The Argosy — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

THE VOYAGE OF THE PULO WAY. 275 ‘“Maybe,’’ said he dryly. ‘‘ And why not the Scarborough as well as anything else ?’’ ‘‘ Because, if it is, we who are bound for Manila ought to be nowhere ear it!) S . ‘‘ So, so,’’ he grinned, ‘‘ that hulking brute has been talking, eh? Well, he’s very clever, no doubt ; but supposing the Scarborough is a little bit off the straight line, it is the safe way, and the one I always take.’’ I bowed. What more was there to be said?) A man must sail his ship in his own way. ‘“And when do you think we ought to reach Manila ?”’ ‘That I can’t say for certain. It will depend chiefly on the engineer.’’ Again his cadaverous face wrinkled itself into an insinuating grin, and with an awkward attempt at ease he shuffled below, leaving me full of per- plexity and doubt, though doubt of his honesty I had none. His excuses were so palpably insincere that only his intense love of subterfuge could have prompted him to utter them. Yet shortly after this the engines were set going at full speed once again, and were kept at a high pressure all through that night and well on into the next afternoon, until we sighted land. Then, when I was once more beginning to entertain the vague hope of reaching my destination, they stopped sud- denly, I hurried forward to the engine room skylight and looked down, but beyond a greaser or two who were oiling and polishing up, I could see nothing. As I walked disconsolately aft, the captain overtook me. ‘Upon my soul,’’ he whined, looking at me in a way that was anything but complimentary, ‘‘ the very devil himself seems to have boarded us this voyage! Never in my life have I encountered such a run of bad luck. I doubt much if we shall reach Manila Bay inside this week.’’ ‘“The engines have broken down, then?” said I, inwardly anathema- tizing the delay. ‘‘ Badly. May the devil toast the man who invented engines !’’ ‘* But of course you can mend them ?”’ ‘“That remains to be seen. Our engineer is a clever enough chap, a Portugee from Macao; but he has neither the appliances nor the men.’’ I walked away feeling at war with the world, ruing the mad obsti- nacy which had made nie join this ship against my better sense. Vet calmer reason offered an excuse for the madness of my choice. All the rest of that day we lay idly rolling on the sea, and as every one to whom I could have spoken had managed to stow himself away, I underwent an extremely wretched experience. In appearance the Pulo Way was an ordinary sort of tramp, with a raised forecastle and stern and a deep weli amidships.. I have mentioned the fore- castle, on which the gun was mounted ; in the stern this raised structure, which formed a short poop, from which the flag trailed on Sundays when the ship was in port, was known as the wheelhouse. Here were the big hand wheels, which were to be used in case anything went wrong with the steam steering gear. COPmMiclaoolK< (S@)