The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-05-28
Chapter xIv-Hard weather.

Chapter XIV.-Hard weather
Hardy carefully put away the good
things he had discovered and then made
pork sandwich with biscuits, and pour
ed out little rum, which he mingled
with water, and they both made a
meal
Had she been alone she would have
been dying Of fear; her lover was witt,
her, and the sea had 10 terrors They
talked as they ate.
Il foresaw heavy weather" said he.
but not the loss of three men. We
shall lose the ship, I fear; there are
no signs of the weather clearing. NJ
you'd think the sun had burst OUT"
For just then the air was whitened by
a great sheet of water
If the boat forward is carried away
he checked himself, and then contin-
ued: eff we lose the York we shall be
picked up by something else. These old
north countrymen are born to live"
Il am seeing life on the ocean," said
Julia, smiling at him.
'Why, it has come as thick as cock
reaches he answered. when you get
home you shall write your story, and
the critics who take shipping on a sum
mer day from Putney to Henley will
exclaim as one man, What a lieT -
who rang the bell?" said Julia. "Tha.
question will worry me whilst 1 live"
A sea struck the deck-house and blind
ed the weather-windows. The sturdy
structure quivered Hardy waited until
the water had roared away overheard
and then said:
"a bell will strike of itself in a roll.
ing snip. 1 have heard of it. Or It was
hit by a rope. Do you believe in ghosts,
Julia?"
II don't want to-"
1.-The stroke was a sudden come-to in
the reel of the brig or a rope did it," said
Hardy, and she tried to look as though
she believed him.
Thus they talked whilst they sat in
the deck-hOuse. for out of it they would
have stood to be washed overheard. The
seas poured in gray green folds, and the
foam rolled about the decks like the
cream of the breaker on shelving sand.
She was a stout bucket and strongly
knit, and if all had been we'll with her
she would have sported with this breeze.
Her canvas was setting her to the east
wards brOadside on, and Hardy was
glad of it, because he guessed that the
York would remain hove to, and that
her drift would not be much greater
than the sag Of this half-drowned Geor-
die.
But, though he looked abroad, he new
err witnessed any signs of Improvement
or even promise of Improvement, in the
weather. 1t was not blowing harder, how
ever, which was a good thing, yet ne
guessed that even If the weight of the
wind remained as 1t stood, then should
it blow all night, fair daybreak would
not reveal the York in which case they
were shipWrecked, and must either wait
to be taken off or trust to Gods mercy
to keep the boat in her place forward
that they might launch her and seek
the succOr that would not come. The
deck house was often hit by the sea,
but the blows were rarely hard, and
there was more terror in the thunder Of
the stroke than in the possibility of tho
structure going.
Il see scuttle-butt cut there" said
he once during the course of the morn
whats that?" she asked
"a cask for holding fresh water for the
men to drink when on deck"
He stepped out, got under the rail, and
crept to the scuttle butt with the foam
about his feet The dipper hung by a
sling; he dropped 1t through the hole
and brought it up full, and tasting it
found it fairly sweet, sweet enough for
human necessity. He added security to
the cask by further lashings and covered
the hole to protect the water from the
flying salt, then crept back through the
foam to the side of his sweetheart first
sending the sight of a falcon piercing the
rain-swept obscurity of the quarter in
which he guessed the York was lying
hove to. But all was the confusion Of the
headlong surge, raging in frequent COLI
sion, the stormy stare of motfonless va
por the wink of the sea flash within the
veil of haze and the universal grooming
| OF old ocean when that grim boatswain,
the gale whitens her back with the
thongs of his cat.
About midday they made another meal
off pork sandwiches, a GOdsend to the
| poor creatures. AS the time went by and
the weather held as before the sense of
shipwreck grew keener and keener to
Hardy Not so with the girl compared
| to what might have been, this wallowing
| lump of brig, filled with timber, straining
afoat, was Paradise. But Hardy did not
much relish the notion of having to take
| to that boat yonder. He could see that
with the yard arm tackle which he would
| find she was to be easily got on to her
keel and hoisted out Of 1t by the little
winch just before the main mast.
! 1t might prove a job, for his shipmate
was a girl; yet much harder Jobs, girl or
no girl, were to be got through at sea.
But until the weather Gained he could not
think of the boat and if the weather did
| calm and left the brig afloat, which was
| very probable, and he managed to launch
| the boat, then bethinking him of Julia
| and himself in that small SQUAD fabric his
| heart grew cold; because next to the raft
! the open boat in midOcean IS the greatest
| desperation of the sailor. Nearly every
! chapter of its romance is a tragedy. One
dies and is buried, one goes mad and
| springs overheard to drink of the crystal
| fountain which is gushing in the sweet
valley just there. Another is hollow-eyed