Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1922-06-15


scrambling 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
ut was a Ship" he said he seemed
speaking more to himself than to Alan.
yes" Alan said. 1T was a 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 it ten times, twenty times,
every few minutes; and then-that
time it was ship"
Alan's excitement grew greater; he
seized the old man again. "YOu thought
it was the Miwaka !" Alan exclaimed.
1.-The Miwaka! And you tried to steer
through it again."
'The Miwaka!' old Burr's lips reil-
Grated the word. "Yes; yes-the Mi
Waka !"
He struggled writing 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 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
tlootNl instantly; the bulkheads were
holdng-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 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
it or not, ran rotous eXultation. AS
he paced from side to side and hailed
and answered halls from the bridge,
and while he strs ined for sight aad
hearing through TIE gale-swept snos
1--WE found him. I've found hin. :"
Alan held no longer possibility Of
doubt Of old Burr's identity with Ben
Jamin 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 .tstor street, when
Spearman shouted 10 Alan that name,
everything having to do with the Sc
cret of Benjamin Corvet's life had led,
so far as Alan could follow it, to the
MiWaka; all the change, which Sher-
rill described but could not account
for, Alan had laid to that. Corvet
only could have been so haunted by
that gh0stly ship, and there had been
guilt OF some awful sort in the old
mans cry. Alan had found the man
who had sent him away to Kansas
when he was a 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 puiled his hand from his glove
ana felt in his pocket for the little
! band Of gold. What would that mean
TO him now; what of that was he to
! learn? And, as he thought of chat,
| Constance Sheriff. came more insist
entity before him. What was he to
learn for her, for his friend and Ben
! jamin COrvets friend, whom he Uncle
Benny, had warned not to 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 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, Il desperate in
sistence throbbing in the thrusts OF
the engines; for Number % was flee
ing-tleeing for the western shore. She
dared not tCrn to the nearer eastern
shore to expose that shattered sterr
to the seas.
Four bells beat behind Alan; It wa.
two o'clock. Relief should have come
long before; but no one came. liz
was numbed now; ICE from the SPRAY
cracked upon his clothing when h,
moved, and 1t fell In flakes upon thu
deck. The stark figure on the brdg,