The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1907-07-25
CHAPTER KIN.

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 it's yellow floating tangles OF weed.
A steamer lunging through the rollers
az q sgnali six knots.
On her decks was visible one man,
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 WEAKNESS; his eyes were
dull and leaden; his cheeks were OF an
unwMoieSome yellow because tan would
not let them turn pale white. Yet his
task was one which put to strain every
piece OF his alertnesA He was taking
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
stin mark as unsuryeyed. He had
vaguely found the channel some months
before In an open boat and written
Cross compass bearings on the back Of
a crumpled envelope. These he carried
In his head now and used as the sea
marks closed, but they were frail reed
for much dependence.
For such work leadsman is an abb
soiute necessity, and on board the Port
Edes leedsman was an absolute inn
possibility. The remaining two OF her
manning were working as ten men to
keep up any head OF steam for her en-
gines. And SO Patrick Cambel took his
boundings 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
broke away with ciattefing Jars and
let her through to deeper water be-
yond, 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 flsl
speed astern and slid clear.
The skipper in the stokehold below
waxed blasphemous at the man who
had got the shore on board" but he
did not cease shoveling Goals. Neither
old the big donkeyman, 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. y
So the Port Edes drew UP this mar
row unknown sea river through the
shallews which fill that blight of the
southwest Florldian 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 stove In
wreck within the hour but as she
closed with tt 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
rrh No nc hnxxT ha1 1S.1er erea1
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
of animal stone into part of the North
American continent.
Beyond WAS a broad, smooth lagoon
shimfnering in the sunlight dancing
with little silver waves, and beyond
again was wall OF woodwork growing
I'm one solid mass of trunks from be-
hind the tangle OF shiny mangroves
which sprawled along the waters edge.
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
athwart this placid sea lake, aiming
straight as a rifle shot for what ap-
peared to be the densest part of the
forest. But as she neared an overlap
ping cape gradually distinguished itself
from the rest of the greenery, and di-
rectly afterward banks of milky sand
sprang out, with 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
streash swung round the bights and
twisted, finding deep water everywhere,
though often she could not make the
turn quickly enough and bruised with
her ferefoot 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
ly conscious of the Craze.
Knot by knot the brine OF the Mexi-
can gulf was being left behind, and the
noises Of the woods and odors OF the
trees and the swamps were closing in
on them. The swell tanning out from
the steamers wake wet the alligators
In their bnsking places behind the saw
grass, and the reek from her smoke
stacks scared the silt legged water
fowl afsh in the shadows. She coasted
round bayou OF black water walled
In by stern ranks of cypress trees, She
cut across another with graceful leaved
palmetto scrubbed on either hand and
raSged cabbage palms spouting
out from above And then she swung
again where the river forked and
steamed down a straight answering
water lane which led to the very heart
Of tho Everglades.
But the pace was slowing now, slow
ing indeed till the steamer would hard
ly steer against the current. which ever
md anon gripped her by the head or
the tain and carried her with sullen
sheerfngs dead onto mangrove cluster
or tree clad bluff, and the reason was
that the head OF steam was falling.
Capeein Owen Kettle, like more Chris
tian men have done before, ignored his
own Previous preechings when the APP
p4fcHtion came in and proved only hui
MAR seon after he had taken up the
role cf freman- Driven half lunatic by
the heat OF the work. he kept dipping
his hrs In tho water bucket and drink
iMg heavy drafts. As consequence
that unpoetical complaint--craunp IN