Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1934-07-27

| open bridge, and seymour S arm 1aSI-
ened about his shoulders; he was
drawn aside as if an octopus had seiz-
ed him.
at didn't work." painted the mate
of the Minotour. He was incredibly
bruised, and his hands were lacerated;
and he was in a blazing temper, as a
man must naturally be who has es-
capped murder. Burridge's mouth open
ed and shut like that of a landed fish;
no words escaped him. Brutal as he
was, he was also superstitious. I'm
mediately his fancy was that his vic
TINS ghost was there in accusation.
keep off" the Captain presently
muttered hoarsely. He twisted free
and aimed a short-arm blow at the
shadowy figure that was solid enough
to disprove his fears. The lurch of
the ship helped him and Seymour
slithered down to leeward. But he
was up again like a cat, and his reach
ing hands tore Burridge's slicker from
shoulder to hem.
keep off," half-screamed the skip
per. They closed and fought in crazy
wrangle, that had neither science nor
plan; each man cropping for the up
per hand. Burridge went down but
got his feet into Seymour's stomach,
Tending him off with the drive Of
steam-hammer. Yet the mate re-
bounded.
When a lurch of the ship separated
them, the Captain scrambled down
the ladder to his cabin, where he
locked himself in and drank a full
bottle Of whiskey almost without
drawing breath. He grew valiant, hic-
coughing to himself what he would do
to the blankety-blank mate. He hunt
ed for his pistol, but the liquor stop
ped him before he found it, and he
slumped to his floor in six inches of
sluicing water.
Seymour pulled himself together,
not yet over the feeling that he was a
dead man. The worst of this sort of
seagoing was that you get no let-up.
After what he'd been through he de-
served rest; but he had to keep
going. There was the ship to con-
slider. A mans comfort, even his life,
was not his own affair under such
circumstances. But he wasn't aware
that he'd change his present lot with
any soft-handed shoregoer, either. He
warped himself to the wheelhouse.
Flows she going, Hodgson?" he
asked. The helmsman let out yelp
Of amazement.
Thought you was dead. Mister!''
he gasped after a wait.
"Not by long shot,"
1t would be easy to acuse Burridge,
under charge Of attempted murder.
Burridge would go to Jail, and his job
would be vacant. But the conditions
of this type of seafaring tended to
make a man his own arbitrator. Like
most sailors, Seymour was shy of
land-laws. He could lick Burridge in
to FRAGILE, but he wouldn't denounce
him to authority.
"Old man said you was over the
side" said Hodgson. "Me-I was
thinkin' he'd put you there, sir"
Seymour had lot to think Of dur
la, of 10 al. L,
relief appeared he told him to rouse
out the skipper, since the conditions
required his presence on top. The sec
ond mate returned to report the
skipper sodden-drunk.
Here, if he wished to avail himself
of it, was another strong weapon in
Seymour's hands. A shipmaster who
was incapacitated by his own appetite
from taking control in a position of
peril--he had witnesses, too. The
worn-out second mate hadn't any
cause to love Burridge. However, Sey-
mour was in fighting mood still. Old
Ben Rickett was sort of glorified
Burrldge-a manifested and buckO
tyrant, and he was out to beat him at
his own game. Well, then, what was
the harm in training on Burridge? A
man didn't gain lot by easy victory
that in way was treacherous. A man
fought. 1t was sort of like working
up to championship class. The pre-
liminary bouts hardened you for the
finals.
"Well, he's got lot to worry him."
he said anent Burridge's state, and
stayed on the bridge, humoring the
Minotaur through the worst of the
flurries. And there were some fur
ries. Short of tying knot in herself,
the ship tried everything.
But the morning . breaking a
livid yellow, with low-hanging black