Picture Play Magazine (Oct-Nov 1915)

lav 22 "Have you sighted other boat?" "We are looking for it." "Do not give up. Remember, had but one lantern. You must pick them up by searchlight. Have you sighted them ?" "We are looking." "Stop where now are and search. They cannot be nearer than that. Were almost in line with first boat and here. Stop and search there !" "We are searching." "Why are you coming on? Have you sighted them?" "Are looking for them." "You are not !" The tapper gave the lie direct. "You are trying to come here. Boat would have been driven beyond your position. Do not give up ! Is absolutely useless to come here. Have you sighted it? Boat must be astern you, I say! Do not waste time trying to come here ; hopeless. Look longer for that boat. Keep looking!" "We are coming up to lee reef. Will fire line over you. Do you understand? Irvcssa!" The Mongolian's spark exploded more quickly. "Irvcssa! Do you understand ? Call ! Call ! Call ! Call !" "What?" asked the tapper shortly, after an instant. "Your light is out ! Show a light !" "I put it out," the resonator replied coolly. "I told you useless come here. Don't give up that boat ! You cannot do anything here. Search for that boat!" "Show your light !" the Mongolian commanded angrily. "Show your light ! Irvcssa! Sommers ! Show your light!" Ahead, the searchlights of the Mongolian swept the empty waters. "Show your light !" the spark roared again. It changed to appeal again. "Remember man with you! Now show your light !" "He stayed with me to help save the others !" the tapper answered defiantly. "Could not see him clearly ; have not seen him since ; but in last rush for boats he stayed below to keep dynamos. I answer for him, too. Will not show light till you have second boat. Do you see it?" Harling twisted helplessly at his key. He started up as the door swung back and Etherington Pinckney, white and wild-eyed, staggered in. "They're gone — they capsized ! Oh, Frances — Frances, you're gone ;" he cried madly. "They sank beside us PICTURE-PLAY WEEKLY just before you picked us up!" he clamored. Harling, after calling a sailor to catch and calm the other, returned to his key. "Pinckney reports second boat capsized," he volleyed quickly. "Disappeared and overturned just before we picked them up. We have searched, but found nothing. Now show your light !" "It would not sink," the answer returned at once. "They would cling to it. More reason to search now. Look for them !" "From reported condition, is hopeless ; but can save you. Show light, Irvcssa ! Irvcssa '." Weak from the strain, Harling sank back after calling. "The fool !" he whispered softly. But ahead and under the bridge was a commotion. Almost under its bow, the Mongolian had stumbled upon the second boat, with lanterns and oars gone, but still upright, and with its crew clinging to its seats. The great ship swung around, and as the ropes were flung down a hundred pulled the survivors to the deck. Back to his key as the last man was pulled aboard, Harling took up his receivers again mechanically. He had seen and noted each clearly as they were taken over the side, and there were no women among the rescued from that boat. Then the resonators sprang to life again. "Have you found them? You stopped." "We found them," Harling cut the other short. "Was she " The captain entered. The boy appealed to him. "Shall I tell him now?" "Tell him !" The captain bent over the younger man kindly. "Look ! There's another blow coming — so tell him that we saved fourteen from the first boat, fourteen from the second !" "But no woman? Not Miss Durant?" cried Harling. "No — no ! For she " "What?" "Yes. So, tell him," the captain commanded quickly ; "tell him that " But Harling's sending spark burst back before him. "Cra-ash ! Cra-a-sh !" called the roaring current. "She is with you !" Harling raced madly with the storm. "All rest saved. She is one stayed with you !" Harling jumped from his key and stared ahead. White and clear, even through the lightning, the bright glare of a searchlight blazed out. "He got it !" cried Harling, and swung back. Pinckney, half comprehending, was clutching at him. "She — she " he was stammering. "The sailors knocked us down in the last rush for the boats." he managed to explain. "I couldn't find her in the rush !" "So you came without her in the first boat!" the operator returned. His key remained silent. He swung back to the glass. Swaying, as the sea tore at the wreck upon the reef, the light winked and was gone. The Mongolian's searchlights now bore upon the wreck and showed it in plain view. Sea after sea broke above it and washed down, sweeping it clear ; but where the reef held the bowsprit highest something was moving. A thousand yards to leeward, then five hundred, and at last scarcely two hundred, the great liner stopped, and merely held steerageway. A moment the wind fell, and before it rose again a shot shrieked from the bow ; and the coil of the line leaped from the deck. On the bow of the Irvcssa the moving things flung themselves upon the rope-marked path of the shot, and, binding themselves together, jumped into the sea while those on board the Mongolian watched in tense excitement. With the wash of the waves slackening the line as it was pulled, the rope's burden came alongside ; and for an instant, as they touched the liner's side, the sea was merciful. Numbed to senselessness and badly bruised but still breathing, the sea gave them up. "She will live now !" The doctor put out his hand to restrain the struggle of the one whom the captain had revived beside the girl. "Oh, Frances, you will live!" Pinckney had come up and bent over the girl. But Dick, bruised and battered, struggled up and pushed the other away. He caught the girl and held her to himself. Her eyes as they opened passed by those who bent about her — even by her father, after the first glance told her that he was safe, and she held herself closer to Dick. She raised her