El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-10
CHAPTER II.


A little, old, green painted bark lay
hove to under sail. disseminating the
scent of guano through the sweet trop
ical day. Under her square counter the
name Ell Almirante Cochrane appeared
in clean white lettering. The long
south Pacific swells lifted her lazily from
hill to valley of the blue water to the
accompaniment of squeaEng gear and
a certain groaning of fabric. The Chill
can coast lay afar off as a white, feath
cry line against one fragment of the
sea rim. A white whaleboat lay astern,
riding to grass rope painter, and
Senior Carlos Silva, whom the whale
boat had brought off from the Chilean
beach, sat in the bark's deckhouse talk
ing to Captain Kettle.
''The senorita will be very disap-
pointed, said Silva.
81 can imagine her disappoin tment,
returned the sailor. 81 can measure it
by my own. 1 can tell you. sir, when
I saw this lousy, sinking old wind
TANNER waiting for me in Callao, l
could have sat down right where l was
and cried. I'd got my men together,
and guess I'd talked big about Ell
Almirante Cochrane, the fine new ar
mored cruiser we were to do wonders
in. The only thing 1 knew about her
was the name, but Miss La Touche had
promised me the finest ship that could
be got, and I only described what l
thought a really fine ship would be.
And then when the agent stuck out
his finger and pointed out this foul old
violet bed tell you that it was bit of
let down."
There's been some desperate robbery
somewhere, said Silva.
cit didn't take me long to guess
that" said Kettle, ''and 1 concluded
the agent was the thief and started in
to take it out of him without further
talk. He hadn't pistol. so I only used
my hands to him, but 1 guess 1 fingered
him enough in three minutes to stop
his dancing for another month
''Still that didn't procure you anoth
er ship?'
"Hammering the agent couldn't
make him do an impossibility, sir.
There wasn't such vessel as l wanted
in all the ports of Peru. So I just took
this nosegay that was offered, lured my
crew aboard and put ont past San Lo-
renzo island and got to sea. It's a bit
of come down, sir, for a steamer sailor
like me, the little man added, with a
sigh, ''to put an old wind TANNER
through her gymnastics again. 1
thought I'd done with 'mainsail haul
and rawhide chatting gear and all the
white wings nonsense for good and al
ways"
"But. captain, what did you come
out for7 What earthly good can You do
with an old wreck like this7''
"Why, sir, 1 shall carry out what
was arranged with Miss La Touche.
shall come up with one of President Qui-
jarras government vessels, capture her
and then start in to collar the rest.
There's no alteration in the programme.
It's only made more difficult. that's
ALL
81 rowed out here to the rendezvous
to tell you the Cancelario is at moor
ings in Tampique bay and that the Sc
norita would like to see you make your
beginning upon her. But what's the
good of that news now? The Cancelario
is a fine new warship of 5000 tons.
She's fitted with everything modern in
guns and machinery. She's 300 men of
q crew. And she lies always with
steam up and an armed watch set. To
go near her in this clumsy little bark
would be to make yourself a laughing
stock. Why. your English Cochrane
wouldn't have done it
81 know nothing about Lord Coch
rane, Mr.. Silva. He was dead before my |
time. But whatever people may have |
done to him I can tell any one who |
cares to hear that the man who's talk |
ing to you now is bit of an awkward |
handful to laugh at. No, sir; 1 expect |
there'll be trouble over it, but you may
tell Miss La Touche we shall have the
Cancelario if she'll stay in Tampique
bay till I can drive this old lavender
box up to her.
For a minute Silva stared in silent
wonder. ''Then, captain said he,
call 1 can think is you must have enor-
nous trust in your crew.
Captain Kettle bit the end from a
fresh cigar. ''You should go and look
at them for yourself" said he, land
hear their talk, and then you d know
The beasts are fit to eat me already"
''How did you get them on boardT
'tWell, you see, sir, l collected them
by promises-fne pay, fine ship, fine
cruise, fine chances, and SO on-and
when I'd only this smelling bottle here
TO show them they hung back bit. If
there'd been only 90 of them, l don't
say but what l could have trusted them
On board with a gun and some ugly
words, but so were too many to tackle.
30 I Just said. to them that Ell Almi-