The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1905-06-16


might as well set traps to catch the
rats that a man sees when he's got
the jimjams. And nothing makes
Banks angrier than to throw out a
hint you don't believe in them rocks
I always gets him on it, by asking
for clean chart and proved shoals
and what not, and giving it him hot
and heavy on vigias and the like. Bah.
I amt no patience"
And Spiller tramped the deck for a
bit. Presently he came back to where
Green stood. -.
Hell be in Bombay before u.s." he
said gloomily. Il have to own the
Simoom's faster than the Palembang,
but if she was sailed by better man
she'd make quicker passages. Why,
an engineer In a steamer can pass a
thorough sailor in scow."
His heart was bitter, but the
thought that Her Majesty's cruiser
Amphion has discredited the Simeon
vigia was balm to his Utmost soul, as
he turned to go below.
Keep bright lookout" he
growled, and he left Green to con-
slider the matter Of vigias in general,
and the Simeon vigia in particular.
For these vigias, the terror of sea.
men, are like malicious spirits. Some
man has seen them. or has imagined
them. and forever after they bear
sway in the minds of those who sail
upon the great deep. Perhaps they
are but floating mass of wreck, on
which the sea breaks; in the south,
what was seen was, it may be, a
drifting berg; on the shores of West
Africa, perchance river has sent out
a floating island. Any accident OF
Imagination may create them; alcohol
bears them on its tide; they are the
rats and ghosts and terrible creeping
things of the delirium Of the sea that
is born of rum. A heavy heeled spar
as it floats becomes pinnacle OF
rock: the boat that bears dead men
in it is forever after to be avoided.
Here a rip of currents, and there a
heavy overall, become fixed terrors
and are given names.
For this is the sea that Is unknown
yet, and shall forever be unknown. 1t
works upon the mind Of man very
subtly, and yet again with tremen.
dous strength. Under the sea are
earthquakes, and in it volcanoes. OF
these islands are born, and again
they pass away, while the little crea-
ture man skins upon the surface of
the ocean like a water-beetle, and
may be seen no more.
When Green was left alone upon
the poop of the Palembang, save for
the presence of the man at the wheel,
something of the wonderful majesty
of the sea came down upon him, and
for moment touched his nerves.
Trust in the captain he had none, for
Spiller was of the usual alcoholic or
der; so he got out the chart and
looked at it. There stood the vigia
marked Simeon Rock" Perhaps
1t existed after all. He remembered
the history of the Aurora Islands to
the east of the Falklands. Even now,
some old sailors believe there are
such islands, real land, not ice ground.
ed on deep soundings. And the ST.
noon vigia was close at hand, If it
existed at all. Allowing for sufficient
uncertainty in its supposed position,
1t might be anywhere within a de.
gree. He stared out into the dark.
ness and imagined he saw it. It was
here, 1t was there, 1t was nowhere:
1t was a wrath of the mind, and dis.
solved. He put back his night-glasses.
and whistled, till he remembered
there was quite enough wind and that
he had no desire to turn the hands up
to- shorten sail.
Jerusalem, it is dark" he said
again, and he recalled Wilson's reply,
Have the gas lit" Aye, that would
be pleasant. For moment he saw
the streets Of London town with a
diminuendo in lamps, and then he
pulled himself together. It breezed
up bit and was four bells. He hove
the log, and went alongside the lee
rail to 60 below to enter it on the
slate. She made biggish weather
roll, and the decks being slippery, he
steadied himself and put his head |
outside the rail to take look ahead.
And at that moment, as he says, he
saw the Simeon vigia. His heart
stood still, and then thumped furious
ly. In spite of the hiss of the seas,
and the windy roar Of the rigging, the
sound of his pulse in his ears was
like the sound of pump. He was
paralyzed, and yet he knew that the
was rushing on to destruc-
ton. ##
lizard a starboard!" he said coolly.
but in a choking voice.
"Sir?" said the astounded man at
The wheel.
lizard starboard, damn you," said
Green ffercely.
And the helmsman ground the
wheel hard down with the air Of a
martyr. AS the Palembang
bowed and came round almost at
right angles to her former course.
Green swears he saw broken water.
though he lost the sharp pinnacle OF