SHORT STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13831, 18 August 1908, Page 3

SHORT STORY.

OUT OF THE MIST. Admiral Page Paulding was as sweet-tem-pered an old. sea-dog as ever retired from the employ of an ungrateful country, but foggy weather always worked a bit, on his nerves; and what hands he had held that morning in the emokeroom! As he thumped up the rubber-carpeted staircase he knew that he was in a thoroughly bad humour, but made up his mind to conceal it. And there were reasons. When a man has reached the age when by all rights be should be a grandfather, and finds himself only a foolish oldbachelor uncle, personally conducting a young niece, of marriageable age and attractive exterior on a trip round-the world, it may well be said: "Of each day loa'rneth he experience." If the truth be told, the admiral's retirement, this time, from what might quite properly lie termed active service would be accompanied by no bitter heartburnings and regrets. Rather —yes, many times rather would he repel a torpedo attack on Portsmouth Harbour than again personally conduct one attractive and impulsive young female through the hotel-strewn shoals of Europe. There was a good deal of hidden meaning in the cablegram the old gentleman had sent airs. Dorm his sister, which had read : " Returning Oaronia, unentangled, en Wednesday." "That means only three days more now," mused the admiral, recalling these words to himself as he came out on the promenadodeck. His conscience smote him a little. Perhaps he had been somewhat neglectful for the past two days; but then — All at once he noticed the remarkable change in the weather. From a foggy, dreary morning it had grown into a crisp, sparkling afternoon. Passengers who had kept to their cabins, or who had huddled in the corners of saloon or library, were emerging on the decks. Those who had braved the weather rather than face the close air below looked up, mummy-wise, from their swathings, with hopes of returning appetites. One of the swaddled objects suddenly turned and addressed him: Are you looking for Miss Dorn, admiral?" " Oh, how d'ye do, Mrs. " For the life of him, he couldn't remember the lady's name. " Lovely day— er, yes. Have you seen Marcia anywhere?" "Yes; she's been walking up and down hern for an hour with Victor Masterson and my—" . The admiral thanked the swaddled lady, and strode forward impatiently. All at once he stopped. ■ "I wonder," said he to himself, "if that's tho silly ass I snubbed t'other day in the smoke-room? Just like Marcia to have picked him out!" In the sunniest corner of the promenadedeck a quartermaster had laid the numbered squares of a shuffle-board. The game was over, but two young people still lingered, leaning against the rail. One was a tall, slender girl, with red lips, red cheeks, tancoloured hair, and tan shoes, and the other was a very slight, extremely round-faced young man, whose attire and manners could best be described as insistent." He was one of the kind that appears in all weathers without a hat, and that persists in attracting attention to large feel and briny ankles by wearing turned-up trousers, low shoes, and vivid socks. At this moment- he was enjoying himself, and so was the girl. "Was he large and rather red-faced?" she asked, following up something her companion was saying. "Yes; with two bunches of whiskers growing down like this. And he beckoned me over to him and said: ' Young man, you're olaying the clown." And I said: 'You play you're the elephant, and we'll he a circus.' " The round-faced one laughed in a way that was contagious. Miss Dorn quite.loved him for it. . "Oh. I'm so glad I met you!" she said, quite frankly. And then, mischievously: " I'll ask my uncle to forgive you, if vou like." " Your uncle !" "Yes. the old gentleman with the —— bunches." If Mr. Masterson was simulating embarrassment he did it very cleverly. He started to say something once or twice, changed his mind confusedly, and. suddenly! putting the shuffle-hoard stick under his arm. began to imitate a guitar. Miss Dorn applauded. "Splendid! You should play in the orchestra." "Thank you." He smiled gratefully. "Listen: (his is a bassoon. I have to make 0. funny face when I do it." Miss Dorn clapped her hands. "Grand!" she cried. " Oh, simply grand !" "A flute,'': introduced Mr. Masterson. "Not so good," she smiled; in appreciative criticism.

"I shall have to practise it. But listen to this. I'm all right on the cornet It did sound like a cornet, even to the tremolo. People were looking up from their steamer-chairs now, arid one or two pedestrians had gathered about. Mr. Masterson . had an appreciative audience. Everyone burst into laughter. And it was at this moment that the admiral hove in sight round the corner of the deckhouse. When Miss Dora looked un Mr. Masterson was gone; the crowd, still laughing, was dwindling, and there, stood her uncle. He had on what she termed his " quarter-deck expression." Before he could speak she hud taken him by the arm. j "Where have you been, uncle dear?" she inquired most sweetly. "Looking for you, my dear ifarcia.*' "For two whole clays?" " Well—er—yesterday I—er— thought you'd better be left alone, and—er—where did you meet that young man?" "Oh, Bertha Sands introduced him—he's a dear ! You came just a minute too late," Miss Dorn laughed and squeezed her uncle's arm. " He's so amusing. You'd love to meet him !" "That silly ass!" grunted Admiral Paulding. " Not much. I'd like to kick him. I've got a good name for him—' the smokeroom post.' I snubbed him the other day, I can tell you !" " Really, my dear uncle, but he's so clever, so quirk at repartee—m—m— be afraid! Tell me how you did it." " Never mind how: but let me tell you this! That young man would never say anything sensible if he could help it. and never do anything useful, even by accident:! And I think that you, rny dear Mareia— "It's been a perfectly lovely day," remarked Miss Dorn, abstractedly. As if in sheer perversity, the weather changed early in the evening; and the night that followed was punctuated regularly by the blast of the foghorn. The next day broke thick and damp, with a wall of impenetrable mist shadowing the great vessel to half tier length. Over the tall sides the greasy green of the. water could just be seen moving by. The masts and funnels disappeared irregularly overhead. ■ The fog clung to everything; it rimed the rugs and capes of the passengers who feared the close air of the 'tween-decks, and lay recumbent in the steamer chairs, and it clung in little pearls to Miss Mareia Dorn's curly front hair, that seemed to curl all the tighter'for the wetting. With Mr. Victor Masterson at her side, she was walking up and down the hurricane deck. "Oh, I wish you'd do something to make me laugh," she broke in suddenly. "Ave you ticklish?" inquired the "silly ass" quite soberly. Miss Dorn could not help but titter; she was not at all put out. "There!" said Mr. Masterson. "Now, you see, I have done it! Please thank me. Now let me go on. You know, there is no doubt that the mind of one person when thinking of—" "Oh, don't let's think!" Miss Dorn leaned back against the rail, half hidden from the gangway. " Isn't it dreary," she said. " the weather? And look at those people all stretched out. I wish we could do something to wake them up. The whole ship seems to have the blues— the captain. He wouldn't speak a word to me at breakfast." "I could wake 'em up," said Mr. Masterson emphatically. "I could wake the whole shin up, and the captain, too, and the first officer, and the quartermaster, and the squingerncer, and the crew of the Nancy brig, if I wanted to —and your uncle, Admiral Elephant here, asleep in the steamer-chair." "Why, to be sure, there he is!" cried Miss Dorn. "He has the blues, too; he says he always gets 'em in foggy weather at sea." She turned and touched Mr. Masterson lightly on the arm. " Wake him up!" she said, her eyes twinkling. "I hardly dare." Oh, go en ! I don't believe you can. How would you do it?" . "How would I do it? Why, like this!" He crumpled his hands together, and blew between the knuckles of his thumbs a low, resonant, gruffly humming note. They were hidden now by the bow rf the lifeboat, and were standing quite close together. They noticed that the figure in the steamer-chair nearest them had suddenly raised itself a little, and then had sat bolt upright. The old admiral, the mist in his grey whiskers, turned one. ear forward and listened attentively. The grey wall had become a little whiter, less opaque ; they could see now the whole length of the ship, out to the lifting stern. "Oh, go on." tempted the girl; "do it again—louder!" Mr. .Masterson looked at her. "Oil. please do," she pleaded; " quite loud. J dare you to !" He slowly raised his bands, the thumbknuckles to his lips again. There sounded two deep, long-drawn, half-roaring, thrilling notes, for all the world blip steam in the can of a great, metal whistle. Footsteps, hurried and quick, rushed overhead on the bridge. A hoarse voice shouted orders. The quartermaster spun the wheel. Now: " Full speed ahead, I'm starboard engine! Full speed astern, port!" " Aye, .13-6, sir There was the clank-clank of the semaphores, and suddenly two bursting, answering blasts that hid the huge funnels in u, cloud of feathery white. The admiral in the 'steamer-chair threw off his wrappings and leaped to the rail, A loud anxious bail from above: "Look out there forward ! Can you make out anything?" " Oh, see what I've done !" faltered the " silly ass" in a frightened whisner. Miss Dorn grasped his shoulder. There had followed a sudden cry that ro?e in a diapason of mad fear: ■"Vessel ahead! Starboard your helm, sir! Starboard your h-e-l-m !" The helm was already over: the ship was swinging wide. Another quick order. The second officer leaped again to the semaphores. The huge fabric trembled, racking in every plate, as both engines reversed- at full speed, the screws churning and thundering astern. And now a rift came into the encircling fog, as if it had been cut by a mighty sword. Clear and distinct, not half a cable's length away, wallowed n great black shape. The mighty bow swept veering past her. quarter, then her stern, and clear of it by no more than thirty yards! Only those few on deck outside the weather cloth saw the sight, and then for but an instant. Never would, they forget it! Lying low in the water, all awash from the break of her topgallant-forecastle to the lift, of her high poop-deck, the green sens running under her bridge and about her superstructure, swayed'a great mass of iron and steel of full 5000 tons! Ship without a soul ! A wisp of a flag, upside down, still floated in her slackenedrigging; swinging falls dangled from her empty davits. Then the fog closed in, and, as a picture on a . lantern-slide fades and disappears, she vanished and was gone! A white-faced boy looked up into Miss Dorn's frightened eyes. His lips moved, but made no sound. On the bridge the captain had grasped the second officer by the arm. " Great Heavens ! Fitzgerald, did you see that? It was the Dractenburg." Derelict and abandoned! But, by Heaven, sir, she signalled us!" The captain , turned quickly. "Stop those engines!" he ordered hoarsely. Admiral Dorn, still standing beneath the bridge, with both hands grasping the rail, shivered and drew breath. What micrht have happened if— He looked forward. He imagined he could hear the crash, see the* great bow sinking ; he could hear the splintering of the bulkheads, the screams of the people tumbling up the compmiion-ways, the panic and pandemonium, the mad rush for the boats, the horrid, • slow subsidence. But. it was not to be— the danger had gone by! T . Now lie remembered having heard that .•first low whistle before the two that had signalled so plainly: "I have my helm to starboard passing to starboard of you!" And vet, well did he know that no fires blazed in those dead furnaces," no steam was coming from that rusty, salt-encrusted funnel. It was as if the "dead had spoken to warn the living! He shivered once more, and stasrgered to the bridge-ladder, holding on and listening. Three, four, live times did the Caronia's siren wail out into the .stillness. No reply. And then the throbbing pulses took up their beat again. Down in the corner of the main saloon, filled with chattering people, romping children, and game-playing young folk, who knew not what, had passed on deck, sat the "silly ass." the girl close to him. "I'll never tell," she whispered.' "What is it you're thinking of?" The round eyes gazed into hers. "It's a long time since 1 did," he said. "Did what?" "Prayed! God made me a fool just to do this some day, I believe."