THE DREAM SHIP 



19 



strong terms. We were still saying some- 

 thing of the sort when a small high- 

 pitched voice came from aloft : 



"Land O !" 



Peter, in striped white and green 

 pajamas, was astride the jaws of the 

 gaff. Steve and I exchanged relieved 

 glances and, with a lashed tiller, we all 

 went below for a rum swizzle, the in- 

 evitable accompaniment to a landfall. We 

 had reached the Galapagos Islands. 



The southeast "trade" was blowing as 

 steadily as a "trade" knows how. and 

 there was nothing between us and San 

 Cristobal (Chatham) Island, the most 

 populous of the group ; consequently I 

 slept the sleep of a mind at peace until 

 awakened by a well-known pressure on 

 the arm. 



FACING AX UNKNOWN DANGER 



"Come and take a look at this." whis- 

 pered Steve, so as not to wake Peter in 

 the opposite bunk. 



"This" proved to be a solid wall of 

 mist, towering over the ship like a 

 precipice. The trade wind had fallen to 

 a stark calm, and the Dream Ship lay 

 wallowing on an oily swell. A young 

 moon rode clear overhead, and myriads 

 of stars glared down at us ; yet still this 

 ominous gray wall lay fair in our path. 



"It ought not to be land," said Steve, 

 "but I don't like the look of it." 



Neither did I. 



We stood side by side, straining our 

 eyes into the murk. A soft barking, for 

 all the world like that of a very old dog. 

 sounded somewhere to port. Splashes, 

 as of giant bodies striking the water, ac- 

 companied by flashes of phosphorescent 

 light, came at intervals from all sides 

 and presently the faint lap of water 

 reached our ears. 



"Mother of Mike !" breathed Steve, 

 "we're alongside something." 



At that moment, and as though im- 

 pelled by some silent mechanism, the pall 

 of mist lifted, revealing an inky black 

 wall of rock not fifty yards distant ! 



My frenzied efforts at the flywheel of 

 the motor auxiliary were as futile as I 

 had more than half expected. Who has 

 ever heard of these atrocities answering 

 in an emergency? We had no sweeps. 

 To anchor was a physical impossibility. 

 The lead-line vanished as probably twenty 



other lead-lines would have vanished 

 after it, in those fathomless waters. So 

 we stood, watching the Dream Ship drift 

 to her doom. 



"clawing our way along a rocky 

 wall" 



What happened during the next hour 

 is as hard to describe as I have no doubt 

 it will be to believe. The Galapagos 

 Islands are threaded with uncertain cur- 

 rents, and one was setting us now onto 

 the rocky face of an islet cut as clean 

 and sheer to the sea as a slice of cheese. 



We should have touched- but for our 

 f ending off. There is no other way of 

 describing our antics than to say that we 

 clawed our way along that rocky wall 

 until, at the end of it, a faint air caught 

 the jib, the foresail, the mainsail, and we 

 stood away without so much as a scratch. 



Sunrise that morning was the weirdest 

 I have ever seen. There are over two 

 thousand volcano cones in the Galapagos 

 Islands, and apparently we were in the 

 midst of them. On all hands and at all 

 distances were rugged peaks one hun- 

 dred to two thousand feet high, rising- 

 sheer from a rose-pink sea into a crimson 

 sky. 



Sleek-headed seals broke water along- 

 side, peered at us for a space with their 

 fawn-like eyes, barked softly, and were 

 gone. Pelicans soared above our truck 

 and fell like a stone on their prey. Tiny 

 birds. yellow and red, flitted about the 

 deck or flew through the skylights and 

 settled on the cabin fittings with the ut- 

 most unconcern. 



Down in the crystal-clear depths vague 

 shapes hovered constantly — sharks, dol- 

 phin, turtle, and ghastly devil-fish. 



All life seemed confined to water and 

 air ; never was dry land so desolate and 

 sinister as those myriads of volcanic 

 cones. Yet one of them was peopled 

 with human beings. Which? We were 

 lost, if ever a ship was lost, in the laby- 

 rinths of an ash-heap. 



BEGAXMED IN THE WATERS OK THE 

 ASH-HE M' 



All we knew was that Cristobal was 

 the easternmost of the group. We sailed 

 east, only to be becalmed inside of an 

 hour and to lose by current what we had 

 gained by wind. 



