Harold Titus

“ Men drew close to one another, fearful even to witness that peril without a near presence. They saw old Martin go overboard with a great sea; saw him cling to the life line looped along the rail; saw him flounder aboard and retake his tiller and throw out an arm in a driving gesture. They saw Burke, at number six, hurled among the others as the boat stood on end and careened backward. ”

“ The keeper turned to Coburn.
“Man th' beach cart and stand by,” he said without excitement. He was leaning against their one boat as he spoke, but he knew that if that craft yonder missed her haven and beached no boat could live to help her. The breeches buoy would be the only hope of life for those men. ...
But even as the crew turned to man the beach cart Svenson let out a low oath and eyes turned lakeward again. Something had gone wrong. She had swung around, broadside to the weather; she had lost her weight; she was drifting! ”

“ He looked up at the keeper's ice-masked face. With a sidelong glance he caught the movement of the painter on the whip line, crawling along steadily, inch by inch: moving outward ... outward!
“And you'd let a kid ... show you ... up, eh? Get overboard you ... rats and I'll ... pull her ... alone!”
Again Coburn looked back at him and his face was dark with anger but The Kid did not notice. He was laughing his mockery into the stormy sky.
And then Martin commenced to talk; he cursed them for an uneven stroke. He spoke to man after man, railing him by name. ”

“ Bold shore lies to the lee where rollers may curl from fathoms of depth to bash their crests against mountains of age-old rock. Harbors are few, cold becomes intense, and owners and masters and crews gamble with the elements to rush commodities to destined ports before insurance companies refuse the risks or ice blocks the way. No gentle puddle, is Superior!
And in November those small bands of men who admit of no romance or adventure in their lives redouble their vigilance because Superior has claimed so many ships and men ... ”

“ Martin made no reply. Haffner, his Number Seven, who had been left on shore, was already in the boat.
“One man,” urged the keeper, eye on the crowd. “One more.”
One, a fisherman, silent, stalwart, stripped belt and oilskins from the exhausted Burke and ran into the surf while The Kid stood with his broken shoes in the water, watching them with an odd look in his eyes.
Again the torturous trip; again the return when strength was spent, and six more of the stranded crew were landed. ... Six left out there with the beat of the seas so swift! ”

“ A man don't grow up with how long he lives.” Martin screwed his brows as he struggled with his inarticulateness to say what he felt. “A man grows up with what he sees an' what he thinks about what he sees. This service ain't a place for a kid who's after romance an' adventure. ”

“ The Kid searched the keeps face, not comprehending.
“Well,”—with that swallow again—“d' you think you'd want me later?”
Martin sighed and scratched his beard. What he wanted to say was that there are men of a kind who will do for paltry compensation the things that most men would not do for any price; that many respected men would not even do to save their honor. He wanted to say that these men are, outwardly, like regiments of other men; that, perhaps, they are considered the inferiors of armies of men ”

“ The loafers told him he would be afraid to go out with the crew on any important call and were vulgarly explicit in designating the degree of that fear. Coburn and Burke and the others of the crew who wintered in town supported such statements and told The Kid that one trip in half a sea would shut him up.
“Oh, no, it wouldn't!” he would state with a serious shake of his head. “Not much, I wouldn't be afraid! A fella ain't afraid whom he wants to do a thing as bad as I do and when there's adventure an' romance in it!” ”

“ He was shabby, lived alone in a dark room over a second-hand store and had little to eat. These factors appeared not to worry him, though, for he put in time rowing about the harbor in an old skiff and learning to tie sailor's knots.
He was down to his last coin and had not eaten regularly for a week when a rush at the yard sent the yard boss searching for casual labor. It was November with a gale blowing and when the yard boss offered The Kid those few days of work it meant much because even the high purpose in his heart could not offset inadequate clothing and insufficient food. ”

“ Seven, and while others clustered at the rail ready to go Martin and his crew backed away.
Backed away; there was no turning in that confusion of waters. They backed in, with the rescued men lying among them and beating at the ice which clogged the bailing valves. When the stern grated the beach twenty waded in to grasp the gunwales and hold her steady and others lifted out the nine. Nine in all, for besides the rescued men Svenson and Wilcos of the Coast Guard were carried moaning up the beach. ”

“ He worked at odd jobs and on fair evenings could be seen sitting on the pier near the station, watching the widely-spaced procession of great carriers that moved upward toward Duluth or down for Chicago or Cleveland or Buffalo; passing ships that some day might need the help of the men who moved about the Coast Guard reservation and who now and then flung toward him some derisive observation or greeting. ”

“ Fact, Martin, he might do you some good; it's sure he don't do anybody a dime's worth of good here.”
“No; no kids,” said the keeper.
Neither did the mill superintendent want help like The Kid when he saw him go flying down the street in the middle of a busy day to watch the Coast Guard at beach apparatus drill. The Kid did not seem to mind being let out, though. He hailed Coburn on the street and reported with enthusiasm that he had a job in a garage.
“I'll learn a lot about gas engines!” he said “That ought to make me a good man when I'm eighteen, oughtn't it?” ”

“ It's a place for one who's content to rot from idleness for months an' then risk his life an' break his back for pay that ain't enough. There's some that might do it at eighteen, but, mostly, it seems it's only men who're old as th' hills ... ”

“ They harped on fear until they convinced themselves that The Kid had no courage and they sneered at him, angry because they could not anger him. ...
March, and the station commenced to take on life and The Kid, thin and ragged but with a high light in his eyes, burst into the boathouse where Svenson and the keeper worked on a motor. ”

“ The keeper spit. To Svenson he said:
“Gi' me that S-wrench.”
That seemed to work into The Kid's spirit and he stood silent a brief interval and then, before turning away, he said:
“Well, if you ever do need a man, Cap'n, I'll be standing by.”
Martin did need men. Wages for common labor were up and all through the summer Numbers Six and Seven were temporary employees. not enlisted men but hired from month to month. Martin could not comply with the order to recruit up to strength. ”

“ Age
By Harold Titus
IN THE beginning he was only a kid; just that—casual, indefinite: a kid.
That is what Coburn, Number One at the station, told the others when his laughter roused them from their naps that Sunday afternoon in the squadroom.
“What's the joke?” Connell asked, turning on his blankets, as Coburn, thumbing tobacco into his pipe gazed out across blue Lake Superior, dotted with the last ice flows of May, and let laughter rumble again in his deep chest.
“Nothin'. ... A kid.” He stuck the extinguished match stump in his shirt pocket. “Crazy kid from Indiany. ”