Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-13

were fast becoming too weary to move their
feet out of the way.
Over them had come the terrible. disheart-
ening fits of shivertng and chattering teeth
that make men at sea In winter weather
helpless and Indifferent. So cold were they
enough to move and beat their chests with
their arms.
So cold were they that even the fire Of
nate mad died in them. Sullenly they sat
side by side.
Drifted Like Berg.
SO the scow drifted. like berg. climbing
the long swells slugglshly and driving into
the short ones. Steadily, however she
was Tightening, for every sea took some of
her load. ~
Thus when the dusk caua and oil
once the snow squall was wiped away from
an tne sea, she stood out of the water bIgb
anu piack; and bayman in a sIoop Wing
uheaslly behind the low sandy nalnt %
Rockaway Beach saw her nlupsins, sio,rS.
ho. d IniIe away from the Rockaway shoals
,Deautilul seas were they, with the wan
s neatllcaI hight of the setting storm-sun
iIasiiHs specrally on them. They mounted
Ia me ueep sea and rolled along its floor os
II they We're no part of it. They nova5
llaJesucaily along, curling their fnamv
end o.. III sunoroken ridges half a mile long
- tSh Ieet mSh, so smooth, so mighty
thal there was neither sound nor snraV III
tney reached the shoals. Then suddeniy oil
t mar uprisen sea fell into watery rain and
beat itself into a furious deatb lite a. iat
agony of a monstruus living thing
AS the scow waved, the two men lootad
stoliuIy out, saw the breakers and knew
that she was rolling into them. They be-
gan 10 pray again--not for helm this time
out Tor their souls; for they knew that this
was death that was undulating so solemnly
under the white western light
Inc bayman saw the two men InstaptI,.
ne ieaped to the mast and began to haul I'm
the stlIi' frozen, snow-burdened mainsaiI
II was hard work, and he cursed choicely
ne was sun and sore. His previous even
ing mad been spent in bea ting his wife and
later on, in being beaten in turn by soma
gentlemen who belonged to the executive
stan Of the horse-boiiing plant on Barren
Island
Captain Was Dis6gured.
With one thumb sprained his knuckles
raw, both eyes blackened and a smear of
blood from his left ear to his chin, getting
under way was not a joy for the captain
Of the Darling Emma (Which name was a
compliment to his Wife, But he got under
way. nevertheless, and within ten minutes
ne was pulling ferociously at his sheet and
twisting his tiller with one knee as she
went over before the blast that came across
the point
Rattle of all kinds, oyster tongs. ropes.
dredges and stovepipe forward cIattered In
one great tumble to leeward as she rolled
The whole far black ocean seemed to toss
straight at her, She tottered on the hill
tops of sea and sat down scattering in the
hollows. Once she refused to mind her
helm and her boom dived hard into the
water, pulling her around and down so that
she took a sea green. But with a curse the
FISHERMAN brought her up.
He was a South Long Island man-tough
as they make them; drunkard, fighter. ruff
fan, oyster thief, sand thief But he was
American from his great-great-g hers
and mothers on both sides And though he
cursed the souls OF the two italian scow
trimmers with language that would have
been frightful to hear even on shore and
sounded little less than a challenge to God
uttered there on the stormy sea- he never
paused or thought to turn tail before the
wrath of the ocean.
Cunningly he steered her. cunnIngly he
calcula ted the very tiny spot in the shoals
where he might win through and reach the
scow before she struck.
The two men saw him come and watched
intently That is, Felipe did. Giuseppe had
begun to watch Felipe.