Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-27

Continued from page s

halt out the water. Signalling gllllS f1uttered
all around and above him, and dead ones
clogged the dead aeroplane. But the sea
seemed suddenly stilled; ghostly column
rose from below, blocking the full force of
the wind. Another ghostly yellow mate
lowered a few yards away.
Slowly the meaning of those twin yellow
tunnels dawned upon him, bringing with 1t
a superstitious thrill of terror and amaze
ment. "The transports stackS!' he mOaned
Il struck the gulls lowering over it, and they
smashed me down on the Manila tunnels!
Cod"
For a moment his brain whirled: his nerve
came slowly back to him. He stared at the
spectral tunnels, the submerged superstruc-
ture of the ship. What SO wonderful about
it, after all? He was making Decline sea-
ward over the Gridiron when he first sighted
the swamped steamer-he was headed in the
same direction when he forgathered with
her again in the darkness closer in. The
guls and the dead motor had done the
rest.
But if his first situation was bad, this one
was worse A low, droning sound of many
voices made him look back with startled
eyes. A gunshot away lights f1lckered, and
the splash of high-hung waters. "The wreck
on the Gridiron!" He made out men going
a1oft on the spar, and the rattle of pulley
blocks,-the breeches buoy set up and
working thank God for that!
Crossing over the ship, he had not flown
so far, after all? Or was the swamped trans
port that held him afloat washing in? He
remembered that Welsh had spoken of the
strong ocean current that caught derel1cts
and flung them on the Gridiron. He must
be in the grip of it now. The lights and the
shouting grew palmer and plainer-and the
red eye to seward grew, glazing at him.
What was that man shouting back on the
beach, just before he took off? Something
about the Katahdin. Wiring to the Katy
to come help?" He had not needed then;
but now he remembered, and in flash the
whole thing was clear to him.
"That wireless man called up the ram at
sea, that's what! And she's coming back.
That's her!" he said, ungrammatical, but
grinly earnest. and this lurking murderer
here is making for that stranded ship, after
smashing her once at sea! There's ship muir
der for you!"
Welsh said that the deep sea current
would drag ships in from a mile out and
smash 'em on the Giants Fingers He knew
that now. The gap was closing terribly fast
between the wallowing transport and the
stranded liner. And the katahdin was
snoring in, making straight for him, almost
on him. His brain whirled as he realized the
trap he was in. Billy Handy and his profit
sharing plot were forgotten fantasy. His
life not wealth, was at stake now. AS the
Ancient saw his lifetime in the emptying of
a carafe, SO Ford saw his death picture in the
twinkling of an eyelash. If he hailed the
ram, she would sheer off, certainly long
enough to let the juggernaut Manila crash
in on the stranded ship, to grind her to
matchwood against the rocks. The life
savers had not yet got all the crew off If
he remained silent, death was on him! He
stood no chance, by boat or buoy; but the
liners crew were safe from this drifting hor-
ror. One life staked against many-the law
of the beach!
FORD had not risked death in the teeth
of the gale to defy that law now. De-
family staring, he saw the ram looming over
him, and he crouched low, waiting. The
rams knifelke PROV slithered through the
sea and struck squarely between her two
yellow stacks, dividing the hulk like cutting
a piece of cheese. They melted away, one
to the right, the other to the left. The ram
surged on.
"That's done, and I'm done-what mat
ter? | lost those folks once; but I saved