Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-13

the rear of a ship chandler from which Bill
was carried, blind of both eyes, and a serconscous
condition. Mabel nursed him through, and hated Jack
with wifely and womanly hatred.
I'll never speak to him again. she declared hotly
she laved Bills eyes and applied pOultlces to the con-
tusons his face and chest.
"We17 said Bill, "suit yourself. I'll speak to him,
when the time comes The mans a coward, and the
whole port knows it. He has no business to command
a tug
"Ihen why does he?"
Saved his money and owns a half The fight started
about his last sneak work. He dared not go out and
catch the Jacob Folsom when she down last fall,
and with one short they couldn't round in the fore
sheet and fetch the piers; she went ashore And as
she wasn't insured that trip, the lost and the
skipper lost his job. He's sailing mate with old Elan
ders, and don't hope to get another command
But how did you get mixed up with 1t, Bill: 1t
wasn't your affair
at was my affair." Mabel At this port we depend
upon the tug: The big blows come out of the dead
Northwest. So we come down with the boom to star
board and we have be just outside and in the work
and confusion can't make after sail and slant in.
We haven't the time the All can do is to
pass the towlne and wait for the tug If the tug fails
us, drift 1ooard of the east pier and pile up.
That beach is filled with wrecks and the grave
yards with sailors and mates-drowned because OF the
cowardice of the tugmen.
"But why don't the tug employ competent
men, asked the wife.
"Wel7 answered Bill slowly, al guess it's like this:
Sailors who be sailors prefer to be There's
sort of pride you And sailor who can't be sailor
failure cowardstays ashore, if he has to have
in handling their tugs; but they wouldn't be tugmen If
they could be sailors. Sailors tugmen are half
But they fight, when their lives are not IN
danger, and they can sometimes hex man who takes
chances every day that they would not dare take
"Then, Bill, . said Mabel, "why don't you, and men
like you, get command OF tugs and do the work. and
save lives and vessels"
"Then who would do the work outside?7 answered
Bill with grim smile. "V'ho would these schoon-
grain COAL SALT and railroad iron. This work must be
DONE Mabel, and who can do it but sailors? Black
Jack and his kind could not"
Il see" she said "YOur life, and the lives OF men
like you depend upon the efforts OF men like Black Jack
You say that he has failed and that men have drowned
because of his cowardice hate him and despise him
| will not speak to him again, and I'll tell what |
think of him."
Leave that to me, Mabel answered Bill, with
grin IL can do it much better than you can"
Il wi1!S she said vehemently ~The miserable cow
ard I'll tell about him.
She did, and the terrible arraignment of coward,
reaching him through the intermediary # wonlanlv
gossip, Jack farther into the depths. Jack would
have risked his life for Mabels approval; but not for
Bills that of any living. Jack knew the rnita
tons of tugs, which Bill, and Others did not
so the season opened again. with the fight unrenewed,
- and the work of each keeping them busy,-Bill in
sailing his schooner up and down the lakes and Jack
doing tugwOrk catching vessels in the OF the per-
but going out into the seaway where steering
hard and the freroom in danger from seas breaking
INTO the engine room doors.
Then the fall of the year, when the schooners
rolled and tunbed in, under foresal and jib, to be
caught by the tug, to miss and go ashore. Black
Jack had his hands full. He was now manager of the
tug association which, with a view to economy had de-
creed that competition should cease, and that only the
tugs necessary the exigencies should keep up steam
and stand by for incoming craft.
Jacks big tug was the craft on duty. Jack looked
out the lake at about ten P. NJ. of this particular
night, and decided that in could tug help
schooner coming in. The air full of snow; the
northwest wind increasing; the SEAS coming down
from the expanse of Lake Ontario backed by the blast
the Canadian wastes filled with menace, and
horror, and death.