THE DREAM SHIP 



25 



• ■ i 



by Ralph Stock 



Photogra 



THE "DREAM SHIP'' FLOATS OUT OF THE MIRAFIyORES LOCKS (PANAMA CANAL) 



INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN 



gun like a magnet. Peter interviewed 

 the lighthouse-keeper's wife anent cook- 

 ing for us during our stay, and I — I 

 lazed ; it gives one time to notice things 

 that escape the attention of the indus- 

 trious. 



A steam-engine was chugging some- 

 where behind the belt of stunted trees 

 that fringed the beach, and I found it to 

 be a coffee-grinder fueled, if you please, 

 with sawed lengths of lignum-vit?e — a 

 furnace of wood at something like $5 a 

 stick in most countries ! I should like to 

 have seen the face of a block-maker of 

 my acquaintance at such vandalism. But 

 here it is nothing of the sort. Little else 

 in the way of indigenous scrub grows on 

 Cristobal. 



WHY DAD DIDXT FINISH HIS SHIP 



Mechanically gravitating t o w a r d 

 ''Dad's" split-bamboo abode, I came upon 

 him seated on a log, staring meditatively 

 at the crumbling skeleton of what had 

 been, or was at one time going to be, a 

 ship. 



"Why didn't you finish her?" I shouted 

 into his "best" ear. 



He stared at me in a daze ; then burst 

 forth in Spanish, until I succeeded in 

 convincing him that he might as well talk 

 double Dutch. 



"Of course, of course,'' he muttered. 

 "I forget ; Lord, how I forget. It's queer 

 to me that I can speak English at all 

 after all these years ; but I can ; that's 

 something, isn't it?'' 



"Sure thing," I yelled ; "keep it up. 

 Tell me why you didn't finish your ship." 



He pondered the matter ; then spoke 

 slowly : 



"I told you of the other I built — and 

 why. Well, I ran Iter on a reef — splinters 

 in five minutes. Took the heart out of 

 me for a bit, that did. 



"Then I began to think of that loot 

 again. I do still, for that matter; can't 

 help it. You see, I think I know where 

 it is. So I started on this one." He 

 nodded toward the hulk, silhouetted 

 against the crimsoning sky. 



"I'd got to the planking when it oc- 

 curred to me I'd want a partner for the 



