Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-07-06

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unknown foe.
Then they ground their swords and load
ed their guns and each went to his place.
Some laughed and some jested, Some gave
messages and told of tokens for u faroff
Poll or Bess. A few played at all fours by
the glimmer of a rushlight in a lantern.
But mostly they were silent until, half
IN hour later, the lookout man called
"Sail ahead as a vessel of about their
own size seemed to spring almost on top
of them out of the dark.
Hard a-port!' cried the captain.
"Stand ready for a broadside!' COM
manded the next officer.
At the anne moment the stranger turned
a little the other way, so that the vessels
passed side by side. 1.-The Lark" whisper
ed one man to another.
"Shall we let go?" asked the first lieu
tenant.
But Blade shook his head. "Not first"
said he decidedly.
Suddenly, as if the mouth of hell had
opened, the stranger belched forth thunder
and smoke and flame, and a storm of shot
tore through the Tamarind from side to
side, leaving tracks of mangled flesh and
blood.
"Fire!' called the first lieutenant; but
before he had spoken the answering tor
rent had sprung forth. Then the ships
swung slowly away from each other,
Blade, who, although a dandy on shore,
was the equal of any man afloat in sea-
manship, gained a great advantage, out
maneuvering his enemy and bringing his
broadside to bear right across her stern, so
as to rake her from head to foot as he pass
ed and leave a longer trail of slaughter.
Then, swinging dexterously away from the
answering broadside, he countered upon
the other side.
First one mast and then another was
shot over, and at length the vessel heeled
so heavily that the few guns which were
still replying shot harmlessly in the air.
"God forgive us, captain" cried the
first lieutenant hoarsely--he was lying on
the deck with half a leg shot away-'it's
enough" And Blade, who had grown
very white, cried out in a broken voice:
"Stop firing, and get out the boats! She's
going down." But the boats readiest for
use were shattered; their opponent sud
denly listed over, two or three of her guns
firing a last derisive shot as she went.
The men Of the Tamarind sat down.
those who were left-on their guns or on
the deck, with eyes averted from the slain
around them. The officers buried their
faces in their hands, save the youngest
MILDLY, who lay quiet and forever still with
a handkerchief over his handsome boyish
face. At last Blade drew his sword sud
denly and snapped it across his knee.
~ am a disgraced man" he cried, with
the voice of one gone mad. MAY heaven
curse us all"
But heaven, which blesses or curses not
as we call, for answer sent up the rising
sun, and the morning light upon a lonely
vessel short of a mast sailing slowly along
three miles away! And the first lieutenant,
pulling himself up to look through the
portfolio, cried like a child: at wasn't
the Lark! God forgive us all!' Then he
sank into a woon from loss of blood and
was mercifully unconscious in the sur
geon's hands.
The Lark, when she sailed to the west,
had to beat up against heavy head winds
and so made but slow progress. Yet when
the fifth day came the men were kept con-
stantly under arms, and ere nightfall they
caught a glimpse of a fighting ship in the
distance.
There was a vessel whose sailors had
courted their Polls and Bets near these
regions by now they knew. And if in the
fog and dark they should come together
many an old score would be wiped out.
At length the fog lifted a trifle, and sud
denly Il big vessel rushed swiftly upon
them from the quarter where they had
least expected it. ''Stand to the guns be-
low!' shouted Hawke, ''and boarders
make rcady!'
A hail Of shots poured out upon them
before they were fully prepared, but fortu-
nately flew SO high as to do little damage
beyond bringing down the foremost, while
the Lark "a close alongside tho foe and
put in a terrific broadside before graphing.
Then there burst forth a very volcano of
flame and a roar that challenged the heav.
ems, for a shot had reached the strangers
powder magazine, and the forces of nature,
let loose from their thraldom, scattered the
vessel to the four winds and her men to
the mercy of God.
Those IN board the Lark looked at one
another in mute horror, and the tears ran
down some cheeks.
+ "We are traitors and unfit to live,"
groaned Hawke. And they took his weap-
ons from him lest he should do himself a
mischief.
Then the sudden tropical morning
dawned, and afar in the east, with the ris-
ing III glinting through her tattered
sails, the Tamarind sailed into view.
When the governor sent home his great
dispatch u couple Of months later, to an
nounce the total suppression of piracy in
those regions, he observed that this result
had been achieved by means of the remark
ably cordial co cooperation between the cap
tains, officers and crews of the Lark and
the Tamarind, which after sinking sepa-
rately the two most dangerous pirates had
joined their forces with marvellous sue
cess and now wished to combine their prize
money in a ommon fund.
Such harmony, he observed, was equally
to the advantage of the service and the
credit of the captains. But the admiral,
newly arrived from home, took the credit
OF the CO. cooperation to himself.-S Paul's.
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