The times., 1899-07-09

| thither wildly. at last had Joined in a daz-
ed, fear-stricken but still understanding
group. All realized that the race in prog
ress was soon to be determined and that
their lives might hang in the balance with
| the effort being made to beach the San
Bias" before the deyouring monster
reached her furnaces. Five of the life
boats had gone with the cabins above the
coal bunkers and the four remaining ones
held out little hope for all the startled
throng. Nevertheless, each was almost
reconciled and no one stirred from the
rest.
Only close up to the steamers nose was
| Pete Brown whose terror was too great
| for words or gestures. Both of his big
! hands had hold of the liners railing and
his round shoulders were bent forward in
an attitude not different from that assumed
! by a jockey when his horse has nearly
reached the goal. His eyes, which were
! bluer and larger than those of a baby.
never faltered in their survey of the coast;
! his glance, though ii passed all, took in
neither the red glow in the pendulating
water beneath him nor the crimson Of the
! clouds; his ear caught nothing but the
! desperate pulsations of the engines. Pete
Brown, commonplace in name and in
thought and being. was scared at last in
a miserable, cowardly, commonplace way
and knew it.
Not that the fact caused him more than
momentary worriment. The lank yoy-
ager had been ordinary through too much
| of his life to be disgusted at his final
| Usualness-had been disgusted with him
self too long to have felt the sensation of
a new one had it come. Born in n little
| Carolina village, he had drifted from home
early in boyhood. He had tramped from
one end of the country to another, had
done few months work with street
gang in New York. had served a term for
stealing something stolen by someone else,
had acted as stage hand in a Chicago the
atre, had gone ahead" of a wretched, one
ringed circus, and at last had starved and
frozen through San Francisco winter in
the possession of nothing better than a
threadbare skin coat and a Jail record.
With the arrival of May, however, he had
! reached the turning in a road of COM
monpIace misery. The proprietor of the
tent show in Question had achieved some
degree of success in Mexico with a variety
combination, and had sent Pete Brown
money to join him in Manzanillo at once.
And Pete Brown, who, in addition to the
hope of salary ahead, was overjoyed at the
idea of being with a rather pretty gym
mast in the company, realized that every
moment of the future looked brighter than
any of the past, and had taken the first
Z .
| All this being true 1t was perhaps not
unnatural that the traveller should have
felt vaguely, as the San Bias" rushed
shoreward, that the fates were treating
him a bit unkindly If he was TO go down
in the greedy Pacific with those things for
which he had wished longest in plain sight.
He had never been complaining man;
having neither sentiment nor any other
exceptional emotion, he had taken what
~, oaI ~ fac to-, -t
lently. But the indefinite sense of injustice
done that overwhelmed him added bitter
ness to his fear and intensity to his dread.
When, in the space of an hour after the
vessel had been turned. her stokers ran
away from the flames that had invaded
their precincts. and the boat, lurching
heavily in the trough Of the sea, gave a
few convulsiye jumps forward and then
stopped, Pete Brown could not believe
that the last chance OF her reaching shore
was gone. Painting and perspiring as
though he had been the power at her ST.
| lent screw, he gazed alternately at tho
land and at the crowd without deserting
the rail.
On the middle deck the ships officers
had. after minute Of pandemonium,
held order by the force Of example and
the authority of drawn revolvers. The crew
was divided into squads sufficiently large
1
formed, regardless Of class or station, into
two rough lines, the women filling the
nearer and the men the further one. A
girl from the steerage refused to quit her
boy husband, and deserted her row for
his priest lifted his hand in blessing,
and hulking giant from the first cabin
became hysterical, and fought to get into
the stewards place on one Of the RATS,
but these were the only incidents of the
Il he of no
unseeingly at the approaching fire and lis
| tened unhearingly to its hoarse voice.
When Pete Brown began to understand
that the stiffness Of the San Bias" was an
everlasting stiffness and ran to where his
| fellow voyagers were the boats were three
quarters full and the men had only just
begun entering them. He submitted help
lessly to being placed in front only OF the
few sailors not needed and counted those
ahead of him on his nervous, twisting fin
gers. With an eagerness which he did not
even attempt to put down he found him
self coming nearer and nearer the last raft
until there were only five men before him.
Then there were four and three. He no.
ticed that there was Just about room for
another trio on the already crowded float,
around which many OF the mast hands
were clinging. Another Individuals
| Swede-had stepped over the rail, when
Pete Brown heard someone back of him
The someone was sobbing and the voice
was a woman's voice. A stewardess had
gone to the forecastle for something left
behind and had almost missed her chance
OF being rescued. She was coming up the
steps.
| The immigrant just in front of Pete Brown
| swung over the side of the San Bias" and
took his place. With considerable risk
there was room for one-one-one more.
The craft was weighted down to the wa
ter's edge The commander, who had not
| seen the woman, called that il Pete Brown
did not hurry they would shove off without
him. And directly at his shoulders the
tardy stewardess was crying. The cow
ard bit his lip and clutched his clothing
with a shaking hand Once more the off,
Ger spoke to him, this time impatiently.
Pete Brown thought OF his future with its
! prosperity and the gymnast; OF the past
with its wretchedness and horror: OF death
with its blackness and uncertainty. Then
the woman reached him. Pete Brown
! closed his eyes and planted himself in
front of her.
There was the sound of oars. The third
boat was leaving the ship. Pete Brown
glanced back. The stewardess was a fair
haired girl and she was looking at him as
she tried to pass with a look of terrible
pleading. The glow of the roaring fire
lit up her pale face as 1t did the deck and
the sea ard the sky. The man moved
aside an inch. Next he gave way. She
had taken his hand for an instant and he
had tried to say something. The some
thing was commonplace commonplace
excuse me-"
And then Pete Brown went back to the
| forward rail.
| Villains WoOing.
the first act he was so angry that he put
| his foot direcfiV fhrouph tba rocl,s -, A.