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By this time the night had fallen, and it was thicker than ever, so that, standing beside the man at the wheel, you could not see farther forward than the booms; yet it was not dark, either, that is, it was moonlight, so that the haze, thick as it was, had that silver gauze like appearance, as if it had been luminous in itself, that cannot be described to any one who has not seen it.
"And she, of course she's quite knocked up?" said he, with a groan. "No. Miss Crisp's taking a nap, that's all; and mother's keeping watch next door." Booms sat very uncomfortably, not knowing what fresh topic to discourse on. But an inspiration seized him presently. "Oh, I see you're crying," he said. "You're in trouble, too." "So I am," said Jemima. "Something I've done, I suppose?" said Booms.
"No," he said, sadly; "how could I guess? What is it, Miss Crisp?" "Why, `Love me, love my dog, isn't it?" "Right. Well guessed!" cried every one; and amid the general felicitation that ensued the successful proverb-guessers were made room for in the magic circle, and Horace had a chance of exchanging "How d'ye do?" with Mr Booms. "Who'd have thought of meeting you here?" said he, in a whisper.
At the time of my arrival this extraordinary pirate settlement, or community, consisted of some forty seamen of various nationalities except Englishmen who had thrown in their lot with Garcia, Fernandez, and the rest; and about a hundred others who, although not seamen, were most useful for the performance of such strictly shore duty as the erection of houses, the loading and discharging of the trading brig, the storage of the various commodities needed by the community, the working up of rough spars into spare masts, yards, booms, etcetera, for the brig and schooner, the making of spare sails for the same, and, in short, the execution of all those multitudinous kinds of work that are essential to the comfort of man in his civilised condition.
Then, too, experienced oil men and the large companies who had seen town-site booms in other states, kept away, surrendering the place to tenderfeet and to promoters. Of these, thousands came, and never was there a harvest so ripe for their gleaning. Naturally a little country town like this could not hold the newcomers, therefore Wichita Falls became their headquarters.
The VICTORY had not yet returned a single gun: fifty of her men had been by this time killed or wounded, and her main-top-mast, with all her studding-sails and her booms, shot away. Nelson declared, that, in all his battles, he had seen nothing which surpassed the cool courage of his crew on this occasion. At four minutes after twelve she opened her fire from both sides of her deck.
The water, contrary to all expectation, rose steadily. By morning it had crept so far up the piles that there began to be danger that it would overflow their tops. In that case, of course, the logs in the booms would also run out. "Guess it's time we did a little work," remarked Orde. He set a crew of men to raising the height of the piling by tying logs firmly to the bolted timbers atop.
In the Rockies, around timberline, gales often reach a velocity of a hundred miles, or more, an hour. Here during the long alpine winters, the wind booms and crashes among the peaks, roars through the passes, and rips through the shattered trees. That first night I lay in camp and listened to its unceasing roar, as it tore along the ridge tops. Occasionally, a gust would scatter my fire.
"Aloft, lower yardmen!" In a moment the crew were in their places; the studding-sail booms were triced up with the usual system, so that the sails could be reached. "Lay out!" continued the first lieutenant; and the boys walked out on the foot-ropes to their stations on the yards. "Loose!"
The number of their camps was legion, of their employees a multitude. Each spring they had gathered in their capacious booms from thirty to fifty million feet of pine logs. Now at last, in the early eighties, they reached the end of their holdings. Another winter would finish the cut. Two summers would see the great mills at Beeson Lake dismantled or sold, while Mr.
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