Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

stone ship, floating out there in the night in the midst of the lonely Atlantic! “She’s stone,” I said again, in that absurd way in which one reiterates, when one is bewildered. ) ~ “Look at the slime on her!” muttered the man next but one forrard of me. “She’s a proper Davy Jones ship. By gum! she stinks like a corpse!” 7 “Ship ahoy!” roared the Skipper, at the top of his voice. “Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!” Re His shout beat back at us, in a curious, dank, yet metallic, echo, some- thing the way one’s voice sounds in an old disused quarry. | “There’s no one aboard there, Sir,” said the Third Mate. “Shall I put the boat alongside?” “Yes, shove her up, Mister,” said the Old Man. “Ill bottom this busi- ness. Pull a couple of strokes, aft there! In bow, and stand by to fend off.” ~The Third Mate laid the boat alongside, and we unshipped our oars. Then, I leant forward over the side of the boat, and pressed the flat of my | hand upon the stark side of the ship. The water that ran down her side, sprayed out over my hand and wrist in a cataract; but I did not. think about being wet, for my hand was pressed solid upon stone. ... I pulled my hand back with a queer feeling. 3 “She’s stone, right enough, Sir,” I said to the Captain. : “We'll soon see what she is,” he said. “Shove your oar up against her side, and shin up. We'll pass the lamp up to you as soon as you're aboard. Shove your axe in the back of your belt. I'll cover you with my gun, till you're aboard.” | | “°4, 7i, Sir,” I said; though I felt a bit funny at the thought of having to be the first aboard that damn rummy craft. I put my oar upright against her side, and took a spring up it from the thwart, and in a moment I was grabbing over my head for her rail, with every rag on me soaked through with the water that was streaming down her, and spraying out over the oar and me. I got a firm grip of the rail, and hoisted my head high enough to look over; but I could see nothing . . . what with the darkness, and the water in my eyes. : : I knew it was no time for going slow, if there were danger aboard; so I went in over that rail in one spring, my boots coming down with a horrible, ringing, hollow, stony sound on her decks. I whipped the water out of my eyes and the axe out of my belt, all in the same moment; then I took a good stare fore and aft; but it was too dark to see anything. “Come along, Duprey!” shouted the Skipper. “Collar the lamp.” I leant out sideways over the rail, and grabbed for the lamp with my left hand, keeping the axe ready in my -right, and staring inboard; for I tell you, I was just mortally afraid in that moment of what might be aboard of her. : I felt the lamp-ring with my left hand, and gripped it. Then I switched it aboard, and turned fair and square to see where I'd gotten. 96 ~ COMMNCEOOKS. EC)