El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-21
CHAPTER XII.

THREE FOR TWENTY-SEVEN.
"Now, my lads,'' said Kettle, you've
got to hump yourselves, or We'll have the
steamer swapping beneath US. It'll be
touch and go anyway. Mr.. Cambel, you'll
have the deck all to yourself, after you We
done yo-!r job on the forehold, of course,
and -o.. better jump lively after that at
onsa. Every gill of water tells now, and
it strikes me if we've very much more of
the Mexican gulf on board the decks will
blow up, and she IL go down like kentledge
ballast -
Cambel darted through the doorway.
And now, Mr. Sullivan, understand
that, although still continue to rate as
skipper of this craft, for the present I'm
going to work as fireman and coal trim
ner. You Will be chief engineer, and I'm
the sum total of your crew, and between
US we've got to do the work of seven
horses and one mule. Are the bilge pumps
cIear:''
Yes, sor.''
And has she still a good head of
steam?''
she has. None's been blown off,
''Then pick up your feet and let's go to
your hardware shop and start in work -
Wait bit, scr, - said the donkeyman.
There's things here 1 don't understand.
Aren't the lives Of US in beastly danger?
Didn't them boats go off because the
steamers sinking?''
do you,' retorted Kettle, 'tconsider
me one of those fancy sort of maniac who
have no wish to survive the loss of a ship?
l tell you l should have been drowned
eight times already if that had been my
lay No, Mr.. Chief Fair fights right
enough, and I'd stand up to Nick in that
and value my life at less than "a rice mat
but at other times you bet I'm no fool to
chuck it away"
But said the donkeyman, what
gets mes this: If the blooming steamers
bottoms shot out, what's the fun in
messing with it2 The Mexican gulf will
circulate through that hole longer than
our bilge pumps will rum
You tire me-" said tho little man.
who said she'd her bottom blown out2 I
tell you this steamer was sunk a few
plates below her usual trim-for reasons
and now we are going to pull her up
again. See here, new Mr.. Chief take the
cinch from me and ask no more questions
and you'll get told no lies. It'll pay you.
If you do as you're bid aboard of me,
you'll have sovereigns enough given you
to work through the biggest spree that
was ever spread out in a seaport town.
The big donkeyman approximately drew
the back of hand across his muZzle. ''Ah
captain, DEAR" he said coaxingly, I'D
Just like to hear ye mention figure"
Call it two G10 notes.
"Then, be Christopher, I'm yer man for
any piece of devilment in the calendar.
Come along, captain, dear. TITS a melo-
d1ous little man ye are, for all they say
against yez."
Meanwhile the steamer was becoming
more and more water logged with every
plunge and roll, and Patrick Cambel fear
ed that his dangerous straUegem for driv-
ing away the crew had been carried too
far. 1t seemed to him impossible that they
could salvage her now. True she was
brought up to the wind by the after can
vas, and her rollings were not of such
sickening strength, but the stern doomed
high in the wild night air, and the bows
lunged deep into every successive sea that
rolled up from the stormy south, taking
the green water over the forecastle head
in masses which secured anchors and
windlass to the naked iron.
The wash found its way below through
that jagged gap in the lower deck in crash
ing waterfalls, and every moment, too,
the opened valve beside her keel was
gushing in fresh gallons to her swapping
holds. Any larger which swept up
how might well settle over her solidly and
launch her with bursted decks onto the
sponGes and the coral growths 100 fathoms
below.
Some men, in the face of such condi-
tions, would have been amazed, helpless
physically incapable in the presence of
that solitude to making any necessary
effort, for it is one thing to do desperate
matter before the eyes of an applauding
crowd and another when the devil below
Is your only appreciative onlooker. 1t
would have been beyond the capabilities
OF Captain Kettle, for instance. Cambel,
however, was the one man in the million