Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-10-01
DAILY SHORT STORY
The Yacht That
Was Never Heard From
IO.iginaLl

y
ble."
A promise of secrecy was made, and
the yarn was spun:
THE Hilda had the newest thing in
engines, and as soon as she had been
tested her owner, Mr.. Chippindale,
started in her for a trip around the
world, with me as engineer. He was
the only one aboard except the officers
and crew.
"a great many people think the days
Of pirates are past and gone. Don't
you believe it. Ships go out and are
never heard from-gone down in a
storm; more likely their crews are
murdered and the ship is plundered
and scuttled. Well, we were steaming
westward somewhere between Hong
kong and Manila when we met sailer
wearing British colors coming through
the water. turning the white before
her, heading right for us and signaling
us to slow down. Thinking she had
something important to communicate,
we stopped the engines, and boatload
of men came aboard. AS soon as they
were on our deck the ship they came
from hauled down the British flag and
raised the skull and crossbones.
"Pm not going over the doing away
with every man of US. That's what
keeps me from sleeping
Weren't you one Of the yachts
crew."
"Sure. But I was the engineer, and
not one of the pirates could run an en-
CINE. Coolidge, their captain. said to
me: Run them engines, and so long as
you run them right you live. When
you run them wrong
II knew what he meant without his
finishing, and you bet 1 ran the en-
gines right. This was the time when
the Spanish war was coming on, and
we'd learned all about it from speak
ing an American cruiser, especially that
Dewey was soon to sail from Hong
kong. Besides, all the nations were
sending men-of-war to the Philippines
to see fair play. Coolidge had been
lodging vessels that were calculated
to give him this information and did
not know anything at all about it. He
came to me and asked me what kind
of craft we'd been meeting, and 1 con-
cocted a story. 1 told him that n cou-
pie of hundred miles east of Manila
we'd passed a small steamer, capable
of making eight knots and no more,
that carried express matter. Goo
ledge suspected that n money safe be-
longing TO the express companies might
be aboard and was itching to get at it.
We would have to go back between
Hongkong and Manila to reach the
steamer and were likely to fall in with
q cruiser.
''Sure enough, one morning we saw
black line on the horizon to the
northward, then another and another.
1t was Dewey's fleet, but we didn't
know it. Coolidge ran down to me
and said, You drive her for all she's
worth He stayed by me till the steam
gauge was showing all she'd stand,
and more. too, and then he went on
deck again.
"As luck would have it, we were
steaming across the line of Il scout
ship. 1 looked out and saw the smoke
north by northeast and made up my
mind that the stranger would pass
astern of us. l kept an eye out the
portfolio, and when she came within
sight l saw a signal flying for us to
heave to. Coolidge didn't dare risk
an inspection and paid no attention to
it. The cruiser came on, but was only
two knots better than us and gained
slowly. l didn't know that she was
ordered to overhaul everything she
met, and 1 was afraid she'd get tired
of the chase, so 1 contrived to loosen
a screw and let go n rod, then called
Coolidge and told him I'd have to stop
the engine a few minutes and fix it or
the thing would break us up. If
hadn't been necessary to him. he would
have killed me right there, but instead
he told me he'd give me just five min
utes to fix it after stopping and held
his watch in one hand and Il pistol in
the other. 1 kept asking him the time,
laundering as we'll as l could without
his seeing me do it, until he called four
minutes. Then 1 screwed her up and
started on. l hadn't more than done
SO when a shot went skipping before
our bows, and 1 made up my mind
we'd be overhauled. heard Coolidge
come below and go into Mr.. Chippin-
dale's stateroom, which he'd appropri-
ated to his own use, and in n few min
utes there was the report of a pistol.
l went to the room, looked in and saw
the pirate giving his last gasp.
Il hurried on deck, and there in the
distance was fleet of war vessels,
and the cruiser that had been follow
ing us had turned to join them. Seiz-
ing Gooledge's glass lying on one of
the quarter deck wicker chairs, lev
eled it and saw the flagship of the
feet signaling the cruiser to come in.
when it was known that the cap
tain had blown out his brains, two of
The crew came to me and said they
had been taken when Coolidge was
short handed and had Joined to escape
the plank. They said they
would have hard work to get clear If
taken. The others were tired of the
business. They proposed that if /
would run the yacht ashore and de-
stroy her / might go free. AS there