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GOODWIN'S WEBK.LY, 7 I the life saving station, I got it, an' while I was moored alongside the keeper, Cook is his name, ' an' Higgins, one of the surfmen, both able look ing an' fine men, mates, I jus' watched the seas come rolling in an' somewhow I got to thinking of that swell off the Delaware breakwater, you know, an' thinking of that swell put this hero yarn into my head; funny, isn't it? Evolution, I believe the story writers call it. Howsumever, bo that as it may, the yarn stuck by mo ever since an' it's right glad I am of this chance to spin it. "If there's a man hero that doesn't know Ed. Osgood, the former skipper of this here Fiji, then he doesn't know the coolest, bravest man that ever trod a deck. I ain't meaning daring, reck lessness in sail-carrying despites stress of weath er an' all that sort of thing, although like some others I might name Skipper Ed was a devil for piling on canvas an' no man under him ever stowed his dunnage aboard who didn't have doubts about ever seeing home again, but I am meaning downright bravery, an' there are a hun dred stories floating about to prove it, an' mates, I honestly believe that his absolute fearlessness was the magnet that drew the same men about him, trip after trip, season after season, until, well, until he got spliced, an' the little woman made him give up blue water. "Ed alius hankered to be first in everything; first to be fitted out an' under way for the fish ing grounds, first to be filled to the hatches, an' first to get home with his fare. "The year I speak of he was dead set on get ting the first mackerel into Manhattan, an' he had us 'off Fire Island two or three weeks before a living soul had even a single one of the speckled beauties anywhere. He kep' two men in the rigging on the lookout all the time, but no school showed up, so we cruised along fur ther south. "Of course, by this time, half a dozen fleets were scudding about on the same errand, but the beauties eluded us all, an' to put the kibosh I on matters, bad weather set in, an' right here our troubles began. "We had hardly breasted Cape May when a smoking easterly caught the whole lot of us squarely in its teeth an' I don't need to mention that there was a lively scurrying to get in behind the breakwater for all excepting the Fiji. "Skipper Ed jeered at 'em all as they passed by. Ed was a thirty-third degree Mason when it came to jeerin', an' I never seen his equal for raising hail Columbia among other crafts by the sharp, cutting things he would yell. I " 'Hump,' says ho as he leaned over the rail, 'Hump, let 'em go in if they like, 1 'em heave to, let 'em reef an' double reef, but t e Fiji keeps to her course. Boys,' says he, turning to us, 'how is it, Delaware Breakwater or the open sea? Luck is what we want,' says he, 'an' it's my idee pluck is the father of luck ev'ry time. Here these critters will bo nicely cooped up, while off Block Island, the beauties are looking for food, I'm thinking; so what say you?' "We grinned. "As a skipper, Ed was masterfully command ing. His word was our gospel, an' no man but i gave him prompt and ungruding obedience at all times. " 'Cap'n,' broke in our cook, a slow going, half dull sort of chap, who called himself the. seventh son of a seventh son. 'Cap'n,' says he, 'we'd ought to go in, the water, you know. You know, I told you one tank was all empty, an' t'other was' "'Go in? Go in?' roared Ed, 'why, you Hying ', imago of Balaam's donkey, didn't I tell you to start up the condenser? Didn't I? Get below, you loafing son of a footstool, d you, an' the water, too,' says he. 'Why, I believe you're a Jonah aboard this ship an' lid a notion to toss you overboard, d you.' "You can perhaps picture how quickly that seventh son vanished. "By this time we were getting the whole thing sure, not only wind, rain an' miBt, but that heavy ground swell with its raw dampish smell, ugh! The Fiji, you mind, mates, is an able craft, mighty able. Neptune himself might have plan ned her, so surely faultless is she, but jus' then she held only empty barrels, nothing to steady her, you know, an' that swell comes hard an' strong, so it was that, to put it mild like, her motions were kind of erratic, an' uncertain, an' pretty soon she gave a mighty lurch an' the nex' minute there came from somewhere or other the wildest, wickedest an' most frenzied scream hu man being could imagine. It was one long, high keyed wail an' it died away to lee'ard, like as might the moan of a lost soul. "Gad! it was awful! "Ed looked at me. I looked at Ed. 'What was that?' he said, defiant like. " 'That's right, what was it?' says I. "'Some d prank!" he roared. 'Call all' "Again came that frantic shriek, this time perhaps even more frenzied than, before. "No need for me to call all hands. Ev'ry man of 'em came tumbling up on deck as if chased by a demon. Not a one was missing, not even the seventh son an' 'twas him that gasped, 'What's happened? Who's drownded?' "Skipper Ed just glared at him. The old man still believed it was a prank, an' he was riled clear through. There he stood on the quarter jus' bracing himself against the swell an' as cool an' collected as you please, an', too, as fine a picture of manhood as you could ever find. '"You blubbering scalawags,' he roared at all hands. 'So help mo Moses, if I find out who's do ing this thing, I'll whale him black an' ' "Ed may have said 'blue.' I don't know, for, mates, Icouldn't begin to describe the tearfulness of the awful shriek that was all we heard. "With a yell of terror the seventh son dashed below through the scuttle an' this only added to the awe-inspiring feeling of dread that now hung over us all, all but Ed, I mean. There he stood just as calm as before an' glaring about mad like. " 'It's the wind whistling through some crev ice of the old hooker,' he yelled, angrily. 'A fine lot of sailor men you are, a fine lot! Get to your prayers, ev'ry d one of you,' says he. 'Quick, now, we're doomed, sure'n Fate! Ah, see, even the rats are leaving the ship, that's a sign she's sinking! Drive 'em back; quick,' says he, 'or we'll go down sure, you superstitious rascals! Look aloft, will you, look quick, St. Elmo's fire dancing on our mast head! Jerusalem and Jer usha!' he shouted. 'Ev'ry man of you look back over our stern. There it is! There it is, a phos phorescent corpse floating in our wake! We're doomed, doomed, doomed!' "The old man was in one of his jeering moods an' as he raved he passed us an' went for'ard into my domain, his flashing eyes scanning closely ev'ry inch of our bulwarks. In the bow he halt- ed an', leaning his elbows on the starboard rail with his back against it, he stood there in sullen silence. "So far as I'm concerned, I admit the wailing had unnerved me, reviving in my mind as it did the thousan' an' one wild, weird, uncanny stories of the f'c's'le, where ev'ry similar unaccountable occurrence was the forerunner of disaster. I couldn't perceive any point to Ed's jokes an' was thinking to dare to suggest putting back, when he called out, jeering some more, you know: "'Stan' by all hands stan' by, so as to be ready to lower the' "He never finished that sentence, either. 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