The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-17
he FOOLED THE
VOLCANO FOUR
CONTINUED from Page ID

alligator pears and cigarettes and things
TO the crew, l dropped into the boat UNI
der cover Of the darkness while the Ka-
naka was doing his peddling forward. 1
crawled under tarpaulin that the Ka-
neka had spread over his goods up in the |
eyes of the bumboat, and after a while he |
hoTped in and pushed off, without dream
ing that he had passenger. When he |
had beached his bumboat-there are no |
docks in Hilo-and 1 rose up in the dark |
ness, shrouded in the tarpaulin, the way
that Kanaka threw himself face down.
ward on the sand and prayed out loud to
the kanaka Goddess Pele-who is sup
posed to preside over the volcanic fire.
works of Hawaii-was real religious and
impressive
THAT night I walked the natural palm
avenues, wondering what they were do
ing In all the fats l knew in New York,
and thinking about the good things,
solid and liquid, in the s7.9S refrigerators
in all the flats knew in New York, while
the big stars of that latitude rubberneck-
ed at me and threatened-they seemed so
clcSe-to come right down and hit me
few.
About o'clock the next morning 1
was slouching by a big livery stable on
the main street of Hilo, when a man who
was sitting in chair in front of the liv-
cry stable Office looked up and passed me
the nod.
Hello said he, when did you drop
In?
81 told him how I'd slipped in under
the harbor guns, so to speak, the night
before, informing him that I'd been
shanghaied. and incidentally remarking
that the next time l went to sea I'd be
sitting at either the right or left hand
side of the skipper. SOS 1 could josh him
during meals.
u he motion of ship in the part I've
been riding in during the last eighteen
days depletes my system, 1 added.
Say, do you think you could drive
four hosses? the man in the chair in
front of the livery stable, who was the
boss, as I afterward found out, asked me.
couldn't think of driving less'n
eight 1 told him.
! know something about bosses then?
said he.
| Did know anything about horses Did
/ 1 know anything else but things about
horses at to % on to 200 to 1 against?
Because guess can give you job,
Bub, says this livery stable man, if YOU
think you can handle a four-hoss team.
Then he told me that he sent a four
horse coach filled with tourists up to the
Burning Lake of Kilauea-about thirty
miles up on the side of the volcano of
Mama Loa-every morning, but that his
driver had embarked upon a massive saki
drunk the night before, after fetching the
coach down on the return trip, and wasn't
liable to show up for some days.
1.-TWO hours later / had the four lines
in my mitt, and was sitting on the seat of
the coach like as If it was all mine-a Ka-
naka boy beside me to point out the right
i road for me-and about twenty swell
tourists inside the coach, all bound for
Peter Lees Volcano House, which stands
on the brink Of that lively crater that's
tNc ic6 hrfr lfnp oh Of Il
came near hopping off the seat and cut
ting for it when / first came in sight OF
that devilish hole in the earth, with the
flame and smoke and vapor rising and
falling in it like pulse, and l concluded
right there and then that the birthstone
spiels that were handed to me when
was kid at Sunday school were all right
all r4ght, and on the level. But pulled
the coach up in front of the Volcano
House. after six-hour tug, with whip
a-oracking and colors flying. and the
folks inside the coach calling me Hanl
Monk and other old-time stage drivers
names like that-for the road from Hilt
to the Burning Lake isn't any Speedway
by a lot.
II drove 'em down and back to Hilo tn
next day, and those tourists all plugged
so hard for me that the livery stable Dos
told me ] could have the coach-drvin:
: job permanently at $50 a month ant
found, if l wanted 1t. Well, il costs IS
to come up from Honolulu to Frisco
l first-class, per steamship, and 1 wouldn'
have come back to Frisco any other wa,
If I'd had to stay in Hilo-or on the lepe
Island of Molokai. for that matter-fo
the rest of my life; and another 800, a
least, from Frisco TO New York. oh, yes
1 wanted the job.
..Voy-la! as that Ollendorf fellow says
I drove that coach from Hilo to the Burn
Ia probably have driven it for anothe
two months, SOS to be able to get bacl
/, here looking like some ready money. any
5 how-but my day for getting hunk cam
I around.
4 II was hitching up the four one mornin
: when the bunch of tourists bound up t
, THE Burning Lake on my wagon cam
laughing and chatting to the barn fror
the inter-sland steamer. l knew one c
p them as soon as 1 popped my lamps o
: him. He was the booke who had WEIGH
e ed on my $500 to $50 ticket on the came
! Say, he didn't have one on that wa
Z lless'n four carats. ] didn't make myse
: known to him, and he was too busy be
, ing gallant to the five women to motto
> me,
n This said to myself. as 1 clirnbe
e onto the box and picked up the reins,
:. my last trip up.
II got the coach up all right as uSua
:, My bookie man was sitting well up fo
:, ward, and through the open windows b.
II meath me I could hear him telling tt
6 man next to him how he'd had the bis
d gest season Of his experience on tt
e block-how only about is per cent of II
IS lfavorites had reached the wire first, ar
: the remaining SO per cent had handed Il
" dough over to the books by the hatful.
= ''The tourists all climbed out when
u hauled the coach up in front of the Vo
s. cano House, and separated into lit
IL groups. 1 never took my eye off N
IT bookie man. After about an hour, wht
N dinner was over, and the party was wal
"A ing to descend to the sides of the crat
= on pony back, the bookie walked coup
VA of hundred yards away from the hotel
u examine a spot where vapor was risii
ut from a hole in the ground. 1t was y,
lie low sulphur pit, as hot as molten lead. !
t stood there. looking into it. l was rig
after him, and i did such a good gui
shoe stunt that he didn't know there w
anybody around until / had him right
the collar. We were screened from t
al view of the people on the hotel porch
:" bunch of scrub, half baked trees.
o. HE wheeled about, as pale as spoe
a when got that quick clutch on his CO
". lar Did he know me? In second,