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‘now the sight brought him
ah 3%
E Eiibldd
l'oL Lxtrr. No. 18
HREE vessels, the "Bri-
areus.” a tug, and two
eat red pontoons lay
oh‘ Agulaya Island, just be-
'ond Bar Reef. Around
them the Mindoro Sea slept-
in glassy blue, with streaks of green
marking the place where the reef ap-
proached the surface. “here the emerald
lines merged into blue there thrust out of
the water the peak of a steel mizzenmast,
green and rusty from tidal inundation.
Its dismantled wireless antennae draggled
sleepily in the ground swells. ’
To the west of this wreck there was a
gap in the barrier, where the indigo tint
of the ocean passed through the stripes
of green to the deep water next to the
island. Agulaya itself was faced with a
broad wash of sand, then came lush green
vegetation, topped by a little group of
palms
In an improvised cabin on the stern of
21: port barge a young man worked per-
spiringly but methodically at a series of
long calculations. He was constructing a
table of tides for Agulaya. for the Nan-
tical Almanac does not give tidal details
of every island in the speckled realm of
Polynesia. “'hen he had finished this cal-
culation, he compared it with the results
of other computations. He perused the
totals several times, leaned back in his
hot‘ chair and muttered aloud, “A bare
two feet, a skin fit all right!"
Renshaw glanced out of his shutterless
door. It was twelve o'clock, and the men
sprawled under the awnings, waiting for
the gong. Tagalog named Zablaya
men called Youtsey arose and approached
therbrown man casually, but just as Zah-
laya stooped to dip up the sea water,
Youtsey made a quick reach and punched
the brown man in the'ril>s.
sued’ an extraordinary nervous reaction.
Zablaya leaped, upset his tub." shrieked,
flung up skinny arms and chattered iri-
articulntely, and a roar of laughter came
from the workmen. a V , -
Once ,before Renshaw had reman-
strated with the men for this cruelsport;
to his feet in
anger. tVith snapping eyes he walked out
on the laughing crowd. - x
“Youlsey, let that fellow alone. “Why
do you want to torture a miserable neu-
lIe turned on the men who
were now grinning at Youtsey.
“It applies to every one of you." he
broadened. “For a little barbarous amuse-
ment you are ruining what little nerves
this poor wreck possesses" He turned
abruptly lo Zablaya, ““'hy don't you try
to control yourself? If you would quit
jumping and yelling, these human goats
would stop bothering you.” .
The workmen became snllenly silent.
Zablaya held up a shaking hand. from
which the little and the ring finger ap-
peared to have been stripped. to judge
rom a vivid yellow scar that streaked
down the side of his hand past his wrist.
“I-l was a-a diver, senor, a p-pearl
diver. A shark attacked me. U-ugh! I
am not the‘ same‘ man since."
“Did it do that?"
Zablaya nodded vehemently.
“Is that why you bathe in a tub instead
of the sea ?" ’
“Yes, I see it all the time. “'-when
the men touch me at night, I think the
shark has me."
“Do you brutes really cheat this wreck
out of his seep?" emanded enshaw
harshly. "You ought to be shot, every
man of you. Pick up that shirt, Zablaya,
and come with me.”
The dripping, shivering Tagalog picked
up his garment and followed the engineer.
The ofhcer pointed to the awning he had
stretched above his cabin. in order to
make it a little cooler.
There en- -
F012-YOUNG-l31EOPl:E
Drlgrun Vlarcss, 1Sostcn,?civ 1)ork .'f1$VCblC.:1gO
Renshaw’s “Dog”
By Henry Ridgefell
'DrnwIntI M w. .vm.m.
“When you are not at work, you can
hang around here." he directed briefly.
“The men won't bother you in the officers’
quarters.” He was about to enter his cabin
again, but he turned to question.
"You are afraid of sharks?"
Zablaya nodded.
v “Well that is an obsession, a sort of
sickness. Your mind is sick. You must
tell yourself you are not afraid of sharks,
and believe it. Make yourself believe it.
You say your prayers three times a day;
each time ask the Lord to make you fear-
less of sharks."
Zablaya nodded gravely.
“Say you are not afraid of sharks.
Let's hear you say it "
The Tagalog repeated the words.
- "Now say that till you believe it. You
must run your body from the brain end
of your spinal column, not from the little
automatic plexus up and down your back-
one. Now get up there and lie down."
The Polynesian climbed up under the
awning as obediently as a hound,
curled up. By this means he escaped the
persecution of his fellows from that day
i by this means, further, he ob-
nickname,
n
A moment later the
longboat put off from the
opposite pontoon. bring-
ing in its stern Anderson,
chief engineer of the ex-
pedition, a>nian inwhite
dLlCl(,‘ with a face lined
and burned brown under.
the tropical sun. , The
chief looked attentively at
the peak of the sunken
mast as his boat passed it.
Ten minutes later he en-
tered Renshaw‘s cabin.
i)
:1
r:.
age, but he looked much
older. “'ork under the
equator had graven lines
about his eyes and mouth,
and he was as old as he
looked. notwithstanding a
comparatively recent birth-
a)'- ‘ 1
He laid his Sull helrnct
on the table and dropped
chair. 4 ‘-
ll begin cutting her
up to-morrow," he ob-
served. ““4'e must begin
on her how which swings
down, she's hanging from
that reef like a coat on a
ra k.’
“Forty degrees
angle." observed Renshaw
exactly. -
“If we loose her stern,
she'll slip straight into "THE-
deep water.
“Undoubtedly."
“So that's your plan, too.”
“Not exactly. I was planning to salve
he ’Korea' intact’
Five hundred and
twelve feet long. eleven thousand tons of
solid steell, Look here. lad. ambition is
all right in the latitude of Port Arthur
and Boston and London, but it doesn't
work in latitude zero."
Renshaw shook his head. "It isn't all
ambition. It's a sort of personal reason,"
he admitted.
“I don't follow you."
“Well. you see,, when I was in college.
during my freshman year, old Professor
Witman took us to a big shipyard to see
a boat launched. Vlt was the Iirst hull i
ever saw go down the ways. it looked
bigger to me than the ‘(ii-
gantic‘ would now. “'hen
it first started I thought the
hull was standing still and
the earth was sliding hack
nnder it." Renshaw
stared over the Mindoro at the recollec-
on.
““'ell?" ‘
“Oh, it was this ‘Korea,’ of course. I'd
just like to write old VVitman and tell
him I'd salved his ship."
Anderson sat looking at his assistant.
“Well, let's have your plans."
Renshaw leaned over and spread some
sheets on the table. ”IIere they are."
The young engineer unfolded his idea
rapidly. The "Korea" hung on a reef
with her poop almost awash at low tid
and her how at a depth of about one hun-
dred feet. It was Rt-nshaw’s plan to make
the stranded hull fast to the pontoons by
a net of cables, blast away the retaining
spur and tow her into deep water at low
tide. He could then bring her to an even
keel, equalizing her depth at fifty feet.
Next procedure would be to tow her
through the barrier and land her on the
sand at high tide, wait till low tide. take
a new hold, and carry her higher on the
sand at the next flood. This operation
could be continued until the “Korcu" was
suliiciently near the surface to be re-
paired.
. . cuw in-.cAN A SUDDEN caesium."
Anderson listened thoughtfully. “The
gap in the reef," he objected. “is onlv
forty feet deep by our sounding.
want to carry a vessel through drawing
fifty feet."
“On the seventeenth of this month.“
explained Renshaw, "we have a spring
tide of twelve feet and three inches with-
‘ That will give us two feet of
“Two feet!" frowned Anderson.
“It's pretty close," admitted the assist-
ant.
“It's stnfhng a coconut back in its hull.
if we salvc the ‘Korea,’ who will salve
me”
Renshaw laughed. “I'll stay up the
ertra watches; you shall have eight
hours sleep every night."
)l.iv l, rot;
"if I can get it." added the chief engi-
neer.
But so it was decided.
For the next few days there was great
activity aboard the pontoons. All day
long and all night long. the big derricks
stnttered. bringing up all the inovables
of the ill-fated "Korea." Gelignite was
planted under the spur, to detach the ves-
sel; a weft of cables “as woven from
pontoon to nreck.
Divided into two shifts. the crew
uorked with no intermission. for the
"Korea" must pass tltronizh the break in
the barrier on the seventeenth of the
month at 4:23 P. M. That date was five
days distant. Renshaw took the night
shift and half the day. The young fel-
lon' directed everything, the rigging of
the ropes, the ston'a;zc of the salved
freight, placing it as ballast to counteract
the enormous strain when the whole bulk
of the "Korea" should depend from the
pontoons.
During this period of stress, the Dog
stood his watch. stowing freight by day,
and by night he was up at odd hours.
carrying Renshan's messages fore an
aft, bringing him coffee from the kitchen,
shouting through the megaphone to the
opposite pontoon. Once. as the cables
were delivering parcels from the hold of
the wreck. Renshaw had said to him,
"Zablaya, if you could dive. you could
earn three times what you now receive."
lint the fellow only drew a long breath,
then stared into the shadowy blue water
and shook his head. The matter was not
mentioned again; the engineer had too
many other things on his brain.
On the night of the sixteenth. both
shifts worked all night. When the seven-
tccnth dawned, the flotilla was ready to
make the attempt. The "Briarens" stood
ay at the end of a hundred-fathom
cable. with all steam up. ready to haul the
derelict into deep water: In the how of
the port pontoon was a series of twelve
electric designed to explode
twelve small charges of gelignite and
chip 05 the spur to which the "Korea"
hung. The cables over the sides of the
puntoons looked lik spider webs.
Renshaw gave a signal. A man at the
stern wigwagged the tug. and she started
hauling at the end I?!’ long line.
Vonlsey. sitting at the switches looked
at the engineer. Th:-n ilcliberan '. one
after the other. the twelve sunken cart-
ridges (lt‘l0lI:tt(‘(l.
Around the mi7.zenm.1st there came a
swirling and boiling of the ocean. Mud,
seaweed. dead fish were lifted to the sur-
face and spun about. The peak of the
submerged mast moved slowly, seemed
to straighten. carecned. then moved at a
snaillike pace outward and downward.
The creaking of the bow cables told of
the first strain. The popping grew louder,
swiftly extended along the whole line of
moorings, became an uproar. The cables
quivered, stretched and condensed unti
they were no larger than hawsers. The
bit into the tow packed about the steel
edge of the pontoons to protect them
from cutting. The great barges them-
selves sunk deeper and deeper into the
sea under the vast weight that was being
suspended between them. Down they
went past normal water line, past deep-
water line. It was as if some huge sea
spider were drawing down two vast red
beetles. The men stared at the creeping
ea.
“Hey, were's going under!" Mr. Ren-
slIaiv.lshall we cut the ropes?" They
lined up at the rail. staring down ex-
citedly. Prescntly the subsidence ceased,
and some one cried. "lley, were off!"
The whole crew looked. The pnntoons,
flat on the water with their mighty load,
were swinging out at sea. ‘ 7‘
When about a mile distant. the “Bri-
areus" stopped. dropped her cable and
moved about to the land side of her con-
.-...... ....- g