The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-17
By HENRY C. ROWLAND


hang on to your jaw-tackle, and save
your wind for white-ash breeze if
this one drops-savvy?
One-the dago / called him-gave
an essenting whine. The others turn
ed their backs and lit their pipes.
1t wasn't cheerful yachting party,
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 | thought That was
where l made my mistake. | had the
sense that the Lord gave a jack rab-
bit l would have kept them when l
could have had my eyes on them, so
they would have had no chance to
cook up any deviltry; but l didn't and
the swash and ripple under our bows
as we scudded along drowned their
whispers.
Later, to make things worse, play
e6 right into their hands. The breeze
had dropped with the sun, so L had
them clew up the sails, unstep the
masts, and lower them down on to
the thwarts You can bet l watched
them close enough while they were
doing this, and they were careful, too,
for they knew that if a man acct
dentally stepped over the after thwart
into the cockpit he would step over
board the next second.
One of the ScoundrelS who had been
asleep up in the bow was a giant 1
expect that his father had probably
been a deep-cheSted bosun on some
British ship of the line.
/ called him aft to stroke as he had
the weight, and seemed to know how
Ito handle an oar. He came with an
eagerness that | put down to the ma
gizne rifle across my knee. L didn't
know that he'd had his low animal
cunning to bear on the problem of
how to get that billet all the after
noon.
MY DULLES settled down to their
work with a long, steady swing that
it did me good to feel, for mine was a
billet to get on a mans nerve after
the darkness falls, and through the
long, mysterious night.
Pipe after pipe / filled, and hour
after hour L 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 man
at night in an open boat with no land
iE sight-that this was eternity, and
that through all time we were to pull
away in long, changeless strokes over
that black, silent water.
Twice I gave them "oars'' to rest a
bit, and take a bite and
a mouthful of water-for an engine
won't run on no fuel-and once /
had all hands shift sides. Never a
word they spoke, but swung away
with such good will that 1 began to
feel myself relax d, bit in may hard
ness to them and wonder if, perhaps,
there wasn't a spark of good some
,x-ha hni ch al
ter all.
Toward in the morning / 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 a three-knot clip. SO |
told them to take it easy and daylight
would see us off the island.
Then / spelled them for a while,
letting 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. L strained my
eyes ahead, and I'll never forget the
sinking feeling of those few minutes,
when suddenly with a flash of crimson
the sun shot UP in a cloudlesS sky and
showed no land in sight.
For moment / was clean stagger-
ed, for the island was a high one and
should have been seen thirty miles
away. Then l thought of the cursed
currents that suck through those
| treacherous seas and wondered how
| far we could be out of our course
| The men seemed as eager as | was
and the bow man was standing on his
| thwart studying the sky line ahead
! But nothing came of it, and he turned
and looked 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 quar-
ter. !
| 'Land-O!' he growled.
| / was swung around in the stern,
with a quick tug at my heart. The
next moment a great bulk crashed
down on me, and two paws like a
gOrilla'S fastened on my throat. Some
thing flashed in the air-the sun
rushed to the zenith at one leap-and
then the light went out.
/ wasn't adrift very long. The
next thing that reminded me of my
troubles was the nasty feeling of my
arms and legs being asleep. | awoke
to find myself fiat on my face in the
bottom of the boat and my arms LASH
ed to a forward and my feet to an
after thwart, so that my back was
bent like a swung hammock. Some one
sitting right over my amidShips sec,
ton was giving lecture, and once in
Il while would drive his words home
by landing the toe of his boot against
my ribs.
"Vy tr-r-row him oudtt?' said a
voice that / recognized as belonging
to the Scandinavian misfit. Il dhink
We mide mage i'm r-r-row.'
81 soy, as we knocks i'm in is
bloomin' 'ead an chucks an chucks
is bleeding karllis in the
hocean. L amt no good to we.
Wot's the use in keepin' Nv i'm 2"
"Dutchy right-a. Make-a de Yam
kee pig-hog pull-a de beat. Suppose
he no pull-a ?-knock-a de face back!
For few minutes there was an ar
gument that was whole course in
deep-sea dialect, but as the majority
were in favor of seeing me do a trick
at the oars, while they sat around and
encouraged me by few ingenious de-
vices of their own, my serious-mipded
friend was overruled, and finally, with
an oath, he whipped out his knife and
made a slash at the lanyard around
nv ankles Incidentally, the knife
quite a way into my leg, but i seemed
to be the only one that noticed it.
The Scandinavian cut the lashing
1C n 10 1f-t