THE RIVER LADY
By; Speaker Gerald A. Polley.
All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Captain John Henderson
As Captain John Henderson watched the four cars and
twenty-five passengers come on his ferry The River Lady, he was a
little disappointed. He thought a few more would turn out for the
last trip to the mainland.
The trip out had been dismal, too. Few looking at the Captain
would guess he was sixty years old. Many that knew him were well
aware that he had made the trip from Cape Glouster to Prince
Edward Point and back for thirty five years. Through hurricanes,
blizzards, whatever nature could throw at them The River Lady had
kept her schedule every day. Now, twenty miles of bridges and
tunnels connected the three off shore islands, and already land
speculators were buying up the peaceful communities. Soon
Americans fleeing the congestion of their overcrowded cities
below the border would be pouring up to fill these peaceful
Canadian Islands with humanity.
True, they would be cream of the society, the rich and the
influential that could afford to pay the expensive foreign
resident's tax that Canada now charged outsiders who wanted to
reside in their territories.
The Captain shook his head. A wave from the Piermaster told him
it was time.
"Mr. Peterson!" he called to his helmsman, "Half
astern, please!"
The twenty-five year old helmsman who the girls of Cape Glouster
all called Hercules, fit the image of the mythological strongman.
His long dark hair and olive skin made him look Greek though his
ancestry was Irish and Indian.
"Half astern sir," the helmsman answered. "Engine
room not responding, sir!" the helmsman snapped. Annoyed,
the Captain keyed the intercom.
"Mr. Davidson," he groaned, "What's the trouble
now?"
An irritated Irish voice answered, "It's the damned gear box
again, Captain. Give me a minute!"
There were two loud banging sounds over the intercom and then an
annoying grinding.
"Engine room answering, sir," the helmsman snapped.
"Very good!" the Captain answered. "Steady as she
goes! Stand by for maneuver. One quarter right rudder, now."
The River Lady's stern slowly turned, bringing her bow around
with it. "Rudder amid ships!" the Captain called.
"All stop!"
"Rudder amid ships!" the helmsman called. "All
stop, sir!"
"Full ahead!" the Captain ordered. "Standard
course, Mr. Peterson. Take us into the channel. Watch out for
those damned yachts. We don't want to run over another one, even
if you do like to rescue nearly naked young ladies!"
"It wasn't my fault!" the helmsman muttered.
"Didn't say it was!" the Captain snapped back.
As the ferry began to move for a few moments it seemed to rock.
The Captain looked to the nearby shore. Though the weather was
beautifully calm suddenly waves were lapping over the rocks.
"Oh, Jesus Christ!" the helmsman moaned, "Not
another one!"
"I'm afraid so!" the Captain answered. "I wonder
where in the hell it was this time?"
"Turn on the radio, sir?" the helmsman asked.
The Captain nodded. In a few moments a squeaky voice filled the
air. "Well, this is Bobbin' Robin in Vancouver, on WHLL. And
if you're wonderin', YES, that was another earthquake. But it was
only a little one. Our seismograph here in the office registered
only point one. Just as soon as I can tell you where it was
located, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, back to our music. Here's
the latest release from The Thundersteeds, "I'm Chief Of
This Mountain.""
The Captain had not particularly liked rock and roll. He simply
hated Native American bop even more. He tended to ignore the
music and only became interested again when the announcer came
back on.
"Well, folks," the announcer cried, "Old Bobbin'
Robin has got the news for you. That tumble was from Mount
George. It seems that old volcano has decided to start rumbling
again after several hundred-thousand years. That makes eight
volcanoes now reactive on the west coast of the North American
continent. I have with me here in the studio Professor Norman
Pike, one of Canada's most noted vulcanologists.
Professor, tell me, what do you think of what this expert
Jonathan Woods in The United States is saying about a
catastrophic collapse of The Pacific Rim? What is his theory,
exactly?"
The vulcanologist laughed. "Professor Woods," he began,
"is a very sincere man, but is basing his calculations on
inaccurate data. He believes the continental drift has been
occurring because the Earth is slowly shrinking as it cools. Most
of the time the Earth is cooling at a steady rate. But for some
reason he cannot determine in the last twenty years the Earth has
been cooling at an alarmingly rapid rate, twenty to thirty times
faster than normal. He firmly believes from studying previous
eruption patterns, that this occurs every million years or so,
that in a very short time, maybe even days, the entire Pacific
Rim will suffer a catastrophic failure. He has so alarmed the
people of California that many of them have left the state for
fear The Big One, as they call it, is finally at hand.
As anyone can see from the last few months' activities, there HAS
been an awful lot of volcanic and seismic activity, but I am sure
nothing catastrophic like the Professor visualizes, will come to
pass. I believe we may see one or two more extinct volcanoes
return to life for a little while, and everything will settle
back. There's going to be no violent explosion of the west coast
of North America."
"Well, let's hope you're right!" the D.J. cut in before
the Professor could ramble on any more. "I mean, really, two
tsunamis in six months is quite enough! Well, folks, we'll bring
you up to date on the rockin' and rollin' on our regular newscast
at eleven. Right now I feel like some classics. Let's see, what
will it be? Let's just push a button on the old Memory
Machine."
A surfing song began to play. The Captain reached up and turned
off the radio, much to his helmsman's displeasure!
Dusk was settling in and the Captain wanted to see the lights of
the harbor undisturbed, as they came in one last time.
Even the helmsman sighed a little, as they plowed on, the old
ferry's three diesel engines pounding away.
"It's too bad," the helmsman finally remarked as they
were nearing the dock, "they couldn't find someone to buy
her, that wanted to use her. I hate to think of her run up on a
beach and scrapped."
"You're not the only one!" the Captain muttered,
"You're not the only one!"