The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-19
JUST HAD GOLD TO FIRE !
TALE OF a sAILORAAN OF a GALE
IN THE sOUTH SEA.

1t nlew Him to an uaiand where Thera Were
. eavaEes who Fired st the vessels with
Bullets or Gpid-Then n BLEW his, Away
He would LIN to Find That usisnd.
No." said tho man, sitting l~istlossly on the
pier. as he pulled away languidly enough at q
pipe OF peculiar shape. "No, / amt got no
hoart to splice myself to hope and 20 to tho
Klondiko country. Nor no other country. for
that matter. except 1 git a job hat takes me
there and pays mo for 1t by the month regular.
Co rae, [ understand how a man might fall down
but 1 amt the man. That kind of luck IL meant
for somebody else. Once, though; there wasn't
but since the setback We got IN the Pacific, ten
years .nRo next March I amt had no wind In
my Sails to speak OF and don't SO much Ss keep
there's land ahead. all right; and IL there amt,
all right Just the same
the speaker asked n question.
Didn't you never hear Of that r said tho
Rnowei whats retSS q { Slo% / got out oStd there. ooft course
III tell you u you'd like to hear: 1t happened
down in the Pacific somewhere. about 100, west,
yenrs ago SSs come . 81 n NEXT Mach i%r;H' 1 1 wasn't IN he
s saas in business op }, e. exactly Yi G o ena b . 1rSa a fri ON fh iS
Auckland. Now Zealand. who liked my style, he
fixed me up with q sailing vessel and q crew OF
around among tho islands OF the archipelago
looking for bargains. as It were.
water for Ave or six weeks or such a matter.
and doin' like Riley did. with the hotel when
one night the weather thickenod on us. and by
take the hair Off OF the head OF q barrel, and we
were skinnin' before 1t like a scared dog. BY
thing that don't happen often among ali them
islands scattered everywhere. and our boat was
maxim about forty miles a minute. but she was
goin' around In circles mostly and tearin' up
the water worse than n bull IN a chiny shop.
Along in the afternoon the wind laid down n
bit, and when we sighted an island Off our
weather bow wo kind OF beat up to It, or what
ever them sailor icllers Gale u, and we got In
under the lee OF 1t AMI found a little, harbo that
looked like IL might afford us enough protection
to make some. repairs after the wind had got
done having fun with u.s., There was a chance,
layin' around waiting for our arrival.
IT was dark by the time we got In and We
couldn,t tell much what kind Of a place It was
q smell liz, II dead volcano, and It seemed to be
big enough TO accommodate a good many, in,
yards from shore, and though there was still
more wind than we cared to have, it was not so
bad but that we could keep the schooner whore
There wasn't any signs of life on the island
that we could see, but there was plenty OF good
water and nice fruit, md tho boat that we sent
Off as soon as we got settled brought back not
only fruit and water, but an animal that looked
could look. and that hsted tho same way. We
had about got ready to turn In, say at o o'clock
that II ght, when We heard voices of people on
shore Yelling in somo queer language that mono
Of us understood. The people didn't seem to
like us bein' there. though. that was plain
enough, and We begun to send word to them
that we were all right, and IL they didn't
want us we would get out as soon as
that way, to them. likely; for at midnight they
had Oiled the shore and had fires burning all
along. We could see they were black and that
they didn't, wear nny more clothes than WINS
needed. and that they were armed with bows
and arrows and spears and a few old muskets
like most of them natives have. The sea was toe
rough for them to try to get at us in boats in
the dark, so they took it out in slingin' stump
speeches at us from tho shore.
THAT'S what they slung at first, but when We
began to yell back at the howlin' devils they
changed their tactics, and alorg about 3 O'Clock
in the morning they let or one or two of their
old muskets with a roar that sounded like wal
times. We give them the laugh on this, but
pretty soon they got the range, and the first
thing we got serious about was q shot tina
went through our first mate and buried i,sell
in the foremost. They were ounce balls thai
were comm our way over the wavcs. and every
time one Of them hit the ship 1t sounded witt
down to the bottom Of the sea. Aftel
they ever missed our boat again, hitting either in
the hull or the rigging, and six Of our men got a
bullet through them We got GU,