Phoenix tribune., 1921-12-17

decided. He ground his cud and NUT
tered ugly things to himself, for his
dead reckoning had gone astray and
he was worried. The fog, if anything.
was thicker than ever.
Time passed. Suddenly Mr.. Gibney
thrilled electrically to a shrill zip from
Captain Scraggs.
whats thatY Mr.. Gihney bawled.
st dunno. Sounds like the surf,
Glib"
"Ain't you been on this run long
enough to know that the surf don't
sound like nothin' else in life but
breakers?" Gibney retorted wrathfully.
Il amt certain, Glib"
Instantly Gibney signaled McGuffey
for half speed ahead.
Breakers on the starboard bow"
yelled Captain Scraggs.
"Port bow" The Squarehead cor
rected him.
"Oh, my great patiencel" Mr.. Glib
ney groaned. They're on both bows
an we're headed straight for the
beach. Here's where we all go to the
devil together" and he yanked wildly
at the signal wire that led to the
engine room, with the intention Of
giving McGuffey four bells-the signal
aboard the Maggie for full speed
astern. At the second jerk the wire
broke, but not until two bells had
sounded in the engine room-the signal
for full speed ahead. The efficient
McGuffey promptly kicked her wide
open, and the Fates decreed that,
having done so, Mr.. McGuffey should
forthwith climb the ladder and thrust
his head out on deck for a breath of
fresh air. Instantly a chorus Of
shrieks up on the fo'castle head at
tracted his attention to such degree
that he failed to hear the engine room
howler as Mr.. Gibney blew frantically
into it.
Presently, out of the hubbub for
ward, Mr.. McGuffey heard Captain
Scraggs wall frantically: "Stop her!
For the love of heaven, stop her!" In
stantly the engineer dropped back into
the engine room and set the Maggie
full speed astern; then he grasped the
howler and held it to his ear.
"Stop herr" he heard Gibney shrek.
''Why in blazes don't you stop herr"
"She's set astern, Glib. She'll ease
up in a minute"
"You know it'll" Gibney answered
significantly.
The Maggie climbed lazily to the
crest of a long oily roller, slid reck-
Iessly down the other side. and took
the following sea over her taffrail.
She still had some head on, but very
little-not quite sufficient to give her
decent steerage way, as Mr.. Gibney
discovered when, having at length com.
municated his desires to McGuffeya
he spun the wheel frantically in a be-
lated effort to swing the Maggie's dirty
nose out to sea.
Nothing doin'," he snarled. "Shell
have to come to complete stop before
steerage way on again. She'll bump
as sure as death an taxes"
She did-with a crack that shook
the rigging and caused it to rattle like
buckshots in pan. A terrible cry
such a cry, indeed, as might burst
from the lips of a mother seeing her
only child run down by the Limited
burst from poor Captain Seraggs. 'My
shipl My ship!" he howled "My
darling little Maggiel They've killed
you, they've killed you! The dirty
lubbers!"
The succeeding wave lifted the Mag
gle off the beach, carried her in some
fifty feet further, and deposited her
gently on the sand. She heeled over
70 port a little and rested there as If
she was very. very weary, nor could
all the threshing of her screw in re-
verse haul her off again. The surf,
dashing in under her fantail. had more
power than McGuffey's engines. and,
foot by foot. the Maggie proceeded to
dig herself in. Mr.. Gibney listened
for five minutes to the uproar that
rose from the bowels of the little
steamer before he whistled up Mr..
McGuffey.
skill her. kill her" he ordered.
"Your wheel will bite into the sand
first thing you know and tear the
stern off her. You're shakin' the old
girl to pieces"
McGuffey killed his engine, banked
his fires, and came up Oh deck. wiping
his anxious face with fearfully filthy
sweat rag. AT the same time Scraggs
and Neils Halvorsen came crawling
aft over the deckload and when they
reached the clear space around the
pilot house, Captain Scraggs threw his
brown derby on the deck and leaped
upon it until, his rage abating ulti-
mately, no power on earth, in the air,
or under the sea, could possibly have
rehabilitated it and rendered it fit for
further wear, even by Captain Scraggs.
This petulant practice of jumping on
his hat was a habit with Scraggs
whenever anything annoyed him par
ticularly and was always infallible evil
dence that simple declarative SEN
tence had stuck in his throat.