The Brunswick daily news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1903-1906, 1904-02-14

when the Rhodes Castle cloaed
within about FIVE cables l gave the
word and ran up the black flag. The
navy man let rip, and the foremost
funnel went over like 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 IL hands besides the Ger
man dummies, and the mail boat car
ried 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 stuff 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 /
trusted more to the lurid dummies
than our reyolyers, and told the mate
not to close nearer to the mail than
500 yards. At that distance our dunn
lulND iOOhtu ll6ul Dut Il4Cy
seemed bit stiff in the joints at close
quarters. Perhaps / was bit fur
ried. Anyway, 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
di'monds and the loose cash and the
wimmin's jewelry, and il they gave any
trouble I 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 pirate can't afford to
be tender hearted nowadays, or he'd
have 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
against the contract, and | wouldn't
allow IL.
THE skipper cheered up considera-
Bile when | told him we hoped to get
through the job without cutting a
throat, and he handed over the keys of
the safe like a lamb. Those two shots
from the Al had done our business.
and to look at the Falcon you'd never
have doubted she carried a strong crew
OF out anu Out mufdarers. See here,
captain. says l. pointing to my yes
sci, you might manage to hobble me
and my search party; but il we don't
get safe back to the Falcon in half an
hour, my mate has orders to blow this
hooker out of the water
|. Very we'll, says he; I'm helpless,
and you're free TO gut my ship. Since
you mean to avoid bloodshed, I'll give
you every facility
Fright. says |, this is matter of
business, and the sooner we get through
with it the better Tell the crew aud
passengers to fork out every sixpence
they've got on them, and the wimmin
to dub up their jewelry. Let your
mate go round with a bread bag and
make the collection. He's got rather
the cut of a church warden.
"'You might do without the jewelry.'
said the cap'n.
Well, the married wimmin may
keep their weddln' rings, says l. TITS
quite irregular, but I'm widower my
self.
with that followed the captain
down to the strong room, taking four
hands with me to carry up the gold
My idea was TO hang on to
the dPmonds myself till
could get 'em under lock
and key in my own cabin. So you see.
James. couldn't avoid going below
to the strong room. and if that lurid
ass of mate had obeyed orders (
might have been in South America By
now, living like a lord mayor"
AT this point in his narrative my
Uncle Jonah fell into gloomy reverie
from which l had to rouse him before
he resumed It.
There was 100000 quids worth of
gold In that strong room, or I'm a
liar" he continued, "and enough dr.
monds TO have half filled bread bag.
1t took us some time to get the gold
on deck and lower it into the boat,
but never tackled any job that seemed
to tire me so little. When / got on
deck the third time | saw in a shake
that something was wrong. The crew
and passengers of the mail was all
craning their necks over the side and
staring at the Faicon.
81 took a peep at her myself, and
blamed If the mate hadn't closed in
that near that you could have heaved
a biscuit aboard her. The fool must
have been drunk. l suppose, or he'd
have had the sense to know that he
was rislIing all our necks and his own,
too. Tho Falcon was SO near us
could easily see myself that the pirates
on deck were dummies They were
working well enough to take in a
stranger. but some of the passengers
were looking through their binoculars.
and that fairly turned me faint with
funk
I'VE might have pulled through after
all. but just as | was shouting to the
mate to get further off the splitting
dummy got out of gear. AS told you
just now, the innards of the dummies