The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 18, 1903, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CALL. a strange blend of happiness and misery, for love had come into it—a great golden first love that quite transfigured all thoughts of the future and filled her lone- ly days with Sunshine. Yet, before the spectacle of her unfortunate uncle, her young heart was torn with sorrow, and her own powerlessness to aid made her grief the greater. Alister Ogilvie was the only near re- lation that his niece could claim. Born at Cape Town, in South Africa, she had returned home as an infant with her mother, and her father, Richard Ogllvie, e man of whom she could never get her mother to speak, wes no more than & name to ber. Once, after his wife's departure from Africa, Richard Ogilvie had written home, and once his brother Alister, the sea captain, had visited him at Pleter- maritzburg, when his vessel was lying for & fortnight at Durban; but from that day forward the man had never been seen or heard of again. There was a rumor that he had pro- ceeded with a big prospecting party into Matabeleland; while other reports indica- ted that he had died of fever at Tham- bano, twelve months after his brother last saw him: but the truth was never known end after eighteen years in igno- rance &s to whether she was & wife or a widow, Mrs. Ogilvie herself died in her deughter's arms, and Elizabeth was left slone—at the age of one-and-twenty. For her this, .her first voyage since babyhood, had been full of sensations in- deed, and while she had found the man of all others she believed most likely to make her happy—a man to whom her lonely young heart went out with long- ing—she, on her side, in all innocence, had set & light to two ardent beacons and started a rivalry between two friends—a rivalry which made one man bitter and the other sad. There came & stfIL hot night, when the Morning Star lay lfke a log under a red ! moon. A faint glimmer of light afar off indicated the Arabian shore for the ves- sel had reached the portals of the Red Sea and Captain Ogilvie expected to make the straits of Bab-el-Manded on the fol- lowing day. Just now, however, there had been a elight accident in the engine-room which called for some few hours’ delay, and now three red lights glared in a perpendicular row aloft and warned craft to give the Morning Star a wide berth as, for the time being, she was unmanageable. She might have made easy way under sail, but there was no wind to move a feather, Some of the men were playing cards; the decks lay silent and deserted save for the watch; from the fo'c’sle came a } rough “chanty” to the squeak of a con- a and the clatter of bones. A small ewning was stretched aft, and under it sat & man and woman alone With beating heart and a strange sen- sation a2s of being in a dream world, Elizabeth listened to Tracy Fain. So full was her mind that she could hardly fol- »w the thing he said, but the music of his fine volce murmured melodiously on her esr as he ran on. She had come there to be aldne, per- haps to hide herself and follow the cur- of her thoughts without interrup- »n; but Fain found her out and begged 0 be allowed to s Timidly she gave m leave, though she knew only too well reason for his petition. A moment ie had flung his cigar overboard ng beside her. ry that's old as the hills and as young es the daisies” he sald. “It comes to each in turn, like the waves of sea, and tosses a man's heart like a cork on a billow. He E and then he sinks Into the lepths, only to rise again on the next wave of hope. I'm afraid my metaphors similes are getting mixed, but you yet falled to entangle his tongue at {] the critical moment.” 3 “What ere you saying? Oh, Mr. Fain, | /b what are you saying?” % “I'm saying that I love you, Bessle; ¥ thet I love you with all my soul; that you've come into my life ltke a star of hope and brightness. I love you more than language can tell, dearest heart. God in heaven knows how precious you ere to me—only he can tell. Your volce is lfke the chiming bells of home; your eyes make the sunshine of my lits, and it is night only when they are turned away from me. You are all the world in one darling, dainty parcel—all the world to me—and I? *Oh, Bes: don’t say I am nothing to you—don't say that. T've watched and T've watched, day after day, till I knew every turn of your lip and twinkle of your dear gray eyes, and I've dared to hope a little: I've dared to think your ~ = weard me. Was I mad to think 1t? Tell me quick—very quick. Let me rise into the seventh heaven or tumble headlong { to the pit—" He stopped quits breathless, but though // / ghe had not Interrupted him, she eluded ' 5% the arm he strove to slip round her weist. “Don’t, don’t,” she said; *“it hurts my heart to tell you. It is cruel and sad, but | you will understand and forgive m I em proud to have won your friendship; it will alweys be precious to me, but you , mistook me. It was because you were / his friend—Roy's friend—his dear, close { friend, that I smiled at sight of you. I wanted to win your friendship, too, for be thought so highly of you. I even felt A | jealous sometimes. But I only knew that } it made him glad to see us friendly; I i mever dreamed of this—never.” The man’s voice hardened terribly be- fore he spoke again and all his fire and passion were dead. *“Roy Meldrum? What is he to you?”’ “All—ell. My life and soul.” “And he hid it from me. have saved me this.” “Do you blame him? How could he guess any more than you did? It was my wish and desire that no one should know; least of all, you. I am only a woman, and weak and foolish, and I could not suppose that you, too, would grow fond of me. Bo I begged Roy to keep his great deed a secret, even from you, until I could win your friendship. I was frightened of you—that is the truth— frightened that you would think I had come between you and your friend. For- give me. I have done what I shall always look back upon with sorrow. “A bitter mistake,” he sald, “but I have had to suffer others only less bitter. You did no wrong, save in supposing me cap- able of jealousy toward Roy Meldrum. I ave seen no cause heretofore why I should be jealous of him. You have ac- cepted him; that iwenough. He has play- ed and won—our first game.” He broke off, for his eyes were attract- ed end his mind startled by the sudden glitter of gold. The moon had now as- cended and her orange tones were changed to silver as she rose into the sky. It was in a flood of pure light that Fain had suddenly caught sight of an ornament at Elizabeth Oglivie’s throat and his breath came hard and his right hand wuncon- eclously clenched as he recognized the Gold Fetich. But he sald nothing and he, ignorant of the cause of his sudden silence, spoke. He might face was kind and your emile sweet to-, “Roy’s character is very beautiful to me. 1 dld not know there was such a simple, single-hearted man left in the world. I worship him and I am a proud woman to think I have won such a treas- ure as his love.” He bowed, then rose to leave her. “You have my congratulations, and I wish I could echo your estimate of our mutual friend. But that he is my friend makes me silent. We need not speak of him. But you will keep my secret, Miss ? I have a right to beg you to do is a sacred thing,” she mald se- rlously; *none will ever learn from me the honor you have done me, Mr. Fain.™ He was about to move away, but ligger- ed. Many different thoughts coursed through his mind, for the great agony of his disappointment had not as yet crushed into his heart. He could not reallze where he stood or that the hope and am- bition of the last four weeks were shat- tered. He had counted in secret on victory; he had read the signs, as he fancled, and believed himself safe. Now “no” had fallen like a frost upon his soul and had stricken him the deeper because he expected “‘yes.” A purely trumpery, temporary incident now troubled Tracy Fain, and only a great numbness crowding down over his life yet indicated the suffering that was to come. For the moment he felt spark of anger, not at his terrible mistake and unutter- able loss, but because upon Béssie's throat hung the fetich of their present adventure. The gold disk might mean nothing; there was no good reason why it should have the least to do with the incomplete manuscript; but he chose at this moment to resent its present posi- tion, and told himself that Meldrum was gulity of a breach of trust in thus play- ing in all a lover's foolishness with a thing that might have the gravest bearing on thelr future. “I do not like to see that toy there,” he sald suddenly, pointing the disk. “Roy has only a half interest In that and he had no right to give it to you. You might easily lose it.” She grew hot and her hand went up to her neck. “He told me the story and I understood that you had the manusript for your share and that he kept this trinket. But I will wear it no more. Indeed, kyowing the story of it I did not wish to do so, only Roy insisted. He said it would bring him and you luck.” “You will be wiser to return it to him. And now, good-night, Miss Ogllvie.” He passed away, moving silently like a ghost, and she sat long after he had gone, until there came a sort of fear to her heart and she shivered, though not with cold. Of Fain she had not thought a dozen s since the beginning of the voyage. y after her hero proposed and was ac- cepted had she turned any attention to his friends and tried to win Faln's regard before the engagement shoul!d be an- nounced. Now she saw how he had mis- understood her, and she was very sorry. Yet, while she pitied him, a.little uneasi- ness and even shadows of fear darkened her mind. He was a strong iman, that she Yynew, and a clever one. He had never re-echoed his cousin’s openly ex- pressed admiration for him. Now, uncén- sclously enough, Elizabeth herself had be- come a stone of stumbling between them, and her soul was full of vague presenti- ments as she retired to rest that night. CHAPTER V. THE BLACK HAND FROM THE SKY. Roy Meldrum's only fleeting sorrow up to the last incident of this narrative had been centered in a regret that his sweet- heart imposed silence concerning thelr ngagement. He would have liked to tell ery soul on board, to roar the great news through Captain Ogllvie's speaking trumpet whenever another ship came within hail, to shout his triumph to the stars. Now, however, the truth was out, in one quarter at any rate, and upon the next occasion of a private talk with his cousin Roy was surprised to find that Tracy had learned the news. Thus Fain unconsclously revealed his own secret. As for Meldrum himself, he had been swept clean off his legs by a tremendous masculine tornado of love that shook his big soul and banished every other emo- tion, thought and hope to limbo. His was a nature incapable of much patience, and before the Morning Star had left the Med- iterranean the young man had told his love and asked Elizabeth Ogilvie bluntly if she could ever care about a pauper six feet four inches high, who worshiped ths deck she trod upon and the air she breathed. JLuckily for him she had long come to the conclusion that she could. He was her first love, and from the moment of ac- cepting him great joy fllled Elizabeth’s life, a joy which even the sad and tragic fate hanging over her uncle could not dis- pel. There came a day in the Indian Ocean when the Morning Star was spanking along at twelve knots and a little crowd of passengers sat around Mr. Dan Hook and listened to that hardy mariner’s yarns of the past. Dan was generally considered to be rather broader than he was long, but his proportions, such as they were, consisted of nothing but hard muscle and harder bone. Above this solid frame his bulldog head, with small gray eyes, underhung Jaw and flat nose, rolled about on his shoulders, now upon one, now the other. It was always cocked sideways and he very rarely took the trouble to open more than one eye at a time. The boatswain was a west country man and the Devon accent tumbled and rolled off his tongue in moments of excitement, as it tumbled and rolled off the tongues of Drake and Raleigh in the spacious days, to the delight of good Queen Bess and the merriment of her court. Dan worked with lanyard and hand- spike, and as he did so regaled the British passengers with his doings on all the seven seas. The talk was of foreign sallors and Mr. Hook’s experience of them proved ex- tensive and peculiar. “I was on a ‘tramp,’ by name the Fly- ing Fish,” he sald, “an’ us had a Lascar crew to her. Them cusses can work, If you know how to handle ‘em, but they’ve gotten some blamed queer notions ’bout matters of religion an’ who be theer bet- ters an’ who ban't. They wouldn’t no more pick a bit o' salt pork than you'd take a walk along the topgallant yard You might say a cove as couldn't eat pig ban't much sort o' use 'pon & ocean- gwaine vessel; but theer ‘twas, an’ Las- cars feed on trash any time ashore or afloat. But a poor, blighted nigger, gwaine to the galley on a dark night, missed stays when the ship pitched, an’ comed a cropper head fust. Not that that mat- tered, but In falling he hit his head against a gert ham, an’ another Lascar seed un do it. “Then there was the douce an’ all of a tantara, I can tell 'e, because to touch pork be so bad as to eat it if you'm a heathen; an’ tother niggers sent the poor - region of the African coast. joker to Jericho from that day forrard. He'd gone and wrecked his caste, you see, an’ was poison to all the other chaps—a: pariah, as they say. If he’'d been a leper man, they couldn’t have gived un a wider berth. “Well, the poor cove's life growed to be a damn nuisance to him, beggin’ pardon for the fiery word. A nuisance it growed, ‘cause the whites didn’t know a syllable of his lingo, an’ his pals wouldn't be seen on the same side ¢’ the ship with him. “Then the ‘0ld man'—as we allus calls the skipper in the Mercantile Marine—the old man ups an’ sez: ‘I've had about enough of such tomfoolery. The poor sweep’ll go off his chump at this rate. An’ I sez, ‘That he will for sartain.’ “So skipper he pipes a muster of the niggers and has 'em up afore him in a row and sends a quartermaster to the cook for the biggest ham he's got by him. Then the old man just gives 'em beans an' tells 'em they be the most knock- kneed, slack - twisted, herring - gutted crowd as ever he sailed with. “Then he sez, ‘Now my sons, I'll soon settle this little matter once an’ for all.’ So he takes the ham by the knuckle and marches down that line of monkey-faced Lascar men an’ smacks each cove on the head wi' the ham as he walks along. “That soon put 'em all level again; an’ a tidy fuss an’ fury they kicked up, I as- sure ’e; but so 'twas, an' theer weern't no more trouble—not till the end of the voyage, anyway." Everybody laughed at Dan Hook's yarn and thug encouraged he told one or two more. Then it was that a strange smell, that staggered the nostrils of thoss who sniffed it, attracted attention. It was everywhere, but as Instone thrust his sharp nose over the side of the ship he started back in dismay, for the odor ap- peared to rise out df the sea. An open port below, however, served to explain it, and inquiry proved that the window was that of Signor Polti's cabin. “A chemist, I'll lay,” sald Hook, not guessing how near to and yet how far from the truth he had come. *“I hope theer ban’t no harm in his powders an’ stinks, an' that he ain't arter any gert. marvelous invention; for inventions, so I've heard. is always discovered through explosions and such like deviltries, I blowed my eyelashes into my head when I was a bwoy, an’ the door off its hinges same time, but the only thing I dis- covered was that my father could hit a damn sight harder than gunpowder— beggin’ your pardon for the flery word.” Lord Winstone sald nothing, but beck- oned his friends aside. “This awakes a suspicion that has slept for some weeks now,” he declared. “I thought things were steadying down, and in so far as the captain is concerned, I believe they are, but Poltl's up to some sinister business, as sure as fate, and it would be a rough piece of luck for us if some high explosive manufactured for other causes should blow the bottom out of the Morning Star.” “We can't prove anything yet,” swered Roy. “No—excepting that he's a chemist and occuples his cabin as a laboratory,” said his lordship. ““That’'s dangerous id {tself. He's no right to cook hell-brothsin this ship—or anywhere, for that matter. But on board he would not be the only one to suffer from an explosion. It's all right when anarchists blow themselves to the devil and makes one on better terms with Providence generally; but it's all wrong when they endanger the lives of honest men.” Tracy Fain, however, did not share their anxiety. He even sneered a little. “Perhaps the poor wretch is only mak- ing himself some horrible, oily dish from his mother-country that he cannot get them to cook for him here. I'm sure, for my part, garlic is more terrible than dy- namite,” he sald. “No laughing matter, in my opinicn,” declared Roy, and Winstone agreed with him. : Finally it was decided to speak to the captaln, whose health of late had con- spicuously improved. They designed to speak privately upon the subject and im- part suspicions, not unnatural under the circumstances, yet of a sorf almost too sensational for ready acceptance without strong proof. - The projected conference, however, was not destined to be held. That afternoon the pleasant conditions changed and cer- tain phenomena Indicated unfavorable weather. The Morning Star was now well on her voyage down the eastern coast of Africa, and the following day it was hoped she would cross the line. Her first port of call was Jumbo, a lit- tle town at the extreme south of Somali- iand, notable as having given a name to that African elephant of famous mem- ory whose loss London deplored so bit- terly some few years ago. But now, out of the infinite horizon from the far dis- tant heart of the Indian Ocean, rose one long livid purple line, straight and clean. It ascended, very slowly but steadily; the glass began to fall raplaly and the wind to fail and coms in flaws, Captan Ogllvie found himself a little nearer shore than he ltked and, fearing heavy weather, furled all sail, for the Morning Star always helped her steam with sail in a fair wind, and stood out & trifle to meet the oncoming gloom. Once or twice during the morning sharp eyes had sighted thp rugged mountain Now, how- ever, it swiftly fell beneath the horizon and the dark and sullen violet arch of the heavens rose higher and higher, ap- parently Increasing its speed of progres- sion as it rushed from the east and dark- ened all the upper chambers of the air. Toward the horizon and at the center of the great cloud was one strange rift, torn by an elemental chaos of which as yet no sound could be heard: but in its heart a savage, lurid, copper colored shad- ow, llke some huge demon of the tem- pest, moved and Increased in size and changed its form as the darkness gath- ered. Now a head it seemed, now a hand with clawlike fingers; but amid its pro- tean shapes each towered larger than the last as it swiftly approached. Of the passengers none on board except Lord Winstone had ever seen a storm at sea; but all, save one, faced the approach- ing tempest with courage, and most with extreme interest untempered by any fear. The exception proved to be Signor Poltl. His cheek had visibly blanched at the sight of this towering continent of cloud/ rising like the wrath of God from that equatorial sea. What he read into the approaching chastisement none knew beyond himself; but he liked It little enough, and after his dark eyes had roved in the still darker clouds, he withdrew to his cabin and was no more seen. Captain Ogilvie faced the coming hur- ricane with the self-command and confi- dence bred of knowledge and resource; his niece felt perfect trust in him and had no fear; the emotion in Meldrum’'s mind ‘'was one of frank excitement at the pros- pect of a great, new experience, while ‘Winstone, though in his heart he devoutly wished the Morning Star was engined up a little stronger, yet knew her by this time to be a good weather boat. More- over, she would be in better case than an- many a glant of the sea, even if her in-- firm engines did break down; for she be- longed to that old-fashioned class of ships on which it was possible to make sail. She carried not only steadying staysalls, but canvas enough to push her along in a good breeze. The storm broke in the afternoon and, out of the darkness that suddenly spread over sea and sky there came a yell and scream and a jagged scrawl of biue light that set every eye throbbing as it ex- ploded and seemed to tle huge ribbons of livid flame at each masthead. The sea rose instant and ink-black: Great cross waves leaped alongside and hissing tongues of water came aboard and slipped here and there snake-wise along the dark decks. Hall flogged and churned the sea and rattled like the discharge of musketry on the skylights and ironwork of the steamer. Invisible fingers seemed playing savage -music on the great harp of the cordage; a screamirg and sorrowing as of unhappy spirits hurtled In the darkness above, and on every. side came the thud of heavy water; while almost within the first min- ute of the storm the Morning Star took it black and heavy over her bows, and the great ship stood still and shivered to her keel plates like a frightened sheep. The lightning blazed; its blue light glared mistily over the razmg sea and showed where the hail had collected in great, glimmering heaps atong (he junc- tlons of deck.and deckhouses, and wher- ever obstacles occurred to prevent it be- ing swept aft. The Morning Star met the gale head- on, and now she had slowed down and was pitching violently. The second en- gineer stood at the throttle valve, the chief occupled ten places at once, but the sea ran so tremendously high that it was impossible to do more than save the propeller a little. Now it stuck clean out of the water and the vessel shook and groaned with the awful race of the huge blades, then down went the stern of the ship and the whirling screw slapped Into the seca with a roar, tearing the heart of each great black roller into_a caldron of ghost- ly foam, and putting Such strain as only engineers can guess at upon shaft and blade and throbbing piston. No attempt was made to travel against the tem The log line hung jerking up and down astern: the ‘*cherub,” af- fixed to the taffrail, now tossed mute, as the line hung limp, now started to run with a sound half purr, half screech. Then perhaps came the *ting” of the bell, again the strain was off and the hand on the dial motionless. At the captain's order all the passen- gers had gone below, and presently, when in his judgment the center of the storm was past, he edged his ship off a little on her course again. But the attempt was not successful. With the sea on her beam she began to roll gunwales under and had to be brought back nose to wind once more. Through that night and until the morn- ing watch Captain Ogilvie stuck to the bridge and Englneer Macabe to the en- gine-room. Then the worst was over and the Morning Star, with a few storm-sails set to steady her, proceeded a little more southerly; while the hurricans began Veering to the north and slackened as it veered. No great damage had been done, though things were in a rare confusion forward. One whale boat was stove in and a few plates bent on the starboard bow, while a stoker, his last watch ended, in getting along the life-line rigged to the fore- castle, had lost his life in a heavy sea which carried him with awful violence across the waist of the ship and smashed his skull against the forward donkey en- ne, ‘lGreat gloom settled over the ship when this sorrowful catastrophe became known, and the delight of the passengers, as the sullen demon of the storm ‘drew off and fleeting but flerce tropic sunshine bright- ened the morning was sadly -dampened upon the sudden mourning beating of the ship’s bell. The funeral was not destined to follow the usual procedure, however, for, when the hands were ready and the dead man laid peacefully on a grating In tight sewn hammock with a round shdt at his feet, awaiting his last resting place, there came a rumor that the captain was too ill to conduct the ceremony. Dan Hook brought the intelligence with a blank face and whispered it to the first officer, who was acting at the corpse’s side for the captain. A few of the passengers, including Lord Winstone, Meldrum and Tracy Fain, were present at the funeral; and now his Lord- ship was Informed that, doubtless over- come by the privations and anxleties of the past four and twenty hours, Captain Ogllvie had fallen back upon a worse en- emy than the storm and was lying In- capable of actlon. “And I beg and implore you'll read the service, my Lord,” concluded Mr. Croach, “for I'm ro great shakes at such a job, best of times, and don’t feel like it juse now, I promise you. My arm is terribly painful, too, from a blow I got last night. There's a bone in the wrist carried away, 1 fancy.” Lord Winstone nodded, steadled him- self, and with one hand gripping a stay, for the ship rolled heavily in a big sea, and the other holding a prayer book, he read in a high, hard voice the pathetic ‘words. Then the grating was run out, even as a greedy sea tumbled to the bulwark and splashed the dead man's mates; and Into its dark bosom the corpse dropped with solemn plunge, glimmering wanly through the waves as it sank and fell astern. “We therefore commit his body to the deep, to be turned to corruption, looking for the resurrection of the body when the sea shall give up its dead.” At the end of the brief ceremony those saflors who had béen able to attend it went forward, slow and gloomy, for the dead man was a favorite; the officers re- turned to their duties and the passengers disappeared Into the saloon, where lunch awaited them. Elizabeth Ogllvie walked sadly from her uncle’s cabin. With harsh words, he had bid her depart and trouble him nosmore. From the engine-room came clanking of hammers, for some straln and damage had resulted from the storm, and in the saloon the clatter of plates and business of a meal went on as usual, though volces were hushed before the sad inci- dent of the morning, and those who knew the truth concerning Alister Ogilvie wore grave expressions at that other tragedy being acted once more in the captain's cabin. A gorgeous but brief sunset ended the day, and Roy Meldrum, with Elizabeth Ogilvie and some others, stood above the throbbing screw that marked a great green highway in the wake of -the ship and watched the ocean and sky. The sun. his disk having once touched the sea, sank with amazing rapidity from an orange horizon that faded toward the zenith into pure, pale tones of beryl Above the western glow there swept a wild whirl of wind-torn cloud, all ruby and gold; while below it vast, irregular, vaporous masses, full of glorious light, showed where the pavilions of the storm - her stern cocked higher and hi still thrust their pinnacles above the hori- zon. To north and south’ crimson islands, great and small, floated through an ocean of purple and merged together into flying while cloudy glants, under tattered banners of sheer flame, rolled above the sunset in awful battle, and all the wide heaven burned and glowed to its unfathomable heart with light and with flame. Almost as they gazed these splendors dwindled and the bewlldering pageant grew lifeless and pale. Then trembled out a fleeting after-glow of pearly silver and rose—a dream sunset, on whose breast hung one planet, llke a tear upon the bosom of another dead day. “Thus, in the hand of their God, do wind and sun and the mist of the sun magnificently labor together,” said Lord ‘Winstone, gravely. “A sunset may be more beautiful on shore over high moun- tains and to the sound of bells and water- falls, but it is never ko solemn as upon the lonely sea.” Roy nodded, and poor Bessie, sadly overwrought by the stress of the storm past and the fear to come, could not gpeak, but _gulped down her tears be- fore the dying glory of the sky and squeezed her lover's hand under the gathering darkness. But another pair of eyes were survey- ing the sunset with added knowledge and very little sentiment. Dan Hook knew the glass was falling again; that a strange darkness was ad- vancing from the north to welcome night; that the captain remained utterly in- capacitated, and that the first officer was in his bunk with an injured wrist and arm. From the engine-room sl came clink- inz and thunder of heavy hammers, and Hook turned his quid, sniffed the sea, and stuck out his great under-hanging jaw till a row of yellow testh showed over his upper lip. CHAPTER VI ON A LEE SHORE. The Morning Star, as though she was endowed with human reason and human distrust of the gloomy returning mon- ster behind her, made splendid progress. Hook had given Mr. Macabe a bit of his mind, and the engineer, alive to the sit- uation, was getting all he could out of his engines. A big following sea lifted the ship and hurried her on her way, but each moment thé wind freshened and it became a ques- tion how soon she would have to turn her nose to it or run the risk of holding on until it was too late to turn. Meldrum and Fain stood at the round portholes of the smoking-room, which looked out aft, and watched the great tumbling mountains of water rising above the taffrail, all laced with the foam of the screw. Each threatened to over- whelm the ghip, but her nose dipped and er, until the great mass slipped under her hull and she wallowed, shaking and trembling as before, with her propeller whirring naked in the air. “Wind freshening again,” said Mel- drum. “By gad, it's a glorious thing to think that men bullt of the same stuff as you and I invented ships! What a fight! With the deep sea and the winds 6f heaven and the lightning. And we smoke our cigars and laugh, and pit our brains and our steel and our stea against the raving Titans, and beat ' “Not always. Only a fool would laugh to-night, if you ask me. It was a circu- lar storm, Hook says, and is coming back again—with seven devils worse that the first from the look of it. The captain's lying like a hog in his bunk; Crouch is moaning like a sick girl about nothing, Winstone says, and the second officer can't work out his sights and knows lit- tle more about our reckoning than we do. 1 wish we were out of it and I'm not ashamed to say so. They've given up all idea of calling at the first port with the ridiculous name. In fact, we've passed it, and shall be off Zanzibar before we know it.” “So much the better. want to be.” The men were still friends to outward seeming, but their relations had been not a little strained since the incident of Tracy's rejection. Fain, indeed, taxed his cousin afterward and blamed him bitter- 1y for keeping his secret in the light of his own subsequent step; but Roy an- swered, truly enough, that he had never dreamed that Tracy was smitten in the same quarter with himself. The subject was not one upon which & man would be likely to unburden his heart even to his dearest chum, and though Meldrum had doubtless confessed to his trilumph proudly enough after Bes- sle’'s favorable answer to his prayer, yet her own wish It was that sealed hia mouth. Afterward the mistaken girl's efforts to win Fain’s friendship had pre- cipitated the catastrophe of his proposal. On such a man as he was—proud, sensi- tive apd not a little vain—this reverse fell with crushing force. It shattered his self- respect, terribly wounded his self-love and awoke bad passions and reckless thoughts. His mind ran upon the future and he brooded of what it might bring; he allowed himself to sink Into baseness and dwelt on the picture of a future in which he should return to England rich beyond the dreams of avarice, while his cousin and his cousin’s future wife might find themselves beggars. Before this blackguard fancy hope awakened. His busy brain traversed a thousand plans and possibilities, and he told himself it was never too late for a woman to change her mind. Between the men, therefore, Bessie had come, and Meldrum’'s magnanimity only made the position more painful for his cousin. It is easy for a victor to be generous, but difficult for him to escape giving offense at every turn to those he has defeated. Unconscious Roy blundered dally and inflamed a mind already bitter and full of gall. But Faln conducted himself out- wardly with propriety sufficient for the case. His bearing toward Bessie was well considered and she, wholly ignorant of the truth, mentally commended her disappointed lover and felt rejoiced that he had taken his sorrow in such manly fashlon. So the position stood. Meldrum and Fain shared a cabin, but through those dark hours neither slept much. The ship had been turned head to the wind at midnight, and now heavy seas came over her bows and the cousins in their bunks heard the crash and thun- ‘der of them and the hiss and rattle as torrents of water dashed down the side alleys scarcely two feet from their faces ‘where they lay. The deafening sounds increased and they felt themselves tossed and rolled helplessly. The storm was evidently rising and heavy seas flogged at the porthole window, lighting tbe cabin with a wan and ghostly gleam from the phosphor- escence of the water, then falling with a savage hiss back to the deep and leaving all in utter darkness. That's where we Every moment some thud or crash or startled cry from deck seemed to sug- gest disaster; every moment Meldrum was-about to dash out of bed and rush to Bessie's rescue; but nothing definite hdppened, and between the brief Ilulls of the shrieking wind he could hear, far off in the hell of the waves, that slow thud, thud of the faithful giant below, and the sound warmed his heart, for he knew that the Morning Star need fear no ill — given searoom — with sound pro- peller and engines. The watch had been removed, both from the fo'c’sle head and the forward bridge, for no man could have stopped upon the first, and there was danger on the gecond; but though the cheery “all's well!” did not echo across that savage night, now and again came the windy beat of the bell, tolling off the half hours, and that melody is one of comfort, too, to those in peril on the sea. Few eyes closed on board the Morning Star that night, and a sulky, feaden morning at last {lluminated the most ter- rible tempest that any soul on board had witnessed. The laboring ship now siid down sheer awful hills of water, lashed and pitted by the wind; then, when the destruction apfeared a question of mo- ments only, with a shiver and stagger and struggle, with the grinding concus- slon of a heavy sea aboard and a smother of flying foam and green water forward, her bows came up and her nose gradually pointed into the sky. Meldrum and Lord Winstone climbed up into the wheelkouse to find the first officer with his hand in a sling and his face drawn and haggard. His eyes were on the wind gage, but it gave him no hope, for the hurricane rather increased than moderated. The ship was straining heavily, and from this altitude Meldrum was aston- ished to see what™a small thing the ves- sel looked in that awful sea, while the in- significance of the little creatures she carried appeared almost appalling. “How’s the captain?” he asked. “Better, Hook tells me—or was last night. But he didn’t take anything to eat, 50 I expect he had another dose.” This proved to be true. Oglivie was helpless, and Lord Winstone, who went to see him, did not stay a moment, But the hypodermic syringe and a bottle of morphia tablets, stuck into a small rack at the captain’s elbow, he possessed him- self of before retreating. Then, full of a sudden determination, he pursued a rapid search, and presently had the satisfaction of finding the secret hoard of Alister Ogilvie’s morphia tubes hidden in a flat trunk. Lord Winstone thought long before pur- suing an extreme measure, but, finally, he removed every atom of morphia and a moment later had flung it overboard. He was familiar with the action of mor- phia and knew that Ogilvie, despite his agony, would not die for lack of the drug, but live to bless him. For three hours the struggls with the weather continued, and toward midday as some slight improvement was reported, and hearts began to beat more cheerfully re came a crash from the engine room with cries and orders yelled louder than the howl of the storm, and with dense ribbons of steam curling and creep- ing through crevices from below, to be instantly blown invisible as they touched the wind. A moment later came the terrible new that the screw shaft had broken at the third pair of thrust blocks. The ship, heip less and masterless, began to fall into the trough of the sea, and the question was whether she could be got round tail to wind without going on her beam ends. The steam escape pipes were shrieking a veritable devil's song, and Mr. Macabe tolled below where« the danger was a bursting boiler; but every man stuck to his post, though they knew the ship was coming round and must, for some appal- ling moments, lie in the trough of the seas. Hook got a head sall or two on the Morning Star, and of these one defied the wind, though the other was blown bodily away out of the bolt ropes. But Providence helped the vessels at this critical juncture, for as -she came broadside on to the storm there reigned a few preclous moments of comparative calm upon the waters, and she was nearly round before a heavy sea fell aboard, swept her starboard side, sprung her deckhouses, twisted a pair of davits into corkscrews and smashed a boat. A minute sooner and the whole weight of this mountain of water would have fallen Into the ship and probably sunk her like a sardine box. Now, however, there was still a spark of hope. Hook managed to get a little sall on her, and then, at considerable risk, shook out some more, for between two perils, either of carrying away a mast or get- ting pooped, he chose the former. Fortunately the sailing powers of th Morning Star preserved her, for, as we have sald, she was riggéd to carry un- :1““&1 canvas for a steamer even of her ay. Hook's great and dally jest with Mr. Macabe had always been that their steam power was merely auxiliary. Now the chief éngineer, with an engineer's usual pluck and resource, was estimating the possibility of tinkering the broken shaft and getting a band round it with the tools and appliances at his command. But, meantime, the ship kept running before the wind, and, as the storm abated the first officer made more sail, until the Morning Star, rejoicing In her old powers and alded by the great following seas, tumbled and crashed forward at seven good knots an hour. Toward evening the sea grew a littla calmer. In the wheelhouse heads were bent over a chart and anxious eyes fixed upon the rugged and dangerous ccast line of Zanzibar as represented in the map. ‘Where their ship was, exactly, neither of the navigating officers could tell, but on her present course they knew that she must be rapidly nearing the land. “We'm on a lee shore, th: what we be,” declared Dan Hook. ‘“We can stand out a bit, no doubt, but Lord he knows which way the currents set, or what we ought to be looking for. I reckon we be past Zanzibar this good few hours. “The thing Is to stand out a bit to- night anyway. We may get an obser- vation to-morrow,” decided Mr. Crouch. ‘The ship’s course was altered, and as she fell off a little another vessel was reported through the gathering dusk. She appeared to be about a mile or mors away, and was steaming steadlly in a northeasterly direction—a big, powertul ship, which made little matter of the waning storm, but pushed along rapidly against It Suddenly a rocket went up from her, then another as she was lost In the gathering night. An answering stream of fire leaped aloft from the Morning Star, but nothing more of the strange ship was seen, and whether she was signaling for ald or warning her sister ship of danger none knew until later. hd Continued Next Sunday.