Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-06-15
CHAPTER XXII.-CoNTINUED.

CHAPTER XXII.-CoNTINUED.
My conjecture had been right. The girl
was lying betwixt the combings Of the
galley and the butt of the splintered top
mast, a position allowing her enough air to
prevent suffocation, at the same time partly
protecting her from the weight Of the stuff
piled over her. She lay on her face, and
across her thighs, pinning her fast, was a
small end of the broken topsail yard Her
cheek and neck, with the hand that lay
along the spar, were covered with blood, and
blood stained the planking of the deck about
her.
1 lost no time in feeling for life, as the
groan had told me life still existed Cutting
the lantern from the hoop, I slung it on
my arm and, lifting the girl, strobe toward
the cabin, in the strangest state of
mind that had ever possessed me. If l
moved quickly with my body, my brain out
paced it. AS I look back at it, the passage
from the foremost to the companion way
was long one, though it was comprised in
twice ten steps. In the time it took me to
traverse it lived over the five days had
known this lass, and felt them to have been
as many years. [ suddenly knew the source
of my daring, which had grown with the
time until at that moment 1 was ready to
face the devil himself, and knew, too, for
whom it was meant. 1 now knew that my
head had not been playing over the mystery
of her disappearance because it was mys
terry, but because this girl had usurped all
other interests. I was now aware that my
resolve to board the schooner was not so
much to recapture the prize Though that
motive, hopeless it had seemed, had been
strong) as to overhaul the wreck of the
foretopmast in quest of Gertrude King, and
see her again dead or alive. l gave nc name
to all this; l raised no fine points anent the
strength or weakness of my feeling, nor did
the word '1ove" cross my mind. / only
knew that alive had found her, and that
one day she might know 7 had saved her
from both death and her enemies. In
purblind fashion it was all the reward l
looked for, and it seemed reward enough.
If I was not fairly subducd by the beauty
and heroism of this girl, my pity for her
carried me far on the way, and though bur-
ly, sea-roughened, and man to boot, in this
case of need felt that for tenderness 1 could
pit myself against the gentlest woman who
ever made sick bed dream of pleasure.
Beyond getting at the extent of her in
juries, l determined not to let the now
sobered surgeon lift finger. When /
brought my burden down the companion
way he was placing wet compress on the
boys wound, his management of this in the
darkness speaking loudly of his skill. My
prisoner was evidently past being surprised,
for he did little but give grunt as be
me bear her in; but when told him the new
patient was a girl, and the sister of Ames,
he cast on me quick, hard look. 1t was
only after / mentioned her name and he
remembered the former passenger of the
Sprite that he showed real interest, and as he
examined her for injuries heard him grum-
BILE the name of Scammell beneath his
breath.
Pending the outcome of his search 1 went
on deck. Although a nearly full moon was
behind the clouds, the night was unusually
dark. The roll of the schooner was growing
heavier. 1t caused a rafting Of blocks
overhead, and jerking of the foresail boom
on its traveller until it sounded as though
the deck must be ripped up. There was a
sullenness to the sea that BODIED mischief,
but the cause of it was still at a distance.
Betwixt the clashing of blocks aloft, the
kicking of the rudder, the mad clank of the
boom travellers and the excited tattoo of
the reefng points, there was sufficient fuss
to at once tell seaman that the present
condition of calm would not be protracted.
The look of the sky was enough for me (for
beyond the immediate vicinity of the moon
a pot of tar could not have been blacker),
and in the momentary intervals of partial
silence that ensued as the schooner bal
>anced on the tops of the surges / thought
/ could hear faint moan far above the
truck, though unseen and troubled
-Splrlt was Wlnglng through the depths OF
space aloft. The horizon had drawn close to
the vessel, and the repelling blackness of the
owater sent chill through me as consid-
sered what might have been my plight had
the schooner sailed, leaving me on the
broad ocean with no support but the frail
shell of the dingy. A sudden GOODNESS had
settled from above, though not breath of
wind had come with it, and, though there
was nothing to be.distinctly marked through
'the heavy gloom enveloping the schooner,
there existed in the surrounding elements
menacing something which, like an in
visible monitor, sent TO me an inarticulate
warning.
The change had been rapid. Plainly
enough 1 scented the vague threat of the
weather and set about to meet the outbreak.
Winding me that was both captain and
crew, with the extra weight of having on
my hands three prisoners in the forecastle
and shaky one in the cabin, saw that if it
came on to blow had more than sufficient
work cut out for one pair of fists. Deter
ssnined then to. take time by the forelock and