The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1912-03-21

the wide. shadowy reaches OF the riv.
er. But the mystical distances con-
fused and eluded him. The launch
seemed to move, painting, In an abyss
Of night. She made little noise:
hiss Of water beneath her stem; the
steady humming Of the motor, throt-
tied down to half speed; the muffied
gasping Of the exhaust. And present.
ly even these ceased at word from
Couch, and the launch moved only
with the tide.
Abruptly a towering wall Of Opaque
starboard. O'Rourke braced himself
for the imminent instant of action,
poised so lightly upon his tees and
dngextips that a swell from moving
vessel would have thrown him on
his balance. perhaps overheard. The
launch closed swiftly and silently in
upon the black wall; it lowered over
him ike cliff far above he could
see dim divisions between black and
black that must be the rail And he
shook his head, dismayed; he could
never scale that, he thought; not even
the O'Rourke could accomplish a mir
acle But in a breath II had faded
back, and he realized that the tower
Ing poop of the junk had misled him.
They were now alongside at the waist.
He stood up and saw low railing
moving and caught it over the edge OF
the rail, drew the launch in let go the
boathook and, with the headwarp
wrapped about his hand. jumped
blindly.
Something dealt him vicious, all
but paralysing, blow in the pit Of the
stomach; he doubled up, for a mo-
ment helpless, across the junks rail,
but retained sufficient presence Of
mind to hold on to the headwarp.
Then, recovering a trifle, he squirmed
over and fell sprawling upon the deck,
his heels drumming an abrupt and
violent alarm. From somewhere he
heard a shrill jabbering arise. with an
ensuing patter Of bare feet. Swiftly
he got upon his knees and drew In the
headwarp, with his free hand search
ing along the rail for a cleat. Some
thing thumped heavily on the deck be-
side him. and grunted; and something
else followed with a second bump
and the launch swung outward and,
caught by the current, jerked the
headwarp from his grasp. May the
luck of the O'Rourke still hold" he
prayed fervently, getting upon his feet
to realize that, with Couch and the
man Wheeler, he was imprisoned
aboard the junk, doomed there to re.
main whatever might befall, until
the coming Of the second launch
or perhaps for longer time.
AS he rose some indistinct body ran
into him and cannoned off with an un
couth yelp; with no time to draw his
revolvers, the adventurer struck out
| with bare hand and had the salts
faction OF finding a goal for his blow
of landing heavily on bare flesh and
Of hearing the dull sound OF q fall
upon the deck.
Synchronously lights were flashing
out for and aft. A revolver spat ven
omously beside him. Somewhere g
man screamed and fell, whimperine
horribly. The revolver expoded sec
ond time. There we're confused
noises, as of furious struggle, rough
and tumble, and he suspected that one
or another of his companions haC
been tackled bodily by one OF the
lunk's crew. On his own part he
caught a glimpse of shadow moving
ghostlike against one of the lights
and promptly exercised 1t with shot
BY this time the vessel seemed Il
be caught in the grip of pandemon
lum; shouts and shots We'd witt
screams, groans, confused PADDING
footsteps, to make the moment one O
q nightmare. The boarding party utoo,