The Elbert County tribune., 1918-04-12
CHAPTER vIII-contInued.


g.
"The lady was sent into the cabin.
dr, and given stateroom where she
could FIX herself up Bit" he answered
soberly. ''The other feller hnd heap
Of lot to say. an seemed to have
some sorter grudge against you.
hadn't any, time to listen to his yarn,
so / naturally turned him over to the
bosum, ter have thet eye dressed. He
must have got n peach o. swipe. SIR"
Il had to hit him--yes; but we can
talk of that later. Where is he now7"
I'm the galley, sir, where they're
heating some water. After they get
him fixed up, Is he to go aft, or for
rrrdT
aft, II you have room to spare; he
Is no sailorman, but millionaire from
New York; he has money to burn"
The fellow looked at me with his
mouth wide open, his gllstening eyes
almost laughable.
"The devil you say. sir; he don't look
the part to my notion. You was all
part of yacht party?"
"Yes, the Esmeralda, steam yacht,
owned by Gerald Darlington of New
York. We We're run down about
hundred miles east of Montauk by
big liner, which must have been out of
her course. She cut us square in two,
but excepting us three. all living on
bonrd got away In the boats. BY acci-
dent we were left, and escaped later In
the dinghy"
what became of the llner?"
ssCba II trl, x.si ~, t1o hnatc and &byx,lr
Ing they had all the survivors, went
on. She was a mail boat, likely. The
yacht went down five minutes after
we left her; we've been afloat ever
since. Now. Mr.. Masters. that's our
story In brief. What's the trouble
hereT"
"rll tell yer enough to make it clear.
SIR" he said slowly, although there is
others on board who can explain more
In detail. You're a seaman-or was
opce-so you'll see easily the sorter
fix we're In. I'm the only officer left
on the hooker, an couldn't navigate
a ship If you'd give 1t to me. I'm only
the chief engineer. an my assistant is
In the fo'castle with broken leg. You
see thet rifle for-rard. sir7 Well, It
wus lightning did that. Two bolts, so
the crew says, fer wus down below.
an never knew whut happened till the
electrics all went out. Then shut Off
steam, and clumb out on deck. Lord,
but 1t wus black night, raining cats
and dogs, but no wind to speak of. 1t
wus the rain what saved us, for fire
started yonder-yer can see where 1t
burned-but 1t died out of itself. When
morning come we saw what we was up
against; it looked a lot sight worse
then than 1t does now. Them bolts of
lightning he'd knocked the foremnst
Into srnithereens, killed the wheels
man, and put the steering gear plumb
out O. commission. Then the top
mast an spars just naturally wrecked
the bridge, and charthouse, an the
whole mass caught fire. The second
officer was in the wheelhouse, sir, an
never knew what hit him, an both the
captain an the first officer wus a
standin' tergether on the bridge. The
top mast crushed the life out of 'em.
There wus six sailormen hurt the same
way, an four of 'em died. 1t wus the
darndest mess ever saw at sea, SIR"
'Bad enough. surely; when did this
happenf"
"NIght afore last we've cleaned up
4 bit since, but the crew won't work
much under me- an we're short
handed I rigged up this wheel aft, SO
as to keep an engine going, and hung
on, waiting for something to turn up.
There wasn't nothing else I could do"
mo. presume not" and my eyes
rested thoughtfully on the scene for
ward. "How Is the hull-sound? You
seem sunk deeply"
''Thats cargo, sir; full to the
hatches. The ships dry as a bone;
have had the well sounded every three
hours"
And what about the crew."
'.Just SO, so; a crimp brought them
aboard drunk, an we were not at sea
long enough for the mates to whip
them Into shape when this thing hap
pened. I'm no deck oficer. Mr.. Hollis,
and they don't take o-ders from me
very well. call 'em ID hard
lot"
made no comment. enoeavoring to
turn all these facts over In my mind,
and reach some deciaon- 1t was evi-
dent enough what was wanted. and