The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-06-19
CHAPTER Xxx.
THE sCHOONER's HOLD.

THE . nOAADs
Her steerman shot the whaleboat
cleverly up alongside the schooner,
which was moored fore and aft to trees
on the shore. The lug sail was run down
and the painter caught by couple Of
men who appeared on the deck, negroes,
too, like the others The gangway was
unshipped and passed out, and tho peo-
pie from the green cave boarded from
the gunwale Of their boat.
"Who've you got there, cap'n" ask.
ed one Of the men on the schooner, az
the Eurekas stepped up on to the deck
''Oh, some laundering fools" replied
the lean captain, "who must needs
shove themselves in our way when they
weren't wanted Now. you three" be
continued, addressing his prisoners, II
haven't staterooms to give You and the
fo'c'stle's full, 90 just turn down into
the hold for the present. No, young
man, you needn't bother to argue the
question. Just shut your head and 60
quietly. You'll only get your skulls
cracked II you make fools Of yourselves
over it,"
A couple Of sheath knives were out
on the instant, cleaning brightly in the
moonlight The negroes were six-ah
big men and armed-and how many
more there might DO below there was
no means Of guessing. The undergradu-
ate saw that resistance was hopeless
and did as he was told.
There was a fixed iron ladder at the
after combing Of the main hatch, rum
ming straight up and down from the
deck to the hold beneath. By this he
descended and the other two after him.
The schooner's people slid on heavy
grating and fixed 1t in its place with
wedges. Then four pairs. Of shod feet
and two shutting pairs Of bare ones
could be heard making their way aft
over the deck to the companion, and
presently the murmur Of voices IN the
cabin came to the prisoners in dull
drone through the quietness Of the
night.
"There be something live in this yer
box" announced Cain, as faint rus
Ting noise made itself heard in the hold.
"Why, un's tortoises" he exclaimed
after brief, etertorous inspection,
"zame as Zusan Pierce, her father get
fur black beetles in the kitchen, only
bigger"
"They're turtles, you oafl" corrected
Mrs .Te11v contemntuously
The whole hold was paved with
them, lying helplessly, belly uppermost.
Some Of them were quite still, but 9TH
ers, feebly waving their flappers in the
air, were giving rise to the faint whis.
pering sound which had attracted the
farmers attention. ....
$50 that's what the schooner is doing
here" exclaimed Guthrie. "That ex-
plains it; she's turtle catching. Well,
that's harmless enough trade surely"
''If they sticks to It," added Hen
rietta significantly. "But this kidnap-
ing Of us three ha'n't nothing to do
with turtles that can see.'
The steady drone Of the conversation
in the cabin was making itself heard
through the after bulkhead, and at this
moment 1t swelled out to louder vol
ume. There was some sort Of dispute
going on among the turtle catchers.
Guthrie skirmished along the floor Of
the hold among its impotent occu-
pants till he came to the bulkhead. He
found dashed cask amidships and
scrambled on to the head Of II. Imme-
diately in front Of his nose was faint
glow Of light. 1t came from seam in
the boarding from which the oakum
had been started. Gently manipulating
the calking with his fingers, he enlarged
the slit to a hole two inches long by
three-sixteenths wide and found that
he could not only hear plainly, but see
to certain extent rs well, although,
as the bulkhead planking was thick, his
view was necessarily restricted one.
Awhile headed mulatto was reading
from scrap Of paper. To the listeners
amazement it was an accurate account
of the foundered galleon enterprise, or,
rather, all of 1t that could be known at
the time when the Eureka left Bristol
the promoters aims, the supposed