Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

330 vessel now had no steerage way, and one could hardly stand on her deck she tumbled about so heavily. But with the assistance of Bomba and his guard, Hunt put two reefs in the mainsail and foresail, then furled them again, and secured the booms with extra tackle. By this time it began to look black and greasy, so to speak, on the starboard beam. Captain Reed had gone into the cabin to lie down. No one but an able-bodied sea- man was of any use on deck now. Hunt went in and reported to the captain the unusual “ dirty ” appearance. ‘“‘ Make all your preparations, Mr. Hunt, and expect the worst. You can see that the barometer is still falling.” Hunt immediately got the storm trysail ~ up and bent it on the main, and also bent a small storm jib on the stay and saw that all the hatches, battens, and tarpaulins were ready to make the hold tight atthe last minute. In the afternoon watch it began to thunder heavily, with quick intermittent flashes of lightning out of the heavy dark clouds, and the negroes in the hold started to howl with fear. “Poor devils,” thought Hunt, as he looked down the hatchway. “Those children can’t stand it down there, I fear,” said De Castro. “Do you object to my taking them up in the cabin. Mr. Hunt?” “Good Heaven, nol” replied Hunt, “but keep them on deck as long as you can.” The children were passed up on deck by Bomba and Iater into the cabin. “Stand by the hatches, boys,” said Hunt, and they had not long to wait be- fore the order came: “ Clap on the hatches and batten down tight.” It was “feather white” to windward now, and black as midnight. Down came the squall in a smother of spray and rain. It was lively work to get the storm jib set and sheeted home before the squall struck the Madeline. Down she went— down, down, down—lee rail under, and then down to her hatch coamings, as if she never would come up again. All hands climbed up to windward. “Hard up!” yelled Hunt to the man at ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, the wheel, as he made his way aft under the lee of the bulwarks to assist him. The gallant old craft struggled to get up, and as the storm-jib filled she slowly fell off and righted herself as she swung around to the pressure of the jib and her helm. Hunt and Frank had all they could do at the helm when he righted to keep the ves- sel before the wind, which blowing so strong on their backs, fairly pinned them against the rim of the wheel. As it came down with a rush and a roar the blast cut the white crests off the top of the seas, sending the spoondrift down to the leeward like a snow storm and breaking over the Madeline in flying spray it stung the face like heavy hail. Speak one could not! No sound ut- tered went beyond the lips until the first burst of the squall had passed. Then Hunt glanced aloft and saw that all was right there. But the vessel had a bad list which, as she was running before the gale, made her steer awkwardly. Beck- oning to De Castro, who managed to crawl aft to the wheel from the cabin, - Hunt halloed in his ear that the negroes in the hold must be shifted from the side of the vessel where they had tumbled when she was knocked down, over to the other side. She must be righted immediately for her present trim was dangerous. With the help of the crew Bomba and De Castro managed to get forward to the hatch, lifted it, and got down into the hold among the blacks; and in a little while, amid yells and shrieks, they had the un- fortunate creatures distributed equally on both sides of the vessel and the schooner righted herself again. The old craft felt now, to the men at the helm, like herself, and ran about seven knots under the storm jib, which was not much bigger than a table cloth. But she was going off her course about six points. This was bad, but it could not be helped; for until it moderated the schooner could not, with safety, be brought up and hove to. About sunset Hunt determined to risk it. He got the men aft and hoisted the main trysail partly up and sheeted it to the quarter. Then he hauled the storm jib in to the mast, put his two best men at the wheel, and the remainder—Bomba and his CoOmiclbooks.€©