Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1898-03-01
PART III.
MY SHORE ADVENTURE.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOW I BEGAN MY SHORE ADyEN-
r>J1


The appearance of the island when 1
came on deck next morning was al
together changed. Although the
breeze had now utterly failed, we had
made great deal of way during the
night, and were now lying becalmed
about half mile to the southeast of
the low eastern coast. Gray-colored
woods covered large part of the sur
face. This even tint was indeed
broken up by streaks of yellow sand
break in the lower lands, and by many
tall trees of the pine family, out-top-
ping the others-some singly, some in
clumps; but the general co!oring was
uniform and sad. The hills ran up
clear above the vegetation in spires of
naked rock. All were strangely
shaped, and the spy-glass, which was
by 800 or 400 feet the tallest on the
island, was likewise the strangest in
configuration, running up sheer from
almost every side, and then suddenly
cut off at the top like pedestal to put
statue on.
The "Hispaniola" was rolling soup
pers under in the ocean swell. The
booms were tearing at the blocks, the
rudder was banging to and fro, and
the whole ship creaking, grooming, and
jumping like mandatory. had to
cling tight to the backstay, and the
world turned giddily before my eyes;
for though | was good enough sailor
when there was way on, this standing
still and being rolled about like bot
tie was thing never learned to stand
without qualm OF so, above all in the
morning, on an empty stomach.
Perhaps it was this-perhaps it was
the look of the island, with its gray.
melancholy woods, and wild stone
spires, and the surf that we could both
see and hear foaming and laundering
on the steep beach-at least, although
the sun shone bright and hot, and the
shore birds were fishing and crying all
around us, and you would have thought
anyone would have been glad to get to
land after being so long at sea, my
heart sunk, as the saying is, into my
boots; and from that first look onward.
hated the very thought OF Treasure
Island.
We had dreary mornings work be.
fore us, for there was no sign of any
| wind, and the boats had to be got out
and manned, and the ship warped three
or four miles round the corner of the
island, and up the narrow passage to
the haven behind Skeleton island. ]
volunteered for one of the boats, where
l had, of course, no business. The
heat was sweltering, and the men
grumbled tiercely over their work
Anderson was in command of my boat
| and instead of keeping the crew in
order, he grumbled as loud as the
worst.
"Well," he said, with an oath, sits
not forever"
I thought this was very bad sign;
for, up to that day, the men had gone
briskly and willingly about their bust
ness; but the very sight of the island
had relaxed the cords of discipline.
All the way in, Long John stood by
| the steersman and conned the ship
He knew the passage like the palm Of
| his hand; and though the man in the
chains got everywhere more water
| than was down in the chart, John never
hesitated once.
There's strong scour with the
ebb," he said, land this here passage
has been dug out, in amanner of speak
ing, with spade"
We brought up just where the an
| Choir was in the chart, about a third o.
| a mile from either shore, the mainland
| on one side, and Skeleton island on thu
! other. The bottom was clean sand
The plunge of our anchor sent VI
clouds of birds wheeling and crying
J over the woods; but in less than min
ute they were all down again, and al
| was once more silent.
The place was entirely land-locked
buried in woods, the trees coming
right down to high water mark, TIL
shores mostly fiat, and the hilltop
standing round at distance in sort o
a1nphitheater, one here, one there. Tw'
little rivers, or, rather, two swamps
emptied out into this pond, as yol
might call it; and the foliage rount
that part of the shore had kind o
poisonous brightness. From the ship
we could see nothing of the house o
stoclsade, for they were quite burie'
among trees; and if it had not beel
for the chart on the companion, w
might have been the first that had eve
anchored there since the island aros
tsr1t nf the seas