Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

Deferred above water, and they found a woman locked in the captain’s stateroom. She was half-crazy then, as she would be, and nothing much could be got out of her; but enough was gathered to absolutely damn Chivers in the eyes of everybody who heard of the case. “He had a clever lawyer to defend him, and got off without criminal prosecution; but his career was finished. He disappeared for a time, and when next he turned up he was much as you see him now: a drunken swab ashore, and a devil incarnate at sea to the men under him. But he is a first- rate seaman—a better bo’sun in a ship can’t be found—and that’s why he still finds employment. But he dare not aim higher. He’s finished.” The second mate’s voice volleyed down the skylight in a roar, and the pattering of feet on the poop echoed sharply in the cabin, bringing Captain Raikes and the mate up the companionway with a run. Then Chivers’s hoarse bellow resounded, and was redoubled as Ben Corbet replied to it with a sneering laugh. ‘“‘What’s this! Stop that at once, Chiv- ers!” snapped the skipper, and his face flushed angrily at the desecration of the sacredness of the poop. The two mates ran around the skylight, intent upon in- tercepting the bo’sun who charged furiously at the sneering Corbet. The rush was not stopped. Neither did it reach its mark. When the frothing bo’sun reached within six feet of Corbet, the young seaman stepped nimbly aside and brushed Chivers’s face with his fingers, as if to show that he might as easily plant a punch as a flip. Then the unforeseen happened. The bo’- sun’s rush carried him headlong into the rail on the lee side; the top pipe-rail took him at mid-height, and with a clumsy, grappling tumble he shot overboard and disappeared into the sea. ‘Down, down helm!” shouted the skipper, motioning to the wheel. “Easy! Don’t get her aback! Hold her just shaking! That’ll do—meet her!”’ The cry “Man overboard!” rang out, and the second mate flung over a ring-buoy. “Get the dingey overboard!’ Captain Raikes told the mate, and then turned to watch for Chivers’s reappearance. The second mate stood at his elbow, and volun- teered the reason for the fuss. 83 “Corbet just came from the wheel, sir,”’ he said. ‘The bo’sun was replacing some buckets in the rack that had been fitted with new beckets, and the two of ’em just looked at each other as they passed. I didn’t catch any words, but Corbet whis- pered something to Chivers that sent all the blood out of the bo’sun’s face and made him froth at the mouth. He tried to hit Corbet a swipe, but missed, and the young- ster just stepped aside and laughed. That made the bo’sun madder, and you saw the rest, sir. This ought to——” “‘There he is!”’ shouted Corbet, forgetting for the moment where he was.—He was standing on the rail, holding on by the mizzen-shrouds, looking out anxiously for his enemy.—Then—“By God! He can’t swim!’ he shouted, and in a flash had dived in a long, clean plunge that cut the water without a splash. “Hurry up the boat!’ cried Captain Raikes, then, watching the ship’s drift as she hung in the wind, he bawled— “Mainclew-garnet! Haul up both clews of the mains’]!! Main-braces here!” and ran to set the example himself. The main- yards were backed, and now the Foochow lay hove-to, sagging very slowly to leeward and making no headway. THE dingey was overboard now, and with the inexpertness of deep- water sailors was being laboriously pulled clear of the ship’s side. A quarter of a mile away two black heads bobbed close together on the glassy sea, and then only one showed. Where the other had been a long, frantic arm waved for an in- stant, then disappeared. It was justifiable for Corbet to give up then, and make for the boat and his own safety. But to the amazement of every man who had witnessed Chivers’s treat- ment of the lad, he trod water for a breath, rose half his length from the water, and then sank after the bo’sun. “‘By heavens, the lad’s a goner!”’ gasped the skipper. ‘He can never handle Chiv- ers half drowned!”’ So it seemed, as the dingey blundered clumsily toward the spot. Then Corbet broke water again, and from the ship it was plain that Chivers had wrapped his great arms about the smaller man and was strangling him from sheer panic. The mate in the boat drove his men to greater COmicloo ©