Evening star., 1925-06-14

reef. All that can be done is to pull,
and pull for life.
Every wave that strikes seems as If
1t will break the bottom out Of her,
and 1t is certain that with full sail on
her in a few moments she will turn
turtle.
Lay on her, boys, lay on herr
And how they lay on her! There
is no way to stand firm on that deck,
for 1t is tilted far over at a Shoot-the-
chutes angle, and no shoot-the.chutes
was ever more slippery. Impossible
but they do it. Nobody whines, no.
body loses his head except the fright
ened mess-boys who are clinging on
forward. one of them down on his
knees either trying to pray or knocked
there by the last wave.
Macs New England twang sounds
slow and undisturbed, in regular ca
dence: "Heave-heave-heav And
somehow, with the word, they grip
that sliding slippery deck with their
bare feet and heave away. Some one
starts an old chanty, sung on the
Wisdom of a hundred up-anchors.
On the last word the boom gives the
last few precious inches, and Is in.
And now they swing on the down
haul; and now, struggling and fight
ing, the big brown canvas starts
gives a tremendous forward lurch.
Sinking? No! She's off! She's off!
X *
WITH that she slides over the sand
w bar. but the mizzensail jibes; the
boom tackle holds. and the mizzensail
rips to tatters. For long breathless
second the ship rests on the back of a
swell; then the swell rolls forward,
the ship slides down It's side and the
stern strikes bottom with a gut-shat-
tering shock.
It is evident that the depth inside
the bar is less than the ships present
draught. And we soon realized why.
and at what cost. At that last tre-
mendous jar the entire lotion lead
keel, which had enabled the Wisdom
to carry heavy canvas, has been torn
Off and now remains stuck in the
sand bar while the ship floats clear.
Only If il is now low tide, and the
tide Is coming in, have we q chance
in a thousand Of finding an opening
out through the bar at dawn; IL the
tide Is high and running out, we can
never make 1t.
But there is not time to think of
that now. for the ship is being blown
farther shoreward. So: Let go the
anchor" They heave up that 500
pound anchor from the shocks as If
it were a thistle, and over she goes
and down she goes-and holds.
For the moment we are safe, for the
sand bar breaks the heavy surf, and
here inside the bar is only a deep
swell, but even this swell let's the
Wisdom down on the bottom with
terrific crashes. The stern Is taking
the heaviest blows. so we pump our
drinking water, which Is in the after
Nny rf fr1,n r,fS eli
shift the stores from the lazaret to
the forecastle deck
There is nothing to do now but
shoot distress rockets-which fizzle
disnally-and wait for the dawn, and
hope.
On the shore light fickered along
the sands. And I remembered what
had been told at Alden by men
whose business II was to sail the
Arabian coast. Its a bad place to be
wrecked on" they said. THE Be
douins will do you in for the loot on
your ship without the slightest COM
puction if they think they can get
away with it.
So I directed Cooper and Dresser,
the Dane, to get the guns ready, and
Schoedsack to solder up our motion
picture film. for 1 was determined to
save that anyway.
~ l.
to see how things were there, and as I
was on the stairs the Wisdom struck
bottom with a f1ercer jar than usual,
and l was thrown against the banis.
ters. These gave way. and / hurtled
down, landing on my back. ] picked
myself up gingerly, and, cursing.
crawled to a seat and looked around.
I considered our predicament. The
Wisdom was still pounding on the
t,I hoft f4, ~ ,rt ~
she would already have broken up.
I hoped it was low tide, but, even if
was, there was little chance of find
ing an opening on the bar through
which to escape to deep water. Also,
she was already taking in much
water, for the pounding had opened
up her seams; and l could hear the
steady rhythm of the pumps now. as
Taylor was working the men above
to keep her afloat
THE question was to prepare for
l. her breaking up or becoming
stranded. If we were forced to land,
should we make an armed camp and
send the dory the hundred miles down
the coast for help. or should we try to
march along the coast ourselves?
Either chance looked pretty bad If
the natives lived up to their reputa-
ton.
And what of the f1ickering light on
shore? Did that mean hostile Be.
douins already? And what the devil
had happened to that lighthouse, with
it's brilliant white light flashing it's
message of warning 19 miles out to
sea? Why didn't any one see it?
Every few seconds my thoughts
we're interrupted by the heavy crash
of the keel on the bottom, followed by