The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-11-04
nent, and replied with absolute com

MA D0HAoyAOb AAoAS oVO~
things-whsn you can enforce them.
Consulates and admiralty are a long
way of. The intervening water Is
quite deep. II you don't like the Was
trel, leave it. I'm sorry I can't spare
you a boat to leave in."
Mansfield and myself went that
night in the miserable cabin which
we shared oppressed with the convic-
ton that the breaking-point was at
hand.
Mansfield had suddenly sloughed of
his boyishness and become unexpect-
eddy s~elf-contained, giving the i'm
preston Of capability. The prospect
of action had changed him. Once
more he began to quote his CHASTITY
verses. but now without shuddering,
almost cheerfully-
Twas a cutlas swipe or an ounce
of lead,
Or a yawning hole in a battered
head.
And the scuppers glut with a rot
ting red.
Then he remembered that some
times men survive strange adven-
lures, and he wrote a letter to the
girl in Sussex which he asked me to
deliver in the event that I and not he.
should prove such a survivor. I fas-
tened it with a pin into the pocket
of my pajamas-jacket.
For hours after we had turned into
our berths each of us knew that the
other was not sleeping. We heard the
crazy droning of the sick engine, the
wash of the quiet water, the straining
of the timbers. When sleep came to
me it was itful with a thousand
nightmare impossibilities.
l saw in my dreams the face of the
stale sea and sky translated into a
broad, human visage paralyzed and
smiling unendingly in that hideous
grin which clamps the tortured teeth
Of the lockjaw victim.
Then the monster of the dream
broke out of it's fixity, and, with a
shrek of hurricanes, aimed a terrific
blow at the Prov of the Wastrel. The
ship shivered, trembled, and COL
lapsed.
With a stifled gasp I woke.
Our sickly lantern was guttering In
a sooty stream of smoke. Young
Mansfield stood in the center of the
cabin, buckling his pistol-belt. Frou:
somewhere came a sound of rushing
water and a medley of shouts and
oaths and pistol shots. A dingy rat
scuttled wildly out from between my
feet and whisked away through the
crack under our bolted door.
While I stood there stupidity inact-
i've, hardly as yet untangling fact AM
dream, Mansfield handed me my belt
and revolver.
"Slip on your Shoes" he command
ed steadily. 1T has come"
We jerked open the door and CROPPED
along the alleyway in darkness, and,
as We guided our steps with hands
fumbling the walls, water washed our
ankles. The lights had gone out.
With one guiding hand on the wall
and one on Mansfeld's shoulder I
made my labored way toward the
deck ladder.
Without a word, and as of right,
the young Englishman O assumed
command of our affairs. We needed
no explanation to tell us that the pan
demonium which reigned above was
not merely the result of mutiny A
hundred patent things testified that
this stumbling tramp of the seas had
received a mortal hurt.
The stencil of bilge sickened us as
the heavy and fetid gases. The Shiny
| touch of millions of reaches racing up
ward from below attested that in
stinct was warning the vermin. The
walls themselves were aslant under a
dizzy %careening to starboard.
She must have steamed full front
onto a submerged reef and destruc-
ton. 1t was palpably no matter of an
opening seam. She had been torn
and ripped in her vitals. She was dy-
ing fast and in inanimate agony.
In the rickety engine some
thing had burst loose under the
strain. Now, as she sank and reeled,
there came a kissing of steam, a gasp
ing, coughing, hammering %convulsion
of pistons, rods, and driving shafts,
suddenly turned into a junk heap run
ming amuck.
It is questionable whether there
would have been time to lower away
boats had the most perfect discipline
and heroism prevailed. There was nc
discipline. There were no available
boats, except the two hanging from
the bridge davits; and about them, a.
we stumbled out onto the decks
ragged a fierce battle Of determination
as men who had relapsed to brutcs
fought for survival.
I have, since that night, often and
vainly attempted to go back over thai
holocaust and arrange its details II
my mind. I saw such ferocity anC
confusion, turning the deck into
1 shamh1es in an in~cOnceiVably ShOrI