Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-08-01
XIII.
A HARBOR.

CHAPTER XIII.
A PIRATES HARBOR.
MINDLESS swell n a burning sky.
Ahead broken pallngs of mop headed
tree trunks growing straight across the
sea. On one beam scattered patches of
white where the surf crumbled over
the hidden coral reef, on the other the
bright blue water of the Mexican gulf,
with Its yellow floating tangles of weed.
A steamer lunging through the rollers
at n small six knots.
On her decks was visible one a
and one alone. and he was on the upper
bridge. with his fists on the spokes of
the steam steering wheel. He was
swaying with wearinesS; his eyes were
dun and leaden; his cheeks were of IN
unwholesome yellow because tan wol Id
not let them turn pale white. Yet his
task was one which put to strain every
piece of his alertness. He was taking
Il steamer drawing 10 feet through a
channel whose very existence no man
on earth besides himself had ever
guessed. and already he was deep in
sea territory which the charts OF 1893
sun mark as unsurveyed. He had
vaguely found the channel some months
before in an open boat and written
cross compass bearings on the back of
Il crumpled envelope. These he carried
80 s., AtNtNA ~ dSSu dS llic Sed
marks closed. but they were a frail reed
for much dependence.
For such work a leadsman is an alb
so!ute necessity, n on board the Port
Edes u leadsman was an absolute i'm
possibility. The remaining two of her
manning We're working as ten men to
keep up my head of steam for her en-
gines. And so Patrick Cambel took his
soundings with eye and nostrils, as do
some OF the more ancient of the coaster
folk. and instinct did not, upon the
whole. serve him badly. Twice he
secured the steamers bottom plates
over branching coral plants. which
let her through to deeper water be-
You'd. and once he ran upon a tail of
white sand. which pinned her just for
ward of midships. But he rung Off the
engines. waited till the scream Of the
escape pipe showed a full head of steam
and then on a flowing tide put her full
speed astern and slid clear.
The skipper in the stokehold below
waXed blasphemous at the man who
had got he shore on board" but he
did not cease shoveling GOALS. Neither
old the big d~onkeyman. save at those
moments when the clang of the tele-
graph bell called him to stand by the
throttle or reversing gear in the engine
room.
So the Port Edes drew up this mar
row unknown sea river through the
shadows which fill that blight of the
southwest Floridian coast. and the tired
man who was governing her steered
every hour with stronger confidence
and duller consciousness. Now he held
on to what was apparently an un-
broken line of sand. where, IL the
steamer stuck, she would be a stove in
wreck within the hour. but as she
closed with it a passage opened out
which took her through in clear water,
although the yeasty surges of the back
wash would leap like live things far up
her sides and scream and below
through the scuppers. Now he lodged,
with helm hard starboard one minute,
hard to the port the next, among an
archipelago of unnamed keys, where
the first mangrove trees were getting to
work at building these outlying scraps
or animal stone into part OF the North
American continent.
Beyond WAS a broad, smooth lagoon
shimmering in the sunlight, dancing
With little silver waves, and beyond
again was 4 wall of woodwork growing
In one solid mass of trunks from be-
hind the tangle of Shiny
Bare land was to be seen nowhere. All
was blotted out by the rank luxuriance
of the subtropical flora.
The steamer held on her course
atEwart this placid sea lake, aiming
straight as a rifle shot for what ap-
peared to be the densest part of the
forest. But as h neared an overlap
ping cape gradually distinguished itself
from the rest Of the greenery, and d.
rcctly afterward banks Of milky sand
sprang out. with a gut of river between
them.
Cambel steered on. sitting upon the
grating now and holding the wheel one
handed by the lower spokes. and in the
fat, hot stew of the stokehold below
Kettle and the donkeyman shoveled
coal to the light of reeking slush lamps
and the tune of furnace roar.
The steamer in the grip OF the river
stream swung round the bights and
twisted, finding deep water everywhere,
though often she could not mako the
turn quickly enough and bruised with
her forefoot the Shiny mangrove stems
which marked the bank. But the cur
rent was strong and each time swept
her clear, and those below were scarce
~ conscious of the grace.
Knot by knot the brine Of the Nexi-
can gulf was being left behind. ana the
noises Of the woods and odoro Of thu
trees and the swamps were closing h
on them. The swell tanning out from