Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-10-26
CHAPTER XIII.

lNOVyElSuL. 1857, ny u. appleton q co. All
rights reserved
CHAPTER XIII.
IN THE HEART OF THE STORM.
In five minutes we were in the trough of
it. Without a zephyr to steady her, the
schooner wallowed like 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 a dizzy altitude,
then sank with a rapidity that even to my
trained nature was sickening Each Joint
and block found voice which complained
in notes ranging from bang to squeak,
of its unnatural treatment. Allow and aloft
the poor Phantom protested, and, as
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
a whip, cutting through the arc of its mo-
ton with amazing swiftness. The dimin.
ished sail beneath it, with it's spars sashing
hither and thither, shook out a report like
cannon, and threatened to burst as its slack
bunt drove from side to side. Everything
loose or insecure fetched away and wan
dered at random about the decks. The
Jumps of lead had brought up the night
before rolled betwxt the hatch combing and
bulwark, banging the latter with blows that
threatened to drive out the plankng, and
would have done so had not gripped my
way to them and thrown them overheard.
The scuttlc butt sprang from its skids and
came aft with a bound, halting and spinning
like top when in the waist, then dashed to
larboard only to be stopped by sidelorg
lift of the stern which shot it into the
bows where it hung fast, bung up, jammed
betwixt the hukes of the spare anchor and
the bulwark stanchion..
I 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 l thought more of it's fearful
force and cratic 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 craving stom-
ach that YEARLY moved to go below.
Stiff, sore and dispirited enough I was as
1 staggered toward the companion way and
entered the cabin. The first sight Of it's 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,
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
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 game into her eyes reminded
me of Lounsbury's 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
upon him, his manhood and morals having
been consumed along with the liquor.
Notwithstanding the suffering his actions
had entailed, could almost have thanked
him for being the cause of putting into me a
sense of real existence, for there was a
slight awakening from the heavy 'ethargy
that held me as l stopped to the poor girl
and lifted her in my arms as though she was
child to be cornforted. The instructive
shrinking she had shown when reached for
her gave way to moan and the limpness of
total abandonment as she felt the strength
of my arm about her. As / laid her on the
transom by the side of her brother, whose
eyes were shut and whose heightened color
now betokened fever, she placed her I'M
wounded hand against my check us if to
make sure of my being mortal, and faltered
out:
II thought you dead! ODonald Donald!
I thought you dead!'
In the mere sound of a human voice there
was something-that stirred me to liveller
sense of myself and surroundings. But her
words did more than this. Of themselves,
as set them here in cold black and white,
they hold no significance, but as J heard
them there was something which caused the
waning spark within me to burst into flame
and shoot through the dizziness Of my eS-
hausted body and overtaXed brain. The
touch of the smooth hand, the look, and the
simple tones of this ill-used, wounded and
bedraggled girl were beyond msinterpreta-
ton to me, when to others it mil ht have
been but trihe more than commonplace.
Like a shock the attending danger of our
situation rushed upon me, and again l real
lied my responsibility; feeling that had
been dead for hours, and which was now
resurrected by the light that burst upon me
at the girls words.
She was pitiful object as she lay prone
at her brothers side. Her left arm was
powerless, and the blood from her wounded
head still stained her face, neck and hand.
The flow had ceased, but through her bright
lair l could see the location of the cash.
was no surgeon to dress either the cut or
fracture, and, as for the sake of all, my own
necessities were paramount, would lose no
time in experiment without more warrant.
> Nv own necessities, forsooth, and for the
SAX. of all! l lost no honesty through
dreaming of heroism. If my finer senslblil-
ties had awakened so had my coarser, and
knew was now working for purpose, the
roofs of which lay in selfshness, but OF
stripe easily forgiven.
As l put the maiden down she closed her
eyes, and either tainted or slept from ex.
haustion, and I, like famished wolf, CROPPED
about the floor for the food which bad been
tipped from the table, holding her onto the
transom the while with one hand, and with
the other drawing together the fragments
of the but half-eaten meal.
'Twould have been moving sight to an
on!ooker could one have peeped into the
cabin at this time The wounded brother
and sister, abject in their misery, even the
ocean allowing itself no rest in its efforts
to throw them from where they lay; the
lengthy bulk of the drunkard SPRAYING half
under the table, his body swaying with the
leap of the vessel, and about the floor mix
ture of broken food, the bag of gold and
empty bottles which ran hithes and thither
with the acute and ever-chansrng angle of
the deck, all seemingly chased by the over
ich bod str