Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-12-08
THE SEA FORBIDS.

omlnOuSly at every roll. her masters
Dixon, a man of unfettered speech,
cursed the wild sea that tossed him, the
fog and rain that blindly wrapped sea
and sky alike, his Swedish owners, buy
ers of rotten hulls from English shippers
who feared the board of trade, and, be-
yond all, the Mcneil. stevedores, whose
faulty work now spoke eloquently in the
little sliding jar that rose from the yellow
beams of wood upon his decks at every
lurch the vessel gave.
he grasped a stanchion to steady him
self as he turned to the man at the wheel,
and as he lurched against it the upright
bar drew gently out of the thin worn
brass plate once destined to hold it to
the deck, slipping silently back into place
as, startled, he let it go His fretted
nerves were set on edge at the indication
of the ships fate, and he snarled with
anger as he looked round at the helms
man.
Huskisson was gazing blindly into the
smother beyond the bows, a grim and
ugly smile on his face at the thought of
the happy moment when he and George
Denham, old friends and new enemies,
should pass each other at the fo'castle
steps when the watches changed at mid
day. He bent his knee to feel the com
forting prick of the keen steel against
his calf, and brooded over the decision
he had been making for weeks before.
And now the opportunity had come; he
would stab at Denham's bull neck, and
send him bleeding down across the vel
low deals. That would teach him to
come between an old friend and his girl;
would teach him how to tell tales in the
fo'castle about it, making him the butt of
the Scandinavian crew. Much use his
broad shoulders and curly hair would do
him waen he lay and bled like stuck
pig.
His mind was far from the compass
card before him, and the steamer was
points off her course and nearly broadside
to the seas before a scared oath from her
captain called him back to present ne
eessity-too late!
A great-bodied wave, whipped to slat-
ting spindrifs at its crest, shoudered it.
self aboard, and the deals to starboard
hoated clear of the deck for one brief mo-
meGt. gurgling waters between and over
them The rotten ropes holding them
only sufficient for a side strain-rose with
the floating timber, snapped like so much
packthread, and before Huskisson could
drag the wheel hard over, one-third of
the foredeck cargo had gone oversize TAX
ing shrieking deckhand with it, and the
other two-thirds were piled in ragged
confusion to port. The steamer Law on
one side, her stumpy rnasts canted over
to dangerous slope, her funnel stays ON
one side taut as harp strings, on the
other hanging deiectedly slack, and over
the rattle and confusion the beating,
hammering seas swept over her again and
again.
Even then he found time to consider
whether he should kill Denham now. or
wait until the cargo was restored.
He might have spared the matter a
thought for the fo'castle door was in
visible. The wave that had burst the
cargo free had run forward with the
following downward pitch, floating the
timber with it before it filtered out
through the ports and scupper holes. and
eighty tons of deals lay between him and
his revenge.
From beneath the heaped pile came
family the beating of mems hands on
the damned door and their frightened
voices calling helplessly for release
III.
| of the hatch cover lay exposed. He took
the knife from his boot, thrust IL behind
one of She covering wedges, Snd clam
bered over the wild confusion back to
the bridge again.
/ A little huddle of frightened men
| tiremen, engineers and stewad-clam-
ored around the foot of the ladder. He
pushed through them, climbing to the
haD INN hrsxT
! But Dixon held fast to the spokes.
Get down and kick couple of those
greasers to their work" he said. "Then
take the Others into the foredeck and get
about shifting cargo back"
| Huskisson hustled two men aft along
the alleyway to the engine room door.
waist deep in water half the way. He
jumped at them between waves. striking
and swearing like a mailman. and fling.
ing the fireman against the engineer at
every delay. To get them through the
! door he had to push the two resisting
men upward, as schoolboys help each
other over forbidden walls, and his last
blow sent the fireman tripping and stag
germg along gentle slope instead of
down the usual sharp descent to the en-
glne room gratings. With a final threat,
designed to keep them at their work. he
staggered forward to force their fright
ened and indignant colleagues to aid in
the task OF restowing the shaky and dis
ordered pile of deals
The labor was heartbreaking. Besides
her list, the ship rolled foully, the loos-
ened clumsy cargo sliding and scattering
anew and threatening at every lurch to
drag the squattering hull below. The
first two dozen of replaced deals came
gathering down upon them in tenor thun-
der along the iron decks The stolid
Swedish mate was hauled from beneath
the lengths of heavy scantling. his loo
broken below the knee. and two mon
dragged him to the chartroom and shnt
him in. giving him the lounge cushion
with which to wedge himself into a posi.
ton OF relative security. Some means
had to he devised to keep the cargo in
place after restowing; but nearly ali the