Rodman The Boatsteerer And Other Stories / 1898

mprisoned seamen, in their foul and horrible prison, stretched their wearied and manacled limbs and sought

ne remaining on board-and join their shipmates in the other boats in the chase. But of this they knew there was little prospect, for this remaining boat had been seriously injured by a heavy sea, which had washed her

got 'fast' and killed. We'll be out of this in another half-hour, cutting-in. The captain won't let us lie here w

ass was being cut-in, was rudely disturbed a few minutes later, when the Shawnee took a sudden list over to

prisoners sat up, and were soon enlightened as to the condition of affairs by the carp

ain. A quarter of an hour later the squall began to lose its force, but the rain descended in torrents, and obscured the view of the now agitated ocean to such an extent that the look-outs from aloft could not discern its surface a cable length away. All those on board the barque felt intense anxiety as to whether the mate had succeed

ard and blew away the thick clouds of tropic mist which enveloped the ship. Ten miles distant the verd

man-it is Mr. Brant's. He

nning aloft, but before he had ascen

ee boats now, sir, and t

. Three miles away, and plainly discernible in the now clear atmosphere, was the mate's boat lying alongside the big bull, which had just been killed, and

lling the whales to which they were "fast," as the sea was still very lumpy from the violence of the squall. None of the boats were provided with bomb-guns, the use of which would have killed the whales in a very short time; and the wind having again died away it was impossible for the ship to work

ight. By this time the sun had set, and only the position of the mate

were waiting for a breeze to spring up to enable the barque to sail towards them. Although Newman was the youngest officer on board, he was an experienced one, and the fact that his boat had not been fit to lower with the ot

an's) own boatsteerer, ventured, in the fulness of his anxi

ptain and Mr. Ford and Mr. Mann

idding scowl upon his face, he would never have addressed him at such an unpropitio

g in an attitude of expectancy, asked him

, sir; I

arge of the deck of this ship!" and he struck the boatsteerer a terrifi

, it was supposed, because the two Rodmans came from the same town as himself; and when the disturbance had arisen with the cooper, and the two brothers had been put in irons, Newman had several times expressed his sorrow to them when he had visited them in their prison. His sudden outburst

ourth mate when the time came. He was five years older than his brother, and, although both were boatsteerers, and had made many cruises in the Pacific, this was the first time they had been shipm

jury, and I would not care to be in your

ny tender sentiment or emotion, it yet concealed a wealth of the deepest affection for his weakly sister, of which the younger one had no conception. And yet, strangely enough, it was to Ned that Nellie Rodman was most attached; it was to his return that she most looked forward, never knowing that it was Gerald's money alone that maintained the old family home in the quiet little New England village in which her simple life was spent. Little did she think that when money was sent to her by Gerald, saying it came "from Ned and myself," that Ned had never had a dollar to send. For he was too careless and too fond of his own pleasure to ever think of sending her money. "Jerry,"

aping wound in his brother's temple,

some of you loafing 'soldiers' have to man her and help Mr. Brant to tow his wh