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About The Gate city journal. (Nyssa, Or.) 1910-1937 | View Entire Issue (June 2, 1922)
THE HATE P IT Y JOURNAL. NYSSA. OREUON THE INDIAN DRUM Growing Old Too Soon? Are you one of thoae unfortunate folks who finds yourself feeling older than you should: Do you feel lame and stiff mornings; drag through the day with a constantly aching back? Evening find you utterly worn-out* Then look to your kidneys. Present Jav life puts a heavy burden on the kidnevs. They slow u d and poisons ac cumulate and upset blood and nerves. Help your weakened kidneys with Doan*9 Kidney Pills. Doan's have helped thousands and should help you. Ask your neighbor! Wy William ZMacHarg and êdwin Calmer Copyright by Edwin Dalmer An Idaho Cate mam II 1 I 1 IIIIIIÜ I CHAP I Eft XV.—Continued. — 13 — And Burr was hearing something— something distinct and terrifying; hut he seemed not surprised, hut rather satisfied that Alan had not heard, lie nodded Ids head at Alan’s denial, and. without reply to Alan’s demand, lie stood listening. Something bent him forw ard ; he straightened; again the something came; again he straight ened. Four times Alan counted the motions. Burr was hearing again the four long blasts of distress! But there was no noise but the gale. “ The four blasts!’* He recalled old Burr’s terror outside the radio cabin. The old man was hearing blasts which were not blown ! He moved on and took the wheel. He wus a good wheelsman ; tlie vessel seemed to lie steadier on her course and, somehow, to steer easier when the old man steered. His Illusions of hear ing could do*no harm. Alan consid ered ; they were of concern only to Burr and to him. Alan fought to keep his thought all to his duty; they must be now very nearly at the position where the Rich ardson Inst had heard the four long blasts; searching for a ship or for boats In that snow, was almost hope less. With sight even along the search light’s beam shortened to a few hun dred yards, only accident could bring Number 25 up for rescue, only chance could carry the ship where the shouts —or the blasts of distress if the wreck still floated and had steam— would be heard. They were meeting frequent and heavy floes, and Alan gave warning of these by hails to the bridge; the bridge answered and when possible the steam er avoided the floes; when It could not do that it cut through them. The wind- rowed ice heating and crushing under the bows took strange, distorted, glis tening shapes. Now another such shape appeared before them; where the glare dissipated to a hare glow in the sw irl ing snow, he saw a vague shadow’. The man moving the searchlight failed to see it, for he swung the beam on. The shadow was so dim, so ghostly, that Alan sought for it again before he hailed; he could see nothing now, yet he was surer, somehow, that he had seen. “ Something dead ahead, s ir!’* he shouted back to the bridge. The bridge answered the hail as the searchlight pointed forward again. A gust carried the snow in a fierce flurry which the light failed to pierce; from the flurry suddenly, silently, spar by spar, a shadow emerged—the shadow of a ship. It wus a steamer, Alan saw, a long, low-lying old vessel without lights and without smoke fropj the fun nel slanting up ju£t forward of the after deckhouse; it foiled in the trough of tlie sea. The sides and all the lower works gleamed in ghostly phosphores cence, it was refraction of the search light beam from the ice sheathing all the ship, Alan’s brain told him; but the sight of that Bound I ess, shimmering ship materializing from behind the screen of snow struck a tremor through him. “ Ship!” he hailed. ‘‘Ahead! Dead ahead, sir! Ship!” Tlie shout of quick commands echoed to him from tlie bridge. Un derfoot he could feci a new tumult of the deck; the engines, instuntly slopped, were being set full speed as tern. But Number 25, Instead of sheering off to right or left to avoid tlie collision, steered straight on. The struggle of the engines against the momentum of the ferry told that others had seen the gleaming ship, or, at least, had heard the hail. The skip per's Instant decision had been to put M starboard; he had bawled that to the wheelsman, “ Hard over!” But, though the screws turned full astern. Number 25 steered straight on. The flurry was blowing before the how again : hack through the snow tlie I cp - shrouued shimmer ahead retreated. Alan leaped away and up to the wheel- house. Men were struggling there—the skip per, a mate, and old Burr, who had held the wheel. He clung to it yet. as one In a trance, fixed, staring ahead; his arms, stiff, had been holding Num ber 25 to her course. The skipper struck him and beat him away, while the mate tugged at the wheel. Burr was torn from the wheel now, and he made no resistance to tlie skipper’s blows; hut the skipper, in his frenzy, struck him again and knocked him to the deck. Slowly, steadily. Number 25 was re sponding to her helm. The bow point ed away, and tlie beam of the ferry came beside the beam of the silent steamer; they were very close now. so dose that the searchlight, whl'-li had turned to keep on the other vessel, »hot almve Its shimmering deck and lighted only the spars ; and. as the wa ter rose and fell between them, the »hips sucked ciifiwrr. Number 25 -shook c tli an effort; It seemed opposing with pt? power of its screws some force f atally drawing it on—opposing with rhe !ast resistance before giving way. Th^n. as the water fell again, the ferry seemed to slip and be drawn toward the other vessel; they mounted, side by side . . . cradled . . . recoiled . . . crashed agai.i That second crash threw nil w’ ho had nothing to hold by, fts> spot) »he deck; theu Number 35 moved by ; astern her now the silent steamer vanished In the snow. Gongs boomed below; through the new confusion and the cries of men, orders begun to become uudihle. Alan, scrambling to his knees, put an arm under old Burr, half raising him; the form encircled by his arm struggled up. The skipper, who Imd knocked Burr away from the wheel, ignored him now. The old ruan, dragging himself up and holding to Alan, was staring with terror ut the snow screen behind which the vessel bail disappeared. His lips moved. “ It was a ship!" he said; he seemed speaking more to himself than to Alan. “ Yes.” Alan said. “ It wus a ship; and you thought—■** “ It wasn’t there!” the wheelsman cried. “ It’s— it's been there all tlie time all night, and I’d—I ’d steered through it ten times, twenty times, every few minutes; and then—that time It was u ship!” Alan’s excitement grew greater; tie seized the old man again. “ You thought it was the Miwaka!” Alan exclaimed. “The Miwaka ! And you tried to steer through it again.” “ The M iwaka!” old Burr’s lips reit erated tlie word. “ Yes; yes— the Mi waka I” He struggled, writhing with some agony not physical. Alan tried to hold him, Hut now the old man was beside himself with dismay. He broke away and started aft. The captain’s voice recalled Alan to himself, as lie was about to follow, and lie turned buck to the wheelhouse. The second officer, who had gone be low to ascertain the damage done to the ferry, came up to report. Two of the compartments, those which had taken the crush of the collision, had flooded Instantly; tlie hulkhcuds were holding—only leaking a little, the offi cer declared. Water was coining into a third compartment, that at flu* stern ; the pumps were lighting this water. The shock had sprung seams else where; hut if the after compartment did not till, the pumps might handle the rest. Alan was at the how again on look out duty, ordered to listen and to look for the little boats. He gave to that duty ail ids conscious attention; but through his thought, whether he w illed it or not, ran a riotous exultation. As he paced from side to side and hailed and answered hails trom tlie bridge, and while lie strained for sight and hearing through the gale-swept snow, ilie leaping pulse within repeated, “ I’ve found him! I’ve found him!” Alan held no longer possibility of doubt of old Burr’s identity with Ben jamin Corvet, since tlie old man had made plain to him that lie was haunt ed by tlie Miwaka. Since that night m the house on Astor street, when Spearman shouted to Alan that name, everything having to do with the se cret of Benjamin Corvet’s life had led, so far as Alan could follow It, to the Miwaka ; all the change, which Sher rill described but could not account for, Alan had laid to that. Corvet only could have been so huunted by that ghostly ship, and there had been guilt of some awful sort In tlie old man 8 cry. Alan had found tlie man w’ho had sent him away to Kansas " hen he was a child, who hud support ed him there and then, at last, sent for him; who had disappeared at his coming and left him all his posses sions and ills heritage of disgrace, who had paid blackmail to Luke, and who had sent. Inst, Captain Stafford’s watch and the ring which came with it— the wedding ring. Alan pulled his hand from his glove und felt In his pocket for tlie little hand of gold. What would that mean to him now; what of that was he to learn? And, as he thought of that, Constance Sherrill came more insist ently before hint. What was he to learn for her, for h!s friend and Ben jamin Corvet’s friend, whom he, Uncle Benny, had warned not to care for Henry Spearman, and then had gone away to leave her to marry him? For she was to marry him. Alan had read. More serious damage than first re ported ! The pumps certainly must lie losing their tight with the water In the port ‘ompartment a ft; for the how steadily was lifting, the stern sinking. The starboard rail too was raised, und the list had become so sharp that wa ter washed the deck abaft tlie fore »nstle to port. And the ferry was pointed straight Int i tL? gate now ; long ago »lie had ceased to circle and steam slowly In search lor boats; she struggled with all her power against the wind and the seas, a desperate In sistence throbbing In the thrusts of the engines; for Number 25 was flee ing—fleeing for the western shore. She dared not turn to the nearer eastern shore to expose that shattered stern to tlie sens. Four bells beat behind AJ°/i; i; was two o’cl.x k. Relief should have come long before; hut no one came. He was numbed now; ice from tlie spray crackled upon his clothing when he moved, ami It fell in flakes upon the deck. The stark figure on the bridge was that of the second officer; so the thing which was happening below— the thing which was sending strange violent, wanton tremors through the shtf>—was serious enough to call the skipper below, to make him abandon the bridge at this time! 1 lie tremors quite distinct from the steady tremble of the engines and the thudding of the pumps, came again. Alan, feeling them, jerked up and stamped ami beat Ids arms to regain sensution. Some one stumbled toward him from tlie cabins now, a short figure in a great coat. It was a woman, he saw as she hailed him—the cabin maid. “ I’m taking your place!” slip shouted to Alan. “ You’re wanted— every one’s wanted on tlie car deck ! The cars— “ The gale and her frigid stopped her voice as she struggled for speech. “The ”urs— the cars are loose!” CHAPTER XVI “ Ha Killed Your Father.” Alan ran aft along the starboard side, catching at tlie rail as the deck tilted : the sounds within the hull and the tremors following each-, sound came to him more distinctly as he ad vanced. Taking the shortest way to the car deck, he turned into the cabins to reach tlie passengers’ companion- way. The noises from the car deck, no longer muffled by the cabins, clanged and resounded in terrible tumult; with the clang and rumble of metal rose shouts und roars of men. To liberate and throw overboard heavily loaded cars from an endan gered ship was so desperate an under taking and so certain to cost life that men attempted it only in final extremi ties, when the ship must he lightened at any cost. Alan had never seen the effect of such an attempt, hut he had heard of it as the fear which sat al ways on tlie hearts of the men who navigate the ferries -the cars loose on a rolling, lurching ship! He was going to that now. The car deck was a pitch ing, swaying slope; the cars nearest him were still upon their tracks, but they tilted and swuyed uglily front side to side; the jacks were gone from un der them; the next cars already were hurled from the* rails, their wheels screaming on the steel deck, clanging and thudding together in their couplings. Alan ran aft between them. All the crew who could he called from deck and engine room and firehold were strug- Corvet Already Wa3 Back Among the Car« Again, Shouting Orders. gllng at the fantail, under the direction of the captain, to throw off the cars. The mate was working as one of the men. and with him was Benjamin Cor vet. Tlie crew already must have loos ened and thrown over the stern three cars from the two tracks on the port side; for there was a space vacant; and as a car charged into that space and tlie men threw themselves upon It, Alan leaped with them. It was a flat car laden with steel beams. At Corvet’s command, the crew ranged themselves beside it with bars. The bow of the ferry rose to some great wave and. with n cry to the men. Corvet pulled the pin. The others thrust with their bars, and the car slid down tlie sloping track; and Corvet. caught by some lashing of the beams, came with It. Alan leaped upon it and. catching C orvet. freed him and flung him down to the deck, and dropped with him. A cheer rose as the car cleared the fantail. dove und disap- pea red. Alan clambered to his feet. Corvet already was back among the cars again, shouting orders; tlie mate and the men who had followed him before leaped at his yells. Corvet called to them to throw’ ropes and chains to bind the loads which were letting g ; the heavier loads- steel beams, cast ings. machinery—snapped their lash ings, ripped from their flat cars and thundered down the deck. The cars tipped farther, turned over; others bal anced hack ; it was upon their wheels that they charged forward, half riding one another, crashing und demolishing, ns the ferry pitched; It was upon their trucks that they tottered and battered from side to side as tlie deck swuyed Now the stern ugaln descended: a line of nrs swept for the fantail. Corvet’s cry came to Alnn through the scream ing of steel and the clangor of destru • tton. Corvet’s cry sent men with bars beside tlie curs us tlie fanlaii dipped into the wuter; Corvet, agulu leading tlie crew’, cleared the leader of those madly charging cars and ran it over tlie stern. The tore trucks fell and. before the rear trucks reached the edge, the stern lifted und caught the car in the middle; it balanced, half over tlie wu ter, half over the deck. Corvet crouched under the car with a crow- liar; Alan and two others went with him; they worked the car on until the weight of tlie end over the water tipped it down; the balance broke, and the car tumbled und dived. Corvet, hav ing cleared another hundred tons, leaped buck, calling jp the crew. They followed him again, unques tioning, obedient. Alan followed close to him. It was not pity which stirred him now for Benjamin C orvet; nor w as it bitterness; but it certainly was not contempt. O f all the ways in which he had fancied finding Benjamin Corvet, he had never thought of seeing him like this! It was, probably, only for a flash; hut the great quality of leadership which he had once possessed, which Sherrill hud described to Alnn and which had been destroyed by the threat over him, had returned to him in this desperate emergency which he had cre ated. How much or how little of his own condition Corvet understood, Alan could not te ll; it was plain only that he comprehended that he had been the cause of the catastrophe, and In his fierce will to repair it he not only dis regarded all risk to himself; he also had summoned up from within him and was spending the last strength of his spirit. But he was spending It In a losing fight. He got off two more cars; yet the deck only dipped lower, and water washed farther and farther up over the fantail. Men, leaping from before the charging cars, got caught In the murderous melee of Iron and steel and wheels; men’s shrill cries came amid the scream o f metal. Alan, tug ging at a crate which had struck down a man, felt aid beside him and, turn ing, he saw the prifst whom he had passed on the stairs. The priest was bruised and bloody; this was not his first effort to aid. Together they lifted an end of the crate; they bent—Alan stepped back, and the priest knelt alone, ills lips repeating tlie prayer for absolution. Screams of men came from behind; and the priest rose and turned, lie saw men caught between two wrecks of cars crushing together; there was no moment to reach them; he stood and raised his arms to them. Ids head thrown back, his voice calling to them, as they died, tlie words of absolution. Three more cars at the cost of two lives the crew cleared, while the sheathing of Ice spread over the steel inboard, and dissolution of all the cargo became complete. Cut stone and motor parts, chusses and custlngs. fur niture and beams, swept back and forth, while the cars, burst and splin tered, became monstrous missiles hurt ling forward, sidewise, aslant, recoil ing. Yet men, though scattered singly, tried to stay them by ropes and chains while the water washed higher and higher. Dimly, far away, deafened out hy tlie clangor, the steam whistle of Number 25 was blowing the four long blasts o f distress; Alan beard the sound now and then with indifferent wonder. All destruction had come for him to be contained within this cat deck; here the ship loosed «si itself all elements of annihilation; who could aid U from without? Alnn caught the end of •» chain w hich Corvet flung him und, though he knew It was useless, he carried It across from one stanchion to the next. Something, sweeping across the deck, caught him and car ried him with I t ; It brought him l»e- fore tlie coupled line of trucks which hurtled hack and forth where the rails of track three had been. He was hurled before them and rolled over; something cold and heavy pinned him down; and upon him, the car trucks cam**. But, before them, something warm and living—a hand and lane arm catching him quickly and pulling at hint, tugged him a little farther on. Alan, looking up. saw Corvet beside him; Corvet, unable to move him farther, was crouching down there with him. Alan yelled to him to leap, to twist'aside and get out of the way; but Corvet only crouched closer and put ins arms over Alan; then the wreckage came upon them, driving them apart. As the movement stopped, Alan still could s«*e Corvet dimly by the glow of the Incandescent lamps overhead; tlie truck separated them It bore down upon Alan, holding him motionless and, on the other side, it crushed upon Corvet’s legs. ile turned over, as far as he could, und spoke to Alan. “ You have bees saving me, so now 1 tried to save you,* lie said simply. “ What reason did yo! have for doing that? Why have yol been keeping by uie?” “ I ’m Alan Conrad of Blue Rapids. Kansas," Alan cried to him. “ And you’re Benjamin Corvet! You know me; you sent for me! Why did you do that?” Corvet made no reply to this. Alan, peering ut him underneuth the truck, could see that his hands were pressed against his face und that his body shook. Whether this was from some I new physical pain from the movement of the wreckage, Alan did not know till he lowered his hands after a mo ment ; and now he did not heed Alan or seem even to he aware of him. “ Dear little Connie!” he said uloud. “ Dear little Connie! She mustn’t marry him— not him! That must he seen to. What shall I do, what shall I do?” Alan worked nearer him. “ Why mustn’t she marry him?” he cried to Corvet. “ Why? Ben Corvet, tell me! Tell me w h y!” “ Who are you?” Corvet seemed only with an effort to become conscious of Alan’s presence. “ I’m Alan Conrad, whom you used to take care of. I’m from Blue Rap ids. You know about me; are you my father, Ben Corvet? Are you nty fa ther or what— what are you to me?” “ Your father?" Ogrvet repeated. “ Did ne tell you that? He killed your father.” “ Killed him? Killed hint, how?” “ Of course. He killed them all— all. But your father—he shot him; he shot him through the head!” Alan twinged. Sight of Spearman came before him as he had first seen Spearman, cowering in Corvet’s li brary in terror at an apparition. “ And the bullet hole ubove the eye!” So that was the hole made by tlie shot Spearman tired which had killed Alan’s father— which shot him through the head! Alan peered at Corvet and called to him. “ Father Benltot!” Corvet called In response, not directly in reply to Alan’s question, rather in response to what those questions stirred. “ Father Benltot!” Some one, drawn by the cry, was moving wreckage near them. A hand and arm with a torn sleeve showed; Alan could not see the rest o f the fig ure, but by the sleeve he recognized that It was the mate. “ Who’s caught here?” he called down. “ Benjamin Corvet of Corvet, Sher rill and Spearman, ship owners of Chi cago,” Corvet’s voice replied deeply, fully: there wa* authority In It and wonder too— the wonder of a man find ing himself in a situation which his recollection cannot explain. “ Ben C orvet!” tlie mate shouted In surprise; he cried it to the others, those who had followed Corvet and obeyed him during the hour before and had not known why. The mate tried to pull the wreckage aside and make his way to C orvet; hut the old man stop(>ed him. “ The priest, Father Benltot! Send him to me. I shall never leave here; send Father Benltot!” The word was passed without the mate moving away. The mate, after a minute, made no further attempt to free Cyrvet ; that Indeed was useless, and Corvet demanded his right of sac rament from tlie priest who came and crouched under the wreckage beside him. “ Father Benltot!" "I am not Father Benltot. I am Fa ther Perron of 1,’Anse.” “ It was to Father Benltot of St. Ig nace I should have gone, Fattier! . . . Tlie priest got a little closer as Cor vet spoke, and Alan heard only voice* now and then through the sound* of clanging metal und the drum of ice against tlie hull. The mute and III* helpers were w’orklng to get him free They had abandoned all effort to save the ship; it was settling. And with the settling, tlie movement of the wreckage imprisoning Alan wa* In creasing. This movement made useless the efforts of the mate; It would free Alan of Itself in a moment, if it did not kill him; it would free or finish Corvet too. But he. a* Alan saw hlin. was wholly oblivious of flint now. 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