Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-09-08

lrToui MT. MuTrayS new BOOK the
Golden Rule Publishing Co.
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 Off
| GERS around him, and stated what he had
discovered,-laid the whole subject in a
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 anything to suggest ?''
| 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
'lts our only course" said the captain.
"Pilot." said he turning to the man whose
eye eye was on the lockout, "can you
beach herP" The other deliberated mo-
| ment, and said:
captain, l am ready to take any re-
| sponsibility that a man in my position
| should take. l am ready to execute any
order you give but will not take the
|
with 600 passengers aboard, on to a coast
that know nothing of beyond the knowl-
edge | lave of the lights, the reefs, and
the harbors. 1t would be mere chance if
| got her within half a mile of the Shore"
| The captain actually groaned He saw
and admitted the force of the pilots as
sertion. For a moment not word was
spoken, while the ship went tearing Oh
through the water, and the premonitions
OF rising tumult came 10 their ears from
below. showing that the passengers were
already on the move. He looked an in-
slant 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? feel
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
dop'
Not man spoke. They felt as If the
horror Of death were shutting down around
them. They were brave, they were calm.
They showed no evidence of fear. They
could meet death as men should meet il
but they could not tell how to escape it,
Suddenly the captains face lighted. with
light which was the reflection of hope,
OF conjecture, of possibility. He
darted out of the pilot-house, swung him
self down mo ig the crew, who were
busy with the pumps and the hose. and
shouted, with the concentration of voice
that penetrated the roar of the storm like
a knife -
SIS there man here who knows this
coast?n
When the captain dropped among them
the meH stopped their work and stood star
ing at him. Only the old trapper and
Herbert. each of whom stood above the
forward hatch, hose in hand, directing the
streams that the pumps sent through the
swelling tubes downward. kept their posi-
tion. The captain waited moment while
the light faded from his countenance as no
response came, and then, as If in very
despair, he shouted -
"ls there man here who knows this
coast :?
Again no reply came, and he was upon
the point OF turning away, when the lad,
who had been kneeing under the protec-
tion OF the bulwark, trying to stop rent
which the pressure had made in the hose
that the old trapper was tending, rose out
OF the shadow and approaching the cap
tain said -
"Yes, sir. l know the coast"
who are you,' said the captain, "that
claim such knowledgeP Are you not the
youth | saw with the old hunter at the ta-
bic tonight How should you, born in
the interior, know anything about this
coast ?"
II was not born in the woods" respond
ed the lad, II was born within ten miles
of where we are and know every rock
and reef and point, for have fished on
them all and l know every beach, for
used to play on them when boy"
The captain looked incredulous. He
had associated him with the hunter and
the wilderness, and it seemed incredible
that he should have been born where he
said he was born, and that he should be
on that boat that night, and be discovered
by the merest accident at the very in slant
OF supreme peril.
"Cap'n," said an old trapper. who
had drawn nigh, "cap'n, whatever the lad
says ye can sartinly take for gospel truth.
And II he says he was born here. he was
born here; and ii he says he knows this
shore he does know it; and We can rely
on him to do what he says ne can do;
for his words be truth, and his acts be
like his words"
Young man said the captain, have you
any other friend on board beside this
hunterW
"Sartin he has, said the old man, an
swering the question for the lad, There
be Henry there. who has boated with him
off and on, and the lad saved his life once,
and that's a sarvice that a man isn't apt
to forget. Yis, you may sit it down,
cap'n, that Henry and me be the lads
| friends
Call him here" said the captain,
hoarsely, land then follow me to the pi-
dollhouse"
1t was with the greatest effort that the
four were able to reach the point desig-
mated, for the gale was blowing with in-
creased violence, and the iron rod and
the ropes they grasped to steady them
selves were already hot and even AS they
reached the upper deck. the flames broke
fiercely from the hatchways and the fire
began to run in wavering lines along the