Ralph Stock

“ In silence we remained until the end of his watch, when the mist was dispersed by a brazen sun. Thorpe at once took a sight, and again at noon, and when I had plotted our position on the chart, he was still poring over volumes of nautical tables.
Towards dusk he came to me at the tiller.
"Are you holding this course after dark?" he asked.
"That is as may be," said I.
"Because if you are," he went on, as though I had not spoken, "you'll be on the Barrier Reef inside of five hours." ”

“ I am what they call an old man on Thursday Island, for none but blacks live to any age in the neighbourhood of this sun-baked tile on the roof of Australia. But I come of Old Country stock, and blood will tell. ”

“ Trust small craft for discovering one man to another. Before three days and three nights had passed, we stood before each other, he and I, stripped to our souls. His every movement was an aggravation to me, especially when he played with the bespangled sextant and toy chronometer he had brought, and when each day, on plotting out my position on the chart according to dead reckoning, I found his, by observation, already there. ”

“ Evans is a good fellow, but provokingly incomplete.
"Yes," said I. "What happened to the old man?"
"Oh, he rushed on deck at the first shock, it seems, and was promptly bowled over the side by a breaker. But there's no killing him. He just sat on the reef, thinking his ketch sunk and Thorpe dead, until someone came and took him off. Shook him up, though. He's never been quite the same since—which is all to the good, most of us think." ”

“ Somehow the sight of it—this handsome, impertinent face of his—caused a red mist to swim before my eyes.
"You will be made to," I said.
"Ah!" was all he answered at the moment, and resumed the study of his feet. If he had remained so, all might have been well. I cannot tell. I only know that at that moment one word stood for him between life and death, and he chose to utter it. "How?"
I tried to show him, that was all. I swear that was my sole intention. But he was obstinate, that boy. I had not thought it possible for man to be as obstinate as he. ”

“ But it was a little thing that brought matters to a climax. It is always the little things.
With a fair wind, and in. these unfrequented waters, it has always been my habit to lash the tiller and eat in comfort. We were washing up after supper, or, rather, he was washing and I was drying, for the dryer puts away the utensils, and I knew better the proper place for each. At the end he tossed the dish-cloth in a sodden mass upon the table and turned to go.
"The dish-cloth, if you remember," said I, "is spread on the wash-bowl to dry." ”

“ Evans rolled over in his chair and grinned at me.
"What's the game?" he questioned good-naturedly. "I never saw such a fellow." He rolled back again. "But, come to think of it, there might be something in him for you. The old man's ketch is the first thing I ever heard of to jump the Barrier Reef. I thought that'd make you sit up. But it's the truth. Ask Thorpe—he was aboard when she did it. ”

“ Consequently that evening found me, not for the first time, on his wide verandah, discussing whisky and soda and the impossible state of the shell market.
"By the way," I ventured presently, "did you ever know a Captain Brent?"
"Still know him, for the matter of that," said Evans. "Why?" ”

“ In the garden, enjoying the cool of the evening, were four people, a white-bearded man seated in a cane chair, a bronzed giant prone and smoking on the grass, and a woman beside him, sitting as only a woman can. ”

“ DEAD RECKONING
By RALPH STOCK
I HAVE killed a man because he disagreed with me.
Anything more futile it is hard to imagine in cold blood, for by killing him I have proved nothing. He still holds his view. ”