Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-04-10

ward that baking temperature on
which the edge Of the Sahara rests
10 much of its evil reputation.
The battle had been fought in
valley Of the dunes, and the van.
quished tribesmen had scattered
away In the direction Of their VII
lageA north, east, and south. To
the west, over low line of hum.
mocks lay the lagoon.
Shall we find the Wangaroo still
there" wondered the kaid
Don't know" said Sir George.
These gentry may have captured
her, or at least driven her away to
sea-"
She'll be there and untaken," said
Captain Kettle shortly. 'T left Nc.
Todd In charge, sir, and though he
may have failings, and be argumen-
tative when he's near drink, when
1t comes to looking after the interest
of the owner who pays him, Mr..
McTodd is as efficient az the king
of England"
But in spite of these confident
words, anxiety presently crept into
Captain Kettles eyes. I'VE should
have raised her. mast trucks before
this above those sand-hills," he told
himself. And presently, when he
could hold in his patience no longer,
he clapped the sharp heels of his
stirrup-irons into the ribs of the
black stallion, and galloped to the
crest The lagoon lay clear before
him, with the spouting reefs and is
let's at it's farther side. The an
chorage was deserted.
"My great james," muttered Cap
tain Kettle, where's my ship, and
what do l do next?"
But even as he stood there, a stiff
little mounted figure standing out
clearly against the farther dunes, he
had been seen by some sharp OBJ
server, and after preliminary
huskiness, the deep boom of the
Wangaroo's enormous siren hummed
through the air, away on his left
hand.
He turned sharply. Yes, there she
was, the little beauty, down at the
other end of the lagoon. close, in
fact, to the Norman Towers. But in
the name of wonder what was this?
Foam bubbled from her tail and lay
round her in hoary ring. Her en-
gines were running, and yet she did
not appear to move. Aground? No
chance of it. He had sounded every
bit of the lagoon at that end. and
was prepared to swear before
Board of Trade inquiry that she had
at that very moment ten fathoms
of water under her bottom.
He forced the black horse down
the slope, and then galloped south
along the hard beach, waving the
others to follow him.
Half a mile farther on, when he
had got the steamboats, clear of one
another, he saw the Wangaroo did
not move ahead. She was tethered
by a heavy wire hawser. The other
end of the wire, which was as teut
as an iron bar, led in through one
of the Norman Towers hawse-pipes.
It was obvious she was trying to
tow. 1t was equally obvious she
could not do it, and Captain Kettle
cursed Mr. Neil Angus McTodd, un-
qualified second engineer and acting
captain of the Wangaroo, with mari
time point and fluency.
"McTodds polished his old coffee
mill of an engine till he thinks
there's no limit to her power" Ket-
~ III
ing to pull steamboat full of dead
weight, and anyway six times our
size, through what practically amounts
to dock wall"
A moment later he pulled up
sharply and took quick cross-bear-
ing of the Norman Towers foremast
against a cleft of the chocolate-col-
ored rock behind "By the living
James," he cried, hes budged her,
She's moving ahead"
The Berber kaid pulled up along
side him. 81 thought you and Nc
Todd decided that the local raga-
mullins had built that ship up inside
a coffer-dam that weighed about
million tons of solid stone?"
81 saw the stone myself" said
Kettle shortly, and looked at his
watch. Its bang on the top of a
high water this minute, and now
they've got a move on her she's
coming off like bar pulled through
a keg of tallow. Look at those links
of cable, hopping in through her
port hawse-pipe. Macs laid out an
anchor ahead, and he's heaving on
that as we'll as with the old girls
own steam on her own windlass
You can see the leak of it now
through the escape. Great James!
way can't / find a boat?"
But the engineer in charge of the
salvage operations was not the man
to break off just then for the mere
pleasure of being superseded by his
superior officer Mr.. McTodd stood
on the forecastle Of the Norman
Towers enjoying himself hugely.
He was wet through and dripped
brine as he stood; his overalls were
smeared with every variety of sea
IL. - ~