The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-07-26
CHAPTER XIII.
A PIRATES ApR

CHAPTER XIII.
A PIRATES HARBOR.
MINDLESS swell and a burning sky.
Ahead broker palings Of mop headed
tree trunks growing straight across the
sea: On n beam scattered patches of
I white where the surf crumbled over
Lhe hidden coral reef, on the other the
bright blue water Of the Mexican gulf,
I with Its yellow floating tangles of weed.
"A steamer lunging through the rollers
at a small six knots.
On her decks was visible one man,
INC one alone, and he was on the upper
bridge, with his fists on the spokes Of
the steam steering wheel. He was
sway1ng with wearlness; his eyes We're
dull and leaden: his checks were of an
unwholesotne yellow because tan would
i,not let them turn pale white. Yet his
task was ones~yhich put to strain every
piece OF his alertness. He was taking
a steamer drawing 10 feet through a
%channe! whose very existence no man
on earth besides himself had ever
guessed. and already he wa deep in
sea territory which the charts OF 1893
still mark as unsurveyed. He had
vaguely found the channel some months
berore 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 a frail reed
I for much dependence.
For such work a leadsman is an alb
solute necessity, and on board the Port
Edes a leadsman was an absolute i'm
possibility. The remaining w of her
manning We're working as ten men to
keep up any head of steam for her en-
gines. And 81 Patrick Cambel took his
~sound1ngs with y 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 Gathering Jars and
let her through to deeper water be-
yond. INC once he ran upon a tail Of
white sand. which pinned her just for
ward of midships. But he rung off the
englnes, waited TN 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 mar who
had got the shore on board" but he
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
1 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 UNI
broken line of sand, where, If the
steamer stuck. she would be a stove in
l 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 Scrp3n m and heI1nyv
through he's Now he lodged,
With helm hard starboard one minute,
hard to the port the next, among AN
archipelago of unnamed keys, where
the first trees We're getting to
work at building these outlying scraps
OF animal stone into part Of the North
American continent.
Beyond WAS a broad, smooth lagoon
shimnering In the sunlight, dancing
with little silver waves. and beyond
again was:a wall OF woodwork growing
in 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 l%uxuriance
OF the subtropical flora.
The steamer held on her course
athwart this placid sea lake, aiming
straight as a rifle shot for what APP
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 Il gut Of river between
them.
Calnbel 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 he doakeyman shovelet
coal to the light of reeking slush lamps
and the tune of furnace roar.
The steamer in the grip Of the rive
stream swung round the bights anG
twisted. finding deep water everywhere
though often she could not make tn,
turn quickly enough and bruised will
her forefoot the Shiny mangrove stem:
which marked the bank. But the cur.
rent was strong INC each time swep
her clear, and those below We're scarce.
ly conscious Of the Craze.
Knot by knot the brine Of the Mexi
can gulf was being left behind, and tn,
noises OF the woods and odors of tn
trees and the SwanpS We're closing il
on them. The swell tanning out from
the steamers wake wet the alligator
in their basking places behind the saw
!, , grass. and the reek from her smoke
stacks scared the silt legged waite
!. fowl aflsh in the shadows. She coaste,
round a bayou of black water WALLED
In by stern ranks of cypress trees. Sh,
: cut across another With graceful leave,
palmetto scrubbed on eithe hand an,
, ragged cabbage palms spoutint
. out from above. And then she swun,
: again where the river forked AM
steamed down a straight. unswervini
!, water lane which led to the very hear
of the Everglades. F
ii But the pace was slowing now. slow
. ing indeed till the steamer would hard
ly steer against the current. which eve
and anon gripped her by the head o
the tail and carried her with suliel
r sheerinss dead onto cluste
: or tree clad bluff; and the reason wa
that the head of steam was failing
Captain Owen Kettle. like more Chris
, tian men have done before, ignored hi
, w previous p%reachings when the ap
plication came in and proved only hu
, man soon after he had taken up tn,
role,Q fireman. Driven half lunatic, b,
the heat Of the work, he kept dippin,
/ his lips in he water bucket and drink
!, ing heavy drafts. AS a consequent
that unpoetical COMPLIMENTARY ii
the. neutrality-suspicious. him at ~lasttan,
!, tlsd him into those ungatnly knots o
iturtHre which he had so frequently OBJ
served upon scientifically Ia e.fers
II