The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-06
LOOTING OF THE LY CHEZ
'Mastah, you no lemember me?"

| bunk at the yellow, slant-eyed face that
| looked down at me and then to the
door, as if fearful of something behind.
mo lemember Cabbage Jimmy, Ell?
Long time ago; Observation-Disclosures
station-dlought--eh Now lemember,
eh?"
And while the man spoke there came
to mind memories of a far-away land;
of torrid head, of dead and dying sheep
and cattle, of all the horror of an Aus
tralian drought, with among them one
! grateful recollection of a patch of YER
dure, sole thing almost that made life
endurable at deslccated, God-forsaken,
hateful Merryong. Why, of course, L
remember Cabbage" now, and how
patiently during all those long rainless
months he strove to keep the station IN
green stuff carrying water to the
ash-heap called garden, morning, noon
and night, in his struggle against ma
| ture in that drear western wilderness.
And now, as I sat in my pajamas on
the edge of my bunk and looked at the
let-headed, ugly beggar, felt quite
pleased at the unexpected meeting, lit
tie thinking that it would turn out so
badly for poor Jimmp. l suppose my
| face showed my thoughts, for he
grinned, exhibiting all his discolored
fangs of teeth as he said, "All-li! Me
cooks mate S'pose steward catch me
here he give me hell no CANNON! Me
see you come on board. You look out!
Bad lot sailah fellah. All Annoy men.
You no tell say" and, drawing long
finger suggestively across his throat,
Jimmy disappeared.
Talk about the world being wide!
Why, it was about ten years ago since,
giving up squatting in disgust, I had
gone back to my old profession, medi-
cine, and practised mostly ever since in
Sydney and Melbourne. Now, taking
my first holiday in the east, | must
needs stumble across Cabbage Jnm-
N.Y." transformed into cooks mate of
the Ly-chee, a coasting steamer in
which I was making trip from Singa-
pore to Swallow. And as / sat there,
through my mind ran thoughts Of those
long gone, dreary days of hopeless
struggle with drought and disaster on
ever-dry back-creeks; of the sultry
sitting weather with never a break for
months, While ruin was spelling itself
slowly out and the stink of rotting
carcasses mingled with that Of the
gidyea. Marryong, yes; I "lemem-
bered" all right, now! But what did
Jimmy mean by his warning? 1t might
be serious, and perhaps I had better
tell the skipper at once, So, getting on
deck, I assembled to the bridge 1t was
a beautiful morning, and the Ly-chee
was punching along with the coast well
in sight on the port hand, and whole
crowd of Chinese trying to put some
kind of order into the cargo which
numbered the craft fore and aft.
was the only white passenger; but
occupying a large deck-cabin next tc
me were three Chinese gentlemen who
/ had heard were going to start bust
ness in Swallow as bankers. And, tc
judge from the pile of iron-bound boxes
that filled a spare berth, they seemed
to have brought lots of stock in the
shape of dollars with them. They were
quiet folk, well-mannered after theii
fashion, courteous and polite, but una
BILE to speak a word of English, ever
the vile "pidgin" universally in vogue
therefore our intercourse was limited
Nothing was farther from my MIND
than to pose as an alarmist. Moreover
/ had my doubts as to how the skipper
who was inclined to be bumptious and
to fancy that he and his little iron tank
owned the ocean, would take any warn.
ing from a stranger and new chum
Also, knew that times were quiet
gun-boats plentiful, and pirates fas
becoming an anomaly. Still, the ex'
gardener of Merryong's words, few ant
slight as they were, had carried con.
viction with them. had seen, too, tina
Jimmy was badly frightened. There
fore, considering all this, / felt it my
duty to tell the captain our converse
ton word for word. He received i
/ very much as I expected he would
perhaps rather more so.
POOH" said he with a superciliou:
Z laugh, 'the fellow was only taking {
rise out of you. OF course, some year.
back, we all had to go armed and keer
a bright lookout. But now-why,
don't think there's pistol amongst us
It's only raw passengers that ge
scared My crowds all right The!
, were especially recommended by Liuch
ang. the company's compradore Nor
; in any case, would they be game tt
play any hanky- panky ON me; I'm too
, well known The other passengers
yonder, have got about thirty Thousand
taels on board, and you bet they
wouldn't have shipped with me i
they'd had any doubts. 'Bliged to you
mister, all the same. But don't bt
alarmed, nor raise scare amongst thu
others if you can help it. You'll Sc,
|, | Swallow, and the Ly-chee, too, SAT,
enough" Which, after results consid
cred, has always struck me as a goot
example of one of those random re
marks that, after the event, one thinks
; a most perverse and unkind fate mus
have put into the speakers mouth.
Besides the captain and myself, tn
only other Europeans on the Ly-chet
were the two mates and the chief en-
gineer, the second being a Malay of pc
culiarly villainous aspect.
Of course, my story being made ligh
of by the captain, could not very well
even if I had wished to do so, hav
gone with it to his subordinates-al
the more so as their personalities wer
, in no way inviting; the two deck off
GERS being merely Straits Settlement
, beachcombers, hunted by the polio
into so much activity as would carr
| Il q