Dan Merrithew | Page 9

to avert the direct impact, not to escape altogether.

It was a glancing blow just above the water line; it punched a great,
jagged hole and gouged out the paint clear to the stern. Dan drew a long
breath and murmured in a half-sick voice, "They might as well kill a
man as scare him to death," while Captain Barney's face made a gray
streak in the darkness.
The Quinn was now past the point of Sandy Hook and was skirting the
shore. The muffled beat of the breakers could be heard through the
gloom, which was riven every second by the great, swinging
search-light in the Navesink. Not a mile ahead was the bar; and the
masthead light of the Kentigern could be seen, twinkling like a planet.
In twenty minutes the dark hull of the Kentigern came looming out of
the night. A hail shot from the Quinn, and a faint reply came back.
Dark figures could now be seen, outlined by the cabin lights in the
forward section of the tramp.
"Hello, what tug is that?" sounded from the bridge. "Is that you,
Captain Barney?"
"No, it's the Quinn, Cap'n Jim Skelly. Hodge is laid up to-night; I'll take
you into dock."
"All right; come aboard," and after a minute's scurrying of figures on
the deck a flimsy companion-ladder rattled down over the side of the
freighter.
Dan heard it and ground his teeth in disappointment.
"Gripes!" he exclaimed. "They've that ladder down an hour before I
thought they would. Now we're up against it, sure."
With a growl Captain Barney whipped out his knife and made a pass at
the tow-line. He missed it and dropped back in the stern as Dan struck
at him with his oar.
"Wait!" hissed the young boatman. "We'd have no chance at all. We've
got to get nearer. The tug 'd beat us a mile. Sit tight, you old fool!"

Captain Barney recognized the wisdom of the words with a groan. He
was far past the arguing point. The tide was boiling past the side of the
vessel, swashing like a mill-race. All they could do under present
conditions was to cast off when the tug was very near the freighter, cut
in across, and get under the ladder before the tug could properly warp
alongside.
Nearer lumbered the Quinn. When within twenty feet of the Kentigern
she swung broadside on, ceasing all headway and drifting into position
on the tide.
"Now, then," cried Dan, suddenly leaping into the thwarts and manning
the oars. "Haul on the line. Bring her right under the Quinn's stern and
then cut, quick!"
Hand over hand hauled Captain Barney and the rowboat came under
the stern with a jump. Then he cut the line. Dan dug his oars into the
water and the slim boat shot for the ladder, while the great tug came
down, more slowly, on the side. Ten, twenty strokes; and then, as Dan
with a great sigh unshipped his oars, Captain Barney chuckled, seized
the sides of the ladder, and hauling himself on the bottom rung, skipped
up with the agility of a monkey.
With a swish and a splash up pounded the Quinn.
"Look out!" roared Dan, "there's a boat here!"
It saved him; for a bell clanged in the engine-room, and the tug began
to make sternway. It saved him for but a minute, though.
Thoughtless, selfish, and for once an utter fool, the exultant skipper of
the Three Sisters sought to gloat over his rival.
"On board the Quinn," yelled Barney. "Say, Jim Skelly, this is Barney
Hodge talkin'. You didn't know he had friends in the rowboat business,
did you?"
A curse rang from the Quinn's pilot-house, and Dan did not wait for

anything else. Well he knew what would happen next, and he bent all
his strength to his oars. He heard the jingle of a bell, and the tug started
right for him.
"Look out!" yelled Dan, working the oars like a madman. But not a
word came from the tug, moving silently, inexorably upon him like,
some black, implacable monster.
Suddenly Dan cast aside his oars and dived over the side. The next
instant the sharp, copper-bound nose of the tug struck the rowboat
fairly amidships, grinding it against the steel side of the freighter,
crushing it into matchwood.
A great numbness passed over the man. He was dazed; and as wave
after wave splashed over his head, he struggled dumbly to reach the
ladder. Then under the reaction from the icy shock, an electric thrill of
energy and vitality passed through his body.
He saw that he had been carried to about amidships, and the ladder was
well toward the bow. With lusty strokes he struck out along the steel
sides, rising over the waves