The Dolores star., 1922-08-25


orders began to become audible. Alan.
scrambllng to his knees, put an arm
under old Burr. half raising him: the
form encircled by his arm struggled
up. The skipper, who had knocked
Burr away from the wheel, ignored him
now. The old man, dragging himself
up and holding to Alan. was staring
with terror at the snow screen behind
which the vessel had disappeared. His
lips moved.
1T was shipl' he said he seemed
speaking more to himself than to Alan.
Yes" Alan said. at was ship;
and you thought"
ut wasn't there" the wheelsman
cried. ''Its-it's been there all the
time all night. and ibid steered
through 1t ten times, twenty times,
every few minutes; and then-that
time 1t was ship!"
Alan's excitement grew greater: he
seized the old man again. you thought
it was the Miwaka!" Alan exclaimed.
THE Miwaka! And you tried to steer
through it again."
"The Miwaka!" old Burr's lips reit-
Grated the word. Yes; yes-the Mi
waka :"
He struggled, writhlng with some
agony not physical. Alan tried to hold
him, but now the old man was beside
himself with dismay. He broke away
and started aft. The captains voice
recalled Alan to himself. as he was
about TO follow. and he turned back to
the wheelhouse.
The second officer. who had gone be-
low 10 ascertain the damage done to
the ferry. came up to report. Two of
the compartments, those which had
taken the crush of the collision, had
Hooded Instantly; the bulkheads were
holding-only leaking n little. the Off
Ger declared. Water was coming into
third compartment, that at the stern:
the pumps were fighting this water.
The shock had sprung seams else
where; but If the after compartment
did not fill. the pumps might handle
the rest.
Alan was at the bow again on look
out duty, ordered to listen and to look
for the little boats. He gave to that
duty all his conscious attention; but
through his thought. whether he willed
1t or not, ran riotOus exultation. AS
he paced from side to side and hailed
and answered halls from the bridge,
and while he strained for sight and
hearing through the gale.swept snow,
the leapinS pulse within repeated,
I've found himI I've found him :"
Alan held no longer possibility of
doubt of old Burr's identity with Ben
lamin Corvet, since the old man had
made plain to him that he was haunt
ed by the Miwaka. Since that night
III the house on Astor street. when
Spearman shouted to Alan that name,
everything having to do With the Sc
cret of Benjamin Corvet's life had led,
so far as Alan could follow 1t, to the
Mlwaka; all the change, which Sher-
flIl described but could not account
Tor, Alan had laid to that. Corvet
only could have been so haunted by
that ghostly ship, and there had been
guilt of some awful sort In the old
man cry. Alan had found the man
VINO had sent him away to Kansas
when he was a child, who had support
ed him there and then, at last, sent
Tor him; VINO had disappeared at his
coming and left him all his posses
sions and his heritage of disgrace, who
had paid biackmail to Luke, and who
mad sent, last, Captain Stafford's
watch and the ring which came with
1.-THE wedding ring.
Alan pulled his hand from his glove
and felt In his pocket for the little
band of gold. What would that mean
to him now; what of that was he to
learnf And, as he thought of that
Constance SEerrill came more insist
emily before him. What was he to
learn for her, for his friend and Ben
jamin Corvet's friend, whom he, Uncle
Benny, had warned not 10 care for
henry Spearman, and then had gone
away to leave her to marry him? For
she was to marry him, Alan had read
More serious damage than first re-
ported! The pumps certainly must be
losing their fight with the water In the
port compartment aft; for the bow
steadily was lifting, the stern tnkin-.
The starboard rail too was raised, bnd
the list had become SO sharp that wa
ter washed the deck abaft the fore
castle to port. And the ferry was
pointed straight into the gale now;
long ago she had ceased to circle and
steam slowly In search for boats; she
struggled with all her power against
the wind and the seas, desperate In
sistence throbbing in the thrusts of
the engines; for Number 25 was flee
ing-feeing for the western shore. She
dared not turn to the nearer eastern
shore to expose that shattered stern
to the seas.
-Four bells beat behind Alan; it was
two o'clock. Relief should have come
long before; but no one came. He
was numbed now; Ice from the spray
cracked upon his clothing when he
moved, and It fell In flakes upon the
deck. The stark figure on the bridge
was that Of the second officer; so the