Part 9 (1/2)

”Well, as it? Listen! For God's sake keep quiet there forward!”

Wilbur looked over the side into the water The ripples were still chasing the else The stillness shut down again There was not a sound

VI A SEA MYSTERY

In spite of his best efforts at self-control, Wilbur felt a slow, cold clutch at his heart That sickening, uncanny lifting of the schooner out of the glassy water, at a tih wind to sovery like horror through all his flesh

Again he peered over the side, down into the kelp-thickened sea

Nothing--not a breath of air was stirring The gray light that flooded down frodalena Bay On shore, nothing moved

”Quiet there, forward,” called Moran to the shrill-voiced coolies

The succeeding stillness was profound All on board listened intently

The water dripped like the ticking of a clock fro of the bow had sunk ale,”

Charlie broke the silence with a wail: ”No likee, no likee!” he cried at top voice

The reen; Wilbur could see the shi+ne of his eyes distended like those of a harassed cat As he, Moran, and Wilbur stood in the schooner's waist, staring at each other, the smell of punk came to their nostrils Forward, the coolies were already burning joss-sticks on the fo'castle head, koing their foreheads to the deck

Moran went forward and kicked them to their feet and hurled their joss-sticks into the sea

”Feng shui! Feng shui!” they exclai shui no likee we”

Low in the east the horizon began to blacken against the sky It was earlyA watch was set, the Chinaan to alley as he set about preparing breakfast, Wilbur paced the rounds of the schooner, looking, listening, and waiting again for that slow, horrifying lift But the rest of the night ithout incident

After breakfast, the strangely assorted trio--Charlie, Moran, and Wilbur--held another conference in the cabin It was decided toshui in disa place, no likee we,” announced Charlie

”Feng shui, who are they?”

Charlie promptly became incoherent on this subject, and Moran and Wilbur could only guess that the Feng shui were the tutelary deities that presided over that portion of Magdalena Bay At any rate, there were evidently no round; so sail was made, and by noon the ”Bertha Millner” tied up to the kelp on the opposite side of the inlet, about half a mile from the shore

The shark were plentiful here and the fishi+ng went forward again as before Certain of these shark were hauled aboard, stunned by a blow on the nose, and their fins cut off The Chinas Eventually they would be sent to China

Two or three days passed The hands kept steadily at their work

Nothingdays and soundless nights; the schooner sat as easily on the unbroken water as though built to the botto these days the three officers lived high Turtle were plentiful, and ith their steaks and soups, the fried abalones, the sea-fish, the really delicious shark-fins, and the quail that Charlie and Wilbur trapped along the shore, the trio had nothing to wish for in the way of table luxuries

The shore was absolutely deserted, as well as the back country--an unbroken wilderness of sand and sage Half a dozen ti of his inaction aboard the schooner, made the entire circuit of the bay fro on one of the latter projections and looking out to the west, the Pacific appeared as empty of life as the land Never a keel cut those waters, never a sail broke the edge of the horizon, never a feather of smoke spotted the sky where it whitened towas e with heat

Another week passed Charlie began to coain

”I think biht, Wilbur, lying in his hammock, akened by a touch on his arm He woke to see Moran beside hi?” she said in a low voice, looking at hi up, reaching for his wicker sandals