Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1913 — Jimmy’s @ Wife [ARTICLE]

Jimmy’s @ Wife

By T. JENKINS HAINS

We were about 50 miles south of Cape Hora, hove-to in a high, roiling, northwest sea which made the main deck uninhabitable. In the dog-watch the carpenter tookmercy on Gantllne and myself and allowed us to share his room in the forward house for an aftersupper smoke. We had started forward when the man on lookout hailed. Through the gloom of the flying drift and twilight a shadow, bore down upon the ship, grey-white above black. Then there suddenly loomed out the shape of a great ship tearing along under t’gallant sails dead before the gale. Then in an instant she was gone. The drift had closed upon her as she swept astern before any one could read her .name. She had vanished as quickly as she had appeared, passing on into the dismal sea behind us like a salt-streakeu mystery. We stood gazing at the whirling drift in the gloom astern for some minutes, and then we followed Chips into bis room. Gantllne could not recall the vessel by her shape or rig, and asked the carpenter about her. ly. “Would I be apt to forget herT” And he thrust out an arm, pulling up his sleeve until a long livid scar showed clear to his elbow. “It isn’t likely anyone would forget the Morning Light if they ever sailed in her. Man! I’d know her in the depths o* perdition, the deepest hole in devildom, where she’ll sail in the hereafter—“No, I didn’t intend to ship in her. Jimmy Turner an’ I got into her after we left tile navy. When we went broke a fellow wanted hands for the Morning Light Cap’n Sam Smith, master, so on we signed with shaking hands an’ dry throats, willing to go anywhere or do anything for enough frog to keep alive. “Jimmy had gone in the navy, because he couldn’t live ashore. He’d married and was sorry for it —made a mistake. But he’d never said anything to me about his wife or faultily, and I neve, asked. Nobody asks questions of anybody aboard men-o*-war. “When we dropped down the bay ■a tug came alongside and Cap’n Smith went to the rail to greet ft little hatch-et-faced fellow who jumped aboard. He was with a woman. “'Sammy Smith an' niece,* said an old shellback standing on the forecastle head, 'I tho ight so.’ . "‘What’s the matter?* we asked. “'Matter! Don’t you know felfow T That’s Morrell the worst thing in man’s image that ever trod a deck plank. Come it on us as Sammy Smith! Man if ye can get ashore, swim fer it afore it’s too late. I’m too old.* But Morrell didn't ship men to have them do the pier-head jump. We were in for a Western ocean cruise in one of the packet ships, which will leave her memory a black and bloody track in the minds of sailor men. "Before we’d crossed the stream, Morrell had begun on us. But—well, never mind. It would make the tales of old-time of what took place in a week. Save ye, Gantllne. I could sit here and tell you things till morning —and each one would make you shiver. We had five mon “missing” before the voyage was half over. Jimmy and I came in for some of it but even that tiger-sharp aft knew when he had reached the limit—and we were men-o’-war’s men.

"One night there was a row aft and there were cries of a woman. Jimmy heard them and started out on deck with his sheath knife but we held him and four of us got the marks of the knife to remember how we saved him. "After that Jimmy was quiet and ugly. He never spoke/to anyone. There were no more ‘men’ in the crew, only square-heads and Dutchmen, and they never go aft. "I wouldn’t consent to go alone when Jimmy gave me a look that told his came. Boon I noticed he wouldn’t tarn In at night, and then I knew It was coming. I stole aft to see the end. *1 found him standing close under the break of the poop, talking in a whisper to some one. Then I caught the glint of a skirt, and recognised the voice of the woman. “'ft's no use, Jim, let mo live It out,’ she said. *lt won’t last long.’ Her voice was like that of the dying. "Thon Jimmy answered her slowly and quietly. His words came deep and low like the smothered roar of the surf on the short. Man, it was life the groat sea rolling over an outlying roof, bursting, gathering again, and then rushing with that mighty power to the end. When he stopped toe was choking, gasping for breath. Man, It seemed like her heart would break. I couldn’t help listening, hearing her pay tor what she’d done. But Jimmy never blamed her, no, not he. •Jimmy stood there waitinng tor his answer. " Go-go! Go and forget' She was choking, but it came plain and dis ttnct There was a long silence, and I looked hard into the gloom. She Jmd gone. Jimmy was standing there swaying In the night like an unstayed mast and I led him torrads, his head banging down and sagging like ho Wes asleep. "The next day it came on heavy from the northwest Jimmy was sent aloft to put an extra gasket around fro bunt of the cro* Jack where it had been blown out by the gale, tome-

looked like of cutting, for it was all right whteh we furled the sail a few hours before. “Jimmy fell with the dull wallop that generally means death, and he landed right across the cabin, skylight It was a long fall and he was stilt Morrell was watching his ship and saw him fall. He started for Jimmy. Just then the woman below rushed'on deck and flung herself upon the poor fellow. I reached his head and started to raise him. The woman was sobbing and calling for him to speak just once more to her; and, man, it was terrible to hear her what she said. “Morrell stood looking on, and then burst into a laugh. “ ‘So that’s him, is it? Ho! ho! ho! So that’s the fellow?* And he went to the dying man. “She was upon him before he knew it, striking him a blow that sent him reeling. Then he went mad and had his pistol out firing and cursing like a maniac. It was all over in a minute.” Here Chips stopped awhile and cut some fresh plug for his pipe. “Before the morning watch I had talked Heligoland over, and be talked to a Dutchman named Langter. Anderson finally joined, but Jacques was afraid to go without his watch behind him. There were just four of uS started aft out of that crew of twenty men. ' “Heligoland took the starboard side and I took the both ffStting hfifo the mizzen channels when the watch war called. The rest were to rush when they heard firing; '“The second mate bawled for his watch to Clew up the mizzen lower topsail as it was now snoring away worse than ever and the short seas were coming aboard us. This was our signal. “We crawled along the deck strake outside the rail, holding on like death with our finger tips. Morrell was nearest to me. When we were near enough to get behind our men, Heligoland gave a cry and jumped over. I followed. The next second I had broken my knife short off in tie black-est-hearted captain that ever cursed a ship’s deck. He jumped backj and ran forward, I after him, trying to close before he could get out his pistol. He dodged about the mizzen and fired as he swung. The shot hit me there on the arm and split it to the elbow. Then something flung out of the darkness to leeward, and there was a dull smash. That was all. Heligoland stood leaning upon his handspike while I picked up the pistol. “The day dawned upon a stormtorn ocean, all grey-white, and a hove to ship staggering oft to the southward with her lower topsails streaming in ribbons trom her packstays. As the blow wore down toward evening we could hear the piteous cries of a dying woman calling for her husband—" Chips waited for a few minutes and puffed hard at his pipe. Then he went on in a low voice I could hardly hear: - “We buried Jimmy and his wife the next day. Uld Jacobs sewed them up together and weighed them. All hands uncovereu as they went to leeward. I didn’t know any service, and there wasn’t any such thing as a Bible aboard. “Good-by Jimmy,* I said—and lot him go." There was a long silence. Gantllne stood up and then sat down again. Ho seemed to want to ask a question, but would not Chips watched him. "Yea," ho went on. “we go,t five years apiece for that Five long years behind the bars, where the memory of the blue water and th hope I would get out again kept me from going mad. Is it likely I’d forget the Morning Light?"