TWO STORIES FROM THE SYDNEY BULLETIN.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9359, 7 March 1896, Page 2

TWO STORIES FROM THE SYDNEY BULLETIN.

I.—_T THE WHEEL. ! He was siok of Wellington and hard luck, so he shipped on the old Celestia for the run to "Dunedin. He would go rabbiting in Central Otago, or gold-washing on the river beaches. Ail he had was the clothes he stood in, and his blankets; but he knew it was only a three days' run wich decent weather. The Celestia slid out through the Heads on a mild winter evening, but in the Straits she struck a wet sou-wester, and had to thrash against lumpy seas and savage squalls. He was wet to the skin from the first hoifr on board, and things Were bad all round: "The cook, in a drunken fit, threw all the fresh meat overboard, swearing that it was poisoned. The two cask 3 of salt-horse, kept for such an emergency, were found to be putrid. His watch-mate Bill was a born loafer, the mate wa3 as sullen as a Norseman can be, and the skipper was in a state of bitter exasperation. It was "bout ship and bout ship "continually, and the rain drove with every squall. He was not dry even in We bunk, for the fo'castle head leaked like a sieve, and dirty water dropped on his face while he slept, and when he awoke it was to jump into wet clothes and to go out to labour in wind and rain. He cursed sometimes in the nightwatch, but he was not an ordinary growler, and Chantler, the only fellow he,chummed with on board, had to swear for Mm occasionally. Under the seaward Kaikouras the clouds broke, and they saw giant mountains rising blackly from th# water to dazzling heights of snow. The vessel rolled about there through a dead oalm winter's day, bat towards night a North-east wind sprang up, and with it came a cold sea drizzleWith the wind on the quarter and all sails set the Celestia drove southward—past the Amuri Bluff, past Banks Peninsula, down by the Ninety-mile Beach. The old craft, coalladen and water-sodden, went 'stiffly before the wet breeze. The patched sails were set like carved boards, the grimy shrouds aud etays were white with the clinging mists, and as she rolled over the block soa her hungry crew blessed her as if she were a clipper. The wind fell light, the mists were split with sunshine, and through these splits the glaciers of the Southern Alp 3 were Been, and further south the green downs about Oamaru and the white stone houses of thai tax-bound city. He and the mate were taking a pull on the -"iV-tppsaU. "> tbev had the handy

b.lly-taok le on the fall'of the halliards, wh Pn "crack " and the big four-sheave _lo c k wh lZ .cd past bun ana a fathom of rusty chain grazed his head ana knocked him sensoless to the deck, the ohain cuttinc gap from the bone of his tempi, to the nana of his neck. -The mate washed tho wound with salt water, cut off a furrow of hairs ana he went to work again, but slept in his can that night for fear the fluff of his blanket should get into the wound. The three days' voyage had extended ta * week when Bill tho loafer saw the loom of Port Chalmers Heads and swore he would have a drink ashore that night; but almost as he spoko there arose before them overland and sea a dome-shaped oloud, blae_.B reen fringed with white streamers; and a &„' from the Antarctic smote the vessel. gJ; * captain, sullen mate, loafer Bill, drunvT cook, and Scotty worked like devils to get ■_ the sails. He was at the wheel, and smile, with the wrong side of his mouth as he _«, the entrance of the harbour close behind"* wall of lushing rain and foam. The two staysails blew away, the mainsail and foresail were split to rags before they could be clewed up; only the topsails held good. They lowered the main topsail, but before they could lower the fore it split with a great noise and ribboned out to sea. All hands went up to reef the main topsail loafer Bill leading; and the skipper following hard. He at the helm watched them lay out on tho yard and struggle with the stiff, wet canvas. To enable them to manage this sail he must steer up into the wind, so that the canvas flapped loosely. He shifted the wheel a spoke or two, holding his eyes open against the driving wind, when to his horror he saw that the lee braces were loose, and that a > single inch too much in steering would bring the wiud abaft the sail aud send tho yard baok. with a shock that would hurl his mates into the sea. The captain, with his yellow beard blownover his mouth, looked downward, shouted a useless oath, and motioned the order, " Bring her up in the wind 1" but the steerer, knowing what such an order meant, shook hia head and pointed to the braces. The captain heeded him not, for at that moment a fearful squall with hailstones big as marbles buret os the ship. He who steered must hold up hh face to this and keep his eyes open to set that oven in that mad rolling and rushing, that mad dash of wind and ico, he steered just in the teeth of the wind and no more. The squall tore off his cap and loft the gaping new wound open to the stinging hail and spray. Hailstones smote to the deptha of the rawest cv .— struck eyes and cheeks agonising blows; still he looked up, for he must steer by the wind. With a delicate reel of the helm he brought the sail so near the direction of the wind that the men were able to haul it on the yard and reef it; and then they hurried on deck, the skipper leading this time. He came on the poop with a gleam of fury in his china-blue eyes. "Damn you !" he said, "why could you not keep her shaking, you skulking— "The lee-braces weren't fast," was the answer—" an inch too much helm and you and the rest would have blazes." The skipper looked at the speaker's face, pricked with a hundred tiny wounds, saw the blood trickliDg from that open gash over the temple. Then he said, quite softly, ''Go forrard and turn into your hunk for awhile, and I'll send you a glass of grog." Maoviland. F. Rollitt.