Page:Under MacArthur in Luzon.djvu/112

90 "No, but one of the officers told me that Point Engano could not be far off. They have set a double lookout."

"I see the Central is pitching putty well. I thought I was going out of the bunk a minute ago," and Si braced himself against a corner post. "How dark it is growing!"

"The mainland is to the south of us, and there are a number of small islands to the north. It seems to me this would be a good place to get wrecked in."

Soon the hurricane—for it was nothing less—was upon them in all its grand fury. The wind whistled over the decks of the transport, rattling the windows and sweeping many loose objects overboard. All around, the ocean was whipped up into a milky-white foam, into which the ship plunged and heaved, creaking and groaning dismally. She was by no means a first-class craft and had been pressed into service only because of the urgency of the demand for a transport just at the time she had been in harbor at the Golden Gate, waiting for any cargo which could be picked up.

Soon the lightning came closer, lighting up the steerage, where the jackies bunked, with its vivid flashes, accentuating the gloom that followed. The