Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-13
CHAPTER XXII-Continued.


ond dogwatch on the 5tii July, the Con
RAIDS crew sighted the blue coast of hiusiu'
they at that time being in very hlgh
wrought state on account of the announce
ment made to them by Hardy in the
Council at five of which Murray speaks
1t may be said. by the way, that Murray
"a homely well-meaning man. more eau
tious than enterprising by temperament
fails to give in his diary anything like a
fair idea of the enthusiasm with which
John Hardy by this time seems to have
inspired this crew. As a matter of TACT
they now followed him blindly, adoring
his auGacty. believing IN his success. en-
tranced by his personality. Hardy was for
them dazzling angel sent to lead them to
vague glories and TO indefinite cenquests,
the precise nature OF which did not for
the present trouble their sailor brains.
When he unfolded his plans at the council
on the 9TH they discussed nothing, but
hailed with rapture his proposals, eager to
use their magnificent training for him. to
do and die for him. Even Murray was In
fected And at o'clock they lay to be-
hind Il small island outside Nagasaki har-
Dor, and waited there.
The moon rose. And everybody looked at
her For in all the creation there was
nothing half SO interesting to this crew
this night as the earths satellite.
She was al her full. and graVid with light.
Up she climbed from the east in peerless,
cloudy majesty At midnight she was
nearly overhead. and had then wheeled
about her light feecy cloud. prismic with
rainbow hues. like Miss Loie Fuller in her
serpentine dance. The night full of
shining, and shining was On the calm
wate-.
The crew Of the Conrad looked a her
and swore. John Hardy, sitting among the
main.sheet ropes behind the wheel. looked
questtonngly at her. and muttered; but
the moon did not hear.
1t was better to be out at sea among the
brisk breezes and the spray. At / O'Clock
Hardy gave the order to let go the sheet
Of the main jib, and put the helm to lee.
The Conrad swung round, and went snort
Ing once more to Mother Carey and the
central sea.
At 10 on the following night she was back
at the same spot behind the island, and
there she lay to again. And the sailors
watched the moon arise, and saw her climb
to her noon, gravid with light and saw her
wheel about her a light cloud Ia Loie
Fuller And they swore more than ever.
But this time there no turning back.
II was now or never. Their stores were
at an end.
John Hardy said to two men leaning over
the bulwarks near him
Well by moonlight. then, lads. 1t may
not turn out to be so bad as We think.
And at about 2 O'Clock in the morning
six boats put off from the Conrad and
rowed away. Two contained nineteen men
each. one twenty, one twenty-five. one
twenty-three and one thirty-three On
board the Conrad eight men were left.
At this hour the moon westering far
down the steep slope of her setting course
and all the smooth sea was branded with
trails of crushed and tremulous silver The
old and browsing night heavy with vigil.
all enkindled now and aglow, instinct
with the glamour of the moonbeams absorb
ed through many long hour, like old
topper who had Implied in solitary orgy all
the night, and toward morning he
rises gorged for bed drunken. and signing
with surfeit. A flush of pallid gold Suffused
iEa lar
which has burned through all the slow
period of the dark and In the
small hours it fumes and smolders
red, and gives an odor in the room, so down
with troubled Visage went the moon. Hard
Is breath sighed through the slumbering
harbor, and about its dark and silent islets.
The narrow inlet Of which forms
Nagasakl port lies nearly north and south,
and is about twelve go Ohree miles) in
length. At its mouth 1t is only quarter
of a mile broad. and though it spreads out
within. it is nowhere of very great breadth.
All along it's length. however, on both SIDES,
the land opens up into numerous bays OF
some capacity On the east side the land
is mostly fiat, and here used to be the for
efgn settlement" with a water frontage OF
some 700 yards backed by picturesque
slopes on which stood the villa-residences
of the rich merchants. On the west side,
however, where the moon went down, rose
wooded mountain and steep crag. The
whole Is thoroughly sheltered and affords
anchorage for the biggest ships.
ne SIX DOdlS, IuTEOWiHS IHeT SttcHl,
silvery way, entered the harbor mouth at
the northwest, the largest boat (Which con-
tained Hardy. Richardson and Brassey)
leading. Any one looking at this little feet
would have said that each of the boats con-
tanned no more than two men. The rest of
their Crowding crews were slowed away In
the bottoms. and lined the sides, lying most
ly at full length and covered with strips Of
taIpdulin. Under the tarpaulins, too. were
lanterns. The cross seats, except those used
by the rowers had been removed.
The course lay among number Of islets
with the navigation of which Richardson
no-Shima. the site of a disused gun-bat-
terry, and they crossed a stretch OF sea, all
white and encrusted with moonlight, to
Takabok
From the cliffs OF Takabok, two centuries
before thousands of Christians We're flung
by the japanese into the sea because they
refused to trample upon the cross. And
after two centuries Hardy came TO Taxa
box.
Yonder, a little inland. was the burning
light OF the Iwoshima lighthouse, and,
farther still. the less brilliant beam of the
Kage-no- Shima pharos Farther still lay
Pappenberg, and then Nezumi- Shima,
which, in old, quiet days was so often used
as picnic place by the white residents of
Nagasaki.
One by one the islands receded. and the
file of daring boats stole nearer and nearer
upon the interior of the, harbor now in
shadow. now adventurine swiftly across a
patch of sea gloating In the dream of
moonshine. And now, behind them is the
last island. and before them the open
basin, and ponderous in black slumber on
the basin-the great navy Of Japan
But where are the eyes of the watchmen,
that they cannot pierce those dark cover
ings and divine that there. beneath them.
Is creeping nearer and nearer an insdious
death, strange retribution? The watch
men. IL they see, cannot divine. The riddle
of destiny Is far beyond them. All droops
and faints IN slumber, the sea, and the old
night and the moon musing In her far
western couch, and the divining of the
watchmcn.
Only the best-trained crew In the world,
led by the best leader. are awake, and they
have sworn oath.
And, suddenly, a miracle of luck IS re-
vealed TO them For yonder all the western
half Of the harbor Is seen to be lying In abb
solute shadow, while the eastern half is
still gittering in aspen coruscation OF
white light. And the main part OF the
fleet. II is clear IS lying within that west
ern gloom.
The boats. by signal. separate. Each
knows Its work-each has its instructions
They are. in general. to aim at the stars
they are to fly at big game they are to
lie. -.