A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8489, 17 July 1907, Page 3

A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

i(By ALBERT DORRINGTON. (Author of "Along the Castlereagh," "Children of the Gully," etc.) « - '(Published by special arrangement— Copyright reserved.) No. 21. From Marseilles to Gibraltar is a short cry. The coast ot Spain on the Mediterranean side is as barren as the shoreline of the Great Australian Bight. The rock itself looms Titanesque across the narrow straits. Gibraltar is a source ofj pride and worry to England. As a fortification • it is a perfect money-eater as regards upkeep. Also it is somewhat of a mystery to the outside world. We met several gunners while exploring ' the Mole, men who had put in several years within the rock, and to a man they admitted that Gibraltar, the real subterranean Gib, was still a mystery to them. They were unacquainted with many of its galleries, and could only guess at the number of guns concealed in the mighty bosom j • of the rock. Stored within the refrigerators is a seven years' supply of meat and provisions. The local artillerists chuckle at the mere suggestion of an attack by land or sea upon the mother : of all fortifications. These tighttrousered, swaggering little fellows who wear King's uniform, tell you ; that no European Power would be mad enough to bring their fleets to the slaughter yards of Gibraltar. s One of our party hinted at the pos- j sibilityofa general collapse on the : part of the rock if it were attacked with heavy modern guns from the African side. j The Tommies laughed outright. ! "If you brought the combined German, Jap and Italian fleets over . there," said one artilleryman, point- ; ing across the narrow Straits, "torpedoes, war-balloons, and all their •blamed gunnery science thrown in, ' d'ye know what we could do." j We hazarded a wide guess which meant nothing. The artilleryman . did not smile. His eyes seemed to j be measuring the blue ribbon of' water that separates the rock from the African coast. 1 "We'd let them come right in j there," he said dreamily, "assuming there was a combination of 200 battleships and cruisers. And then j we'd do what Admiral Fisher's been | promising us for the last ten years —we'd give them a shell-typhoon ; that would make the world hold down its head for the next century. You ' >don't understand." he said, glancing at me sharply, "the kind of a grave-. yard we could make of a European j fleet if it stood out there and used ! bad language." | We shook hands with that gunner . because he believed what he said! «ven though the rock happens to be in a few places. We mentioned the fact as a kind of after--; thought. J "My Gawd!" exclaimed his com- [ p3nion. "It's a mile thick, and the : newspapers have been tellin' yer that a few twelve-inch shells will root it , up!" j The rccV monkey is another source j ©f mystery to the residents of Gib- ! raltar. The animals come and go— \ but whither? There are no places ! along the arid coast where they could ) migrate to, no forests or places of j concealment. j About every two years new species j of apes appear suddenly, full-grown ' creatures and wicked as hyenas. They i stay a little while and then vanish as | mysteriously as they came. j It is also well known that certain ' adventurous soldiers stationed at the j fortress have disappeared suddenly while exploring the underground pas- j ' sages leading towards the Straits. j While in the Alameda Gardens we ! met an old Moor who informed us j that a tunnel existed under the j Straits connecting Gibraltar with i the African coast. j The passage was known to the! apes, he said, but woe to the man white or black who attempted to follow them. A day or two before we arrived a , 1 big ape ran amok down the gun-pas- j sages, mawling an artilleryman about j the face and body. For three days the brute held the fortress, fighting i like a devil, and hurling pieces of I ' rock at the men who attempted its j C ipture. | A law protecting the ape exists at j Gibraltar, and no man is allowed to shoot or destroy the mischievous Bimians that swarm over the heights and gun-embrasures. On the third day it was found necessary to pot the long-armed apo that hurled defiance and four-pound stones at the commanding officer. After visiting Buena Vista Barracks, Casemates Square, and Lines Bull Ring we adjourned to the Ophir feeling convinced that Gibraltar will put.up the reddest day in history when the time arrives, * More rough weather in the Straits and a nasty sea that followed us through the Bay of Biscay. While crossing the Bay of Trafalgar we noticed a big-beamed tramp steamer on our starboard side. It kg#- ahead of us for an hour, and rone of those blackguard things r-" that nearly sent 600 Australians to the bottom. Without signal or warning of * any kind the big tramp changed her course and shot across our bows. The K Ophir was running at full speed and the tramp's sudden manoeuvre was so unexpected that there was not a . moment to reverse engines. For thirty seconds both steamers approached each other at the rate of 40 miles an hour. The Ophir answered her helm magnificently, and swung to starboard as the tramp raced directly under our bows. At the moment of the crossing writer was standing for'ard, and he is prepared to state that six feet of water did not sepai'ate both vessels from eternity. The tramp signalled us immediately, but I could learn nothing from the white-faced sailors round me. One said she was apologising and that something had gone wrong with her steering gear. Astonishing that two vessels with'

unlimited sea-room cannot give each other a wider berth! The despised landlubber drives hundreds of carts and waggons within a few inches of each other year in and year out and nothing happens. Yet ships with infinity on both quarters and leagufes of space, rush within drowning distance of each other for no apparent reason. ! For the rest of the trip we encountered wind and sleet until we lifted the Channel and the big-tongued bell from the Eddystone Lighthouse. The Ophir hooted her way from buoy to lightship like a thing afraid. Nothing was visible through the sheeted rain save the snarling rocks at the foot of the lighthouse. The people of Plymouth have fought back the sea with giant breakwaters and league-long walls. There is excellent anchorage,' but the approaches are reminiscent of innumerable drowned ships—liners and gunboats, brigs and Spanish galleens —that strew the sea floor between the Hoe and the Nore. The rough trip through the Bay of Biscay frightened a number of passengers, and there was a rush to land at Plymouth rather than finish the voyage round the Channel to London. (To be Continued.)