The Worthington advance., 1899-12-29

ceased, leaving us in the midst of
the blackness of utter darkness.
The pouring rain stopped almost as
quickly as it had begun, and I looked
suddenly up.
Good gracious, we're adrift- Joel"
I was going to add, but bit off the SEN
tence just in time to make it merely
involuntary exclamation.
Joe dropped his boot, and as, raising
his head, he saw the painter floating
alongside, his lips parted, but he choked
back what he was going to say. And
then, before we had quite recovered
from this shock, the wind sprang up
from the southwest, and in ten minutes
had raised such tremendous cross-sea
as nearly to swamp the little boat be-
fore we got her round 'head on"
I took all the credit of Joe's next
maneuver, though I think likely Joe
would have thought of it if hadn't.
Lashing the two oars and boat hook
together, I bent the end fithe painter
round them midway, and threw the
whole overheard, thus making sort Of
drag, which kept the boat fairly well
to the sea and wind, though every now
and then a wave crest broke over us.
And there we two young fools sat
glowering speechlessly at each other
through the darkness-I in the stern
and Joe amidships-drenched to the
skin, shivering, and, like Paul, wish
ing for the day. I kept hoping Joe
would say something, if it were only to
growl. And he now. declares he was
waiting for me to speak. ? '
AS is often the case after a tropic
thunder squall, the wind died out en-
tirely toward morning. And when the
red eye of the sun squinted knowingly
at us over the edge of the eastern hori-
zon, the sea was running in long, CLASSY
swells, unbroken by the slightest
breath of air.
But land lay due east, not over 40
miles away, and though we had no COM
pass, there was the sun. Between us
both felt we could pull the boat that
distance before we were entirely ex-
hausted by hunger and thirst.
Mind you, I only thought this: 7
wouldn't speak it. And as Joe sat mo-
tionless, with his head resting on his
hands, grasped the painter to pull in
the drag.
To my dismay, the painter came in
limp and slack. The hitch had slipped
some time during the nj ght or toward
morning, and our oars had gone adrift.
I dropped on the nearest thwart, and
groaned aloud. I had hoped Joe would
ask what the trouble was. But no-he
looked up, saw at a glance, and buried
his head in his hands again. But he
groaned-under his breath.
The sun rose higher and hotter, and
though it dried our clothes, it seemed
by noon as though my brain was on fire.
And thirsty! I began in a vague sort
of way to wonder how shipwrecked men
felt who were four and five days in an
open boat without food or water.
The sea went down gradually, and
lay just pulsing like the breast of a
tired child, but the surface was as
smooth as mirror. The long boat had
probably run before the wind all night,
leaving us to our fate-thanks, as we
knew afterward, to three or four of the
crewwho temporarily took Capt. Pratt's
command from him.
All at once, as half stupefed stared
out over the oily expanse, 1 saw-surely
it was-a ,ateen-shaped sail, not an
eighth of mile Distant!
sprang to my feet and was going to
sing out: ''Sail hot" But Joe, who had
followed the direction of my gaze, had
seen it, SOL kept silence.
But what! There wasn't breath of
air stirring, yet the strange sail was
slipping through the water and coming
toward us at lively rate of speed.
I rubbed my eyes and looked at Joe;
but he rubbed his eyes, and was staring
at this strange phenomenon. So again
I kept silence.
Nearer and nearer, and the sun strik-
ing the great triangular object trans
versely, as it came cutting through the
CLASSY sea, sent strange, blush iri-
descence, such as have noticed in the
wings of flying fish in the sunshine,
over and through it.
Thatit was the dorsal fin of some huge
sea monster we both conjectured, a
moment or two later, as, probably
frightened by the nearness of our boat,
it suddenly sank downward, like the
sword of Escalibur. -, -
If we had 6nown, as afterward, that
the dorsal lin belonged to the ''sailor
fish, a species of swordfish peculiar to
the Indian ocean, often attaining a
length of 20 feet and upward, given to
attacking the native boats, we should
probably have felt considerable anxiety.
As it was, we relapsed into sort of
dumb apathy. Yet neither broke the
silence. e ~ -.
All the long day and long, sultry