Argosy All-Story Weekly — 'The Metal Monster' — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

- THE DERELICT. deck above her, and its impact against the engine-room skylight told of fresh damage done the laboring ship. In a frenzy—for now all Katrina’s thoughts were for the helpless old man ly- ing suffering in his bunk—the girl started anew her search for the key. The worst of the storm was upon the Barbuda. She rose sickeningly—since there was no hand to guide her—over one moun- tainaus sea after another, only to pitch heavily down into the trough—to careen madly, until it seemed impossible for her to right herseli—and then to roll wildly over the other way. There was a great roaring of winds down the alleyways and against the linen-room that testified to the strength of the gale. : With each lurch of the ship a fresh stack of linen was flung from a shelf. Katrina, fallen upon her hands and knees, was beat- en down again and again. The big piles of sheets or tablecloths—there were ten to a pile, folded and tied into a compact mass —were heavy, and when they struck her they felled her. Again and again her head Struck the sharp edges of shelves; her shoulders were bruised; ‘everywhere her body was. battered. The bodily hurt served only to add to her mad efforts to locate the key. He was suffering worse than this—old Captain Bu- chanan. Perhaps Godfrey had left him for - gomething, and had been unable to return. Perhaps the skipper lay alone in his room— suffering and alone! Katrina thought, for @ moment, of screaming and pounding against the door. But she realized that any diminutive sound she might make would be drowned in the titanic fury of the storm. After hours, which crept past like slow years, the dawn began to drag its heavy way through the deadlights. And the first thing Katrina saw in a corner of the clut- tered deck was the key! - With a little hysterical sob, she clutched it and put it in the lock. She dragged her- self to her feet, her knees trembling be- neath her. She threw her full weight ‘against the door, for the wind was against it, and struggled out upon the wet, heeling deck. Clinging to the hand-rail, she fought ker way for’ard. Slowly, with her skirts TT whipping and slashing around her ankles until they tore, she gained her way. She reached the companionway leading to the upper deck and pulled herself painfully up it. The little doors at the top were gone— battered from their hinges. Katrina took no time for a survey of the ship. She crawled on her hands and knees, since she could not stand, until she gained the semishelter of the house. Then, keeping close to the bulkhead, she struggled on to the protecting windshield by the cap- tain’s doorway. — There she paused and knocked. There was no answer. Again she -knocked, and, this time, she called. Her own voice star- tled her, for there was in it a fear of something to which she had not even dared give thought. In a sudden panic she tore the door open and went into the room. , Captain Buchanan lay in his bunk in a tangled mass of bedding. With each lurch of the ship his body thudded from bunk- board to bulkhead and back again. Ka- trina dragged her way to his side. He was dead—by his own hand. A revolver lay between the mattress and the bunk- board, where it had slithered with the roll- ing of the ship. How long she clung to the edge of the berth, staring at the still face, she did not know. She was suddenly faint—a quick wave of horror and grief overcoming her. But soon this faintness passed and Ka- trina brought herself back to calm thoughts. She looked about the room. There was no sign of Godfrey—he must be somewhere else with the other men who had remained aboard the ship. _ Katrina suddenly remembered the Ko- romanti, and wondered why she had not thought of her before. The wind was de- creasing momentarily, and she decided to make her way for’ard and see where the other ship was. Her torn skirts whipping about her, she pulled herself along the hand-rail until she stood for’ard of the house. She swept the thick haze with eager eyes. There was no sign of the other ship. She made her way aft—until she could see in every direction astern of the Barbuda. GOR GDOO UN S (CO