It was an hour later. The girls, nineteen of them, with their Guardian1, were standing2 upon the skirts of the adjoining shipyard, watching, with a thrill only a shade less keen than that which had heralded3 the landing of a war-plane by their Council Fire, the shooting-off of a new vessel4 on to the water--the curling, laughing high tide which rose crowing to meet her, its bride.
Atlas5 was with them. Until the end of the War--or as long as he was a shipyard worker--he would be Atlas now, for the foreman had caught the merry deification from Olive’s lips.
He was covering his halo with his hair; it was a rainbowed halo, too, a bump the size of a hen’s egg, of all colors, upon his right temple, sending a red streak6 down to his cheek-bone.
In feeling, he was more Atlas than ever, for now it seemed as if he had a lightning-shot globe upon his head, in the shape of that heroic bump, which at times spun7 so hard through space that it threatened to spin him round with it. But he managed to keep his feet, and the delirious8 throbs9 of pain only added to his excitement--and to the thrill of the foreman’s words in his swelling10 ear: “It was a good line. And you held it--Mike. You saved the life of that contrary little craft--that girl!”
And now he was witnessing the launching of another craft upon her career, with a stifling11 heart-throb of anxiety which said that it might--might be an unnaturally12 short one. For the beautiful ship’s hull13 just darting14 off the greased launching-ways on to the river, sleek15 and glossy16 in her fresh garment of paint--the embryo17 fishing schooner18--would not alone have to face the perils19 which were the daily bread of Captain Bob and his kind, when big seas would pound her like an earthquake, but even on her maiden20 trip a submarine might sink her.
There was no knowing what might be in store for her even while, as now, she was a mere21 sparless hull, before she matured into a maiden vessel; whether, if word had got out as to the date of her launching, a raiding sea-wolf might not be in waiting to seize upon her--a perfectly22 helpless, wobbly lamb, under the convoy23 of a tugboat--and blow her up, as she was being towed round to the seaport24, to have her masts set up.
This lent a pathos25 to the cheers--from girls and others--which greeted the first stir of life in her, as her rocking glide26 began.
“She cr-rawls! She goes! Hi! Hi! Oh-h, see her go!... Oh, isn’t she a bird!”
And, indeed, for the brief few seconds of that swallow-like dart--her white deck flashing--she did seem radiantly winged, like the a?roplane.
“Hour-rah! Houp-ela! She go--de petit ship!” Now it was the voice of a French workman, hanging upon the tail of the launching cheers. “Houp-ela! Ah! Vive le vaisseau!”
“Vive le vaisseau! Here’s hoping no submarine will get her!” cried Atlas, forgetting that he bore a spinning globe upon his head, as he saw the new hull kick up her heels in the water for the first time--brought up short by her snubbing-line--while the crowing tide shot an aigrette of spray aloft, to baptize the ensign--the Stars and Stripes--proudly waving at her stern.
“Vive le vaisseau! Long life to the vessel! O dear! Why can’t we go round to Gloucester on her, all of us, as the tugboat is here now, waiting to tow her down the river?” It was a joint27, eager cry from a dozen girls. “Oh-h! do say we can. Captain Andy--our Menokijábo!”
But the old sea-giant--the Tall Standing Man--was proof even against the wheedling28 use of the Indian name which his Camp Fire Group had bestowed29 upon him and which could generally, according to his own weakening lament30, beguile31 him into a compliance32 with being shoved around like a schooner in a tide-rip, at the will of a score of headstrong girls.
“No! No--siree!” He shook his massive shoulders determinedly33. “If I was only sure of the tide--and the tug-captain who’s to tow the new hull round was sure of it--I’d haul down my colors an’ ye could.”
“I know a girl who was launched on a new vessel like this--from this very ship-yard, too--and she an’ her father went round to Gloucester on it--the new hull--and she said it was a sort of ‘royal progress’ all the way; everybody from every house and camp along the shore tooting horns, blowing whistles, waving the biggest flags they had, cheering the new vessel on her course--hoping she’d escape the submarines,” said Lilia--Little Owl--looking longingly34 at that newly launched ship’s hull rocking gracefully35 upon the river, with her deck white as a hound’s tooth.
“Well! the tide answered for them to go through the canal, I reckon,” was Captain Andy’s reply, still accompanied by negative shrugs36. “That’s the new canal that they built since war began, to avoid the danger of taking freshly launched ships outside the harbor, into open sea, at all. Happen it might answer to-day. Happen it mightn’t! Ye never can tell about the tide in this river. An’ if ye had to go outside, how would you like to see a sub pop up to leeward37 an’ fire a tin fish at you, as I did when I was running that slick old coaster, the Susie Jane, last spring?”
“How could the said sub know that a new vessel had just been launched up here and was being towed round?” questioned Sara Davenport. Her tones were small; it was the first time she had spoken since her challenge to Atlas upbearing the rib38--and what came of it.
“I can’t tell how. But information leaks out somehow. Spies, I guess,” was the mariner’s answer.
“Fresh rumors39 from the sky, as the aviators40 say,” burst forth41 Olive excitedly. “According to report those two who landed by our Council Fire and entertained us so well, did discover a lonely hut, with a wireless42 outfit43 attached, in some part of the woods along the shore here.”
“They’ll have to do some more tall scouting44, I reckon--comb the shores from end to end--before they nab every one who’s playing into the hands of the ‘Jerries.’” Menokijábo shook his great head. “A spy on any side has a quick eye an’ his nerve with him. Anyhow, I’m not taking chances on the safety of this new hull--against the odds45 of somebody, who has a ‘nifty’ scheme up his sleeve, signaling out to sea about her--by letting you girls make the towed trip on her new deck.”
“And you won’t take chances on our going through the canal, either, on--on the tide being obliging?” Sybil eyed him wistfully.
“Great Neptune46! Not much! With a river-channel that’s all ‘studdled’ with quicksands an’ changing gullies, as this one is,” glancing down the brackish47 river, “the old tide just naturally has to chase itself out a little faster at one time than another. Just high tide now--four o’clock--five by my watch! They didn’t change the tide-table when, on Easter morning, they shoved the clocks an hour ahead. They couldn’t work any daylight-saving racket on the hoary48 old tide,” laughingly; “’twould upset calculations all over the globe.”
“Well, I think I’ll follow the tide’s example and ‘beat it’ for the sea--Manchester-by-the-Sea--rather earlier than usual to-day, now that I’ve seen the launching,” said Atlas, in whose ear the foreman had been whispering.
“Good! And don’t ye show up to-morrow,” softly enjoined49 the latter. “An’ you don’t drive your own car this evening, either. Marty Williams will be starting your way pretty soon; you’ve driven him home many an evening; now he can drive you!”
“But you’ll come down to see us at our camp just as soon as you feel able”--began Olive, and stopped, for Atlas’ bump, bared by breezes, flamed like a thunder-bolt in her direction--“I mean--I mean any day now,” she amended50 lamely51. “If you row down the river from here, we’ll come across the sand-dunes52 from our side of them and meet you half-way, so that you need not go all the way down to the mouth of the river, over the bar and, so, around up to our white beach.”
“We might bring our supper with us, light a fire and picnic out on the middle of the dunes--that would be dandy--right near that great, huge pile of clam53-shells where the Indians once held an historic clam-bake,” came breathlessly from Betty--fair-haired Betty Ayres--whose symbol was the Holly54, green when all other shrubs55 were bare.
“Thanks! Awf’ly--awf’ly good you are!” murmured Atlas. “You may look for me on deck--meaning on the dunes by the shell-heap--some time soon. I’ll let you know first. Well, good-bye. So long!”
Yet he lingered a little, ostensibly absorbed in the river and its bride, the new hull, really inclining his swollen56 right ear for some added word of invitation from the girl with the amber-tipped eyelashes, whose life he had saved.
But those lashes57, except for the grace of one flickering58 farewell nod, were persistently59 lowered.
“Pshaw! Pshaw! she’s the very original female clam herself--not a word out of her,” thought Atlas, and departed, in high dudgeon.
“Sara Davenport! You behaved like an idiot, not moving off when he told you, before--before that horrid60 old, jaundiced rib of a ship came near falling on you--and killing61 you. I suppose it really might have killed you but for him!” was the Flame’s scorching62 thought. “But he did feel so self-important--crouching there, under the great rib, feeling that he was upholding shipping63--I know he did! Just because he’s such a rich boy, who never did anything like that before!... And Olive’s cousin! One of the set into which her father--her family--would think she ought to--ought to marry--when by and by it comes to that--never thinking of Iver, at all!... Iver who held out his burnt hand to a private! Iver who’s been over the top--wounded three times--burned with mustard gas! Oh-h-h!”
Mustard tears were in Sesooā’s eyes now. But, for all their stinging, she would not have parted with them for a kingdom--those diamond drops of the first water, tribute to her pride in the soldier-brother “over there,” to a quite extravagant64 jealousy65 on his behalf, too, lest he should fail of getting his heart’s desire when he came back--as she knew he would come!
“Oh! I suppose I shouldn’t vent66 it on Olive’s kith and kin,” she told herself, looking out through a blur67 at the lately launched vessel which the tugboat was now taking in tow for her perilous68 trip round to the seaport, when, if the hoary old tide was not obliging, a “tin fish” might be fired at her, or a bomb whip-sawed up under her new keel, to blow up some thirty thousand dollars’ worth of vessel--and the labor69 of months.
“What a contrary little cat--an utter simpleton--that Atlas boy must think me! A nice impression I’ve given him of our Camp Fire Group! Well! I can--can--undo some of it, later on. Watch him--watch him open his eyes when he sees me light a fire with rubbing sticks, out there on the middle of the dunes, as the Indians did long ago, I suppose, when they had that huge clam-bake. I wish I could show him that very last honor-bead, too, red with a white square on it, like the Scouts’ signal-flags--a local honor for signaling, for understanding wigwag--sending a message with Morse code or semaphore. I’ll wager70 he couldn’t do it, for all he held up shipping! No, sir!”
The Flame’s lip was hotly quivering to match the storm water in her eyes, as she sent these thoughts after the new hull, now being towed down the river.
One and all, the girls waved a parting salute71, made the hand-sign of fire to win her luck--that baby vessel.
The hand-sign was in Sesooā’s heart. Not by any stereotyped72 thanks for the vital spark still in her, paid for by the spinning globe which Atlas was carrying home on his head--although, of course, these must be offered, verbal or written--but by the magic of thunder-bird or “hand-hold,” bow, drill, fire-board and tinder, winning the boon73 of fire from dead wood, would she retrieve74 the honor of her Camp Fire, uphold the other side of her not scarred by wilfulness75 and petty mockery through a fantastic jealousy on Iver’s behalf.
Never--never before had Firemaking Outfit such a contract to fill--or the dunes such a vindication76 to witness!
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1
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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heralded
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| v.预示( herald的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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4
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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atlas
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| n.地图册，图表集 | |
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6
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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7
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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throbs
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| 体内的跳动( throb的名词复数 ) | |
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swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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14
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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embryo
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| n.胚胎，萌芽的事物 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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seaport
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| n.海港，港口，港市 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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28
wheedling
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| v.骗取（某物），哄骗（某人干某事）( wheedle的现在分词 ) | |
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29
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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beguile
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| vt.欺骗，消遣 | |
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compliance
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| n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从 | |
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determinedly
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| adv.决意地；坚决地，坚定地 | |
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longingly
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| adv. 渴望地 热望地 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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36
shrugs
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| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
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leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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40
aviators
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| 飞机驾驶员，飞行员( aviator的名词复数 ) | |
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41
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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42
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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43
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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44
scouting
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| 守候活动，童子军的活动 | |
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45
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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46
Neptune
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| n.海王星 | |
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47
brackish
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| adj.混有盐的；咸的 | |
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48
hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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49
enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
Amended
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| adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词 | |
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51
lamely
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| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
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52
dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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53
clam
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| n.蛤，蛤肉 | |
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54
holly
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| n.[植]冬青属灌木 | |
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55
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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56
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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57
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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58
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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59
persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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60
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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61
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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62
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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63
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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64
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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66
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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67
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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69
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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70
wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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71
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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72
stereotyped
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| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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73
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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74
retrieve
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| vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索 | |
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75
wilfulness
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| 任性；倔强 | |
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76
vindication
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| n.洗冤，证实 | |
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