NEWSREEL XX 5 страница

They had the flag up and the ship's name signal and
Sparks was working overtime and they sure were nervous
on account of mines until the French patrol boat came out
and led the way through the winding channel into the
river between the minefields.

When they saw the spires and the long rows of grey
houses and the little clustered chimney pots of St. Nazaire
in the smoky dusk the boys were going round slapping
each other on the back and saying they sure would get
cockeyed this night.

But what happened was that they anchored out in the
stream and Cap'n Perry and the First Mate went ashore in
the dingy and they didn't dock till two days later on ac-
count of there being no room at the wharves. When they
did get ashore to take a look at the mademosels and the
vin rouge, they all had to show their seaman's passports
when they left the wharf to a redfaced man in a blue uni-
form trimmed with red who had a tremendous pair of
pointed black moustaches. Blackie Flannagan had crouched

-59-

down behind him and somebody was just going to give him
a shove over his back when the Chief yelled at them from
across the street, "For Chris' sake, can't you c-----s see
that's a frog cop? You don't want to get run in right on the
wharf, do you?"

Joe and Flannagan got separated from the others and
walked around to look the town over. The streets were
paved with cobblestones and awful little and funny and
the old women all wore tight white lace caps and every-
thing looked kinder falling down. Even the dogs looked
like frog dogs. They ended up in a place marked American
Bar but it didn't look like any bar they'd ever seen in the
States. They bought a bottle of cognac for a starter. Flan-
nagan said the town looked like Hoboken, but Joe said it
looked kinder like Villefranche where he'd been when he
was in the navy. American dollars went pretty far if you
knew enough not to let 'em gyp you.

Another American came in to the dump and they got to
talking and he said he'd been torpedoed on the Oswego
right in the mouth of the Loire river. They gave him some
of the cognac and he said how it had been, that Uboat had
blowed the poor old Oswego clear outa the water and
when smoke cleared away she'd split right in two and
closed up like a jackknife. They had another bottle of
cognac on that and then the feller took them to a house
he said he knew and there they found some more of the
bunch drinking beer and dancing around with the girls.

Joe was having a good time parleyvooing with one of
the girls, he'd point to something and she'd tell him how
to say it in French, when a fight started someway and the
frog cops came and the bunch had to run for it. They all
got back aboard ship ahead of the cops but they came and
stood on the dock and jabbered for about a half an hour
until old Cap'n Perry, who'd just gotten back from town
in a horsecab, told 'em where to get off.

The trip back was slow but pretty good. They were only

-60-

a week in Hampton Roads, loaded up with a cargo of steel
ingots and explosives, and cleared for Cardiff. It was
nervous work. The Cap'n took a northerly course and they
got into a lot of fog. Then after a solid week of icy cold
weather with a huge following sea they sighted Rockall.
Joe was at the wheel. The green hand in the crowsnest
yelled out, "Battleship ahead," and old Cap'n Perry stood
on the bridge laughing, looking at the rock through his
binoculars.

Next morning they raised the Hebrides to the south.
Cap'n Perry was just pointing out the Butt of Lewis to the
mate when the lookout in the bow gave a scared hail. It
was a submarine all right. You could see first the periscope
trailing a white feather of foam, then the dripping conning
tower. The submarine had hardly gotten to the surface
when she started firing across the North Star's bows with
a small gun that the squareheads manned while decks were
still awash. Joe went running aft to run up the flag, al-
though they had the flag painted amidships on either side
of the boat. The engineroom bells jingled as Cap'n Perry
threw her into full speed astern. The jerries stopped firing
and four of them came on board in a collapsible punt.
All hands had their life preservers on and some of the
men were going below for their duffle when the fritz officer
who came aboard shouted in English that they had five
minutes to abandon the ship. Cap'n Perry handed over the
ship's papers, the boats were lowered like winking as the
blocks were well oiled. Something made Joe run back up
to the boat deck and cut the lashings on the liferafts with
his jackknife, so he and Cap'n Perry and the ship's cat
were the last to leave the North Star. The jerries had
planted bombs in the engine room and were rowing back
to the submarine like the devil was after them. The Cap'n's
boat had hardly pushed off when the explosion lammed
them a blow on the side of the head. The boat swamped
and before they knew what had hit them they were swim-

-61-

ming in the icy water among all kinds of planking and
junk. Two of the boats were still afloat. The old North
Star was sinking quietly with the flag flying and the signal-
flags blowing out prettily in the light breeze. They must
have been half an hour or an hour in the water. After the
ship had sunk they managed to get onto the liferafts and
the mate's boat and the Chief's boat took them in tow.
Cap'n Perry called the roll. There wasn't a soul missing.
The submarine had submerged and gone some time ago.
The men in the boats started pulling towards shore. Till
nightfall the strong tide was carrying them in fast towards
the Pentland Firth. In the last dusk they could see the tall
headlands of the Orkneys. But when the tide changed they
couldn't make headway against it. The men in the boats
and the men in the rafts took turn and turn about at the
oars but they couldn't buck the terrible ebb. Somebody
said the tide ran eight knots an hour in there. It was a
pretty bad night. With the first dawn they caught sight of
a scoutcruiser bearing down on them. Her searchlight
glared suddenly in their faces making everything look
black again. The Britishers took 'em on board and hustled
them down into the engineroom to get warm. A redfaced
steward came down with a bucket of steaming tea with rum
in it and served it out with a ladle.

The scoutcruiser took 'em into Glasgow, pretty well
shaken up by the chop of the Irish Sea, and they all stood
around in the drizzle on the dock while Cap'n Perry went
to find the American consul. Joe was getting numb in the
feet standing still and tried to walk across to the iron gates
opposite the wharf house to take a squint down the street,
but an elderly man in a uniform poked a bayonet at his
belly and he stopped. Joe went back to the crowd and told
'em how they were prisoners there like they were fritzes.
Jez, it made 'em sore. Flannagan started telling about how
the frogs had arrested him one time for getting into a
fight with an orangeman in a bar in Marseilles and had

-62-

been ready to shoot him because they said the Irish were
all pro-German. Joe told about how the limeys had run
him in in Liverpool. They were all grousing about how
the whole business was a lousy deal when Ben Tarbell the
mate turned up with an old guy from the consulate and
told 'em to come along.

They had to troop half across town through streets
black dark for fear of airraids and slimy with rain, to a
long tarpaper shack inside a barbedwire enclosure. Ben
Tarbell told the boys he was sorry but they'd have to stay
there for the present, and that he was trying to get the
consul to do something about it and the old man had cabled
the owners to try to get 'em some pay. Some girls from
the Red Cross brought them grub, mostly bread and mar-
malade and meatpaste, nothing you could really sink your
teeth into, and some thin blankets. They stayed in that
damn place for twelve days, playing poker and yarning
and reading old newspapers. Evenings sometimes a frousy
halfdrunk woman would get past the old guard and peel
in the door of the shack and beckon one of the men out
into the foggy darkness behind the latrines somewhere.
Some of the guys were disgusted and wouldn't go.

They'd been shut up in there so long that when the
mate finally came around and told 'em they were going
home they didn't have enough spunk left in 'em to yell.
They went across the town packed with traffic and gas-
flare in the fog again and on board a new 6000 ton
freighter, the Vicksburg, that had just unloaded a cargo
of cotton. It felt funny being a passenger and being able
to lay around all day on the trip home.

Joe was lying out on the hatchcover the first sunny day
they'd had when old Cap'n Perry came up to him. Joe
got to his feet. Cap'n Perry said he hadn't had a chance
to tell him what he thought of him for having the presence
of mind to cut the lashings on those rafts and that half the
men on the boat owed their lives to him. He said Joe was

-63-

a bright boy and ought to start studying how to get out
of the focastle and that the American merchant marine
was growing every day on account of the war and young
fellers like him were just what they needed for officers.
"You remind me, boy," he said, "when we get to Hampton
Roads and I'll see what I can do on the next ship I get.
You could get your third mate's ticket right now with a
little time in shore school." Joe grinned and said he sure
would like to. It made him feel good the whole trip. He
couldn't wait to go and see Del and tell her he wasn't in
the focastle any more. Dod gast it, he was tired of being
treated like a jailbird all his life.

The Vicksburg docked at Newport News. Hampton
Roads was fuller of shipping than Joe had ever seen it.
Along the wharves everybody was talking about the
Deutschland that had just unloaded a cargo of dyes in
Baltimore. When Joe got paid off he wouldn't even take
a drink with his shipmates but hustled down to the ferry
station to get the ferry for Norfolk. Jez, the old ferry
seemed slow. It was about five o'clock a Saturday after-
noon when he got into Norfolk. Walking down the street
he was scared she wouldn't be home yet.

Del was home and seemed glad to see him. She said
she had a date that night but he teased her into breaking
it off. After all, weren't they engaged to be married? They
went out and had a sundae at an icecream parlor and she
told him all about her new job with the Duponts and how
she was getting ten more a week and how all the boys she
knew and several girls were working in the munition fac-
tories and how some of 'em were making fifteen dollars a
day and they were buying cars and the boy she'd had a
date with that night had a Packard. It took a long time for
Joe to get around to tell her about what old Cap'n Perry
had said and she was all excited about his having been
torpedoed and said why didn't he go and get a job over at
Newport News in the shipyard and make real money, she

-64-

didn't like the idea of his being torpedoed every minute,
but Joe said he hated to leave the sea now that there
was a chance of getting ahead. She asked him how much
he'd make as third mate on a freighter and he said a
hundred and twentyfive a month but there'd always be
bonuses for the zone and there were a lot of new ships
being built and he thought the prospects pretty good all
around.

Del screwed her face up in a funny way and said she
didn't know how she'd like having a husband who was
away from home all the time, but she went into a phone
booth and called the other boy up and broke off the date
she had with him. They went back to Del's house and
she cooked up a bite of supper. Her folks had gone over
to Fortress Monroe to eat with an aunt of hers. It made
Joe feel good to see her with an apron on bustling around
the kitchen. She let him kiss her a couple of times but
when he went up behind her and hugged her and pulled
her face back and kissed her, she said not to do that, it
made her feel all out of breath. The dark smell of her
hair and the feel of her skin that was white like milk
against his lips made him feel giddy. It was a relief when
they went out on the street in the keen northwest wind
again. He bought her a box of Saturday night candies at
a drugstore. They went to see a bill of vaudeville and
movies at the Colonial. The Belgian war pictures were
awful exciting and Del said wasn't it terrible and Joe
started to tell her about what a guy he knew had told him
about being in an air raid in London but she didn't listen.

When he kissed her goodnight in the hall, Joe felt
awful hot and pressed her up in the corner by the hatrack
and tried to get his hand under her skirt but she said not
till they were married and he said with his mouth against
hers, when would they get married and she said they'd get
married as soon as he got his new job.

Just then they heard the key in the latch just beside

-65-

them and she pulled him into the parlor and whispered
not to say anything about their being engaged just yet. It
was Del's old man and her mother and her two kid sisters
and the old man gave Joe a mean look and the kid sisters
giggled and Joe went away feeling fussed. It was early
yet but Joe felt too het up to sleep so he walked around
a little and then went by the Stirps' house to see if Will
was in town. Will was in Baltimore looking for a job, but
old Mrs. Stirp said if he didn't have nowhere to go and
wanted to sleep in Will's bed he was welcome, but he
couldn't sleep for thinking of Del and how smart she was
and how she felt in his arms and how the smell of her
hair made him feel crazy and how much he wanted her.

First thing he did Monday morning was to go over to
Newport News and see Cap'n Perry. The old man was
darn nice to him, asked him about his schooling and his
folks. When Joe said he was old Cap'n Joe Williams' son,
Cap'n Perry couldn't do enough for him. Him and Joe's
old man had been on the Albert and Mary Smith together
in the old clipper ship days. He said he'd have a berth for
Joe as junior officer on the Henry B. Higginbotham as
soon as she'd finished repairs and he must go to work
at shore school over in Norfolk and get ready to go before
the licensing board and get his ticket. He'd coach him
up on the fine points himself. When he left the old man
said, "Ma boy, if you work like you oughter, bein' your
Dad's son, an' this war keeps up, you'll be master of
your own vessel in five years, I'll guarantee it."

Joe couldn't wait to get hold of Del and tell her about
it. That night he took her to the movies to see the Four
Horsemen. It 'was darned exciting, they held hands all
through and he kept his leg pressed against her plump
little leg. Seeing it with her and the war and everything
flickering on the screen and the music like in church and
her hair against his cheek and being pressed close to her
a little sweaty in the warm dark like to went to his head.

-66-

When the picture was over he felt he'd go crazy if he
couldn't have her right away. She was kinder kidding him
along and he got sore and said God damn it, they'd have
to get married right away or else he was through. She'd
held out on him just about long enough. She began to cry
and turned her face up to him all wet with tears and said
if he really loved her he wouldn't talk like that and that
that was no way to talk to a lady and he felt awful bad
about it. When they got back to her folks' house, every-
body had gone to bed and they went out in the pantry
back of the kitchen without turning the light on and she
let him love her up. She said honestly she loved him so
much she'd let him do anything he wanted only she knew
he wouldn't respect her if she did. She said she was sick
of living at home and having her mother keep tabs on her
all the time, and she'd tell her folks in the morning about
how he'd got a job as a ship's officer and they had to get
married before he left and that he must get him his uni-
form right away.

When Joe left the house to look around and find a flop,
he was walking on air. He hadn't planned to get married
that soon but what the hell, a man had to have a girl of
his own. He began doping out what he'd write Janey
about it, but he decided she wouldn't like it and that he'd
better not write. He wished Janey wasn't getting so kind
of uppish, but after all she was making a big success of
business. When he was skipper of his owd ship she'd think
it was all great.

Joe was two months ashore that time. He went to shore
school every day, lived at the Y.M.C.A. and didn't take
a drink or shoot pool or anything. The pay he had saved
up from the two trips on the North Star was just about
enough to swing it. Every week or so he went over to
Newport News to talk it over with old Cap'n Perry who
told him what kind of questions the examining board
would ask him and what kind of papers he'd need. Joe

-67-

was pretty worried about his original A.B. certificate, but
he had another now and recommendations from captains
of ships he'd been on. What the hell, he'd been at sea
four years, it was about time he knew a little about run-
ning a ship. He almost worried himself sick over the ex-
amination, but when he was actually there standing before
the old birds on the board it wasn't as bad as he thought
it ud be. When he actually got the third mate's license
and showed it to Del, they were both of them pretty
tickled.

Joe bought his uniform when he got an advance of pay.
From then on he was busy all day doing odd jobs round
the drydock for old Cap'n Perry who hadn't gotten a crew
together yet. Then in the evenings he worked painting
up the little bedroom, kitchenette and bath he'd rented
for him and Del to live in when he was ashore. Del's folks
insisted on having a church wedding and Will Stirp, who
was making fifteen dollars a day in a shipyard in Balti-
more, came down to be best man.

Joe felt awful silly at the wedding and Will Stirp
had gotten hold of some whiskey and had a breath like
a distillery wagon and a couple of the other boys were
drunk and that made Del and her folks awful sore
and Del looked like she wanted to crown him all
through the service. When it was over Joe found he'd
wilted his collar and Del's old man began pulling a lot
of jokes and her sisters giggled so much in their white
organdy dresses, he could have choked 'em. They went
back to the Matthews) house and everybody was awful
stiff except Will Stirp and his friends who brought in a
bottle of whiskey and got old man Matthews cockeyed.
Mrs. Matthews ran 'em all out of the house and all the
old cats from the Ladies Aid rolled their eyes up and said,
"Could you imagine it?" And Joe and Del left in a
taxicab a feller he knew drove and everybody threw rice
at them and Joe found he had a sign reading Newlywed

-68-

pinned on the tail of his coat and Del cried and cried and
when they got to their apartment Del locked herself in
the bathroom and wouldn't answer when he called and
he was afraid she'd fainted.

Joe took off his new blue serge coat and his collar and
necktie and walked up and down not knowing what to
do. It was six o'clock in the evening. He had to be aboard
ship at midnight because they were sailing for France as
soon as it was day. He didn't know what to do. He
thought maybe she'd want something to eat so he cooked
up some bacon and eggs on the stove. By the time every-
thing was cold and Joe was walking up and down cussing
under his breath, Del came out of the bathroom looking
all fresh and pink like nothing had happened. She said
she couldn't eat anything but let's go to a movie . . .
"But, honeybug," said Joe, "I've got to pull out at twelve."
She began to cry again and he flushed and felt awful
fussed. She snuggled up to him and said, "We won't stay
for the feature. We'll come back in time." He grabbed
her and started hugging her but she held him off firmly
and said, "Later."

Joe couldn't look at the picture. When they got back
to the apartment it was ten o'clock. She let him pull off
her clothes but she jumped into bed and wrapped the
bedclothes around her and whimpered that she was afraid
of having a baby, that he must wait till she found out what
to do to keep from having a baby. All she let him do was
rub up against her through the bedclothes and then sud-
denly it was ten of twelve and he had to jump into his
clothes and run down to the wharf. An old colored man
rowed him out to where his ship lay at anchor. It was a
sweetsmelling spring night without any moon. He heard
honking overhead and tried to squint up his eyes to see
the birds passing against the pale stars. "Them's geese,
boss," said the old colored man in a soft voice. When he
climbed onboard everybody started kidding him and de-

-69-

clared he looked all wore out. Joe didn't know what to
say so he talked big and kidded back and lied like a
fish.

NEWSREEL XXI

Goodby Broadway
Hello France
We're ten million strong

8 YEAR OLD BOY SHOT BY LAD WITH
RIFLE

the police have already notified us that any entertainment
in Paris must be brief and quietly conducted and not in public
view and that we have already had more dances than we ought

capitalization grown 104% while business expands 520%

HAWAIIAN SUGAR CONTROL LOST BY
GERMANS

efforts of the Bolshevik Government to discuss the with-
drawal of the U. S. and allied forces from Russia through
negotiation for an armistice are attracting no serious attention

BRITISH AIRMAN FIGHTS SIXTY FOES

SERBIANS ADVANCE 10 MILES; TAKE 10 TOWNS;
MENACE PRILEP

Good morning
Mr. Zip Zip Zip
You're surely looking fine
Good morning
Mr. Zip Zip Zip
With your hair cut just as short as
With your hair cut just as short as
With your hair cut just as short as mine

-70-