The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1922-03-29

The struggle of the engines against
the momentum Of the ferry told that
others had seen the cleaning ship, or,
at least, had heard the hail. The skip
per's instant decision had been to put
to starboard !; he had bawled that to
the wheelsman, Hard over 70 But,
though the screws turned full astern,
Number % steered straight on. The
I furry was blowing before the bow
again; back through the snow the Ice
shrouded simmer ahead retreated.
Allan 1eaped away and up to the wheel.
house. t5.i Il. III PA 4
Men we're struggling there Il!tlle skip.
per, mate, and old Burr, Who hid
held the wheel. He chung to 1t Yet, 1913
one in d trance, fixed, staring aheadt;
hfs arms, stif, had been holding Num-
Der 90 to her course. The skipper
struck him and beat him away, while
the mate rugged at the Wheel Burr
was torn from the wheel now, and he
made no resistance to the shippers
blows; but the skipper, in his frenzy,
struck him again and Knocked him to
the deck. @ig!
Slowly, steadily, Number 25 was re-
spending to her helm. The bow point
ed away, and the beam Of the ferry
came beside the beam rot the silent
steamer; they were very, close now, so
close that the searchlight, which had
turned, to keep on the other vessel,
shot above its 3shimmering deck and
lighted only the spars; and, as the VIA
ten rose and fell between them, the
ships sucked closer. Number % shook
with an effort; it seemed opposing with
all the power Of its screws some force
fatally drawing it on-opposing with
the last resistance before giving way.
Then, as the water fell again, the ferry
seemed to slip and be drawn toward
the other vessel; they: mounted, side
by side +. ;. crashed i. IL. recOiled
u. crashed again. That SECOND crash
threw all who had nothing to hold by,
flat upon the deck; then Number %
moved by; astern her now the silent
steamer, vanished in the snow.
Gongs doomed below through the
new confusion and the cries Of men,
orders began to become audible. Alan.
scrnmbling 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
IA fn In, c,ko psis
with terror Mt the snow screen behind
which the vessel had disappeared. His
lips moved. VI; Z, I. (, ( s;f
ut was ship!' he said; he seemed
speaking more to himself than TO Alan.
"Yes," Alan said. TT was a ship ;
and you thought .s5 NJ i
1T wasn't there!" the wheelsman
cried. "It's-it's been there all the
time all night, and Pd--Td steered
through it ten times, twenty times,
every few minutes; and then-that
time 1T was a ship!"a .5.
Alan's excitement grew create r !; he
seized the old man again. You thought
it, was the Miwaka!' Alan excla lined.
"The MiWaka And you tried to steer
through it~a again. = -%
5"Thegsfiwaka y, old iBurr's lips oreit-
Grated the word. YES; yes-thess Mi
waka Pr s, ST.. VI. S.z4: = i. NJ
He struggled, writing with some
agony not physical. Allan 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 lie was
about to follow. and he turned hack to
the wheelhouse. $ Va .t.. 5'. iaSS>% a \
The second officer, who had gone be-
low to 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
flooded instantly; the bulkheads were
.holding-only leaking a little, thu. off,
Ger declared. Water was coming into
a. third compartment, that ut the sstern
the pumps were fighting this water.
The shock had sprung seams else.
where; but II the after compartment
did not fill, the pumps might nand'le
the rest. ii. 20 y d w (, =. Z LIZA
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
it or not, ran HOtous 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 him !. I've found him r
Alan held no longer possibility Of
doubt Of old, Burr's identity with Ben
jamin C0rvet, since the old man had
made plain to him that he was haunt
ed by the Miwaka. Since that night
in the house on Aston street. when
Spearlnan shouted to Allan that name,
everything having to do with the Sc.
cret Of Beiljamin Corvet's life had led,
SO far as Alan could follow 1t. to the
Miwaka; all the chang which Sher.
rill described but could not account
for. 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
mans cry Alan had found tl,p yli01