The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1890-10-10

blood-red. thirsty eyes, than did tho
ScourRe chase that infamous pirate. Tho
delay only made our eyes sparkle, and our
teeth sharper In expectation, for we knew
we would have our prey sooner or later,
and It was only bite and pleasure defer.
red"
THE next morning and oil the day there
was no change to speak Of in our respect
i've positions.
But from the moment We first saw that
pirate till We saw the last Of him, Meth.
er the first lieutenant of the Scouree nor
the commander Of the schooner once closed
their eyes. unless-well, Iwon't anticipate
Piron reached over his hand and shook
that Of his friend Cleveland convulsively.
Vera weel, mon! vera weel! He's the
man to do it. said Stewart and Burns to
Stingc, nodding backwards at the commo.
dore,
Gentlemen" resumed Hardy, as he
shooktho ashes level in his wine glass, as
ii he wished TO preserve them to clean his
teeth with after smoking, II will not detain
you much longer. We were steering
directly for Las 1Iulatas Islands, cluster
then little known 10 any navigator save.
perhaps, the buccaneers of the Gulf Of
Columbus, aud, perhaps. too. with the in
tention drumming US just such another
dance as our pilot had night or two be.
fore.
By the deep eight" sang out the loads.
man In the port chains, The mark five!
came from tho opposite side. Another
cast, lads. qnick! And half-four! Six
fathoms, sir!"
Z" We must have stirred mp the sand,
Cleveland said the captain; but even as he
spoke the man in the starboard chains
cried. Three fathoms, sir!' and while
each instant We expected tho ship to bring
up all standing and the masts to 20 BY the
board, the other leadsman SING out joyful
~, NO bottom with the line, sir!'
We'll. We were safely through that he'd Of
coral, doing, no doubt. some triHing dam
ago to the tender shaots and branches
as NC flew througha narrow channel. with
the waves breaking and moaning on the
sandy shore over the quays, out into deep
water again."
-Four or five miles beyond stood out
bluff rock, looking in the moonlight like a
dozing lion with his paws crossed before
him, ready to bound upon any who should
approach his lair in the dense jungle of
pines and tangled thickets which stood up
like bristling name on the ridge behind.
The schooner was now but q short half
mile ahead Of us, her deck alive with men,
aud manifestly ready for some desperate
attempt. On her after rail, too, stood that
man tall and erect. his feet steadied by the
cavil OF the main boom, spy glass to his
eye, and looking at the rocky lion now close
aboard him. Still with cigar in his
mouth, and we thought we could see the
thin puffs of smoke curling around his face.
Suddenly, too, we saw the spy.glass whirl-
edaround his head, and Mt the same Instant
the vessel fell dead off before the wind, the
great mainsail few over with stunning
crash and clitter of blocks and sheets us the
wind caught it on the other quarter, max
ing the long switch of n mast to spring like
bow, while the weather shrouds Stacked
up for q moment in bights and then came
back taut with twang you might have
heard mile! We could now see, MS the
space opened behind the rock, another
frightful jagged ledge on which the rollers
were heaving in liquid masses high up
precipitous rock, and where the channel
was not nble's length wide, lenping into
a foalning gloomy inlet where not even tie
beams Of the moon could penetrate! 1
heard the captain say, in his old decided
way
"'Now, for it, Cleveland! You tase the
battery, and I'll look out for the ship!"
Then, gentlemen, said Hardy, with un.
usual animation, as he waved his right arm
aloft with nm imaginary cutlass swinging
over his head, "came the word, Fire!' I"
Yes. the entire s:arboard. broatlside,
round shot, grippe and canister, all pointed
toward n centre, were delivered with one
simultaneous shock-.he hurricane, mere
cat's-paw in comparison-which shook the
corvette MS if she had struck rock, while
the smoke and sheets of flame sponted out
of the cannon, half hiding the black tor
rent which gushed forth from so many
hoarse threats; and as the rcar of the con-
c,lssion was taken up in terrible echoes
from the lion on the rock, pepperipg vol
ley of musket-balls from the marines IN
the poop aud forecastle made barking
tenor to the music"
Meanwhile the helm of the Scourge was
hove hard down. and MS she Just swirled; by
miracle, clear of the ledge under our lee.
and came up to the wind with the sails
slamming and hanging hard enough to send
the canvas out Of the bolt ropes, the courses
were chewed up, everything nloft came
down by the run; anchor after anchor went
plunging 10 the bottom, and before the
cables fairly began to fly out of the hawse-
holes with their jaw aud rattle, high above
tho sounds of Tapping sails, swapping
blocks, running chains, and what not, came
another clear order, 'Firc!"
Then penled out the port broadside at a
helpless, dismasted hulk within two hun.
dred yards of our beam. rolling like worm
eaten log OH the top ola ruffled broad roll
Ter. going to break, in ten seconds, on the
ledge, whose pointed rocks stood up like
black -toothed fangs TO grind its prey TO
atoms! But before the fangs closed upon
it our teeth gave it shake; and MS the
breath of our bull dogs was swept aft by
the fresh breeze, we could see the sluggish
mass almost rise bodily out of the water rs
it WAS torn and split by the round iron
wedges, the fragments flying up in dark,
rugged strips and splnters with squirming
ropes around them, looking In the moon.
light like skeletons of gibbeted pirates tos.
sed gallows and chains into the air, and
then coming down in dips and splashes in.
TO the unforgiying wafer.
"A minute later, nil that was left of the
shattered. hull fell broadside into the open
fangs of the ledge. which ground it with
its merciless jaws into toothpicks. But in
oil that lively music and destruction going
on around us-which takes longer to tell
than to active heard 10 human voice save
one. md TINT came in q loud, terrified yell
amidst the crunching roar of the ledge
20 Madre! Madre Dolorosa!''
"This, gentlemen, was the last sound
thot came from the piratical schooner"
ITO DE CoNrINUED.)