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! A PAGE for BOYS & GIRLS
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THE IVORY CYLINDER
By WALLACE DIXON, Author of "The Amber Atoll"
rra HB fury of tne wintl swept away
11 [ all sense ot what he was saying.
J \ \ The two lads tought their way
along the deck to where Irish
and Curly Smith were waiting in
the shelter of the deckhouse.
" 'Tis loike th' howl av th' banshee
on Knockmealdown," yelled the taxi
driver into Carey's ears. "Phwat kind
av a place do you call this here, whin a
mhan has to sit down if he wants to
kape his fate."
"Gosh-a-tnighty, did ye see that!"
Curly exclaimed.
A wall of foam, shaped like a funnel,
was rising ahead of the labouring
yacht. The engine-room bell tinkled
sharply, and was lost in a peal ot thun-
der. The decks began to list dan-
gerously.
"It's a waterspout! " Mortimer whis-
pered.
He stared at it with fascinated eyes.
The world seemed to have vanished ex-
cept for the rushing darkness, the
tremendous sen, and the furious howl-
ing of the storm. Earth and sky were
wound about each other.
"Sit tight," he heard someone shout.
Giant hands lifted the Silver Wings
from the water. She spun as though in
a vortex. Solid masses of water slid
across her sloping decks. She quiver-
ed like a live thing.
At the first impact Mortimer was
torn from his hold. He had the ter-
rible thought that he was already in
the grasp ot the ocean, that he had
been swept, and was even then on tho
.verge of death.
Choking, gasping, fighting with all
his remaining strength, he cast about
desperately for hold ot some kind. For
all he could see there was nothing solid
near him. The yacht seemed to have
vanished utterly from beneath his feet.
And thed'for a second the fury pass-
ed, the water receded in a huge wave,
and he found himself . . . dripping, ex-
hausted, but safe, wedged against the
butt of an iron stanchion.
His first thought was ícir Carey, and
he called to his pal weakly. To his
infinite relief he was answered.
"That you, Mort! My conscience,
what a blow! Both the boats are clean
gone, and I heard someone telling Irish
that one of the propellers had snapped."
With their arms about each other the
lads crawled to the head of the com-
panion. The seaman Myers met them.
He was staring through cupped hands
at the solid wall of darkness ahead.
"She won't answer her helm," he
roared, in answer to Carey's anxious
inquiry. "We're driving straight for
the reef itself."
"I suppose this is the end," Morti-
mer thought, with tv sick feeling.
"1 don't care," he heard Carey yelling
back at Myers. "It'll get Murgatoyd,
anyhow, and that's something. Come
on down and get some hot coffee from
Bones, Mort. If we've got to go out to
it, we might as well do it comfortably.
I'm perished, too."
They found Bones dodging crockery
and utensils with the skill of a juggler.
It he were at all afraid of the storm,
he showed no sign of it.
"We're over the worst of it," he
told the pals calmly, as 'Huey drank
thirstily. "That was the storm cen-
tre."
"They say a propeller's gone and
we're heading tor the reef," Mortimei
told him, a little ashamed of his pre
vious fear. If Carey and the native
could face death with such a matter of
fact directness, surely he could. The
thought stiffened his British pride, anc
he even managed to smile. "There'l
be some collision."
Bones went serenely on with th«
Fifteenth Instalment
Giant hands lifted the silver wings from the water. She spun as though in a vortex. Help
Giant hands lifted the silver wings from the water. She spun as though in a vortex. Help
i THE STORY SO FAR:- j
. \S the steam yacht Silver Wings thrusts her way through a ¡
? tropical inlet a sudden explosion flings all aboard into con- .
? fusion. lt ia found that Kurt, a member of the crew, is missing. i
? A coloured seaman seeing a representation of the ivory cylinder .
I on a cabin wall ia discovered prostrating himself in awe before ¡
, ¡t. A conspiracy among members of the crew is suspected, and '
I mutiny breaks out. I
.work of polishing glasses. In his
white clothes he had a curious look of
dignity There was something prince-
ly in the way h-j held himself.
"Do not fear," he said. ".'Whatever
happens, we are not yet meant for
death."
"What d'you mean?" asked Carey,
staring at him vith almost awe. "How
can you say that?"
The native inclined his head gravely.
"I may not say, but I speak the truth.
There are strange things of which the
gods foretell, my friends. As a man's
Giant hands lifted the silver wings from the water. She spun as though in a vortex. Help
Giant hands lifted the silver wings from the water. She spun as
though in a vortex.
mission is, so.shall remain his span of
life. Many tasks yet await fulfilment.
To him that hides his time, mueh shall
be revealed."
Carey shrugged his' shoulders re-
signedly. Only too well he knew that
Bones could not be persuaded or
threatened to speak when he had made
up his mind to remain silent. The
native was a mystery, an enigma. But
at least he was loyal. Carey and Mor-
timer had long since agreed upon that.
"Well, I hope you're right," he said.
"By Jupiter, Mort, d'you know it's
nearly daylight. We've battled the
whole night through."
lt was the truth. The long hours of
darkness were almost past. The dawn
had come . . . with the storm still
raging, it is true, but with the decks
still under their feet. And with the
light would come renewed hope ot
safety. They might win out even yet
The first sight to greet their eyes as
they climbed on deck was one to fill
them with astonishment. Instead of
the frowning reefs which they had ex-
pected to see ahead, was a narrow
passage of boiling white-capped water,
with high cliffs of coral on either side.
"Great Sam!" Carey exclaimed.
"Where's the channel gone? In the
name of Mike, where are we?"
Honest Joe Muggs supplied the
.answei. He had just come off the
watch, and was making his way below.
Salt-grimed and dirty, with the strain
of 10 long hours on his face, he yet re-
tained his good humour. Indeed, al
the sight ot the lads he grinned
broadly.
"Still alive-oh ... all alive-oh! Dad
rat and copper-polish my bones if we
don't take the whole tray-ful. Where
are we? Says you? Why, sink and
torpedo me; if we ain't a'sailing clean
through the Lagos Barrier. And
that's a fact."
."But there's "no channel within
~ miles," Carey protested. "I had a
look at the chart not 10 minutes back."
"The chart!" Joe Muggs waved one
hairy hand with a gesture of contempL
"Sink and scuttle me, who cares for
the chart. The doc, he says, says he,
'Honest Joe,' he says, 'this here is a
merickle,' he says; whatever that
means. 'The Silver Wings.' he says,
'is a sailing through an unknown pas-
sage in the Lagos, that don't exist,' he
says."
"An unknown channel!" Carey ex-
claimed excitedly. "By George!
What do you know about that, Mort?"
"Morchumer don't know nothing
about it," said Muggs solemnly. "The
ship's gone (ore and aft, as the doc will
tell you, but we got a good chance to
beach her and save our skins."
He winked warningly at the pals as
he stumped away.
"Keep your eye on your guns," he
advised. "When that there Murgèy-'
told-man knows what's what, there's
going to be some tun."
They found Dr. North anxiously
pacing the bridge. Curly Smith was
at the wheel, and Irish and Whyball
were standing by.
"Good." said Dr. North, on the ap
peaiance ot Carey and Mortimer. "You
can relieve those other two Tor a spell.
Off you go, Irish, and get something to
eat."
He called down the tube.
"Can you come on deck a moment,
Bellew? What's that, Carey? Oh,
I'll go below in a moment or two.
We're just drifting, don't you see,
and we don't in the least know our
soundings."
As the chief officer, worn with his
night's watching, came on the poop,
Mortimer called out:
"I say, isn't that an island ?"
"I seen it some time ago, sir," the
helmsman put in. "There was a kind
of mist hid it every now and again,
and I couldn't be sure. But I guess
it's an island all right."
"Whoever would have thought an
Island reef sea like this existed," Mr.
Bellew voiced his astonishment in
turn. "I agree with you doctor, that
our safety Ls owing to a sheer miracle.
No, we'll have to beach the yacht and
overhaul her; and trust to floating her
off again after somehow. We're dere-
lict, as it is. It's the current that's
keeping us on the move."
(Continued next Wednesday.)
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