Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1909-08-31
CHAPTER XVI.

r EANING against the combing. fee
braced upon the slippery ant
treacherousd deck. Kirkwood chung
-s-A to ti!ler and mainsheet and peer
ed ahead with anxious eyes, a quicker
of daring craven deep between his
brows
mile to westward. three or more
ahead, he could see the brigantint
standing close in under the Esse,
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
about
For the longer that mancilver was
deferred the better was his chance Of
attaining his object. 1t was a for
orn 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 ut this point
of contact in advance of or stimuli
faneously 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
ters. never such one as this. Yet he
liked her.
Otfshore. 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 tnat 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 clnging
waters from her and swinging her
stem into the wind again, and there
would follow an abbreviated breath
Ing SPELL during which Kirkwood was
ut 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. it was nip and tuck now, and
no man in his normal sense would
have risked a siXpence on the boats
chance to live until she crossed the
brigantine's bows.
Time out of reckoning he was forced
to llneel in the swimming cockpit,
steering with one hand using the bail
Ing dish with the other and keeping
his eyes rcligiously turned to the belly
Ing patch of sail. II was heartbreak-
ing toll. He began reluctantly to con-
cede that it could not last much longer.
would be lost.
Long since he had become numb
with cold from incessant drenchngs
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
coclleshell, were drawing together
with appalling dcliberation.
II But that his voice stuck in his
tparched throat lie could have shouted
in his elation when eventually he
gained the point of intersection an
4 eighth of mile ahead of the brigan-
tine and got sight of her windward
4 freeboard as most slowly the catboat
forged across her course.
For all that, the moment Of his ac-
tual triumph was not yet. He had still
to carry off successfully a scheme that
for sheer audacity of conception and
4 contempt fer danger transcribed all
that had gone before.
Holding the catboat on for Il time
he brought her about handsomely a
little way beyond the brigantine's
i course and hung in the eye of the
wind, the leach tapping and tighten
Ing with reports like rifle shots and
the water sloshing about his calves
bailng dish now altogether out of
mind-while he watched the oncoming
vessel his eyes rlisfnpiou with ,p+;o;
patton.
She was footing it smartly. the brig
antine, lying down to it and snoring
into the wind. Beneath her stem
waves broke in snow white showers.
whittier than the canvas of her bulging
4 jib-broke and. snashing their teeth in
impotent fury. swirlcd and eddicd
down her sleek dark TANKS. Bobbing.
courtesying, she plunged onward.
shortening the interval with mighty,
leaping bounds. On her bows with
each instant the golden letters of her
name grew larger and more legible
until-Alethca- could read it plain
beyond dispute.
4 JOY wellcd in his heart He forgot
all that he had undergone in the pros
i pect of what lie proposed still to do in
the name of the only woman the world
held for him. J'nquestioning he had
come thus far in her service; unqucs-
tioning, by her side, he was prepared
TO go still further. though all human
ity should single her out with accus-
ing fingers.