The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-08-07

my advice, James. and steer clear OF
females. They cost a man a lot more
than they're worth and If one could
only make a female dummy to cook
and sew on buttons"
But my uncle's view on women we're
not original.
Gently. but firmly I resisted his d.
erosion. for our time was short and
facts meant money
"The burst-up came about in this
way" Uncle Jonah resumed. Wed
taken one good prize In the Atlantic.
and sent all hands comfortably TO the
bottom. when the agent sent a code
message saying as how the Cape mail.
with dpmonds and gold aboard. would
be off Madeira on a certain date he
mentioned / managed to All up with
coal from an old bark. which gave us
the DEVILS own trouble to sink after
we'd done with her. and then steamed
south In good time to look after the
Rhodes Castle. She was timed to
leave Madeira IN the forenoon. and I
wanted TO overhaul her IN daylight. so
as to let the crew and passengers take
stock of our dummies These mails
carry a lot OF people, you know. and
one had to put EN- In a blue funk,
else they'd have shown fight
She was well up to time and we
sighted her about six bells g p. M
in the afternoon watch. coming along
at 16 knots through a sea as smooth
as a duck pond. AS luck would have
it, there wasn't so much as a sailing
ship within 20 miles. and | made sure
of them dl'monds and the gold
Between you and me, James, I
meant to retire from business il we
pulled 1t off, and | shouldn't have been
over particular about settling up with
the syndicate"
This confession Of dishonesty panied
me, but | let it pass. To reprove
pirate for swindling his employers
seemed, on the whole, inconsistent.
I'VE slowed down." continued Uncle
Jonah, impressively, wound up all the
dummies, and stood by to give her a
couple of rounds from our AZ gun. The
chap who bossed that gun had been
navy man, and he could hit a funnel at
1000 yards four times out of six He
got 10 quid a week from the syndicate
and he said it was a nice little addi-
ton to his service pension of Is pence
a day.
when the Rhodes Castle closed
within about five cables | gave the
word and ran up the black flag. The
navy man let rip, and the foremost
funnel went over like a candle in a
hot room The second shot carried
away the chart house and part Of the
bridge, and then the captain stopped
engines.
Now, you must bear in mind that
we only had u hands besides the Ger
man dummies, and the mail boat car
ried a big crew without reckoning the
passengers. We could have sunk her
in half an hour, but it was no good
doing that till I'd got the stun out of
her.
my plan was this: left the mate
and the navy man in charge of the
Falcon, and took the other none along
with me in the boat to overhaul the
mail We was armed, of course, but l
trusted more to the lurid dummies
than our revolvers, and l told the mate
not to close nearer to the mail than
500 yards. At that distance our dunn
mics looked right enough, but they
seemed a bit stiff in the joints at close
quarters. Perhaps l was a bit fur.
ried. Anyway, l didn't notice any,
thing wrong with the mate when |
give him the orders. When we got
alongside the mail | hailed the captain
and told him to send all hands for
ward except himself and the mates.
Then We boarded the ship and had
few words with the captain. told
him we'd come for the gold and the
dfmonds and the loose cash and the
wimmins jewelry, and if they gave any
trouble | should sink the ship with all
hands. meant to sink her anyway,
but there wouldn't have been any
sense in making them desperate. My
instructions from the agent was to
sink every prize we took and spare
no lives. 1t sounds a bit harsh,
James, but a pirate can't afford to
be tender hearted nowadays, or he'd
have a dozen warships after him in
side a month. When we captured the
Oceanica (she was supposed to have
struck an iceberg, you'll remember)
the navy man and that fat headed mate
of mine wanted to take their pick of
the wimmin; but that was clean