The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-03-16

unheard.
The great cloud shut down upon as
like a black hand, and We mnged
forward through dim. green dusk.
AS | turned toward Blake the giant
roller fed under us. For a moment
the little Ann scared upward. then
fell forward with a dizzying plunge
and buried herself in foam. She came
up like cork spouting at every port.
| scrambled to my feet. having been
thrown under the larboard bow, and
ran up the slippery deck. Blake.
with bleeding mouth. and a broken
leg dangling, was creeping toward the
stern. Bowman came leaping from
somewhere forward. shouting orders
right and left. He sprang over Blake
and up the steps TO the wheel and
spun 1t around until the spokes were
glimmering web.
Instantly the little vessel began to
go round.
As she wheeled on the port-tack
men Were hauling on clew-lines, nail
ing down matches, and forcing forward
a metal hood over the entrance to the
I engine room. Suddenly the vessel
again bounded skyward, hung CULVER
Ing an instant as if in mid-air, then
swept sidewise down steep OF water
into a clamorous gulf, and the brine
crashed over us.
| was hanging in brace OF stays,
but went headong with tie helpless
ness of an insect, yet caught some
thing, ! know not what and remained
As the ship lifted got up out of the
pounding wash. staggering, gasping.
Blake and three OF the sailors had
gone overheard; Hammond lay
doubled around the base of the after
mast; the forward tree lay across the
starboard's bow. The shock and roar
of the elements were deafenlng.
could see Bowman hanging In the
wheel, and leaped to save him; the
mate was somewhere back In the wal
low of the waves. At that moment
the sky opened like a binding fur
mace, and sea and ship and all things
loomed white. CHASTITY, awful. The
peal that followed seemed fit to split
the world In halves, With the next
breath my fingers were locked in the
wheel: we must bring her head to
the seas or go down.
She rose, twisting and rolling on the
after swell, and suddenly stood
righted. her head to the oncoming
seas. Blear. weltering, one mighty
ridge after another, they came upon
us. As We went up the hill of water
saw men chopping away the fallen
mast. They seemed far above us, The
deck was a litter of tangled gear,
heard Bowman's voice In my ear,
hoarse, blaring, but / could not under
stand him. Suddenly the ragged comb
of the giant heave plunged over the
soaring PROV and rolled down the
length of the ship, sweeping men and
wreckage with it to thrash them to-
gether at the stern. II boiled out over
Bowman and me, neck-deep.
Our feet went from under us, but
as the ship tilted across the spine of
the tremendous swell we came down
and stood firm. Without pause she
went swimming downward into AN
other roaring gorge. Through sec
ond or two We lay as Ii at the seas
bottom. ragged mountain of water
towering fore and aft. then the bows
of the Ann began to climb the foam
ing slope. AS we rose the heavens
poured out It's fire again, and ] saw as
through tears a wavering, CHASTITY tur-
MOL of objects: then all went black.
As with the very next heartbeat, all
was silvery flame again. and the crest
OF the boiling hill rolled over the
prov, crashed down the deck, and
buried us.
The time seemed long under that
stranglng surge, though the space
was but moment then the buoyant
boat rose out of the wash, all her
deck seething. | saw II an instant. in
the glare of the falling fire; Bowman
was gone; no man lived on deck.
hung in the ironwork by the wheel
gasping, dizzy.
Sealed below deck, the little en-
gines pounded away; the screws
clutched the sea, holding against the
sea, holding against the tempest, but
| had no strength with which to turn
the wheel Two lives were under
deck, and my own hung wavering, but
| was as one snatching at the broken
chains of a hundred fierce lions. The
ship turned sidewise, rolling on the
crest of a mountaln-swell. then again
went sweeping into the abyss. Again
| was under the pillows, and again the
vessel swung high on the swell twist
Ing and tossing like a burning worm.
In my ears was such a clamor as |
have never elsewhere heard. an APP
palling roar, pounding thunder OF
maddened waters.
Then the little Ann wheeled round
and struck across a reef and split
asunder.
In the white bath OF the lightning's
fare / saw her deck burst up as from
an explosion, and the next moment
the seas poured over me. Trampled,
buffeted and tossed, dreamed the
dream OF seeming death, ending in
oblivion. -f---a-- -.-r-e
When dawn broke / awoke on the
shore under a palm tree. A tangle OF
wet flowers Law across nv face. a bird