Beadle's Dime Library No. 230 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

buoys that still hung round the stump of the ‘Then we all jumped. together, and tried to get, away from the ship before she sucked us under, 26T 60 o "" CHAPTER VL mS ORaN THE RAFT. I pOon’T remember ever swimming as hard as ILdid that, day. .Whea a fellow knows it’s all pe with bim if be can’t get ous of a sbip’s eddy in time, he’s apt to do bis utmost and I kon/ we.all three put in our best licks. ywayj we were not sucked in by the ship, and didn’t even see her sink, as we floated on the,life-buoys, up and down, on the towering waves, You may not believe it, but at first, after we got used to the buoys, the change from the ship was a pleasant one, A man on a buoy floats like'a cork, and never stays in the trough of the sea long. It was up,up, up, with us one minute and down again the next, quick enough to take your preetl away, so that we felt like birds flying in e air. ‘ib But after near half an hour’s floating about like corks, I began to feel the chill of the water and the awful loneliness. t and raft were nowhere to be, seen, though I looked round from the top of every wave we mounted, I could see was the tops of other waves, black as ink, crested with white, in one tossing confusion every where. woe there we floated away to leeward, till it ddenly occurred to me.that the raft and boat couldn’t be far off. I knew they could only do as we did, drift to leeward. from the place where the ship went down, and that our distance apart could only be the diff-rence between our driits. I told this to ee doctor, and it cheered him upsome, and then _ I told,them that, if we all gave a good shcut to- gether, it was more than likely the people on the wate mould, bear us. Well, to make a Jong story short, we all joined in a loud hail, and then listened our best. Imost immediately after we heard an an- swering hail, and the doctor’s face lighted up, while young Hyatt looked as if he was ready to go wild with joy. he bail came from windward, and in another te we heard it repeated, and saw the life- on the crest of a wave behind us, coming There were only four men in her—the two Danes, Hackett and Mungo Johnston—and they had the lifelines towing as they swept us by. wey be sure we grabbed them quick eno when the two Danes pulled us aboard, nd we felt as thankful as if we had touched land at last. At first, that is, for, after we'd been on board a little, we seemed as badly off as ever, except that we were seven instead of three. We were as much alone as ever, and I won- ‘déred where the raft was, till Myngo Johnston out: **Get her head round, boys. We've got to ull back to the ladies.” “Where are they?” I asked. : ay metete wd g to windward,” he answered. ~ p 9 them on the raft, and my kinsman in- t we put off and bunt for you.” The young fellow looked as much at home in ‘the boat as if he had been at sea all his life, and I began to forget his homely freckled face and on when I saw how like a real man I got on the seat with him and helped him pull stroke oar; and we began to labor up to windward to find the raft. We knew it would drift very slowly, and I to Denyse, left alone with only ‘Peters and the old men to help him, would have a hard time, when Jobnston remarked, as be tugned at the oar: “Your third mate’s a good man, captain. He’s ard at work getting the raft ship-shape to the waves from sweeping it. Sam Peters works like @ horse, and even the women are helping—I mean the ladies.” ** We're all men and women now,” I told him. ** We'll drop the titles till we get ashore, if we ever do.” I heard a sort of growl behind me, and there pe Lars Nelson, sbaking his head again in the S gloomy way; but, as he said nothing, I eee steadily on till Johnston observed: ‘**We ought to be near them now, I think. ) We all su t as loud ld, and | ung out as loud as we could, and pres- carne back the answer, close to windward, 10Wwing we hadn’t reached them yet. The sound put courage into us all, and we pulled on till we sigh ed the raft, now a big mass of timbers, all ranged neatly side by side, and so fenced in with the top hamper of the ship that the water didn’t sweep over it any higher ‘than a man’s ankles. In the middle I saw that Denyse bad rigged up a sort of platform, on which the women were high and dry. x | ae Yl, that raft looked like heaven to us in , it was sostrong and sjlid. We ’ aap baoalin’s sink, and ——- _- mm ee tha water took so the tle of it, on nt of its giving to the waves, that the platform in the smiddl dle didn’t heave about any more than a big ship. ty We hauled up to the leeward and made the boat fast, when we scrambled on board and set to work like men to help make it still stronger. We were so busy that we didn’t notice time flying till a glow of yellow a came streaking over the waves, and we looked around to see the sun, about an bour from his setting, breaking through the ragged, greasy-looking clouds, to ~s the gale prenkinns and the sea going down ast. Weall stopped and gave the sun. three cheers before he went out again, even the girls joining in with a will. Then we looked round at each other, and could hardly belp laughing. Such.a woeful, bedraggled lot as we were, especially the women, with their wet clothes clinging to them, their lons hair hanging round, their faces or tossing in the wind, like ropes’ ends. Little Mame Bruce, that bad been the belle of the ship, Jooked like a drowned rat, and Mrs. Peters badn’t a spark of beauty lJeftin her mis- ery. .The best of the lot was old Mrs: Hyatt, who had on thick clothes, and. didn’t. seem The Flying Dutchman of 1880. | TT -— A ee edge of the life-boat and drink all we wanted: foo th was tails ; a — . And as the boat was about twenty feet lon by five beam and depth, I calculated rast hola several hundred gallons, more than we could use before the sun spoiled it. It didn’t take long fcr us to go to sleep. We were all dogtired. .. _ I don’t.know how. long I slept; but I woke up to find the Soutbern Cross upright in the sky before my face, and knew from that, midnight had come, first, but when 1 did, | uitered a shout and sat up, broad awake. CHAPTER VII, THE FLYING DUTCHMAN'S RETURN. You may wonder why I uttered a shout, To tell ibe truth, 1 was so startled and shecked, I eouldn’t have helped it for my life. The sea all round wes as bleck as ink; as smooth as. a mirror, and full of stars, hike the heavens; but for all there was not a breath of air stirring, there was that terrible, fiery ghost of a ship we had seen before the ty) phoon, sail- ing along, not a quarter of a mile,cff, in full view, her filmy sails gleaming as if woven of chilled to death like the others, while Inez, the | fire, the ghastly skeleton of ber ribs and keel as. Spanish girl, bad, managed to twist, her black hair into a tight knot, to. be out of the way while she waited on Mamie, and looked the only real handsome woman in that whole crowd, for she had astrong, well-shaped figure, like a coun- try girl, and behaved asif used to taking care of herself, I saw that they needed cheering up a little, so I sung.out: ‘‘ Mr, Denyse, call all hands to grub, and if there’s any rum on board, we’ll splice the main brace,” Taat made them Jaugh, and we began to hunt for what food we had with us, when [ was fair- ly scared to discover what.I found out, We had three boxes of biscuit, and a case of canned corned beef, salmon, and such-like; but shane wasn’t one drop of fresh water on that raft. I remembered having ordered the water-casks cut loose; but in the hurry, when the ship went down, what was everybody’s business was no- body’s; and there we were, fifteen souls on the raft, with salt food and dry biscuits to eat, and nothing but salt water round us. You may be sure our faces fell when we found this out, for we were all thirsty enough already with our work; but Mungo Johnston comforted us by telling how he was sure there was a breaker of water in the life-boat, and there we found it, lashed under the thwarts, as it bad been all the voyage, a little eight-gallon affair, the size of a common lager beer kee. Right a of water between fifteen people, out in the Indian Ocean, with no prospect of seeing land! “You may be sure I took charge of that ke myself, and got it on the platform, where i dealt out an allowance to eich person, and we ate our supper, such as it was, in a very sober mood. The sun came out egain just as it touched the horizon, and by that time the wind had ry down still more, while beavy black clouds ad gathered over our heads, and the weather was growing warmer and sultry. I saw several flashes of lightning, and said to myself aloud: ‘Now, if we only had something to catch the water; it’s going to rain hard, I think.” Clarence Denyse spoke up. ‘*' There’s the boat, sir; if we clean her out and houl her up on the raft, She'll holda good deal, I’m sure. ““] couldn’t help respecting that fellow then, if his name was Clarence, so I told him to do what he pleased, Then he called Mungo Jobnston and the Danes, and they hauled up the life-boat; washed it out, turned it over to drip, and set it up by the platform, wedging it fast, before dark. The waves no longer came on board, and the whole raft was above water by the time the night came on; and then it fell dead calm, as I bad thought it would, and we had a regu- lar torrent of warm rain. I’ve often known this to recs after a ty- phoon, and the thunder and lightning are worse than in the storm itself, and all the more aw- ful from the intense calmness and silence be- tween peals. The rain came down itn real streams, and feeling like a warm shower-bath, and we heard it splashing into the boat and on the raft, while the waves round us seemed to be beaten flat by the rain, for we could see the ocean, smooth as a mill-pond, in the light of the flashes. I was afraid the lightning might take a fancy to strike our boat, but somehow it didn’t, and the storm passed away to one side and lett us, under the most brilliant sky I ever saw be- fore or since, with the stars blazing down, so we could fancy we felt their heat. The warmth was very good to us after the miserable chill of the typhoon, and we wrung out our clothes as well as we could, and lay down on the raft to rest. We bad no longer any fears about weter. We could lean over the / distinct as éver; while she left a Jong, fiery wake behind her like a comet’s tail. My shout. woke op every one on the raft, and they all. started up and stared at the Flying “Dutchman, as horrified as | was. Some groaned, some muttered to each other, and Mamie Bruce gave a sort of scream: “Oh, heavens! there it is again!” The only persons who said nothing ‘weré the two Danes, I saw them get up and peer at the fiery ghost curiously, and then they both came and stood beside me, staring silently, On went the fiery ghost ship, as plain as ever, and as silently as a spirit. She seemed to be going, if she were a real ship, at about seven knots an hour, and it was certein she parted the water, for I could see her wake be- bind her, like a line of green fire in the black sea, I was staring at her, spellbound, when Mr. Denys came up besije me, and said in a low one; ‘* Hadn’t we better hail her, sir?” “Hail what? Hail her? My good man, are you crazy? Do you want to bring the devil here in person?” ‘* No, sir,” he said, quietly. ‘I only thought, as he was so close, he might pick us up, out of common humanity.” **Common humanity!” says I. ‘Are you stark, staring mad, Denyse? That’s not a real ship. If we do hail him, maybe he'll come down and carry us off, anyhow, to a place I don’t want to visit.” ‘* And what place is that, sir!” says Denyse, in a quiet way. Davy Jones’s locker, sir,” I said, quite an- grily. ‘Don’t talk any more nonsense, but think yourself lucky if be doesn’t bring us an- other typhoon to what's left of us from the other.” “Ay, ay,” says Lars Nelson, in a sort of oan. ‘Gold help the man that sees the Evil e thrice, He takes him with bim the third time.” Denyse didn’t answer bim, but he stood watch- ing the flery skip with folded arms as it passed on and grew more and more distant, til] at last he turned away and went back to the platform, where I heard the passengers discussing things in a Y _ I said to Nelson: , va me what your le say of the Flyin Dutchman. Who is he?” r sb Lars looked gloomily at me, and then said something in Danish to Erik, who didn’t talk very good English. Erik nodded, and said ne in reply, and then the other Dane me; “We don’t call him the Dutchman. He is the Evil One himself, who entered into the spirit of a King, the greatest fighter we ever had inour nation. He could wield asword in each hand, and when he leaped on board his enemy’s ship the crew leaped into the sea to drown, for fear of his eyes and terrible voice,” ‘Ob, well, that’s all a story,” I said, for I couldn't believe that sort of atuiff, you know. Lars Nelson shook his head. “It is no story, but the truth. captain. as we shall find out, ne hea Be Ragnar Oleson, met him once, the te King. and defied him to his face. And the Pirate King told him be would give him just one year to five. when he would fetch him, no matter where he was, down to Nostrand, where the terrible goddess: Hel rules over the caverns of snakes that spit. poison on men’s heads and drive them mad, And Ragnar Oleson defied him to do it and went home. But in one your from that very day the. Evil One came for him in his ship. sailing in the air, and found Ragnar Oleson before a church door in Denmark. And Ragnar Oleson ran inte the church, with the aa after him, and snatched the crucifix off the high al smite the Pirate Zing.” walter “ Very what next?” | asked, fap & a What woke, me I didn’t know at ' -~_—-_- (ECO) Gomicbooks i" oe