Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1909-07-22
CHAPTER XVI.

"A VI.
EANING against the combing, feet
braced upon the slippery and
treacherous deck, Kirkwood chung |
IL to tiller and mainsheet and peer
ed ahead with anxious eyes. a quicker
Of daring craven deep between bis
brOws.
A mile to westward. three or more
ahead. he could see the brigantine
standing close in under the Essex
shore At times she was invisible.
Again he could catch merely the CLINT
Of her canvas. white against the dark
gloom Of the littoral. toned by mist
Of flying spindrift. He strained his
eyes. watching for the chance which
would take place in the rake Of her
masts and sails when she should come
shout
For the longer that maneuver was
deferred the better was his chance of
attaining his object 1t was for
lorn hope. But in time the brigan-
tine, to escape Maplin sands. would
be forced to tack and stand out past
the lightship, the wind off her port
bows. linen their courses would in
tersect 1t remained to be demon
strated whether the catboat was
speedy enough to arrive at this point
Of contact In advance of or stimuli
taneously with the larger vessel.
He watched the catboat anxiously,
quick to approve her merits as she
displayed them. He had sailed small
craft before-frail centerboard cat
boats, handy and swift, built to serve
in summer winds and protected wa
tiers. never such one as this. Yet he
liked her.
Offshore, too the wind stormed with
added strength or possibly had fresh
ened. For minutes on end the lee
ward gunwales would run green. and
now and again the screaming, pelting
squalls that secured the estuary
would heel her over until the water
cascaded in over the lee combing. and
the rudder, lifted clear, would hang
idle until. smitten by some racing bill
low, the tiller would be all but torn
from Kirkwood's hands. Again and
again this happened. and those were
times of trembling. But always the
catboat righted. shaking the clinging
waters from her and swinging her
stem into the wind again. and there
would follow an abbreviated breath
ing spell, during which Kirkwood was
at liberty to dash the salt spray from
his eyes and search the wind harried
waste for the brigantine. Sometimes
he found her. sometimes not.
Long after he had expected her to
she went about, and they began to
close in upon each other. He could
see that even with shortened canvas
she was staggering drunkenly under
the fierce impacts Of the wind. For
himself, 1t was nip and tuck now, and
no man in his normal sense would
have rtsked a sixpence on the boats
chance to live until she crossed the
brfgantine's bows.
Time out of reckoning he was forced
to kneel In the swimming cockpit,
steering with one hand. using the bail
ing dish with the other and keeping
his eyes religiously turned to the belly
Ing patch Of sail. 1t was heartbreak-
ing toll. He began reluctantly to con-
cede that 1t could not last much longer.
And II he missed the brigantine he
would be lost
Long since he had become numb
with cold from incessant drenchings
Of icy spray that piled In over the
windward counter, keeping the bottom
ankle deep regardless of his laborious
but intermittent efforts with the bail.
ing dish. And the two, brigantine and
cockleshell, were drawing together
with appalling elaboration.
But that his voice stuck in his
parched throat he could have shouted
In his elation when eventually he
gained the point OF intersection al
eighth of mile ahead Of the brigan
tine and got sight Of her windward
freeboard as most slowly the catboa,
forged across her course.
For all that, the moment of his nc
tual triumph was not yet He had still
to carry OF successfully a scheme tina,
for sheer audacity Of conception and
contempt for danger transcribed nj