Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-03-23

tinue1, though win lowered voice.
IT'S FIVE hundred pounds to the penny
fancy; if more, ye can keep the rest. Did
We play Jack Louns5ury FOR a sucking? !
started this voyage on your farms, but vel
finish on mine. Have We slept since the war
began that ye knew not the color o. Louns-
bury o Rye? Come. now, speak outi''
Then We looked to fall in with yonder
ships, did ye, We scoundreig" said /, while
! gathered myself together.
"Ay, two o them. The one to east is a
fight o. luck"
What are they"
The tail o. Howe's feet from Philadel-
phia. Ye may swear that Clinton has evacu-
ated the place an IS marching across Jersey
for New York. So it was to be. Am plain
enough? They be bound for the same
place, an, d-n it, man, shall we go with
them or no? Speak QUIT
Does anyone know Of my private mat
tiers save YOURSELF" ] asked, as / knitted
my strength to fulfill the purpose | had ar
rived at.
None O that nowi see yer game. What
know, | knowl An We think If am made
way with ais safe" With this he backed
pace, and drawing pistol from his pocket,
presented it full at me- Now" he con-
tinucd, with a devilish look in his half
closed eyes, ''ye are my prisoner an cap
tain; an as for the matter o that, | have
been all along
had guessed the man was armed Know
ing me, he would hardly have had the dar-
ing to thus speak to my face without means
Of defense. Of his possible ackiug hv the
crew, had given no thought (which came
near making an end OF mel, but my wrath
was boundless, and, as his hrearm came
nearly within reach, quickly stretched out
my left hand and struck up the weapon, then
with an oath | made a step forward and
planted my right fist in his face. The blow
fell far too short to bring him down, only
knocking his pipe from his mouth; but, as if
surprised, his little eyes opened wide as he
turned under its force, and again with all
my power l struck him fairly beneath his
left ear.
Though it may be unbecoming in me to
chronicle my own strength, the blow was
fearful one. 1t lifted him clean off his feet;
the pistol and spyglass went spinning into
the larboard scupper, where he followed
them, falling with crash, the blood spurt-
ing from his ears, nose and mouth / had
little doubt that | had killed him, and as
little care, but with a natural instinct fol.
lowed and bent over him.
At that instant the fresh wind from the
south struck US. Possibly we had lain in a
calm for space while the breeze veered
from the east, but OF that / have no Snowl-
edge, only, as we presented a full beam to
the blast. it lurched us to larboard, and
caused me to straighten myself to get bal
ance.
1t was we'll did, and have since looked
upon that gust as an interpostion of the
Almighty to save me from the knife of an
assassin, for as / lifted myself | caught
glimpse of the bare feet of negro making
toward me. He was on me in breath. l
saw the glitter of his knife, and wheeled in
time to catch the descending blade in my
left arm just above the elbow. With
mighty wrench / twisted about, breaking
the steel in my flesh, and, catching the fell
low by the throat, held him for one instant,
then, lifting him, flung him clean over the
rail into the sea. From first to last he ut
tered no sound, and if ever he came to the
surface I saw him not.
In the maddened fury possessing me my
wound felt no more than the prick Of a
needle though found the steel was through
and through the flesh. Pluclling it out, | ran
forward with the determination of taking
the status of the remaining hand, but could
not find him at first, for both galley and fore
castle were bare of everything human. As !
came up from the latter / saw him astride
the starboard spreader of the foremost with
a pistol in his hand | doubted not that he
would have shot at me as | passed under
him on my way forward, only that the helm
being relieved of pressure the vessel had
gone into the wind, and the violent motion
of the headsails and tremor of the mast UNI
der the thunderous thrashing of the foresal
made an aim impossible His attitude and
the pistol told the story Of the part he was
expected to play in the mutiny which had
probably been Matched before leaving Nor.
folk But the cowardly cur had either
skulked at the last moment or | had been
too rapid for him, and he had swarmed up
the shrouds to be out of reach, and there
sat looking down at me. passed no words
with him, but. running back ON the lar
board side, fetched my rifle from the cabin,
and, standing by the break of the poop,
drew bead on him and commanded him to
drop his pistol and come down. At first he
demurred, then whimpered, and, finally
dropping the pistol, swung himself to the
halyards, down which he slid to the deck,
where. falling to his knees, he began begging
for his life, his black face turned to a sickly
green through abject terror.
The blood was losing from my arm land
it was sight took it from my head, and
my temper was a trile less murderous by the
time the fellow had come within my power.
| had traded on his ignorance, as, had he but
known my gun was unchanged, matters
might have taken a different complexion.
Sternly ordering HIM below, drew the slide
over the hatch. and then, feeling my life was
safe from him, fetched deep breath and
took look about me.
The ships were in fair sight by this, the
enc eastward doubtless troop ship bound
for New York with reenforeements for Sir
Henry Clinton. who had already begun his
call for help. and kept it up through his ad-
ministration The ship to the west looked
10 be a man-of-war, judging by her size and
rig. but twas the third that caused me the
most uneasiness-a fine, large schooner com
ing down before the wind, and now about
four miles away.
That tho Phantom was her object nowise
doubted To pass myself as a royalist bound
from Savannah to New 6ork with lead for
his majesty that being the gist of my forged
papersl would hardly do ia the face OF one
dead man lying in the scuppers and single
R,r1 I rf,.,r, lpln,x- Ruf I snW not Alnr