The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1913-07-16
RUNNING OF THE CHUTE
By NATHANIEL DICKINSON.

nUVVlV0 Ut HE VHUI6
BY NATHANIEL DICKINSON.
It was with the bitterness Of gall
that her captain swung the Marcus
Baldwin into the wharves of Blank
City. Disappearing around the bend
below were the twin stacks Of the
Queen Of the River. Yes, the Marcus
Baldwin had been fairly beaten To
the passengers and crew this had
been but q friendly race Of boats, but
to the captains 1t had meant infinitely
more.
Three miles below this landing was
the Chute and tho locks through
which the steamers were lowered past
t.. To the one first landing at Blank
vile, then, It meant first reaching the
city, q mile below, owing to the long
delay at the locks. At the city q Ger.
tain young lady had said to these
two young captains but week before
that he who first arrived on the re-
turn trip could marry her.
Upstream there had been no race at
all, for the boats. being passenger
carriers, wer, booked to arrive and
leave on schedule days. So Of the
down trip until that last day. Then,
with their destination within the hum
dred-mile mark and some half dozen
landings to make, It had been touch
and 60; the Marcus Baldwin ahead
at one landing. the Queen Of the Riv.
or, by some turn of the wheel. at the
next Then had come that last long
stretch Of some 20 miles. when the
Marcus Baldwin. ahead at the last
landing. had been overtaken at the
crucial point BY her rival and the
dark featured De Witte had almost
danced in his exultation ~ his boat
crept by the other, while Banks had
eaten his soul out In sullen silence.
And now the race was a. good as lost
to him-and the girl. So, at least, he
reasoned, with the Queen Of the River
as good ~ In the locks.
And he had given up hope as, her
freight aboard, the lines Of the Mar
Gus Baldwin were cast OF and she
gathered way out into the stream
Yet, the very fact that she was again
in motion famed the dying spark.
Was there no hope? Had he left no
stone unturned? The Queen of the
Rivers engines might break down!
What II. her engines disabled. the
freshet current in the river should
carry her through the Chute? Yet.
boats had gone through that safely.
And with this thought Captain
Banks grew Of q sudden quite dizzy.
for what had been done might be done
again, he reasoned. Ordinarily good
ten feet of water ran in the Chute.
With the river at its present height
he could fairly count on finding Is.
For a width of 100 feet the Chute was
clear of rocks, and the water ran in
great oily seas. Yes, 1t was possible.
yet the risk! A wrecked steamer,
lives lost, maybe! But when a man
loves as Banks did he throws cost to
the wind
A quarter Of an hour later the Mar
Gus Baldwin rounded the bend above
the Chute. Below her lay the locks.
Half way through these. Banks saw
the tall stacks and upper structure Of
the Queen Of the River; q half hour
and she would be through them.
It needed but this TO steady him In
his growing resolve.
Wilson" he said quietly to the
pilot, II will take the wheel now; you
may 90 on bow"
With q six-mils current hurryins
her on and her engines forcing her
through 1t 1t q 12-knot clip. the Mar
Gus Baldwin swept on. As she neared
the Chute. Banks could see that the
strong wind from the south had stir
red this into q maelstrom of frothiAl
waters. Yet. there was not time Il
turn now. even II he had 30 wished
On past the lock slip swept the steam
er. For q moment 1t seemed she hest
tated on the brink Of the yawninl
Chute. passengers shrinking from hel
forward decks in horror. then che
bowed majestically and plunged for
ward.
Before she had gone 100 yards Oh,
sheered herself halfway across III,
channel. listing horribly the while
With the energy Of despair Bank
spun the wheel to meet her. He
bow rose for the moment on q hug,
crested comber, and the rudder ono,
more controlling. she shot back across
the Chute. burying her stern to tn
lower deck and sending the spra!
clear over her. Again Banks met he
erratic fight. but to have her zig-za,
back across the storming current thi
time. missing the white hill Of
spray-drowned rock by the width Q
her sheer.
This could not last. Again she ros
for the charge. In the fash Of
glance Banks saw the crowded deck
Of the rival steamer In the last Of tn
locks - she drove BY. Down plunge
the bows Of his own boat again. q
an angle which nearly preached hel
too. and in which PASSENGER. ere,