Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-05-02

knew; as for me, cared not if it blew the
vessel out of water. With the same dull in
difference | marked our new danger and
every detail attending it.. With the sudden
calm we were at the mercy of the long,
green, foam-capped pillows which charged
toward us like moving hills. They came not,
like rollers, with the regular swing of the
ground swell, but every surge was the head
waters Of q mighty dam broken loose, its
crest made up of a mad, throbbing mass Of
liquid torn into shreds and cross seas by its
own weight and violent motion. The face
of the world was vast tumult of yeasty,
ash-colored madness cut by the darkness Of
its hollows; terror (if could have felt it).
not a horror; more sublime than grand,
more awful than sublime
| In five minutes we were in the trough of
| it. Without zephyr to steady her. the
schooner wallowed like a crazy thing. The
| roll, the sidelong heave and lurch, the Jerk.
ing pitch and recovery were terrible tests
| to the stanchness of the vessel. Alternately
| the bow and stern rose to dizzy altitude,
| then sank with a rapidity that even to my
trained nature was sckening. Each joint
and block found voice which complained
in notes ranging from bang to a squeak,
of its unnatural treatment. Allow and aloft
the poor Phantom protested, and, as l
looked calmly on, knew that if the condi-
tions continued she would end in rolling her
masts out, leaving us to finally founder, a
sheer hulk. The main topmast swayed like
whip, cutting through the arc of its mo.
ton with amazing swiftness. The dimin.
ished sail beneath it, with its spars slashing
hlther and thither, shook out report like a
cannon, and threatened to burst as its slack
/ Irpt f,.o, a - ~
| loose or insecure fetched away and wan.
dered at random about the decks The
humps of lead had brought up the night
before rolled betwixt the hatch combing and
bulwark, banging the latter with blows that
threatened to drive cut the panking, and
would have done so had | not gripped my
way to them and thrown them overheard
The scuttle butt sprang from its skids and
came aft with bound, hating and spinning
like top when in the waist, then dashed to
larboard only to be stopped by sidelong
| lift of the stern which shot it into the
bows where it hung fast, bung up, jammed
betwixt the flukes of the spare anchor and
the bulwark stanchion.
| noted these things with an eye more in
terested in the antics of the barrel than in
aught else. Its speed and agility were Won
drous, and ! thought more of its fearful
force and erratic movements than of the
general straits in which the schooner was
now held. Through it all felt my impotent
numbness, and it was with the mere animal
instinct of getting food for a craving stom-
ach that / YEARLY moved to go below.
Stiff, sore and dispirited enough was as
l staggered toward the companion way and
entered the cabin. The first sight of its in
terror was enough to break ones heart, and
that fact probably did much to pull me to-
gether. The surgeon, the cowardly, be-
sotted wretch, lay drunk on the floor, and
also on the floor was Gertrude King, dead,
L thought for an instant, but soon found she
was not only alive but conscious. Having
been thrown from her bunk, she had
crawled over to her brother to prevent a
like disaster to him, and now lay or leaned
against his transom, powerless alike to help
him or herself She was almost dead from
sea sickness and pain, yet when she saw me,
the fright that came into her eyes reminded
me of Lounsburys last look. 1t was plain
that McCary had but given her dram to re-
vive her and when this had been accom-
plished, without going further or vouchsaf
ing an explanation of the days later events
started in to finish the drunk | had so sud
denly interrupted. The fever for rum was
been consumed along with the liquor.
Notwithstanding the suffering his actions
had entailed, l could almost have thanked
him for being the cause of putting into me
sense of real existence, for there was
slight awakening from the heavy letharg,
that held me as | stopped to the poor cir
and lifted her in my arms as though she wa
child to be comforted. The instinctiv,
shrinking she had shown when reached fol
her gave way to moan and the limpness O.
total abandonment as she felt the strength
of my arm about her. As laid her on The
transom by the side of her brother, who's,
eyes were shut and whose heightened colo
now betokened fever, she placed her un
wounded hand against my cheek as if t,
make sure of my being mortal, and falteret
out:
81 thought you dead! o Donald Donald
thought you dead!''
In the mere sound OF human voice Their
was something that stirred me to livelie
sense of myself and surroundings. But he
!, words did more than this. OF themselves
as | set them here in cold black and white
they hold no significance, but as ] hear,
them there was something which caused tn
waning spark within me to burst into fam
and shoot through the dulness of my eS
} hausted body and overtaxed brain. TIL
,, touch of the smooth hand, the look, and tn
simple tones of this ill-used, wounded an,
bedraggled girl were beyond misinterpreta
ton to me, when to others it might hav
been but a trfle more than commonplace
) Like shock the attending danger of on
situation rushed upon me, and again rea
lied my responsibility; a feeling that ha
been dead for hours, and which was no,
resurrected by the light that burst upon m
at the girls words.
: She was pitiful object as she lay prom
at her brothers side. Her left arm wa
poweress, and the blood from her wounde
head still stained her face, neck and hane
| The flow had ceased, but through her brigh
r hair ! could see the location. of the cash