Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1918-01-31
CHAPTER XVI.
In the ~Hands of the Crew

III the T1dH1Q OF Tic NF0Ws 81
The afternoon brought me increased
faith that the Imprisonment of Fergus
Mccain had practically ended the re-
bellion of the men forward. No doubt
the spirit Of mutiny still fingered, but
without the leadership this had ceased
New Workers. display of wealth, Liver
pool Red and Jim White were sudden
ly shorn Of power to control the crew.
Nor did anything occur during the
remainder Of the day to lead M to re-
wise this conclusion. The weather held
fair, and the men worked cheerfully.
Now that the liquor was out of them
they proved themselves a fairly eff
Gent crew, obeying the orders of the
mates smartly. Apparently the crisis
had been passed, and the onlYproblem
remaining to confront us was that Of
navigation. With my mind at rest on
this point, I passed the hours Of the,
afternoon largely in my own stateroom,
sleeping for an hour or more in prep
aration for the nights watch on deck,
and later carefully figuring out in de-
tail the exact course I should attempt
to follow during the period Of dark
ness.
Before the call to supper came. I
called on Bascom to explain to him the
situation, but found the man stupefed
by some drug, taken perhaps to allevi-
ate pain, and scarcely capable Of COM
pretending my meaning. Satisfied that
I could gain no assistance from him, I
left the nan lying helplessly in his
bunk, and returned to the main cabin.
Vera did not appear until after Lea
yord and I were seated at table, yet
she had been on deck during the after
nOon, and had much to say relative to
the beauty Of the ocean scene through
which we sailed.
1t was a pleasant hour we passed at
the table, Leayord relieving Olson, but
the girl and I lingering in rather idle
conversation before we went, on deck.
In spite of the pleasant day, and that
the sun was still visible in the west
ern sky, the air on deck was chill, and
1 returned below for q heavier coat,
and also brought back with me a cloak
belonging to the late commander with
which to protect Miss Darlington. But
for q faint trail Of smoke far to the
westward, barely visible as the SUI
sank below the horizon, no evidence
was d~iscernible Of any other vessel in
the wide circle. I hailed the lookout
in the maintop, but the wisp Of smoke
was too for away for his eyes to deter
mine the course of the distant steamer,
although as he swept his glasses a bit
farther northward, they became fixed
and motionless. AS I stared up at him,
his voice reported:
"Sail ho!"
"Where away2"
"About three points off the port bow,
sir-a schooner's topsail." g.
every we'll, keep her in sight-a fish,
ing vessel likely"
Both watches were on deck, clus-
tered in q restless bunch before the
f~orecastle, or overhanging the rail, evil
IDENTIFY deeply interested in observing
u efforts to get all possible speed out
Of the Indian Chief. The fading light
gave me a glimpse Of their faces, and
I noticed that both Liverpool and
White were circulating freely from
group to group. However. the men
responded readily enough to Olson's
orders, and sang cheerily us they tailed
onto the ropes, Liverpool himself lead
ing the way up the ratlines and out
upon the m%ainyard as they sheeted