The Argosy — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

268 : THE. ARGOSY. me from head to foot. Then, with a devout ‘‘ Thank God!” I stepped out from under the bridge and encountered the penitent face of the captain. ‘“You’re not hurt, Mr. Ravensford ?”’ ‘“ No, not this time.’? ‘“That’s lucky,’’ said he. ‘ The thing slipped like water through my fingers. Watching the fo’c’sle yonder, I quite forgot what I had in my hand. Ay, indeed, it might have beet very serious.”’ " Rather. You see, the thing came down point first ;’’ and I went and pulled it out of the deck where it still stood. “Indeed, and just think of that!’ said he, evidently much alarmed. ‘And point first! Why, man, had it struck you it would have made shark’s meat of you in half a jiff. I cannot congratulate myself too much— or you.”’ "It is the unexpected that happens, Captain Macshiel. For the future I shall be more careful of marlinespikes ;’’ and with that I handed him up the heavy, ugly weapon. His eyes gleamed strangely as they looked down into mine, and the hand that he stretched forth trembled visibly. But sickening excitement prevented a more: analytical scrutiny. My heart still beat violently ; every pulse in me was going at top speed. I looked up at Hayling, and got a rare glad smile from him. ‘“A close thing,’’ said he. “Very.’’ Then he turned away, but not without giving me a warning look. I made my way aft, feeling but ill at ease. ‘The dropping of the marline- spike was a thing that might easily have happened, and, perhaps there was no reason why I should have removed this from the ordinary category of ac- cidents ; but as I thought over ‘the warning nod from Hayling I grew full of strange conjecture. Things seemed a bit topsy turvy aboard the Pulo Way. What with mounting cannon under the immediate supervision of the big coolie, whom I seemed to have some instinctive reason for mistrusting ; the unwillingness to take me asa passenger, and the promiscuous dropping of marlinespikes, pocnwt downwards, I had much troubled thought to engage my mind. Nor was that mind likely to be appeased till I had @ good talk with the second mate, whose strange face seemed to haunt me. Just after eight bells, or twelve o'clock, the captain came aft, after having, in conjunction with Hayling, taken the sun. Five minutes or so later the screw began to revolve rapidly, and on looking over the side I saw that we were going at full speed. So much, at least, was gratifying. With a continuance of this weather a couple of days at most ought to see us steaming into Manila harbor, when JI, for one, would not be sorry to say good by to the Pulo Way and all aboard of her, with, perhaps, the exception of Hayling. Something told me that he was different from the others, and I felt that we ought to know each other better. Slowly the afternoon passed, the ship making good progress. On two or three occasions I tried to get a word with the second mate, but he seemed purposely to avoid me; and not doubting that he had good cause for what he did, I inconvenienced him as little as possible. But once, as he passed Eomichbook com ~