The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-02
be Ships .Ndventure.
W. CLARK RUSSELL (C0pyght 1897 bys Mcclure CO..

hand to her mouth and nostrils, and the
brave heart steadied the spoke with her
left hand only.
In a minute Hardy was beside her
''Phew!' said he, and spat. This was his
comment
The dog continued to bark It's note
had that quality of alarm which makes
the sailors spring as for life or death
to the affrighted shout of a single man
upon the forecastle.
What in hell But it might have
been the devil himself who stopped Har-
dy's mouth then, for even as he spoke the
ship struck something soft, Sided away
from it points off her course, so blubbery
was the thing, proper for the ways" Of
a launch.
It's up the spout this time said Har-
dy. Jump to the side, Julia; report what
you see There you go, to starboard-to
windward, to windward!''
He held the wheel and the girl
shrleked, Il can't see for the smell.''
Hold your nose and skin your eyes,
and tell me what you see''
"A great deal of fire, and a black mass
In the midst of it lined with foam. and
oh, what horrible smelli'
She came staggering to her lovers side
in revolt of sickened senses.
"A dead whale said Hardy, whose
nose was not entirely fastidious.
Hold the wheel, DEAR and he sprang
to the quarter and saw the thing: that.
is, he saw the shadow, it doomed So that
II might have been a little island. The
lire OF the sea played about it as the re-
Hected lightning of the hidden storm
W1nks and flashes in the soft indigo of
the ocean recess. The sea caressed this
floating donghill with those same white.
cruel fingers with which it casts the mu-
tilated corpse ashore
The air sweetens,'' said Hardy re-
turning to the wheel Go below for a.
nip of brandy, and bring me one DOSE
And he brought the ship to her course
lie did not greatly like the look of the
weather. For perhaps an hour and a.
half he had been sleeping; this was O.
good turn in for a sailorman who signs
articles to work for the ship owner for
tWenty-four hours in the day, brutal
ana mhuman tax upon suffering men, in
no other walk of life to be heard Of.
Anyhow he could not leave the shin in
Julia's charge with those dimly-winking
stars growing spareF yet and with in
creas1ng moisture on the wing of the
wind like the early breath of wet
squar
Il don't expect the wind to shift" said
ne, but it's bound to come on harder
presently Go you into that hen-coOp
and rest your limbs if not your brain. I
expect L shall be wanting you before mid
night"
She obeyed him as though she had
been sailor or dog, and dissolved into
the black void of the hen-coop. You
could not see the faintest glimmer of her
face nor the dimmest outline of her
shape. The Newfoundland had come aft
and berthed itself. The animal knew
that when Hardy was at the wheel it
was its watch below
Now the ship was under such small
canvas that her cloths We're not more
than she could stand up with if it blew
half gale from abeam or abaft the
beam. Those were the DAYS of single
topsails, and in all three topsaiIs a single
reef had been tied by the survivors of
the crew in the heavy night before they
left for the Frenchman. 1t would then
come perhaps to drag upon a stay-sail
down-hau and to letting go the outer
Jib-halliards, leaving the unfurled sail to
convulse itself into bulbs and bellies of
canvas upon the jibboom. Certainly Har-
dy single-handed could not lay out upon
the jibboom and furl big jib; he did
not mean to try.
AS he expected, the wind freshened.
but without the shift of a quarter of a
point. The ship raced nobly through the
gloom; she Blew white steam from the
nostrils Of her bows; the white water to
leeward widened with her pace and flash
ed with the emerald and diamond of the
sea glow into the long, the streaming, the
joyous homeward- bound wake There
was no more dead leviathan in the air; it
was full of the salt-sweetness of Swim
burne's rushing sea verse. But the stars
were gone; there was no light upon the
sea but the light of its foam. The ship
was plunging, the seas raced her in black
curls and burst with a pallor Of dawn
from her side, and onward she swept,
bowling and rolling to the music Of the
bagpipes in her rigging, controlled by a
single hand-a fearless and valiant hand
the hand of a British sailor
However, he made up his mind to
'erack on" in sort of way, and the
meaning of cracking on at sea is the
carrying in bad weather of more canvas
than the judicious would approve I have
known an old skipper to furl his fore and
mizzen-royal and stow his flying jib every
second dog-watch in dead calmn or cats
/ paw. The ladies reckoned him a safe
man, and he made the voyage from the
Thames to Sydney bay in four months
Hardy had the instincts of a mate and
was always for carrying on, but he had
not much confidence in staysail and iib.
sheets. and at half past II, seven bells OF
the watch, somewhat benumbed with his
grip of the spokes he resolved to shorten
canvas, and shouted to his girl. She
came out of the poop like a figure from
| clock.
It's Storm said she in his ear.
Lets thank Cod he answered, like