Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-09-24

IclSn DuSIucSSy udu DcGu prompt I'D
meet emergencies.
And then gradually, discernible only
to a sailors eye, like dark blotch on
the water, Wallen made out another
steamer almost abeam. An instant
later, as though in grim Endorsement
of his vision, from the blotch there
leaped a great red flame, came the
heavy resonant roar of the guns re-
port, and overhead shell whistled
ominously by.
About mile Wallen now placed the
distance between the two vessels,
though as to the size of the other he
could form no estimate. But did it
matter?
She was well armed at all events;
and it was Ram Gulab Singh, once
government official, always a robber
and murderer-the man who had
brought his mother to her death, his
father to his death, and now it was his
own turn!
But he knew neither excitement nor
dismay. He was only conscious of
something smoldering duly within
him, and that was because Helen Mac
Kay was here. He shook his head
little. Helen Macl<ay, of course,
would never fall into Ram Gulab
Singh's hands-alive.
On the bridge he could hear Layn-
ton calling down the engine room tube,
frantically imploring the engineer for
speed; and then LayntOn's voice was
drowned out by din from forward by
the crew.
Wallen, hugging the shadows OF the
Lighthouses, moved forward to a posi-
ton under the bridge.
Mott was talking excitedly overhead.
"She's coming up hand over hand,
tell you. If that fellow Wallen's story
is straight after all-and l guess there
amt much doubt of it now-we haven't
a hope if that chap out there gets
aboard us, providing he don't sink US
first. say go full astern until we get
away off her, and then take to the
boats. We could give him the slip
in the dark if we don't wait till he
gets too near to see what we're about,
and"
Another voice cut in, Larsen's, as
hurrying from aft he ran up the star
board ladder to the bridge.
Help yourself, Mott" he invited
sarcastically. zone boats in splinters
and the others carried away; the deck
aft is a wreck from that shell that
struck u.s."
Light that Morse lamp" ordered
Laynton abruptly.
Eyes, and give him our position"
sneered Mott.
Hes got it fast enough now"
growled Laynton. ''But We'll give him
something else. You there, Larsen,
light it, dye hear? And Morse, tell him
that if it's that swine that's masquer-
aiding as Wallen he wants, we'll turn
him over and-my God with a rip
and crash, staggering the ship, shot
tore the wireless house to matchwood.
Quick" yelled Laynton. '"Tell him
Tell him. Dye hear-tell him! He'll
have us at the bottom in another five
minutes! ~
A strange, awed silence held for an
instant following the shot; and now,
over his head, Wallen could distinctly
hear the clicking of the Morse set.
He strained his eyes seward,
watching for an answering signal, and
after a moment it came-but not in
Morse. 1t was the belching fare %
the gun again, and again the rCnd y
smash of the projcctile IS II tore
the Monleigh's h"i'
There was no doubt about the range
now, nor the tenor of Ram Guiab
Sings answer. 1t was as Gunga had
said-the principle that dead men tell
no tales. Ram Gulab Singhs tactics,
from Ram Gulab Singh's standpoint,
were faultless-that ship might dis
appear off the face of the earth and
be never heard of again was one thing,
but that she or anyone on board her
should return to report that she had
been attacked in these waters, suspi-
ciously those of Ram Gulab Singh, was
quite another!
And then to Wallen came space of
time that he could not estimate each
moment recording some wild, unreal,
bewildering, Kaleidoscope change in
the scene around him. Again that ter
rife crash fromsia stirling Shell, and
then a scream, .nnearthly, !, not human,
from the very bowels Sof fhe ship-a
tremor of the vessel 5from stem to
stern, grooming, screeching, wrench
ing of mangled machinery, tottering
thud as though the engines had col
lapsed upon their bedplates, a cloud
of steam volleying skyward from the
engine room hatch, and there was no
more vibratiOn-and the Monleigh lay
a helpless thing, with only sullen
movement now from the momentum of
a moment gone.
He drew back against the captains
room.
They were rushing down from the
bridge, Mott and Larsen, to hurl them
selves down the forward ladders from
the boat deck to the flush fOredeck be-
low, shouting a confusion of orders to
the crew as they ran.
Laynton, still on the bridge, was al
4oJx hox sx,%o %ho r;y