Adventure, January 20, 1922 — page 142: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

140 “Hang tight a bit now, shipmate, and out you'll come.” Snappy, with his eye to one of the small, round holes, followed the man’s every move- ment as he splashed about in the hip-deep water, evidently looking for something heavy enough to smash the lock. “Why, it’s Mosquito,” he exclaimed sur- prizedly as the man’s face came into view. “Of all things—I thought it was Dinny, the Jimmy-Legs.”’ A moment later Mosquito was back with an ax which he luckily located resting on the top of the locker which belonged to the chief carpenter’s mate. ‘Two well-directed blows parted the heavy lock and the next instant the corporal of the guard and the gunner’s mate stood face to face in the waist-deep water. “Speed ’er up and follow me, Snappy,” he advised, as he struck out determinedly toward the nearest ladder leading to the gun-deck. ‘Almost everybody who wasn’t killed outright by the two explosions was already in the boats or in the water when I climbed back aboard—Yuh see, I was al- ready in a life-boat. I asked the men in the boat if they seen anything of you. None of ’em had, but several said that Dinny, the Jimmy-Legs, was killed in the first ex- plosion—the shifting of the boat-deck’s load of lumber ended him along with a lot of others.” The gunner’s mate was half swimming, half walking, struggling through the rushing water with the determined Snappy close at his heels, but never once did he slacken his speed or his words. “T couldn’t bear to think of you drowning like a rat down there, Snap, so I beat it back aboard—up a sea-ladder. Some of those birds tried to hold me back—even the skipper yelled at me to come back, but I kept goin’. Reckon [ll hear about it for disobeyin’ orders, but I—well—lI knew that if Dinny was killed in the first explosion that you was still down there.” Once safe on the ladder he turned and smiled at the pale-faced corporal of the guard who clambered up at his heels. “T didn’t get to you a minute too soon, eh, Snappy? Take a look—quick.” They turned and looked back. The water was. already surging within a few inches of the top of the brig door. Snappy shuddered. He had the true seaman’s dread of death by drowning. Mosquito voiced the thought Adventure in the mind of both—“‘like a rat in a rain barrel’”—as they scrambled on to the top of the ladder and along the port side of the gun-deck. The water was already pouring into the starboard six-inch gun ports where the gun crews had long before deserted their dan- gerous posts. Both men kept close to the port bulkhead, scurrying along with the last of the port six-inch batteries’ crews who had stood by their guns to the last. Gaining the deck of the port gallery, they stopped momentarily to ascertain the safest means of reaching the water. The monster cruiser was by this time lying fairly on its starboard side, and the twenty or more men remaining on the sink- ing vessel were perched perilously upon the sharp ridge formed by the upper decks of the ship and the port side of the hull. Some of them were crawling toward the water Gn the port side of the hull, and more fol- lowed their daring example as the decks of the ship presented a more and more perpen- dicular aspect as the moments flew by. Some of the remaining men were jumping clear into the sea, but as the cruiser turned slowly like a monster dying fish, this became almost a physical impossibility. Several struck their heads on the armor-belt in attempting to jump clear, crushing their skulls or breaking their necks. The more cautious, Snappy included, lay upon their backs or bellies and slid to the sea, feet first, like playing beavers. Snappy shook the water from his eyes and face as his head appeared above the surface, and looked about quickly, sizing up the situation. He noticed that several commissioned officers were in the water near him, organizing the men in the water and shouting advice and instructions to the few still on board. Then he tried to locate the courageous Mosquito, but the gunner’s mate was no- where in sight; then he swam about in a circle endeavoring to locate a floating spar or mess table to buoy him up until rescuers should appear, but everything of the kind was in use. He realized that he was growing weaker because of loss of blood from the wound in his head, and that in this condi- tion he could not stay afloat long without something to aid him. On his right a mess table was surrounded by three swimming men—there was no chance for another there. A few feet away CORNICLOO S (C@