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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93e3ab7 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69063 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69063) diff --git a/old/69063-0.txt b/old/69063-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cad141d..0000000 --- a/old/69063-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1262 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of To the lights, by Roy Norton - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: To the lights - -Author: Roy Norton - -Release Date: October 9, 2022 [eBook #69063] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Roger Frank - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO THE LIGHTS *** - - - - - - To the Lights - - by Roy Norton - - - A story of gallant men and angry seas, by the author - of “The Unknown Mr. Kent,” “Captains Three” and many - other notable stories. - -“As chairman of one of the largest of the Billingsgate wholesale -fish-dealing companies, I can assure your correspondent that the -cause for the current high prices does not rest with the dealers. -Your correspondent, who is evidently ignorant of basic facts, -asserts that although it is the fishermen themselves who actually -catch the fish, they--the fishermen--do not receive a commensurate -share of the price which the people ultimately pay for a staple -article of food. I must therefore correct him, and _insist that they -do_. - -“Contrary to your correspondent’s mere surmise, I may say that the -hardships of a trawlerman’s life are enormously exaggerated. It must -be borne in mind that these men are brought up from childhood to -regard their ships as their homes, that there they are most -comfortable and in their element, that they are bountifully fed, -that they are in a measure independent because all work without -wage, but share on a well-adjusted proportion of the price which the -fish command at auction (and I may add that our buyers on the spot -are invariably and sometimes uncomfortably liberal in their bids), -and that they do neither toil immoderately nor run any very serious -risks. - -“It stands to reason that these men when in fear of storms can -always run to shelter, and that they do. There is no serious -hardship or stress in the lives of the trawlermen. If your -correspondent were to suggest such a thing to a fisherman, he would -be laughed at. No, they get much for little, and it is we men of -business who, by the investment of capital and brains, fluctuations -in price, etc., run all the risk.” - -(Extract from a letter in the _London Daily Market Scrutineer_.) - - * * * * * - -Captain Joshua Fairley was pulling on the thick woolen stockings -that would protect his ordinary socks and his trousers-legs from the -harshness and oiliness of his great sea-boots. He sat on the edge of -his bed in his cottage on Brixham hillside and stared out of the -window thoughtfully at the sea whose surface was nearly two hundred -feet below. He felt all of his seventy-five years, as if each had -hammered him and battered him, and contemplated the hard truth that -after a bitter venture that had failed, he was about to start life -over again. - -He pulled on his short “jack boots” absent-mindedly, and then -disgusted with his own mistake, jerked them off, stood them in the -corner and picked up and drew on the huge and hulking ones. He -crossed one leg over the other and inspected a new half-sole and -muttered: “Old Gamble be the best cobbler in Brixham yet! Still -doing his work. And he bean’t growlin’ at it, or at Providence, or -anything else. When I went to get the boot, he was whistlin’ like -one of them skylarks. So--I’ll whistle too.” - -He puckered his lips beneath the white beard and mustache and tried, -“Abide with Me,” which to his mind was second only to “Rock of -Ages,” and reached for his faded blue jersey and pulled it over his -head, still bravely trying to be melodious and cheerful. - -“Father, be anything the matter witfc ’ee?” a voice hailed him as he -cleared his head and touseled white hair from the clinging embrace -of the knitted folds. - -He appreciated, then, that for many months he had not attempted to -whistle a melody, and that the mere fact that he had made such -attempt was proof to other ears that he was endeavoring to put a -cheerful face upon some trying predicament. - -“Not a thing in the world, lass,” he declared, turning to meet the -troubled eyes of his widowed daughter. - -“You’re worrited,” she said, coming swiftly across to him and -putting work-hardened hands on his broad, bent shoulders. - -“Not too much,” he said, still making gallant pretense. “Us has -still got the _I’ll Try_. Come here and look at her.” He pulled her -over to the window set into the deep cob-walls built more than a -hundred years before, and with a gnarled finger pointed through the -leaded panes at the outer harbor below. “There she be. Look at her. -I was a fool, Nettie, an old fool! I tried to get rich by puttin’ in -they petrol motors, and hangin’ screw astarn. I thought they -newfangled boats were the thing; but--it cost so much to run ’em -they didn’t pay. So us has sold they engines, and had ’em hauled -out, and--the _I’ll Try_ be just the same as she was when I built -her, livin’ by her sails and the winds of the Lord Almighty. Just as -she was! No, not quite, because she’s got a wheel instead of the big -clumsy tiller, and--I was a fool. All I should have done to her was -to put in a boiler and a steam winch to handle the trawl. That was a -mistake. But--there her be, waitin’ for us, all our own, and mebbe -her’ll be glad to have they dirty engines out of her again. -Everything considerin’,” he announced, almost triumphantly, “us be -doin’ right well. Us owns this house. Us owns the _I’ll Try_. Us -don’t owe a farthing, and us has more than nine and twenty pound in -the bank to--” his voice halted, lowered a trifle, and then -finished--“to start over again. Us’ll use the wind, hereafter, and -make money so that when I have to quit the sea, our two nippers’ll -have a fine start. A proper good start!” - - * * * * * - -She fathomed his anxieties as well as his brave dissimulation, and -shook her head sadly, and stared up at him affectionately. - -“Listen, lass,” he said, knowing that his pretense had failed. -“After all, naught matters but the harbor lights. I doan’t mean they -lights out there on Berry Head, and at the end of the breakwater, or -the pier. I mean the lights that should shine for all of us when we -come home from sea after all v’yages be done. Them’s the lights that -count. The ones that finally brings us home. So--nothin’ else -matters much to us, because us has done our best. Bean’t it so? -You’m been a good darter to me! And us has got all this, and I be -good for ten years more, and--” Again he stopped, scratched his -white head with his fingers, seemed distracted, and worried, and -ended with: “And so what the hell’s there to bother about? Tell me -that!” - -She was not shocked by his abrupt reversion to seaman’s speech. The -turbid exclamations of his everyday life had nothing in common with -his sincere convictions. As she had once warned a meddlesome but -well-intentioned and well-shocked visiting curate, there was an -unrecognized line of division between Captain Joshua’s faith, -reverence and devoutness, and his use of words when in mental or -physical action. - -“His grandsons, my boys,” she stoutly asserted, “says bad things -sometimes. Their gran-f’ur may be careless in front of them -sometimes; but he have put great arms over they two lads shoulders -at night when they all knelt, and taught them proper respect for God -Almighty. That be enough! Thou could’st do no more by they lads than -he--Captain Joshua! I think it’s better that ’ee go, now, -and--please don’t ’ee ever come back, lest the good Lord knows thou -wastest time! Such men as Captain Joshua be a lot better, I do -reckon, than be you.” - -That the well-meaning curate came no more did not perturb her. They -say he never did. - - * * * * * - -Captain Joshua trudged down the steep and devious ways of the -Overgang, with a bundle under his arm. To him the quaint roofs, the -narrow street, the occasional stretches of gray stone wall were of -no interest. He rolled past a wandering artist who, with easel and -paints, was enraptured with a view, and under his breath grunted a -derisive: “Humph! Loafin’ lout! If I could get him aboard the _I’ll -Try_ for a month, I’d make a useful man out of nothing. Playing with -pretty things, he be. No use!” - -He could not resist the temptation to stand in front of a -ship-chandler’s show-window and stare therein at a compact steam -winch scarcely larger than a sewing machine, and the brass-bound -boiler beside it. - -“Wish to the Lord I’d a bought you instead of that blamed -motor-engine,” he thought. “The _I’ll Try_ be one of the last ships -left that has to hoist trawls by hand-winch and--great dollops, it -do be hard work!” - -A long, troubled sigh slipped out before he could check it, and he -had turned to hasten away lest the sin of envy creep through his -mind, when the voice of the chandler stopped him. - -“Morning, Captain Josh. See you looking at that winch. I had -expected you’d be in to buy that lot for the _I’ll Try_. You should -have it. It does more work than two men aboard. Wouldn’t you like -it?” - -“I’d like it, all right, John,” said the skipper, “but what with bad -catches and bad markets, and that fool experiment with motors, I -haven’t the money, and--” - -The ship-chandler laughed as if immensely amused. - -“Since when has any man in Brixham town asked anything more than the -word of Captain Josh? Why, you can have my shop on your word!” - -“Nope,” said the veteran. “I’ll never buy anything more I can’t pay -for. I’m too old now to take any chance on debts. When my time -comes, those up there on the hill--you know,”--and he jerked a heavy -thumb over his shoulder in the direction of his home,--“they’ll have -no debts of mine to meet. Not one! Not a damned farthing!” - -“I’ll risk your living to be a hundred, unless, of course, the sea -gets you,” insisted the dealer; but the old mariner smiled and shook -his head. - -“Of course, John, it aint got me yet; but I dare say that some time -it and me’ll have a tussle when I’ll come off second best. But I’ll -not have the steam winch till I can pay cash for it.” - -“All right! Go it, you stubborn old shell-back!” laughed the -chandler; and then as Captain Josh continued his rolling, clumping -way down the narrow street, smiled at his obstinacy, and discovering -that his new assistant, who had but recently arrived from Bristol, -was at his side said garrulously: “There he goes, white of head and -clean of heart. Unbending! And I can remember, as a boy, when he was -six feet two tall, and the broadest-shouldered man in all the port. -Admiral of the fleet, for more than twenty years. As good a -sailorman as ever cleared from Brixham. Fight as well as he can -pray. One time, about twenty years ago, when he was nigh on to -fifty-five, there was a free-for-all ruction down on the quay. He -tried to be a peacemaker and quoted the Bible at ’em; but when that -didn’t work, he sailed in; and Lord, love me, boy! He gave ’em more -fight than they’d ever seen in all their lives! He made ’em sick of -fightin’ in about three minutes. When he got through, they was -layin’ about like dog-fish, gaspin’ and wrigglin’ like mad. All the -fight was gone out of ’em; but they do say that the language he used -while things was hot indicated that for the time being he’d -forgotten all the scripture ever he knew. You’re from Bristol, young -fellow, but take a look at that old feller, so’s you’ll know him -again, because, I tell you, you’re lookin’ at a man!” - -And the new assistant, to please his employer, looked, -and--smothered a derisive grin! - - * * * * * - -The ships in the harbor rocked and swayed, lifted and fell in the -rhythmic upheave and downfall of the swell that pushed in and out of -Torbay. They seemed a part of that splendid beauty of gray or red -cliffs that reared themselves about it, a part of the sea that in -lazy mood merely rippled its shores, or in sou’easterly tempests -tore in fury inward as if to rip the red and gray cliffs from their -foundations and obliterate the encircling earth. But the red and -gray cliffs invariably won. - -The ships in the harbor, ketch-rigged, red-sailed, able to live in -seas where huge liners perished, were eager to be liberated from -their moorings. Their crews, clumsy, awkward, inept on land, but -dexterous, apt and graceful on sea-washed decks, breathed deeply, -freely, once they stepped aboard the dinghies that they must row -from the placidity of the inner harbor out into the surge. The -battered, ugly hands, torn perpetually by the gash of rope and -trawl, tarred to blackness, thick-fingered, huge-knuckled, that -ashore swung aimlessly and ungainly, seemed now to be endowed with -power, decision and skill. The feet that, incased in the high -leather boots, stumbled over the cobbles of the village streets, now -deftly adapted themselves to the roll of the sea. - -The land was not their element. It was foreign. It was sometimes -distasteful. It was too hard. It did not yield and sway and give. It -had no life in itself. It was a dead thing that never moved and -never met their tread, and when it lay inert beneath them, they -sustained a subconscious distrust of its solidity. To these men who -throughout all their years had been habituated to the great, -comforting roll of the sea, or the petulant unrest of it when like -an angry child it had stormed as if at restraint, the land was -stagnant, uncomfortable, unnatural, a sullen thing without soul or -spirit of its own. - -The dinghies rocked and rolled and tossed when they left the pier; -but in each one man sat and pulled at a heavy oar that was of -feather’s weight in his time-trained hands, while another stood, -faced the bow and pushed, ever keeping an eye on destination. And -ever he balanced as delicately and as surely as a Circus-rider on -the bare back of a horse, yielding, taking, but adroitly maintaining -his mastery. The men in the boats passed comments that might sound -strange to the ears of the land-accustomed. They shouted their -comments. And always the interchanges were relative to the sea, for -to them it was paramount. - -As if each boat had mastered a puzzle of action, each came -eventually to the side of a ship, and its men climbed aboard. -Always, when they felt the familiar deck beneath their feet, they -glanced around, their eyes sweeping over the homely objects in -scrutiny of which most of their lives were passed--here the winch, -there the end of the warp, here the trawl-beam with its iron heads, -there the rigging that swept upward in a maze of tarred ropes and -shrouds to stay the high and swaying masts. And always the final -look was at the vane, that tiny thing at the peak of the mainmast, -from forty to sixty feet overhead, where fluttered the gay emblem -showing whether the wind was fair or foul. That was invariably the -immediate solicitude, for it told the tale of toil--whether they -must beat against head-winds, handling and hauling sail, straining -muscles to gain way, or lounging in luxurious idleness and content -when, with a fair breeze, the ship put out to sea. - - * * * * * - -Captain Joshua stood longest of all, thinking of the change. He -sniffed the air, and thought he still detected the smell of -gasoline. - -“I can smell that damn’d stuff yet, Bill,” he growled to his mate or -“second hand,” who was nearly as white-headed and sea-scarred as -himself. - -“It hangs on worsen gin to an old woman’s breath,” growled that -worthy, who was a vociferous teetotaler and never lost an -opportunity for comparison. “They aint nothin’ smells wuss’n that -peetrul, unless it’s one o’ they polecats what lives around with -farmers because they don’t know no better. I tell ’ee, Skipper, the -Lord gives us the wind, and it bean’t natural for either men or -ships to try to run on alcohol.” - -“Alkerhol? Hell! They bean’t no alkerhol in that peetrol,” insisted -Bob Noon, the only member of the crew who ever imbibed, and was the -constant source of solicitude for the mate, who strove persistently -to reform him. “It looks like gin, and it smells strong, but it aint -the same at all. I knows. I tried it.” - -“’Course you would! You be an unreginerate soul! Oh, I know all about -you,” roared the mate. “Di’n’t I hear tell how when you was at say -in them windjammers what went Hawaiian-wise, you’m got drunk on -cologne-water? And aint I told ’ee, scores an scores o’ times, that -you’m a--” - -“S’pose us stows the gab and gets to sea,” Captain Joshua -interrupted, as he had done hundreds of times before when argument -threatened. - -The _I’ll Try_ cast loose her mooring. Her big mains’l crawled up, -traveler hoops a-creak, block and tackle singing a shrill song. She -took on way and edged out into Torbay like a maiden pretending shy -modesty. Her running bowsprit was loosened, slid outward, and from -it sprouted more red sails. Her mizzen spread red canvas, and above -it climbed another sheet. Her trim, sharp bow lifted and fell, -carelessly ripping and imperiously dividing the rash waves. But the -waves joined again, and were undismayed. They chuckled when they -reunited at the stern, and fell together in the boiling wake. They -conspired mischievously; for in that Channel, the greatest maritime -artery on the whole globe, are perhaps the moodiest of waters. -Fickle as the affections of a jungle-bred lioness, playful as a -lioness can be and--dangerous and savage as the lioness when -crossed. On that Channel a single hour of time may change the sea -from the placidity of a lake to the ferocity of a tempest. - - * * * * * - -But two days had passed since the _I’ll Try_ sailed from Brixham in -the sunshine, with the Channel all aglow with turquoise lights, and -over waves that seemed playfully dancing with gladness and good -will; but now she lay beaten and distracted under the shortest -possible canvas, cringing as if from oft-repeated blows upon her -oaken ribs. On her wet, slippery and heavily rolling and bounding -deck, with tarpaulins and sou’westers dripping with driven rain and -spray, every man of her crew, from skipper to cabin-boy, fought -doggedly, desperately at the hand-winch. For seven hours thev had -labored thus, unceasingly, until now they were too wearied and spent -for speech. They laid breasts, hands or shoulders to the long bars, -bent their backs, planted their feet, lowered their heads like bulls -in a charge and tried again to make the weary treadmill round in the -hope of hoisting the trawl. The great net, held open by a forty-foot -beam and towed along the bottom of the sea floor upon “trawl-heads” -that were like huge steel sled-runners, had caught what the men of -the _I’ll Try_ surmised must be a sunken wreck. A trawl, one of the -most expensive pieces of gear known to the craft, could not be -abandoned until all hope was gone. Time and again had the thick warp -been worked in and out, by sheer stubbornness of toil and strength; -time and again as the ship swung off and lurched, the tired men -hopefully thought they had felt the trawl, scores of fathoms down, -yield; but time and again that hope had proved fallacious. And -always, as they worked, they blinked the sweat from their eyes and -lifted their anxious regard to the steadily increasing storm. A -heavier blast smote the ship until she lay so far over that her lea -bulwark met the water, and waves swept the length of her scuppers. - -“’Vast heaving!” rumbled Captain Josh, holding an end of a long -winch-bar in his hand, and the others fell heavily over the ones -upon which they had been exerting themselves, to catch breath. “It’s -no use,” panted the beaten old skipper. “Storm’s got so high it’s -dangerous to hold on any longer. Us must bend a line on the warp, -rig a buoy, cut loose, and hope to find our gear another day.” - -“Aye! And they be one chance in a million for that,” growled -Scruggs, the “ancient” of the ship, who having never married, having -no kinfolk, living forever alone, was regarded by his fellows as a -pitiable old pessimist. - -“It do be the devil’s own luck!” asserted the second hand. - -“Aye! And if us had to--” The third member of the crew started a -sentence that he was never to finish. The unexpected, unusual, rare -accident was upon them. It came with the swiftness of a stroke of -forked lightning. The winch-dogs, which worked against cogs, snapped -with the vicious sharpness of a high explosive. The whole weight of -the warp, the surging ship and the storm was instantly released. The -long bars of the winch spun like a huge, malevolent top. The _I’ll -Try_ seemed to slip sidewise for a few fathoms and then again to lay -over so far that she was in danger of going on her beam ends. She -righted herself partially, jerking madly, as if in terror. For a -moment there was no sound but the shrilling of the winds through her -rigging and the hammering of the billows. - - * * * * * - -Captain Josh, stunned, dazed, confused, lifted himself from the heap -into which he had been thrown against the weather bulwarks, wondered -why a red blanket blurred his vision, tried to wipe it away with his -left hand and could not for a moment understand why that numbed arm -would not respond. It hung limp and broken by his side. His right -hand came up and swept away the blood that trickled warmly downward -over his eyes and face. And then his senses returned, swift as light -through clouds. Horror came with sight. - -“My God! My God!” A whimpering voice caught his ears, and he saw the -cabin-boy crawling up the slope of the deck toward the companionway, -clutching with outspread fingers at the wet planks, while one leg -dragged helplessly behind him. Down in the scuppers, with the waters -submerging them as they swept the ship’s length, lay two sodden -shapes. - -But the fighting spirit, the unquenchable bravery of the broken man -by the weather bulwarks, tore upward to action. Instantly he caught -the rail with his big, uninjured arm, lifted himself to his feet, -and lurched and slithered downward to the nearest man, the mate of -the _I’ll Try_, who lay unconscious and half-drowned. He seized the -inert form and dragged it back until he could rest it against a -hatch from where it could not again roll downward into the wash and -make death certain by drowning. - -“Stand by, lad! Stand by! Hang on to something for a moment. Us has -got to be men now!” he cried to the whimpering boy, and slipped and -sprawled downward to seize the body of the ancient one, and -laboriously drag it to safety. - -“Bob! Get Bob!” screamed the boy. “He went over the port side! I saw -hjm go! Thrown, he was--all in the air-- thrown like a dead fish--by -they winchbars!” - -Captain Josh lunged to the port side, clung to the rail and stared -outward, releasing his hold only to brush away the trickle of blood -that again troublesomely obscured his vision. He could see nothing. -He seized the nearest shrouds and dragged himself upward until he -perched on the rail; where he stood swaying and peering; but even -from that vantage of height he could discern nothing living--only -the tearing uplift of the sea, the spume-thrown crests of waves, the -murderous swing of the waters. No man could live in that for many -minutes, be he sound and strong rather than broken and inert. To -seek was useless. And--there was no time to pause if those aboard -the _I’ll Try_, and the ship herself, were to survive. The boy was -still wailing and screaming. Captain Josh dropped heavily to the -deck, and as he lunged past the boy, shouted: “No use, lad. Poor -Bob’s gone. God rest him! Steady now! Steady! Us must be steady if -us would live.” And hurriedly he sought an ax. - - * * * * * - -He returned and with his uninjured and still powerful arm fell to -hacking the warp whose drag threatened momentarily to end the _I’ll -Try_. The severed ends whipped like giant lashes into the air, and -he narrowly escaped a second blow as the ship-end whistled through -the air. The wind from its tarred and spraying strands lashed within -an inch of his eyes as he instinctively jerked his head backward. -The _I’ll Try_ leaped upward, leaned over, sprang free and seemed to -fly outward like a tortured wild bird released from captivity. The -water on her decks swept in a torrent across to the other side in -great sheets. It carried with it loosened objects, and rope-ends -that trailed as if eager to follow. The heavy ax with which Captain -Josh had cut the imperiling warp was lifted, despite its weight, and -vanished overboard in a smother of green. An iron handspike seemed -to bound toward freedom, and brought up against the bulwark. The -_I’ll Try_ lay far over now, and disregarding the wheel that swung -idly to and fro, swept aimlessly before the storm. And even as she -disregarded the wheel, Captain Josh disregarded her struggles. He -jerked a sodden handkerchief from beneath his sodden jersey, tried -to tie it about his bare head with one hand, realized that it was -impossible, and hurried to the cabin boy. “Lad,” he said, more -quietly and in a voice pitched barely high enough to surmount the -tempest’s roar, “’ee have two hands. Help me to bind this up and -belay it to my head. I can’t see with all they blood in my eye. -Come, be brave, lad. Bind it fast and hard.” - -The boy forgot his pain under the influence of that steady old -voice, and obeyed. His young fingers trembled at their task; -struggled with a simple knot. - -“Now,” said Captain Josh, “us must work fast if us are to make port -again. I know it’s hard, for ’ee has a hurt foot, I take it; but if -us can make port, it’ll heal. Brace up, for if ’ee doan’t, us’ll -never again see they harbor lights. All right now?” - -“Aye, sir,” the boy asserted with a bravery that his voice belied. - -“Then get down the companion and do best ’ee can when I lower away -they other two. Hang on with one hand to they steps at the bottom -and try to ease they down. You see us cain’t leave they on deck, -lest they drown. Can do it?” - -“Aye, sir, I can try,” the boy asserted, striving valiantly to meet -such brave example. - -“Then down ’ee goes. Here, I'll give a hand,” said Captain Josh, and -did his best to assist the boy down the narrow opening and the steep -steps. “Now stand by to help,” he called as he disappeared from the -boy’s uplifted and encouraged eyes. - - * * * * * - -Captain Josh seized the ancient by the folds of tarpaulin and -jersey, thrusting heavy, horny fingers next to the unconscious skin, -and dragged his burden across the deck. The toes of the worn -sea-boots dragged listlessly. The inert hands dragged with equal -helplessness. But this was no time for anything but action. Captain -Josh almost pitched headfirst into the companionway under the roll -and swing of the sea as he lowered his burden downward. Under its -weight the cabin-boy rocked and swung, standing upon one foot, -imbued by the indomitable spirit above, and at least lessening the -shock of the ancient’s fall. - -“Cans’t drag him inside, lad? Good! A good lad! Then stand by for -Bill. It’ll be hard on ’ee, because Bill be heavier than the old -’un,” he cautioned; and now with one hand, a bleeding head, but with -an unconquered soul and resolute intent, he lowered through the -narrow space the last stricken survivor of his crew. - -The boy standing upon one foot was not equal to the burden. The -weight fell heavily. It thumped upon the boards. - -“What the hell do ’ee mean by--” began Captain Josh, inspired by -habitual exercise of discipline; and then, remembering, changed it -to: “Sorry, lad. Bill be mighty heavy for your arms. Doan’t ’ee -worry. You’m be doin’ the best ’ee can. He aint hurt no worse than -was by the fall. I be comin’ down now.” - -He stood for a moment, inspecting with swift regard the skies, the -waves, the aimless drift of the struggling ship, and then muttered, -“She’ll ride! She must! It’s our only chance,” and then painfully -dropped below. - -At the foot of the companion stairs he found one of his men. Through -the doorway in the cabin he caught sight of the cabin-boy struggling -on one foot and despite pain to get the other off the floor and up -to the bench or the bunk. He crowded inward, and the task was -accomplished. The other man was also brought in, lifted upward, and -laid supine. Shutting his teeth against his own anguish, and probing -with one hand, the skipper fumbled an examination. - -“Bill,” he said sagely, “has got, I think, some broken ribs. One -side. Can’t see what’s wrong with the old ’un. But they both be -sleepin’ and so aint hurted, now. Cut the boot off ’ee, lad, and -fall to. Heed what I tell ’ee, because ’ee must stay here by -them--stay to the last, lad, no matter what may happen, for I be -goin’ on deck to bring the _I’ll Try_ home.” - - * * * * * - -And then, quickly, knowing that at any moment death might interrupt, -Captain Josh gave all the instructions he could, and while he -talked, fashioned for his broken arm a sling. He squatted down on -the floor in front of the boy so that the lad’s hands could tie the -knots. Once he admonished him. - -“Tighter, lad! Tighter! Make ’em fast so they can’t slip loose.” - -He climbed laboriously up the companion steps, bent over and called -reassuringly: “I be goin’ to shut ’ee in, so if mayhap more rough -weather comes, the wash wont drown ’ee out. So doan’t be afraid. -I'll be at the wheel and--we’ll go home, lad, somehow.” - -But when alone he looked at the skies, at the sea and at the sails, -and shook his head. - -“Lord God of all the seas,” he cried, lifting his head and -reverently closing his fatigued and pain-stricken eyes, “for the -sake of all they below, help thy unworthy servant, who is so old, so -broken, so tired, to take the _I’ll Try_ home. But if it be Thy will -that we are to see no harbor lights again but those by Thy -everlasting gates, pray let use see them shine clear to bring us to -Thy port.” - -He rolled aft to the wheel that swayed helplessly to and fro, and -using alternately his hand and knee against the spokes, brought the -staggering ship up to her work. She seemed grateful for the -attention, and eager to respond. Her mere rags of red sails filled, -and she was ready to fight the storm. - -“Good old girl! Good old girl!” Captain Josh muttered approvingly. -“That’s it! Take hold of the wind. Hang on to it!” - -For an hour she half fought, half fled with that nearly motionless -figure steering her, and yet the storm showed no signs of abatement. -The dusk came early, filled with flying clouds, with wind-torn spray -and the unceasing charge of great waves. Captain Josh shifted -anxious eyes skyward, seeking some hope of a break. In all his sixty -years at sea he had never been more troubled and perplexed. - -“If only there’d come a lull at sunset,” he muttered aloud after the -long stillness, and was slightly startled by the sound of his own -voice. He considered for a moment whether it was better to think -aloud, for the companionship of that sound, or to keep his lips -shut. For the time being he chose the former method and went on: “I -can’t make or douse sail with one hand, and I be so damned tired now -that it hurts. It’s mighty risky to let her fall off; but--us must -have lights! I’ve just got to take the chance and let her come -round. There’s nothing else to be done.” - - * * * * * - -He crouched against the wheel, waiting to seize one of the momentary -lulls when the gale paused to catch breath for another blast. - -“Now!” he cried at last, as if addressing his full crew. “Around she -goes!” and with hand and knee, he deftly worked the wheel until the -canvas flapped and fluttered, and then under way of impetus and -storm the _I’ll Try_ hesitated, paid off, leaned over so far that -her lee rail was awash, was in danger of coming to beam ends if the -storm sent a quick gust of wind, struggled, recovered, threw water -from her deck, and fell away. She was not an instant too soon in -setting her keel, for the blast of wind came, as if angered by the -skill of ship and man that had robbed it of its prey. It snapped the -wet canvas. It shrilled through rigging. It screamed across the -spume. Again she drifted as helplessly as a wreck, buffeted by wind -and wave, lurching drunkenly, moving aimlessly, shuddering -spasmodically, and with her wheel free. - -Across her decks, slipping, sliding in his big and clumsy sea-boots, -struggled her skipper, wondering meanwhile if she could possibly -ride and survive, and hoping only to reach the lanterns that had -fortunately, if carelessly, been stowed in a stationary fish-box. He -reached them at last and was vastly concerned by the fear that they -might have been so drenched that they would not light. He sat flat -upon the wet and streaming deck in the tiny lee of the companionway, -caught a lantern in his knees and after many attempts succeeded in -lighting it. To hoist it with one hand was another trying task. He -accomplished it, after a time, by first using his few and worn -teeth, and when they failed, by clutching the rope between his -knees. He spat a broken tooth out between his bleeding lips, and -belayed the line to the mainmast. - -“Bad and not proper it be, but--mayhap it’ll keep some of they big -smoke boats from ridin’ us down,” he remarked, hopefully, as he saw -the swaying, tossing gleam aloft. “Now for the starn lights!” But -despite his patient efforts, he could light none. He swore with -inconsequent oaths when one slid from the grasp of his knees and -rolled swiftly outward, bounding and bumping across the deck, found -an opening and plunged overboard. He used more expletives when he -discovered that another had a broken globe, and was useless. Night -was advancing, black and chill, and he sat for a moment more, flat -on the deck, and questioning whether he dared risk the great venture -of going below to see how the stricken remnant of his crew fared. -The wind defiantly answered him. The ship was straining too hard -under the stress of storm. - -“Nope. I can’t do anything to help ’em, or myself,” he growled. “I -must get back to the wheel and bring her back to course again, -before it’s too black. If I could have but a cup of tay and a bit of -biscuit! Damn it, why didn’t I think to put some of they biscuit in -my pocket before I came back on deck!” - -He stumbled aft again, and again seized the idle and aimlessly -revolving wheel. Again he watched like a cat, waiting to pounce, and -seize the momentary advantage of a lull. Again he brought the ship -back to a course. Whether it was a true one, he could not be -certain. He was depending now upon his sense of direction alone. -There was nothing to guide him, not even a solitary star shining -through the murk. He made mental calculations, reasoning that in the -beginning the _I’ll Try_ must have been so many miles sou’west off -the reef-bordered Prawl Point, that the wind had come from due west, -and that therefore it must be safe to run. - -“If it weren’t for they below,” he soliloquized, “I’d lay her to. If -I were alone, I’d not risk the carrying on, and--mayhap--could make -it. But--they be badly hurt. So--I must get somewhere. If Prawl -Point be sixty mile away, and--” - - * * * * * - -Endlessly he debated the menacing dangers, and dared them. In the -blackness of the night he fought against an almost unconquerable -drowsiness; for by now he had been alert for more than forty hours. -His broken arm throbbed with an ever poignant and increasing -anguish, but even pain may be dulled by time and endurance, inasmuch -as there is a climax where kindly nature brings either partial or -complete unconsciousness. Sometimes in the long hours he felt -himself swooning, and then he clung harder to the spokes and begged -that God, in Whom he had such unlimited, unquenchable trust, might -enable him to keep awake, that he might still sprawl across the -wheel. - -Dawn had come, and the sea was sobbing and spent; Captain Joshua was -surrendering to the tiredness of long effort; endeavoring to recover -kindliness after tempestuous outburst, before he reached the -ultimate end of endurance. He was no longer aware of change. He was -still fighting, ruggedly and unrelinquishing to the last. His dimmed -eyes could no longer see. The world rocked and swayed. That off on -the horizon lay still; pale cliffs, meant nothing to him. All that -he could concentrate upon was holding the battered ship up to the -wind. That the wind was dying meant nothing. He thought it still -a-rage. His uninjured hand seemed paralyzed. He could no longer hold -a spoke and strove to steer with an elbow, and bony knees. - -Mute but fighting to the end, Captain Joshua finally let go the -wheel, made a last effort, crawled to reach the loose end of a -halyard, crawled back to the wheel, pulled the _I’ll Try_ up again, -seated himself upon the wet deck and with one hand and broken teeth -lashed himself clumsily to the wheel, his back against it, his dying -legs and feet outsprawled, inert in their heavy and sodden -sea-boots; and then his weary hand fell listlessly by his side. - -A thousand confused conjectures, fears, hopes, and solicitudes -flashed through Joshua’s brain. He tried to ask the Lord of all the -seas, whom he had so long followed and loved, to take charge of the -ship and bring her home. Her destination was no longer of moment to -him, whether it were the gateways of earthly ports or the harbor -lights of that haven and heaven to which he had so long aspired. And -so, clumsily lashed with his back to the wheel, unyielding to the -last, still fighting when the fight was done, the faint balance of -sanity swung across to peace as had the sea after the storm, and -dreaming that he was in his Brixham chapel on the hill, he fell to -singing in a wavering voice: “Abide with Me.” - -Some recess of his brain contained the words he had so many times -sung, so long loved. Cracked and broken they issued between cracked -and broken lips, quavering aimlessly into the air his fealty to a -faith--that hymn written in the old, old port of Brixham town from -which he and his forbears had sprung; and as a prelude he cried: -“God, O God! Help me, for I can do no more. ‘Abide with me, fast -falls the eventide.... And I am far from home.’” - - * * * * * - -The steam trawler _Williwaw_, after twenty days at sea, rimed by the -storm, black, and with a heavy plume of smoke wallowing out of her -funnel, was laying her course for Brixham Port. Captain Moran was -staring at the streaks of rust and appeared anything but pleased by -his inspection. His honest, sea-tanned face took on the look of -preoccupation of one who is engaged in mental calculations as to the -cost of paint. He was even disturbed when his mate Long, grave-eyed, -came across the steel deck to him and said: “Looks to me, sir, as if -there’s something wrong with a ship off there to sta’b’d. Her don’t -act natural at all, sir.” - -Captain Moran turned and trudged past the complex litter of -mechanism and gear to have a look. After but a moment he shouted -back to his mate: “You’re right about that, Mr. Long. Run down to -’em.” - -The wheel in the pilot house of the _Williwaw_ whirled, and she -turned her nose inquisitively on the new course. - -“Somethin’ wrong? Aye? There be,” declared one of the crew to others -who came leisurely up to the starboard rail. “Her be in trouble, -sure! Look at they sails, what’s left of ’em, and her be yawin’ this -way and that as if her had no hellum.” - -They heard Captain Moran shout to the pilot: “Turn her loose. Put on -full speed. No use in wasting time.” And from the engine-room -sounded the clang of shovel and slice-bar; the funnel plume -blackened, and the _Williwaw_ began to “foam at the mouth” as she -closed down on the ketch. When her engine was rung down, a peculiar -silence enveloped her that was broken by Moran’s hail: - -“Ahoy there! _I’ll Try_! Ahoy! What’s wrong with you men?” - -But he evoked no answer. Under silent way the _Williwaw_ bore -closer, and now there became faintly audible a cracked old voice -monotonously droning: - - “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. - The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide. - When other helpers fail and comforts flee, - Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.” - -The voice that came quavering across the sullen waves, as if -blanketed by the leaden skies, held the men of the _Williwaw_ in its -spell. They clung to the rail, staring with perplexed eyes and -parted lips until aroused to action by Moran’s shout: “Stand by to -lower away a boat there, you men. Mr. Long, go over and learn what’s -up.” - - * * * * * - -The boat splashed into the water, and down the steel side of the -_Williwaw_ went the men to man it. Her screw thrust the sea again to -hold her off at a safe distance, for the swells still surged and -lifted forward; but the voice still carried on: - - “I fear no woe, with Thee at hand to bless; - Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness. - Where is Death’s sting; where, grave, thy victory? - I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.” - -Sturdily pulled, as if eager to reach the black and battered hull of -the half-wrecked _I’ll Try_, the boat bobbed upward and downward as -it was rowed across the intervening space. It came alongside, where, -standing, swaying, some of its rowers clutched at hand-holds, and -Long, young, powerful, leaped for strake and rail. He threw a heavy -boot over inboard and landed on both feet. For an instant he paused, -bending forward as if doubting sight. He saw a man with white hair, -stained red here and there, and with a reddened handkerchief bound -awry over his head and falling over one eye. Streaks of red ran down -over the disordered white beard. He saw the rope with which the man -had bound himself to the wheel, and the halyard-end that had at last -worked free and lay idly upon his lap. He saw the bandaged arm, the -sprawling feet in sea-boots, the free wheel, and constantly he heard -that same droning song of faith. - - * * * * * - -Long rushed over and laid his hand on the broad, bent shoulder, and -said: - -“Josh! Captain Josh! Skipper! Don’t you know me--Long--of the -_Williwaw_?” But the closed eye did not open or look up, and the -monotonous reiteration of song went on. - -The mate ran to the side and shouted: “Come aboard here, you men. -This looks bad. I’m going to need help, I think.” - -And then, as they clambered inward, he ran to the closed -companionway, lifted the hatch, recoiled from the foul air, and -disregarding the steep steps, dropped nimbly below. A whimpering -sound, as it issued from the lips of a pain-exhausted, terrified boy -stabbed his ears, and with it mingled a babbling noise that could -come from nothing else than human delirium. - -For an instant his eyes probed the gloom until they accustomed -themselves to the change from broad daylight. In one of the bunks -lay a figure that was still and quiet. In another lay the man who -moaned and babbled. In another lay the boy who now lifted himself to -an elbow and said: “I couldn’t help it, sir. Skipper, he told me to -stay here and do my best. I did, sir, and--and--the old un has never -spoke a word, and the second hand has taken to talkin’ like that all -the time; and my foot, sir, my foot--oh, it do hurt something awful, -and I can’t walk no more, I can’t! I tried, sir, I did, and--” - -Then the voice broke in a long wail of boyish grief. The strain had -been too much for even that obdurate, steadfast youthful bravery. - -“Steady, lad! Steady!” the mate’s voice quieted him. “You’re all -right now. Be a sailorman. Don’t give up.” - -The boy started to tell the tale of tragedy, but the mate of the -Williwaw was gone and hurrying upward. On deck he shouted his -discoveries to Captain Moran of the Williwaw, which now lay close -by. No time was wasted in this urgent plight. A heavy line was -brought across, a half-dozen men put aboard, and within a few -minutes the _I’ll Try_ was being towed through the sea. The funnel -of the _Williwaw_ now belched smoke as if she were steaming a race -against time on the reach to Brixham Town. Around the breakwater’s -end she swung in a flashing sweep to the outer and up to the very -gates of the inner harbor before she stopped. Surmising tragedy, -boats put off to meet them, and fishermen swarmed about the _I’ll -Try_ to assist. Broken men were tenderly carried away. The -harbor-master’s telephone urged a surgeon to haste. The men on the -landing-pier thrust and jostled, all eager to serve. - -The survivors of the _I’ll Try’s_ crew had come to port at last. - -“The lad will pull through,” the surgeon announced to those who -waited outside the harbor-master’s office, which had been turned -into a temporary hospital. “The second hand may, though his ribs are -caved in. The old man you call Scruggs the Ancient, must have died -very lately because his body is still warm. And Captain -Joshua--well--they say that when they found him, he tried to tell -them something about the Harbor Lights.” The surgeon paused, looked -away from the staring eyes, and then added softly: “He has found -them.” - - * * * * * - -When, taken from her iced bunkers by hand, sorted, pulled ashore to -the great flagged spaces of the fishmarket, carefully laid thereon -and brought to the “liberal” buyers’ attention by the sonorous clang -of the auctioneer’s bell and voice, the catch of the _I’ll Try_ -brought six pounds, fourteen shillings and sixpence--nearly -twenty-six dollars, to be divided amongst the sole survivors of the -hapless crew. Captain Joshua’s share as owner and skipper came to -nearly four pounds, or sixteen dollars! The undertaker charged -fifteen pounds--about sixty dollars--for the coffin; the cemetery -company charged five pounds, about twenty-five dollars, for the -six-by-three feet of space which he might forever own as his last -allotment of earth; and there were certain minor claims for flowers -in that land where flowers run wild upon great cliffs, but must be -paid for when laid upon a grave. All that was left thereafter, -Captain Joshua’s grandsons and widowed daughter might have to live -upon. - -Up on the Brixham hills that night rain fell. Somehow it seemed to -freshen the handful of flowers that some one had thrown on the grave -of the lone and ancient mariner, as if he, who after all his -sea-toil had come to land-rest, merited that humble recognition. -Perhaps some one loved him, as well as Skipper Joshua. Perhaps God -in His majestic but kindly pity would send other wild-flowers to -climb across their graves, blanketing them in the radiance of that -only One who marks the sparrow’s fall! - - -[Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in the April 1922 issue -of Blue Book magazine.] - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO THE LIGHTS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: To the lights</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Roy Norton</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October 9, 2022 [eBook #69063]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Roger Frank</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO THE LIGHTS ***</div> - -<h1>To the Lights</h1> -<div style='text-align:center'>By Roy Norton</div> -<div class='figcenter' style='width:50%; max-width:690px'> - <img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%;height:auto;'> -</div> - -<div style='margin:1em 10%; font-style:italic;'> -A story of gallant men and angry seas, by the author of “The Unknown -Mr. Kent,” “Captains Three” and many other notable stories. -</div> - -<p>“As chairman of one of the largest of the Billingsgate wholesale -fish-dealing companies, I can assure your correspondent that the -cause for the current high prices does not rest with the dealers. -Your correspondent, who is evidently ignorant of basic facts, -asserts that although it is the fishermen themselves who actually -catch the fish, they—the fishermen—do not receive a commensurate -share of the price which the people ultimately pay for a staple -article of food. I must therefore correct him, and <i>insist that they -do</i>.</p> - -<p>“Contrary to your correspondent’s mere surmise, I may say that the -hardships of a trawlerman’s life are enormously exaggerated. It must -be borne in mind that these men are brought up from childhood to -regard their ships as their homes, that there they are most -comfortable and in their element, that they are bountifully fed, -that they are in a measure independent because all work without -wage, but share on a well-adjusted proportion of the price which the -fish command at auction (and I may add that our buyers on the spot -are invariably and sometimes uncomfortably liberal in their bids), -and that they do neither toil immoderately nor run any very serious -risks.</p> - -<p>“It stands to reason that these men when in fear of storms can -always run to shelter, and that they do. There is no serious -hardship or stress in the lives of the trawlermen. If your -correspondent were to suggest such a thing to a fisherman, he would -be laughed at. No, they get much for little, and it is we men of -business who, by the investment of capital and brains, fluctuations -in price, etc., run all the risk.”</p> - -<p>(Extract from a letter in the <i>London Daily Market Scrutineer</i>.)</p> - - -<p class='sb'>Captain Joshua Fairley was pulling on the thick woolen stockings -that would protect his ordinary socks and his trousers-legs from the -harshness and oiliness of his great sea-boots. He sat on the edge of -his bed in his cottage on Brixham hillside and stared out of the -window thoughtfully at the sea whose surface was nearly two hundred -feet below. He felt all of his seventy-five years, as if each had -hammered him and battered him, and contemplated the hard truth that -after a bitter venture that had failed, he was about to start life -over again.</p> - -<p>He pulled on his short “jack boots” absent-mindedly, and then -disgusted with his own mistake, jerked them off, stood them in the -corner and picked up and drew on the huge and hulking ones. He -crossed one leg over the other and inspected a new half-sole and -muttered: “Old Gamble be the best cobbler in Brixham yet! Still -doing his work. And he bean’t growlin’ at it, or at Providence, or -anything else. When I went to get the boot, he was whistlin’ like -one of them skylarks. So—I’ll whistle too.”</p> - -<p>He puckered his lips beneath the white beard and mustache and tried, -“Abide with Me,” which to his mind was second only to “Rock of -Ages,” and reached for his faded blue jersey and pulled it over his -head, still bravely trying to be melodious and cheerful.</p> - -<p>“Father, be anything the matter witfc ’ee?” a voice hailed him as he -cleared his head and touseled white hair from the clinging embrace -of the knitted folds.</p> - -<p>He appreciated, then, that for many months he had not attempted to -whistle a melody, and that the mere fact that he had made such -attempt was proof to other ears that he was endeavoring to put a -cheerful face upon some trying predicament.</p> - -<p>“Not a thing in the world, lass,” he declared, turning to meet the -troubled eyes of his widowed daughter.</p> - -<p>“You’re worrited,” she said, coming swiftly across to him and -putting work-hardened hands on his broad, bent shoulders.</p> - -<p>“Not too much,” he said, still making gallant pretense. “Us has -still got the <i>I’ll Try</i>. Come here and look at her.” He pulled her -over to the window set into the deep cob-walls built more than a -hundred years before, and with a gnarled finger pointed through the -leaded panes at the outer harbor below. “There she be. Look at her. -I was a fool, Nettie, an old fool! I tried to get rich by puttin’ in -they petrol motors, and hangin’ screw astarn. I thought they -newfangled boats were the thing; but—it cost so much to run ’em -they didn’t pay. So us has sold they engines, and had ’em hauled -out, and—the <i>I’ll Try</i> be just the same as she was when I built her, -livin’ by her sails and the winds of the Lord Almighty. Just as she -was! No, not quite, because she’s got a wheel instead of the big -clumsy tiller, and—I was a fool. All I should have done to her was -to put in a boiler and a steam winch to handle the trawl. That was a -mistake. But—there her be, waitin’ for us, all our own, and mebbe -her’ll be glad to have they dirty engines out of her again. -Everything considerin’,” he announced, almost triumphantly, “us be -doin’ right well. Us owns this house. Us owns the <i>I’ll Try</i>. Us don’t -owe a farthing, and us has more than nine and twenty pound in the -bank to—” his voice halted, lowered a trifle, and then -finished—“to start over again. Us’ll use the wind, hereafter, and -make money so that when I have to quit the sea, our two nippers’ll -have a fine start. A proper good start!”</p> - - -<p class='sb'>She fathomed his anxieties as well as his brave dissimulation, and -shook her head sadly, and stared up at him affectionately.</p> - -<p>“Listen, lass,” he said, knowing that his pretense had failed. -“After all, naught matters but the harbor lights. I doan’t mean they -lights out there on Berry Head, and at the end of the breakwater, or -the pier. I mean the lights that should shine for all of us when we -come home from sea after all v’yages be done. Them’s the lights that -count. The ones that finally brings us home. So—nothin’ else -matters much to us, because us has done our best. Bean’t it so? -You’m been a good darter to me! And us has got all this, and I be -good for ten years more, and—” Again he stopped, scratched his -white head with his fingers, seemed distracted, and worried, and -ended with: “And so what the hell’s there to bother about? Tell me -that!”</p> - -<p>She was not shocked by his abrupt reversion to seaman’s speech. The -turbid exclamations of his everyday life had nothing in common with -his sincere convictions. As she had once warned a meddlesome but -well-intentioned and well-shocked visiting curate, there was an -unrecognized line of division between Captain Joshua’s faith, -reverence and devoutness, and his use of words when in mental or -physical action.</p> - -<p>“His grandsons, my boys,” she stoutly asserted, “says bad things -sometimes. Their gran-f’ur may be careless in front of them -sometimes; but he have put great arms over they two lads shoulders -at night when they all knelt, and taught them proper respect for God -Almighty. That be enough! Thou could’st do no more by they lads than -he—Captain Joshua! I think it’s better that ’ee go, now, -and—please don’t ’ee ever come back, lest the good Lord knows thou -wastest time! Such men as Captain Joshua be a lot better, I do -reckon, than be you.”</p> - -<p>That the well-meaning curate came no more did not perturb her. They -say he never did.</p> - - -<p class='sb'>Captain Joshua trudged down the steep and devious ways of the -Overgang, with a bundle under his arm. To him the quaint roofs, the -narrow street, the occasional stretches of gray stone wall were of -no interest. He rolled past a wandering artist who, with easel and -paints, was enraptured with a view, and under his breath grunted a -derisive: “Humph! Loafin’ lout! If I could get him aboard the <i>I’ll Try</i> -for a month, I’d make a useful man out of nothing. Playing with -pretty things, he be. No use!”</p> - -<p>He could not resist the temptation to stand in front of a -ship-chandler’s show-window and stare therein at a compact steam -winch scarcely larger than a sewing machine, and the brass-bound -boiler beside it.</p> - -<p>“Wish to the Lord I’d a bought you instead of that blamed -motor-engine,” he thought. “The <i>I’ll Try</i> be one of the last ships -left that has to hoist trawls by hand-winch and—great dollops, it -do be hard work!”</p> - -<p>A long, troubled sigh slipped out before he could check it, and he -had turned to hasten away lest the sin of envy creep through his -mind, when the voice of the chandler stopped him.</p> - -<p>“Morning, Captain Josh. See you looking at that winch. I had -expected you’d be in to buy that lot for the <i>I’ll Try</i>. You should -have it. It does more work than two men aboard. Wouldn’t you like -it?”</p> - -<p>“I’d like it, all right, John,” said the skipper, “but what with bad -catches and bad markets, and that fool experiment with motors, I -haven’t the money, and—”</p> - -<p>The ship-chandler laughed as if immensely amused.</p> - -<p>“Since when has any man in Brixham town asked anything more than the -word of Captain Josh? Why, you can have my shop on your word!”</p> - -<p>“Nope,” said the veteran. “I’ll never buy anything more I can’t pay -for. I’m too old now to take any chance on debts. When my time -comes, those up there on the hill—you know,”—and he jerked a -heavy thumb over his shoulder in the direction of his -home,—“they’ll have no debts of mine to meet. Not one! Not a -damned farthing!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll risk your living to be a hundred, unless, of course, the sea -gets you,” insisted the dealer; but the old mariner smiled and shook -his head.</p> - -<p>“Of course, John, it aint got me yet; but I dare say that some time -it and me’ll have a tussle when I’ll come off second best. But I’ll -not have the steam winch till I can pay cash for it.”</p> - -<p>“All right! Go it, you stubborn old shell-back!” laughed the -chandler; and then as Captain Josh continued his rolling, clumping -way down the narrow street, smiled at his obstinacy, and discovering -that his new assistant, who had but recently arrived from Bristol, -was at his side said garrulously: “There he goes, white of head and -clean of heart. Unbending! And I can remember, as a boy, when he was -six feet two tall, and the broadest-shouldered man in all the port. -Admiral of the fleet, for more than twenty years. As good a -sailorman as ever cleared from Brixham. Fight as well as he can -pray. One time, about twenty years ago, when he was nigh on to -fifty-five, there was a free-for-all ruction down on the quay. He -tried to be a peacemaker and quoted the Bible at ’em; but when that -didn’t work, he sailed in; and Lord, love me, boy! He gave ’em more -fight than they’d ever seen in all their lives! He made ’em sick of -fightin’ in about three minutes. When he got through, they was -layin’ about like dog-fish, gaspin’ and wrigglin’ like mad. All the -fight was gone out of ’em; but they do say that the language he used -while things was hot indicated that for the time being he’d -forgotten all the scripture ever he knew. You’re from Bristol, young -fellow, but take a look at that old feller, so’s you’ll know him -again, because, I tell you, you’re lookin’ at a man!”</p> - -<p>And the new assistant, to please his employer, looked, and—smothered -a derisive grin!</p> - - -<p class='sb'>The ships in the harbor rocked and swayed, lifted and fell in the -rhythmic upheave and downfall of the swell that pushed in and out of -Torbay. They seemed a part of that splendid beauty of gray or red -cliffs that reared themselves about it, a part of the sea that in -lazy mood merely rippled its shores, or in sou’easterly tempests -tore in fury inward as if to rip the red and gray cliffs from their -foundations and obliterate the encircling earth. But the red and -gray cliffs invariably won.</p> - -<p>The ships in the harbor, ketch-rigged, red-sailed, able to live in -seas where huge liners perished, were eager to be liberated from -their moorings. Their crews, clumsy, awkward, inept on land, but -dexterous, apt and graceful on sea-washed decks, breathed deeply, -freely, once they stepped aboard the dinghies that they must row -from the placidity of the inner harbor out into the surge. The -battered, ugly hands, torn perpetually by the gash of rope and -trawl, tarred to blackness, thick-fingered, huge-knuckled, that -ashore swung aimlessly and ungainly, seemed now to be endowed with -power, decision and skill. The feet that, incased in the high -leather boots, stumbled over the cobbles of the village streets, now -deftly adapted themselves to the roll of the sea.</p> - -<p>The land was not their element. It was foreign. It was sometimes -distasteful. It was too hard. It did not yield and sway and give. It -had no life in itself. It was a dead thing that never moved and -never met their tread, and when it lay inert beneath them, they -sustained a subconscious distrust of its solidity. To these men who -throughout all their years had been habituated to the great, -comforting roll of the sea, or the petulant unrest of it when like -an angry child it had stormed as if at restraint, the land was -stagnant, uncomfortable, unnatural, a sullen thing without soul or -spirit of its own.</p> - -<p>The dinghies rocked and rolled and tossed when they left the pier; -but in each one man sat and pulled at a heavy oar that was of -feather’s weight in his time-trained hands, while another stood, -faced the bow and pushed, ever keeping an eye on destination. And -ever he balanced as delicately and as surely as a Circus-rider on -the bare back of a horse, yielding, taking, but adroitly maintaining -his mastery. The men in the boats passed comments that might sound -strange to the ears of the land-accustomed. They shouted their -comments. And always the interchanges were relative to the sea, for -to them it was paramount.</p> - -<p>As if each boat had mastered a puzzle of action, each came -eventually to the side of a ship, and its men climbed aboard. -Always, when they felt the familiar deck beneath their feet, they -glanced around, their eyes sweeping over the homely objects in -scrutiny of which most of their lives were passed—here the winch, -there the end of the warp, here the trawl-beam with its iron heads, -there the rigging that swept upward in a maze of tarred ropes and -shrouds to stay the high and swaying masts. And always the final -look was at the vane, that tiny thing at the peak of the mainmast, -from forty to sixty feet overhead, where fluttered the gay emblem -showing whether the wind was fair or foul. That was invariably the -immediate solicitude, for it told the tale of toil—whether they -must beat against head-winds, handling and hauling sail, straining -muscles to gain way, or lounging in luxurious idleness and content -when, with a fair breeze, the ship put out to sea.</p> - - -<p class='sb'>Captain Joshua stood longest of all, thinking of the change. He -sniffed the air, and thought he still detected the smell of -gasoline.</p> - -<p>“I can smell that damn’d stuff yet, Bill,” he growled to his mate or -“second hand,” who was nearly as white-headed and sea-scarred as -himself.</p> - -<p>“It hangs on worsen gin to an old woman’s breath,” growled that -worthy, who was a vociferous teetotaler and never lost an -opportunity for comparison. “They aint nothin’ smells wuss’n that -peetrul, unless it’s one o’ they polecats what lives around with -farmers because they don’t know no better. I tell ’ee, Skipper, the -Lord gives us the wind, and it bean’t natural for either men or -ships to try to run on alcohol.”</p> - -<p>“Alkerhol? Hell! They bean’t no alkerhol in that peetrol,” insisted -Bob Noon, the only member of the crew who ever imbibed, and was the -constant source of solicitude for the mate, who strove persistently -to reform him. “It looks like gin, and it smells strong, but it aint -the same at all. I knows. I tried it.”</p> - -<p>“’Course you would! You be an unreginerate soul! Oh, I know all about -you,” roared the mate. “Di’n’t I hear tell how when you was at say -in them windjammers what went Hawaiian-wise, you’m got drunk on -cologne-water? And aint I told ’ee, scores an scores o’ times, that -you’m a—”</p> - -<p>“S’pose us stows the gab and gets to sea,” Captain Joshua -interrupted, as he had done hundreds of times before when argument -threatened.</p> - -<p>The <i>I’ll Try</i> cast loose her mooring. Her big mains’l crawled up, -traveler hoops a-creak, block and tackle singing a shrill song. She -took on way and edged out into Torbay like a maiden pretending shy -modesty. Her running bowsprit was loosened, slid outward, and from -it sprouted more red sails. Her mizzen spread red canvas, and above -it climbed another sheet. Her trim, sharp bow lifted and fell, -carelessly ripping and imperiously dividing the rash waves. But the -waves joined again, and were undismayed. They chuckled when they -reunited at the stern, and fell together in the boiling wake. They -conspired mischievously; for in that Channel, the greatest maritime -artery on the whole globe, are perhaps the moodiest of waters. -Fickle as the affections of a jungle-bred lioness, playful as a -lioness can be and—dangerous and savage as the lioness when -crossed. On that Channel a single hour of time may change the sea -from the placidity of a lake to the ferocity of a tempest.</p> - - -<p class='sb'>But two days had passed since the <i>I’ll Try</i> sailed from Brixham in the -sunshine, with the Channel all aglow with turquoise lights, and over -waves that seemed playfully dancing with gladness and good will; but -now she lay beaten and distracted under the shortest possible -canvas, cringing as if from oft-repeated blows upon her oaken ribs. -On her wet, slippery and heavily rolling and bounding deck, with -tarpaulins and sou’westers dripping with driven rain and spray, -every man of her crew, from skipper to cabin-boy, fought doggedly, -desperately at the hand-winch. For seven hours thev had labored -thus, unceasingly, until now they were too wearied and spent for -speech. They laid breasts, hands or shoulders to the long bars, bent -their backs, planted their feet, lowered their heads like bulls in a -charge and tried again to make the weary treadmill round in the hope -of hoisting the trawl. The great net, held open by a forty-foot beam -and towed along the bottom of the sea floor upon “trawl-heads” that -were like huge steel sled-runners, had caught what the men of the <i>I’ll Try</i> -surmised must be a sunken wreck. A trawl, one of the most expensive -pieces of gear known to the craft, could not be abandoned until all -hope was gone. Time and again had the thick warp been worked in and -out, by sheer stubbornness of toil and strength; time and again as -the ship swung off and lurched, the tired men hopefully thought they -had felt the trawl, scores of fathoms down, yield; but time and -again that hope had proved fallacious. And always, as they worked, -they blinked the sweat from their eyes and lifted their anxious -regard to the steadily increasing storm. A heavier blast smote the -ship until she lay so far over that her lea bulwark met the water, -and waves swept the length of her scuppers.</p> - -<p>“’Vast heaving!” rumbled Captain Josh, holding an end of a long -winch-bar in his hand, and the others fell heavily over the ones -upon which they had been exerting themselves, to catch breath. “It’s -no use,” panted the beaten old skipper. “Storm’s got so high it’s -dangerous to hold on any longer. Us must bend a line on the warp, -rig a buoy, cut loose, and hope to find our gear another day.”</p> - -<p>“Aye! And they be one chance in a million for that,” growled -Scruggs, the “ancient” of the ship, who having never married, having -no kinfolk, living forever alone, was regarded by his fellows as a -pitiable old pessimist.</p> - -<p>“It do be the devil’s own luck!” asserted the second hand.</p> - -<p>“Aye! And if us had to—” The third member of the crew started a -sentence that he was never to finish. The unexpected, unusual, rare -accident was upon them. It came with the swiftness of a stroke of -forked lightning. The winch-dogs, which worked against cogs, snapped -with the vicious sharpness of a high explosive. The whole weight of -the warp, the surging ship and the storm was instantly released. The -long bars of the winch spun like a huge, malevolent top. The -<i>I’ll Try</i> seemed to slip sidewise for a few fathoms and then again to lay -over so far that she was in danger of going on her beam ends. She -righted herself partially, jerking madly, as if in terror. For a -moment there was no sound but the shrilling of the winds through her -rigging and the hammering of the billows.</p> - - -<p class='sb'>Captain Josh, stunned, dazed, confused, lifted himself from the heap -into which he had been thrown against the weather bulwarks, wondered -why a red blanket blurred his vision, tried to wipe it away with his -left hand and could not for a moment understand why that numbed arm -would not respond. It hung limp and broken by his side. His right -hand came up and swept away the blood that trickled warmly downward -over his eyes and face. And then his senses returned, swift as light -through clouds. Horror came with sight.</p> - -<p>“My God! My God!” A whimpering voice caught his ears, and he saw the -cabin-boy crawling up the slope of the deck toward the companionway, -clutching with outspread fingers at the wet planks, while one leg -dragged helplessly behind him. Down in the scuppers, with the waters -submerging them as they swept the ship’s length, lay two sodden -shapes.</p> - -<p>But the fighting spirit, the unquenchable bravery of the broken man -by the weather bulwarks, tore upward to action. Instantly he caught -the rail with his big, uninjured arm, lifted himself to his feet, -and lurched and slithered downward to the nearest man, the mate of -the <i>I’ll Try</i>, who lay unconscious and half-drowned. He seized the -inert form and dragged it back until he could rest it against a -hatch from where it could not again roll downward into the wash and -make death certain by drowning.</p> - -<p>“Stand by, lad! Stand by! Hang on to something for a moment. Us -has got to be men now!” he cried to the whimpering boy, and slipped -and sprawled downward to seize the body of the ancient one, and -laboriously drag it to safety.</p> - -<p>“Bob! Get Bob!” screamed the boy. “He went over the port side! I saw -hjm go! Thrown, he was—all in the air— thrown like a dead fish—by -they winchbars!”</p> - -<p>Captain Josh lunged to the port side, clung to the rail and stared -outward, releasing his hold only to brush away the trickle of blood -that again troublesomely obscured his vision. He could see nothing. -He seized the nearest shrouds and dragged himself upward until he -perched on the rail; where he stood swaying and peering; but even -from that vantage of height he could discern nothing living—only -the tearing uplift of the sea, the spume-thrown crests of waves, the -murderous swing of the waters. No man could live in that for many -minutes, be he sound and strong rather than broken and inert. To -seek was useless. And—there was no time to pause if those aboard -the <i>I’ll Try</i>, and the ship herself, were to survive. The boy was -still wailing and screaming. Captain Josh dropped heavily to the -deck, and as he lunged past the boy, shouted: “No use, lad. Poor -Bob’s gone. God rest him! Steady now! Steady! Us must be steady if -us would live.” And hurriedly he sought an ax.</p> - - -<p class='sb'>He returned and with his uninjured and still powerful arm fell to -hacking the warp whose drag threatened momentarily to end the -<i>I’ll Try</i>. The severed ends whipped like giant lashes into the air, and he -narrowly escaped a second blow as the ship-end whistled through the -air. The wind from its tarred and spraying strands lashed within an -inch of his eyes as he instinctively jerked his head backward. The -<i>I’ll Try</i> leaped upward, leaned over, sprang free and seemed to fly -outward like a tortured wild bird released from captivity. The water -on her decks swept in a torrent across to the other side in great -sheets. It carried with it loosened objects, and rope-ends that -trailed as if eager to follow. The heavy ax with which Captain Josh -had cut the imperiling warp was lifted, despite its weight, and -vanished overboard in a smother of green. An iron handspike seemed -to bound toward freedom, and brought up against the bulwark. The -<i>I’ll Try</i> lay far over now, and disregarding the wheel that swung -idly to and fro, swept aimlessly before the storm. And even as she -disregarded the wheel, Captain Josh disregarded her struggles. He -jerked a sodden handkerchief from beneath his sodden jersey, tried -to tie it about his bare head with one hand, realized that it was -impossible, and hurried to the cabin boy. “Lad,” he said, more -quietly and in a voice pitched barely high enough to surmount the -tempest’s roar, “’ee have two hands. Help me to bind this up and -belay it to my head. I can’t see with all they blood in my eye. -Come, be brave, lad. Bind it fast and hard.”</p> - -<p>The boy forgot his pain under the influence of that steady old -voice, and obeyed. His young fingers trembled at their task; -struggled with a simple knot.</p> - -<p>“Now,” said Captain Josh, “us must work fast if us are to make port -again. I know it’s hard, for ’ee has a hurt foot, I take it; but if -us can make port, it’ll heal. Brace up, for if ’ee doan’t, us’ll -never again see they harbor lights. All right now?”</p> - -<p>“Aye, sir,” the boy asserted with a bravery that his voice belied.</p> - -<p>“Then get down the companion and do best ’ee can when I lower away -they other two. Hang on with one hand to they steps at the bottom -and try to ease they down. You see us cain’t leave they on deck, -lest they drown. Can do it?”</p> - -<p>“Aye, sir, I can try,” the boy asserted, striving valiantly to meet -such brave example.</p> - -<p>“Then down ’ee goes. Here, I'll give a hand,” said Captain Josh, and -did his best to assist the boy down the narrow opening and the steep -steps. “Now stand by to help,” he called as he disappeared from the -boy’s uplifted and encouraged eyes.</p> - - -<p class='sb'>Captain Josh seized the ancient by the folds of tarpaulin and -jersey, thrusting heavy, horny fingers next to the unconscious skin, -and dragged his burden across the deck. The toes of the worn -sea-boots dragged listlessly. The inert hands dragged with equal -helplessness. But this was no time for anything but action. Captain -Josh almost pitched headfirst into the companionway under the roll -and swing of the sea as he lowered his burden downward. Under its -weight the cabin-boy rocked and swung, standing upon one foot, -imbued by the indomitable spirit above, and at least lessening the -shock of the ancient’s fall.</p> - -<p>“Cans’t drag him inside, lad? Good! A good lad! Then stand by for -Bill. It’ll be hard on ’ee, because Bill be heavier than the old -’un,” he cautioned; and now with one hand, a bleeding head, but with -an unconquered soul and resolute intent, he lowered through the -narrow space the last stricken survivor of his crew.</p> - -<p>The boy standing upon one foot was not equal to the burden. The -weight fell heavily. It thumped upon the boards.</p> - -<p>“What the hell do ’ee mean by—” began Captain Josh, inspired by -habitual exercise of discipline; and then, remembering, changed it -to: “Sorry, lad. Bill be mighty heavy for your arms. Doan’t ’ee -worry. You’m be doin’ the best ’ee can. He aint hurt no worse than -was by the fall. I be comin’ down now.”</p> - -<p>He stood for a moment, inspecting with swift regard the skies, the -waves, the aimless drift of the struggling ship, and then muttered, -“She’ll ride! She must! It’s our only chance,” and then painfully -dropped below.</p> - -<p>At the foot of the companion stairs he found one of his men. Through -the doorway in the cabin he caught sight of the cabin-boy struggling -on one foot and despite pain to get the other off the floor and up -to the bench or the bunk. He crowded inward, and the task was -accomplished. The other man was also brought in, lifted upward, and -laid supine. Shutting his teeth against his own anguish, and probing -with one hand, the skipper fumbled an examination.</p> - -<p>“Bill,” he said sagely, “has got, I think, some broken ribs. One -side. Can’t see what’s wrong with the old ’un. But they both be -sleepin’ and so aint hurted, now. Cut the boot off ’ee, lad, and -fall to. Heed what I tell ’ee, because ’ee must stay here by -them—stay to the last, lad, no matter what may happen, for I be -goin’ on deck to bring the <i>I’ll Try</i> home.”</p> - - -<p class='sb'>And then, quickly, knowing that at any moment death might interrupt, -Captain Josh gave all the instructions he could, and while he -talked, fashioned for his broken arm a sling. He squatted down on -the floor in front of the boy so that the lad’s hands could tie the -knots. Once he admonished him.</p> - -<p>“Tighter, lad! Tighter! Make ’em fast so they can’t slip loose.”</p> - -<p>He climbed laboriously up the companion steps, bent over and called -reassuringly: “I be goin’ to shut ’ee in, so if mayhap more rough -weather comes, the wash wont drown ’ee out. So doan’t be afraid. -I'll be at the wheel and—we’ll go home, lad, somehow.”</p> - -<p>But when alone he looked at the skies, at the sea and at the sails, -and shook his head.</p> - -<p>“Lord God of all the seas,” he cried, lifting his head and -reverently closing his fatigued and pain-stricken eyes, “for the -sake of all they below, help thy unworthy servant, who is so old, so -broken, so tired, to take the <i>I’ll Try</i> home. But if it be Thy will -that we are to see no harbor lights again but those by Thy -everlasting gates, pray let use see them shine clear to bring us to -Thy port.”</p> - -<p>He rolled aft to the wheel that swayed helplessly to and fro, and -using alternately his hand and knee against the spokes, brought the -staggering ship up to her work. She seemed grateful for the -attention, and eager to respond. Her mere rags of red sails filled, -and she was ready to fight the storm.</p> - -<p>“Good old girl! Good old girl!” Captain Josh muttered approvingly. -“That’s it! Take hold of the wind. Hang on to it!”</p> - -<p>For an hour she half fought, half fled with that nearly motionless -figure steering her, and yet the storm showed no signs of abatement. -The dusk came early, filled with flying clouds, with wind-torn spray -and the unceasing charge of great waves. Captain Josh shifted -anxious eyes skyward, seeking some hope of a break. In all his sixty -years at sea he had never been more troubled and perplexed.</p> - -<p>“If only there’d come a lull at sunset,” he muttered aloud after the -long stillness, and was slightly startled by the sound of his own -voice. He considered for a moment whether it was better to think -aloud, for the companionship of that sound, or to keep his lips -shut. For the time being he chose the former method and went on: “I -can’t make or douse sail with one hand, and I be so damned tired now -that it hurts. It’s mighty risky to let her fall off; but—us must -have lights! I’ve just got to take the chance and let her come -round. There’s nothing else to be done.”</p> - - -<p class='sb'>He crouched against the wheel, waiting to seize one of the momentary -lulls when the gale paused to catch breath for another blast.</p> - -<p>“Now!” he cried at last, as if addressing his full crew. “Around she -goes!” and with hand and knee, he deftly worked the wheel until the -canvas flapped and fluttered, and then under way of impetus and -storm the <i>I’ll Try</i> hesitated, paid off, leaned over so far that her -lee rail was awash, was in danger of coming to beam ends if the -storm sent a quick gust of wind, struggled, recovered, threw water -from her deck, and fell away. She was not an instant too soon in -setting her keel, for the blast of wind came, as if angered by the -skill of ship and man that had robbed it of its prey. It snapped the -wet canvas. It shrilled through rigging. It screamed across the -spume. Again she drifted as helplessly as a wreck, buffeted by wind -and wave, lurching drunkenly, moving aimlessly, shuddering -spasmodically, and with her wheel free.</p> - -<p>Across her decks, slipping, sliding in his big and clumsy sea-boots, -struggled her skipper, wondering meanwhile if she could possibly -ride and survive, and hoping only to reach the lanterns that had -fortunately, if carelessly, been stowed in a stationary fish-box. He -reached them at last and was vastly concerned by the fear that they -might have been so drenched that they would not light. He sat flat -upon the wet and streaming deck in the tiny lee of the companionway, -caught a lantern in his knees and after many attempts succeeded in -lighting it. To hoist it with one hand was another trying task. He -accomplished it, after a time, by first using his few and worn -teeth, and when they failed, by clutching the rope between his -knees. He spat a broken tooth out between his bleeding lips, and -belayed the line to the mainmast.</p> - -<p>“Bad and not proper it be, but—mayhap it’ll keep some of they big -smoke boats from ridin’ us down,” he remarked, hopefully, as he saw -the swaying, tossing gleam aloft. “Now for the starn lights!” But -despite his patient efforts, he could light none. He swore with -inconsequent oaths when one slid from the grasp of his knees and -rolled swiftly outward, bounding and bumping across the deck, found -an opening and plunged overboard. He used more expletives when he -discovered that another had a broken globe, and was useless. Night -was advancing, black and chill, and he sat for a moment more, flat -on the deck, and questioning whether he dared risk the great venture -of going below to see how the stricken remnant of his crew fared. -The wind defiantly answered him. The ship was straining too hard -under the stress of storm.</p> - -<p>“Nope. I can’t do anything to help ’em, or myself,” he growled. “I -must get back to the wheel and bring her back to course again, -before it’s too black. If I could have but a cup of tay and a bit of -biscuit! Damn it, why didn’t I think to put some of they biscuit in -my pocket before I came back on deck!”</p> - -<p>He stumbled aft again, and again seized the idle and aimlessly -revolving wheel. Again he watched like a cat, waiting to pounce, and -seize the momentary advantage of a lull. Again he brought the ship -back to a course. Whether it was a true one, he could not be -certain. He was depending now upon his sense of direction alone. -There was nothing to guide him, not even a solitary star shining -through the murk. He made mental calculations, reasoning that in the -beginning the <i>I’ll Try</i> must have been so many miles sou’west off the -reef-bordered Prawl Point, that the wind had come from due west, -and that therefore it must be safe to run.</p> - -<p>“If it weren’t for they below,” he soliloquized, “I’d lay her to. If -I were alone, I’d not risk the carrying on, and—mayhap—could make -it. But—they be badly hurt. So—I must get somewhere. If Prawl -Point be sixty mile away, and—”</p> - - -<p class='sb'>Endlessly he debated the menacing dangers, and dared them. In the -blackness of the night he fought against an almost unconquerable -drowsiness; for by now he had been alert for more than forty hours. -His broken arm throbbed with an ever poignant and increasing -anguish, but even pain may be dulled by time and endurance, inasmuch -as there is a climax where kindly nature brings either partial or -complete unconsciousness. Sometimes in the long hours he felt -himself swooning, and then he clung harder to the spokes and begged -that God, in Whom he had such unlimited, unquenchable trust, might -enable him to keep awake, that he might still sprawl across the -wheel.</p> - -<p>Dawn had come, and the sea was sobbing and spent; Captain Joshua was -surrendering to the tiredness of long effort; endeavoring to recover -kindliness after tempestuous outburst, before he reached the -ultimate end of endurance. He was no longer aware of change. He was -still fighting, ruggedly and unrelinquishing to the last. His dimmed -eyes could no longer see. The world rocked and swayed. That off on -the horizon lay still; pale cliffs, meant nothing to him. All that -he could concentrate upon was holding the battered ship up to the -wind. That the wind was dying meant nothing. He thought it still -a-rage. His uninjured hand seemed paralyzed. He could no longer hold -a spoke and strove to steer with an elbow, and bony knees.</p> - -<p>Mute but fighting to the end, Captain Joshua finally let go the -wheel, made a last effort, crawled to reach the loose end of a -halyard, crawled back to the wheel, pulled the <i>I’ll Try</i> up again, -seated himself upon the wet deck and with one hand and broken teeth -lashed himself clumsily to the wheel, his back against it, his dying -legs and feet outsprawled, inert in their heavy and sodden -sea-boots; and then his weary hand fell listlessly by his side.</p> - -<p>A thousand confused conjectures, fears, hopes, and solicitudes -flashed through Joshua’s brain. He tried to ask the Lord of all the -seas, whom he had so long followed and loved, to take charge of the -ship and bring her home. Her destination was no longer of moment to -him, whether it were the gateways of earthly ports or the harbor -lights of that haven and heaven to which he had so long aspired. And -so, clumsily lashed with his back to the wheel, unyielding to the -last, still fighting when the fight was done, the faint balance of -sanity swung across to peace as had the sea after the storm, and -dreaming that he was in his Brixham chapel on the hill, he fell to -singing in a wavering voice: “Abide with Me.”</p> - -<p>Some recess of his brain contained the words he had so many times -sung, so long loved. Cracked and broken they issued between cracked -and broken lips, quavering aimlessly into the air his fealty to a -faith—that hymn written in the old, old port of Brixham town from -which he and his forbears had sprung; and as a prelude he cried: -“God, O God! Help me, for I can do no more. ‘Abide with me, fast -falls the eventide.... And I am far from home.’”</p> - - -<p class='sb'>The steam trawler <i>Williwaw</i>, after twenty days at sea, rimed by the -storm, black, and with a heavy plume of smoke wallowing out of her -funnel, was laying her course for Brixham Port. Captain Moran was -staring at the streaks of rust and appeared anything but pleased by -his inspection. His honest, sea-tanned face took on the look of -preoccupation of one who is engaged in mental calculations as to the -cost of paint. He was even disturbed when his mate Long, grave-eyed, -came across the steel deck to him and said: “Looks to me, sir, as if -there’s something wrong with a ship off there to sta’b’d. Her don’t -act natural at all, sir.”</p> - -<p>Captain Moran turned and trudged past the complex litter of -mechanism and gear to have a look. After but a moment he shouted -back to his mate: “You’re right about that, Mr. Long. Run down to -’em.”</p> - -<p>The wheel in the pilot house of the <i>Williwaw</i> whirled, and she turned -her nose inquisitively on the new course.</p> - -<p>“Somethin’ wrong? Aye? There be,” declared one of the crew to others -who came leisurely up to the starboard rail. “Her be in trouble, -sure! Look at they sails, what’s left of ’em, and her be yawin’ this -way and that as if her had no hellum.”</p> - -<p>They heard Captain Moran shout to the pilot: “Turn her loose. Put on -full speed. No use in wasting time.” And from the engine-room -sounded the clang of shovel and slice-bar; the funnel plume -blackened, and the <i>Williwaw</i> began to “foam at the mouth” as she -closed down on the ketch. When her engine was rung down, a peculiar -silence enveloped her that was broken by Moran’s hail:</p> - -<p>“Ahoy there! <i>I’ll Try</i>! Ahoy! What’s wrong with you men?”</p> - -<p>But he evoked no answer. Under silent way the <i>Williwaw</i> bore closer, -and now there became faintly audible a cracked old voice -monotonously droning:</p> - -<div style='margin-left:2em'> -“Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.<br> -The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.<br> -When other helpers fail and comforts flee,<br> -Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.” -</div> - -<p>The voice that came quavering across the sullen waves, as if -blanketed by the leaden skies, held the men of the <i>Williwaw</i> in its -spell. They clung to the rail, staring with perplexed eyes and -parted lips until aroused to action by Moran’s shout: “Stand by to -lower away a boat there, you men. Mr. Long, go over and learn what’s -up.”</p> - - -<p class='sb'>The boat splashed into the water, and down the steel side of the -<i>Williwaw</i> went the men to man it. Her screw thrust the sea again to -hold her off at a safe distance, for the swells still surged and -lifted forward; but the voice still carried on:</p> - -<div style='margin-left:2em'> -“I fear no woe, with Thee at hand to bless;<br> -Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.<br> -Where is Death’s sting; where, grave, thy victory?<br> -I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.” -</div> - -<p>Sturdily pulled, as if eager to reach the black and battered hull of -the half-wrecked <i>I’ll Try</i>, the boat bobbed upward and downward as it -was rowed across the intervening space. It came alongside, where, -standing, swaying, some of its rowers clutched at hand-holds, and -Long, young, powerful, leaped for strake and rail. He threw a heavy -boot over inboard and landed on both feet. For an instant he paused, -bending forward as if doubting sight. He saw a man with white hair, -stained red here and there, and with a reddened handkerchief bound -awry over his head and falling over one eye. Streaks of red ran down -over the disordered white beard. He saw the rope with which the man -had bound himself to the wheel, and the halyard-end that had at last -worked free and lay idly upon his lap. He saw the bandaged arm, the -sprawling feet in sea-boots, the free wheel, and constantly he heard -that same droning song of faith.</p> - - -<p class='sb'>Long rushed over and laid his hand on the broad, bent shoulder, and -said:</p> - -<p>“Josh! Captain Josh! Skipper! Don’t you know me—Long—of the -<i>Williwaw</i>?” But the closed eye did not open or look up, and the -monotonous reiteration of song went on.</p> - -<p>The mate ran to the side and shouted: “Come aboard here, you men. -This looks bad. I’m going to need help, I think.”</p> - -<p>And then, as they clambered inward, he ran to the closed -companionway, lifted the hatch, recoiled from the foul air, and -disregarding the steep steps, dropped nimbly below. A whimpering -sound, as it issued from the lips of a pain-exhausted, terrified boy -stabbed his ears, and with it mingled a babbling noise that could -come from nothing else than human delirium.</p> - -<p>For an instant his eyes probed the gloom until they accustomed -themselves to the change from broad daylight. In one of the bunks -lay a figure that was still and quiet. In another lay the man who -moaned and babbled. In another lay the boy who now lifted himself to -an elbow and said: “I couldn’t help it, sir. Skipper, he told me to -stay here and do my best. I did, sir, and—and—the old un has never -spoke a word, and the second hand has taken to talkin’ like that all -the time; and my foot, sir, my foot—oh, it do hurt something awful, -and I can’t walk no more, I can’t! I tried, sir, I did, and—”</p> - -<p>Then the voice broke in a long wail of boyish grief. The strain had -been too much for even that obdurate, steadfast youthful bravery.</p> - -<p>“Steady, lad! Steady!” the mate’s voice quieted him. “You’re all -right now. Be a sailorman. Don’t give up.”</p> - -<p>The boy started to tell the tale of tragedy, but the mate of the -Williwaw was gone and hurrying upward. On deck he shouted his -discoveries to Captain Moran of the Williwaw, which now lay close -by. No time was wasted in this urgent plight. A heavy line was -brought across, a half-dozen men put aboard, and within a few -minutes the <i>I’ll Try</i> was being towed through the sea. The funnel of -the <i>Williwaw</i> now belched smoke as if she were steaming a race -against time on the reach to Brixham Town. Around the breakwater’s -end she swung in a flashing sweep to the outer and up to the very -gates of the inner harbor before she stopped. Surmising tragedy, -boats put off to meet them, and fishermen swarmed about the <i>I’ll Try</i> -to assist. Broken men were tenderly carried away. The -harbor-master’s telephone urged a surgeon to haste. The men on the -landing-pier thrust and jostled, all eager to serve.</p> - -<p>The survivors of the <i>I’ll Try’s</i> crew had come to port at last.</p> - -<p>“The lad will pull through,” the surgeon announced to those who -waited outside the harbor-master’s office, which had been turned -into a temporary hospital. “The second hand may, though his ribs are -caved in. The old man you call Scruggs the Ancient, must have died -very lately because his body is still warm. And Captain -Joshua—well—they say that when they found him, he tried to tell -them something about the Harbor Lights.” The surgeon paused, looked -away from the staring eyes, and then added softly: “He has found -them.”</p> - - -<p class='sb'>When, taken from her iced bunkers by hand, sorted, pulled ashore to -the great flagged spaces of the fishmarket, carefully laid thereon -and brought to the “liberal” buyers’ attention by the sonorous clang -of the auctioneer’s bell and voice, the catch of the <i>I’ll Try</i> -brought six pounds, fourteen shillings and sixpence—nearly -twenty-six dollars, to be divided amongst the sole survivors of the -hapless crew. Captain Joshua’s share as owner and skipper came to -nearly four pounds, or sixteen dollars! The undertaker charged -fifteen pounds—about sixty dollars—for the coffin; the cemetery -company charged five pounds, about twenty-five dollars, for the -six-by-three feet of space which he might forever own as his last -allotment of earth; and there were certain minor claims for flowers -in that land where flowers run wild upon great cliffs, but must be -paid for when laid upon a grave. All that was left thereafter, -Captain Joshua’s grandsons and widowed daughter might have to live -upon.</p> - -<p>Up on the Brixham hills that night rain fell. Somehow it -seemed to freshen the handful of flowers that some one had thrown on -the grave of the lone and ancient mariner, as if he, who after all -his sea-toil had come to land-rest, merited that humble recognition. -Perhaps some one loved him, as well as Skipper Joshua. Perhaps God -in His majestic but kindly pity would send other wild-flowers to -climb across their graves, blanketing them in the radiance of that -only One who marks the sparrow’s fall!</p> - -<div class="tn"> - <p>Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in - the April 1922 issue of <i>Blue Book</i> magazine.</p> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO THE LIGHTS ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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