The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1897-03-23
~ HENRY NENB0L Il

sT4he revenue coppers have had an
eve on him since that Esmeralda busl-
ness, we know, and they say the Ad-
miralty beaks d like to ask him some
questions, too, about the Jamaica trade.
Mind We, 1 say nothing beyond what
I'm told myself, but I've heard that the
Jolly Roger and him have been fairly
we'll acquainted time and again"
"Ah," said the colonel, that's an old
tale; but what's this about the Esmer-
aida? I've not heard that" And he
called for a fresh supply of rum for his
companion, who indeed required no
such persuasion to start him spinning
his yarn.
''Well sir" he began, sit was this
way. The Esmeralda was off the south
coast at a convenient place none so Tar
from Portsmouth, and there she was
for a week lodging about, and couldn't
run in, seeing that the revenue men had
word of her, and were out and about
every night. So this tombstone O yours
hits upon plan, and just like himself
it was too. He goes to the cOast-guard
and gives information that the Esmer-
alda's to be run on such a night, and
volunteers to take the officers to the
place himself. So they go, near dozen
of them, and watch round a corner till
all the cargo's ashore, and then they
jump out of a sudden and collar the
men, they not being more than six Or
seven, and taken by surprise as they
seemed. SO the coppers made them fast
and began to load up the cargo on
couple O. carts. Only, while they were
full-handed, down came half score
more on the other side, and the prison
ers they got loose somehow wonderful
quick, and there was a bit of a fight,
but no firing, we see, the officers 1ioc
expecting anything, no more than the
others had made believe to; and the
long and short of it was that the cargo
went up the north road post-haste, as
they say, and the coast-guard with it
in their own carts, to keep 'em quiet for
a bit"
"Bravo!" said the colonel; that's the
man for me! And all I've got to do now
is to find him; do you know where he
lives?''
The young man hesitated.
mo" he said; '1eastways, not exact
1y; but Mrs Briggs within therell tell
We"
This, however, Mrs. Briggs in her
turn was equally unwilling to do,
though the colonel stated frankly the
nature of his assumed errand. She
offered, however, to send for tombstone
if the gentleman would be good enough
to wait and see him at the Outward
Bound.
To this the colonel agreed, and Mrs.
Briggs disappeared in search of a
trusty messenger.
The waterman, who had by this time
finished his second glass and had been
literally paid both in coin and thanks,
showed no disposition to hurry his de-
parture; he was evidently hanging
about in hope of being a party to the in
terview between two such interesting
personages.
The colonel saw this, and recognized
that the open veranda in which they
had been sitting was too public place
for discussion of the kind he antici-
pated; for even if he could succeed in
dismissing his present companion It
was free to any passer-by to step in, or
indeed to overhear a conversation from
the street.
So he rose and looked idly about him
for a few moments, and ended by drift
was there, and understood what he
wanted before he spoke
you'll like to be alone, SIR she said:
there's an empty room upstairs, two
pair back; I'll send him up to you as
soon as he comes; 'twon't be long now"
The colonel stumbled up a narrow,
rickety staircase, filled with dusty twi-
light and the smell of stale tobacco
smoke. At the top he found the room,
loW-rOofed den, evidently used by the
more intimate customers of the house
for secret potations after lawful hours.
heavy step outside, and turning
round he saw man in sailors dress
enter the ROOM
There was not a moments doubt as
to his identity. There he stood, stout,
sWarthy, fierce, and resolute, as Est
court had described him. His face was
in all probability more weather beaten
and furrowed with deeper lines than
when Dick saw him twenty years ago
at Copenhagen, but the force and
choleric expression was there, and his
hair was jet-black still
you've sent for me-" he said
'fWhat is it? Let's be short"
His herculean strength, the violence
OF his speech and manner, the strange
and disreputable atmosphere of the
place, and the impossibility of escane
from it, might well have alarmed even
a brave man; but the colonel seemed
to be serenely unaware of being in any
way at disadvantage, and took his
own time and method of answering.
My NAME" he said, in slow. nracieo