The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1897-01-06

No oopoery, ail Sai0oo Wnlto man.
As jumped past tho starting platform
l saw ono OF the now stolScrs lying on
his back. hi; face thing of horror.
That was the soft thing the spanncr hit,
and you know what size u connecting
rod takes.
Both mates and tho old man were
on tho bridge watching something ahead.
All III IL sweat, l sang out my message.
aud the old man Ecvor asked why or
wherefore, but popped in the chartroon
and slipped revolver in tho second
mates hand, saying:
Its como to us, thcn' Tho mate
didn' t move, so the old man yelped at
him:
"'Why dye stand there, Mac? Arc
you white livered?'
Now, Mac was Greenock man,
and he said
'Yo ken, sir, I want orders frae
ye, and I'll shoot yer ain brother
just Ill quiet and matter of fact way.
And, Scott, he would know them
Shoot anything that comes out Of
the stolSchole, said the old man, and
Mac slid along, whistling soft and quiet,
to his station. Yes; that was it, AMMO
Laurie, but it wasn't for her that he
laid him down and died. Poor Mac!
He got sandbaggcd at New Orleans over
chit of a Yankee girl not fit to black
his boots.
"rhe old man grabbed mo by tho
arm.
" Lock here, he said, pointing ont
three sails wallowing along between us
and the moon. That's the little galno
your friends below are after. Their
friends are coming to join i'll. And, by
thunder, so is our stcm!' He turned on
the chief matc like fash
You jump down with Mac into tho
stokchole and make every pigtail heath
ell stoke her up to the blowoff. Wipe
'em out if they've any lip. Scootr
He was tramping up and down like
terror. never dreamed that man
with wife and family could have
looked such demon.
You. he cried to me- jump below
and don't let the engines move il hands
breadth till l ring her. Then let her
rip.
Il only went below the skylight and
told the chief from there. 1 didn't care
to pass that thing on the platform again.
And besides [ wanted to sec what was
going to happen. 1 was all on tho Jump,
like IL white faced girl, so l staid look
ing out.
The steamer was wallowinG in the
trough like IL lame duck. All the crew
had turned out forward after fixing up
the turned i'll China firemen.
"Thc three junks camo ON in line
abreast down the wind.
There was heathenish feeling about
everything-that rcd, lopsided moon
making big, Gravity snake OH the oily
water, the three junks sliding along and
us laid silent. There were three things
L remembcr-thc slap of the water un-
der our stern, the rattle of the junks
sails Tapping against their masts and
our old mans fist. He was pounding
time on the rail.
Then she began TO blow off.
All at once he roared out:
Port, hard a-port!' and rang her
full speed, and we began to move. Lord!
In three minutes we had got our pace
"Thc junks had turned after us at
first, but they seemed to guess something
was NioiiS' LUZ Ouc sileelcu OH. GTeS-
emily we'd done the half circle and
headed stem on to the other two. Then
l reckon they realized
1.-The first broke out into lights and
shouts. She was right under our bows,
and you could hear her split like dry
tircwood. Her big battencd niainsail
ratified on our foes lie head like Il shower
of canes. The sea itself seemed 10 yell
all round Us as we steamed through the
cargo of drowning pirates.
Il looked over the rail We'd hit the
other and smashed one side off, and rs
we pyanccd by saw her men sliding oil