The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960, 1904-10-14

! working platform under the huge steam
| valve. smoking his pipe.
After his rounds, the assistant came
across and stood by the old mans side.
Its an awfully dirty night" he said
I'm the stoke-room you can see the fog
pouring down the ventilators likesteam
Strikes me the shipper is running big
| risks"
'Yes. he's reckless tonight. I'm pref
ty we'll used to young chaps with hot
headed notions, but the older l grow
| the less like the captain who boasts in
port that he never went half speed.
Sooner or later he gets lesson. Some
times the engine-room pays for it. Most
ly, I might say"
The younger resumed his rounds
/ through the machinery, his light had on
bearing, swift touch on driving rod,
a assquint at an oil cup, turn on valve
The swerving bedplates, the laundering
cylinders far above, the clacking pumps,
the whirring shaft sang about him as he
,, went. Suddenly the steady roar Of the
| huge engines was dulled. The hard
pressed thrust blocks ceased their shrill
cry. The plunging piston rods slowed
Up. With sigh the engine-room took
up the lower beat for half-speed. But
the assistant had noticed one strange
thing. He quickly Joined his chief, and
looked at the dial of the telegraph. 1t
still pointed as it had for the last hour.
The elder man answered his inQuisitive
glance with. a low, Il don't know what
| the deck means"
Before another WORD was said, there
came slow, sucking lift; the Amphion
rolled over till the lanters dimmed She
recovered with a surge. and as the chief
engineer wrenched the steam valve shut,
| the plates beneath their feet bulged up
| ward. A moment Of tense straining in
| the stilled machinery, and then, as if
freed from some elastic bond, the steam
er leaped forward again. There was the
sharp clang of a door, and a stoker
pushed his sweaty face above the graf
| ing with a cry. But the old engineer
threw the steam into the cylinders again,
and the engines throbbed in response.
'The propellor's still there" he cried.
| shutting off steam once more.
The third assistant was gazing at the
| moved. With an oath he snatched a
pair of nippers from the rack and thrust
| the claws up into the wires behind the
| face. Then he turned in blazing tri-
umph to his superior "He shan't put
her over at half speed now he shouted.
''and then tell the inspectors that it was
us that kept her driving.
Before the words were we'll out Of his
mouth, jolt threw them to the plates.
Amphion seem to crumple up under
| them Then with the screeching OF
| riven plates and drawing rivets. the
steamer settled on the reef. A breaker
flung itself in thunder against the side,
and the spray fell like rain through the
skylight. The sharp clang Of the gong
! filed the engine-rCom. That was the
half-speed bell" said the chief. DULY.
in the lull that followed the rattling
boom. His assistant. while the awak-
ened engineers of the other watches
peered curiously through the darkness
with eyes still heavy from sleep, caught
up a lantern that was still burning, and
threw its beam on the dial Of the tele-
graph. 1t still pointed to full speed
ahead 81 knew he'd try it. and fooled
him!" he cried @
In the turmoil that followed, while
stoker and oiler and engineer fed from
the water bubbling waist high, the CHIEF
gathered up his own log-book, and care
fully tore it up. The fragments he cast
ON the foamy brine that rose about his
engines. 81 amt going to fight unfair
he muttered
On the bridge of the wrecked Amphion
the crew huddled cheerlessly. The slow
streaming seas that emerged from the
fog and night to windward broke heavily
on the submerged hull, and the spume
ran in rivers from mast and stanchion.
81 had the engine-room telegraph at half
speed" said the captain, whitefaced,
"and I've got 1t down in the log that We
slowed down as soon as we got into the
fog. Iguess that II satisfy the inspectors
that I've done all right, and we'd not ha'
run out Of our course unless the engine
room had disobeyed orders and kept her
full speed" e.
The third assistant pushed forward
and stared at the captain with open
mouth. Then he shock his fist. wildly.
THAT aint so,' he bawled. Il knew yer
tricks! 4 got witness down below! Ye
don't lose me my papers that way! Any
body with two grains of sense 'ull know
this old hooker couldn't pile up this
high on any half speed tell We, We don't
lose me my papers!" He turned round to-
his fellows of the enginee-rOOm. What
does the telegraph down there read?"-
ne yelled.