The San Francisco call., 1904-04-17

dem again.
But amt dot the worst ting you
ever heard Of, to leave a shipmats to
drown in smood scar Would you do
dat to your worst enemy7''
Here he wakes sentimental and slob-
bers through dissertation on the eth
les of shipmate fellowship. He wants
you to understand he never hit a fell
low when he was down. especially a
shipmate.
Would you see fellow drop over
board and not raise the cry7 No, you
nese cook"
tears. Again he bristles.
But gets even Wild deml I VIII not
drown-I will mott wiz noti-
He fairly roars this, and Trig's roar
Is few keys lower than q bulls bel
low.
mol I viii swim after dot gang Of
larrikins till lays my paws on DEM
You beti"
On he goes. With him you see the
white sails fade out on the horizon,
and with him you are alone in the
great circle. Drunk as he is, he speaks
each word. Have you ever been out
in small boat, alone with the gulls.
a clear horizon and land q thousand
miles awayl Mol He has It's a sen
sation that sets the entrails wrtggIIng
within you.
But think. then" he continues.
pointing huge gnarled forehnger az
you, think. then-how would you feel
clear horizon about your How would
you feel then?"
You know-with his eyes looking into
yours. You know you would throw
up your hands and sink. But no-not
with that fiery hate in you that burns
in your very bowels. You would swim
-swim-swimI
You are always with him-with him
as he treads water, or strikes out, or
floats, looking up into the blue cloud
less sky. You see the froth IN his
fiery hair, the spume in his tawny mus
tache, sometimes floating about his
mouth like a seaweed, and those huge
white limbs moving under water. And
you see that broad. square chin beat
against the wavelets like the PROV Of
a Viking pirate ship. So he fought,
ten long hours-fought while the sun
climbed up the center Of the metallic
dome Of the heavens and began to de-
scend again, and the screaming gulls
circled about his head and even lighted
near by.
Here he pauses once more, and tells
you he sank-only for a second, mind
you, but he sank A picture flashed
before him. He saw the men OF his
watch stalking about the streets OF
Honolulu. He saw them In the drink
ing shops leaning against tho bars. He
heard them telling how be had
drowned and they chuckled and ogled
one another. He saw big Steve grin
as he said:
Poor sucker, we'd "a picked him MP
If we could"
Sinki NeverI He could swfm-a
of hell itself.
He must have been q fearsoms sight
then, shooting up again above the sur
face like sea demon. shouting venge-
ance. Neverl He viii swtm-swim-
swim-swiml
BY this time he In pretty drunk. n
he were an ordinary man you would
say he was nervously unstrung. But
beastIy drunk But still you feel ths
thrill Of fire In that last spurt-
Here he gets maudlin and funny at
once and you can't quite make out
what happened. You know he saw
the foresails Of . square-rigged ship.
but he doesn't tell how he got aboard
IT. F1gurattvely speaking. he slobbers
and falls all over the captain and bos'n
Of the Garnet. Then he laughs again
you know, dey ask ma. We're you
come fromr Ha, ha, ha, hal tall
dem I vas In whales belly Hks Yona-
Ha, ha, ha, hal don't tell dem moth
ing TIL next day"
BY this time he In too drunk % ten
more, but you have the tale. You look
at the huge, drunken brute before you
ugly, uncoufh, heroic, drunk-end In
spite Of all a thrill Of admiration comes
over you
And you feel That ths Vikings must
have been Just such heroio brutes.
Copyright. 1903, by Albert Sonnichsen-J