The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 161: what you’re looking at

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

CREATION REEF. and there cling to the newly stretched lifelines and peer into the darkness. It seemed as if that darkness moved past us in a terrific and steady stream, as if it flowed from the very heart of night. The wreck rode to the drag of the cable in uneven swings. Now she took a wave on the starboard bow, now on the left. Once in a while a sullen crash and sharp quiver of the hulk told of a surge met squarely. Through the heavy glasses in the ports of the low deck-house came a slight glow, showing that the survivors of the crew still felt confidence in their shelter. “ She’s riding it well!’’ I cried in Nelson’s ear. | “Not long!” he bellowed back. “ Ship’s old—leaking—sea rising.” And then we were joined by a third figure, Meta Braun. She emerged from the companionway and was out; lined dimly against the sheen from the open door. Nelson—we must have been invis- ible to her—waved his arm in useless protest against her risking her life on the careening deck. She stepped out and we caught her between us. To my amazement, she was not trembling. She balanced herself easily on the streaming planks, and her tones were steady when she said: “ Will the ship go down to-night?” Neither of us answered the query. Meta went on presently: “ You see, if the ship is going down, I want to be up here.” The feeling was natural; I sympathized. But then she added an amazing reason: “It would be awful while I was drowning to be grabbed by Mrs. Evans.” “ Well,” said Nelson quickly and de- cidedly, “we're safe enough for to- night.” He stepped into the darkness and started to claw his way forward to the half-deck. Meta Braun crept closer to me. I had never paid her much attention, apart from an occasional admiring glance, but in this new relationship I 631 felt that it was too bad that it was only during the windy blackness of what was likely to be my last night in this life that I had realized the desirable- ness of love and returned affection and a woman by a bright fire. ‘“T wish,’ she said very distinctly, “that you would put your arm around me and hold me very tight—yjust a moment. You see, I’m so afraid I’m going to be scared!” I took an extra turn of the lashings about us both, and she snuggled into my wet arms and put her head on my shoulder. So we stood for five min- utes, two atoms in a world of murk, swept by the steady and unfailing stream of the wind and dashed upon by stinging spray and shaken terribly by the dying throes of the strong ship. Then she twisted herself from my arms with a whispered “I’m all right now!” and wént below. When Nelson crawled back, a. few moments later, I could perceive from his tones that he had discovered some new peril to us. We leaned toward each other around the staff of the bro- ken mast and he put his lips to my ear. “Something is going to happen! The ship’s not behaving the same—no chance for the boats—breaking up.” My own senses told me he spoke the truth. The wreck of the Indian Star no longer rode so freely. ‘There was a curious drag now and again, a sub- sidence of her huge mass without a proper recovery. Nelson and I stood a little while,to- gether, peering into the pitchy dark- ness and trying to feel what had hap- pened. Then I saw something that made me gasp. A black, mountainous surge that rose right above us sudden- ly flashed into white, and the roar of its breaking was reenforced by other roars. The deck under our feet shook as the hulk struck in the surf, and Nelson and I plunged down the companion- steps and into the cabin just as an- other terrific comber broke and sub- merged us under untold tons of water. COMicdoo S CO@