Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-05-04
DAILY SHORT STORY
copytight, 1909, by Julius Mailer. ]
A Bad Crowd.

fish survey ship Wales, when we sight
ed brig which seemed to take alarm
at the English flag.
Numbers of men started to go aloft |
but stuck at the crosstrees. and such
sails as were cast loose were not sheet
ed home to do their best. We walked
up to her hand after hand and in half
an hour were within biscuit toss, and
our captain was hailing to know what
was wrong The answer was plain
enough without words. Her decks
fairly swarmed with men, all but five
or six of whom were in convicts dress.
AS matter of fact, there were just
ninety of them. 1t was useless for
them to reply to the hail, but the yell
they uttered in chorus was enough TO
make the hair curl.
Our craft was Sheered in bit closer
and a demand made that the convicts
surrender. They could plainly see that
we were a strong crew and had mount
ed guns. but the demand was received
with yells of derision. The leader of
the gang, whom we had not before
identified. now mounted the rail and
in broken English warned us to keep
ly declared that they were escaped
convicts from the French penal settle
ment.
The defiant attitude of the conyicts
seemed to put our captain in an EN-
barrassing position, but after mo-
ments thought he called out to the fell
low on the rail:
"You must have captured the brig to
get away from Cayenne. What has
become of the crew."
"Dead-every one of them killed and
thrown overboardv' shouted the fiend
in answer.
do you mean to say you murdered
captain, mate and all hands?"
Yes; all the crew. Now, you've got
the news, and you sheer off and go
your own way. Let French ship pur-
sue us and take u.s."
| We were compelled to widen the dis
lance between us to prevent accident
through the lubbery manner in which
1.-THE brig was steered, but we reduced
sail so as to keep abreast of her, and
the captain and his officers descended
| to the cabin for consultation. don't
know whether they questioned their
right to interfere or discussed the best
method of recapturing the brig. but
they were not absent over Il quarter of
an hour. When they came on deck,
we got the order to load with solid
shot and in ten minutes every man
and gun was ready for action. One of
the convicts was aloft with glass and
could plainly note every movement
aboard of us, and our captain, who was
|
fellows had armed themselves with
rifles and revolvers and were erecting
shields against the bulwarks.
| \ solid shot was fired across her
bows as summons to heave to and
as warning of what was i'll store for
her if she did not, but the roar of the
gun was followed by Il chorus of yells
and three or four bullets came whiZ-
zing over our heads. The brig widened
the gap until out of rife range, and
the captain then said to the crew of
Long Tom:
Aim to strike her above the water
line. \ few shots may take the fight
out of them"
The first shot passed between her
fore and main mast without touching
ANYTHING. but the second smashed her
bulwarks and killed two men. \ third
and fourth were fired, both of them
creating havoc aboard. and we were
looking for some token of surrender
when the brig ported her helm and
came bearing up to our quarter. We
had the weather gauge. but she had
been three or four points off the wind.
The fellows were evidently determined
to get near enough to use their rifles,
but with their poor seamanship they
stood no show.
We gave the ship more sail. and aft
er q couple of tacks were off the briggs
quarter and sending solid shot aboard
again. There was great confusion
among the convicts. and we were hop
ing for a signal when the wretches
brought two women on deck. We
| could see them very plainly without
glass, and their presence put q stop to
our firing, as the convicts had expect
ed. 1t was a scheme. to stop our fire,
and every man groaned in spirit as he
wondered how our captain would take
it. He must have realized that there
was but one course open to him, and
after a bit he said to the captain of
our big gun:
cripple her. She must surrender or III
sink her"
During the next thirty minutes we
fired six times, and each time the shot
was pumped into her hull. but with
their craft lying a wreck in the trough
of the seas they continued to shout
defiance at US. The unfortunate wom-
en- must go down if the convicts did,
but death would be preferable to our
sailing away and leaving them in the
hands of the monsters. We changed
our shot to shell as we loaded Long
Tom again, and the gun was pointed to
strike the hull One after another five
shells were sent into the brig, each one
tearing a great hole and carrying
wounds and death, and we had reload
: ed for the sixth time when it was seen