THE WRECK OF THE "HALFMOON"
INSTANTLY Barbara Harding looked into the face of the mucker she read her danger.Why the man should hate her so she could not guess; but that he did was evidenced by the malevolent expression of his surly countenance.For a moment he stood glaring at her, and then he spoke.
"I'm wise to wot youse an' dat guy was chinnin' about," he growled, "an' I'm right here to tell youse dat you don't wanta try an' put nothin' over on me, see? Youse ain't a-goin' to double-cross Billy Byrne.I gotta good notion to han' youse wot's comin' to you.If it hadn't been fer youse I wouldn't have been here now on dis Gawd-forsaken wreck.Youse is de cause of all de trouble.Wot youse ought to get is croaked an'
den dere wouldn't be nothin' to bother any of us.You an' yer bunch of kale, dey give me a swift pain.Fer half a cent I'd soak youse a wallop to de solar plexus dat would put youse to sleep fer de long count, you--you--" but here words failed Billy.
To his surprise the girl showed not the slightest indication of fear.Her head was high, and her level gaze never wavered from his own eyes.Presently a sneer of contempt curled her lip.
"You coward!" she said quietly."To insult and threaten a woman! You are nothing but an insufferable bully, and a cowardly murderer.You murdered a man on the Lotus whose little finger held more true manhood, bravery, and worth than the whole of your great, hulking carcass.You are only fit to strike from behind, or when your victim is unsuspecting, as you did Mr.Theriere that other day.Do you think I fear a THING such as you--a beast without honor that kicks an unconscious man in the face? I know that you can kill me.Iknow that you are coward enough to do it because I am a defenseless woman; and though you may kill me, you never can make me show fear for you.That is what you wish to do--that is your idea of manliness.I had never imagined that such a thing as you lived in the guise of man; but I have read you, Mr.Byrne, since I have had occasion to notice you, and I know now that you are what is known in the great cities as a mucker.The term never meant much to me before, but I see now that it fits your kind perfectly, for in it is all the loathing and contempt that a real man--a gentleman--must feel for such as you."As she spoke Billy Byrne's eyes narrowed; but not with the cunning of premeditated attack.He was thinking.For the first time in his life he was thinking of how he appeared in the eyes of another.Never had any human being told Billy Byrne thus coolly and succinctly what sort of person he seemed to them.In the heat of anger men of his own stamp had applied vile epithets to him, describing him luridly as such that by the simplest laws of nature he could not possibly be; but this girl had spoken coolly, and her descriptions had been explicit--backed by illustrations.She had given real reasons for her contempt, and somehow it had made that contempt seem very tangible.
One who had known Billy would have expected him to fly into a rage and attack the girl brutally after her scathing diatribe.Billy did nothing of the sort.Barbara Harding's words seemed to have taken all the fight out of him.He stood looking at her for a moment--it was one of the strange contradictions of Billy Byrne's personality that he could hold his eyes quite steady and level, meeting the gaze of another unwaveringly--and in that moment something happened to Billy Byrne's perceptive faculties.It was as though scales which had dimmed his mental vision had partially dropped away, for suddenly he saw what he had not before seen--a very beautiful girl, brave and unflinching before the brutal menace of his attitude, and though the mucker thought that he still hated her, the realization came to him that be must not raise a hand against her--that for the life of him he could not, nor ever again against any other woman.Why this change, Billy did not know, he simply knew that it was so, and with an ugly grunt he turned his back upon her and walked away.
A slight breeze had risen from the southwest since Theriere had left Barbara Harding and now all hands were busily engaged in completing the jury rigging that the Halfmoon might take advantage of the wind and make the shore that rose abruptly from the bosom of the ocean but a league away.
Before the work was completed the wind increased rapidly, so that when the tiny bit of canvas was hoisted into position it bellied bravely, and the Halfmoon moved heavily forward toward the land.
"We gotta make a mighty quick run of it," said Skipper Simms to Ward, "or we'll go to pieces on them rocks afore ever we find a landing.""That we will if this wind rises much more," replied Ward;"and's far as I can see there ain't no more chance to make a landing there than there would be on the side of a house."And indeed as the Halfmoon neared the towering cliffs it seemed utterly hopeless that aught else than a fly could find a foothold upon that sheer and rocky face that rose abruptly from the ocean's surface.
Some two hundred yards from the shore it became evident that there was no landing to be made directly before them, and so the course of the ship was altered to carry them along parallel to the shore in an effort to locate a cove, or beach where a landing might safely be effected.
The wind, increasing steadily, was now whipping the sea into angry breakers that dashed resoundingly against the rocky barrier of the island.To drift within reach of those frightful destroyers would mean the instant annihilation of the Halfmoon and all her company, yet this was precisely what the almost unmanageable hulk was doing at the wheel under the profane direction of Skipper Simms, while Ward and Theriere with a handful of men altered the meager sail from time to time in an effort to keep the ship off the rocks for a few moments longer.
