Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-11-13
THE SEA HAWK
BY RAFAEL SABATINI
published by Arrangement With First National Pictures
Inc Copyrighted by Houghton- Miffln Company
OFF EDTgER Vt Continued

|
| CHAPTER X-Continucd
! IN HE galley to which our gentleman was
dispatched was vessel of fifty oars,
each manned by seven men. They were
| seated upon sort of staircase that followed
! the gangway in the vessels middle down to
| the shallow bulWarks.
The place allotted to Sir oliver was that
! next the gangWay. Here stark naked as
when he was born, he was chained to the
bench, and in those chains he remained
without q single moments intermission for
SIX whole months
Between himself and the hard timbers of
his seat there was naught but a 1imsy and
dirty sheepskin. From end to end the bench
was not more than ten feet in length, whilst
the distance separating it from the next one
w@S bare four feet. In that Cramped
space of ten feet by four, Sir Oliver and his
six oar-mates had their miserable existence,
waking and sleeping-for they slept in their
chains at the oar without sufficient room
in which to lie at stretch.
Anon Sir Oliver became hardened and
Injured to that unspeakable existence, that
living death of the galey-slave. But. that
first long voyage to Naples was ever to re-
main the most terrible experience of his life
For spells of six or eight endless hours at a
time and one one occasion for no less than
ten hours did he pull at his oar without a
single moments pause. With one foot on
the stretcher, the other on the bench in
front of him grasping his part Of that APP
pallingly heavy fifteen-foot oar he would
bend his back to thrust forward-and up
ward so to clear the shoulders of the groan-
ing, sweating slaves in front of him-then he
would lift the end so as to bring the blade
down to the water, and having gripped he
would rise from his seat to throw his full
weight into the pull, and so fall back with
clank Of chain upon the groaning bench to
swing forward once more, and SO on until
his senses reeled his sight became blurred
his mouth parched, and his whole body liv-
ing. straining ache. Then would come the
sharp, fierce cut of the boatswain's whip to
revive energies that tagged however little,
and sometimes to leave bleeding stripe
upon his naked back.
Thus day in day out, now brOiled and
blistered by the pitiIess southern sun, now
chilled by the night deWs whilst he took his
cramped and undressing rest, indescrIDably
filthy and dishevelled, his hair and beard
matted with endless sweat, unwashed save
by the rains which in that season were all
too rare, choked almost by the stencil Of his
miserable comrades and infested by filthy
crawling things begotton Of decaying sheep
skins and Heaven alone knows what other
fOuness of that floating hell.
He was sparingly fed upon weeviled bis
cult and vile messes of tallowy rice, and to
drink he was given lukeWarm water that
was often stale, saving that sometimes when
the spell of rowing was more than usually
Jumps Of bread sodden in wine into the
mouths of the toiling slaves to sustain them.
The scuryy broke out that voyage and
there We're other diseases among the rOWers,
to say nothing of the fostering sores begot-
ten of the friction of the bench which were
common to all, and which each must endure
as best he could. With the slave whose dis
ease conquered him or who reaching the
limit of his endurance, permitted himself to
sWoon the bOatsWain had a short way. The
diseased were flung overheard; the sWoonlng
were dragged out upon the gangWay or
bridge and fogged there to revive them; II
they did not revive they were logged on un-
til they were a horrid bleeding pulp which
was then heayed into the sea.
Once or twice when they stood to windward
the smell of the slaves being waited abaft
and reacing the fine giIded poop where the
Infanta and her attendants Travelled, the
heImsmen were ordered to put about, and
foE long weary hours the slaves would hold
the galley in position, backing her up gently
against the wind so as not to lose way.
The. number that died in the first week
of that voyage amounted to close upon
quarter of the total But there were re-
serves in the PROV, and these were drawn
upon to fill the empty places. None but the
fttest could survive this terrible ordeal
OF these was Sir Oliver and of these too,
was his immediate neighbor at the oar, a
stalwart, powerful, impressive, accomplishing
stoicism that aroused Sir divers admra-
ton For days they exchanged no single
word together. their religions marking them
out they thought for enemies despite the
fact that they were fellows in misfortune
But one evening when aged Jew who had
collapsed in merciful Inconsistencies was
dragged out and 1ogged in the usual man
ner, Sir Oliver was filled with such pas
sion at all this inhumanity and at the cold
pitiIessness of it all that aloud he cursed all
Christians in general and Spaniards in par
ticular.
He turned to the Moor beside him, and
addressing him in Spanish:
HELL" he said was surely made for
Christians, which may be why they seek to
make earth like it.
Fortunately for him the creak and dip Of
the oars, the clank of the chains, and the
lashes beating sharply upon that Wretched
Jew were sufficient to muffe his voice. But
the Moor heard him, and his dark eyes
cleaned.
"There is a furnace seven times heated
awaiting them 0 my brother" he replied,
with a confidence which seemed to be the
source of his present stoicism. But art
thou, them not a Christian?
He spoke in that queer language OF the
North African seaboard, that lingua franca
which sounded like some French dialect IN
terspersed with Arabic words But Sir OIlYeG
made out his meaning almost by intuition
He answered him in Spanish again. since al
though the Moor did not appear TO speak II,
vet it was plain he understood it.
Il renounce from this hour he answered
in his passion. u will acknowledge no re-
Iigion in whose name such things are done
He groWled an obscene oath as he heaVeo