The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-14
THE EVENING STOR r
In shallow Waters.
(By Kirk M'Gee.)

| the town and the fishing fleet that
| after one more trip to the Banks, Dave
| Bliss, who had for three years peen
mate of the Swordfsh under the cap
taincy of Josh Baker, would take out
the Mary and Jane and become cap
| tain himself, there was not begrudg-
| ing word nor a selfish thought.
Dave was a young man and pop
| ular one. He was a good sailor and a
lucky fisherman. 1t was known that
ne was in love and was already engag-
ed to Captain Bakers daughter, Mary,
and the talk was that they were to be
married the day he assumed his new
command. If it had been for Captain
Baker 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 Swordfsh. There came a mo-
ment, however, when the captain was
below for a drink of something hot and
the mate had his eyes on a tramp
steamer shearing her was through the
fleet, and that very moment it was
swiftness of 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 axe from it's beckets and cut
away the shrouds, letting the strain
take them overheard. 1t was the only
thing to do to save the schooner, ana
he periled his life in the doing of it.
That went for naught, however. No
man is so jealous of his reputation as
a 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 a smirch and
an injury to his reputation.
So it was that the news ran through
the fleet of sixty sail almost as if by
telegraph that the Swordf1sh had been
dismantled in a squat which had spar
ed all others. There must have been
carelessness of course. Captain Baker
blamed Dave Bliss and Dave Bliss re-
sented the criticism, so the first of the
fleet 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 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 SEN
timent. 1t was the same with the
townspeople. 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
tn cir return. The hours went by and
at last the father arrived alone. His
face was sternset. and hope went out
of her heart as she saw it. She had
49, IL ,1ey
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 again."
said the father as he stood and looked
at the girl.
But it couldn't have been his fault.
and we are to be-to be married. she
protested.
HE should have seen the squat. He
shouldn't have lost his head after
wards and cut away the masts. He
comes here no more. He shall never
be son-in-law of mine | want to near
nothing more about IT,
That evening Mary received a note
from Dave by the hands of a boy. He
said not a word against her father he
simply asserted that he had done the
best he could, and that before seeing
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
his 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. Tn
MARY and Jane" sailed with the fleet. |
Ave, more than that-she headed it, |
1t had been predicted that she would |
had been stretched and her rigging |
frightened up she smoked along like |
steam 1t wac her misfortune to pass
the Swordfish close aboard. During |
the two weeks on shore Captain Baker
and his old mate had met three OF
four times a day. but as total strang-
ers They could have looked into
each others eyes now but they did |
not There was no anger in the new
captain's heart, but the other flushed.
his lips, and those who
were watching him realized that he
felt as If an insult had been put upon
him.
Is still recalled at the fish houses, in
the sail lofts and oceffis and wherever
fishermen gather to GOSSIP; t Sne
DAVIS She was slowing away cod when
the other craft arrived. Her daily
catch was the largest for years She
had filled up and was ready for home
and a market, while half the Meet 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 to pour its
weight on deck and sink the crafts out
Of hand.
The fleet was heaving and drifting
now, and fifty pairs of eyes saw the
masts of the Swordhsh go overheard
before the downf1y of a squa1l There
was no Dave Bliss on board this time