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Show 'ivfofid- fell L r- ' ' " - .'gSTSlg"-'r- gy .wry LONnoVr" " SYNOPSIS. 1 5 u-7iir,1IV' "ftn WeyiVn. critic ami tliU't-..-e finds himself aboard the scaling r,H,wr Ghost. Caplain W.iU l.arsra, ",..'rii to Ja;uti waters. Tin; captain him cabin boy "for the kooi! 01 his The cockney cook. Mu.rkl.', is .'.as of Hump ami hazes I li in. Wolf s a seaman ami makes it the basis .V'ft piiilosophie discussion with 1 1 n tup ;,liV and Hump wliet knives nl eacli .V.r' Hump's intimacy witli Wolf in-..s. in-..s. "Wolf sketches the story of his ' .lcusses tile Bible and Omar, and i;r;it,'S the instinctive love of life by Hump nearly to deatti. A enr-..,1 enr-..,1 ,if brutality breaks loose in the Wolf proves himself the masier . ie, is knocked overboard and w ins ".V- in a titftit in the forecastle. Hump ..s Woli's wounds and. despite his is made mate on the lull-ship. ':ui Weyih-n tries to learn his duties ; .ue. Van "Weyden proves by his con- : in a blow that he has learned "to on his own lets." Two mon desert e wel in one of the small boats. A woman and four men. survivors of .tt.imer wreck, are rescued from a '.-; beat. The deserters are sighted. : Wolf stands away nnd leaves them Jrown. Maude Brewster, the rescued anil Van Weyden lind tliey know Vh other's work. They talk together ; a world alien to Wolf. Maude sees ; :-: :ce towed oi'erside In a bowline to h:m a bath and his foot bitten off by cjrk as he is hauled aboard. She be-w be-w realize her danger at the hands oif. Van Weyden realizes that he -.cs M.iude. CHAPTER XX Continued. We left the table to go on deck, for ; -learner was a welcome break in the : :otony of the sea on which we :;:ed, while the conviction that it ;;i Death Larsen and the Macedonia Mri to the excitement. The stiff ze and heavy sea which had up the previous afternoon had i n moderating all morning, so that : ms now possible to lower the ::;s for an afternoon's hunt. The :.:iiig promised to be profitable. We ::i sailed since daylight across a sea iin of seals, and were now running ::o the herd. Tie smoke was still miles astern. .'. overhauling us rapidly, when we ered our boats. They spread out i struck a northerly course across - ocean. Now and again we saw a lower, heard the reports of the :.:euns. and saw the sail go up again seals were thick, the wind was 'r. away; everything favored a big ;:h. As we ran off to get our lee-position lee-position of the last lee boat, we -'i the ocean fairly carpeted with -P'ng seals. They were all about i thicker than I had ever seen them ire. in twos and threes and :ch?s, stretched full length on the "'see and sleeping for all the world s so many lazy young dogs. Uder the approaching smoke the -.. and upperworks of a steamer growing larger. It was the Mace-" Mace-" a. I read her name through the -;ses as she passed by scarcely a to starboard. Wolf Larsen looked :?ely at the vessel, while Maud ster was curious. -here is the trouble you were so was breezing up, Captain Lar-she Lar-she asked gayly. glanced at "ner, a moment's -stment softening his features, ''hat did you expect? That they'd ? aboard and cut our throats?" Something . like that," she con- Arl. "You understand, seal-hunters '-- ?o new and strange to me that I finite ready to expect anything." nodded his head. "Quite right, right. Your error is that you ;1 to expect the worst." 'hy. what can be worse than cut-5 cut-5 ur throats?" she asked, with ''7 naive surprise. tting our purses," he answered ;',yi is so made these days that his .acity or iiVing is determined by -j money he possesses." flho steals my purse steals trash,' Quoted. Who steals my purse steals my to live," was the reply, "old saws e contrary. For he steals my "so and meat and bed, and in so do-!"aperils do-!"aperils my life. There are not soup-kitchens and bread-lines W around, you know, and when "have nothing in their purses they 'fy die, and die miserably unless '' are able to fill their purses pretty -flily." B,Jt I fail to see that this steamer ny de8jgri8 on your purse." ait and you will see," he an-grimly. an-grimly. 6 did not have long to wait. Hav- Passed several miles beyond our - f boats, the Macedonia proceeded er her own. We knew she car-i;i car-i;i fourteen boats to our five (we ,''ne short through the desertion amwright), and she began drop them far to leeward of our last -, cntinued dropping them athwart . -r8e. and finished dropping them 10 windward of our first weather Boat. The hunting, for us, was spoiled There w(Te no seals behind ua. and ahead of us the line of fourteen boats, like a huge broom, swept the herd before be-fore it. Our boats hunted across the two or three miles of water between them and the point where the Macedonia's had been dropped, and then headed for home. The wind had fallen to a whisper, whis-per, the ocean was growing calmer and calmer, and this, coupled with the presence of the great herd, made a perfect hunting day one of the two or three days to be encountered in the whole of a lucky season. An angry lot of men, boat-pullers and steerers as well as hunters, swarmed over our side. Each man felt that he had been robbed; and the boats were hoisted in amid curses, which, if curses had power, would have settled Death Larsen Lar-sen for all eternity "Dead and damned for a dozen iv eternities," commented Louis, his eyes twinkling up at me as he rested from hauling taut the lashings of his boat. "Listen to them, and find if it is hard to discover the most vital thing in their souls." said Wolf Larsen. "Faith? and love? and high ideals? The good? the beautiful? the true?" "Their innate sense of right has been violated." Maud Brewster said, joining the conversation. She was standing a dozen feet away, one hand resting on the main shrouds and her body swaying gently to the slight roll of the ship. She had not raised her voice, and yet I was struck by its clear and bell-like tone. Ah, It was sweet in my ears! "A sentimentalist." he sneered, "like Mr. Van Weyden. Those men are cursing because their desires have been outraged. That is all. To lay hands on their purses is to lay hands on their souls." "Y'ou speak so calmly " she began "But I do not feel calm; I could kill the man who robbed me," he interrupted. inter-rupted. "Yes, yes, I know, and that man my brother more sentiment! Bah!" His face underwent a sudden change. His voice was less harsh and wholly sincere as he said: "Y'ou must be happy, you sentimentalists, sentimen-talists, really and . truly happy at dreaming and finding things good, and because you find some of them good, feeling good yourself. Now. tell me. you two, do you find me good?" "You are good to look upon in a way," I qualified. "There are in you all powers for good," was Maud Brewster's answer. "There you are!" he cried at her, half angrily. "Y'our words are empty-to empty-to me. He who delights the most lives the most, and your dreams and unrealities are less disturbing to you and more gratfying than are my facts to me. Dreams must be substantial and satisfying. Emotional delight is more filling and lasting than intellectual intellec-tual delight; and, besides, you pay for your moments of intellectual delight by having the blues. Emotional delight is followed by no more than jaded senses which speedily recuperate. I envy you, I envy you." He stopped abruptly, and then on his lips formed one of his strange quizzical quiz-zical smiles, as he added: "It's from my brain I envy you, take notice, and not from my heart. You have no facts in your pocketbook." He ceased speaking, and his gaze wandered absently past her and became be-came lost in the placid sea. The old primal melancholy was strong upon him. He was quivering to it. He had reasoned himself into a spell of the blues, and within few hours one could look for the devil within him to be up and stirring. I remembered Charley Furuseth, and knew this man's sad ness as the penalty which the materialist material-ist ever pays for his materialism. CHAPTER XXI. "You've been on deck, Mr. Van Weyden," Wey-den," Wolf Larsen said, the following morning at the breakfast table. "How do things look?" "Clear enough," I answered, glancing at the sunshine which streamed down the open companionway. "Fair westerly west-erly breeze, with a promise of stiffening, stiffen-ing, if Louis predicts correctly." He nodded his head in a pleased way. "Any Bigns of fog?" "Thick banks in the north and northwest." north-west." He nodded his head again, evincing even greater satisfaction than before. "What of the Macedonia?" "Not sighted," I answered. I could have sworn his face fell at the intelligence, but why ho should be disappointed I could not conceive. I was soon to learn. "Smoke ho!" came the hail from on deck, and his face brightened. "Good!" ho exclaimed, and left the table at once to go on deck and into the steerage, where the hunters were taking the first breakfast of their exile. The bulkhead was too thick for us to hear what he said; but whatever it was it was followed by loud exclamations exclama-tions and shouts of joy. Maud Brewster accompanied me on deck, but I left her at the break of the poop, where she might watch the scene and not bo in it. The sailors must have learned whatever project was on hand, and the vim and snap they put into their work attested their enthusiasm. The hunters came trooping troop-ing on deck with shotguns and ammunition ammu-nition boxes, and, most unusual, their rifies and a large supply of cartridges. I noticed they grinned with satisfaction satisfac-tion whenever they looked at the Macedonia's smoke, which was rising higher and higher as she approached from the west. The five boats went over the side with a rush, spread out like the ribs of a fan, and set a northerly course, as. on the preceding afternoon, for us to follow. fol-low. I watched for some time, curiously, curi-ously, but there seemed nothing extraordinary ex-traordinary about their behavior. They lowered sails, shot seals and hoisted sails again, and continued on their way as I had always seen them do. The Macedonia repeated her performance of yesterday, "hogging" the sea by dropping her line of boats in advance of ours and across our course. Fourteen Four-teen boats require a considerable spread of ocean for comfortable hunting, hunt-ing, and when she had completely lapped our line she continued steaming steam-ing into tho northeast, dropping more boats as she went. "What's up?" I asked Wolf Larsen, unable longer to keep my curiosity in check. "Never mind what's up," he answered an-swered gruffly. "You won't be a thousand thou-sand years in finding out, and in the meantime just pray for plenty of wind." "Oh, well, I don't mind telling you," he said the next moment. "I'm going to give that brother of mine a taste of his own medicine. In short, I'm going to play the hog myself, and not for one day. but for tha rest of the season if we're in luck." ' "And if we're not?" I queried. "Not to be considered," he laughed. "We simply must be in luck, or it's all up with us." The smoke of the Macedonia had dwindled to a dim blot on the northeastern north-eastern horizon. Of the steamer herself her-self nothing was to be seen. We had been loafing along, till now, our sails shaking half the time and spilling the wind; and twice, for short periods, we had been hove to. But there was no more loafing. Sheets were trimmed, and Wolf Larsen proceeded to put the Ghost through her paces. We ran past scW I'll farr. 1 A Huge Scandinavian, Sitting in the Bow, Held His Rifle. our line of boats and bore down upon the first weather boat of the other line. "Down that flying jib, Mr. Van Weyden," Wey-den," Wolf Larsen commanded. "And stand by to back over the jibs." I ran forward anJ -had the downhaul of the flying jib all in and fast as we slipped by the boat a hundred feet to leeward. The three men in it gazed at us suspiciously. They had been hogging hog-ging the sea, and they knew Wolf Larsen, Lar-sen, by reputation at any rate. I noted that the hunter, a huge Scandinavian sitting in the bow, held his rifle, ready to hand, across his knees. It should have been in its proper place in the rack. When they came opposite our stern Wolf Larsen greeted them with a wave of the hand, and cried: "Come on board and have a 'gam'!" "To gam," among the sealing schooners, schoon-ers, is a substitute for the verbs "to visit," "to gossip." It expresses the garrulity of the sea and is a pleasant break in the monotony of the life. The Ghost swung around into the wind, and I finished my work forward in time to run aft and lend a hand with the main sheet. "You will please stay on deck, Miss Brewster," Wolf Larsen said, as he started forward to meet his guest "And you, too. Mr. Van Weyden." The boat had lowered its sail and run alongside. The hunter, golden-bearded golden-bearded like a sea-king, came over the rail and dropped on deck. He glanced from Wolf Larsen to me, noted that there was only the pair of us, and then glanced over his own two men who had joined him. Surely he had little reason to be afraid. He towered like a Goliath above Wolf Larsen. At the top of the companionway he reassured himself with a glance down at his host and the pair descended into the cabin. In the meantime, his two men, as was the wont of visiting sailors, had gone, forward into the forecastle to do some visiting themselves. Suddenly, from the cabin came a great, choking bellow, followed by all the sounds of a furious struggle. It was the leopard and the lion, and the lion made all the noise. Wolf Larsen was the leopard. "You see the sacredness of our hospitality," hos-pitality," I said bitterly, to Maud Brewster. She nodded her head that she heard, and I noted in her face the signs of the same sickness at sight or sound of violent struggle from which I had suffered suf-fered so severely during my first weeks on the Ghost. The sounds from below soon died away. Then Wolf Larsen came alone on deck. There was a slight flush under un-der his bronze, but otherwise he bore no signs of the battle. "Send those two men aft, Mr. Van Weyden," he said. I obeyed, and a minute or two later they stood before him. "Hoist in your boat," he said to them. "Your hunter's decided to stay aboard awhile and doesn't want it pounding alongside." "Hoist in your boat, I said," he repeated, re-peated, this time in sharper tones as they hesitated to do his bidding. "Who knows? Y'ou may have to sail with me for a time," he said, quite softly, with a silken threat that belied the softness, as they moved slowly to comply, "and we might as well start with a friendly understanding. Lively now! Death Larsen makes you jump better than that, and you know it!" Their movements perceptibly quickened quick-ened under his coaching, and as the boat swung inboard I was sent forward to let go the jibs. Wolf Larsen, at the wheel, directed . the Ghost after the Macedonia's second weather boat. Under way, and with nothing' for the time being to do, I turned my attention atten-tion to the situation of the boats. The Macedonia's third weather boat was being attacked by two of ours, the fourth by our remaining three; and the fifth, turn about, was taking a hand in the defense of its nearest mate. The fight had opened at long distance, and the rifles were cracking steadily. A quick, snappy sea was being be-ing kicked up by the wind, a condition which prevented fine shooting; and now and again, as we drew closer, we could see the bullets zip-zipping from wave to wave. The boat we were pursuing had squared away and was running before the wind to escape us, and, in the course of its flight, to take part in repulsing re-pulsing our general boat attack. Attending to sheets and tacks now left me little time to see what was taking place, but I happened to be on the poop when Wolf Larsen ordered the two strange sailors forward and into the forecastle. They went sullenly, sul-lenly, but they went. He next ordered Miss Brewster below, and smiled at the instant horror that leapt into her eyes. "You'll find nothing gruesome down there," he said, "only an unhurt man securely made fast to the ring-bolts. Bullets are liable to come aboard, and I don't want you killed, you know." Even as he spoke, a bullet was deflected de-flected by a brass-capped spoke of the wheel between his hands and screeched off through the air to windward. wind-ward. "You see," he said to her; and then to me, "Mr. Van Weyden, will you take the wheel?" Maud Brewster had stepped inside the companionway so that only ner head was exposed. Wolf Larsen had procured a rifle and was throwing a cartridge into the barrel. I begged her with my eyes to go below, but she smiled and said: "We may be feeble land-creatures without legs, but we can show Captain Larsen that we are at least as brave as he." He gave her a quick look of admiration. ad-miration. "I like you a hundred per cent better for that," he said. "Books, and brains, and bravery. You are well-rounded, a blue-stocking fit to be the wife of a pirate chief. Ahem, we'll discuss that later," he smiled, as a bullet struck solidly into the cabin wall. I saw his eyes flash golden as he spoke, and I saw the terror mount in her own. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |