The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-05-08

THE SEARCH.

pinch, with old-fashioned high bull
warks, but for all that lying pretty
clean and close to the water. She had
tolerable record for speed, and a rec
ord for other things of such impor-
tance that they were now and again
under the consideration of the govern
ment at Quebec. She was called the
Ninety-nine. It was said that cure
with sense of humor had called her
SO, after an interview with her owner
and captain, Tarboo, the smuggler. For
when he had said to Tarboe at Angel
Point that he had come out to seek the
one sheep that was lost, leaving be-
hind him the other ninety and nine
within the fold at Isle of Days, Tarboe
had replied that it was a mistake-he
was the ninety-nine, for he needed no
repentance, and Immediately offered
the cure some old brown brandy of very
fine flavor. They both had whimsical
turn, and the cure, whether of design
or through sweet innocence, did not
ask Tarboe how he came by such per-
feet liquor, and many others high in
authority, it was said, had been soothed
even to the winking of an eye, when
they ought to have sent winking
Nordenfelt against the Ninety-nine.
The day after the cure left Tarboe at
Angel Point he spoke of Tarboe and the
craft of which such strange tales were
told as the Ninety and Nine, and Tar
Doe, hearing of this again-for, some
how, he heard of everything-imme-
diately painted out the old name,
and called her the Ninety-nine, de-
claring that she had been so named and
blessed by the cure. Afterwards. the
Ninety-nine had an increasing reputa-
ton for exploit and for daring. In
brief, Tarboe and his Ninety-nine were
smugglers, and, to have trusted gossip,
one would have said that the boat in
itself was quite as responsible and as
guilty as the man. Their names were
ever so much more notorious than
sweet, and yet in Quebec men generally
laughed as they shrugged their shoul-
ders at mention of them, for as many
jovial things as evil were told of Tarboe.
And when it became known that high
dignitary of the church had been pre-
sented with certain case of splendid
wine, which had come in a roundabout
way to a member of the local parlia-
ment, men walked in the night and
laughed, to the annoyance Of their
wives-who, after their kind, saw no
amusement in the thing-for the same
dignitary had preached powerful SER
mon against smugglers and the receiv-
ers of stolen goods 1t was a sorrowful
thing for the good man to be known as
Ninety-niner, as were all good friends
of Tarboe, high and low. But when he
came to know, after the wine had been
leisurely drunk and becomingly
praised, he brought his influence to
bear in civic places, so there was moth
ing left to do but try and bring Tarboe
ut last to that anomalous thing, the bar
of justice.
It was in the height of summer, when
there was little to think Of in the old
fortressed city, and little dart after a
brigand like Tarboe appealed to the
romantic natures of the idle French
folk, common and gentle, who trail
their Industrious virtues and their as
sumed vices along the banks of the st.
Lawrence, and who, above all else, love
richly a romantic tale, true or apocry-
phal. To them Tarboe had ever been a
reminder of that past when the cour-
riers des bois made popular revel and
unpopular raids, when an outlaw was
only shameless when he did not shame
the church or the church give him over
unto shame.
While through clouds of their black
tobacco and in the wash of their bean
soup the habitants discussed the fate
of "Black Tarboe," and officers of the
garrison and idle ladies gossiped at the
Citadel and Murray Bay of the free
booting gentleman whose cellars on the
Ninety-nine had one way or another
furnished forth many table in the
great walled city, "Tarboe Noir" him
self was down at Anticosti, waiting
for certain merchantmen. Passing
vessels saw the Ninety-nine anchored
in an open bay, flying its flag fippantly
before the world-a rag of black sheep
skin, with the wool on, in profane
keeping with its name.
There was no attempt at hiding, no
slulking in the shade of point, or
scurrying from observation, but an in
dolent and insolent waiting-for some
thing. BLACK Tarboe's getting reck-
less" said one captain coming in, and
another coming out grinned as he re-
membered the talk at Quebec, and
thought of the sport provided for the
Ninety-nine when she should come up
stream, as she certainly must in due
time, for was not Tarboe's home at
Isle of Days, and was he not fond of
his daughter Joan to wonderful de-
gree, and proud of her to a point of
folly? And he was not alone in his ad-
miration of Joan, for the cure at Isle
of Days said high things of her, and
never permitted i'll to be spoken of
her, because of her father. Perhaps
this was because she was unlike most
4 other girls, and women too, in that
| she had sense of humor, got to
some extent from having mixed
| with choice spirits who visited
her father, and carried out at Angel
Point a kind of free masonry which
had few rites and many charges and
countercharges. Indeed, she had that
almost impossible gift to woman, the
power Of telling tale whimsically;