Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-03-12
Q . The D 81
Lost Continent
BY CUTCLIFFE HYNE.
CHAPTER XII.-CoNT1NuED,
sh BY Harper Bros. Copyright iso by cutsliis Hyus

CHAPTER XII.-CoNT1NuED.
Correcting, my lord" said he, "but
I'd have been pleased to see you ear
1ier. We've small enough force and
slow enough heels in this vessel, and
it's my idea that the sooner we're away
from here and beyond the range ofpur-
suit the safer it will be for my wom-
an and brats, who are in that hutch of
an aftercastle. It's long enough since
i sailed in such a small, old-fashioned
ship as this. She's no machines, and
she's not even steering manikin.
Look at the meanness of her furni-
ture, and Tin your cary I've suspicious
that there's rottenness in her bot
tom. But she's the best I'd the means
to buy, and if she reaches the place at
the farther end I've got my eye on,
we shall have to make home there,
or be content to die, for she'll never
have strength to carry us farther or
back. She's been a ship in the Egypt
trade, and you know what that is for
getting worm and rot in the wood.''
= "You'd enough hands for your
" scheme before Cameo"
"Oh, yes. I've fifty stout lads, and
eight women packed in the ship some
how, and trouble enough I had to get
them away from the city. That thief
of port captain well-nigh skinned us
clean before he could see it lawful that
so many useful fighting men might so
out of harbor. Times are not what
they were, I tell you, and the sea trades
about done. All sailor men of any
skill have taken q woman or two and
gone out in companies to try their for
tunes in other lands. Why, I'd trouble
enough to get half score to help me
work this ship. All my balance are
just landsmen raw and simple, and if I
land half of them alive at the other
end, we shall be doing WELL"
"Still, with luck and few good
winds it should not take long to get
across to Europe"
lob slapped his leg. "No savage Eu.
rope for me, my lord. Now see the adj
vantage of being mariner. I found
once some islands to the north of Eu-
rope, separated from the main by a
=, strait, which I called the Tin islands,
seeing that tin ore itters many of
the beaches. I was driven there by
storm, and said no word of the find
when I got back, and here, you see, it
comes in useful. There's no one in
nl Atlantis but me knows of those
Tin islands to-day, and Wen go and
fight honestly for our ground. and
build town and kingdom on it,
~With Tob for king?"
'Well. have figured it out as such
for many a day, but know when I
meet my betters, and I'm content to
serve under Deucalon. Ny lord would
have done wiser to bring wife with
him, though, and I thought it was I'M
derstood by the good lady that spoke
to me down at the harbor, or I'd have
mentioned it earlier. The savages in
my Tin islands go naked and stain
themselves blue with woad, and are
very filthy and british to look upon.
They are sturdy, and should make good
slaves, but one would have to get
blunted in the taste before one could
wish to be father to their children"
II am still husband to Phorenice."
Tob grinned. ''The gods give you Joy
of her. But it is part of a mariners
creed-and you will grow to be mar
liner here-that wedlock does not hold
across the seas. However, that mat
ter may rest. But, coming to my Tin
islands again: they'll delight you. And
tell you, a kingdom will not be so
hard to carve out as it was in Egypt,
or as you found in Yucatan. There are
beasts there, of course, and no one
But the greater beasts are few. There
are cave bears and cave tigers in small
numbers, to be sure, and some river
horses and great snakes. But the
greater lizards seem to avoid the land;
and as for birds, there is rarely seen
one that can hurt a grown man. Oh, I
tell you, it will be most desirable
Kingdom"
lob seems to have imagined himself
king of the Tin islands with much
reality"
He sighed little. 'In truth did,
and there is no denying it; and tell
you plain, there is not another man
living that would have broken this
voyage for but Deucalion. But don't
think regret it, and don't think 1
want to push myself above my place.
This breeze and the ebb are taking the
old ship finely along her ways. See
those fire-buckets OH the harbor forts ?
We're abreast of them now. Well
have dropped them and the city out of
sight by daylight, and the flood will
not begin to run up till then. But I
fear unless the wind hardens down
with the dawn we'll have to bring up
to an anchor when the flood makes.
Tides run very hard in these narrow
seas. Aye, and there are some shrewd-
ish tide-rips round my Tin islands, as
you shall see when we reach them"
There were many fearful glances
backward when day came and showed
the waters, and the burning mountains
that hemmed them in beyond the
shores. All seemed to expect some
navy of Phorenice to come surging up
to take them back to servitude and
starvation in the squalid wards of the
city; and I confess ingenuously that
was with them in all truth when they
swore they would fight the ship till
she sank beneath them before they
would obey another of the commands
of Phorenice. However, their brave
heroics were displayed to small pur-
pose. For the full flow of the tide we
hung in our place, barely moving past
the land, but yet not seeing either
oar or sail; and then, when the tide