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

on him sideways sweeping half the fair
| way.
Judging by the look of things out
! yonder,' said the pilot grirnly al guess
something will carry him away before he
| gets far OUT
"Out yonder'' was where the red and
| black lightship of the Sandy Hook station
| hung like Dubious float. There was
! queer. cold shining there, and still farther
! seaward the naked eye could see a waver
| ing and flimmering that looked Ike Vapor
| trembling on the line of sea and sky. But
| with glass one could see that the thinner
| ing was not fiimmering at all, but waves,
running so high that they broke the level
| of the horizon, and it is big sea that does
| that.
Eastward the Romer was beginning to
| sing: One. two, three four, five. six! And
| then SEVEN-the roaring bass of the dread
| ed seventh sea that towers above all the
| rest and sweeps headlong
Still farther east, the Rockaway shoals,
second cousins to the Romer, were lather-
| ing themselves.
In the Grip of the Storm.
! The captain, peering. half asleep, from
! his pilot house, saw and didn't see Straight
out to the ocean he chug-chugged needless
alike of the swell that overran by his side
or the cascading seas that swept the scow.
| The two Italians were getting pretty wet.
| On the tug no more thought was expended
| on them than on the garbage.
| 1t was a great January storm Readers
| of the next mornings papers, sitting snug
| and coZy behind their frosted and snow
| hung windows, had lots of entertaining
| news about it; how ii shut down in whirl-
| ing snow streams in the fash of a wintry
! sun; how a Norway brig just rounding TO
| lay-to for a tug, had heeled to her beam
| ends and so drifted on the sliding Jersey
1 sands and gone to pieces while the tug
| sought blindly for her in the curtain OF
| snow: how a great liner. heaving herself
| pompouSly across the long seas, had showed
| her pretty nose into that white darkness OF
snow-squal and in half an hour, naughty
| no more. sat heipleSsly on a mud bank,
| Wailing with siren and whistle like a badly
| scared bontosaurus; how fruiter from the
| San Bias coast had Numbered like wallow-
| ing cask into the breakers of Absecon, that
are the merriest dancers on that shore; and
among other things (in agate the para
graph about the scow.
| The scoW was in the thick of it. Pillars
of spray Joined gigantic hands with Pill
| lars of snow and danced around her,
roaring and reeling. She swung sideways
and drove so, while the raY1ng sea spilled
into her whole length. Then the tug took
temporary command again and brought
her head around so that she pounded hol-
lowly into the waves with noise like
the boom of a twelve-inch steel mortar.
Now the tug pulled her, now she pulled
the tug The garbage from the Waldorf
Astoria and the tenements washed away
in unhoIy companionship. cleaning
weirdly in the gloom of the gale.
Giuseppe and Felipe covered in n nook
shoveled out by them in the refuse and
prayed as fast as their deXterous tongues
could move.
On the tug there was more action.
Somewhere to port was a steady, unfal-
tering sound as of a chorus chanting.
Excited Orders.
you tend to your ingines down there"
IT. 4,,I>o
after wrestling with the signal bell
through cursing moments. You're let
ting her drift. Blast you, can't you hear
the breakers almost under-side?'
'rYou cut loose that scow, then" yelled
the engineer hastily wiping his mouth
and tossing an empty pint bottle into the
sea. DO you expect them ingines of mine
can pull that thing into an eighty-mile
Discipline on tugs, where the captain,
engineer fireman and deckhand get
drunk in loving companionship ashore. is
not what it might be.
Yves! You cut her loose, Them repeated
the engineer. you can't get back inside
the Hook with her. and l doubt If you can
get back without her IL you hold on another
ten minutes.
you mind your own (etc) businessr re-
sponded the captain, squeezing his red face
furiously into the speaking tube You
mind you own (etc.) business. m a-golng
to hang on to that scow.
And swash! A green wall stood. still for a
moment in front of the tug and then top
pied over headlong and drowned II.
The chanting grew palmer; its solemn reg
ularity was interrupted now by confused
sounds; sounds OF pattering rain on tin,
sounds as of water running from a great
hose.
you've got to let gor shouted the engi-
neer. We're id near in the breakers
now!''
"You-you-you." gasped the captain, white
witt
Observation-Disclosures
To pull away from that dead march that
was playing on the beach she had to turn
bodily in the trough of the sea, a trough
that was twenty feet deep, pit of black
water. flecked with snow. and Kissing with
whirpools.
mering scow behind jerked her around again
like a chip. Twice she did it and fell of,
again brought around with a sharp turn
Away Goes the Hawser.
Three times-and out! poured over
her from bow to stern. She held her tow
head on at last. Then came a sharp report
aft and little cloud smoked up in the sea
there The scow reared backward into the
mist and the tug shot forward like shell.
'.rhere goes our hawserI yelled Capt
Cowler .Get her ini Get her I'M And be
quick about itl'
Getting her In was a game of human
life, staked against hundred feet OF ma
Mia. But the EbeneZer Grimm had no APP
preparations to waste.
When the cable was in the tug sheered
around and went headlong to leeward. driv-
ing like the snow itself. Presently a white
spouting ahead as IL sea monster had
come up to sport, betrayed the derelict
Like ghost the Ebenezer Grimm sped
alongside. and
"Jumpi Jump. screamed her captain.
The two covering men ran to the edge
looked at the gulf between and drew back
The tug sped past. disappeared and came
around once more. Every foot of that trip |
was deadly peril.
Again the command to "Jumpi Jumpl"
and again the dumb play on the scow.
go to -, them yelled Capt. Cowler,
and swung wide for the Hook 4
From the engine room came laugh.
The scow drifted off. The two men. drip
ping from hair to tattered shoes. covered |
again In the cave of garbage Fast audi
faster came the snow. Fast and faster came |
the wind; out OF the far sea, Tapping.
Now shs swung on to port. and the snow
came silently and piled around them Now
abe awunR off to afarboard. and the sea l