The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1900-05-08

ing to them, seem dim and distant as
half-forgotten dreams, their weary
eyes see once more the waving of Eng
lish flags over a feet coming TO their
rescue.
Well may the haggard faces brighten,
despite the curses and blows Of their
savage taskmasters. When Admiral
Blake came here three weeks ago with
a demand for the surrender of all
Christian captives," and sailed away
again with no answer save an insolent
defiance from the hey of Tunis and his
pirate chiefs, there was many a heavy
heart among the prisoners. But to
day he is here again, no longer to
threaten, but to do; and the message
which he brings this time is vi which
Tunis will long remember.
Don't thee be troubled, lad" says
one of the admiraT's crew to a curly
haired boy who is looking wistfully to-
ward the shore. "Well get thy father
out of their claws yet, never fearl"
The boys face glows at the words, and
there is fight in his clear blue eyes
which shows that if fighting is to be
done to-day he will not be hindmost.
Ten weary years have passed since
stout Tom Jackson, struggling for life
on a dismasted wreck, was seized by
these pitiless rovers; and the son, who
was a child of five when he disappeared,
had come back as a boy of IS, to take
part in his rescue.
Onward come the great floating cas-
ties, in a grim silence which awes the
fierce Arabs in spite of themselves.
Suddenly there comes a rattle and a
splash, as all five ships cast anchor at
once. Then a boat is seen gliding shore
ward from the admiral's vessel with a
flag of truce to give the oyer-confdent
pirates one last chance to surrender be-
fore it is too late.
But instantly there comes a puff of
white smoke from the nearest port, and
heavy shot splashing up the water close
to the boats bow, showing what an an
swer the message of mercy has to ex-
pect.
Then Blake's face is seen to darken
o%minousIy, and with his wonted tug of
depressed anger at the point of his
long, black whiskers, he gives the word
to open fire. Then up through the still
air rises the stern cadence of the old
Puritan b~attle-psalm, to the sound of
which Cromwel's Ironsides had swept
the best of the royalist soldiers from
many a hard-fought field.
God is our refuge and our strength.
In straits a present aid;
Therefore, although the earth be moved.
We will not be afraid.
Though hills amid the sea be cast,
Though waters roaring make
And troubled be; yea. though the hills
BY swelling seas do shake"
Instantly sea and shore and sky were
wrapped in one thick gust of hot,
sitting smoke, while the warlike music
was drowned by the roar of 500 cannon.
Fire, smoke, yells, groans, curses,
pelting shot, crashing timbers, falling
stones, deafening cannon-thunder, all
at once
Far away in the desert the wandering
Arab stopped to listen to the dull boom
ng of the distant cannonade, and trem.
oled as he heard it.
Men with powder-blackened faces
; fred at random into the cloud of sui
phurous smoke that yelled alike ship:
and forts, broken only by the sudder
flashes that brought death along will
; them. Masts and yards came crashing
down on one side, stoneS and mortal
IN the other; and still the smoke bill
! lowed, and still the cannon roared.
{ But although the Arabs fought a
iercely as men could do, the logged
: unslackening steadiness of the Epglisl
fire at length began to tell.
! The fort which had fired upon tn
flag of truce was fast crumbling int,
a shapeless ruin. Five guns had beef
dismounted in the second fort, ant
: three more were standing idle, with al
their gunners lying dead around them
In vain the Tunisians yelled and free
! and struggled and shook their sword
at the death-dealing ships, and lashe'
their prisoners forward to repair tn
shattered breastwork. Slowly blu
surely the battle was going agains
! them more and more.
Suddenly a curl of smoke was see,
: to rise from one of the pirates ga
: leys. The Arabs rushed like madmen I
quench the FIRE, but in vain. The smok
Redeemed into flame, while fresh spout
, Of fire broke from galley after galley
y till the while pirate feet was one re
> and roaring blaze.
Then the enemy began to lose hear
: altogether. AS their fire slackeneC
that of the British redoubled, and th
j.. cheers of the sturdy blue-jackets wer
:. heard. even through the thunder of til
bombardment.
"Hurrah for old England" shouted
gray-haired prisoner in the nearest ba
terry.
:, "Silence, dog!" roared a f~erocior
Arab, striking him savagely across III
~ face.
9 That blow was an unlucky one for III
striker. One swing of the iron bs
> with which the Englishman was worl
ing felled the Arab dead on the spo
and the next m came a splash
: the water, a shout from the flagship
and in a few minutes more the long-loi
5 Tom Jackson was being hauled @
- board of her by his own son, amid
burst of cheering that seemed 10 spl
,e the very sky.
~ 1