Evening star., 1900-01-20

| the vessel of part of the weight she was
| dragging. and which threatened to accom-
| plish her utter destruction. at last in one
4 of the vivid flashes of lightning he iisCov-
! cred his friend. wedged in between the
\ broken binnacle and the port rail. BY ex-
| ertng almost superhunan effort. he sue
ceeded IN dragging him aft, and there. af-
! ter 1ashing himself and the Norwegian at
the wheel he seized the spokes and slowly
but surely shifted the rudder until the
schooner flew dead before the wind. trav-
cling with frightful velocity, a dismantled
useless thing. with the wind bowling over
her, and the boiling. seething water drench-
ing her from end to end
"A hlacker night there never was 1t was
as though blindness had descended upon
the world. and Craddock set his teeth
clung to the wheel and hoped against hope
that in the maddened rush of the disabled
vessel no rocky reef might loom up out of
the night to check her in her wild career
Later-and the time seemed intermina BILE
to Craddnck-he heard the voice of his
friend calling to him out of the darkness
Consciousness had returned to him He
was not dead. and presently they stood
side by side al the wheel: four hands grasp
ing the spokes for it was more THAI two
hands could do to hold them steady. Com
Fersation was impossible, for the roaring
of the tempest annhilated every other
sound The battened matches kept the
water out of the schooner's hold. otherwise
she would have filled at the first onslaught
of the wind BY and by ThorgenSen lean
ed rearer to Craddock. and placing his lips
close against his friends ear. shouted:
Schooner Jonah. Capt. Craddock. with
cargo of fools. cleared from Batavia bound
for Hades: eh. Grad? And we'll
The Norwegian never completed that sem
tence. There was a grinding crash. follow
ed by terrific shock, and the schooner
seemed to leap out of the sea. up and over
some obstacle that had impeded her way
The wheel and the posts to which the two
men were lashed We're torn from the deck
and with their human impedimenta hurled
forward among the timbers and wrecka ge
in the midst of chaotic tumble of plank
ing. broken bulkheads. demolished small
boats and general destruction. But the
hull of the vessel held tenaciously together
and she was motionless. The wind howled
on increasingly overhead: around about was
the roar of the mad waters tenfold mghtier
as they dashed against unseen rocks only
to be hurled relentlessly back again. But
the mighty waves did not sweep over the
schOoner's deck. Only the spray and
chunks of water thrown by the wind reach
ed as far as that. for the Inflated vessel
had been driven bodily from her native ele-
ment high and dry upon hog-back reef
that was not much greater than her own
bulk.
Craddock and the Norwegian were jam
med beneath a mass of Wreckage. COM
paratively unhurt. but unable. for the time
being. to extricate themselves: and so. in
momentary expectation of death, they re-
manned until the wind and the sea subsideCi
and the sun came up out of the east az
SHiIlllSlN as lHptSH no havoc nad been
wrought since he last bade them both good
night
There is no calmness like unto that which
succeeds a storm: and in the South sea it
is difficult at such a time to realize that
the tempest has come and gone. Only the
wide eXpanse Of sea to the south and west.
with its huge, unruffed rolling sWellS. and
the corpse of the schooner lying full two
fathoms out of reach of the summit of the
highest heave of the restless water. man
gted broken. dripping. gave evidence of the
terrific war of the elements that had Waged
through the night. The herCulran strength
Of the Norwegian was in evidence when the
sun rose at last over the world. Piece by
piece he removed the debris which confined
him and his friend, and at last. somewhat
shaken. badly bruised, but in nOwise ap-
pallel. they stood side by side upon The
diSmantlrd and broken deck.
Before them was TIE endless stretch of
water: beneath them the stranded hull of
the Mascot; behind them. when. wonder
inSly they turned their heads to discover
the meaning of the shadow that was cast
upon the sea. loomed a huge, cpne-shaped
mountain Of obsidian formation. which glis-
tened even on the shady side where the
rays of the risen sun could not touch its
surface. 1t was a mountain which lowered
about Loo feet into the air. shaped like Il
pineapple cheese with the top cut off
smoothly and evenly two-thirds of the dis
tance to whore the summit might have been
had the formation continued on 10 its natu-
raj apeN. Nowhere was there another bit
Of land in sight, and this could hardly be
designated by 50 dignified name
There is no need to comment upon their
conjeCtureS and their plans. The towering
mountain rose literally out Of the sea. and
with the exception of the rock upon which
the wreck of the schooner rested there
was nothing else than water in sight; water
and sky and sun and clouds All, YES:
there was one more thing-a land bird.
which futtered down from the heights
above. rested IOr moment upon the wreck,
and then SCARED II
pe4red in the direction Of the mounta.us
top.
1t was long after noon when that oc-
CURED. after CraddOch had found the i'm
pIementS of navigation among the wrecn-
age in the cabin. and by taking an obserya-
tion had decided that they We're in latitude
-. 10 south and longitude 1875 west ne
found also the water-soalled chart, but it
afforded them no information. There was
no record of such d mountain at that spot
All that he could determine upon was that
theE were some hundreds of miles SOU
westerly from the Tonga Islands, and that
the nearest point Of land was the Island of
hdafa. 40 miles or more To the nor west
But that land bird was an inspiration to
the Norwegian.
Mountain or no mountain, scaIabl- or
not, Grad" he said. after watching the
bird until 1t disappeared from view on its
return flight. there are trees and earth
ana fresh water on the summit or perhaps
on the other side of that mountain That
bird would not be here without them
Investigation demonstrated that one of
the boats might be repaired. and they be
gan work upon il al once. Water and food
they possessed in abundance for the
SchCorerS stores We're almost intact al
though tumbled about in the most abjtct
confusion.
tails of their three days search around that
mountain of crystal which did not exceed
two and one-half miles in circumference
with never fssure or a crevice in its
arl- "A