Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-11-30


too dolefully appropriate for a com
, pany that had met such cruel losses
i'm the morning. But, indeed, from
lwhat I saw, all these buccaneers were
as callous as the sea they sailed on.
= Al last the breeze came; the
! schooner sided and drew nearer in
the dark; l felt the hawser slacken
J once more. and with a good, tough
. effort, cut the last fibers through.
The breeze had but little action on
the coracle and was almost instant
ly swept against the bows of the His
PAMELA. At the same time the
schooner began to turn upon her
heel spinning slowly, end for end,
across the current.
I wrought like a fiend, for | ex-
pected at every moment to be
swamped; and since | found / could
not push the coracle directly off,
now showed straight astern. At
length / was clear of my dangerous
neighbor and just as l gave the last
! impulsion, my hands came across a
/ light cord that was trailing over
board across the stern bulwarks. In
stantly | grasped it.
Why / should have done so l can
| hardly say. 1t was at first mere in
! stinct, but once I had it in my hands
and found il fast, curiosity began to
get the upper hand, and l determined
! l should have one look through the
cabin window.
| pulled in hand over hand on the
cord, and, when l judged myself near
enough, rose at infinite risk to about
| half my height, and thus commanded
the roof and a slice of the interior
of the cabin,
BY this time the schooner and her
little consort were gliding pretty
swiftly through the water; indeed,
we were already fetching up level
with the campfire. The ship was
talking as sailors say, loudly, tread
ing the innumerable ripples with an
incessant weltering splash; and un-
til / got my eye above the window
sill / could not comprehend why the
Watchmen had taken no alarm. One
glance, however, was sufficient; and
it was only one glance that / burst
take from that unsteady skiff. 1t
showed me Hands and his companion
locked together in deadly wrestle,
each with a hand upon the Others
throat.
l dropped upon the thwart again,
none too soon, for l was near over
board ! could see nothing for the
moment but these two furious faces, |
swaying together under the smoky |
lamp; and / shut my eyes to let them |
grow once more familiar with the
darkness.
The endless ballad had come to an
end at last, and the whole diminished
company about the campfire had
broken into the chorus l had heard |
so often:
Fifteen men on a dead mans
chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for
the rest
Yo-ho-ho and bottle of ruml''
/ was just thinking how busy
drink and the devil were at that very
moment in the cabin of the His
PAMELA, when / was surprised by a
sudden lurch of the coracle. At the
same moment she waved sharply ami
seemed to change her course. The
speed in the meantime had strangely
increased.
opened my eyes at once. All
around me were little ripplee, com
ing over with sharp, bristlingI
sound and slightly phosphorescent
The Hispaniola herself, a few yard
in whose wake | was still being
whirled along. seemed to stagger in
her course, and l saw her spars toss
a little against the blackness of the
night; nay, as / looked longer, l
made sure She also was wheeling TO {
the southwark.
uIauood ouoy. r,,rr oha,,IIaw o,I
my heart jumped against my ribs.
There, right behind me, was the glow Z
IF the campfire. The current had Z
round along with It the tall schooner
and the little dancing coracle; ever
luickening, ever bubbling higher
ever muttering louder, it went spin q
ling through the narrows for the {
open sea.
Suddenly the schooner in front OF
ne gave a violent yaw, turning, per
laps, through twenty degrees; ami
Utmost at the same moment one shout a
another from on board.
Ould hear feet pounding on the com Il
DaniOn ladder, and | knew that the h
wO drunkards had at last been in d
errupted in their quarrel and awak g
ned to a sense of their disaster.
/ lay down flat in the bottom OF n
hat wretched skiff and devoutly rec e
mmended my spirit to its Maker
It the end of the straits l made sure (
re must fall into some bar of rag o.
ng breakers, where all my troubles (
yould be ended speedily; and though 81
could perhaps bear to die, / could
ot bear to look upon my fate as it
pprOached l
So l must have lain for hours, con- I
nually beaten to and fro upon the m
flows, now and again wetted with Ct
lying sprays and never ceasing to Il
xpect death at the next plunge. OF
WEAKNESS grew upon me; Il
numbness, an occasional stupor, II
I'll upon my mind even in the midst
my terrors, until sleep at last in m
lrvened, and in my sea-tossed cor al
,le l lay and dreamed of home ana Oh
le old Admiral BenboW. 90
CHAPTER XIV so
70
The Cruise of the COracle ~