Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-10-21
CHAPTER XIV.


Into two-hour watches, I was ur
and vigilant myself most OF the time
until my eyes began to fail. Now
because Of that and my genera
! physical condition, I was forced tt
let the. man on watch take full re-
sponsibility for the boat while
conserved my dwindling energy fol
my own two-hour shift. Thus I lay
on the forward thwart this 34tk
morning, turning uneasily under the
sun 80 that my body would burn
evenly and I would not suffer un-
! necessarily from overexposure Of any
: one area more than another. Gene
was on watch; Tony was lying in the
. bottom trying to shade his face
: his delirium when he heard the
music seemed to have passed.
. It was about 10 o'clock. The sky
was hot and clear as a blue flame
. The wind was steady and the boat
was rising and falling slowly on
. long. gentle swells. The sun was
. Just now approaching the fullness
Of It's anger.
We topped a wave and in that
: brief instant while we seemed to
hang suspended before the long
downward slide began, Gene spoke
for the first time since taking the
watch.
Chief" he said, II see a beautiful
/. field of corn"
I didn't even look up. thought
, sadly that the boys mind had finally
. gone and I wished he had taken
!. my advice to cover his head when
we first went into the raft.
. Without moving cast my eyes
about the sea, but we were in the
trough and I saw only the rumpled
8 carpet Of waves. It was possible
said to myself. that Gene was
seeing a mirage; the sun does play
tricks on you sometimes. AT any
rate I was not surprised that Gene
was affected. There was nothing !
could do for him, so paid no more
attention.
Finally See Land.
After a few minutes, when we had
. risen to the next crest, he spoke
again insistently: Sure enough,
chief!-I see something green in the
|, distance!" ~ --.,a
With this statement, so nationally
. ,,,,% 4,, I,;e HHicea,,r} MI II do nm n
upon me suddenly that perhaps he
did see something. I looked hard,
but could still see nothing In the
tumbling sea. Tony was looking,
too, but had not spoken. I tried to
stand up and found I couldn't bal
ance on my cramped and crooked
legs. I asked the boys to hold me
upright.
We stood, the three of us, in the
center Of the boat, the boys each
with one hand against the side and
an arm around my waist, holding
me erect with their shoulders while
I steadied myself with arms around
their necks. =
We came to the summit of the
next large swell. Sure enough, in
the distance I could see something
green. AS Gene had said, it was
beautiful. I instantly recognized it
as an island, one of the low, verdant
atolls of the far South Sea. I let
out a hoarse whoop and turned to
Gene, Tightening my arm about his
neck.
Boy" I said exultantly, you
have won yourself a dinner"
Tony took a deep breath and let
1t 60 out noisily, trying to repress
his joy.
! WELL" he said, thank God-and
IT'S about time"
! We were still far of. The island
appeared as a low shelf of green
coconut trees, I guessed, and I was
right Charities, we had no idea
what the island was, whether it was
inhabited, or whether 1t was in
friend or enemy's hands.
Have to Row.
The wind had risen strongly
making long and prominent streaks
on the water, which gave me an
excellent gauge of the exact wind
direction. 1 took a bearing on the
island, compared it with the wind
direction, and found that our course
Of drift was carrying us about 10
degrees to the right of the island.
We realized, Of course, that this
was our God-given chance for
refuge, SO, weak as we were, we saw
nothing for it but to row. I took
the port side Of the raft. using our
one remaining shoe paddle. Gene
and Tony padded together on the
starboard side, using their hands
only.
We turned to with a will, rowing
across the wind to make up for the
distance by which the wind would
cause us to miss the island If we
simply drifted. In this manner we
we're able to make about one knot
across the wind while we were be-
Ing driven about five knots down.
wind.
It was fortunate indeed that we
were able to see the island from
such q distance. II we had been
much closer when we began to row,
the wind would have taken us past
It because we would not have been
able, by our feeble padding, to
compensate sufficiently for the
DRIFT.
We rowed all day, exactly across
wind at 90 degrees to our sailing
direction. kept watching the island
at intervals. We found it better to
row facing the stern Of the raft,
pushing the water behind the boat
with a forward sweep Of our arms,
20 I had to stop rowing occasionally
and turn to keep my bearing.
Two Islands Ahead.
At first we thought there was
only one island, but as we ap-
preached we saw that there were
two, with q wide gap of water be-
tween. It was. seasy to make =
choice. We took the nearer island
BY o'clock our progress was
visible. The waves were longer and
crested In knifelike ridges that
eurled and broke In . thunderous
Gush Of white foam. There was
danger Of our tipping over any time