The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11
BY JULIUS MULLER. (Copyright, 1904 by J. W. Muller.)

new vapors pun and drift in, till at last men can not see more than a blurred outline of the nearest shoulder of others standing close to them. "Dor-e-e-e-e!" rings out. thin and far off. The distant rattle of blocks an ' swers and then the chatter of a boat coming down on decks with a run. ] "Oh-o-o-o" bellows a voice from our | bows. Did you get a-a-a-ny?' "N-o-o-o-o-o" comes the faint an | swering hail. "Ca-a-a-n't even tell who she was. Found nothin' but some spars. Looks like q Frenchm -a-a-an. ' "Aho-o-o-y! The Nellie Nu-u-ugent" comes out of the fog. half a mile away "Aho-o-o-y!" cries our deck watch leaning forward into the thick air, as | men hang over a pits mouth. Quickly the splash of oars comes driving on, straight and true; and In a trice our dories bump alongside our bobbing quarter and the wet. oilskin- clad men tumble on deck. There is nc | need to ask questions There are no | strangers with them.
 | Looks like she was one of them | fellers from up Miquelon way" says 1 the captain. shaking himself and flap | ping the sou-wester to and fro along | the deck. We see a few pieces of dory and a couple of sticks out of her and they look like Newfoundland build Guess they never had a chance to swal- low after they got hit and the fellers | that done 1t went on without knowing anything about 1t. either"
 The Deep Sea Funeral Service. Nothing more Is said. The brown strong faces look at each other grimly | for a moment Then each man goes ostentatiously about some commonplacC task and there is silence on the vessel That ifs the deep-sea fisherman's flu
 neral service over his kind-silence that
 makes believe not to care.
 | All night long the bells ring out, high
 and clear. deep and solemn. loud and | faint, far and near All night long the
 horns blare out all around the circle oi
 the sea. All night long the vessels roll and sway-now down. down, down. til their sides press into the heavy surge then up, up. till their bows point high and the sterns squeeze with gurgle anC choke into the froth behind.
 But the lifeless rattle of cordagt
 ceases it's melancholy monotony. bi | by bit, as the night grows old: ant
 while the wintry dawn is still far be | low the Eastern sea rim. cold wint l blows strongly up from northwest
 chopping the long. swinging swells of
 at the gray tops and puffing ragged holes and at last whole lanes into the
 Grand Bang fog.
 When the wet sun rises dripping, fl rises from a running sea. black in the holIows, green on the jnclines, lacey white on the crests; and every riding sail in all the fleet thunders stiffly ir salute The bows no longer climt
 sputtering up. the swells. They teal | through them, drowning. and spilline
 salt water to go spouting down both sides of the bowsprit along the decks
 Again and again the men. sitting be | low at breakfast. hear the swash oi | water as she "takes 1t green" over the side.
 Watching Their Rivals. l Holding to lines and lashed booms 1 the men of the fleet look sharply
 around the horizon. watching their ri- vals Suddenly a voice rings from ouI
 bow, whipped back by the wind:
 The Paxton's putting her dories
 over"
 She is. is she?" shouts our captain
 50 she is Well, that settles 1t. Over
 you go, boys
 The big men in their big hip boots
 unsling the high sided dories at the
 word. Over they go with run into
 a sea so heavy and wild that from oul slippery. cascade washed deck 1t looks
 momentariIy as if the whole fleet oi
 smacks were going to the bottom. 4 i wicked thrust of rushing waves tha try to crush them against the side evaded with a, clever. short twist of ar oar; a brief pounding into the yer! middle of a swirling waye-and of