The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

LOOSING THE TEMPEST. We saw the form of the air naviga- tor tumble from his seat and go plun- ging down some hundred feet to the water. The surface of the sea was dotted with drifting cakes of-ice. I judged from the splash he had escaped stri- king one of these. “ Get out the raft!” I cried. cata—”’ Before I had got that far there was a splash. A heavy fur garment lay on the ground beside me, and the skin- clad form of the islander was fifty feet from shore. Ordway and I lost interest in the air-ship, which shot upward as soon as it was relieved of the navigator’s weight. We paid attention only to the swimmer. And, great Cesar! how that lone- some islander could swim! He went through the water as easily as a seal. Ice-cakes that Ordway or I would have to swim around he hurled aside as if they were bits of cork. “ Let’s get out his fool boat,” I sug- gested. ‘“ He may have trouble getting back.” “ The We ran to the little bay, threw off. the mooring-ropes, and pushed the catamaran away.from shore. Fortu- nately, we had a breeze that carried us out of the bay and toward the swim- mers. The man from the air-ship was sustaining himself in the water, and the islander was shoving among the ice- cakes like a fish. ‘He did not need our help. He reached the unfortunate air-man, and started back. When we tried to turn his ridiculous craft we were stuck. It would, under our hands, sail in a straight line before the wind, but that was all. We were of little assistance to Don- aldson, but we needed help from him, for we couldn’t lay to or stop or come up with the wind, or do anything else with that raft. But we sailed so close to Donaldson that he caught an outrigger with one hand and was dragged along, holding 43 the half-frozen and almost helpless air- man with the other. “Here! Catch him!” he shouted, and the form of the air-man came over the outrigger. We dragged him on to the platform, and Donaldson was there almost as soon. He at once took the management of his vessel in his own hands, and Ord- way and I looked at each other in a sort of mutual pity at our helplessness as the unwieldy thing swung round slowly and tacked back to her moor- ings as easily as a yawl on Long Island Sound. The airman had fainted. We chafed his hands and temples, but the raft was fastened home again before he showed signs of returning consciousness. “ Better take him to the cave and get his clothes off,” said Ordway. There was no reply from Donaldson. He simply picked the man up in his arms and carried him, as though he weighed nothing, into the cavern. We fairly tore off his clothes, care- ful to keep him from the heat of the fire, and-began rubbing him with bear’s grease. We rubbed till our arms ached, and then Donaldson, who had immediately changed to a dry skin suit, took up the work. His arms would never tire. I made a pot of coffee, or what we called coffee; and when at last the fel- low showed signs of coming back to earth, I poured some of it down his throat. The rubbing had warmed his blood and released the tense muscles, so that soon after he was conscious he sat up. “Where am I?” he asked, looking at each of us in turn with a bewildered expression. “ Is this America? ”’ “No, my friend,” I answered; “ this is not America. So far as we know, it is the island of Orsgov, somewhere south of the arctic circle, and indefinite- ly off the coast of Norway. But you are an American. Surely you have not come from the United States in that toy of yours.” CoOMmicbook CO