The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-12-18
TIE DAILY
SHORT STORY
Salvage for Christmas.
BY WILL I. AMEs
Copyright 1919, by the Mcclure News
paper Syndicate.l


even a seagolng barge captain, It
wasn't because She considered barge
captain the social inferior Of woods
man Cher father had been woods
man or Of mlllhand; Mary was a
illtand herself. 1t was because Ma
4 ~ though only twenty, had shre%d
conception Of the chances Of happl-
Z ness likely to fall to the lot Of n
barge captains wife, with her man
knocking about the coast for a few
years, underpaid, seldr<l at lIjme,
undergoing whatnct dangers, and at
the end an item in the newspapers to
tend her, white faced to the telephone
To get from the agents in New York
the Notification of the story that the
barge, So and So had foundered with
all hands.
i.No use Jimmy" declared Mary
with finality, ~ won't do 1t. I'm go
ing to live some kind of a settled life
with some lind OF settled husband,
p II any Most likely. they won't be
any, I'm crazy for that chicken farm
and II can't get hold Of It, somehow,
I'll probably go It alone with mother
Jimmy knew all about the chicken
farm. it was valued at $4,000. jim
my's free and easy habits ashore and
his precarious shifting method OF i've
lihood had make his bankroll amount
to nearer ;35 cents. Wherefore he babe
Mary solemn goodbye and went out
NO the keen, blowy December night
with his heart in his shoes.
Az the barge1nan tumbled into his
dory at the public landing and rowed
out to his craft anchored in the har-
bor he noted that the wind had hauled
into the northeast asd was rising by
the minute The tow was to pull out
at daylight bound from the New Eng
land manufacturing port for Norfolk
for coal There was a beautiful price
about coal just now
Capt. Jimmy knew that 1t would.be
case Of go, no matter what the
weather and the risk. AS he climbed
aboard, Laidislaw Po1ek, the STURDY
valteen-year-old lad who, with OLD
Blair, the cook. made up his crew,
greeted him. Jimmy stopped short ana
looked the boy over in the dim light
|, from the t'gannel fo'cas'le window.
"You'ye got mother, haven't YOU.
lad?" he asked.
"sure mike, capn. Wha9ore you
say?"
"Well it looks like rotten trip.
This old bird we're in is nDolttng pref
ty bad. You're young. If you should
get cold feet and take the little dinghy
and go ashore tonight, l couldn't help
1t If l didn't know It"
The boy laughed. "Noz7!r capn' l
20, too. How about cookie?"
"oh, he's another loner like me, 1t
don't matter about either Of US. You
are Notwithstanding to live for.
But just as you please-stick along II
you want to-"
The started at break Of bowling
day-the big oceans going tug, two big
new .shp-built barges belonging TO an
other line, with the Equator, Capt:
/, Jimmy's numbering, ose-jointed old
craft, bringing up the TALBOT the string
They were towing with hundred fatn
oms of hawser. Near enough, too"
confiled Capt. ;immy to Blair, with
\ those two cutthroats for company"
This referred to Kells and Snyder, cap
tains OF the leading and second barges
respectively, both hard men with bad
names.
them almost due south all day. He
was a deep water mnn and loved sea
room. The Equator steered like a lump
OF lead, but tagged along somehow,
wallowing far is>the wake OF Snyder's
barge. the Dorman Bros, jerking like
q clumsy, frightened COW at her six
inch MANILA halter. Jimmy grinned
e he saw Snyder standingt at his
towing bits shaking a frantic fist at
the Equator.
Just before dark the wind slackeRed
Five minutes later 1t was roaring out
tof. due east and piling the sea into a
fluid Alps. Murphy, daring neither to
take, his tow eastward, toward tho
streacberous New Jersey shore, not to
let his convoy wallow in the trough
Of the mountainous sea, squared away
into the teeth Of the gale.
q Slowly Kell's barge Strengthened
away, but the uncouth Equator stuck
to- the trough like hog to its wallow.
dragged at Snyders bits till the
Dorman smashed sidewise into every
osrushing billow shipping water BY the
ton. Jlmmy's grin was missing when,
in the falling light, he caught sight OF
Snyder rushing aft to the bits with
an axe in his hand.
Hes a yellow dog" muttered Jim
my, abut he wouldn't do tina"
~ -. SyaU6aa EAkH ~ 70
chopped the hawser And presently
fIte newly hung lights Of the tow dis
appeared in the tumbling murk and
tiie Equator and its little party were
tereIfct in the Atlantic hurricane In
winter. For an hour the EQuator
smashed about strained to flindser and
leaking like fish net. Then she went
down, three minutes after Captain
Rideout, Blair and the boy had got
ten the big dcry oversize and tr1nbled
intO 1t. Fifteen minutes later they
blundered into the lee OF another barge
rolling in the trough. BY luck they
managed to Chamber into the craft by
tie end of a light hawser hanging
oyesside. =,
sbydcf's chip, by the holy poker"
Exclaimed Jimmy and prepared for
6attIe. But Snyder wasn't aboard
Neither was anybody else. The Dor
- 81 BROS, was an abandoned vessel.
eNYell," inquired the lad, where you
sayfwe 70 IRON dees place. ca7'n?"
A a lnAY