The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-05-23

| The captain spread the pCll0lD manu-
| script out on the table.
tain. If DR.. Tring said eyes" Captain
Colepepper would cheerfully spent
every penny be had in the world in fit
ting out vessel in which to make tn
venture and would be content to die il
the end pauper, if only he could frs
have a fair shot at being millionaire
Meanwhile the suspense was SLOWLY
driving him frantic Beads of perspira
tion were rolling unheeded down hi!
nose and dropping on to his beard. A,
last no could stand the strain Of mac
ton no longer, and, throwing himself
back in the chair, began, utterly un
conscious Of what he was doing, K
whisper strange sailor oaths beneath
his breath
These turgid mutterings had the
effect Of rousing DR.. Tring to speech:
"Have you got Your respected ances.
tors log with Your he asked.
For answer the captain produced the
stained yellow sheets from his pocket
and handed them across to his COM
panion.
"Read it to me again, said the doc
tor. ~ want to get clear grasp of all
the details.
''The whole of til?
"No. Only where he tells about the
plateship."
The captain spread the yellow mann
script out on the table before him and
read as follows
"From the log of Nicholas Colepcp.
per, ESQ. master CT the snow [brig
Lucky Venture
THURSDAY. lii February, 1891.
80 1.-The night had been thick
one. and mayhap our lookouts, being
somewhat tired Of their task, had not
been overspry in their watch Three
weeks of peering through the weather
for vessel that never heaves in sight
dulls the fresh glances Of any mariners
eye. and we had been lying hove to or
standing on and off for the galleon for
five days over that time. So when dawn
sicklied over the waters. and the great
ship was spied bowling along good five
miles to windward | was at first mind
ed to shoot the fellow on the foreyard
for keeping such lubberly watch but re-
membering that we should presently
need all the hands we could get
anointed him with few shrewd blows
from calker's mallet, lying handy. and
set the watch to trim and make sail, that
we might get all the pace out Of our
tight little snow Of which she was ca
pable.
"The Spaniard's lookout was smart
enough His sail trimmers were hard
at work when first we espied him. SO he
must have known of our presence before
we knew of his. Now, it is the custom
of the yearly plateship to sail only dur
ing the day and to remain hove to dur
ing the night hours, but this fellow
must have been under weigh all through
the darkness, having been advertised of
our SHOWS presence, probably, and so
from this departure from custom we
judged that he feared us, and our lads
took heart accordingly.
"a chase to windward is always tedi-
ous work. but as we sailed better and
faster on every point than the Span
iards, twas only matter of time, and
we could tell the hour to nicely when
we should be able to bring them into
action. The thing that vexed some Of
my men was the disparity in numbers.
We had been at sea, off and on, for two
years, and had lost half our number |
through wounds, scurvy, calentures and
other sickness, and SO could muster but |
a poor SO all told, and many of them
half disabled and brought scurvy rotten
from their hunks by the rustic of prepa-
ration. The don was / 900 ton galleon
newly out Of port, with all her compile
ment hale and sound, and with well |
nigh 500 men fiji to carry arms.
'As we rose her hull above the plain
Of ocean we saw it was pierced for ord
nance innumerable for pieces both great
and small; but, though this was some
what discomforting, her lowness in the
water was such that fears were swamped
as they rose to the surface, for there
was surely yellow ballast enough in her
holds to make us all rich men for life,
even supposing that none of us was
killed, and as out Of our small So a
third, or perhaps half, might lose the
number Of their mess during so hot an
engagement as the one wherein we
we're entering promised to be, there
would be the greater share for the sur
'ivors. So all were eager for the cast of
ortune's dice box, which might bring
hem their death or might render them
Independent of marinrr's trafficking for
he -e:--.--. N lives