatchet to throw, but a second impulse brought it slowly down; she had +shown no fear--no appreciation of what the gesture threatened. Dropping +the weapon to the ground, he advanced slowly, the wonder in his face +giving way to a delighted smile, and she came out of the pool to meet +him. + +Face to face they looked into each other's eyes--long and earnestly; +then, as though the scrutiny brought approval, the pretty features of +the girl sweetened to a smile, but she did not speak nor attempt to. +Stepping past him, she looked back, still smiling, halted until he +followed, and then led him up to the wall, where, on a level with the +ground, was a hollow in the formation, somewhat similar to his cave, +but larger. Flowering vines grew at the entrance, which had prevented +his seeing it before. She entered, and emerged immediately with a +life-buoy, which she held before him, the action and smiling face +indicating her desire that he admire it. + +The boy thought that he saw his property in the possession of another +creature, and resented the spoliation. With an angry snarl he snatched +the life-buoy and backed away, while the girl, surprised and a little +indignant, followed with extended hands. He raised it threateningly, +and though she did not cower, she knew intuitively that he was angry, +and feeling the injustice, burst into tears; then, turning from him, +she covered her eyes with her hands and crouched to the ground, sobbing +piteously. + +The face of the boy softened. He looked from the weeping girl to the +life-buoy and back again; then, puzzled,--still believing it to be his +own,--he obeyed a generous impulse. Advancing, he laid the treasure at +her feet; but she turned away. Sober-faced and irresolute, not knowing +what to do, he looked around and above. A pigeon fluttered on a branch +at the edge of the wood. He whipped out his sling, loaded it, and sent +a stone whizzing upward. The pigeon fell, and he was beneath it before +it reached the ground. Hurrying back with the dead bird, he placed it +before her; but she shuddered in disgust and would not touch it. Off in +the lagoon a misguided shark was swimming slowly along,--its dorsal fin +cutting the surface,--a full two hundred yards from the beach. He ran +to the water's edge, looked back once, flourished his sling, and two +seconds later the shark was scudding for the reef. If she had seen, she +evidently was not impressed. He returned, picked up his tomahawk on the +way, idly and nervously fingered the pebbles in his pocket, stood a +moment over the sulky girl, and then studied the life-buoy on the +ground. A light came to his eyes; with a final glance at the girl he +bounded up the slope and disappeared in the woods. + +Three hours later he returned with his discarded fetish, and found her +sitting upright, with her life-buoy on her knees. She smiled gladly as +he approached, then pouted, as though remembering. Panting from his +exertion, he humbly placed the faded, scarred, and misshapen ring on +top of the brighter, better-cared-for possession of the girl, and +stood, mutely pleading for pardon. It was granted. Smiling +radiantly,--a little roguishly,--she arose and led him again to the +cave, from which she brought forth another treasure. It was a billet of +wood,--a dead branch, worn smooth at the ends,--around which were +wrapped faded, half-rotten rags of calico. Hugging it for a moment, she +handed it to him. He looked at it wonderingly and let it drop, turning +his eyes upon her; then, with impatience in her face, she reclaimed it, +entered the cave,--the boy following,--and tenderly placed it in a +corner. + +It was her doll. Up to the borders of womanhood--untutored, unloved +waif of the woods--living through the years of her simple existence +alone--she had lavished the instinctive mother-love of her heart on a +stick, and had clothed it, though not herself. + +With a thoughtful little wrinkle in her brow, she studied the face of +this new companion who acted so strangely, and he, equally mystified, +looked around the cave. A pile of nuts in a corner indicated her +housewifely thrift and forethought. A bed of dry moss with an evenly +packed elevation at the end--which could be nothing but a +pillow--showed plainly the manner in which she had preserved the +velvety softness of her skin. Tinted shells and strips of faded calico, +arranged with some approach to harmony of color around the sides and +the border of the floor, gave evidence of the tutelage of the +bower-birds, of which there were many in the vicinity. And the vines at +the entrance had surely been planted--they were far from others of the +kind. In her own way she had developed as fully as he. As he stood +there, wondering at what he saw, the girl approached, slowly and +irresolutely; then, raising her hand, she softly pressed the tip of her +finger into his shoulder. + +In the dim and misty ages of the past, when wandering bands of ape-like +human beings had not developed their tribal customs to the level of +priestly ceremonies,--when the medicine-man had not arisen,--a marriage +between a man and young woman was generally consummated by the man +beating the girl into insensibility, and dragging her by the hair to +his cave. Added to its simplicity, the custom had the merit of +improving the race, as unhealthy and ill-favored girls were not +pursued, and similar men were clubbed out of the pursuit by stronger. +But the process was necessarily painful to the loved one, and her +female children very naturally inherited a repugnance to being wooed. + +When a civilized young lady, clothed and well conducted, anticipates +being kissed or embraced by her lover, she places in the way such +difficulties as are in her power; she gets behind tables and chairs, +runs from him, compels him to pursue, and expects him to. In her +maidenly heart she may want to be kissed, but she cannot help +resisting. She obeys the same instinct that impelled this wild girl to +spring from the outstretched arms of the boy and go screaming out of +the cave and down the beach in simulated terror--an instinct inherited +from the prehistoric mother, who fled for dear life and a whole skin +from a man behind armed with a club and bent upon marriage. + +Shouting hoarsely, the boy followed, in what, if he had been called +upon to classify it, might have seemed to him a fury of rage, but it +was not. He would not have harmed the girl, for he lacked the tribal +education that induces cruelty to the weaker sex. But he did not catch +her; he stubbed his toe and fell, arising with a bruised kneecap which +prevented further pursuit. Slowly, painfully, he limped back, tears +welling in his eyes and increasing to a copious flood as he sat down +with his back to the girl and nursed his aching knee. It was not the +pain that brought the tears; he was hardened to physical suffering. But +his feelings had been hurt beyond any disappointment of the hunt or +terror of the storm, and for the first time in his life since his +babyhood he wept--like the intellectual child that he was. + +A soft, caressing touch on his head aroused him and brought him to his +feet. She stood beside him, tears in her own eyes, and sympathy +overflowing in every feature of the sweet face. From her lips came +little cooing, gurgling sounds which he endeavored to repeat. It was +their first attempt at communication, and the sounds that they +used--understood by mothers and infants of all races--were the first +root-words of a new language. He extended his arms, and though she held +back slightly, while a faint smile responded to his own, she did not +resist, and he drew her close--forgetting his pain as he pressed his +lips to hers. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD" AND +OTHER STORIES OF THE SEA*** + + +******* This file should be named 23539.txt or 23539.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/5/3/23539 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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