The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1907-07-18

49,
being a man Of stone. I can't help be-
ing thrilled with the majesty OF the
moment, the sublime vagueness OF my
knowledge OF what will happen when 9
current flashes through these wires.
Tn not q coward. People who write
about other mems feelings when death
Is beginning to paw them on the should
er. write mostly. from b imagination,
and so Tar az I've seen. they all do
1t wrong. I've been there, I've felt that
bony touch more than once and SO ]
know. A man isn't OF necessity terri
fed. Phantasns Of his past deeds do
not invariably fash before him, nor
does he always lose his nerve and move
as q Maynard automaton. ! can speak
for others, but what I personally have
felt has been q dull carelessness for
what is going to happen and q cur
tosity about what will come afterward.
It seems to me that a thinking man
with the ambition Of 9 mouse. should
never fear death. because. once dead,
he becomes wiser than all the living
remnant OF the human race.
There are men / know whom ply
steal danger turns into q helpless mass
Of palpttating nerves. Shelf, for In
smiled grilnly-.'by Jove, I'd give a
finger to have Theodore Shelf in my
shoes just now and force him to couple
these wires and spring the mine with
his own tat, white fingers. I believe
yes, I verify believe-the experience
would turn him honest. All, there goes
one bell. Times up"
Through a lull In the wind the tenor
clang Of the ships bell came down
to him, and on Its heels, more dimly,
the lookout's dissyllabic assurance in
the dismal minor key that he was
awake and had nothing to report.
Then Patrick Cambel made connec
ton and sent through the green, silk
covered wires a current direct from the
steamers dynamo, n on that moment
was thrown against the iron roof Of
the stateroom as though the Internal
machine had exploded beneath his very
feet.
The campstool was kicked into the
air, the wet anv dodgers shed. water
in streams. and Captain Owen Kettle
fell spread eagled on the planking of
the bridge. From the hatch in the fore
deck before him had sprung a volcano
OF rudy flame, spouttng through vast
pillows Of smoke. The iron plating
round it buckled and split, and the
whole steamer gave a trembling.
frightened leap. Presently from the
black, windy night above there fell an
avalanche of debris which smote the
steamer and the water round like can
lister o from a distant cannonade.
Then came a humping jar from the
engine room. repeated twice over, and
then the engines stopped. my God!"
thought Kettle. Hes overshot the
mark. It she's broken down, were done
for" But for all that he did not lose
for an instant his presence of mind or
instinct OF command, but picking him
self up clapped a stulnpy leaden whistle
between his lips and blew shrilly.
At first no one answered his sum-
mons: From the f%orecastle. from the
stokehold. from aft, came the ships
company, making by instinct for the
high Inc of the bridge deck, and from
his eminence the little captain scowled
down upon them n swore. 1t is not
a wholesome sight to see grown men
screaming through sheer terror, and
the sooner they are ASSOCIATED either
by words or blows from his frame of
mind the more they will be able subse-
quently to respect themselves. BY dint
OF a vinegar tongue and suggestive
movements toward q pair OF imple-
ments which bulged his jacket pockets,
Kettle drove a gang Of five to set the
mizzen trysafl to keep the steamer head
TO sea. She vas rapidly losing her
way, and II she preached to beam on,
with that heavy sea running, the lower
decks would be filled with green water
continuously, and hat with such a
gaping rent where the hatch had been
meant simply a rapid swapping.
Then the captain looked around him
seemingly for a messenger. The mate
OF the watch hung on to the handle of
the engine room telegraph, which still
pointed to full speed ahead" looking
dazed and helpless. The quartermas-
ter's hands We're mechanically saving
at the spokes of the wheel, but it was
equally evident that he also did not
know what he was doing. Just then
Cambel raced up the bridge ladder
three steps at a time.
"Aho cried Kettla stpou, 800 =
man who a keep his head in a bit of
a f1uster, and, by James, you're the
only one on board. Jus tumble for
ward, Will you. and get down into that
hold and see what's wrong"
Cambel nodded and turned to go
without a word. From two or three of
the men a thin cheer rose as he passed
them, n before he had gained the
bottom of the ladder on to the iron
lower deck half a dozen were on the
top rungs after him. Sailors will sell
dom refuse to follow when a superior
shows the way, and besides these fell
lows We're getting over their first panic
n We're beginning to be ashamed of
themselves for giving way to it.
The mizzen trysail was not then set,
ana because the steamers way had left
her h was falling off into the trough
and rolling bulwarks under to every
sea. She was shipping water fast. The
Dreaming. solid masses sluicing across
the ~deckplates smote the men breech
high with the weight Of rams, and he
who, when the waters were upon him
left his hold would have been swept
like a cork to leeward. But by the
hatch coamings, the winches and odd
wet strearners of rope they clawed their
way orWar and covered round the
great holde mad by the explosion.
holding there by the edge of the twist
ed riven plates. The seas creamed over
their heads, falling in noisy cascades
into the blackness below, and from
out of that darkness, above all the bel.
lowing of wind and the Changing Of
iron ard the other din. came a sodden
whistling of water which seemed to
confirm the worst fears.
"Poh," said some one. irving to he
CHEEKY, h only the small sun she's
shipped since the matches were blown
off. The bilge pulnps'll soon kick that
| drop overheard"
Guess you lie," said another, with a
weary shake of the head.
Then the ink of the heavens over
head was s~plashed with a vivid fork
of lightning. and the men say Canlbel.
with his a C as white as his teeth
lowering himself over the bring and
gripping with his knees a twisted iron
pillar below. The light above snapped
MT a nj T.