The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

THE THING THAT WAS CAISAR’S. low but penetrating voice, “‘ you'd bet- ter get Miss Downs ready for what may happen—’ ‘All right, sir. be?” The master’s face was grave as he replied slowly: ‘‘ Well, sir, we struck that derelict when we were running at full speed, an’ that’s a good eighteen knots. Maybe you can figure it out for yourself when I tell you that there're four plates started squarely under our bows—opened out like a cock-eyed Chinese lotus, sir — her garboard strake must be curled up like a shaving off a plank. “The two forward bulkheads have gone clean away, an’ God knows what else ails her. I mean to jettison the cargo out of the No. 3 hatch an’ fill the after-compartments with water, so’s to bring her head up so we can fother the bad plates with canvas to keep the water out—if we can. Great guns—there’s somethin’ else gone!” It was a sudden crash aft, followed by a dull whirring from the overhang where the screw was racing with the flutterings of a diseased heart. As they rushed aft they ran into the chief engineer. “By all the gods o’ Clyde,” he shouted, “if this is na the eend o’ the warld! She’s e’en picked up one of them damned logs with her screw, an’ there'll be no more blades to the pro- peller than there is hair on an egg— losh, man! If her back is na broke ’tis more than we can expect—” “How’re your engines holdin’ the intake; Mac?” “Hold, is it? My faith, man! We've pumped half the Pacific Ocean through her in the last half-hour. You’d better overhaul your boats, sir. We'll be in them afore two hours ha’ gone.’ He spat angrily into the breast of a great green comber that snapped aft along the side, hurling the hissing foam into his very face. The master walked heavily forward. Oakes went thoughtfully to the sa- And what'll that 599 loon deck, where Hemingway and Marjorie were standing. © CHAPTER VIII. THE day dragged on and passed with leaden feet. Early in the after- noon the crews of the different boats had been busily at work filling their tiny craft with the stores that belong there by the laws of the sea. Filling the bottoms of the boats with salt water to tighten the seams, stowing bread-bags, and filling water- casks, and the officers assigned to the command of each were kept busily at work, seeing that the full equipment was on hand, for even twenty - four hours in an open boat on the broad Pacific is apt to be no joke. An examination of the boat com- passes showed that not one was in a serviceable condition. One indeed had been fairly fused into an almost un- recognizable mass of scorched brass and twisted steel by the lightning. All day long Oakes and Heming- way stayed with. Marjorie, trying to hearten her up, for the strain was slowly but surely telling upon her, and she was more than ready now to lean upon Oakes and to look to him for assistance and directions. Dusk came, and along with it the sea, that had been beaten flat with the weight of the rain, rose again and swung the crippled Futami Maru till she lay helpless in the trough of the sea, rolling scuppers under with every swing. To make matters worse, a heavy sea-fog had rolled down with the dusk and the stuttering shrieks of the fog-horn went echoing away from bank to bank of the fog-reek. The crew gathered near the boats, openly waiting the order to “ Abandon ship.” Finally a tremble forward like that accompanying a severe chill gave a mute warning that the Futami Maru was really doomed. “No. 1 boat lower away—” COMicdoo S CO@