Adventure Magazine Cover — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

ee. SP ” : ecchin't t be done with a new ship, I’m = | ne you.” ~ ~~ Jim Falcon listened with only half his senses alert, for he knew enough about this location and the direction of the wind and the way the barometer was acting to know that the Lotus would have to be speedy indeed if she outran the storm which it seemed to him was overdue. Falcon went to the wheel at eight. It was raining and blowing steadily, not with the gusts of a squall but with increasing steady pressure. Captain McRae was on the bridge in heavy overcoat and slicker; and the remains of an old rain-coat, passed on from man to man in the night watches, flopped about Jim Falcon’s knees. Captain McRae asked the officer of the watch about the barometer and the number of turns the ship was making and what she logged in the last watch. “We ought to get up to Five Fathom Bank by morning,” he said. ‘‘There’s a little current with us, despite the wind. Then he came over and looked into the compass for several minutes, while Jim Falcon, with half a turn right wheel to counteract the drive of the wind on_ the = bow, steered the ship skilfully, with a spoke or two right or left as a heavier wave than usual struck. Usually Captain McRae kept away from Jim_Falcon. But tonight with weightier things at stake he forgot personalities. The ship seemed to run into heavier seas with every mile, as if the gale had been blowing ahead of them for some time; and spitefully, as if protesting, the Lotus began to scoop up a sea over her high bows now and then as her engines drove her into them. Jim. Falcon began to wonder after a time why the captain did not whistle below to ease up afew turns, for when the Lotus plunged downward and lifted her stern high, she quivered from the racing screw and labored and shook herself like a man staggering from a blow. No one on the bridge or on the ship thought of danger. The Lotus had gone through fully as bad before, and as long as her engines kept her out of the trough of the sea she might rack and stagger and grumble, but would remain tight, stanch and strong and, in the words of every charter form, fit to continue her voyage. At ten o locke a brief whistle from _below brought the captain to the speak- a. ae ing-tube. The chief engineer was speaking. “T’m stopping the engines, captain,” he reported. “Get things secured about the decks.”’ “What’s the trouble?” alee McRae anxiously. ‘How long will it be? This is a bad sea to get broadside to.” “Can’t help it,” said the chief, “if she turns turtle. It’s the circulating-pump to the condenser. It will take half an hour to get the fire-pump and overboard discharge hooked up to take its place.” The engines were slowing as he finished speaking; and, losing way quickly, the Lotus began to fall off before the wind and to roll - helplessly. A hidden flaw in the bronze shaft of the circulating-pump had developed into an out-and-out break and had chosen a bad time to make itself apparent. Jim Falcon kept the ship up with the wheel as long as he could and then, putting the helm amidships, stepped away. ‘The Lotus was the plaything of the giant seas. Fifteen, twenty, thirty degrees she rolled. The crash of breaking dishes. and sliding “furniture came from the officers’ dining- room under the bridge; about the deck gear slatted and rolled, and the tops of breaking seas fell and washed among the tangle. “Call the mate,” ordered Melvin McRae, turning to the officer of the watch. “Tell him to turn to with all hands and get the sea-anchor overboard. We may be here longer than half an hour, and if she rolls much more we will have a shifted cargo on hand.” “You,” he turned to Jim Falcon, “get below and help break out the sea-anchor.” Jim Falcon hurried. It hurt him to see ~ the Lotus adrift and helpless when only minutes before she had fought back with valiant thrust the solid, battering might of the sea. As he ran forward in short dashes between breaking seas, Jim Falcon saw /that the Lotus was still on an even keel. If the canvas sea-anchor could be got over in time and its drag would hold her bows on to the sea, she would be safe enough until repairs could be made. He made a note in his mind that if he were ever again the master of a ship he would have this precaution more accessible than where the Lotus kept hers—deep in a for- ward storeroom under a tangle of coal-bags. Sheltered by the foremast and hanging on with both hands toa wire topping-lit, oc -_—* * < ne > - ee Mae gah, - i = Oe = y= ee = ig tes nt oa oi ent™ oe F. a ‘qo oo “"~™ > 7 2° te -< aS Salle : | ee @ sO OE "