Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-07-26
XIII.
A

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
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
at 4 small 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
unwholesome yellow because tan would
not let them turn pale white. Yet his
task was n which put to strain every
piece or his alertness. He was taking
q 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 1898
stll 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
a crumpled envelope. These he carried
In his head now n used as the sea
marks closed, but they were a frail reed
for much dependence.
For such work q leadsman is an alb
solute necessity, and on board the Port
Edes a leadSman was an absolute i'm
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
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
broke away with gathering jars and
let her through to deeper water be-
yond, n once he ran upon a tail Of
mite 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 n slid clear.
The skipper In the stokehold below
waXed blaSphcmous at the man who
had got the shore on board" but he
did not cease shOVeiing Goals. Neither
aid 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.
SO the Port Edes drew up his mar
row unknown sea river through the
shadows which fill that blight of the
southwest F~loTiGian coast, n the tired
nan who was governing her steered
every EoCr with stronger confidence
and duller consciousness. Now he held
on TO wat was apparently an un-
broken line OF sane, where, If the
>teaMGr stack, she would be a stove in
wreck within the hour, but as she
closed with II a passage opened out
WAlCh took her through in clear water,
although the yCasty sulGCs of the back
wash would leap like live things far up
her ides and scream and below
through the scuppgrs. Now he lodged,
with aelnl hard starDoard one minute,
hard 20 the port the next, among an
archipelago OF unnamed keys, where
the FIRST E.anGrCVG trces were getting 70
work at building these outlying scraps
or animal tone into part or the North
American continent.
Beyond was a broad, smooth lagoon
shinlu!vriug in the sunlight, dancing
with little silver waves, and beyond
again was q 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
wG,s blotted out by the rank luxuriance
OF the subtroplcal flora.
The Steamer held on her course
athwart his placid sea lake, aiming
straight as q rifle shot for what APP
pcared to be the Gensest part OF the
forest. But as n feared an overlap
ping cape gradually distinguished itself
from the rest or the greenGry, and d.
rectly afterward banks of milky sand
sprarg out, with u 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
Goa 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 make 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
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 baSking places behind the saw
! grass, anu the Teek from nSr smoke
stacks scared the silt legged water
fowl afish in the shadows. She coasted
round a 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
ragged cabbage palms spouting
out from above n then she swung
again where the river forked and
steamed down a straight. answering
water lane which led to the very heart
Of the Everglades.
But the pace was slowing now, slow
ing indeed till the steamer would hard
ly steer against the current, which ever
and anon gripped her by the head OF
the tail and carried her with sullen
sheerings lead onto cluster
or tree clad bluff, and the reaso was
that the head of steam was failing.
Captain Owen Kettle, like more Chris
tian men hav done before, ignored his
own previous preachings when the APP
plication came in and proved only hu-
man soon after he had taken up the
role OF fireman Driven half lunatic by
the heat of the work. he kept dipping
his lips In the water bucket and drink
Ing heavy drafts. AS a consequence
that unpoetical complaint-cramp In
| the stomach-overtook him Mt last and