Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

24 PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY indeed, a new first mate ; and upon this basis they got along very well. Pinckney and Dick, by mutual consent, had adopted the most perfunctory manner of acknowledging each other's presence. But to-night, as the black storm following behind blew closer and spattered great sheets of green water over the stern, Pinckney detained the naval officer as he passed. "A bit of a blow, I should say ; maybe quite a storm," Dick replied easily. "But nothing is going wrong? Adrian seemed a good deal worried about something when I saw him." "Nothing more than that we haven't our bearings," Dick replied. "But we haven't had them, you know, for a couple of days now." "Why not?" "Why, we haven't seen the sun for three days ; so we've been running on dead reckoning for the last twelve hundred miles. Of course, with the water running as it has been, our reckoning is bound to be pretty bad ; and this is a bad part of the Pacific to be caught in by a storm with only dead reckoning." "The glass is falling, too, Adrian says." Pinckney tried to appear at ease. "Yes ; it's pretty low. But it isn't the blow that the Irvessa, light as she is, is afraid of. It's the reefs about here — the rocks and coral reefs and shoals — some of them aren't any too well placed on the charts, even if we knew exactly where we were." "What are you doing about it, then?" Pinckney was paling now. "Running as cautiously as we can, with doubled lookouts. Using our searchlight, too, all we can. Adrian's taken the bridge himself, and I guess maybe I'll go back, after I've had a bite." Dick nodded almost cordially to the other, and started to pass on. "I was only asking as Frances — Miss Durant was a little afraid," Pinckney explained. "Oh, was she? She seemed all right when I passed her on the upper deck, just as I came down." Dick passed on. Pinckney remained irresolutely in the passage for a moment. Frances' maid came from her cabin and questioned him about the storm. He succeeded, apparently, in cheering himself by his efforts to reassure her. She returned to her cabin, and he went on deck. He found Frances and Mr. Durant in the shelter of the wireless cabin, watching the dark, rising water strike and splash in great waves over the stern and sweep along the decks. The storm, which had been driving the little yacht blindly before it for three days, seemed about to swoop down upon the Irvessa at last. Great flashes and bursts of tropical lightning tore through the heavy pall clouds just astern, and cast over the pursuing waves a green, gleaming glaze of electricity. "Don't be afraid, Frances !" Etherington caught her. The girl was quietly watching the storm center gain on the yacht. "Don't be afraid !" he muttered to her. The girl shook off his insecure fingers, but let him take her arm again a moment later, as though she realized that it steadied him, at least. "I've been on the Irvessa," she said proudly, "when she's ridden out worse than this. Adrian can bring us through as well, unless we find some reef !" "So you know about the reefs, then ?" The roar of the storm almost swept the words from his lips. "Yes ; but Adrian's a good skipper." "Of course; but — what's that?" He had slipped suddenly and sprawled to the deck. "What's that?" he cried again, as he steadied himself. As he fell he had tightened his hold upon Frances' arm, so that his weight had thrown her through the doorway in which they stood watching the storm, and had dashed her to the wet, washed decks without. But she caught at the railing beside the cabin. "The storm's on us now !" she replied. "But that was not all !" With a shriek and a roar the hurricane had hurled all its force upon them ; and, indeed, that was not all. There was a sudden grind, and a wrench which no mere wave could have caused. "We've struck ! That was the keel scraping!" cried Pinckney. "A reef?" cried Frances, clutching the hand rail harder, as the whole vessel seemed to shudder. "Yes, we're on a reef !" "We're off again ! But oh — oh, some one has fallen from the bridge ! Lieutenant Sommers ! Dick — oh, Mr. Sommers, Adrian has fallen from the bridge !" "Adrian !" Pinckney was screaming, beside himself. "Adrian !" The stunned form of the skipper lay on the deck at his feet. "Adrian !" ■ He tried roughly to revive him. But Frances had skipped past him, and was making for the cabin companionway. "Dick — Dick !" she cried. "Oh, take command!" She had met him hurrying to her. "Adrian has fallen from the bridge — and we're on a reef !" "No ; we washed over it !" Dick shouted back. "I'll take the bridge. But, Frances, go below !" "Struck again ! Reefs ahead — reefs ahead !" A fearful cry somehow made itself articulate above the shriek of the hurricane. Writh a sickening, grinding shudder, the yacht struck solid rock under her keel. Again she quivered from stem to stern, rising high in the effort to surmount the obstacle as before ; but now she struck down the harder after the wave's wash had passed, and settled upon the unyielding reef which tore its way horribly through the helpless hull. "Engines reverse — full speed astern !" Dick had leaped to the bridge and signaled the engine room. But the trembling tug of the little turbines, reversed at full speed against the pitiless force of the storm, was of no avail. "Full speed ahead !" signaled Dick again, in the last sorry hope to drive the little vessel before the waves over the rising reef. But the rock only gripped her the harder; her plates began to crack, yield and give way. Dick descended from the bridge in the wake of the panic-stricken sailors. "Mr. Durant— Miss Durant !" he called. "We must abandon ship! Lifeboats away!" he commanded. Warner"— he caught the second mate — "take charge of starboard lifeboat. Take Miss Durant, her maid, Mr. Durant, and fifteen of the men with you ! You leave first ! Nichols !" he cried to the first mate, who staggered up. "Make ready port boat. Take Adrian, Mr. Pinckney, and rest of crew. Pinckney" — he swung about and faced Etherington — "stand by wireless at once ! Try signal some ship ! Per