The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-12-11

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@Frying-Pan Shoal as
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= HE day was bright, and a light haze
i blurred the Carolina coast line.
The long summer now drawing to q
close, had been singularly free from
squalls and transforms. and as a con-
sequence the water on and around Fry
dng-Pan shoal, that long line of sunk
en- rocks jutting out into the channek
q perpetual menace to all sea-going
craft, had been unusually peaceful and
Somnolent, and the lightship Dora
had mostly rocked like a cradle in,
gentle oscillations, for the motion of
q lightship never ceases.
"A solitary figure, that of q man
athletic and powerful, stood leaning
against the wheel, looking musingly
out at the broken line Of distant shore,
more sharply defined where the sun,
hight fell on wooded cliff, which swept
down to the edge Of the sea.
Except for the veil of mist along
the oceans edge, the atmosphere was
Sdngularly clear, and the Dora seemed
closer to land than usual and the
monotony of her incessant roll back
and forth should have been soothing
to the man on board.
Judging by his face, however, there
was pent-up storm within him not
ut all in accord with the placidity and
beauty of the late September day and
the tranquil waters of the Atlantic as
they purled and rippled in seeming in
nocence over Frying-Pan reef.
When McNair had applied for the
position of keeper of the lightship sta
toned off that dangerous coast his age
was considered an objection; not that
he was too old, but too young.
That he had been a good seaman,
had spent the last few years in east
ern waters, had served Uucle Sam with
courage and fidelity out in the Philip
pines, as still troublesome wound
in the shoulder testified, seemed suffl-
Client reasons for his appointment to
the prison life of the lightship near
Cape Hatteras, one of the most danger
Gus on the Atlantic coast.
A word in his favor from some one
in congress who held the ear OF the
navy department decided the matter,
and McNair was put in charge of the
aightship Dora, vacated unwillingly by
his predecessor, and only because he
f0 ho
Jagged rock points, when the Dora.
dragging her anchor during a winter
gale, had been swept over on the reef.
There were two men aboard beside
the master, and the regulations of the
department allowed them to come
ashore alternately every six months
for short reprieve from the monotony
of their life amid ocean, aloof from all
contact with mankind, and the conten-
tions and turmoil of life ashore.
They were both grizzle-haired SAIL
aors, fishermen who had a thorough
acquaintance with the shoals and cur
rents, the harbors and places of ref
euge, along the coast from Hatteras to
the gulf.
McNair pretended to no such knowl-
edge.
"A good 'un, McNair. But he never
handled nothing but yacht. I can
tell thai" old Anderson remarked to
Bill Peters, his companion, as they sat
busy with their lines for deep-sea
fishing and watched McNair's gloomy
abstraction and the heavy frown ON
his clean-sbaven face.
"Sailor? Before the mast? Not
much! Tom Anderson knows thing
or two, and swell when he sees one.
McNair's tiptop fellow. Has grit;
and he'll stand by mate. II it warn't
for him-that last time ashore, when
4 broke Snllivan's head, and good for
h1m. too-it's not on the deck Of the
Dora I'd be sitting this day"
"McNairs all right. Smart chap;
too" - .s s.I- go
But queer. Seems to me he's got
something in his mind. Maybe MUIR
der. BUTT his lookout, and he's fair
and square, and the kind Of fellow
you want in q tight place, when there's
danger around. Ever noticed how
queer and soft-like he looks when ii
blows and how he kinder smiles when
the Frying Pan gets nasty, and IL locks
bad for the Dora. Can't be nothina
but murder, and lot Of: fellows ought
20 Sbs= shot II they got their deserts
Guess McNair was right when he pu1
. hole in him. Guess he cams on I'M