The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-11-13
grunteG And that's your plra.y
schoonerl Well, l will say that she's
far too good for the likes of you
CHAPTER Xxx.
THE SCHOONER S HOLD.

CHAPTER Xxx.
THE sCHOoNER's HOLD.
Her steersman shot the whaleboat
cleverly up alongside the schooner,
which was moored fore and aft to trees
on the shore. The lug sail was run down
and the painter caught by couple of
men who appeared on the deck, negroes,
too, like the Others. The gangway was
unshipped and passed out, and Nthe peo-
pie from the green cave boarded from
the gunwale of their boat.
"Who've you got there, cap'n2'' ask
ed one of the men on the schooner, as
the Eurekas stepped up on to the deck.
sob, some laundering fools, y replied
the lean captain, .'who must needs
shove themselves in our way when they
weren't wanted Now, you three, he
continued, addressing his prisoners, .sI
haven't staterooms to give you and the
fo'c'stle's full, SO just turn down into
the hold for the present No, young
man, you needn't bother to argue the
question. Just shut your head and go
quietly You'll only get your skulls
cracked if you make fools of yourselves
over it, =
A couple of sheath knives were out
on the instant, cleaning brightly in the
moonlight The negroes were six-all
big men and armed-and how many
more there might be below there was
no means of guessing. The undergradu-
ate saw that resistance was hopeless
and did as he was told.
There was fixed iron ladder at the
after combing of the main hatch, run
ming straight up and down from the
deck to the hold beneath. By this he
descended and the other two after him.
The schooner's people slid on heavy
grating and fixed it in its place with
wedges. Then four pairs Of shod feet
and two shutting pairs of bare ones
could be heard making their way aft
over the deck. to the companion, and
presently the murmur of voices in the
cabin came to the prisoners in a dull
. drone through the quietness of the
night
"There be something live in this yer
box, announced Cain, as faint, rus
thing noise made itself heard in the hold.
"Why, un's tortoises," he exclaimed
after brief, stertorous inspection,
'zame as Zusan Pierce, her father get
fur black beetles in the kitchen, only
bigger.
"They re turtles you oafl" corrected
Mrs. Jelly CONTEMPORARY.
Tho whole 1,o11 ro1o1 x,,;%l,
them, lying helplessly. belly uppermost.
Some of them were quite still, but 9TH
ers, feebly waving their fappers in the
air, were giving rise to the faint whis-
pering sound which had attracted the
farmers attention
$50 that IS what the schooner is doing
herel'' exclaimed Guthrie s.That ex-
plains it; she's turtle catching. Well,
that's harmless enough trade surely.
eff they sticks to it, added Hen,
rietta significantly. "But this kidnap-
ing of us three ha'n't nothing to do
with turtles that can see.
The steady drone of the conversation
in the cabin was making itself heard
through the after bulkhead, and at this
aAAOAACAo AZ oWclltu OuU W d lOuuer VOL
ume. There was some sort of dispute
going on al ng the turtle catchers.
Guthrie s.sirmished along the floor of
the hold among its impotent occu-
pants till he came to the bulkhead. He
found dashed cask amidships and
scrambled on to the head of it, Imme-
diately in front of his nose was faint
glow of light. 1t came from a seam in
the boarding from which the oakum
had been started. Gently manipulating
the calking with his fingers, he enlarged
the slit to a hole two inches long by
three-sixteenths wide and found that
he could not only hear plainly, but see
to certain extent as we'll, although,
as the bulkhead planking was thick, his
view was necessarily restricted one.
A white headed mulatto was reading
from a scrap of paper. To the listeners
amazement it was an accurate account
of the foundered galleon enterprise, or,
rather, all of it that could be known at
the time when the Eureka left Bristol
the promoters aims, the supposed