Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 167: what you’re looking at

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

-TWIXT THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA. clared I had made the promise and Mr. Schuyler did, and they said I had to keep it. My father bullied me, made my life miserable. I had nobody to turn to. My father is mad to get himself recognized by society, crazy about the importance of his family. If you could have seen the announcement he had published in the papers—”’ “Yep, I did, Callie. I sure did!” ‘“That’s what finally opened my eyes, made me plainly ashamed of my own father and of myself. Then I knew I would never marry Wallace Schuyler. I knew I loved Dick. And [ll marry Dick Hanlon or no- body at all. You ave going to help me!”’ “Tm going to talk to Dick,” was Fog Horn’s only promise. After that talk with Hanlon again alone in the pilot house, his face at the open win- dow pressed into the dripping, gray fog blanket, guiding the aged Queen on her course and keeping her warning fog signal moaning, Fog Horn had plenty of time to think. He thought of school days and Mary and Callie Beck, her chum. He thought of all the high hopes and great ambitions of that time when life semed so simple. Probably he sighed a little for the far different realization the years had brought. And he thought, too, of Callie’s daughter and her father, whom he hated and of the young fellow Callie loved. “T. wisht I could help!” he sighed. “ God knows I’d like to help ’em both. But I can’t fight Bown’s influence ashore. No- body can. If I was a minister I’d marry em in a jump—quicker’n scat. But I ain’t. A hell of a minister I’d make. I’m a rheu- matic old bum that’s captain of a steam- boat, that’s all I am—providin’, of course, you’d be so good as to call this barnacle- bitten old wheelbarrow a steamboat!”’ He sighed heavily and added: “ But I do wish I could help!” And then, with a sudden wide grin, his faded, blue eyes alight with joy of inspiration: ‘ And, by godfrey, mavbe I can!” he cried. III. NOTHING is more soothing, more condu- cive to sound sleep than a berth aboard 957 an old-time, stern wheel steamboat. If there chance to be fog, shutting out the morning light, muffling all sound save the steady rumble of the engines turning over the big propelling paddles and the moan of the whistle, one’s sleep is doubly sound. A long night was gone and it was nine o’clock in the morning, though there was but the gray of dawn to tell it, when Fog Horn Hood relinquished the wheel to Olson. The mate found the old man surprisingly unwilling to leave his post. When he finally quit Fog Horn said sternly: ‘“ Course is dead ahead. Keep that in your square skull, Olson. Dead ahead, steady as she goes, and if she drops off as much as a point I’m coming in here and chaw an arm off’n you!” ‘““ Steady as she goes,” Olson repeated placidly. ‘‘ Yah, Ay gass Ay can remember that.” Fog Horn summoned the shock-haired boy who bore the impressive but empty title, steward. He bade him serve break- fast and call Callie Bown and Dick. ‘“ And, boy,” he added, “seen anythin’ of a fat, white-faced, swelled up old toad in a gent’s dress suit?” ‘“Mr. Bown, sir?” ‘Seems like I’ve heard him called by that name.” “ ““He woke me up at six, sir, and gave me a dollar to rent my bunk to sleep in. Shall I call him, too?” ‘““ No, son, I guess I wouldn’t. Let him get his dollar’s worth of sleep, he’ll need it. Besides, I want to enjov my breakfast. Can’t with him sittin’ by.” Of the three, Fog Horn was the only one who gave signs of taking pleasure out of the meal. Callie Bown was pale and ab- sent-minded. Her sweetheart looked badly worried. They gave brief answers to all questions, and asked frequently when the Queen would make port. Plainly, their im- mediate future did not look pleasant with ‘Callie’s father sworn to dog their foot- steps and prevent their marriage. But Fog Horn enjoyed himself enough for three. The old man bore an air of badly suppressed excitement that made his blue eyes sparkle and kept a grin pushing up the corners of his scrubbing brush mus- DOOK C©