The Shadow Passes

"And then I saw it--the Shadow." The speaker\'s eyes appeared to snap. Johnny Thompson leaned forward in his chair. "It glided through the fog without a sound." The voice droned on, "Not a sound, mind you! We had a small boat with powerful motors. I stepped on the gas. Our motors roared. We were after that shadow." "And then?" Johnny Thompson whispered. "For all I know," the black-eyed man murmured, leaning back in his chair, "we might have cut that shadow square in two. Anyway, that\'s the last we saw of it for that day. "But think of it!" he exclaimed after a second\'s pause. "Think of the thing just disappearing in the fog like that!" He was a romantic figure, this man Blackie. The boys of Matanuska Valley in Alaska loved this gathering of an evening about the red-hot stove in the store. And no part of the evening\'s entertainment was ever half so thrilling as Blackie\'s stories. "It was spring then," Blackie added, "late May, when the salmon run was on." "It was a whale after salmon, that shadow," someone suggested. "No, sir!" Blackie fairly shouted. "It was too fast for a whale! Some sort of Oriental craft, I shouldn\'t wonder. Though how they\'d make it go without a sound is beyond me. "Ah well," he sighed, "I\'ll be rid of these by spring." He kicked at the crutches beside his chair. "Then I\'ll be after \'em again, those bloomin\' Orientals and their gliding shadows." "You going back into the Coast Guard Service?" Johnny asked eagerly. "I sure am!" Blackie agreed heartily. "Boy! That\'s the life! A speedy boat with two or three airplane motors in her hull, a good crew, plenty of gas, the wide open sea and enough trouble to keep your eyes open day and night. Man! Oh, man!"..............