Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 3 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

332 / & got no sexiant an’ no book o’ tables. It’s too bad.” His disappointment seemed keen, and Rainey could not fathom it. Why had both Lund and Carlsen seemed to lay stress on this matter? Why was the doctor relieved and Lund disappointed at his ignorance? As they came out of the stateroom to- gether, later, Lund reeking of the liquor he had absorbed, though remaining perfectly sober, his hand laid on Rainey’s shoulder, perhaps for guidance, but with a show of familiarity, Rainey saw the girl looking at him with a glance in which contempt showed unveiled. It was plain that his in- timacy with Lund was not going to advance him in her favor. CHAPTER III. TARGET PRACTICE. HE Karluk was an _ eighty-five-ton schooner, Gloster Fisherman type, with a length of ninety and a beam of twenty- five feet. Her enormous stretch of canvas, spread to the limit on all possible occa- sions by Captain Simms, was offset by the pendulum of lead that made up her keel, and she could slide through the seas at twelve knots on her best point of sailing— reaching—the wind abaft her beam. After Rainey had demonstrated at the wheel that he had the mastery of her and had shown that he possessed sea-legs, a fair amount of seacraft and, what the sailors did not possess, initiative, Captain Simms appointed him second mate. ‘We don’t carry one as a rule,” the skip- per said. “ But it'll give you a rating and the right to eat in the cabin.”” He had not brought up-the subject of Rainey’s kidnap- ing, and Rainey let it go. There was no use arguing about the inevitable. The rat- ing and the cabin fare seemed offered as an apology, and he was willing to accept it. Carlsen acted as first mate, and Rainey had to acknowledge him efficient. He fan- cied the man must have been a ship’s sur- geon, and so picked up his seamanship. After a few days Carlsen, save for taking noon observations with the skipper and working éut the reckoning, left his duties THE ARGOSY, largely to Rainey, who was glad enough of the experience. A sailor named Hansen was promoted to acting quartermaster, and re- lieved Rainey. Carlsen spent most of his time attendant on the girl or chatting with the hunters, with whom he soon appeared on terms of intimacy. The hunters esteemed themselves above the sailors, as they were, in intelligence and earning capacity. The forecastle men acted, on occasion, as boat-steerers and rowers for the hunters, each of whom had his own boat from which to shoot the cruising seals. There were six hunters and twelve sail- ors, outside of a general roustabout and butt named “ Sandy,” who cleaned up the forecastle‘and the hunters’ quarters, where they messed apart, and helped Tamada, the cook, in the galley with his pots and dishes. But now there was no work in prospect for the hunters, and they lounged on deck or in their ’midship quarters, spin- ning yarns or playing poker. They were after gold this trip, not seals. ‘“°Cordin’ to the agreement,” Lund said to Rainey, “ the gold’s to be split into a hundred shares. One for each sailorman, an’ they chip in for the boy. Two for the hunters, two for the cook; four for Bergstrom, the first mate, who died at sea. Twenty for ‘ ship’s share.’ Fifty shares to be split between Simms an’ me.” ‘“What’s the ‘ship’s share?’” asked Rainey. : - “ Represents capital investment: Mat- ter, of fact, it belongs to the gal,” said Lund. ‘‘ Simms give her the Karluk. It’s in her name with the insurance.’’ ‘‘ Then he and his daughter get forty-five shares, and you only twenty-five?” “You got it right,” grinned Lund. ‘Simms is no philanthropist. It wa’n’t so easy for me to git ennyone to go in with me, son. I ain’t the first man to come trail- in’? in with news of a strike. An’ I had nothin’ to show for it.~ Not even a color of gold. Nothin’ but the word of a dead Aleut, my own jedgment, an’ my own sight of an island I never landed on. Matter of fact, Honest Simms was the only one who didn’t laff at me outright. It was only his bad luck made him try a chance at gold ’stead of keepin’ after pelts. 3 CORNICGLOOOLK (C@