Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-06-15

The captain spread the ycllo,D manu-
script ont on the table
tain. If Dr. Tring said yes" Captain
Colepepper would cheerfully spend
every penny he had in the world in fit
ting out a vessel in which to make the
venture and would be content to die in
have fair shot at being a millionaire.
Meanwhile the suspense was slowly
driving him frantic Beads of perspra-
ton We're rolling UNDECIDED down his
nose and dropping on to his beard. At
last he could stand the strain of mac
ton no longer, and, throwing himself
back in the chair, began, utterly I'M
conscious of what he was doing, to
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-
tor $ log with your" he asked,
For answer the captain produced the
stained yellow sheets from his pocket
and handed them across to his COM
pani0n.
tor. Il want to get clear grasp Of all
the details.
"The whole of ii?
"No. Only where he tells about the
plateship.
The captain spread the yellow manu-
script out on the table before him and
read as follows:
"From the log of Nicholas Colepep-
per, Esq, master CT the snow lbrigl
Lucky Venture.
"THuRsDAY, iii February, 1891.
"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 mariner s
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 "A calker's mallet. lying handy, aid
set the watch to trim and make sail, that
we might get all the pace out of orr
tight little snow of which she was ca
pable.
The Spnniard'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 ifse 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