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Show Jivcjn - -y test I ' "- " . cnPJ'Ri&Hr gy JACK LONDON' I wiin a vengeance. V oil rc quite iinliviuiuil. Vou were unfortunate in havins your lii'o cast in easy places but you're developing, and 1 like you the better for it." His voice aiul expression changed His face was serious. "Do you believe be-lieve in promises?" he asked. "Are they sacred things?" "Of course." 1 answered. "Then here is a compact," he went on, consummate actor that he was. "If I promise not to lay my hands upon Leach and Johnson, will you promise, in turn, not to attempt to kill me?" I could hardly believe my ears. What was coming over the man? "Is it a go?" he asked impatiently. "A go." I answered. His hand went out to mine, and as I shook it heartily I could have sworn I saw the mocking devil shine up for a moment in his eyes. We strolled across the poop to the lee side. The boat was close at hand now, and in desperate plight. Johnson John-son was steering. Leach bailing. The next instant they were opposite the poop, where stood Wolf Larsen and I. We were falling in the trough, they were rising on the surge. Johnson John-son looked at me, and I could see that SYNOPSIS. I 12 Humphrey Van Wyrien, critic and dilettante, dilet-tante, tliruwn into the water by Hie sinking sink-ing of a ferryboat, on eoniint; to liis senses, finds himself aboard the sealing schooner Ghost. Captain Wolf Larsen. bound to Japan waters. The captain refuses re-fuses to put Humphrey ashore and makes btm cabin boy "for the pood of his soul " He begins under the cockney cook, Muk'-rld.e, Muk'-rld.e, who steals his money and chases hini when accused of It. Cooky is jealous of Hump and hazes him. Wolf hazes a seaman and makes II I he basis for a philosophic phil-osophic discussion with Hump. Wolf entertains en-tertains Muxridiie in his cabin, wins from him al cards Ihe money he stole from Hurnp. Cooky and Hump whet knives at each other. Hump's Intimacy with Wolf Increases. Wolf sketches the story of his life, discusses the Bible, and Omar, and illustrates tile instinctive love of life by clink ins Hump nearly to death. A carnival car-nival of brutalily breaks loose in the ship and Wolf provts himself the master brute Wolf is knocked overboard at night, comes back aboard by the lot;line and wins clear In a flslit In the forecastle. Hump dresses Wolfs wounds and. despite his protest. Is made mate on the bell-ship. Mr. Van Weyden tries to learn his duties as mate. Wolf hazes the men who tried to kill him. Van Weyden proves bv his conduct in a blow, with all hands out In the boats anions the seal herd. tha- he has learned "to stand on his own legs." CHAPTER XV Continued. Two hours of terrible work followed. In which all Hands of us two hunters, three sailors, Wolf Larsen and I reefed, first one and the other, the jib and mainsail. And when all was paired and new sails made and bent. Sealing schooner after sealing schooner schoon-er we sighted and boarded. most of which were in search of lost boats and most of which were carrying boats and crews they had picked up and which did not belong to them. For the thick of the fleet had been to the westward of us, and the boats, scattered far and wide, had headed in mad flight for the nearest refuge. Two of our boats, with men all safe we took off the Cisco, and, to Wolf OOifrsen's huge delight and my own grief, he culled Smoke, Nilson and Leach, from the San Diego. So that, at the end of five days, we found ourselves our-selves short but four men Henderson, Hender-son, Holyoak, Williams and Kelly and were once more hunting on the flanks of the herd. But Wolf Larsen, as was to be expected, ex-pected, being a boat short, took pos session of the first stray one and compelled com-pelled its men to hunt with the Ghost, not permitting them to return to their own schooner when we sighted it. 1 remember how he forced the hunter and his two men below, a rifle at their breasts, when their captain passed by at biscuit-toss and hailed ,us for information. in-formation. I was learning more and more seamanship: sea-manship: and one clear dav a thing smile, and as I hud seen no fine sun.e for so lone Hint 1 had lorguttfii such i-'milos existed. "Mr. Van Weyden!" Wolf Larson's voice brought me sharply , back to myself. ""Will you take the lady below and see to her comfort? Make up that spare port cabin. Put Cooky to work on it. And see what you can do for that face. It's burned badly." He turned brusquely away from us and began to question the new men. The boat was cast adrift, though one of them called it a "bloody shame" with Yokohama so near. "No need to go to any great trouble for me," she protested, when I had seated her in Wolf Larsen's armchair, which I had dragged hastily from his cabin. "The men were looking for land at any moment this morning, and the vessel should be in by night; don't you think so?" Her simple faith in the immediate future took me aback. How could I explain to her the situation, the strange man who stalked the sea like Destiny, all that it had taken me months to learn? But I answered honestly: hon-estly: "If it were any other captain except ours, I should say you would be ashore in Yokohama tomorrow. But our captain cap-tain is a strange man, and I beg of you to be prepared for anything, understand? un-derstand? for anything." "I I confess I hardly do understand," under-stand," she hesitated, a perturbed but not frightened expression in her eyes. "Or is it a misconception of mine that shipwrecked people are always shown every consideration? This is such a little thing, you know. We are so close to land." "Candidly, I do not know," I strove to reassure her. "I wished merely to prepare you for the worst, if the worst is to come. This man, this captain, is a brute, a demon, and one can never tell what will be his next fantastic act." I was growing excited, but she interrupted in-terrupted me with an "Oh, I see." and her voice sounded weary. To think was patently an effort. She was clearly clear-ly on the verge of physical collapse. I had quite forgotten the existence of Leach and Johnson, when suddenly, like a thunderclap, "Boat ho!" came down the open companionway. It was Smoke's unmistakable voice, crying from the masthead. There were swift commands on deck, a stamping of feet and a slapping slap-ping of reef-points as the Ghost shot into the wind and about on the other tack. As she filled away and heeled, the armchair began to slide across the cabin floor, and I sprang for it just in time to prevent the rescued woman from being spilled out. Her eyes were too heavy to suggest more than a hint of the sleepy surprise sur-prise that perplexed her as she looked up at me, and she half stumbled, half tottered, as I led her to her cabin. Mugridge grinned insinuatingly in my face as I shoved him out and ordered done, I gave up like a woman and rolled upon the deck in the agony of exhaustion. In the meantime Thomas Mugridge, like a drowned rat, was being dragged out from under the forecastle head, where he had cravenly ensconced himself. I saw him pulled aft to the cabin and noted with a shock of surprise sur-prise that, the galley had disappeared. A clean space of deck showed where it had stood. In the cabin I found all hands assembled, as-sembled, sailors as well, and while coffee was being cooked over the small stove we drank whisky and crunched hardtack. "To hell with a lookout," I heard Wolf Larsen say when we had eaten and drunk our fill. "There's nothing can be done on deck. If anything's going to run us down we couldn't get out of its way. Turn in, all hands, and get some' sleep." The sailors slipped forward, setting .Ue side-lights as they went, while the two hu-iters remained to sleep in the cabin, it not being deemed advisable we rarely encountered now I had the satisfaction of running and handling the Ghost and picking up the boats myself. Wolf Larsen had been smitten smit-ten with one of his headaches, and I stood at the wheel from morning until un-til evening,, sailing across the ocean after the last lee boat and heaving to and picking it and the other five up without command or suggestion from him. Gales we encountered now and again, for it was a raw and stormy region, and, in the middle of June, a typhoon most memorable to me and most important because of the changes Wrought through it upon my future. We must have been well in the path of the Transpacific steamships steam-ships when the typhoon moderated, and here, to the surprise of the hunters, hunt-ers, we found ourselves in the midst of the seals a second herd, or sort of rear guard, they declared, and a most unusual thing. But it was "Boats over!" the boom-boom of guns, and the pitiful slaughter through the long JlflT One of the Sailors Lifted Her Into Wolf Larsen's Downstretched Arms. his face was worn and haggard. I waved my hand to him, and he answered an-swered the greeting, but with a wave that was hopeless and despairing. It was as if he were saying farewell. It did not see into the eyes of Leach, for he was looking at Wolf Larsen. the old and implacable snarl of hatred strong as ever on his face. (TO BE CONTINUED.) to open tne suae to the steerage companionway. com-panionway. Wolf Larsen and I, between be-tween us, cut off Kerfoot's crushed finger and sewed up the stump. Mugridge, Mug-ridge, who, during all the time he had been compelled to cook and serve coffee cof-fee and keep the fire going had complained com-plained of internal pains, now swore that he had a broken rib or two. On examination we found that he had three. But his case was deferred to him back to nis gaiiey worn; anti ne won his revenge by spreading glowing glow-ing reports among the hunters as to what an excellent "lydy's myde" I was proving myself to be. CHAPTER XVII. I came on deck to find the Ghost heading np close on the port tack and cutting in to windward of a familiar spritsail close hauled on the same tack ahead of us All hands were on deck, for they knew that something was tc happen when Leach and Johnson John-son were dragged aboard. Wolf Larsen strode aft from amidships, amid-ships, where he had been talking with the rescued men. The catlike springiness springi-ness in his tread was a little more pronounced pro-nounced than usual, and his eyes were bright and snappy. "Three oilers and a fourth engineer," engi-neer," was his greeting. "But we'll make sailors out of them, or boat pullers at any rate. Now, what of the lady?" I know not why, but I was aware of a twinge or pang, like the cut of a knife, when he mentioned her I thought it a certain silly fastidiousness fastidious-ness on my part,' but it persisted in spite of me, and I merely shrugged my shoulders in answer. Wolf Larsen pursed his lips in a long, quizzical whistle. "What's her name?" he demanded. "1 don't know," I replied. "She is asleep. She was very tired. In fact. I was waiting to hear the news from you. What vessel was it?" "Mail steamer." he answered shortly. short-ly. "The City of Tokyo, from 'Frisco. It was "at this time that I was approached ap-proached by Leach. I had just finished fin-ished tallying the skins of the last boat aboard, when he came to my side, in the darkness, and said in a low tone:. "Can you tell me, Mr. Van Weyden. how far we are off the coast, and what the bearings of Yokohama are?" My heart leaped with gladness, for I knew what he had in mind, and I gave him the bearings west-northwest and five hundred miles away. "Thank you, sir," was all he said as he slipped back into the darkness. Next morning No. 3 boat and Johnson John-son and Leach were missing. Wolf Larsen was furious. It was like looking look-ing for a needle in a haystack to raise that tiny boat out of the blue immensity. immen-sity. But he put the Ghost through her best paces so as to get between the deserters and the land. This accomplished, ac-complished, he cruised back and forth across what he knew must be their course. On the morning of the third day. I shortly after eight bells, a cry that the i boat was sighted came down from Smoke at the masthead. All hands lined the rail, and there, to leeward, in the troubled silver of the rising sun, appeared and disappeared a black speck. We squared away and ran for it. I looked at the gleam of triumph in Wolf Larsen's eyes, his form swan; before me and I felt almost irresistibly irresist-ibly impelled to fling myself upon him The boat was near enough now for us to make out that it was larger than any sealing boat and built on differ ent lines. Smoke, who had descended tn the deck and was now standing bv Wolf Larsen and I, Between Us, Cut bound for Yokohama. Disabled in that typhoon Old tub. Opened up top and bottom like a sieve. They were adrift four days. And you don't know who or what she is, eh? maid, wife or widow? Well well." He shook his head in a bantering way, and regarded me with laughing eyes. "Are you " I began. It was on the verge of my tongue to ask if he were going to take the castaways in to Yokohama. Yo-kohama. "Am I what?" he asked. "What do you intend doing with Leach and Johnson?" He shook his head. "Really. Hump. I don't know. You see. with these ad- ditions I've about all the crew I j want." "And they've about all the escaping they want." I said. "Why not give them a change of treatment? Take them aboard and deal gently with them. Whatever they have done they , have been hounded into doing." "By me?" "By you." I answered steadily. "And 1 give you warning, Wolf Larsen thaf I may forget love of my own life in the desire to kill you if you go too far in maltreating those poor wretches." "Bravo!" he cried. "You do me proud. Hump! You've found your legs Off Kerfoot's Crushed Finger. next day. principally "for the reason that I did not know anything about broken ribs and would first have to read it up. "I don't think it was worth it," I said to Wolf Larsen, "a broken boat for Kelly's life." "But Kelly didn't amount to much," was the reply. "Good night." After all that had passed, suffering intolerable anguish in my finger ends, and with three boats missing, to say nothing of the wild capers the Ghost was cutting, I should have thought it impossible to sleep. But my eyes must have closed the instant my head touched the pillow, and in utter exhaustion ex-haustion I slept throughout the night, the while the Ghost, lonely and undi rected, fought her way through the etorm. CHAPTER XVI. The next day. while the storm was blowing itself out. Wolf Larsen and I crammed anatomy and surgery and set Mugridge's ribs. Then, when the storm broke. Wolf Larsen cruised back and forth over that portion of 'the ocean where we had encountered it. and somewhat more to the westward, west-ward, while the boats were being re- my side, began to chuckle In a sienifl cant way. I looked at him inquirinelv "Talk of a mess!" he giggled. "Don't you see there, in the stern-sheets, on the bottom. May I never shoot a seal again if that ain't a woman!" I looked closely, but was not sure until exclamations broke out on all sides. The boat contained four men and Its fifth occupant was certainly a woman. We were agog with excitement, excite-ment, all except Wolf Larsen, who was evidently disappointed in that it was not his own boat with the two victims of his malice. We ran down the flying jib. hauled the jib-sheets to windward and the main sheet flat, and came up into the wind. I now caught my first glimpse of the woman. She was wrapped in a long ulster, for the morning was raw; and I could see nothing but her face and a mass of light brown hair escaping escap-ing from under the seaman's cap on her head. The eyes were large and brown and lustrous, the mouth sweet and sensitive, and the face itself delicate oval, though sun and expos ure to briny wind had burnt the face scarlet. When one of the sailors lifted lift-ed her into Wolf Larsen's down stretched arms, she looked up into our curious faces and smiled amusedly and sweetly, as only a woman can |