The Captain of the Kansas

leading to the promenade deck had been left unlocked, so she signaled him to lead her the speediest way. Speak she could not. Although ther

ly dealing with the boats the sailors had cut away the greater part o

s she was, she held Walker back when he woul

put on dry clothing, what am I to do? Where am I t

oorway to break the violence o

fi-wing up the donkey-boiler, an' Doctaw Chwistobal is with Mistaw Boyle.

said you were

hip got off, we tackled othaw

think-we hav

' missie. Owt ca

ess at the me

after some of

ssurance. "You'd bettaw stick to the sa

you returning

slam the door unceremoniously. He bolted it, too. Not if he could h

able earth south of the line. In Valparaiso the weather was stifling, yet here, not so very far away, it was bitterly cold. And the ship was driving headlong to destruction, though electric bells and switches were at command in a luxuriously furnished apartment, while the engineer had just spoken of the telephone as a means of conversin

e discovered, as a quite new and physically disagreeable fact, that her skirts were soaked up to her knees, while h

en literally wet to the skin without knowing it. In truth, she had a momentary dread of a fainting fit, and it was not until

g of warmth and comfort was such as the girl herself would not have guessed in a week. The mere grateful touch of the dry garments induced an extraordinary drowsiness. She felt that she must lie do

The saloon, the decks, the forecabin, were places of the dead. Fearing lest Elsie might pass, Christobal, before attending to Boyle, had thrown table-cloths over the bodies of men slain in the saloon, for Gray and Tollemache had sternly but vainly striven to repress the second revolt. Tollemache and Walker had dragged out of the smothering spray near the port davits three men who seemed to be merely stunned. These, with the chief officer, and perhaps four survivers of the explosion, made up the list of living but non-effective members of the s

sk. It was his duty to certify whether or not life was extinct. There were very few exceptions. The three men lifted the bodies and threw them overboard. When they reached the corpses of the second officer and a Spanish engineer who had been knifed

ried to the saloon and placed under Christobal's care. Walker dived below to the engine-room, where he had already disconnected the rods broken or bent by the fracture of a guard ring, which, in its turn, was injured by the blowing out of a junk-ring, a st

g his wanderings round the world had picked up sufficient knowledge of steam-power to shovel fuel into the furnace and regulate the water-level by the feed valve and pump.

pitch in a shovel of coal evewy

overland early in January to meet her husband. But the Englishman's correspondence was terribly explicit. A "heart-broken mother" wrote from Liverpool that "Jack" had been shot during one of the many cold-weather campaigns on the Indian frontier. "I have no news, simply a telegram from the

pipe in his teeth. He faile

he have been spared? No one would have missed

e expected shock, but she swung back to an even keel. The

and, for want of a better, he was determined to pursue it to a finish. The Kansas was being swiftly carried along in a strong and deep tidal current. Happily, the wind followed the set of the sea, else there would be no chance of success for his daring p

s of action apart from the direction and force of the ocean stream. The two sails were helpful, and it was to assure himself of their efficiency that he put the helm to starboard. The Kansas obeyed with an answering roll to port, showing clearly that she was traveling a little faster than the inrushing tide would take her unaided. He brought her head back to nor'east again, and glanced over his shoulder at the ship's chronometer. It was a q

er in a decanter close at hand, so he indulged in a long drink. That was wonderfully vivifying. Then his mind turned longingly to tobac

poke cheerily to t

urveyed by Captain Courtenay and pup; details uncertain.' How does that sound, old chap?" And again, "I suppose your friend, Miss Ma

What? Joey couldn't smile! Make a friend of a fox-terrier and learn what a genuine, whole-hearte

some of his passengers and crew in the only boat available. He acted to the best of his judgment then; he was acting similarly now in abandoning the last resource of a raft in order to keep the vessel on her present course. But, then or now, he paid no heed whatever to the obvious fact that he and the second engineer, and at least one of the male passeng

res to Joey on the absurdity of things in general, and the special ridiculousness of such a mighty combination of circumstances centering on one poor ship as had fore-gathered to crush the Kansas. Ever since he was aroused from sleep by the stop

ark made to him in Valparaiso by Isobel's father, "what did Mr.

e cocked his ears and

obal e

spinal cord. The shock to the dorsal nerves induced temporary paralysis, and that rather misled me. He is much better now. U

xternal void. He was not sailor enoug

d news," sai

d like to know. How

than two hours. Possibly, nearness to the land

to-night. What is the position? Of course, we must hit the South A

we reach the coast. That is our sole hope. The ship is in a powerful tidal current, and it is high-water at 5.30

he furnace

e reserved his opinion. My own view is that, by accident or d

substance! Do you mean dynamite, o

only a supposition, but when I w

the man who spe

astle, don't put it tha

to her cabin.

e, plus the wine, was effective. Well, I must return to my p

tha

to eat, o

or a square meal when I am a

hought such persistent optimism was out of place.

are ready. I am an exc

the compass, and the barometer. At two o'clock he felt the ship slipping from under the wheel. The compass

you can make out anythi

e the reply, and a

, but I think we-aw passin'

Walker. We have not long to wait now for th

at the skipper was

ess below, sir. I can't mak

it. Don't talk. Kee

nay expected to find indications of a more northerly set of the tide, and he watched the compass intently for the first sign of this return to the former course. If the ship crossed the current one way or the other she would certainly be driven ashore on some outlying spur of the island or detached sunken re

y. Courtenay once more assisted the ship with the helm. She s

ty of the captain's being able to steer with any real knowledge of his surroundings. The wh

bed his eyes, and said nothing, believing that the unaccustomed strain of gazing into the dark had affected his sight. But the pink crescent bri

n?" he asked, in a vo

ls. It not only foretells the dawn, but is a sign of fine weather.

ly to the superintending engineer, an eminent personage who never goes to sea, b

they could hear the song of the rigging. Soon they could distinguish the outlines of the heavy rollers near at hand, and Courtenay believed that the ship, in her passage, encountered in the water several narrow bands of a bright red color. If this were so, he knew that t

he turned

ould shin up to the

able to clim

is bank of mist. Don't get into trouble. Come back if you feel you can't

Walker set about his mission in a business-like manner. He threw off his thick coat and boots, and went

lker was quickly an indistinct figure in the fog. He gained the truck

We-ah on

slid downward with such speed that it was

deep on the port bow. It was a pinnacle rock, high as the ship's masts, but only a few feet wide at s

ore than her own beam, and he fully expected that she would grind against some outlier in the next instant. But th

color of parchment when h

i' engines, but I'm no good at this game. T

y. His spirits rose with each of these thrills. He

'm no' goin' up that mast again. It would be suicide. I'm done. I'

, and thought of breakfast, for he had passed a rather disturbed night, the