The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1913-06-19
OF the CHUTE
BY NATHANIEL DICKINSON.

IL was Win the OlttefncS8 OF gan
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 friendly race Of boats, but
to the captains it had meant infinitely
more.
Three miles below this landing was
the Chute and the locks through
which the steamers were lowered past
1t. To the one first landing at Blank
vile. then, 1t mean. first reaching the
city, a mile below, owing to the long
delay at the locks. At the city a 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 hun
dred-mile mark and some half dozen
landings to make, 1t had been touch
and 60; the Marcus Baldwin ahead
at one landing, the Queen Of the Riv.
er, 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 as his boat
crept by the other, while Banks had
eaten his soul out in sullen silence.
And now the race was as good as lost
to him-and the girl. Sc, at least, he
reasoned. with the Queen Of the River
as good as in the locks.
And he had given up hope as, her
freight aboard. the lines OF the Mar.
Gus Baldwin were cast off 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 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, it was possible,
yet the risk! A wrecked steamer,
lives lost, maybe! But when 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; a half hour
and she would be through them.
1f nnp,1pI t,+ 4
his growing resolve.
Wilson" he said quietly to the
pilot, Il will take tho wheel now; you
may go on bow"
With n siE-mile current hurryins
her on and her engines forcing her
through 1t at 1oknot clip, the Mar
Gus baldwin swept on. AS she ncared
he Chute, Parks could see that the
strong wind from the south had stir.
ed this into maclstrom of frothinc
waters. Yet, there was not time to
urn now, even if he had SO wished.
in past the lock slip swept the steam
n, For a moment it seemed she hest
ated on the brink of the yawning
mute, passengers shrinking from her
onward decks in horror, then she
lowed majcstically and plunged for ,
ward.
Before she had gone 100 yards she
heered herself halfway across the
listing horribly the while.
With the energy Of despair Banks
pun the wheel to meet her. Her I
low rose for the moment on a huge I
rested comber. and the rudder once
nore controlling, she shot back across .
he Chute, burying her stern to the l
over deck and sending the spray
lear over her. Again Banks met her Q
rratic fight, but to have her zig.zag '
ack across the storming current this
me, missing the white hill of
pray-drowned rock by the width of .
er sheer.
This could net last. Again she rose
'r the charge. In the flash of !
lance Banks saw the crowded decks II
the rival steamer in the last OF the II
'cks as she drove by. Down plunged
he bows OF his own boat again, at &
n angle which nearly preached her, &
70, and In which passengers, crew
I'd even captain thought her last mo-
ent had come In the shocking roar y