The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-03-24
CHAPTER XVI
Shayne's Hold.

crew, and a captain sullenIy si-
lent, the Virginia Jared north
along the Hudson with her cargo
OF dreams and fears. Theodore,
at the tiller, between glances at
the compass and the chart,
watched the silver ribbon of the
river broadening into the placid
lake of Tappan Zee, contracting
to thread between Peekskill and
West Point, and lost altogether in
sheet of rain that roared down
across Poughkeepsie.
Il never supposed" remarked
Craighead, as they passed far east
of West Point to escape the thun-
derstorm, that I'd ever be able
to look so scornfully down on this
cradle of our nations heroism and
flubdub, which lost its chiefest
jewel when it expelled me. Proud
nest of warriors with indrawn
stomachs, scorn We! If l knew
where we were, within a league or
SO, I'd shake off the dust of my
feet against We. l laugh IN your
upturned face--ha hal"
Carson was still silent, as he
avoided the local shower that
drenched the decks of the night
boats, gained its rear, crossed the
Hudson in slow drizzle at King
ston and stood northwest toward
heavy dense masses of towering
clouds, vivid with incessant
| lightning, screening the high
peaks of the Catskills-and
Shayne's Hold.
I'm distinctly for this trip
now!" cried Craighead: Talk
about excitement! Why, when
before did man that is born of
woman make a night flight into
the whittier, lodging thunder
storms by the way? What is more
elevating than to cast contempt
into the teeth of the elements by
dancing up into the very front of
cloud-burst, and getting away
by superior foot-work? The wa
terry kingdom-why it's modest
and retiring compared with us!
The armies of the tempest encamp
against us, they compass us about,
they vaunt their strength even as
gladiator, they speak in thun-
der across the leagues, saying. Let
the left wing advance yonder, and
the right wing hold the hills,
while the center rhshes in with
the trampling charge of it's wind
and downpour-ard we shall get
these mortals, good and plenty!'|
And then we outflank them on the
east and give them the contume-
lious ha-ha, and hang on their
rear threatening their communica-
tons with Medicine Hat and KAN
loops, by James! And If they do
surround us, we'll rise into the in
ane-as has frequently been my
habit anyhow-and We'll soar
over the topmost domes of their
encampment of destruction and
dampness and statical electricity,
and We'll drop down outside the
lines-dry within and without.
This is sport for king or a hippo
griff. On. on, say /, and yet
again, on"
That's all right as pure fancy"
replied Carson, but if we ever get
hemmed in among these storms,
We'll not get out by going over
them"
"Why not?" asked Craighead.
'I'll not hear that there are lin
its to the achievements of this
flying exclamatlon-point, for the
prospect upon which l am mental
ly engaged must speak of the
pleasures of tornado-baiting, and
the following of the spoor of the
typhoon and the sirocco. Why not
hurdle the tempest. caitiff?"
"Those highest towers" replied
Carson, pointing to the thunder
heads now again snowy in the
moonlight, "are thirty, forty. fifty
thousand feet high"
well, what do we care?" pro-
tested Craighead. 81 wouldn't
hurt any more to fall that far
than from where we are. Come,
better logic. sirrah:'
"The upper strata" said Carson,
"are snow and ice and frost"
Better to feel a FROST" said
Craihead, than to be one, Sir
Dagonet. Come, thou'rt IN
horsed!"
And the atmosphere up there"
went on Carson, sis too rare for
the Virginia's foothold; or for
breath. Before we got above
those domes, the engines would
be put to it to keep her at a
standstill."
Then, sir" said Craighead,
you have enlisted the great, safe,
sane and conservative Craighead
in a wildcat promotion of a ma
chine in which, in surrounding an
ordinarythunder-head, we shall be
successfully stalled, frozen to
death, and suffocated! Am 1
right, Colonel Carson?"
Carson was questioning the alti-
meter-statoscope as to whether or
not their altitude would carry
them over the peaks which must
now be fast rising beneath them.
Far to the north glowed the lights