The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-10

but as We left the long green sea miles
under our stern, l felt my spirits ris-
ing like the glass after the gale is over.
Two of the scoundrels UP forward
got down under the thwarts and went
to sleep, as I thought. That was where
sense that the Lord gave a jackrabbit
l would have kept them where I could
have had my eyes on them, so they
would have had no chance to cook up
any deviitry; but I didn't, and the
swash and ripple under our bows as
we scudded along drowned their whis-
perS.
Later, to make things worse, I played
right into their hands. The breeze
had dropped with the sun, so 1 had
them clew up the sails, unstep the
maSts, and lower them down on to the
thwarts. You can bet / watched them
close enough while they were doing
this, and they were careful, too, for
they knew that if a man accidentally
stepped over the after thwart into the
cockpit he would step overheard the
next second.
One of the scoundrels who had been
asleep up in the bow was a giant. I
expect that his father had probably
been deep-chested bosun on some
British ship of the line.
1 called him aft to stroke, as he had
the weight and seemed to know how to
handle an oar. He came with an eager
ness that I put down to the magazine
rife across my knee. / didn't know
that he'd had his low animal cunning
to bear on the problem Of how to get
that billet all the afternoon.
My DULLES settled down to their work
with long, steady swing that it did me
good to feel, for mine was billet to
get on mans nerves after the dark
ness falls, and through the long, mys-
teriOuS night.
Pipe after pipe I filed. and hour after
hour I listened to the suck of the
! sweeps in the sea and the chunk-a-
| chunk in the row locks, until finally the
| idea seemed to creep into my brain-as
/ crazy ideas will to a man at night in
an open boat with no land in sight
| that this was eternity and that through
| all time we were to pull away in long,
| ehangeiess strokes over that black, 81
| lent water.
Twice 1 gave them oars to rest a
| bit and take bite and a mouthful
of water-for an engine won't run on
no fuel-and once 1 had all hands shift
| sides. Never word they spoke. but
/ swung away with such good will that /
began to feel myself relax bit in my
hardness to them and wonder if, per-
! hapS, there wasn't a spark of good
somewhere beneath their rough shells
| after all
| Toward in the morning I began to
| think that the island could not be far
/ away, for it seemed to me that we
must have raped off at least eighty
knots in our days sail, and since dark.
/ when the breeze dropped, we had been
| pulling at three-knot clip. So I told
them to take it easy and daylight
! would see us off the island.
Then l spelled them for a while, let
| ting two pull while the other two
| caught nap. And then at length the
| east began to glow, and one by one the
| stars grew pale. / strained my eyes
| ahead, and I'll never forget the sinking
feeling of those few minutes, when
| suddenly with flash of crimson the
sun shot up in a cloudleSs sky and
showed no land in sight.
| For moment 1 was clean staggered
1 for the island was a high one and
should have been seen thirty miles
| away. Then thought of the cursed
| currents that suck through those
treacherous seas and wondered how fal
we could be out e our course. The
men seemed as easy as wa&FRnd the
| bowman was stane---g on hfS thwari
studying the sky line ahead. But moth
| ing came of it, and he turned and look
ed at me expectantly, as did the others
Then the trap was sprung. The
stroke oar suddenly rose to his feet and
pointed over the starboard quarter.
'.Land-Ot" he growled.
/ / swung around IN the stern. with q
quick tug at my heart The next mo-
ment great bulk crashed down or
me, and two paws like a gorilla's fast
ened on my throat. Something flashed
in the air-the sun rushed to the Ze-
NTH at one leap-aEd then the ligh,
went out.
/ wasn't adrift very long. The next
thing that reminded me of my troubles
was the nasty feeling of my arms ans
legs being asleep. j woke 10 find my
self fat on my face in the bottom Of