The Argosy, March 27, 1920 — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

THE GREAT Sir Thomas, clinging for support to the stationary table, strove to quiet his sick daughter, but he was himself much alarmed. Suddenly the door was flung open, and with the gust that entered the candle was extinguished. In the darkness the door was slammed and outside a great wave was heard sweeping the ship. ‘This is no safe place,’ the voice of Arthur Lake came from the ensuing mo- mentary peace. ‘ We must make for the cabin below. This. may be blown off at any minute!” 3 Judith Merton made no sound after her single glad cry: ‘“ Arthur!” Weak from lack of food and dazed with fever, it seemed right to her that her beloved should come for her in the hour of peril. “Take care, Sir Thomas,’ Arthur warned, ‘the sea breaks over the deck frequently. You must watch your chance, and attempt, between waves, to gain en- trance to the Spaniard’s cabin.” “ But—’’ the™old man began, “There are no ‘buts.’ It’s your only ehance. Three sailors have been washed overboard already. The rudder is broken, and—” The ominous noise of an overrushing wave almost drowned his voice. “Cling all the time to the stair-rail, If you are caught by a wave, hold until it passes, then rush for the door.” : As Arthur spoke he lovingly lifted Judith, pallet and all, in his arms. “ I'll take care that this lady comes to no harm,” he an- nounced proudly, Sir Thomas opened the cabin door and went out into the storm. Arthur followed, Judith nestled closer as the blast beat upon her. From the fury of the storm with- cut, it seemed to her that the boat must certainly go to the bottom beneath them; it groaned and creaked, staggering in the boil- ing blackness of spray and cloud and wind. But the girl did not care; for the first time in days, she was content and happy. Sir Thomas gained the lower cabin in safety; but before Arthur, burdened by his precious freight, could follow, the little boat was almost swamped in a mighty onslaught of the sea, : “Cling to me, dearest,” he said gently DISCOVERY, 241 as he let Judith slip to her feet, and, catch- ing her tightly about the waist, he locked his other arm through one of the rungs of the stairs. The water descended upon them. The ship shivered: the stairs trembled like reeds, but they held to their moorings—the man clung to them, and the girl to him. There was a terrific wrench as the wave subsided and, in the blare of light that came almost simultaneotsly with a peal of thunder, Arthur saw the little turretlike cabin, formerly accupied by the Mertons, torn completely from its pinnings and car- ried away on the black, hissing waves, During the next moments he had de- scended the few steps; gained the door; opened it, and deposited his charge in the arms of her father. After the most approved romantic fash- ion, Sir Thomas was beginning: ‘I owe my daughter’s life, and my own, to you! I can never repay—” Arthur cut him short. ‘‘ The only pay I want or will take is this—’ He bent and kissed the girl’s white lips, then turned away, ‘‘ Where are you going?”’ she cried. ‘Qut on deck. There is work for us, every one, up there!” The door opened and closed; Arthur Lake was gone. ; CHAPTER XT, SESECA FOUND. ‘THE little ship Hopeful weathered the storm, but when the fury was passed, the unhappy vessel was in a sad plight, 'f a clear sky and gentle, favorable wind had net come with the morning, it would never have been possible in that heavy sea to patch things together sufficjently to drag into the little port where Captain Knee felt it needful for them to hasten for adequate repairs, The nearest harbor being La Coruna, they put into this little town on the coast of Galicia, The second day of their stay there, Arthur discovered that the Spaniard and his man, in company with Sir Thomas, his daughter,” comniclooolkks.cGotin