The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-04-04

| lie! re as dangerous 10 Il STRIP ) DOIloHl
as coral rock"
"McTodd," said he, get away to your
bunk and sleep it off. Your nerves are
a bit joggled up still And off l went
feeling pretty foolish. But ! had no.
ticed one of the fremen listening to our
talk, and judged that | had done what
the captain intended.
/ We did not get off that tide, or the
next. but stayed there stewing in the
heat and gnawed at by the mosquitoes,
whilst the engines ran ahead and astern
i'll half hour spells alternately, and the
captain on the bridge talked to the pilot
for trying to rip the bottom out of her.
Indeed. when we did get off the bar at
last. and slowed down off the lighthouse
on the Port Edes spit to drop the pilot
into his boat, 1 thought then that he must
have been glad to see the last of us. But
| have guessed since that the fellow
must have been paid to let us ground on
the bar, so as to pave the way for wha t
WAS to happen afterward
Only one other conversation did | have
with Capt. Blake before the Shah was
pirated, and that was the afternoon we
were off Key West.
l met him, as it We're by accident. in
the port alleyway, and he asked me to
come along to the charthouse and see if
| could find out what was wrong with
his hanging lamp. The carpenter has
tried his hand" said he, land made no
sort of a job of it at all. and | guess my
room stinks Of kerosene like Pittsburg
tool shop. But you're a man of ideas.
McTodd, and you'll see what's wrong at
a glance"
Il can no smell oil just the now. cap
tain,' said | when we get inside the
charthouse, but if you'll just let me
handle the lamp a minute or So
| 'Shucks," he says. ''let the lamp alone.
| That was only a blind, because / didn't
care to say below what | wanted you
for, in case somebody was listening. Sit
down on the sofa, Mac. and fill your
pipe. What do you think of the chief
engineer"
Its no for ME to speak evil of my
superiors, but-Id call him a very care
full officer
He's an old woman, a nervous old wo-
man, that's what the chief is. And he's
no idea which side of his breads mar
gerined. Now l guess you have
| Mac. There are no flies on you-and-I
|
a secret were told you?''
That depends"
oh" said the old man, If you can't
give me promise, can hold my tongue y
| Well" | Said, I'm pinning myself
to nothing, yell understand, but I'll not
repeat any matter you choose to spea k
upon"
That's good enough for me-" says the
1 nd hn Stu tod in, 10
tale which made the hair tickle on the
top of my scalp. He was not very long
about it. He told me his scheme in 40
words, and then he asked my opinion
upon it.
Man" | said. cts piracy: no less
oh" he says, ''its that"
You are going to take the ship and
| her cargo at one steal|
AT one steal. Mac. No use taking
| four bites at a persimmon."
But if you're caught?'
ITO begin with. we shan't be; there's
no chance Of it. And supposing we were,
we'd get it no hotter for taking the
whole ship than we should for annexing
one of her boats. Now. are you going
to be sensible and bear a handP'
| Capt. Blake" | said. you're talking
TO the wrong man. My father was n
minister in the Free Kirk OF Scotland.
and if I'd gone straight | might be liv-
ing in his manse to-day. I've a fail
/ ing land a taste for the seal which has
| brought me down to what | am now,
and I'm fond OF good wage, but neither
the one nor the other can. induce me
to do what you ask. Man, it's most i'm
moral, besides, it's no as safe as you seem
to think
well, Mac" he said, IF we don't
trade we don't, and there's an end of it.
Only remember | hold your promise not
to repeat what's been spoken"
I'm not likely to forget" l said. and
took my cap and left the chart house.