Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-02-13

4
add TO the luster of your reception at
home what can induce you, short of
madness. to accept the Office of a chief
OF buccaneers, a captain of butchers, rob
! bers and assassins?''
Let me reply by another question:
| What can induce you, whose position is
at least as enyiable as my own at home
to accept the office. not of chief, but
! of a private buccaneer:''
Montgomery gazed wistfully. as if in
| doubt, before he made answer.
| My question frst-yours afterward.
What can induce you to become cap
| tain?''
| 1t is the very same l have been ask
| ing myself these two hours. and / can
give you no answer. unless it be that l
have given myself Faith, / don't
| know"
Can YOU avoid it, captain?"
What should hinder?"
| IF we go ashore there" replied Mont
gomery. pointing to Tampico, 1--WE shall
be shot in the back by the Spaniards as
! traitors, rebels, / care not what. If we
20 on board yonder, we shall be strung up
! by the neck to the yard-arm, as coming
from on board a notorious pirate"
Not quite so fast. The captains of
American men-of-war know as we'll as
any other men in the world the virtues of
any port in a storm, and l doubt not
! the commander of yon tight schooner
would go on board buccaneer himself to
avoid being shot in the back No, no;
there is no talk about hanging If You
and ! We're to jump into the dingey, how
| long would it take us to pull with this
ebb-tide to yon crrnscr?"
| An hour at most.
AT most. Well, we have been fighting
| for MorcioS and liberty uniforms
! youch for us-every American knows
| Morelos; every American loves liberty.
We are fugitives from a cowardly and
/ cruel enemy, seeking the protection of
our own fiag-who shall refuse it to us?'
will they let you have boat hence
for such a purpose, Captain Manly?'
They will, sir. Why not?'
! "Will they not fear betrayal, STRIP
mo, man, sir ever feared betrayal at
my hands who knew me, and these men
know me to their hearts cores. Besides,
| they fear nothing. If they fight that
cruiser it will be for fun They can es-
cape from her as easily as now speak it.
|
'Then, to return to my old question.
why will you leave them?"
And again | will answer by another
question. why shall we not leave them p
II cannot
/ And wherefore?"
Montgomery was silent
!, II answered your question. Montgom-
cry, under an implied promise. Now |
ask mine. What can induce you to be-
come n buccaneerT'
I'VE have the night before us, and |
ask You in your own words, are We not
friends:'
I'VE are" replied Montgomery, cor
daily, shaking his offered hand; land
you have right to ask it and l viii an
swer; but first, do you know who COM
mands yon cruiser?''
II do. Harry Sutherland
Even so. Do Won know the man? l
mean personally"
u do answered Manly, gloomly,
land owe him deep debt"
do you--do you? also Manly. on
your life, what debt? What sort of debt,
l meant
"Of penitence," answered the other,
''and deepest reparation."
And / Of the deepest, direst. deadliest
vengeance. / cannot receive his protee-
ton; rather had | be shot. coward-like,
in the back by the Spaniard l cannot
breathe the same air with him: it would
stifle me- / cannot eat the bread of his
hospitality; it would choke me. Better
disgrace, infamy, death on the gibbet-"
"Ah. / remember" replied Manly. in
terrupting him. but in meditative rather
/ than an abrupt manner-'I remember.
You fought him and he pinked YOU But
| you are not the fellow to bear a grudge
for that Now, answer newly do you
so hate this Sutherland"
Because throughout my life he mas
crossed me, thwarted me, conquered me.
In the paths OF fame, Of love. Of ven
| geance. my star has ever paled before his.
Now listen''-and eagerly. vehemently, he
began the recital of their first boyish riv-
airy: of his own attempt to rescue the
| child from the burning Ehouse: of his fail
ure; of his bitter disappointment; of
Sutherlands arrival aud success; of the
hatred he conceived against him from
that moment: of the insult and defiance
he then offered him. and of the vengeance
he had then resolved TO take upon his
head.
Later" continued Montgomery, "the
very night that Anna Hamilton refused
me for his sake, and told me so, as / was
going from her house met him-ay, him
the preferred above me by that pure
Notwithstanding the steps Of TreYors
door. fresh from her company We met
II reproached. dehed. challenged him
we fought-you know the rest. Now.
have l cause TO hate him!'
Manly paused, and unused deeply before
he answered II cannot say ay," he re-
plied. at last. Il cannot say no. for il
knew il not. 1t is all mystery--on the
very night when YOU two first met, we
three first met-on that night, brought
Harry Sutherland on board this ship in
which we now sit. On the next day !
sent him to Anna's father with commcn-
dations. which made him at once one OF
the family"
You sent him. Manly?'
'Tush. Manly not me- Ny name is
Hamilton. the brother OF her"
The man who eloped with Suther-
lands MOTHER exclaimed Montgomery.
starting.
Hamilton glared at him for an instant,
/ C.lncaed his right hand. raised II. as IL he
would have struck him. but after pause
dashed il against his own breast. saying:
Thou hast said it,
There was momeat'S pause. for both
! were thunder stricken. Hamilton recov-
cred himself first. and continued: To riy
certain knowledge they were engaged lone
before she ever saw you. before she ever
heard your name. So. you see, he has
not wronged you"
~Hs. has ne not%' replied Montsom-
cry, hercely NOR Anna Hamilton. per-
haps; why did he not marry her-why-''
Did he not marry herr
DO you not know he did notes'
| shortly after your duel | sailed for
this country. aud have returned no more.
nor sought for any tidingS from land
whence l could hope for no good ones
''On my recovery Sutherland had diSap-
peared. no one then knew whittier, bur il
soon appeared that be was ordered 10
thar very ship. the Sparrow Hawk. He
had left Anna. without word. without a
farewell letter, without parting token.
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