The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1916-06-09

fered for weary months, and the nam
of Hump" which Wolf Larsen ha
called me from the poop. Thereafter
fore and aft, / was known by no othe
name. until the term became a par
OF my thought processes and | identi
fled it with myself, thought of mysel
as Hump, as though Hump were l ant
had always been /.
1t was no easy task, waiting on thu
cabin table, where sat Wolf Larsen
Johansen and the six hunters. TIL,
cabin was small, to begin with, and tt
move around. as | was compelled to
was not made easier by the schooner's
violent pitching and wallowing. But
what struck me most forcibly was
the total lack of sympathy on the part
of the men whom | served. l could
feel my knee through my clothes
swelling and swelling, and l was sick
and faint from the pain of it. ! could
catch glimpses of my face. white and
| CHASTITY, distorted with pain, in the
cabin mirror. All the men must have
seen my condition, but not one spoke
or took notice of me, till l was almost
grateful to Wolf Larsen, later on Il
was washing the dishes), when he
said:
Don't let little thing like that
bother you. You'll get used to such
things in time. 1t may cripple you
some, but all the same you'll be learn
ing to walk.
That's what you call a paradox.
isn't it?" he added
He seemed pleased when / nodded
my head with the customary Yes.
sir"
Il suppose you know bit about lit
erary things? Eli? Good. I'll have
some talks with you sometime"
And then, taking no further account
of me, he turned his back and went
up on deck.
That night, when l had finished an
endless amount of work, was sent to
sleep in the steerage, where l made
up spare bunk. | was glad to get out
of the detestable presence of the cook
and to be off my feet. To my surprise,
LILY SiOLACo hoQ vi leu Oll lAC anu IuGTG
seemed no indications of catching cold
either from the last soaking or from
the prolonged soaking from the foun-
dering of the Martinez. Under ordi-
nary circumstances. after all that
had undergone, ] should have been fit
for bed and a trained nurse.
But my knee was bothering me ter
ribly. AS we'll as l could make out,
the kneecap seemed turned up on
edge in the midst of the swelling. AS
sat in my bunk examining it (the
six hunters were all in the steerage.
smoking and talking in loud voices), |
Henderson took passing glance at 1t |
Looks nasty" he commented. "Tie |
a rag around it and it'll be all right" |
Like the savage. the attitude of |
these men was stoical in great things,
childish in little things. l remember,
later in the voyage, seeing Kerfoot,
another of the hunters. lose a finger
by having 1t smashed to jelly, and
ne did not even murmur or change the
expression on his face. Yet | have
seen the same man, time and again,
1y into the most outrageous passion
,ver a tri1e.
He was doing it now, vociferating.
following, waving his arms, and ours.
ng like fiend, and all because of
with another hunter as
o whether seal pup knew instinc-
lively how to swim.
For the most part, the remaining
our hunters leaned on the table or lay
0 the two antagonists.
And they smoked, necessarily
moked. using a coarse. cheap and of.
ensive-smelling tobacco. The air
'as thick and murky with the smoke
1t. and this. combined with the VIC
through the storm. would
urely have made me seasick. had !
cen victim to that malady. AS II
as, 1t made me quite squeamish.
rough this nausea might have been
ue to the pain of my leg and exhaus- /,
on.
AS ! lay there thinking, naturally =
welt upon myself and my situation
was unparalleled. undreamed-of.
lat /, Humphrey Van Weyden. a
,holar and dilettante, II you please,
things artistic and literary, should :
!, lying here on Boring sea seal-hunt. =
g schooner. Cabin-boy! ! had never y
me any hard manual labor. or soul y
IN labor. in my life. My muscles were =.
nall and soft, like woman's. or so :,
e doctors had said time and again
the course of their attempts to per. :.
ade me to go in for physical culture :,
ds. But | had preferred to use my =,
ad rather than my body. and here .,
vas. in no fit condition for the rough al
g in prospect.
These are merely few of the things
At went through my mind and are a
ated for the sake of vindicating N.Y. is
4 in advance in the weak and help di
8 role was destined to play. But
bought, also. of my mother and sis.
8. and pictured their grief. was
ong the missing dead of the Mar Ia
ez disaster. an unrecovered body. lot
.ould see the headlines in the pa pr,
9: the fellows at the University club gr,
the Bibelot shaking their heads tn,