The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1922-06-08

MIN, Dut now the OLD man was besids
himself with dismay. He broke ava,
and started aft. The captains voice
recalled Alan to himself, as he was
about to follow, and he turned hack +.
the wheelhouse.
The second officer, who had gone no.
low TO ascertain the damage done tc
the ferry, came up to report. Two o1
the compartments, those which had
taken the crush of the collision, had
flooded instantly; the bulkheads were
holding-only leaking 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 IL the after compartment
did not fill, the pumps might handle
the rest.
Alan was ut the bow again on look
out duty, ordered to listen and to look
Tor the little boats. He gave to that
outy all his conscious attention: bur
through his thought, whether he w1lled
IL or not, ran riOtous exultation. As
he paced from side to side and hailed
and answered halls from the bridge
ana while he strained for sight and
hearing through the gale-swept snow.
the leaping pulse within repeated
I've found him! I've found him !"
Alan held no longer possibility Of
doubt OF old Burr's identity with Ben
1amin Corvet, since the old man had
made plain to him that he was haunt
60 Dy the Miwaka. Since that night
III fne 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,
80 far as Alan could follow 1t, to the
Miwaka; all the change, which Sher-
riu 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 or some awful sort In the old
mans cry. Alan had found the man
who had sent him away to Kansas
when he was child, who had support
ed him there and then, at last, sent
FOR him; who had disappeared at his
coming and left him all his posses
sions and his heritage of disgrace, who
had paid blackmail to Luke, and who
had sent, last, Captain Stafford's
watch and the ring which came with
1.-THE wedding ring.
Alan pulled his hand from his glove
ana felt In his pocket for the little
Dand of gold What would that mean
10 MIN now; what Of that was he to
learnT And, as he thought Of that,
constance Sheriff. 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 to care for
i1enry 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 I'm the
port compartment aft; for the bow
steadily was lifting, the stern sinking.
The starboard rail too was raised and
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, a desperate in
sistence throbbing In the thrusts of
the engines; for Number Is was flee
ing-fieeing 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: 1t was
two o'clock. Relief should have come
long before; but no one came. He
was hunDed now; ice from the spray
cracked upon his clothing when he
moved, and 1t fell In flakes upon the
deck. The stark figure on the bridge
was that Of the second officer; so the
thing which was happening below
the thing which was sending strange,
violent, wanton tremors through the
ship-was serious enough to call the
skipper below, to make him abandon
the bridge at this time! The tremOrs.
quite distinct from the steady tremble
OF the engines and the thudding of the
pumps, came again. Alan. feeling
them, jerked up and stamped and beat
MS arms to regain sensation. Some
one stumbled toward him from the
cabins now, n short figure in great
coat 1t was woman, he saw as she
hailed him-the cabin maid.
"1'm taking your place !" she shouted
TO Alan. You're wanted-every ones
wanted on the car deck! The cars"
Ihe gale and her fright stopped her
voice as she struggled for speech,
The cars-the cars are looss!"