The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-10

our luck until the kick of our curses
knocked us fiat on our backs, and we
went to sleep. We needed sleep, too,
l tell you, because for tWenty-four
hours We had been working the pump
handle like the president at a White
house reception.
The island turned out to be a regu-
lar stamping ground for castaways.
In the early part of the same gale that
drove us there, a little barky had
bounced up on the reef, and there had
craWled out Of her the scurvieSt outfit
of sea scamps 1 ever clapped eyes on.
l never knew just what they We're in
business hours-pirates, most likely.
First, they told US that they were whal-
erS; but there was too much of the
Spars of their vessels sticking up out
of the turf to swallow with that lie.
Then they said that they were traders,
and few minutes later they forgot all
about 1t and claimed TO be pearlers.
We fell foul of each other, and l I'M
dertook to straighten out the mess. Ny
plan was really simple enough, and
would have worked out all right if I'd
only used a little common sense. Of
course, it was plain when they came
down the beach that night that they
had fired them out of our camp I was
nightly unsatisfied with the layout;
not only because it was plain that they
wanted TO get square with US for hav
ing put two of their shipmates out of
commission, but also because / saw the
Portugee's snaky eyes coil around the
corners of our money box. l wouldn't
have cared even then if it hadn't been
for the girl, but 1 hated to think of
what might happen to her if that bunch
of sea scavengers ever got the under
hold of US.
Boles and I had quite an argument
about it, and must say that l was real
put out at his pig-headedness but I
suppose that that was where his British
blood stuck out. When l found thu
nothing short of a Morton purchase
would ever start him, I did what SEEM
ed to me to be the only thing. I just
took my gun and went down the beach
and held up those seagoing hoboes and
made them mend their boat. / got the
drop on four of them; but the worst
of the lot, the Portugee, managed to slip
away. I'm not sure whether / hit him
or not.
That night Brown stood guard over
my shanghaied crew of criminals,
wreckers, black birders, or whatever
else they were, while got in a good
ten hours sleep. The next day piled
them into the boat, jumped aboard my
self and We hit the brine. laying a
course for the next inhabited island
which was only about a hundred miles
away. 1t was my idea to get hold of
some sort of packet when we got
there and go back after the Others and
took money enough with me to do it
There were four of them, and they
we've beauties-of their kind-and each
one of a different kind at that I doubt
II one of them had mother and IA
Their of the same race-or of any one
race, for that matter. just sized then
up at the start as dangerous animals
that l must watch the whole time un-
til we reached the next island, which
1 hoped to do in about twenty-foul
hours. as we left with fresh breeze
coming in on our starboard quarter
Our boat, which was only a small
whale boat, was old and pretty vel
battered, and was built on fine sailing
lines She carried a regular whale
boat rig, which gave her all the sal
she wanted. light as she was, will
Onlg five men aboard her, and no dun.
mage to speak of. / had purposely tax
en- only one days rations so that tbs
brutes with me would be in as much o.
a hurry to make the trip as I was. L
seemed to me that had taken every
precaution. as the glass was high wher
we left, and the breeze showed every
sigh of freShening as the day wore on
There was one thing, however, tina
1 had not calculated on; that was tn.
proyerbial cunning of the full bloodeC
mongrel.
As soon as we were fairly under wa,
1 gave them little notion of the KIM
of race that we were entered for
and what they might expect if they
We're losers. / don't say that l woul.
have carried out the programme to tn.
let@er-but they didn't know that. They
did know that we had already done fol
two of their shipmates, for what rea-