The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1877-09-06
OUR STORY TELLER.
THE STEAMER ON FIRE.
Adirondack Murray's New Book.l

The Captain stood another instant in
profound thought, during which his
quick and fearless mind had considered
all the contingencies, and, without a
word to the three men that were with
him, he started for the deck and the
pilot house. He summoned the Chief
Engineer and his officers around him,
and stated what he had discovered
laid the whole subject in few terse
words before them, and said:
Gentlemen, in five minutes the
saloons will be like an oven, and the
windows of this pilot house will be
cracking, Have you any thing to
suggestI'
The first officer, sailor from boyhood,
whose head and beard were already gray,
said promptly:
Captain, we must beach her." The
others looked their assent.
cts our only course" said the Cap
tain. "Pilot," said he turning to the
man whose eye was on the lookout.
"Can you beach herp'
The other deliberated moment, and
said:
" Captain, / am ready to take any re-
sponsibility that man in my position
should take. / am ready to execute any
order you give; but will not take the
responsibility of running this steamer,
with six hundred passengers aboard, on
TO a coast that / know nothing of beyond
the knowledge have of the lights, the
reefs, and the harbors. 1t would be
mere chance if 1 got her within half a
mile of the Shore"
The Captain actually groaned. He
saw and admitted the force of the pilot
assertion. For moment not word was
spoken, while the ship went tearing on
through the water, and the premonitions
of rising tumult came to their ears from
below, showing that the passengers were
already on the move. He looked an in.
gtant into each face before him, lifted
his hand and wiped the great drops Of
sweat from his forehead, and said:
Gentlemen, what shall we do? fee
the floor under my feet heating! The
passengers are moving out of the saloon
What we do must be done quickly! We
are overloaded. Our boats wouldn't ac
commodate half, and besides boat
couldn't live in that sea. What shall
we doT'
Not a man spoke. They felt as if the
horror of death were shutting dowr
around them. They were brave, they
were calm. They showed no evidence O.
fear. They could meet death as mel
should meet it; but they could not tel
how to escape it. Suddenly the Captain
face lighted, with light which was tn,
reflection of hope, of a conjecture, of
possibility. He darted out of the pilot
house, swung himself down among tn,
crew, who were busy with the pump
and the hose, and shouted, with tn,
concentration of voice that penetrated
the roar of the storm like knife:
"Is there man here who knows thi
coastp'
When the Captain dropped anon,
stood staring at him. Only the oil
trapper and Herbert, each of whom stoo'
above the forward hatch, hose in hand
directing the streams that the pump
sent through the swelling tube, down
ward, kept their position. The Captain
waited moment, while the light fade
from his countenance as no respons
came, and then, as if in very despair, h
shouted:
is there a man here who knows thi
coastT'
Again no reply came, and he was upo
the point OF turning away when tn
lad, who had been kneeling under th
protection of the bulwark trying to sto
rent which the pressure had made il
the hose that the old trapper was tend
ing, rose out of the shadow and approach
ing the Captain said:
Yes, sir. / know the coast"
Who are you," said the Captain
that claims such knowledge? Ar
nnN NhA II a.
hunter at the table tonight? Ho,
should you, born in the interior, kno,
anything about this coast?'
was born in the woods" responde
the lad 81 was born within ten mile
of where we are, and l know ever
rock, and reef, and point, for / hay
tished on them all; and know ever
beach, for used to play on them whe
boy"
The Captain looked incredulous. II
had associated him with the hunter an
the wilderness, and it seemed incredibl
that he should have been born where
said he was born, and that he should /
on that boat that night, and be di
covered by the merest accident at th
very instant of supreme peril.
Captain" said the old trapper, wh
had drawn nigh, "Cap'n, whatever til
lad says ye can sartinly take for gosp,
truth. And if he says he was Dor
here, he was born here; and if he sa,
he knows this shore, he does know il
and ye can rely on him to do what L
says he can do; for his words be trutl
and his acts be like hiswords."
Young, man." said the Captain
have you any other friend on boar
beside this hunterp'
"Sartin he has" said the old man, Al
swerlng the question for the lad, "thel
be Henry there, who has boated wit
him and camped with him off and ol
and the lad saved his life once, an
that's sacrifice that man isn't apt
iorgit. 1is, you may set it dow
Cap'n, that Henry and me be the lad
frionds -