Adventure, August 1917 — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

170 scowled. His authority was bein’ meddled with. Everybody stopped talkin’ and was listenin’. ; “ ‘That'll do from you, O’Leary,” he decided. ‘Put the woman out!’ “Right there’s where Humpy got the surprise of his life. Mike turned his back ~on him, gave the boat a mighty shove with the boat hook, and ordered the boat’s crew to pull. We pulled. Old Humpy stood on the dock and shook his fist at us and jumped up and down and cussed. Then he hired a shore boat and was rowed to the ship. “Mike told his story to the captain, and Brannon’s wife and kids stayed aboard. But for ‘the good of the service’ and to pacify Humpy, O’Leary got a court-martial fer disobedience of orders and insolence to a superior officer.” ‘“‘What happened to the two women that Humphrey had?” asked Hop. “Them two?’ said Rebel. ‘All they wanted was to get to Vera Cruz in time to catch the Star Line for New York instead of waitin’ for a slower boat where they were. That’s the whole yarn, son, now you run along, and if you ever tell Mike I told you, it’ll be the last history lesson you get from me. He’d be all over me like a tent, if he knew I told you.” red ~< THE Panther was on her way home from a station in the South Atlantic and expected to reach Hampton Roads for docking and overhauling in the Navy Yard some time the next day. After dinner as the men dispersed from the afternoon drill, Hop Flynn found himself next to O’Leary as they walked forward. “How’s that ambition by this time?” asked O’Leary. “Still full of that do-or- die stuff—get a commission or open a seam?” “T’ve been thinking about that thou- sandth chance,” said Hop. ‘Did it really ever happen to anybody?” “Sure it did, son, and your chance may be due today. This old ship’s pretty close now to where a lot of people have had their chance. We’re in the Gulf Stream and right along here off Cape Hatteras where she swings in and curves out again there’s been more doin’ for sailors to talk about than any other spot in the seven seas. ““You’re booked for the port lookout in about ten minutes now, and this little thing we’ve been talkin’ about might hap- re Adventure pen before dark. You go on out there and keep your eyes open.” Hop did keep his eyes open, but except for the choppy, troubled sea, he saw nothing. The Panther was well out, for naval vessels, with no steam schedules to make, give Cape Hatteras with its sand spits and shoals plenty of room. The first hour Flynn did not look away from the foaming tide rips and the odd whirling current. He felt somehow that O’Leary was right and that this might be his chance. Following a lazy seagull with his eyes he looked out of his territory across the ship, and saw O’Leary gazing past him out tolandward. O’Leary’s tense attitude causéd him to turn instantly. Out on the port beam, so far away that it seemed almost a dot, was something that looked like a ship. “Sail ho!” he called instinctively, and O’Leary glaced at him approvingly. Ex- cept for O’Leary he had been first to see it. i oe away?” asked the officer of the eck. “‘Port beam, sir,’’ answered Flynn. The officer of the deck leveled his binoculars, looked through them half a minute, and after consulting the quarter- master on watch, dispatched a messenger boy to the captain. O’Leary had no binoculars, but he knew there was something queer with the vessel they had sighted. Among other things she was well out of the track of merchant steamers, she was making no smoke, and carried no sails. He glanced up at Hop still on lookout on the end of the port bridge. Hop had heard the consultation between the officer of the deck and the quartermaster. He caught the question in O’Leary’s look and wig- wagged the answer with his finger. “Derelict,” he signalled. ‘“They’ve sent for the captain.” O’Leary passed the word to the men on watch, and soon nearly the whole ship’s company was watching the vessel and wondering what the Panther was going to do about it. Flynn was relieved from lookout, and while he stood on the forecastle with O’Leary, speculating as to whether they would pass by the wreck and report it on their arrival at Hampton Roads or stop long enough to sink it, the Panther changed CoMmicdook CO 5}