The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-03-16
CHAPTER XXII.-(Continued.)

No man has ever looked on a more aw-
ful sight. We had struck the battlesnlp
low amidships-we had crashed through
the thinnest coat of her steel. She mao
heeled right over from the shock, so tnat
the guns had cast free from the carriages
and the seas had filled her. thus TOT
one terrible minute she lay, ana then'
with a heavy lurch, she rolled oeneatn
the waves and there was left put tniIty
or forty struggling souls, who Dattlea lor
their lives with the great rollers OF tne
Atlantic. OF these a few reached the SIDE
of our ship and were shot there as they
chung to the ladder.
For ourselves we lay, our bows spit
with the shock, our engine room IN lear
full disorder. The other warshlps were
yet some distance away; but they opened
fire upon us at hazard, and, of the hrst
three shells which fell, two cut our decks: :
and sent clouds of splinters of wood ana
of human flesh flying in the smoke-laden
air. At the fifth shot, a gigantic crash
resounded from below, and the stokers
rushed above with the news that the fore
stoke hold had three feet of water In II.
The hands received the news with deep
groan. They beloved like bulls at Black !:
they refused all orders. He shot down
man after man, while I crouched for safe
ty in the tower; and they became but
fercer. Our end was evidently near
Anon they turned upon the captain and
myself, and fired volleys upon the coming
tower; or, in their terrible frenzy, they
pitched themselves into the sea.
Through all this our one engine work
ed; and so slowly did the great ironclad
draw upon US that the end of it all came
before they could reach us. Suddenly the
men rushed to the boats and cast them
loose. Fighting with the dash OF mad
men, they crowded the launch, they
swarmed the jolly-boat and the lifeboat.
We watched their insane efforts as boat
after boat put away and was swamped,
leaving the men to drown. When q
o'clock came, Black and Karl and myself
were alone upon the great ship. Black
pulled me by the arm and said:
boy, they've left nothing but the
dinghy. The old ships done; and it's
time you left her."
'And you" l asked.
He looked at me and at Karl. He
AollO"Cu uc olOWly, dS OuC Ill O u1 CAM W
the davits aft, and freed the last of the
boats. Then he went to his cabin, and to
the rooms below and l helped him to put
a couple of kegs of water in the frail
craft, with some biscuit, which we dashed.
When all was ready, the captain went
to the engine room and brought Karl to
the top of the ladder; but there the Ger
man stayed, nor did threats or entreaties
move him.
"HeIl die with the ship" said Black.
"and l don't know that he isn't wise ;"
but he held out his hand to the genius of
his crime, and after a great grip the two
men parted.
For ourselves, we stepped on the frail
est craft with which men ever faced the
Atlantic, and at that moment the first of
the ironclads fred another shell at the
nameless ship. 1t was a crashing shot,
but /. had come too late to serve justice,
or to wreck the ship Of mystery for Karl
had let the hydrogen into the cylinders un-
checked And in a cascade of fire, light
Ing the sea for many miles, and making
a. day the newly fallen night, the golden
citadel Kissed over the water for one mo-
ment, then plunged headlong, and was no
more.
A fierce fire 1t was, lighting sea and
sky-a mighty holocaust; the roar of
great conHagration: the end of a mon
strous dream. And thought of another
fire and another face-the face of Mar
tin Hall, who had seen the finger of
Almighty God in his mission and said,
"His work is done -
But Black, clirging to the dinghy, wept
as a man stricken with great grief, and
he cried SO that the coolest heart might
have been moved
MY ship, my ship!"