1938-09-23 — Page 5

CHINA MAIL

FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, SEPTEMBER 23, 1938

THE four steel masts of the

barque Fernaus tapered inte THE MOON AND THE STARS

the darkness above. No. 7 quay of Queen Alexandra Dock,

It was raining steadi},

the

caught her breath and tears came

· gleam of a distant dock lamp into her eyes at the astonishing and soon she fell asleep.

glanced along the iron plates of the windjammer, making her name shine luminously from the bow.

It was nearly 3 a.m. Helen stood at the bottom of the steep gang- plank, hesitating. Then, screwing up her

r courage, she crept on board, stole forward, bending low as she passed the scuttles of the deck-houses, and made her way into the fo'c'ale.

It was cold there, and smelled of rust, but she climbed carefully over the great links of the anchor chain, till she reached" a point. where the plating met to form the bow. Just over her head was the She thick girth of the bowsprit. took off her trenchcoat to make a blanket, and tried to sleep.

When the Pegasus berthed at Hull she had begged her father to buy her a passage to Australia, but he had, refused. Not because he hadn't the money, but because he supposed it unsuitable for an attractive girl of seventeen to take a six months' trip with a

Short Story

boatload of men. Helen thought this most inconsistent of him, since he had given her a dinghy of her own, and was always en- couraging her to become

seaman.

a

good.

So here she was," a runaway from a peacefully sleeping home, with a packet of surreptitiously cut sandwiches and a flask of coffee in her pocket, and the de- termination to sail half round the world in one of the noblest craft the poetry of man has devised.

She didn't sleep all that night. Early in the dawn there were tramplings overhead, and the steam winch aft of her bubbled and rattled a few times as warps were coiled in or cast out to the tug that must take them to the mouth of the Humber.

She could't tell 'what was hap pening outside, except by the rustle of the water divided by the stem of the Pegasus; but she smiled as she heard a slap that made the iron plates ring and felt a sudden heave as the ship rode free to the waves. That meant that the tug' must

cast them off and "that se

voyage to Australia had

startedl

the really

beauty of a true ship under full sail

Stealthily she crept aft to the bridge-deck, just for'ard of the chart room. All windjammers are built on similar lines, and so Helen knew where to look for the officer of the watch.

As she climbed the ladder, the head of a man came into view. Ito was tall and hefty, and wore a short leather jerkin and a heavy leather jerkin and a heavy muffler. Almost as she stepped on the deck beside him, he glanced up at the spread of sail above him, and then back to the lighted binnacle. “Styrebord en litet!" he called. "Styrebord en litet," was the i muffled reply of the belmaman the hump of the

behind

room.

"Stutz so!” "Stutz, so."

**

chart

Helen listened speechless, and thought his words more beautiful than any Greek chorus ever writ- ten. He had given his. com- mands in Swedish, but she guessed

By John Arrow

he'd be able to talk English well. So with a beating heart she said quietly, "Good evening. I'm the stowaway." "She":

She woke with the sun in eyes, and a sympathetic voice that said, carefully. "Good morning. miss, Better now?"

“Now, now, you're all right,” Mr. Smith soothingly. "You've come. Just at the right me. You're just exactly what we

She blinked, and saw a boy of

this a windjammer, or isn't about her own age, fair-haired

demanded Helen.! and smiling... "Oh, yes, thank yOf course, it is," said Mr. you," she said vaguely, and hemith, as if to a child. "Of course, went away again.

a105

She was completely at but at last she demanded to be taken to Mr. Smith. When she got to his door she said diminished voice, for what seemed the hundredth time, "I'm stowaway"

"Please, the stowaway!" said her escort loudly.

"Eh, what, but we haven't got a stowaway."

Said Mr. Smith from within.

"Please, the stowaway!" said the young Swede again, thinking perhaps Mr. Smith hadn't under- stood.

"Oh, come in then," shouted Mr. Smith in a fury.

Not knowing whether she was on her head or her heels, Helen went into the little cabin, and was confronted by Mr. Smith. Here was no sailor! He was flabby and grey in the face. A grey flannel suit lay crumpled on the floor, and a pair of tennis shoes,

"Well, who are you?" he asked, astonished,

said

"I'm the stowaway!" Helen savagely, through clenched teeth..

"But we haven't got one,"

" he repeated wrinkling his forehead. laughed ner Oh, can't you understand?

"Oh, yes, ch, yes, oh, yes, oh, yes, oh, yes," said Captain Mael- matter-of strom rapidly, but

factly; then he sighed rather. heavily; then he blew a whistle.

A boy came running.

"Take this lady to Mr. Smith, cabin 2," said the skipper.

"Please!" said the boy at her elbow, and Helen automatically followed him down the ladder. But what an extraordinary ception! Were stowaways common then?

re-

80

"Please!" said the boy, "again, politely waiting for her to enter the poop deck. Then he pushed past her in the darkness rapped on a door.

and

"Who's there?" called some one sepulchrally.

"A lady to see you, sir.”

I'm ill, Go away. ⠀ going to be sick again. was.

she shouted him, “I AM THE STOWAWAY, I want to go to Australia in a windjammer. So I stowed away

"What a girl!" he whispered. "Oh, it can't 'be true! What a marvellous girl! This is the best thing Hey!" Wilkins, Wilkins!” he bellowed suddenly, “come here a minute!"-

A grizzled little man in fours and a beret appeared.

"Take a look at that girl,”

Mr. Smith,commended. "Can we use

her?"

Mr. Wilking pursed his lips. He put his head on one side. He gaid, "Look at my right hand,” and held it over Helen's head.

She looked.

"OK." said Mr. Wilkins, laconi cally.

Helen broken down and sobbed;. never had anything been so dif- ferent from her expectations.

I'm "He

VAA:

"But I'm the stowaway!" said Helén again, almost desperately. What sort of a ship was this, - where the skipper took no notice of hér and sent her to an officer coming out until hunger forced who was seasickiin a mere stiffish

But she had no intention

her to, and to all that day, and the next night, and the next day. as well, the squirme and snuggled. in her uncomfortable nest.

37

But

at last the time came when she must go out and report to the skipper

It was dark when she emerged. She stood at the Yo

Te dotr

where the

above could

looked

breeze?

"He see you to-morrow maybe, safd the boy, and she felt he was grinning In the dark." "Please!" And he pushed past her, and was gone.

Helen felt a complete fool. Standing 'outside the door didn't seem much good, so she wandered out the well deck again.. ⠀⠀ It and she Was utterly deser

1à coll of rope and curled up

st it. Fortunately it was She warm in the lee of the bulwarks,

it is. This is our windjammer; and we're the Superbia Film fare. I'm the director; Mr. Wilkins, Company, and we're make a pic-

here a my cameraman. And you're going to have a part in

film" continued Mr. Smith, though he offered her priceless · Jewels, because you're a stow- away He broke offto exclaim. “What marvellous publicity this'll nake. Thank Heaven, this old crate's got a cadio."

"But I am a stowaway," Helen repeated her silly little formula. "I know you are," said Mr. Smith, almost reverently.

Won't he be angry?”

“But what about the skipper?

"The skipper? What's he got to do with it? I've hired

this this boat, haven't I?"

"Then you're not going to Aus- tralia ?”

"Australia my foot!" said Mr. Smith testily. "We'd be back in port now if it hadn't been for that storm.

When everything was explain- ed to Captain Maelstrom he his shoulders and sigh- If the owners p to madmen, this.

bound to hap

to have known last night was or other who

But, (gee whir," he said, "it is lucky for you that I am not on

yway to Australia."

"But I've always-longed to sail

Australia," insisted Helen. You call for the moon, young. lady," said Maelstrom grimly.

After some breakfast, Mr. Smith called his technicians and actors together. They had all been spending a humiliating two days in the hold where quarters. had been rigged up for them, and now they clambered out into the bright sunlight, looking sheepish and ridiculous, dressed up as sai- lors, the last people they felt any thing like.

Helen regarded them with the utmost contempt. So silly they looked compared with the real (Continued on Page 7)

HUNTLEY

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