The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-03-20
"HANDS!"
By Milford Flood

eat Rand SO, two days later We find Ted din
ing Tin his customary style) on board the
Fire Fly" New York to Australia.
Have you ever taken a long winter cruise?
Wasn't it delightful? How unusual, then, that
for this young man there was only one inter
csting sight among the many presented, and
that was-the furnace. The traits of Magel-
Ian he had seen dozen times; Honolulu, the
same. At Manila he took an extra shift for
a sick man; at Shanghai, he tainted with the
heat. Singapore, Bombay, Alexandria follow
ed ad nauseam. Not until he was fifty-four
hours out of Alexandria on the way to Aus
tralia was Ted's interest removed from his
torrid inferno.
Sometimes, in the long, long, long ago. a
steamship company would insist Npn sailing
vessel which had been condemned. Ted, with
his experience, had observed passively that the
Fire Fly" was another of the traps upon
which he occasionally found himself. It was
nothing unusual, and soon he had felt as much
at home as an Italian beside VesuviuS. But
this morning, the engines went wrong, with
a high sea running and the ship carrying
water.
''Hm-m-m. What's next on the program"
thought Ted.
| Stripped to his waist and bearing on his hip
the short revolver which most stokers affected
he squatted on his heels and watched the en-
gineers at their labors. Ship routine had taught
him what was now happening in all quarters
of the vessel. Sailors were putting up can
vas portly gentlemen and historical women
were imploring the officers, for the ship was
undoubtedly drifting; and men deeper within
the vessel were vaguely wondering how they
would act if
| Need we picture the events of the next few
seconds? They were not especially unusual
to Ted RuSten-danger was an old acquaint-
ance. The crash pitched him through the
door, lightning feet took him to the tilted deck
land q ninety7foot wave swept him into the sea-
At this juncture in our story you might re-
gard it necessary to delineate the phantasma-
goria which fitted thru Teds mind-the scenes
of his childhood, faces of the past, dreams un-
realized and goals postponed But there is
small value in anything but the truth, so why
depict the untrue? We could imagine that he
clutched broken spar or a floating trunk. He
did neither. Neither did he swim, altho he had
learned at the age of four when his brothers
threw him into ford We who are not sea-
men can only say that Ted allowed his native
lelement-the ocean-to handle him as it wish
ed; and such are the vagaries of fate that this
young man who did not especially care whe-
Their or not he existed soon found himself rid
ing the top of the wave, with his lungs full of
water and his arms full of limp faxen-haired
mermaid.
You are surprised? Well, so was Ted Rus
ten. Since our tale has long been devoid of
quotation Marks that criterion of the short
Istory, we should like to translate into words
some of Ted's initial sensations-sensations
because, you understand, he was too full of
water to express himself in words and too busy
with water to concern himself with thought
We are told that sensation is something which
we have never before experienced. Certainly
Ted had never before had such experiences, so
his impressions may safely be called sensations.
Let us enumerate some of them in chrome
logical order. Sensation number one: holding
young woman in his arms. Sensation num-
Der two: being completely responsible for her
life. Sensation number three noticing at close
range the enhancing beauty which that young
woman possessed.
| Now, most sensations result in emotions
That is why wave of tenderness swept over
Ted RuSten. followed bV an overwhelming urpe