Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-09-14
WEIRD TALE OF THE DEEP,
BY a SEAFAREH.

FOR warmth and damp, and very quie
surface Of ocean. Not so much as the
head OF a cloud had shown anywhere
yet the sky was as dingy as the atmos
rheric thickness could make it, Will
the sun in the midst of it like red-ho
warming pan, and wake under him i,
the thick and sluggish water that NIGH
have passed for drippings of blazing OF
slowly settling. At shutdown, when til.
shadows entered this weather. it fell
pitch dark. No man aboard the shin
that lay motionless in the heart of ii
ever remembered IL deeper blackness.
There could have been nothing in the
most STOPPING and lowering of electric
storms to fling a more ebony complexion
npon the deep than the night air now
held. The wind too, died out when
the evening came down, and the vessel
that had been slowly ripping through
it all day was brought to a dead stand,
with scarce heave enough in her frame
TO put life into the up-and-down canvas.
The ship was a few degrees south of
the equator. an old-faslioned cargo YES
sci outward bound to an Australian
port, with purplc-faced old Poplar man
for commander. The round-shanled
chap, coming on deck after brief spell
below in company with a bottle of
whisky, stood minute OF two in the
companion-way, staring blindly against
the blacllness., then after a little CROPPED
over to the mate, one side of whose
figure was just visible as he stood be-
tween the pinnacle and the wheel, by
the sheen of the light there touching it.
well. we'll" he exclaimed, shifting up
at the air as though he would smell
what he was unable to see, chow is this
to end now, dye think, Mr.. Jones?
Glass stands high, too. A man might
marry negress in this night and not
know her for side of bacon, let alone
the color. Cor bless me, color! Why,
you might make hole in this darkness
to lie down in"
He took a view of the compass-card,
heard what the mate had to say on the
subject Of the weather, and, after smok-
ang pipe. repaired below for a second
dram, telling the mate that he would
take forty winks on one of the cabin
lockers, and that he was to be ut once
called it there came change, no matter
what form it might take. The mate
watched the crimson faced old gentle
man mix himself a second mates nip"
he was in plain view through the open
skylight-and then the worthy skipper
stretched his fat figure along a locker,
and his snoring presently arose into
the darkness with sound like the rush
ing Of water up and down beach of
shingle.
The man at the wheel nodded; there
was scarce stir in the tiller chains; no
twitch of the spokes to hint to the fell
low to keep his head up. Forward in
the darkness the stiffness was that of a
coffin In what corners the watch on
deck had coiled their bodies away no
man could have imagined. The mate
paced the deck slowly, often coming to
a stand at the rail, lost in wonder at the
phenomenal stiffness out upon the black
shadow of the ocean. There was some
thing sonl-subduing in night of such
darkness and stiffness as this. It made
one walk lightly, as though there were
a listening spirit i'll the air to be vexed
by the rude crcall of boat 1t was a
time to speak only in whispers, as you'd
notice when at long intervals the mate
addressed the fellow who was at the
wheel, sounding his inquiry but little
above his breath. This went on till
about II o'clock; ship, ocean, and sky
blended yet into one impenetrable
shadow, charged with the mighty,
pulseless pause, as though the
night, with sucked-in breath, hung mo-
tionless in expectation. "Hark! did
you hear that?' cried the mate, sud-
denly whipping out shrill with the
,amazement that was in him. cay, sir"
answered the man at the helm, in a
broad-awake voice; "there it is again"
It was q sound OF laughter out on the
water off to the star-board bow; whether
human or not was scarcely to be guessed.
The blackness, and then Che great ocean
solitude out of which it rang, would
have put a wild unearthliness into it,
even had it been melodious as q girls
laugh; but there was an edge in it that
owed nothing to the mystery of the
night-an Understandable animal-like
harshness, a semblance of human mer-
riment shocking by reason of It's mirth-
lessness and a note running through it
as of the mixed crying of the iackal and
the hyena. "Smite me if it dS..1t sound
like some swimming balloon a-hailing of
u.s. cried the helmsman. Swimming
baboon in your eye" answered the mate;
some drowned mans ghost, more like,
footing round maybe, i'll hope Of being
Laid by drink.
The laugh again sounded, sort of
anearthly, carousing llallooing, like the
meaningless bawling Of some drunken
rascal staggering home in the small
hours. what the deuce is it 2" said the
mate Amt that winking of fire out
there where the noise is, sir?" said the
helmsman. The mate peered. cay,
sure enough, said he; "what is it now?
1t looks like the sheen Of phosphorus to
the dipping of an oar. Listen!" They
both bent their ears. The long, de-
moniacal, blood-chilling laugh came
floating off the water to the ship, and
then nan cried out suddenly, in the