The Captain of the Kansas

Christmas Day arrived, and maintained its kindly repute by finding affairs on board the _Kansas_ changed for the better. Mr. Boyle was so far recovered that he could walk; he ev...

Isobel’s drooping was of brief endurance. Elsie and Mrs. Somerville supported her to the stateroom, and there Elsie sat with her a little while, soothing her as one might comfor...

“By the way, what of Monsieur de Poincilit?” said Courtenay. “I saw him come aboard with Malcolm, but he dived into the saloon, and has not reappeared. Is he ill?”

Boyle was very angry. It was a situation which demanded earnest words, and they were forthcoming. Elsie understood them to mean that she need not be in such a purple hurry to di...

As a little yeast leavens much flour so does the presence of a few stout-hearted men give strength and courage to a multitude. Although the rumor soon went the rounds that the g...

Courtenay was mistaken in thinking that the savages sought a parley. The canoe was paddled by two women; they changed its course with a dexterous twist of the blades when within...

On his way back to the deck, the captain encountered Suarez. The man’s gestures, and the satisfaction which lit up his wrinkled face, would have told the news he wished to conve...

When Christobal descended to the saloon he found Elsie holding the excited dog. It was instantly perceptible that she was not aware of the grave position of affairs on deck. She...

Walker was about to take her to the saloon, whence an inner staircase communicated with the principal staterooms, but she knew that the door leading to the promenade deck had be...

Elsie had slept long and soundly: she found herself in a new world of sunshine and calm. When she looked over the side to examine the crudely fashioned canoe, she was astonished...

Fortune has her cycles, whether for good or ill. The _Kansas_, having run the gauntlet of many dangers, seemed to have earned an approving smile from the fickle goddess. A sligh...

Once, in early days, when Courtenay was a middy on a destroyer, his ship ran ashore on the Manacles. After a bump or two, and a noise like the snapping of trees during a hurrica...

The captain was enthusiastic when he heard of Elsie’s idea for the protection of the main deck—“an excellent notion,” he termed it, but he scouted the suggestion that she should...

Quickly as Elsie had reached the deck, the warlike sounds which disturbed her rest had ceased. Save for the footsteps of men whom she could not see, the prevalent noises were ca...

This final waiting for the chance of succor seemed to be the hardest trial of all. The door had been hooked back to keep it wide open, so wind and sea invaded the trim privacy o...

Doctor Christobal brought some additional details to the dinner-table. He was not the ship’s doctor. The _Kansas_, built for freight rather than passengers, did not carry a surg...

“I think I shall enjoy this trip,” purred Isobel Baring, nestling comfortably among the cushions of her deck chair. A steward was arranging tea for two at a small table. The _Ka...

The fierce hissing of the continuous escape of steam excited alarm in those not accustomed to machinery. Men and women share the unreasoning panic of animals when an unknown for...

The events of the next hour were shadowy as the dawn to Elsie. She knew that her lover placed men in each of the canoes, that the life-boat itself was crowded, and that it began...

Island, and, from hints dropped by that wretched little adventurer, de Poincilit, I feel sure they have fallen into his hands. Believe me, Elsie, I was half mad when I helped hi...