Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-04-11

mined TO stick to the wake Of the kid
napers.
A little more than halfway between
their starting point and the head of the
bay. the leading boat swung sharply in
toward the shore. then shot into the
mouth of a narrow indentation. For
rwo or three minutes he could see moth
ing of the other. Then he emerged
from a tortuous and CONSTRUCTED chan
mel into deep cut, perhaps fifty feet
in width and spanned by drawhridge
and a railroad trestle. At the farther
end Of this tidegate canal connecting
the Great West bay with the Great
Peconic, the leading power boat was
visible. heading out at full speed, the
half-mile lead fully re-eStablished.
Empty of all other craft, weird and
desolate in moonlight. the Little Pc
comic waters widened and then mar
rowed about the flying vessels. Shore
lights watched them. now dim and far.
now bright and near at hand. Shelter
Island sound received them, slapped
their TANKS encouragingly with its rae
ing waves, sped them with an ebbing
tide that tore Stewards between con-
stricted shores into the lonelier wastes
of Gardeners bag. Their relative po-
sitions were unchanged: still the Trou-
bic retained her position.
When the chase rounded the buoy,
instead of standing. as any reasonable
beings might have been expected to.
on to Fishers island or at a tangent
north toward the Connecticut littoral,
they swung off something south OF east
"A course that could lead them no.
where but to the immensities of the
sea itself.
Whitaker's breath caught in his
throat as he examined this startling
prospect. He shook Il dubious. vastly
troubled head. But he held on grimly
in the face of dire forebodings.
Once our from under the lee Of
Gardeners island, a heavier run Of
waves beset them, catching the boats
almost squarely on the beam: fortu-
nately a sea Of long. smooth, slow
shouldering rollers, as yet not angry.
Now and again. for all that, one would
favor the Trouble with Il quartering
slap that sent shower of spray aboard
her TO drench Whitaker and swash
noisly round the cockpit ere the self
bailing channels could carry it off. He
was quickly wet to the skin and shiv-
ering. The hour was past midnight,
and the strong air whipping in from
the open sea had bitter edge. They
still had moonlight. but the wind was
blowing with an insistent, unintermit-
tent force it had not before developed.
A haze, vaguely opalescent, encircled
the horizon like a ghost of absinthe.
BY four-thirty, when the twilight was
moderately bright, Whitaker was bare
IL able TO distinguish the leading boat.
The two seemed as II suspended, strug-
Cling like impaled insects, the one in
the midst, the other near the edge, Of
a watery pit walled in by vapors.
The end came just before dawn.
with a swiftness that stunned the fac
ulties-as though one saw the naked
wrath of God leap like lightning from
the sky.
They were precisely as they had
been. within certain distance Of one
another, tOiling on and ever on like
strange misshapen spirits doomed to
run an endless race. The harsh, shape
less light of imminent day alone manu-
>factured color Of difference: Whit
aker now was able to see as two dark
shapes the men in the body Of the lead
ing boat. Now suddenly the man at
the wheel cried out something In ter
rible voice Of fright, so high and vehe-
ment that it even carried back against
the booming gale for Whitaker TO hear.
simultaneously he put the wheel over,
with all his might. The other jumped
from his seat, only TO be thrown back
as the little vessel swung broadside to
the sea, heeling until she lay almost on
her beam ends. The next instant she
ceased, incredibly, to moye--hung mo-
tionless in that resistless surge, an
amazing, Supplying spectacle. 1t
seemed minutes before Whitaker could
force his wits to comprehend that she