Evening star., 1897-04-03

sciences: you have been forced into 1T
"Weel.', I said, .'Mr. Legrand. yon's a
very sensible way of putting it. You'll go
| to hell when the time comes: 1 shalln't-
and f3O months very pleasant wage to
| finger" -
"Bonny Scotland" says Legrand. with
| laugh. Hullo, here's the skipper again.
Well, sir?"
| Blake came into the chart house, his face
| glistening with the wet. They're ofr he
| said, all in the starboard lifeboat, and
| they blew out of sight in dozen minutes.
Knowles Is steering, and the old chief has
manned the bailer They expect that the
! balance Of us are following them in the
| port boat to rendezvous at Key West, and
| as we shan't turn up by tomorrow or the
next day, we shall be reported as lost.
Nothing could have happened better. That
| crowd will be ready to swear, all of them.
| that they saw the Shah founder before
they had left her neighborhood. and so
! the lot of us can start fresh with purser 5
names on a fine new steamboat which
hasn't cost us a cent"
And being without papers,. I said, you
won't be able to get into a single port to
| sell her. or to look for freights, or to do
anything
MY dear Mac said Blake. do give me
credit for a child's sense. OF course this
| ships got papers, a brand new set of
| papers, ard she's got to be altered to suit
| them. Her names the George NJ Wash
ington, her engines were built at Liverpool.
her port-Lut you'll hear all that afterward.
| AT present there's work to do, and l guess
| all hands have got to sweat this night as
| they've never sweated before. Come out
| now and bear a hand to get the water out
| of her"
1t was difficult to stand on deck, for
every roll sent her down to the rail. and
| the foredeck was afloat half its time. or
| course the steam pumps below were use
| less, but by a mercy she had hand pump
| on deck, and we manned that, watch and
watch about, for half hour spells. and
| picked the water out of her by gallons to
the minute. The sea cocks had been turn
| ed Off. so we'd no further leak and we got
| the trysails and the two topsails on her
| and shaped a course almost free for the
| Cuban shore. We hadn't got her clear by
| daylight. anything like 1t, for the hand
| pump had it's limits, but we'd pulled the
water down below the firebarS of the fur
| naces. and were able to get lit up again
| and see the steam rise in the gauges.
| 1t was an anxious time then. If any other
| steamers saw us drifting about there un-
| der sail alone they would come up to offer
| assistance, find out who we were and the
| game would be up. The spot was likely
| to be crowded too lecause we were in the
| ship track between the gulf ports and the
| Florida channel. But the thieves luck
| held, and we got her under steam again,
| kicked out the balance of the water with
| the bilge pumps, and stood across for a
| lonely bay in Cuba. where we could alter
the poor old Shah's appearance undis-
! turbed.
| We were at anchor thereby early after
| noon. and a rough, wild place 1t was.
| walled in with tropical trees and closed
| from all view to seaward. Sea fowl were
| the only living. creatures which met the
eye, unless one could count the sharks and
the sawfish which cruised around us in the
| water. AS a pirates harbor no better spot
could have been found in all the world:
and that is what we were then, just pirates;
| all, that Is, except Chips and myself, who
were forced into the business against our
will.
| The work began at once. Stages were
rugged over the side, and the black paint
| was changed to gray. The names on the
| boats and the lfebuoys were altered. The
| funnel was turned from red and white
| to black and blue. The yards were taken
down and two ten-foot stump topmasts put
| on end in their place. The Clyde name
| plates were shifted from the engines. and
the wheelhcuse, was krocked away from
| the upper bridge. She looked a different
| ship. The sray, paint and the stump top
masts seemed TO make her half as big
| again the British steamer Shah that
| had sailed out of the Mississippi river.
could have sworn that her own builders
| wouldn't have recognized the ship, even
| If they had stood beside her dock
| wall.
| Well, there was no time lost after that
| work was done We were not there pleas
| uring, any Of us, ard we upped anchor as
| soon as we had finished .transmogrifying
| her. and set out for the Horn and the
| Chilean oest. Legrand was for putting
| in to Brazilian port to stay and pick up a
| few more, hands; but Captain Blake said
| no" He was rot nervous man. but he
| was no fool to stand in the way of I'M
| necessary risks. The George VI. Wash
| ington was to keep out of all human sight
| till she made her Chilean port, and then
| no one could connect her with the Shah.
| which had been lost In the Mexican gulf.
| She was to get cargo from there to China.
| or else go across in ballast. and in China
| she was to be sold. That was the program.
He was quite aware 1t would be desperately
| hard work for all hands, but the pay was
| big to match, and they could have free run
| of all the grub in the ship. Besides he
was not sparing himself.
| Ill
| Now the end of this pirating business
! came in way which no had quite
| foreseen, and though the underwriters did
| not get back the insurance they had paid
on the Shah, the George NJ Washington
| was never turned into tangible profit by
| those who had stolen her.
| 1t seems that Mr. Knowles, the former
| first mate, had taken the starboard life
| Eoat safely enough into Key West, had
| found himself out of q berth, was given
| the offer of a captaincy on a guano bark
| then in Panama, whose late master had
| died of coast fever, and had jumped at the
| chance. He got a cast down to Aspinwall
| In a freight steamer crossed the isthmus
| by railroad and left Panama for the south
| the very day We pulled our anchors out of
! that bay of Cuba 1t was not much of a
| coincidence that he should be coming into
Callao roadstead through the north chan
| mel past San Lorenzo Island when we were
| steaming in through the southern.
| We were in first and had brought to an
| anchor. waiting for the health office.
was half dead with work and heat. and had
come up out Of the engine room. and was
sitting in a chair under the bridge deck
| awning, getting spell Of rest. There was a
| glare from the water which hurt, SO by
way Of ease l kept my drowsy eyes on a
| little old bark that was coming in under
| lower topsails. with just enough breeze to
give her steerageway. She was heading so
| as to pass within dozen yards of US, and
1 watched her with eyes that did not see
| Presently the sound of voices came duly to
| my ears.
| 1.-The color of her sides is different, the
| tunnels different, those stump topmasts
are difeeent and the wheelhouse is un-
shipped from the upper bridge. Still, She 8
| remarkably like my old ship for all that"
| But she's got q starboard lifeboat It
was the starboard You went off in, wasn't
| 1t, captain?'
| .srThat,s not a Hfehoat in tl,oco