Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

690 Captain Forbes kept them there hour after hour through that cold and biting night. At first they thought only of the indignity, but as the time dragged on and the all pervasive cold began to search their vitals, they forgot everything except exist- ence. Long before the morning every man aloft was nigh frozen, but the ruthless Forbes ‘still kept them there, enduring the tortures™ of the damned. Now and again one or another screamed out in agony, but the captain’s only answer was to take occasional pot shots at the res- ‘tive spirits, as a reminder of the man master still there with unsleeping vigilance upon the poop. At last, when the cold had almost para- ‘lyzed them, at the utmost limit of endur- ance, Forbes gave the order that released them. So numbed were they that more than one had to be assisted down the shrouds. The assistance came from Rich- ard Dunbar, whose sense of humanity mas- tered every other feeling. “T’d see them frozen stiff before I’d do a tap to help them,” observed Forbes. “Same here,” echoed, Bucko Pugsley. But Richard Dunbar was made of different stuff. When the packet rats at last crawled miserably into their bunks in the forecastle, even the most refractory had decided who was master aboard Valkyrie. CHAPTER XVIII. AN ARISTOCRAT OF THE SEA. APTAIN FORBES, afloat, was very . different from Captain Forbes ashore. The minute he stepped upon his deck planks, he seemed to shed his every weak- ness. He was the Lawgiver, who dwelt on a Sinai of his own, his poop. Up and down the weather side he walked, aloof, inscrut- able as God Almighty. He held communion with no one but himself, pacing up and down, up and down, with sleepless and unending vigilance. | A born racing skipper, he kept his ship driving night and day. From the instant ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. they broke out the anchor, his heart beat for one purpose, for one purpose only, to establish a record for Valkyrie. At any hour he might appear on his endless stamping up and down, watching the winds, with an impetuous fling to his head, seizing every lull and slant to drive his tall, white-pinioned clipper across the Swooping seas. Before they were clear of Boston Light, he had all hands gaping at the way he piled on canvas. On the third day out, with the wind north north-east, with strong breezes and frequent snow squalls, the Valkyrie logged three hun- dred and twenty eight miles. A marvellous In reply to the second mate’s congratula- tions, Forbes made the laconic reply, “ Wait till she’s limbered up.” To handle a gang of packet rats required frequent and heavy doses of belaying-pin soup. Pugsley, always ready to smash or break, kept his wild men in a degree of subjection. But in the first officer’s watch, it was often a toss-up which should be master. Try as they might, Dunbar for once could not get a grip of his men. Ineffi- clency was apparent in his watch at every turn. He had always had the name of being smart as paint in whipping a new crew into shape. But now it seemed as though some one were always throwing a monkey-wrench in the machinery. Bill Pugsley, outraged by the loss of his temporary position as first officer, never Jost an opportunity to rub it into the cap- tain about the apparent lapses of his rival. The reports of the spying Pugsley made it appear as though Dunbar could not handle his men. With Bully Forbes, this was one unpardonable sin. Suffering continually from his back, where he had been injured by the holy- stone, balked by a strange defiance from his men, hated by the second mate, and regarded with distrustful eye by his skipper, the lot of the first officer became almost unbearable. His usually carefree face took on a worried aspect. With the captain’s displeasure increasing he began to awaken ConnicloookSse@