EM EM : monthly magazine - 01.07.1941, Blaðsíða 35

Em Em
35
tiuw, prcLty mucn 01 a oiur co me.
I remember helping launch two
boats and a raft. I remember ty-
ing: lifebelts around half a dozen
people. X remember knocking
down a poor frightened little man
who was trying to slide into a boat
with the women. And I remember
flnding myself at long Iast, with
the ship’s oflicers and some twenty
of the crew, alone on the deck of
the foundering Alderbaron.
Two boats had been capsized in
launching. All the others on the
starboard side were clear of the
ship and standing by a little dis-
tance away. The boats on the port
side were still on their davits; the
ship’s list had grown too great to
permit of their launching.
All at once I realized that I had
no lifebelt. Pulling myself up the
slanting deck with difflculty, I
threw open the door of the first
cabin I came to. I fumbled in the
darkness—the ship’s dynamos had
ceased to function—and found two
lifebelts in their rack. I dragged
them down, slid through the door
onto the deck and came face to
face with Captain Eldridge.
The skipper, with the ship’s log
and papers under his arm, had just
come off the bridge.
“Captain, you haven’t a Ufebelt,”
I said.
The man shook his head. In the
öim starUght his face shone gray
and hollow-cheeked. X caught him
toy the arm.
Oh, I knew the traditions of the
sea as weU as any sea-going man,
but I had always felt that some of
them were senseless. I could see
no sane reason why a captain
should go down with his ship, pro-
vided he had done everything pos-
sible to save the lives of his pas-
sengers and crew.
“See here, skipper,” I began.
“You’re not responsible for this
thing that has happened to your
ship. It is up to you to do all you
can to find the men who are. Go-
ing down with your ship won’t
help, you know.”
“I know, lieutenant,” Eldridge
protested feebly. “But you don’t
understand. Those women—good
God! Struggling there in the wa-
ter. The boat crashing on their
heads. I—I—”
I understood. I knew there
could be no hell greater than that
which the captain had passed
through during the last hour.
After it, death would be more
merciful than life. But there were
other things to be considered. X
opened a lifebelt and held it out.
“Pull yourself together, Cap-
tain!” I said sharply. “Climb into
this belt. Climb in, I tell you!”
Eldridge was too dazed and
*—---1 Ufia q rmu
snppea im.0 uie jacKec. l puiiea lt
around him and tied the straps
across his chest. He slid down the
deck- to the rail, over which the
other officers and the last of the
crew were climbing.
As I was about to pick up the
other jacket, the deck lurched
sharply. The starboat-d rail dipped
under and a great wave rushed in-
board. I took a deep breath and
dove to meet it.
The wave caught me and hurled
me back against the deck-house.
Gasping, the breath knocked out
of my lungs, I fought against the
roaring water that beat on me
from every side. For a moment or
two my head remained above wa-
ter. Then, rising with the flood,
I found myself wedged tightly
against the heavy canvas awning
which covered that portion of the
deck.
The situation dawned on me,
and I knew it spelled curtains.
The ship was going down and I
was caught beneath the awning,
held there by the pressure of wa-
ter as tightly as though I were
bound hand and foot. And that
pressure would not be reUeved un-
til the ship hit bottom.
Further struggle, I knew, was
useless. Relaxing, I lay spread-
eagled against the canvas awning.
Strangely enough I was not
frightened. I felt only bitterness
and resentment that I had to die
now, that I was destined to play
no part in helping bring to jus-
tice the men responsible for this
terrible disaster.
Suddenly the pressure that
wedged me against the awning
vanished. I realized I was float-
ing free, that the roaring din of
tumbUng water had ceased. It
flashed through my mind that the
ship was at the bottom.
With my lungs almost bursting,
my head reeling, I acted instinc-
tively. In the utter darkness, I
had no idea in which direction lay
the side of the ship. But some in-
nate sense sent me clawing fran-
ticaUy along the canvas and in a
moment or two, all but uncon-
scious, I had reached the edge of
the awning and was fighting to-
ward the surface.
X held my breath until the
pounding pulse in my ears sound-
ed like trip-hammers. I fought
with all my strength and all my
will. But at last my buming
lungs could stand the strain no
longer. My head began to spin
like a top, and abruptly it seemed
to burst. I knew nothing more.
When I woke up I found myself
flat on my back on the deck of a
ship. There were people around
me on every side, bedraggled men
anA warattn with the cleam oí hor-
ror suu xn cneir eyes. n. imn
man, who still wore a lifebelt,
knelt by my side. I recognized
Captain Eldridge.
“How do you feel?” the captain
asked.
“Terrible,” I said. “Who picked
us up?”
“The Libertad. A yacht. I be-
lieve she belongs to Carretos. She
arrived on the seene 10 minutes
after the ship went down.”
I sat up and looked around. I
didn’t see anything of Mildred
among the mob of people that clut-
tered the deck of the Libertad.
“Would you know Miss Baird if
you saw her?” I asked.
“Yes. She’s all right. But you
only pulled out by the skin of your
teeth.”
“I guess it was a close shave.
Things are beginning to come back
to me now. I went down with the
ship, didn’t I? I got caught under
the awning. I don’t see how I ever
canie up witho'ut a lifebelt.”
“You were imconscious when I
saw you,” the captain said. “You
bobbed right up beside me. I held
your head above water until we
were picked up.”
I didn’t talk for a while—I was
too busy being sick. And after
that I was busy trying to think,
trying to put two and two to-
gether, and not even getting three.
Finally I tumed to Eldridge.
“Captain, does it strike you as
peculiar that Carretos’ yacht
should appear on the scene so
quickly?”
The skipper shmgged. “They
picked up my SOS.”
“She was still plenty close. She
must have left Caimora right after
we did, and she must have followed
the same course as ours. That
means she was bound for Colon.
Why should Carretos have taken
passage on the Alderbaron when
his yacht was following right
along to Colon?”
The captain shrugged wearily
and didn’t say anything. Of course,
there was an answer to my ques-
tion. Carretos had taken passage
on the liner to be with Mildred
Baird. And yet I was too stub-
bom, too vindioative, to accept such
an answer. I wanted to go further.
I asked finally:
“Have you any idea what caused
the sinking?”
“The sea cocks were open. We
found it out too late to close
them.”
“Then that accounts for the
murder of the carpenter,” I said
quickly.
“Yes. He had the keys to the
double bottoms.”
After that we didn’t talk any
more about the mystery.
TJhe Libertad. I lcarncd waa