The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 162: what you’re looking at

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

354 THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD ‘Indeed I am afraid, sir, you did,’’ answered Manners, by this time in a state of deep distress as the conviction forces itself upon him that the skipper really is missing. ‘‘ I said, sir, that the captain is not with us, and that his bunk has not been slept in tonight.’’ ‘‘Then God help him, for I fear he is beyond all human aic !’’ ejaculated the engineer hoarsely. ‘‘ Have you been down to the creek, yet?’’ he con- tinued. ‘‘No, sir,’? says Manners: ‘‘we were about to go down there, but I thought it best to speak to you first.”’ ‘‘ Quite right,’’ assents Grant ; ‘‘I will go with you.”’ The engineer reénters his room, hastily explains the situation to Mrs. Grant, and then, returning, leads the way up the staircase to the roof ; that, it will be remembered, being the only mode of exit from the building. It is not until the three reach this comparatively exposed situation that they at all realize the strength of the gale; but, once there, though the building is surrounded on all sides by the high ground of the ravine through which the river flows, the tempest seizes upon them and beats and buffets them and dashes them hither and thither with such irresistible power and fury that they are in absolute peril of their lives while they remain there, and to avoid being actually hurled off into space they are constrained to go down upon their hands and knees. To add to their difficulties the darkness is so intense that they can see absolutely nothing; they have to grope their way like blind men, relying © solely upon their remembrance of localities for guidance. And, search as they will, they cannot find the exterior ladder by which to descend to the ground outside. It has doubtless been blown away. This misfortune, however, is soon remedied by the substitution of a rope from the store room for the missing ladder, and with its assistance the three men quickly reach the ground. Arrived there, they find that their difficulties have only just begun, for they are no sooner clear of the house than, what with the profound darkness and the awful buffeting of the wind, they soon get confused and lose their way. At length, however, after more than an hour’s aimless wandering, they find themselves at the shipyard, which is in quite another direction, and once there, they are enabled, by keeping close along the water’s edge, to reach the creek. As each had by this time expected, the punt is not there ; and now any lingering hopes as to the skipper’s safety which either of them may have . cherished disappears, and in his own mind each mutely gives the poor fellow up as lost. « The punt being missing, there is no means of crossing to the mainland, for the stream, swollen by the recent rain, is rushing past at a speed swift enough to sweep away the strongest swimmer that ever breasted wave, to say nothing of the fact that the gale—which is opposed to the current—has churned and lashed the waters into a sheet of blinding foam. They can do nothing, therefore, except make an ineffectual effort to light Gomichooks =|