Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 119, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1916 — Page 2

The SEA WOLF

by JACK LONDON

CHAPTER A.XXll—Continued. —23— That phrase, the “one. small woman," startled me like an electric shock. It was my own phrase, my pet. secret phrase, my love phrase for her. “Where did you get that phrase?” I demanded, with an abruptness that In turn startled her. “What phrase?" she asked. “One small woman." "Is it yours?" she asked. "Yes,” I answered, "mine. 1 made it.” “Then you must have talked in your sleep," she smiled. The dancing, tremulous light was in her eyes. Mine, I knew, were speaking beyond the will of my speech. I leaned toward her. Without volition 1 leaned toward her, as a tree is swayed by the wind. Ah, we were very close together in that moment. But she shook her head, as one might shake off sleep or a dream, saying: “I have known it all my life. It was my father's name for my mother." “It is my phrase, too,” 1 said stubbornly. “For your mother?" “No," I answered, and she questioned no further, though I could have sworn her eyes retained for some time a mocking, teasing expression. With the foremast in, the work now went on apace. Almost before I knew it, and without one serious hitch, I had the mainmast stepped. A der-rick-boom, rigged to the foremast, had accomplished this; and several days more found ;.ll stays and shrouds in place, and everything set up taut. Topsails would be a nuisance and a danger for a crew of two, so I heaved the topmasts on deck and lashed them tost. r -

Several more days were consumed in finishing the sails and putting them on. There were only three —the jib, foresail, and mainsail; and, patched, shortened, and distorted, they were a ridiculously ill-fitting suit for so trim a craft as the Ghost. “But tßey’ll work!” Maud cried Jubilantly. “We’ll make them work, and trust our lives to them!” Certainly, among my many new trades, I shone least as a sailmaker. I could sail them better than make them, and I had no doubt of my power to bring the schooner to some northern port of Japan. In fact. I had crammed navigation from text books aboard; and besides, there was Wolf Larsen’s star-scale, so simple a device that a child could work*lt. As for its inventor, beyond an increasing deafness and the movement of the lips growing fainter and fainter, there had been little change in his condition for a week. But on the day we finished bending the schooner’s sails, he heard his last, and the last movement of his lips died away —but not before I had asked him, “Are you all there?” and the lips had answered, “Yes.’ The last line was down. Somewhere within that tomb of the flesh still dwelt the soul of the man. Walled by the living clay, that fierce intelligence we had known burned on; but it burned on in silence and darkness.

I Raced Aft, Putting the Wheel Up.

And It was disembodied. To that intelligence there could be no objective knowledge of a body. It knew no body. The very world was not. It knew only itself and the vastness and profundity of the quiet and the dark. CHAPTER XXXIII. The day came for our departure. There was no longer anything to detain us on Endeavor island. The Ghost's stumpy masts were in place, J»er crazy sails bent. All my handiwork was strong, none of it beautiful; felt myself a man of power as I looked as It. ~ "j did it! I did it! With my own hands I did it!" I wanted to cry aloud. But Maud and I had a .way of voicing each other's thoughts, and „she said, as we prepared to hoist the •vainsail:

"To think, Humphrey, you did it all with jour own hands!” "But there were two other hands,” I answered. “Two small hands, and don't say that was a phrase, also, of your father.” She laughed and shook her head, and held her hands up for inspection. “I can never get them clean again,” she wailed, "nor soften the weatherbeat.” “Then dirt and weather-beat shall be your guerdon of honor,” I said, holding them in mine; and, in spite of my resolutions, I would have kissed the two dear hands had she not swiftly withdrawn them. Our comradeship was becoming tremulous. 1 had mastered my love long and well, but now it was mastering me. Willfully had it disobeyed and won my eyes to speech, and now it was winning my tongue —ay, and my lips, for they were mad this moment to kiss the two small hands which had toiled so faithfully and hard. And I, too, was mad. There was a cry in my being like bugles calling me to her. And there was a wind blowing upon me which 1 could not resist, swaying the very body of me till I leaned toward her, all unconscious that I leaned. And she knew it. She could not but know it as she swiftly drew away her hands, and yet could not forbear one quick, searching look before she turned away her eyes.

By means of deck-tackles I had arranged to carry the halyards forward to the windlass; and now I hoisted the mainsail, peak and throat, at the same time. It was a clumsy way, but it did not take long, and soon the foresail as well was up and fluttering. “We can never get that anchor up in this narrow place, once it has left the bottom,” I said. “We should be on the rocks first” “What can you do?” she asked. “Slip it,” was my answer. “And when I do you must do your first work on the windlass. I shall have to run at once to the wheel, and at the same time you must be hoisting the jib.” This maneuver of getting under way I had studied and worked out a score of times, and, with the jib-hal-yard to the windlass, I knew Maud was capable of hoisting that most necessary sail. A "brisk" wlud ~ was blowing into the cove, and though the water was calm, rapid work was required to get us safely out. When I knocked the shackle-bolt loose the chain roared out through the hawse-hole and into the sea. I raced aft, putting the wheel up. The Ghost seemed to start into life as she heeled to the first fill of her sails. The jib was rising. As it filled the Ghost’s bow swung off and I had to put the wheel down a few spokes and steady her.

I had devised an automatic jibsheet, which passed the jib across of itself, so there was no need for Maud to attend to that; but she was still hoisting the jib when I put the wheel hard down. It was a moment of anxiety, for the Ghost was rushing directly upon the beach, a stone’s throw distant. But she swung obediently on her heel into the wind. There was a great fluttering and flapping of canvas and reef-points, most welcome to my ears, then she filled away on the other tack. Maud had finished her task and come aft, where she stood beside me, a small cap perched on her windblown hair, her cheeks flushed from exertion, her eyes wide and bright with the excitement, her nostrils quivering to the rush and bite of the fresh salt air. Her brown eyes were like a startled deer’s. There was a wild, keen look in them I had never seen, before, and her lips parted and her breath suspended as the Ghost, charging upon the wall of rock at the entrance to the inner cove, swept into the wind and filled away into safe water.

My first mate’s berth on the sealing grounds stood me in good stead, and I cleared the inner cove and laid a long tack along the shore of the outer cove. Once ,a&ain about, and the Ghost headed out to open sea. She had now caught the bosom-breathing of the ocean, and was herself a-breath with the rhythm of it as she smoothly mounted and slipped down each broad-backed wave. The day had been dull and overcast, but the sun now burst through the clouds, a welcome omen, and shone upon the curving beach where together we had dared the lords of the harem and slain the holluscbickie „ All Endeavor island brightened under the sun. Even the grim southwestern promontory showed less grim, and here and there, where the sea-spray wet its surface, high lights flashed and dazzled in the sun. “I shall always think of it with pride,” 1 said to Maud." She threw her head back in a -queenly—way,—but' said, “Pear, dear Endeavor island! I shall always love it.” “Ahd I," I said quickly. It seemed our eyes-must meet In a great understanding, and yet. loath, they struggled away and did not meet. 1 There was a silence I might almost

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, INP-

call awkward, till I broke it, saying: "See those black clouds to windward. You remember, I told you last night the, barometer was falling." “And the siin is gone,” she said, her eyes still fixed upon our Island, where we had proved our mastery over matter and attained to the truest comradeship that may fall to man and woman. “And it’s ’ slack ofT the sheets for Japan!” I cried gayly. “A fair wind and a flowing sheet, you know, or however it goes.” Lashing the wheel, I ran‘‘•fprward, eased the fore and main sheets, took in on the boom-tackles, and trimmed everything for the quartering breeze which was ours. It was a fresh breeze, very fresh, but I resolved to run as long as I dared. Unfortunately, when running free, ft 1s impossible to lash the wheel, so I faced an all-night watch. Maud insisted on relieving me. but proved that she had not the strength to steer in a heavy sea. even if she could have gained the wisdom on such short notice. She appeared quite heartbroken over the discovery, but recov-

I Recognized It as a United States Revenue Cutter.

ered her spirits by coiling down tackles and halyards and all stray ropes. Then there were meals to be cooked in the galley, beds to make. Wolf Larsen to be attended upon, and she finished the day with a grand housecleaning attack upon the cabin and steerage. All night I steered, without relief, the wind slowly and steadily increasing and the sea rising. At five in the morning Maud brought mo hot coffee and biscuit she had baked, and at seven a substantial and piping hot breakfast put new life into me. Throughout the day, and as slowly and steadily as ever, the wind increased. It impressed one with its sullen determination to blow, and blow harder, and keep on blowing. And still the Ghost foamed along, racing off the miles till I was certain she was making at least eleven knots. It was too good to lose, but by nightfall I was exhausted. Though in splendid physical trim, a thirty-six-hour trick at the wheel was the limit of my endurance. Besides, Maud begged me to heave to, and I knew, if the wind and sea increased at the same rate during the night that it would soon be impossible to heave to. So, as twilight deepened, gladly and at the same time reluctantly, I brought the Ghost up on the wind. But I had not reckoned upon the colossal task the reefing of three sails meant for one man. While running away from the wind I had not appreciated its force, but when we ceased to run I learned to my sorrow, and well-nigh to W despair, how fiercely it was really blowing. The wind balked my every effort, ripping the canvas out of my hands, and in an instant undoing what I had gained by ten minutes of severest struggle. At eight o’clock I had succeeded only in putting the second reef into the foresail. At eleven o’clock I was no farther along. Blood dripped from every finger end, while the nails were broken to the quick. From pain and sheer exhaustion i wept in the darkness, secretly, so that Maud should not know. Then, in desperation, 1 abandoned the attempt to reef the mainsail and resolved to try the experiment of heaving to under the close-reefed foresail. Threg hours more were required to gasket the mainsail and jib, and at two in the morning, nearly dead, the life almost buffeted and worked out of me, I had barely sufficient consciousness to know the experiment was a esilccess. The cfosereefed foresail worked. The Ghost clung on close to the wind and betrayed no inclination to fall off broadside to the trough. I was but Maud tried vainly to get me to eat. I dozed with my mouth full of food. I would fall asleep in the act of carrying food to my mouth and waken in torment to find the act yet uncompleted. So sleepily helpless was I that she was* compelled to hold me in my chair to prevent my being flung to the floor by the violent pitching of the schooner. Of the passage from the galley to the cabin I knew nothing. It was a sleep-walker Maud guided and supported. In fact, I was aware of nothing -till I awoke, how long after I could not imagine, in my bunk with my boots off. It was dark. I was stiff- and lame, and cried out with pain when the bedclothes touched nsy poor finger-ends. Morning had evidently not come, so

1 closed my eyes and went to sleep again. I did not know it, but I had slept the clock around and it w*s night again. Once more I woke, troubled because I could sleep no better. I struck a match and looked at my watch. It marked midnight. And I had not left the deck until three! 1 should have been puzzled had I not guessed the solution. No wonder I was sleeping brokenly. 1 had slept twenty-one hours. I listened for a while to the behavior of the Ghost, to the pounding of the seas and the muffled roar of the wind on deck, and then turned over on my side and slept peacefully until morning. . When I arose at seven 1 saw no sign of Maud and concluded she was in the galley preparing^breakfast. On deck I found the Ghost doing splendidly under her patch of canvas. But in the galley, though a fire was burning and water boiling, I found no Maud. J discovered her in the steerage, by Wolf Larsen’s bunk. 1 looked at him, the man who had been hurled down from the topmost pitch of life to be buried alive and be worse than dead. There seemed a relaxation of his expressionless face which was new. Maud looked at me and I understood. “His life flickered out in the storm,” I said. “But he still lives,” she answered, infinite faith in her voice. “He had too great strength.” “Yes,” she said, “but, now it no longer shackles him. He is a free spirit.”

“He is a free spirit surely,” I answered, and, taking her hand, I led her on deck. The storm broke that night, which is to say that it diminished as slowly as it had arisen. After breakfast next morning, when I had hoisted Wolf Larsen’s body on deck ready for burial, it was still blowing heavily and a large sea was running. The deck v-as continually awash with the sea which came inboard over the rail and through the scuppers. The wind smote the schooner with a stidden gust, and she heeled over till her lee rail was buried, the roar in her rigging rising in pitch to a shriek. We stood in the water to our knees as I bared my head. “I remember only one part of the service,” I said, “and that is, ‘And the body shall be cast into the sea.’ ” - Maud looked at me, surprised and shocked; but the spirit of something I had seen before was strong upon me, impelling me to give service to Wolf Larsen as Wolf Larsen had once given service to another man. I lifted the end of the hatch cover, and the canvas-shrouded body slipped feet first into the sea. The weight of iron dragged it down. It was gone. “Good-by, Lucifer, proud spirit,” Maud whispered, so low that it was drowned by the shouting of the wind; But 1 saw tne movement or her lips and knew. As we clung to the lee rail and worked our way aft, I happened to glance to leeward. The Ghost, at the moment, was uptossed on a sea, and I caught a clear view of a small steamship two or three miles away, rolling and head on to the sea, as it steamed toward us. It was painted black, and from the talk of the hunters of their poaching exploits I recognized it as a United States revenue cutter. I pointed it out to Maud and hurriedly led her aft to the safety of the poop. I started to rush below to the flaglocker, then remembered th'at in rigging the Ghost I had forgotten to make provision for a flag-halyard. “We need no distress signal,” Maud said. “They have only to see us.” “We are saved," I said, soberly and solemnly. And then, in an exuberance of Joy, “I hardly know whether to be glad or not.” I looked at her. Our eyes were not loath to meet. We leaned toward each other, and before I knew it my arms were about her. “Need I?” I asked:

And she answered, “There is no need, though the telling of it would be sweet, so sweet.” Her lips met the press of mine, and. by what strange trick of the imagination I know not, the scene in the cabin of the Ghost flashed upon me, when she had pressed her fingers lightly on my lips and said. “Hush, hush." “My woman, my one small woman, I said, my free hand petting her shoulder in the way all lovers know though never learn in school. “My man,” she said, looking down at me for an instant with tremulous lids which fluttered down and veiled her eyes as she snuggled her head against my breast with a happy little sigh. I looked toward the cutter. It was very close. A boat was being lowered. “One kiss, dear love,” I whispered. "One kiss more before they come.” “And rescue us from ourselves,” she completed, with a most adorable smile, whimsical as I had never seen it, for it was whimsical with love. THE END.

His Philanthropy.

“Look here,” said the benevolent looking man, “you have asked me for work every time I passed this corner for the last three weeks.” “Have I?” was the surprised inquiry. .“Yes, you have, and I have given you money once or twice. 7NOW, what would you do If I offered'you work?" “What would I do? I’d take your name an’ address, guv’nor, an’ then, if I found anybody that wanted work, Pd sen’ ’im roun’ ter yer. I'm a philanthropist, an’ run a free employment agency. I don’t get a penny fur me time—only jest what comes in accidental like from folk* like you.”

About Portugal

PORTUGAL, the most recent nation to be drawn into the maelstrom of the European war, was once a part of the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, says a bulletin issued by the National Geographic society. With a population scarcely exceeding the combined population of New York city, Jersey City, and Newark, and an area in Europe less than the state or Indiana, Portugal has not played a major role in the politics of continental Europe in many years, not, in fact, since Wellesley, afterward the Duke of Wellington, landed his English forces and, with the aid of native troops, defeated Soult and Massena, Napoleon’s marshals, in the two peninsular campaigns. But the colonial empire of Portugal is out of all proportion to the importance of the home country. In fact there were, at the beginning of the war, only three other countries in Europe—Great Britain, France, and Germany—whose flags floated over more territory "beyond the boundaries of the home country. The combined area of the New England and North Atlantic states would equal less than —one-fourth of the territory under the dominion of the tiny republic occupying the western edge of the Iberian peninsula, whose navigators in the fifteenth and sixteenth century were the wonders of the world. Yet all this vast territory is held by 8,000 colonial troops, supplemented by native armies.

Peasants Are Poets. A curious anomaly is to be found among the peasants of Portugal, who are classified as among the most illiterate of Western Europe, yet among the most intelligent. Many of the farmers—three-fifths of the population is devoted to agricultural pursuits—have a remarkable gift for versification, and many of the poems of the country are handed down from generation to generation without being recorded. The peasants also are noted for their sobriety, and yet the annual production of wine exceeds 25 gallons for each inhabitant. So great, in fact, is the product of the vineyards that in the cities the various qualities of water are discussed with keener interest than the grades of wine. While Portugal’s maritime glory is a thing of the past, a large number of Portuguese still follow the sea for a livelihood, and the fishing industry is important. The Portuguese' sardines, however, are preserved in Italian olive oil, although one-fifteenth of the cultivated area of the nation is given over to olive groves, for the production of oils of a cheap grade. The Portuguese peasant woman is an important bread winner, but she receives for her day’s labor of 16 hours in the field only a shilling or less, while the men get two shillings. One of the profitable and ektfemely popular “industries” of the rural population is a placid laying in wait for tourists who attempt to motor through the country on the less-frequented and often impassable public roads. With an ox-team the peasant waits at a favorable spot until a motorist, traveling on an automobile on which an import tax of $l2O has been collected by the Portuguese government, sticks in the mud. To haul out such an unfortunate is often more ' profitable than several days’ work in the wheat, maize, or rice fields. . " * Lisbon’s Beautiful Harbor. The harbor of Lisbon, where the seizure of the German merchant ships precipitated Portugal into the war, is one of thfe most beautiful in all Europe, ranking scarcely second to Naples and Constantinople. The city is about the size of Pittsburgh, and has been the political center of the nation since it was wrested from the Moors in the middle es the twelfth century by Alfonso Henriques, the founder qf the kingdom. It was the English who aided Affonso in his war against

Lisbon’s Beautiful Harbor.

the Moors, and the following century the two countries effected an alliance which has existed unbroken during the succeeding 700 years, save for such sporadic interruptions as when Napoleon forced the little kingdom to declare war against the island empire. The Portuguese, especially those of Lisbon, are a pleasureloving people. They are fond of sports of many sorts, including the bull-fight, but the toreador is not the idol in this country that he is in Spain, nor are the contests as fierce. Horses are seldom if ever sacrificed in the Portuguese trocaderos. Lisbon is an even greater “night city” than was Paris, the streets appearing at their busiest usually at 3 a. m. The principal thoroughfares are admirably kept nowadays but as late as 1835 a “clean-up” campaigner was in r*. ~ r oeful minority when he began to urge the authorities to put a stop to such practices as breaking horses in the streets and singeing pigs in the main avenues of trade. He also pro-

tested against keeping pigs alive in the streets “or tied to the doors,” while he thought K advisable to put an end to the custom of allowing dead animals to lie for indefinite periods in the strqets. There are about 100 journals published in Portugal, the majority of these being of a political nature, and many of them are owned by the leaders of the various political parties. It has been said that “if Lisbon turns Turk tomorrow all Portugal will wear the turban,” so when the monarchy was overthrown in 1910, after 100 persons had been kille'd and 600 wounded in the capital, King Manuel taking refuge in England, it was a matter of course that the rest of the nation would quietly acquiesce in the new order of things. Portugal today has much the same outward form of government as our own. Each parliament is supposed to last three years; senators are elected for six years, and presidents for four years. The head of the government receives $20,000 a year. Money, however, is reckoned chiefly in reis, and, therefore, even a day laborer’s wages is sweet to the ear, for it takes 20 reis to make a penny. Portugal’s transcendant contribution to world history was the colonization of Brazil, the largest nation in South America and the third largest in the Western hemisphere. While Brazil was discovered by Columbus’ companion, Pinzon, and formal possession taken by him in the name of Spain, Cabral landed in 1600, a year later, and proclaimed it Portuguese territory. Portugal settled -the country and ruled it until 1822 when, under the leadership of the Portuguese prince, Dom Pedro, independence from the mother county was declared.

A favorite limerick is brought to mind by the following tale from the Orient: Timur-lenk, the Tartar invader, was very ugly and, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he burst into tears. The court jester began weeping also and kept it up long after his master had stopped. Timur looked at him in astonishment. "I wept with reason,” he said, "at beholding my own ugliness —I, the lord. of. so many lands. But I do not undeijawlnd why you should thus de« spair.” "If you, my lord,” replied the jester, "wept for two hours after seeing yourself in the mirror for an instant, Is it not natural that I, who see you all riay long, should weep longer thad you?”

His Wife—J don’t think the Neu» rich family dates back vefy far. Her Husband—Well, the family tree Is old enough to bear golden fruit, any* way, ’*■

Double Cause for Tears.

The One Thing Needful.