Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1921-12-01

Z - - AAAAAAf 40 nc EAA0HEn II AA'
|. coll Of the main halyards. Down came
/ the tons Of water. booming on tn
, deck that bent under the blow, spill
I Ing in a great cataract that swashed
across the deck.
His feet were swept from under
him, for a moment he seemed to swing
horizontal in the stream, clutching II
the halyards. The sea struck the OPP
posite rail with o roar that threat
ened to tear 1t away.
With Il went figure. Ralney
caught sight of a CHASTITY face, a
mouth that shouted vainly for help In
the pandemOnium, and was instantly
stOppered with strangling brine, pop
eyes appealing In awful fright as
Sandy was washed away In the cas-
cade. The halyards were held on the
pin with a turn and twist that Rainey
swiftly loosened, lifting the coil free,
making a fast loop, and thrusting
head and arms through it as he flung
himself after the roustabout.
A great bulk wallowed just before
him, the helpless body of the bowhead
whale, the killers darting in a mad
melee for its head. Then a figure was
| literally hurled upon the slippery
mass of the mammal, its gray belly
| plain in the weller, living raft
| against which the waves broke and
tossed their spray.
Clawing frantically, Sandy clutched
at the base of the enormous pectOral
fin, clinging with maniacal strength,
mad with. fear. Striking out to little
purpose, save to help buoy himself.
blinded by the flying scud and broken
crests, Rainey felt himself upreared,
swept impotently on and slammed
against the Shiny hulk, just close
enough to Sandy to grasp him by the |
collar, as the whale, stung by XIII
er's tearing at its oily tongue, failed |
with it's fin and the two of them slid
down its body, deep under water.
Rainey fought against the suffoca-
ton and the fierce desire to gasp and
relieve his tortured lungs. The lads
weight seemed to be carrying him
down as if he was thing of lead, nut
Rainey would not relax his grip. He
could not. He had centered all his
energy upon the desire to save Sandy,
and his nerve centers were still tense
to that last conscious demand
The Karluk was into the wind aad
they were in what little lee there was,
dragging aft at the end of the hal
yards, being fetched in toward the
rail by the mighty tugs of Lund, 4
weird sight to Rainey's smarting eyes
as he caught sight of the giant, with
red hair uncovered his beard whip
ping in the wind his black glasses
still in place, making some sort of
blessed monster out of him.
Rainey had his left fist welded to
the line, his right was set in Sandy's
collar, and Sandy's death clutch had
twined itself into Rainey's oilskins,
though the lad was limp. and his face,
seen through the watery film that
over it. set and white.
A dozen arms shot down to grasp
Ipon his left forearm, almost wrench
ing his arm from It's socket as
re was inhauled, caught at by body
md legs and deposited on the deck OF
The schooner, that almost instantly
to so about upon its for
ner course.
Lund bent over him, asking him
With a note that Rainey, for all his
interpreted as one of real
nXiety:
"How is it with you, matey? Did
e git lunged up?'
Rainey managed to shake his head
nd, with Lunds boughlike arm for
Import, got to his feet, winded,
haken, aching from his pounding and
he crash against the whale.
Sandy was lying face down, one
unter kneeling across him, knead!ng
is ribs to bellows action, lifting his
PIPER body in time to the pressure, :
lille another worked his slack arms r
p and down.
"That was splendid, Mr. Ralney!
1t was brave of you"
Peggy Smms stood before Rainey,
ingng to the malnstays, different
lrl to the one that he had known
.er red lips were apart, showing the
can shine Of her teeth, above her -
lowing cheeks her gray eyes sparkled
18th friendly admiration, one slender
ct hand was held out eagerly toward
I'm.
"Why," said Rainey, In that embar-
lssment that comes when one knows
, has done well. yet instinctively
eks to dlsclaim honors, "any one
ould have done that. l happened to =
, the only one to see It,"