Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-11-30
CHAPTER XIII
The Ebb-tide Runs

The coracle-as / had ample rea-
son to know before I was done with
her-was a very safe boat for a per-
son of my height and weight, both
! buoyant and clever in a seaway; but
she was the most crOss-grained, lop-
sided craft to manage. Do as you
| pleased, she always made more lee
way than anything else, and turning
round and round was the maneuver
/ she was best at. Even Ben Gum
himself admitted that she was "queer
to handle till you knew her way"
Certainly l did not know her way.
She turned in every direction but
the one / was bound to go; the most
part of the time we were broadside
on, and l am sure l never should
have made the ship at all but for the
tide. By good fortune, paddle as
pleased, the tide was still sweeping
me down; and there lay the His
PAMELA right in the fair way, hardly
to be missed.
First she doomed before me like a.
blot of something yet blacker than
darkness, then her spars and hulsbe-
gan to take shape, and the next mo-
ment, as it seemed (for further II
went the brisker grew the current
of the ebb), l was alongside of her
hawser, and had laid hold.
The hawser was as taut as a bow
string-so strong she pulled upon
her anchor. All round the hull, in
the blackness, the ripping current
dubbed and chartered like a little
mountain stream. One cut with my
sea gully, and the Hispaniola would
go humming down the tide.
So far so good but it next oc-
CURED to my recollection that taut
hawser, suddenly cut, is a thing as
dangerous as a kicking horse. Ten
to one, if / were so fOOlhardy as to |
cut the Hispaniola from her anchor, |
I and the coracle would be knocked |
clean out of the water.
This brought me to a full stop, and |
if fortune had not again particularly |
favored me, l should have had to
abandon my design. But the light |
airs which had begun blowing from
the southeast and south had hauled
round after nightfall into the south
west Just while / was meditating,
a puff came, caught the Hispaniola,
and forced her up into the current;
and to my great joy, / felt the haw-
er slacken in my grasp, and the
hand by which l held it dip for
second under water.
With that l made my mind up,
took out my gully, opened 1t with
ny teeth, and cut one strand after
another, till the vessel swung by
.wo Then l lay quiet, waiting toI
sever these last when the strain
should be once more lightened by
/ breath of wind.
All this time I had heard the
ound of loud voices from the cabin,
tut, to say the truth, my mind had
,een so entirely taken up with other
thoughts that ! had scarcely given
Ear. Now, however, when l had
else to do, l began to pay !
more heed. &
One 1 recognized for the cock
wain's, Israel Hands, that had been a
limits gunner in former days. The
Their was, of course, my friend Of
he red night-cap. Both men were
lainly the worse for drink, and they
we're still drinking; for, even while
was listening, one Of them, with
drunken cry, opened the stern
yindOw and threw out something, a
rhich I OWNED to be an empty bot G.
lie. But they were not only tipsy, 7
was plain that they were furiously Fl
ngry Oaths flew like hailstones, S
nd every now and then there came 81
)rth such an explosion as l thought a
-as sure to end in blows But each
me the quarrel passed off, and the "
oices grumbled lower for awhile, d
ntil the next crisis came, and, in its t,
i'm, passed away without result g
On shore / could see the glow Of s,
le great campfire burning warmly "
trough the shore-side trees. Some p
ne was singing a dull, old, droning
iilor's song, with a droop and a A
laver at the end of every verse, and 81
no end to it at all but the b
thence of the singer. I had heard f;
on the voyage more than once, and S,