Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-31
CHAPTER xxxII1-oontinued.

SLOW and drear and raw melancholy. 1t
| was the morning of execution.
Hardy. with the flaps of an oilskin hat
about his ears. in oilskins to his feet, stood
clinging to a roping aft, facing the strong
| blast that loaded his breast with s2asms of
violence. and struggled for the ends of his
| tapping and quarreling skirts. And near
| him. in oilskins. stood a tall. road-bearded
man, the sea captain Bjornson.
BJornson touched him.
Hardy said:
"WeH?"
| Bjornson took out his watch. held it be-
| fore Hardys eyes, put his mouth 20 Hair
| dy's ears. and shouted:
| 1T is timer
| Hardy said
| "All right"
Already In the look of the water round
| there was something horribly outre. 1t
seemed as If the sea was getting caIm-,oo
calm for the wind that blew It acquired a
certain pallid oiliness in its heave
| Hardy called his trumpeter: he said:
| TEL the captain of the UmbrIa that l
want hundred and fifty Cinnamon taken
on board his ship-at once
And down the wind went his command IN
| the nelghboring ship.
And in ten minutes this order.
| ohlps TO cast off hargas, and follow flag
| snip In same formation, west by south -
| "A; AT once the Hfrosaki put her bow in this
| uneetion' Inc other ships, as their haw-
| sefs astern frightened on their new course
the sea. tP'u
The ships moved on. The barses re-
NAMED e@0 ie-
But not stationary. They too, moved
sloWly-glidinsly-rig in the teeth of tho
Wind-northward-aH of them over many a
The barges fell into long strings. and
patches, and colonies, like trailing sea-
@eed' always, as they glided, retaining their
| nAed relative positions
The men in the barRes saw s,,reT,, tbot
| they moved But what moved them9 The
crude early morning blast blew upon their
| most woeful, sallow faces
Their rate of motion, from moment tn
| moment, quickened
mere was something now detestably bale
iui In the aspect of the water The great
| waves had died to CLASSY heavfng smootb
ness: Only. here and there in irregular
patches over the surface, broke out stretches
| OF Vapld foam, or CHASTITY bubbles And
| ward. N
This is the first mood of the Mael-
Then wonder happened: string of
paTges shot suddenly askew and went
wildly hasting in long curve to the east
ana another string shot askew in a western
curve; and in not more than a minute a
hundred thousand barges were fiehttIv
ranging in curves of every shane and direc.
ton over the sea, flying while-then slow
ly stopping-then flying off in new curves
again.
Suddenly, all this motion ceased The sea
settled into a lake-like Stiffness except for
patches of bursting, simmering bubbles on
its face.
But with the suddenness of the thunder
| clap came change The surface rapidly
assumed a morose hue of the deepest blue
blue which was liker black. And at once
it began to heave itself up into waves.
| mountain xrbtn r.
Merrymen In a swinging, oscilatory up
and-doiwn jig, as II buoyed up by some
great submarine power which dandled, and
| tossed, and danced them. And down the
| steep sides of these cones of water poured
the barges of the clinging, staring, Scream
ing men
But now again, suddenly, the mood is
changed-and Voice goes forth over the
| waters, q dolefu sound of the sea The
| high dancing waves die down, and imme-
diately awful wide change is taking
| place-a rapid, intense reorganization of the
| whole sea surface-a breathless hurry and
scurTy of preparation for some unspeakable
drama of the deep There are tracts of
black and choppy sea tumbling in roaring
haste one way, and tracts tumblng like
herds of ten thousand believing bisons an
| other as If flying across to take sides In
some impending agony And all at once the
whole is over: and every wave, and eddy,
and barge, and flake of froth slips into the
sweep of one mighty, bawling, racing whirl-
pool
|
this vast circumference. Invisible under a
fierce white wrath of shrieking spray, fly
with thousand wings the barges of the
yellow men, fly on even keel, fly upifted
spurned from the polish ebony of the dizzy
| basin of water. And they fly, the storm
smothers their gasping breaths, and lifts
their hair. And as their speed intensiffes
to the dToning sleep of the spinning top,
their queues stiffen and rise horizontal like
darting serpents; and twenty million
straight and tluttering pigtails, keeping
whorls toward a bottomless, staggering
abyss, that yawns. six furlongs broad,
| within the central space.
Six miles away, his glass, at his eyes,
| stands John Hardy, musing
Opposite Christiansund, the Hirosaki and
the Umbria were very near together; and
here change of crew took place; the en-
| tire crew of the Un1bria transhipping into
| the Hirosaki, and one hundred and thirty
| of the Hirosaki's crew going over into the
Umbria.
These hundred and thirty consisted ex-
| clusively of Hundred and Eighty men Of
| kiao-Chau fame.
| 1t was a mysterious proceeding. incompre-
| hensible to Umbria men, but readily COM
prehensible to some of the Hundred and
Eighty" These had sworn an oath.
| On board the Umbria were a hundred and
fifty Chinese
Murray Che of the Diary took over with
him to the Umbria small packet which he
had received from Hardys hand-which
| Hardy, In his turn, had received from
| DIR. Fletcher of Harley street.
| The packet contained some hypodermic
| syringes and three walls containing a thick
dark gray liquid.
| The Hirosaki then continued her
| southwark way, but the Umbrfa put In at
| Christansund.
| There on the strand near the town.
| shortly before morning, they landed two Of
the hundred and fifty Cinnamon. In the
| right forearm of each of these two men
| was a tiny needleprick; and they went
walking toward the town an ink-black spot
appeared on the cheek Of each. and a
| black froth ridged their lips.
| The Umbria then continued her voyage
! which lasted two weeks She stopped at
| Copenhagen, at Konigsberg, at Stockholm
| at st. Petersburg. And wherever she