The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-04-23
In Shallow
Waters.
By KIRK MCGEE.
Copyright 1907. by Mary McKeOn.


lar one. He was a good sailor and a
lucky fisherman. 1t was known that he
was in love and was already engaged
to Captain Bakers daughter Mary, and
the talk was that they were to be mar
ried the day he assumed his new COM
mand. If 1t had been for Captain Bak-
er to choose a son-in-law from the fifty
single men in the fishing fleet, he
would have held out his hand to Dave
in preference. They had fought the
perils Of the sea together for three
years, and they had come to know each
other as landsmen can never know one
another
! Out on the Banks that day it was
sQually weather. The air was cold and
raw, and the sea heaved up and CUR
gled and growled as if demanding vic
tins. Every craft needed watching,
and none was more closely watched
than the Swordfish There came mo-
ment, however, when the captain was
below for a drink of something hot,
| Spd the mate had his eyes on tramp
steamer shearing her way through the
feet, and that very moment it was
when a squat struck down with the
swiftness of a cannon ball, and the
Swordfish was thrown on her beam
ends.
1t was inevitable that confusion
should follow. With her masts fiat on
the water and her sails bellying out,
the boat could not right to an even
keel, and it was the mate himself who
seized an ak from its beckett and cut
away the shrouds, letting the strain
take them overheard. 1t was the only
thing to do to save the schooner, and
he periled his life in the doing of it.
That went for naught, however. No
man Is so jealous of his reputation as
fisherman. He knows. and his owners
know, that there must be accidents at
sea, no matter what the vigilance, but
for all that an accident is smirch and
an injury to his reputation.
So it was that the news ran through
the feet of sixty sail almost az If by
telegraph, that the Swordfsh had been
diSmasted in squat which had spared
all others. There must have been care
lessness, of course. Captain Baker
blamed Dave Bliss, and Dave Bliss re-
scented the criticism, SO the first of the
feet to reach home had a story to tell
that quickly spread all over the town.
The fisher craft that goes down at sea
is talked Of for a week. The fisher
craft that loses a mast or a set Of sails
is not forgotten for six months
When the Swordfish came limping
home a week or so behind all others,
there was a gulf between master and
mate. The crew were divided in senti-
ment 1t was the same with the towns
people. When it was known that the
craft had arrived, Mary Baker sat at
the window and waited for her father
and lover They had always come to
the house in company upon their re-
turn. The hours went by, and at last
the father arrived alone. His face was
stern set, and hope went out of her
heart as she saw it. She had heard the
gossip of the early arrivals, but hoped
that it was exaggerated. She knew
that the fleet and the town had taken
sides, but she believed in her lover
He'll never enter my door againr'
said the father as he stood and looked
at the girl.
But 1t couldn't have been his fault
and we are to be-to be married." she
protested.
He should have seen the squall He
shouldn't have lost his head afterward
and cut away the masts. He comes
here no more. He shall never be SON.
in-law Of mine. want to hear nothing
more about it,
That evening Mary received a note
from Dave by the hands of a boy. He
said not word against her father
He simply asserted that he had done
the best he could and that before see-
ing her again he would wait for public
opinion to change. He had not lost
the confidence of the owners Of the
Mary and Jane. She would be ready
for sea in ten days. He hoped that bis
Mary would believe In him and that
things would come right in the end.
The reply he received strengthened
and encouraged him, and he went
about his affairs as If the gossip of the
town were naught to him. The Mary
and Jane sailed with the fleet. Aye,
more than that, she headed it. 1t had
been predicted that she would prove
a fiier, but when her canvas had been
stretched and her rigging frightened up
she smoked along like steam. 1t was
l,oT fcf 10 fho 90,
close aboard. During the two weeks
on shore Captain Baker and his old
mate had met three or four times q
day, but as total strangers. They could
have looked into each others eyes now,
but they did not There was no anger
in the new captains heart, but the 9TH
er flushed and compressed his lips, and
those who were watching him realized
that he felt as If an insult had been
put upon him.
That first voyage of the new craft
is still recalled at the fish houses, in
the sail lofts and offices and wherever
fishermen gather TO gossip She short
ened the run to the banks by two days.
She was slowing away cod when the
bther craft arrived Her daily catch
was the largest for years. She had
filed up and was ready for home and
market, while half the fleet were
still whistling for fish.
Then came another such day as that
on which the accident had happened.
There was the same leaden sky out of
which squalls burst at intervals and
without warning-the same ugly, heav-
ing sea, swelling up as if to pour its
weight on deck and sink the craft out
of hand
The fleet was heaving and drifting
now, and fifty pairs of eyes saw the
masts of the Swordfish go overheard
before the downfy of a squat. There
was no Dave Bliss on board this time,
but the thing had happened just the
same On the previous occasion there
were deep water and plenty of sea
room. On this the fleet had been drift
ing down into the shadows and was
just on the point Of lacking.
What every man at once realized
was that the crippled Swordfish must
go to leeward before the send of the
sea until she grounded on the sands
mile away. Then the waves would
finish her in ten minutes. The Mary
and Jane had her home pennant flying
and was already on her course. She
was loaded deep with her catch and
drawing twice as much water as the
other
There was just one way to save the
Swordfish. Men of the feet will tell
you today that there was only one man
among them who dared take the