Argosy All-Story Weekly — 'The Metal Monster' — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

84 barrels of paint, cases of telephone bat- terles—”’ “ Help!” Thorpe groaned. Katrina laughed at his dismay. “We'd better go a bit slow on what we have,” she suggested. ‘‘ We may be picked up at any time, but again, we may have drifted out of the regular steamer tracks, and may be out here for a prolonged stay.” She bent again to the brass around the engine-room telegraph. “It’s a good thing for us we’ve had such wonderful weather. It almost seems a promise of rescue.” Thorpe’s fingers hesitated in their work. “Are you growing tired of this?” he asked. Then he laughed lightly. “ Of course you are! JI—when I think of get- ting back into a city full of people and just digging for more and more money— Oh, I’m a man, and I suppose the adventure of this thing appeals to me!” | Katrina shot him a quizzical glance. _ “So you do feel the charm of it?” she murmured. always been here—that this is the natural place for us to be—as if we should go on and on this way forever.” ‘I know,” Thorpe nodded. we've eaten of sea-lotus.”’ He moved impatiently, and, putting down his lamp, strode away down the deck. Abaft the wheel-house he paused and looked aft over the Barbuda. What wreckage he and Katrina had been able to handle they had long since cleaned up. The derelict, though nothing but a hulk, was as shipshape as a hulk could be. The bright-work, every- where, was spotless. In the places where the rail had been torn away Thorpe had stretched rope. And on the forward-well deck he had constructed a pen where the three sheep wandered about in the sun dur- ing the daytime. “Ym afraid Thorpe looked out upon his work and knew it was the most satisfying he had ever done. He was content, and his im- patience was a matter of conscience. He felt that he had no right to wish what he did wish—that things might continue this way indefinitely. He felt that he was being unfair to the woman—that he ought, in some way, to be planning out a way for her rescue. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, ‘© Sometimes it seems as if we’d | battered to pieces,”’ Katrina replied. Katrina had her hours of music, whew - she sat at the ship’s piano and played to”. her heart’s content. of dreaming, too, when she looked out over. the waters and wondered where Clay Gor- don-Channing was—Clay, her one taste of romance. Perhaps he was sailing distant. She had her. hours: seas. Perhaps—who knew?r—he might be™ just over the horizon’s rim. Katrina watched the barometer closely,. She ‘knew that the Barbuda had drifted since losing her propeller, carried along by the ocean currents and gently urged along. by the winds that swept over them. It was- unlikely, however, that the derelict had- drifted entirely out of the hurricane zone: And another hurricane might mean— *% When she noted an uneasiness in the’ barometer, one day, her first thought wa¢ for the sheep. She called Thorpe, who was | Desy aft. “ There is weather making,” she said sim- ply. Providence—and make a few preparations. The sheep—I can’t bear the thought of. losing the three that are left. I’ve an idea—”’ “We can’t do much but trust te’ Thorpe flashed a quick glance around the - horizon. not a sign of a storm. The sky was cloud- To his untutored eye there was. less. The sea moved beneath the Barbuda in long, slow swells. But he had not been with Katrina so long without learning to trust to her knowledge of nautical mat- ters. Her sea-story writing father had taught her things which meant the differ- ence between safety and disaster, here on the derelict. ‘What are you thinking of doing?” Thorpe asked. “Those other sheep were undoubtedly cé I think if we can pad the pen nov, it will save the remaining little creatures. se “ What could we pad the pen with?” ““ Mattresses. We can lash mattresses about the walls of the pen in the bridge- casing. It may save them.” Thorpe considered this a moment. Then he nodded. “Of course. You go below and wait. I’ll get the mattresses out of the rooms and drop them over the forward rail- - ing to the well-deck. You can drag them SS) a(GO GOH GIO inn