The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-17

trailing water like a spaniel, he hur- riedly closed the cover, stamping it into place with his feet. Then with
 unSpeakable relief he went to the door, listened, opened it few inches and peeped cautiously into the pas
 sageway.
 He looked straight into Chris eyes. She signaled him to hurry across He did 50 at a bound, closing the cabin door behind him, putting his back to it like hunted man.
 Get me some dry clothes quiek,'' he panted- ''The schooner's done for I've put a hole in her you could shove your two fists through
 The leak was not reported till sup per time, when Krantz broke in on the party like a whirlwind. The up- roar that ensued was as welcome to him as it was dismaying to the gal vanfzed mate and to the pailid, stutter- ing Schwartz. Brandeis was on deck in a moment, bawIing orders in a voice like bull; Sehwart behind him, as white as a corpse; Krantz next Shis whiskers flying and. his heavy tread resounding as he stumbled forward to call all hands. .s
 Sts were working the handspikes of : the, pump, which was hoarsely> flooding. the scuppers. The canvas covers had been cut from the whale boat, and beside it, in little heap, the Japs, Yonida and Fusi, were stacking provisions and with a tin saucepan were filling a pair of breakers from the water butt. The main hatch was open, gaping to the sky, and within it's depths could be heard wicked, gurgling- sound, swish ing to and fro with the roll of the ship. At the break of the poop, and show; ing that Brandeis had at last discover ed the source of danger, was the mate h1mself, vociferously directing the eff forts to draw 8 trysail over the leak and up to the opposite side.
 A believing command brought Matt to the task. and a second later he was striving with the rest and as energetic ally busy to accomplish the impossible, for he knew the hole was too near the keelson to be likely to suck-he had cut it there for that very reason-but he worked with a will nevertheless, glad to elude suspicion by an appear ance of zeal and gladder still at the murmurs about him, which, although in German, plainly implied hopeless ness and failure. :
 Brandeis' repeated examinations of the hold, from which he emerged like a drowned rat, appeared to show, that the water was gaining on them, though Matt was not half as sure that the confounded trysaiI was not check ing the leak to some degree.
 Matt snatched an opportunity to tell Chris to keep sharp watch on the pinnacle compass. The Esmeralda's course was W. S. w., and he asked her to warn him in case it were a1- tered by even point, To have it altered was his one consuming desire. for it meant the. continuation of his plan and the shortening of those dreaded hours in the whaler. Were the schooner laid for the. nearest land she might be kept af1oat to reach, it, sparing them an ordeal Matt had expe- rienced before. s'
 Half sinking as the boat was. Bran 1eis kept her at it, with no Weakening of his resolve to drown her under rath- CT than turn aside.
 At midnight, after another stormy aItercation between the two, Schwartz seemed to win a grudging consent to get the wireless into operation A slender pointed steel pole was run aIoft. Herman installed his apparatus at the foot of the foremast and, with no pretensions of secrecy and as ob- livious of Matt as he was of the rest of the crew. calmly harnessed himself to the wires.
 There was no change in the Esmer- a1da's course. Thus the night passed, and by morning it was plain the ship was doomed. She was submerged to -S1H-- undecided movement as she sank i1f the trough of the sea- The men look ed at one another, wondering each time if she would ever rise again, or simply founder then and there and go down like a stone.
 The acquiescence of the crew filled Matt with amazement and a bitter, I mounting anger. He tried to instill into them something of his own fury; point ed and made signs at the boat; urged them to mutiny, to get away before i the ship sank under them. But they l listened unmoved, though not without l 6 strained hungry expression Life is sweet, and there 1t was towing a hun 1 dred feet behind them, while Brandeis | with no weapon but his strident voice i held them to coffin:
 By g. o'clock land was sighted on l the port bow, but it caused no relaxa- ton of the killing routine, nor any change in the ships course. Matt | watched it with an exasperation not to i be described. Over there was safety; l over there, not fifteen miles away, was the end of all their troubles-white | beaches, palms, people, law, security. | Yet they must stick like flies on a 1 sieve at the behest of that internal Brandeis.
 But no one paid any attention to him, 1 though if he had fallen behind or