Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-01-05
Who Spoke First?
By Frank II. Converse.
TOE hadn't spoken to me for a week.
It'll Il L. i

Toe hadn't spoken to me for week.
ii The last thing he said was:
81 never'1l speak to you again, Har-
ry Smith, till you take back what you
just said.''
And, of course, 1 answered that l
didn't care; he'd have to wait one while,
if he didn't speak till then. And, as we
two boys occupied the same little eight
by ten room on board the bark Rather,
80 days out from Boston to Singapore,
you can see how awkward it was.
But one was as obstinate as the other,
only I called it firmness in my own
case, and "mulishness" in Joe's. Mrs.
Bradford, Joe's mother, used to say that
we were both "setter'n the everlastin'
hills" and guess she was right.
The trouble between us-as such
things generally do-began about a
trifle. Unfortunately, as schoolmates
we had been rivals in small way, each
wanting to be thought the ''smartest."
And very foolishly we carried this RI
valry on shipboard.
Joe was the handiest aloft, and al
ways first at the weather caring in
reefng. I took a better trick at the
wheel. and was neater at knotting and
splicing. And so on through the whole
chapter of ordinary seamanship, wind
ing up with the quarrel which gave rise
to Joe's assertion, while the bark was
entering the Straits of Macassar, be-
tween Borneo and Celebes.
We were at work scraping and paint
ing, previous to reaching port.
Just before knocking off work, near
shutdown, Joe and were sent down be-
tween decks after some varnish from
the big cask dashed amidships.
There was little wind, but heavy
ground swell, and as stood holding on
by the stanchion with one hand, extend
ing the lighted lantern with the other,
SO Joe could see what he was doing, a
tremendous lee lurch sent Joe, with the
half-filled pot, against the lantern,
knocking it out of my hand and break
ing the glass at the same time!
The kerosene ran out, caught fire and
ignited the spilled yarnish, which
flashed like gunpowder to the faucet
OF the cask, from which the infiammable
compound was running in steady
stream!
In moment the cask and every thing
1
''Now see what you've done!" yelled,
as we both scrambled for dear life to the
hatchway ladder and up on deck!
But, true to his principles, Joe made
no reply.
He only yelled: "Fi-eri Fi-eri" which
was needless, as column of flame had
shot up through the hatchway, half as
high as the mainmast head.
Now, the bteween-decks cargo con-
sisted for the most part of light, in
hammable goods, and, worse still, there
were a large number of cases contain
ing naphtha and petroleum among
them.
No earthly power could have saved
the bark, and we had just time to get
over the only two boats-a long boat
and light launch or go-ashore boat-be-
fore the Rather was on fire, fore and
aft.
A bag Of bread and breaker of water
were tossed into the small boat, which
was taken in tow by the largest, into
which tumbled the entire ships COM
pany-13 in all-and pushed off from
the doomed bark, which. by the way,
was old, unstable, and, with the cargo,
rather more than fully insured.
''Mr. Murch." said Capt. Pratt. who
had saved the bark's papers, his chro-
nometer and one of the compasses,
take those two unlucky young rey-
nicks-a sea term of reproach-with
you in the launch. It viii tighten the
1ong-boat just SO much. and I don't
want 'em aboard here, anyway-they'n
burn the longboat up next
Feeling crestfallen enough, Joe and
crawied into the small boat after Mr.
Hurch-