Bisbee daily review., 1907-10-05
THE

life line. stopping occasionally to duck below the rail to avoid the boarding seas. At last the man hauled himSelf up. It was Wills.
 ''Afr. White" he said. touching the rim of his cap coolly. If We don't get in that sail the mast will go"
 Tt may hold. Willis" the officer an swered. "Anyhow. It would be useless to send men aloft in such a gale"
 Some one must do it." said the sail or obstinately. "Send me"
 Tt can't be done I would simply be sending you to your death
 Suddenly both men duckel inyolun- tarily and crouched against the mast. A high, dark wall of water was ap- preaching the rail. It crashed upon the deck and swept over them. The vessel careened frightfully.
 Once more Willis touched the rim of his round cap. MT. White, it means forty four lives. If you won't send me-" he muttered, T am going any way"
 Struggling with the wind. he made his way to the weather shrouds and le- termlnedly hauled himself upward. He was blown like leaf against the rat lines. All hands watched him. yet In tinge of hope. They thought him half crazy to attempt such T thing. Sup pose he passed the foretop In safety and reached the topgallant yard-he would instantly be blown into the sea When he was not completely hidden by clouds of salt spray 1t could be seen that Willis was slowly and persistent ly crawling aloft. paying no more at tention to the fearful lunging and leap ing of the Tigress than to the shadowy abyss of boiling foams below him. He mounted the shrouds of the tOpgallant mast and after clinging there for q few minutes wormed his way along the spar until he reached the weather caring and then laid hold of the dan gerous sail.
 The wind shrieked and howled. It seemed an impossibility for the man to keep his place on the foot ropes of the yeering yard, and 1t seemed in- credible that he should be able to do anything with the boardlike. frozen canvas, which constantly bounded out of his grasp and then leaped toward him in an attack that was terrible in its grotesqueness.
 Nevertheless his pluck, wariness and
 great strength served him well. Keep
 ing clear of the waste of sail which
 blew of to leeward, he managed to | furl the canvas inch by inch. An hour-two hours-passed. Finally he reached the mast. Should he now venture out to the end of the spar on
 the other side he could never escape, so felt the watchers anxiously, with
 one thought. They shouted to him to come down. Willis, however, did not
 answer them. He rested for perhaps | a quarter of an hour and then attacked | the canvas once more, furling from the
 mast to the outboard, thus keeping safely to windward of the Tapping belly of the sail
 After five mortal hoL~s Willis low cred himself to the deck. Exhausted
 as he was, so that he could scarcely stand. he made his way aft and re l ported to the lieutenant with the | formality of an old man-of- wars man
 All secured aloft, sir" Then. ignor | ing the cheers of the crew, he went tC | his bunk in the fOrecastle. The storm had not yet done its
 worst. But the Tigress rode it out in | safety. Her engines were repaired
 and, word having been received that 1 the lost members of the Polaris ex peditien had been picked up by . whaler, the vessel proceeded to the | States. There one of the first official
 acts of her commander was to write l to the secretary of the navy an ac count of Willis heroic action. AS q result Willis was made a boat
 swain in the navy and received besides
 q cash present the medal of honol l awarded for unusual and uncalled fol
 daring and devotion to duty-Carl Ho
 vey in New York Tribune.