Adventure Magazine Cover — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

76 “Douse all the forward lights,” ordered Johnson. “‘I’ll need the eyes of a cat to- night. A small glare may blind me enough to make the difference between life and death.” “Tl tend to it.” Lindstrom opened the starboard door and stepped out on to the windswept deck. A sudden gust tore the knob from his hand. The door banged shut with force sufficient to jar the structure. strom and the second officer were in (a) (©) the wheel-house. The other officers were busy allaying the fears of the pe Bers. For over ten minutes Johnson had not maken a word. Now he peered intently ahead. The two others peered likewise. They could see nothing but the blackness of a heaving waste as the bow again plunged deep. Ahead the limit of vision to them was less than fifty yards. At times Johnson seemed to be listening. The others instinctively listened with him. They heard nothing but the fury of the gale, which had increased in violence. And ap- parently it had hauled around considerably to the eastward. The compass, if they had FIFTEEN minutes passed. Lind- looked at it, would have told a different ° story. Suddenly Johnson put the wheel hard to port, then reached for the engine-room tele- graph. From one corner of his mouth he shouted a warning. “Hold fast!” Something like the black wall of a barn loomed high above the starboard rail, hung threateningly for a moment, and crashed aboard with a thunderous roar and a shock that made the steamer shiver in every plate and bolt. Immediately the wheel-house was flooded to the sills by solid streams of water pouring through the window openings. Johnson, standing to his hips in water, hastily forced the helm up a couple of spokes, his gaze focused out in the murk. Lindstrom opened the lee door and allowed the water to empty from the room. Momentarily Johnson relaxed from his rigid, apprehensive attitude. His mouth curved up in the old-time quirk. “All five starboard boats gone and eleven stateroom doors smashed in. Count them afterward and see how far I missed the guess,” Adventure While speaking, Johnson. never allowed his gaze to shift from straight ahead. His figure again grew tense, vigilant. “Hold fast!’ he bawled out. “Here comes another.” “Good Lord! Where are we?” yelled Lindstrom. “On the middle ground!” And as if to prove the truth of the words another flooding, shocking sea smashed aboard. “Eight more doors, I make it,” grinned Johnson when the flood had passed. ‘‘Wait till the passengers get a look at them. They’ll thank me for chasing them into the social hall.” “On the bar!” Lindstrom seemed overcome with mysti- fication. “‘How—how in—”’ he gasped. “T ‘made’ the whistling buoy all right,” yelled Johnson. “It was still in the same old place. I’m heading in by compass till I can make the range lights.” The steamer rose on a huge sea, pitched abruptly and slid downward at a ‘startling angle. She struck bottom with a jar and shock that sent the second officer off his feet to crash against the wall. ‘‘Number one!” volunteered Johnson. “TI told you she was too big, I got away with murder on the Elk River because she could almost float in a heavy dew.” Again and again terrific combers smashed over the steamer; time after time her keel thudded heavily on the bar. The only vari- ation to this was afforded when she bumped bottom and took a tremendous sea aboard simultaneously, a combination trying to weak nerves. Finally the middle ground was passed and she nosed between the jetties. Here the going was far easier, due to greater depth of water and the partial protection afforded by the remnants of the south jetty. Shortly afterward the steamer, now lower in the water and sinking faster, due to the clogging of one of the steam pumps, was laboring northward on the sheltered bosom of Humboldt Bay. A_ speaking-tube screamed shrilly. Johnson answered. The chief engineer was speaking. “Pick a soft spot,’”’ he announced. ‘The other pump is getting clogged, and the water is gaining like all —— in a hurry. The fires are half out now from the splash. T’ll have to blow the boilers.” COMICLOookX (C@