Evening star., 1940-11-24

phrasngs swearing under his breath. In the
end he tore up his last blank and stalked out
The Maria" he said, aloud. That cranky
little frcighthousc He ought to have had the
Gloriana. And Glazer sees that he gets an
anchor showed down his throat when he's
only ffty-nine! It's no compliment to tell
him he ought to have my little ship
He went to the Maria.
The master who had been killed by the bus
had been quite as casual atloat as ashore.
That had bred bad habits in the mate and the
crew. She was a slack ship and none too well
found
wO days behind the Gloriana the old
Maria left the Catano range astern and sank
the Crinkled mountains under. AT New York
they would turn the GlOrlana around and
head her southwark again before the Maria,
fat and slow with full cargo, raised the
Navesink light.
WiCkwire kept his crew at it in that faIr
weather run, chipping rust. slappng on red
lead, cleaning paint and renewing what he
could of cargo gear.
On the way north ne found time then to
wonder if Glazer would have something un-
pleasant rugged for him in New York 1t was
Glazer, not the old man, who had kept golnp
that ancient feud. and had capped it by refus
ing to have the senior Nlckwirc as his CHIEF
officer in the Gloriana. Glazer insisted to
PurviS. who was Somers & Co.. and old him
self that it was proper to have an oldish man
of Judgment as a master But ii was a danger
to the ship to have an old man as mate. He
had made that stick and Purvis had retired
Robert Wickwire on a pension.
Though Alan Wckwire had been ten when
the trouble started he later had blasted the
facts out of his father, who was solitary man
and needed badly someone to whom to talk
freely. Alan's imagination and his father :
vivid words had made it seem almost as If the
thing had happened to himself, Alan remem-
bered it through all his own years at sea
1t was a matter of Somers ship in which
Robert Wickwire was mate on a dirty black
day southwest of Bermuda. A hurricane had
recurved, and they were on the dangerous
side of the twister. AS the dirty black day
became a dirtier black night, the ship, stern
on to the smashing seas, took too much green
water on the after deck Number four hatch
was the weak spot, and the hatch covers were
wood
The Old Man mstrusted his forward
matches, which had already taken beating
and didn't want to try to get her around to
face the gale
Wickwire had led gang of desperate men
down to the after well deck. They played tae
there with roaring death, and fumbled in the
pitching blackness with tarpaulinS, battens
wedges and mallets But they had almost
done the job when giant sea crashed dow
onto Number Five hatch. The covers went
the hatch was stove in, leaving gaping hole
in the deck of the ship.
Wickwire grabbed Glazer, then the second
mate, by the arm.
Tell the Old Man Number Five has gone
he shouted Hes got to get her round! 1t
our only chance"
Glazer nodded and vanished; but the Old
Man never got that message. Twenty minutes
later, with two men swept oversize. seas surg
ing into the hold and the job still hopeless,
WiCkwire sent another messenger; this time
it was ROurke.
j HE Old Man couldn't get her around then
The weight of water in the after holds kept
her stern to the gale and her lighter bow away