Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-10-20

it. It is smuggled! Your must pay
q fine."
IA finel" shouted George. "What
for2"
"You have endeavored to deceive |
the custom house. You are SNUG
gler! You will have to pay three
times the value of the coal!''
81 shall do nothing of the kind"
said George.
'"Then I shall put your ship under
arrest" said the custom house officer.
And, sure enough, when George went
back to luncheon he found two Span
ish officials in charge of the vessel.
The Crocodile was a prisoner until
the fine should be paid.
George Williams was annoyed. 1t
was bad enough to be fined when you
were guilty, but to be fined when you
were innocent was simply disgusting.
Besides, the fine was heavy one, and
if the owners had to pay it, their feel
ings toward him might undergo
change. This would be unpleasant.
To pay the fine himself would be more
unpleasant still. What was. to be
done? There was Spanish man-of-
war lying in the harbor, and George
knew that any appeal for help on the
part of the custom house officials
would receive immediate attention in
that quarter. SO he determined to
proceed with the utmost caution. He
sent for the engineer, and asked him
how soon he could get up steam.
The engineer replied that he could be
ready in about an hours time. You
see this was really most important
matter If ships boilers are once
allowed to become cold, it takes, as
rule, good four and twenty hours to
get up steam again. But the Croco-
dile's fires had been banked up, SO
the engines could be made ready to
start again at comparatively short
notice. Having given his instruc-
tions to the engineer and mate,
George turned to the custom house
officials and commenced fluent con-
versation with them in his best Span
ish. He began by observing that he
thought he had been foolish; and that
it was useless to struggle against
properly constituted authority, and SO
he had made up his mind to pay the
fine. He then remarked that the en-
gineer had disco5 cred a leak in one
of the boilers and had been busy re-
pairing it. He now wished to give
the ship short run just to see if
everything was all right again. Pro
badly they would not object to this.
And 10 fnighed up by inviting them
to step down stairs into his private
sitting room and drinka bottle Of wine
with him.
Whether it was that these poor
Spaniards were guileless souls, or that
offer of drink was one that could not
be declined, I know not, but the invi-
tation was accepted with avidity.
Hospitality is one of Georges strong
points, and it is needless to say that
he spent q delightful time with his
two new friends. After while the
steady, regular throb of the engines
began to make itself felt, but this in
no way interrupted the harmony of the
proceedings. Presently, however, the
merry little party was startled by the
boom OF gun. They all rushed up
stairs on to the deck.
The Crocodile was steaming as fast
as she could toward the mouth of the
harbor. George turned and looked at
the Spanish warship. An angry puff
of white smoke appeared on her side,
and the screeching of the shot as it
passed overhead told him that she was
really in earnest this time. One of the
unhappy custom house officers gave q
yell and leaped into the sea, where he
wges Ss~esently rescued by friendly
boat. The other, having 4 sdi9taste
for cold water, ran down stairs and
hid
George Williams at once made his
way on to the bridge. This is another
of those perplexing nautical terms. 1t
means sort of perch near the middle
of the ship, from which the captain is
accustomed to give his orders. An
other gun from the warship, and this
time the shot fell into the sea quite
close to them.
Steward" I" said George, 'tfetch me
my glasses. You will find them on
the table in my sitting-room."
It was the binocular glasses that he
meant, not the other ones. But there
was no time to explain, Fortunately,
the steward was clever man and un-
derstood perfectly. He ran down
stairs, found the glasses and came
back as quickly as he could. While
he was making his way up on the
bridge the warship fred again. The
shot Just wbisked off the stewards
cap, and passed on without doing
further damage.
A friend of mine has asked me to
suppress this fact on the ground that
in story of this kind some such inci
dent invariably occurs. There is a
great deal of force in this criticism,
but cannot comply with my friends
request. I feel bound to tell the story
as George Williams told it. And he
assured me that it was true.
The Crocodile had by this time got