Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1901-01-10

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esparto grass which bound her, and
she swung sharply round to a stand
still. And before the wave she threw
up had spread a dozen fathoms we
made n simultaneous rush upon her
clever red polled architect and hoisted
him high above our shoulders.
And when we had had enough of
cheering for Captain Alec Ireland some
Of us were uncomfortably hoarse, while
as for the old man he could not laugh
above a whisper
But the Scourge was 4 mere hulk so
far and not . well fitted fighting ship,
and so it was TO work again without
premature holiday. Masts had to be
fale and stepped, rigging to be de-
.Sucd and set up and sails to be cut
and stitched from the unpickings of
older sails. And these labors, with the
fittings below and the shaping of sparS
and such like, were not the work of a
day or Il week. All hands took part in
them except the old man, who was
deeply u@aged in the construction of
some infeSual engine near the mouth
of the harbor the use of which he OBJ
stinately refused to tell us.
Almost all the powder on the wrecks
If the Spanish ships had been spoiled,
and handful or 50 from the heart of
each barrel was all we were able TO
secure. but arms, small and great, and
body armor we found in abundance,
enough to have supplied two such ships
as the Scourgc.
One would have thought, moreover,
that the =. cat Spanish lombard. which
TIE OLD r,,an kept trained on his prison
eTs IN he caves. was as heavy piece
as Il reasonable man could desire. But
Alexander ireland was not as other
men tie ag.-UCG that with our small
crew. fight At long bowls would be
orr only chance, and 50 IL set to work
to devise a weapon which would enable
us to do this. He made drawings and
then q model in wood. from which he
fashioned a mold Of moist sand. Then.
breaking up a falConet and some small
dcmiculverins and sakerS, he built a
furnace ana crammed it with the bra
zen fragments of these pieces mixed
with charcoal and from shipwright
turned himself to the trade of gun
founder.
Aud must own that it was q deadly
weapon which he turned out For, al
though the gun had none of that orna
mentation which one looks for in a
piece that is to earn a high repute, still
it could not fairly be judged by the
standard of other weapons. because it
differed from every gun that had hith
erto been cast. 1t was fearfully cum
bersome in the breech and down to
where the trunnions lay, but from that
point forward 1t tapered throughout
the whole of its enormous length.
which was a full foot and half be
yond the fathom. until just round the
muzzle it swelled out to form strong
ring He made a carriage for it, too,
and planted it right amdships between
the masts. The piece could be fired
from a large port on either side, or
over the bulwark if need be; so that,
except directly ahead or astern, its
deadly pelting commanded every point
of the compass. With this powerful
weapon and the culverins and falco-
nets mounted on either broadside we
had as much artillery as we could man
But the powder room was empty.
This was most serious gap in our
defense and one which for lack of ma.
terials we could not remedy. One
jester indeed said that we could get
charcoal from the woods and sulphur
from the Spaniards' oaths, so that we
required only saltpeter to start our
manufactory, but even on this showing
we were no better off, for we had not
the saltpeter. There was nothing for
it, therefore, but to run our first prize
by the board and take her hue and
thrust fashion and then to use the
powder she carried to load our weapons
against her friends.
We had, it is true, saved a few hand
fuls of the precious black dust from
the carrack's hold and at one time had
counted upon using that to fire half a
dozen lusty broadsides, but every grain
of it was blown away to smoke by the
old man before ever the Scourge drop
ped down the harbor.
He had, as | have said, been for
some time engaged in constructing a
mysterious engine whose form and
purpose were known to himself alone.
Its site was among some rocks on the
spit at the harbor's mouth, but none of
US had seen it, for since the old man
had promised to launch his deadliest
curse at the head of any one who pried
into his secret we all kept widely aloof.
Still, we were not Il little curious,
and, madman though he was, we trust
ed him. Consequently when it was re-
ported that a large ship flying the
Spanish flag was making dead for the
mouth of the harbor our first thought
was that we We're trapped and our sec
ond that the old man would save us.
He had boasted that his Internal ma
chine would cope single handed with
the proudest ship in the Spanish navy,
and if he failed us now, after having
taken possession of all our small store
of powder, then the Spaniard might
moor in the harbor and batter our new
vessel to noGgin slaves at his leisure,
and we could not hope to prevent him.
We had not a stitch of canvas bent to
the spars. not n sweep fitted to the row
posts The boat would hold only II
men, but as n forlOrn hope we had it
manned and ready behind the shelter
ofCarrack rock, near which the fairway
ran In it were crammed those of us
who could not swim. The rest were to
take to the water sword in teeth, and
each was to board the invader as best
we could
4 desperate enterprise surely, but is
was the time for desperate enterprises,
for If the newcomers were to land and
release their countrymen from the cave
neither strategy nor force could save
us. 1t must be n fight to the death,
and, truth to tell, there was not one of
us who had not rather have died than
trust again to mercy from a Spaniard.
CHAPTER XIII.
On came the majestic Spaniard. bow
ing gravely and proudly over the roll
ing seas. She was close hauled on the
starboard tack, and her bellying
courses and topsails strained heavily
on the sheets. Standard, pennant and
banner hung from trucks and poop
staff, and the painted taffety as it nut-
tered out to leeward was more suggest
i've of gala day revels than of fighting
But today her guns were not loaded
with blank saluting cartridges.
When she drew nearer, she hauled
I'D her courses in their brails, slowed