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Show THE SWIMMERS. By John S. Reed. In the hot electric oppressiveness of a July night, the South Pacific lay like a black poison spilled from the inverted chalice of the starless sky. It moved uneasily, like a Titan trying to breathe; although there was not a breath of wind, little uneven waves showed their teeth, and like mottles on a sick man's face, the yellow-green whorls of phosphorus boiled up. On the very edge of the horizon, pale heat-lightning slowly flickered. In another direction, a faint red incandescence painted the sky from something on the down-hill of the world. Two divergent restless lines of phosphorescence phosphores-cence streamed out behind Andy Lasky, swimming steadily, easily across the velvet tropic sea. "With the powerful kick of his legs, sea-fire blazed, resisting; then came the slow, relentless sweep of arms, whirling two curving lines of glowing eddies. ed-dies. A continual foam of pale light broke before him, shooting luminous auroras into a young face, and a mop of light hair, brown and straggly in the water. Like a man out for a pleasure swim he moved, calm, buoyant, strong. Every few minutes min-utes he plunged his head under, gurgling the water deliciously in ears, throat and nose, spurting it up like a -walrus blowing, rolling over in its warm embrace. But he never looked back at the reel glow in the sky. His eyes were fixed ahead, eager, yet calm, as if ho confidently expected a vision of something. Suddenly Andy shifted his gaze to the right, for the first time. He stopped swimming, resting easily, treading water. Tho eddies swirled around, snuffing out. Then frcu the darkness, dull, like a voice in a close room, came a faint, . high-pitched "Hello!" Trembling a little, he gave a tremendous shout. "Coming," cried the voice, "coming!" Andy waited. Far away to the right moved a glowing blot on the face of thr water. Little waves slapped Andy in the mouth. He paid no f attention. He felt unaccountably stirred, curious- ly nervous. He had made up his mind what to do and now, into a world in which he was alone and content, another human being intruded, disturbing, dis-turbing, unsettling. Where there had been but One, there Were now t j perhaps a responsibility. responsibil-ity. The stranger came nearer, swimming with an awkward overhand stroke. His arms flapped down smartly, his head bored into a luminous wash, one foot came out of the wake like a leaping leap-ing fish and slapped stiffly down. As the head came out of the water, Andy saw by the phosphorous glow a wizened, yellow face, surmounted by a bald head. Drooping English Eng-lish whiskers gave him the appearance of an awkward awk-ward seal. The newcomer paused, panting, a few yards distant, dis-tant, evidently exhausted. "It's my wind," he said querulously. "Too many cigarettes. Where are you going?" "Oh, down the pike," answered Andy, with an affectation of jauntiness. "There's an island ten miles east they told me on the ship" He stopped suddenly, strangely shaken. He had made himself forget the ship. And now, it all rushed back on him the screaming of women, the sullen grumble of the flames. He felt a sudden sud-den rase at this yellow thing that had reminded him. "Same place!" said the little man. "Go together to-gether eh, what?" They set out in silence. Neither looked back. Andy swam easily, strongly. He tried to shake off the consciousness of the man at his side. But he couldn't; in the pauses between strokes he would hear the thumping leg and labored wheezing of the little man. Without knowing it he forged ahead. "Hey there," shouted a thin voice, "hold your bally horses. You can't hurry in the Bast." Andy pulled up impatiently while the little man came alongside. They rested, half floatlns, half treading water. "But we've -got to get there," said AnJ. "Haven't got forever, you know." "I know I know," puffed the stranger. "Can't hurry the East, though blub 'member what Kipling says man tried to hurry the East " "Look litre," said Andy, inwardly raging, "you wasto strength with every kick. Do like this." He showed him. "Thanks," said the little man, still breathing with difficulty, "that goes better." "Let's get along, then." "Minute. Little rest. Got all night. Can't hurry blub I know," with emphasis. "Lived out in China three years going Home what you doing?" "Going around the world." "Uh huh Griffin, eh?" "Griffin?" "First time in the East blub thought so from the way you were traveling too fast you know blub." "Come along," said Andy surily, "if you're coming with me." He set out, the little man following fol-lowing in silence. Night hung closely, stiflingly, like a monk's cowl. On the horizon shivered the heat-lightning. The strange sea-glow whirled. "What you blub steering by?" shrilled the voice behind. "Lightning." "JTot always sure," complained the voice. "Sometimes shifts blub too bad no moon " Andy felt as if someone had struck him. Not always sure suppose they were swimming away wandering lost in a thousand dark miles ot limitless ocean? "Better take your time," said the voice, now far behind. "Wait till dawn." Andy slowed down, and let the stranger approach. ap-proach. He was breathing, if anything, Worse than before. Andy experienced an aqcess of pity. "How are you coming?" "Pretty fair, pretty fair blub can do. Got a little crick in my side blub rest a minute what d'you say?" They lay on their backs, on the moving irregular irregu-lar breast of the vast waters. "Funny way to go home," said the high voice. "Sink down, down, down blub lie in cozy mud on the bottom bore tunnel through tile world. One, two miles down tunnel through Hell one, two miles up blub " He fell to coughing as a wave filled his mouth. "Quaint idea very" he laughed in a cracked, ugly falsetto. All the ideas that Andy had shut out of his mind the fathomless deep, the cold, the ooze under him the unbounded largeness of the ocean the choking of the breath the writhing of cold, slimy things on the sea bed flooded back upon him. He shuddered. A great anger seized him against this little yellow thing that had upset liis tranquility, robbed him of his self-confidence. "Shut up, will you, damn you!" he broke out, and set off again. "I say," cried the voice anxiously, "don't lose temper blub can't do it in the East I know can't hurry awfully sorry." That was true. He musn't lose his temper. He musn't think of those horrible things. Still he swam nervously onward, with the pound ot that awkward foot stabbing the darkness behind. be-hind. Several times he made up his mind to swim away to escape from that monotonous reminder remind-er of Death. "Can't hurry the East blub," said the high voice over and over again. Once Andy swam so far ahead that the voice could not be heard. Then he realized with a sudden horror the unutterable loneliness of the ocean. Vague shapes seemed reeling in the darkness, threatening threaten-ing him. The breathing hush of interminable spaces branded his brain like a white-hot iron. At least here was companionship. Andy turned and scanned the blackness. No sound but the swish of little waves nothing human in that vast pit of the world. "Hello!" he called wildly. "Where are you?" said a faint voice. Andy swam swiftly in mortal terror lest he lose the one link that bound him to life. He found the little man resting again, breathing more easily. "Thought youd blub gone ahead to get breakfast ready morning blub." Morning was indeed coming, with the swiftness swift-ness of the tropics. The clouded sky, that had been so close and black, went gray like the face of a watcher of the sick a weary, indeterminate indeterm-inate gray that seemed to come from no particular partic-ular point of the compass. In the dull gray-green gray-green sea, the phosphorescence gleamed no more. "You're a great blub swimmer " went on the high voice. "Wish I had learned how blub really." "Yes," said Andy, with renewed confidence. "I've been in the water most " "Look," screamed the little man, 'the sun-blub sun-blub what a curious direction " Like a gong of red Chinese copper, the sun shot up behind the thick curtain of the sky. Both men turned swiftly to face it. "Why," cried Andy, astonished, "it's rising in the North. No! no! we're wrong we've been swimming wrong! My God! We've been going South dead South!" "So we have," muttered the querulous voice, "so we have." "Lost! we're lost, I tell you!" cried Andy in terror. "Hero, come now," said the little man. "It's not so blub bad. Can't be very far off. Don't lose your head, my boy. Blub go slow you fi can't hurry just swim Northeast " "How for how far?" moaned the other churn ing the water wildly. He was obsessed with the desire to find land, to find land, to find land; at any cost, to escape from the pitiless immensity immens-ity of the sea. "It's not very far," said the cheerful voice. "Came a good bit to the East blub before lightning light-ning shifted should say about ten miles " Ten miles! All the night's work wasted! What if his strength should give out. He was terribly afraid of being afraid. "Come on!" yelled Andy. They swam along together for a time; then Andry drew ahead. "Hey!" came the voice. "Hold up! blub you can't hurry " Andy forced himself to slow down. Three times he distanced the little man; three times he needed all his strength of will to stop. He ached with impatience to let himself out, to sprint, to gain the land and roll in the dry sand. Trying to keep up with him, the little man breathed loudly behind him. Above them the clouds thinned away, burned into nothingness by the sun.. The sky was a flaming blue, and the sea the color of deep Indian In-dian jade. A light, warm breeze fluttered the tips of the waves. Andy wondered if his strength would hold out. He imagined that he felt weariness plucking pluck-ing at his muscles. The sun beat upon his head, and he thought again of frigid and horrible slime in the green, immeasurable profundity. He I- dared not look ahead. i "Look!" shrilled the little man. Andy raised his eyes. Nothing! "With a superb effort, like a steel-head salmon leaping, he lifted himself out of the water. There, on the far edge of the world, three slender palm-trees rose as if from the bosom of the sea. "Saved!" cried the high voice. "Don't hurry, man, don't hurry, or you're lost blub wait rest" But Andy Was off, tearing aside the ocean like a motor-boat. He had swung into a racing "crawl," arm flashing over arm, head buried, feet whirring in a chaos of foam, senseless, mad for the touch of the land, crazed with the fear of the sea. -His brown, rippling back seemd to leap from wave-crest to wave-crest. "Wait!" came the voice, farther and farther behind, caught when his head broke water in the fury of his work. Once he leaped out of water to look again. He was not gaining he was J not gaining he must hurry .... A little, bald-headed, yellow man, whose moustaches mous-taches made him look like an awkward seal, swam through the immense murmurous quiet of the South Pacific. Overhead the sky was intensely intense-ly blue; ahead three palm-trees lifted from a beach dazzling white. Down the little man's face tears streamed unheeded; his breath came in sobs. Once he lifted himself out of the sea. The immense prairie of ocean was empty. No gleaming back plowing along no wash of shuttling shut-tling feet not even a bird in the sky. So the little man settled back awkwardly to his task. His arms flapped down smartly, his head bored into the wash, one foot came out of the wake like a leaping flsh and slapped stiffly down. And as ho swam, he murmured to himself monotonously, in ceaseless iteration: "Can't hurry blub the East can't hurry " August Forum. |