Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-12-24

She laughed at the earnestness of
his voice, and then, with nod to the
steward and Henry, she ran along the
deck in the direction of her stateroom.
Trask followed his co-conspirators
as they led him in the direction of the
helps sleeping quarters. He was
dazed by the plan itself and its abrupt
translation into action. He still had
his doubts, yet 1t seemed his only
hope. They would search the ship for
him, of course, yet they would never
look for a uniformed waiter. A chance
recognition might be his undoing, but
he had to risk that.
1t was not until he was stretched
in a stuffy little bunk, somewhere in
the lower part of the ship, his mind
drowsy with approaching sleep, that
he remembered Keller!
He sat up abruptly and banged his
head against the berth above him.
i've deserted Keeler!" he muttered
as he rubbed the bump. 1.-THE poor
devil! 1 forgot all about him. And
they'll chuck him off at Key West
sure! Well, I'm afraid it's too late"
He settled back on the pillow again
and closed his eyes.
STILL" he told himself, I'D be will
ing to make small bet that they
won't get Keller off this ship-as long
as I'm on 1t. 1 don't know how he'll
manage it, but I've a bunch that he
will"
A waiting" Game.
1t was not even Z o'clock as Trask
stood swaying dizzily in the dining
saloon of the second cabin, yet 1t
seemed like "a hours of eternity since
he had been thrown violently out of
| his bunk at 5 o'clock.
No human hand had aroused him
from slumber. The Gulf Stream her.
self had called him into wakefulness.
| He had been tossed sidewise to the
floor Of the bunk room, thus ending
| a vivid dream, in which Sidney Sands
was the chief actor in an adventure
wherin Capt. Blodgett played a heavy
and ferOciouS villain. 1t had been an
almost impossible task to dress, what
with being pitched from side to side
| between narrowly spaced berths and
alternately catapulted back and forth
along the alleyway that ran between
them.
He managed it somehow, marveling
at the change wrought between dark
ness and dawn.
| The look of the sea appalled, him as
he reached the saloon, where his days
labor lay ahead Of him. Through a
| tightly bolted portfolio he saw swiftly
moving gray mountains, crested as
| though with snow. They hurled them
| selves with terrifying velocity against
| the sides Of the Gulf Stream. Under
each successive blow she staggered
and reeled heavily, until every joint in
| her inner carpentry groaned and
shrieked in q wall that sounded like a
dirge.
The sky. as he peered upward, was
a mixture of slaty green. dirty white
| and motley drab. 1t was a sick-look.
| Ing sky, symptomatic of something
| ominously i'll in the heavens. No rain
| came out of 1t, just a Stupendous blast
of wind, alternately slackening and
accelerating. until 1t managed, with
vicious cunning, to buffet the Gulf
| Stream with full fury as the roll of
the seas canted her toward it.
The decks were awash with foam
| and water. now and again bearing tor
rents that rushed forward and aft
with the velocity of mountain streams
white with eddies. cold and PREACHER
| Gus as the icy rivers of the Labrador
country.
The Gulf was f1inging the tropic
| fury Of a hurricane against the steel
| sides of the ship, playing a gigantic
game of cat and mouse. as it paved
| her back and forth amid the frothy
| sea ridges.
IraSk, a DraSS-buttOned jacket cling
ing with uncomfortable tightness to
| his figure, q napkin over his left fore
arm, steadied himself against the pre-
carious support of a swivel chair that
was bolted to the floor and tried to
| find his sea legs.
He realized that they were shocking
ly inadequate for the task. Given a
| fair chance, they might clear a 6-foot
| bar, but in this turmoil they were as
| weak and uncertain as those of a
year. old child.
were in little better case. They also
chung to the backs of chairs, fervently
| hoping that there would be no daring
candidates for breakfast amid the
racks that confined Gathering china
ware on the tables.
Worst 1 ever saw" Trask heard q
waiter say.
He did not dream of disputing the
statement. 1t was by far the worst
that Trask had ever imagined. AS for
| seeing, he had never beheld it's like
How this amazing thing had come
upon the ship during the hours of his
sleep bewildered and awed him. He
had gone to bed with a white moon
looking down upon a sea that was
scarcely ruffied in a lazy Southern
breeze. He had been awakened to look
upon the face of a raging Neptune,
with sea whipped into a fury that
drove the blood from his cheeks as he
looked upon it. a
Continued in Tomorrow's Starr