Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-17
The Covenant of the CraddOcks
By Albert Richard Wetjen
Fire and Mutiny.

off his jacket, calmly. deliberately,
and stood in his singlet, serge pants
and canvas shoes.
The boatswain said at last:
You're going back, sir?"
"Of course said the captain,
vaguely astonished at the question.
A dozen hands went to stop him,
but he plunged oversize and reap
peared, swimming slowly toward the
Schooler.
For a moment the boat was chaos
pick him up. Others said to let him
go. He was crazy anyway, and 1t
would be one less to share the water.
The boatswain agreed at last, but
stood up and hurled a life belt after
the swimming man. The splash made
the captain turn. He saw the float
ing belt. stopped long enough to Sc
cure 1t, waved acknowledgment, and
then resumed swimming. A brief dis
cussion, and the boat started to crawl
to the westward.
The captain had gone perhaps
hundred yards when his strength be-
gan to fail. The first spasm Of his
nervous energy expended, he stop
ped swimming and rested on the life
belt, putting 1t on after some difficulty.
He was extremely weak. He must
have lost some blood. The boatswain
had said he had been unconscious
since the previous day, which meant
he had been without food for longer
than that.
He swan again, gritting his teeth.
He knew no fear. The confidence of
the Craddocks may have been the
germ from which grew that tale of
the old book when it was written-so
it was said--that the first of the fam.
lily had made covenant with the sea.
TT was perhaps hours later, when
the sun was on the very rim of
the world. that the captains tired
hands touched the Prince Shan's hull
and he pulled himself over the for.
ward rail that was almost submerged
when the ship gave a plunge. He
half rolled and was half washed to the
foremost and rested there while. con.
tinuing on hands and knees to where
the deck was SCARED near the main
hatch.
The life belt was in his way now.
He tried to get it off, but his hasty
knots. tied in the water, he could not
undo. He crept up to the poop and
then, with a feeling of relief. half
slipped. half fell below. He reached
the locker where the whisky was kept.
There was a bottle within, secure In
it's rack. and he drew the cork with
his teeth and drank slowly.
The spirit gave him heart. He
walked uncertainty to the desk and cut
free his life belt with the raZor.edged
Malay kris that was normally used as
paper weight.
He dropped to the chair before the
desk and relaxed his aching body.
vaguely annoyed because one of the
cabin doors was loose and banging
back and forth.
He rose at last and found beef
cubes, oatmeal, biscuits and tea. He
ate without zest, an ashen-faced fig
ure. blood and drying salt on his face
and clothes. unshaven and unwashed,
alone at his great table.
When he had finished, he stared
at the bulkhead and wondered why
he had come back. What could he
do on a laundering ship. alone, tired
and weak as he was? Was this the
friendliness Of the sea, the sea his
fathers had served all their lives? To
break him and his ship and cast them
into the ocean?
Deep within him something stirred
in protest. Something fluttered and
tried to surge in his veins, forcing
him to calmness, forcing him to have