Evening star., 1912-07-21

Head. And no sign of revenue cutters
smoke! The dot melted, and a low bluff
showed down shore. Behind that distant sand
dune Law Ships Bottom Life Saving Station,
on the hther side of the inlet he was aiming
for, mere swordcut through the sandy
brcakwater into Barnegat Bay. Already he
saw, or sensed the foam floating over the sub
merged reef of Ships Bottom, the dangerous
Gridiron Rocks that the station guarded.
On the racing schooner an ominous silence
lay, the skipper alert black as the following
thunderheads, the swart faced crew watching
evilly, Welsh grimlv smiling at the wheel.
In the seaward turmoil the red moon bal
anced like an Edam cheese slashed with SCOT.
Shoreward the creaming surf was cut by
hurrying streak, the inlet to Barnegat Bay.
On the adjacent sandhill big man lay
sprawled out, with night glasses. Down shore
other men clustered round a big white boat.
"She's the hooker, an it's Welshy. |
knowed he'd break for u.s., a big voice
doomed down. "She amt saw the gunboat
yet. We got to jump her quick, afore they
stretch him"
Little Welsh could not see them; but he
knew that Big Jem Casco and the crew of
Ships Bottom were laying for him at the inlet.
And he knew why they were not off shore.
The scene was set! And he was the star actor!
Anxiously jockeying, luffing the schooner,
and racing her out of the smother, killing
time with a seaman's science, praying like
another General for dark, with the black
browed master watching and the crew crawl
ing aft, the schooner bowled down upon the
long line of white footlights. Dead ahead
the channel boiled, between the beach and
Gridiron Reef; booming its minute gun now
in warming. For hundred yards those
sunken rocks barred the inlet either way. 1t
was now or never! Lose all or gain all!
CHE blongs to the Gov'ment- us!
~ III stick to her till Little Welsh
gripped the wheel, gritting his teeth.
A cry and startled form leaping on the
hatch seemed the signal for a rush of action.
"'rhe gunboat!'
"I knowed it! l knowed the Rev'noos
was out, wen Ships Bottom wasn't waitin'.'
Welshs wall capped the shippers cry, rising
high over the gale. He saw over the star
board quarter black shape bounding them
from the sea, swinging with fiery eyes for the
channel. A light flashed up and down, set
Ting on the scared faces.
Il knowed they'd guess it! The whole
noos gets aboard first, our goose is cooked!
There's Cap Casco-crazy luny.'
A snarling squal outsped the storm, illu-
minating a huge form dancing on the sands,
barking him in. He glimpsed the lifeboat
and tumbling men, and the coastguard
station with its barred f1ag-1All ready to
take charge-in the name o the Gov 'ment~
Savagely he flung over the wheel, reckless
of the Schooners mastS and his own peril.
But the match was set tc the gunpowder, =
the red murk shriven of drapery that hid the
ambush. Over the windward rail the Grid
iron doomed requiem. Welsh struggled
for the inlet.
"You have tr-tricked us. l will pay you,
whatever comes! Betrayed!'
HE had forgotten the schooner master.
- For space the whole after deck seemed
to rise up and snite him, fighting, cursing
men bearing him down. Breathless and
blinded, he was flung from the wheel, sharp