The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1915-03-04

your arms. You exert all your
puny strength to struggle to live.
Your hand it clutching my arm,
lightly; 1t feels as butterfly rest
ing there. Your chest is heaving.
your tongue protruding, your skin
turning dark, your eyes SWIM
ming. To live! To live! To live,'
you are crying; and you are cry
ing to live here and now, not
hereafter. You doubt your i'm
mortality, Ell? Ha! Ha! You
are not sure of 1t. You won
chance it. This life only you are
certain is real. All, it is growing
dark and darker. 1t is the dark
ness of death, the ceasing to be,
the ceasing to feel, the ceasing To
move, that is gathering about
you, descending Upon YOU, rising
around you. Your eyes are be-
coming set. They are glazing.
My voice sounds faint and far.
You cannot see my face. And
still you struggle In my grip.
You kick with your legs. Your
body draws itself up in knots like
snakes. Your chest heaves and
strains. TO live! To live. To
live"
heard no more. Conscious
ness was blotted out by the dark
ness he had SO graphically de-
scribed, and when | came to my
self | was lying OH the floor and
he was smoking cigar and re-
garding me thoughtfully with
that old familiar light of curl
osity in his eyes.
We'll, have / convinced your"
he demanded. Here, take a drink
of this. want to ask you some
questions.
| rolled my head negatively on
the floor. Your arguments are
too er-forcible," / managed to
articulate, at cost of great pain
to my aching throat.
You'll be all right in half an
hour" he assured me. And l
promise ] won't use any more
physical demonstrations. Get up
now. You can sit on a chair"
And, toy that was of this
monster, the discussion of Omar
and the Preacher was resumed.
And half the night we sat over it.
CHAPTER XII
The last twenty-four hours
have witnessed a carnival of bru-
tally. From cabin to forecastle
1t seems to have broken out like
a contagion. / scarcely know
where to begin. Wolf Larsen was
really the cause Of 1t. The rela-
tons among the men, strained
and made tense by feuds, quarrels
and grudges, were In a state of
unstable equilibrium. and evil
passions flared up in flame like
prairie-grass.
Thomas Mugridge is q sneak, a
spy, an informer. He has been
attem pting to curry favor and re-
instate himself in the good graces
Of the captain by carrying tales
OF the men forward. He 1t was,
u know, that carried some OF
sJohnson's hasty talk to Wolf Lar
Fsen. johnson, 1t seems, bought
a suit of oilskins from the slop-
chest and found them to be of
greatly inferior quality. Nor was
her slow in advertising the fact.
TIE slop-chest Is sort of minia-
ft,fre dry-goods store which is car
RED by all sealing schooners and
Which is stocked with articles pc
lcAliar to the needs of the sailors.
Whatever a sailor purchases is
taken from his subsequent earn
ings on the sealing grounds; for,
as 1t is with the hunters SO 1t is
with the boat-pullers and steerers
i'm the place of wages they re-
ceive a lay" rate of SO much
per skin for every skin captured
in their particular boat.
But of Johnson's grumbling at
the slop-chest | knew nothing, SO
that what / witnessed came with
the shock Of sudden surprise. 1
had just finished sweeping the
cabin, and had been inveigled by
Wolf Larsen into discussion Of
Hamlet, his favorite Shakespear-
ian character. when Johansen de-
scended the companion stairs fol-
lowed by Johnson. The latter's
cap came off after the custom Of
the sea. and he stood respect