The Argosy — page 386: what you’re looking at

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

Under Northern Skies. 365 So we supped upon horrors unfolded with dramatic power; and his quaint humour and sayings shortened the night. The stars were brilliant. Our vessel in the open sea rolled and strained un- easily, though there was little swell upon the water. But she was small and narrow and lightly charged. In some of their rough seas a passage in her would prove an ordeal to be recorded. It blew cold, too, upon these wider waters, under the dark night sky. There was no warmth in all those flashing, trembling stars, though much beauty. ‘The skipper, thoughtful as I have described him, had rugs brought up for our benefit, and seats placed under the lee of his cabin on the bridge. ‘There we sat and chatted and listened to - —= ‘i mI creeping tales, far into the small hours. The stewardess brought us coffee ; the skipper in largeness of heart insisted upon adding cognac. In the rare intervals of silence we listened to the throb of the engines, the rush of the paddles ploughing the wide waste. But there came a moment when even the skipper and his old chum—they had been boys together at sea fifty years ago—thought it time to turnin. An hour or two’s sleep would enable one the better to appreciate the wonders of Gotland. About five o’clock the next morning we entered Wisby harbour: a scene to be remembered. The sun had risen; all the freshness of early morning was upon the earth. ‘The place was still sleeping. It looked a dead world as we steamed up within the long breakwater. Twice dead, for above the houses of the town, sharply outlined against the clear morning sky, were wonderful and romantic ruins: CoOnnicbooks (CO) am