Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-03-08

ndo certainly traced the signature which
was sworn to 80 solemnly as his-but
had done so after death; the pen being
placed in the fingers of the corpse, which
were guided by those Of the pious and
worthy merchant of Dundee, who want
ed his nephew's little patrimony in aid
of certain speculations of his own.
Pending a decision, the bereayed boy
was removed to the busy town on Tay-
side, and was left to solace his sorrows
at school, prior, as he supposed, to be-
coming a drudge in his affectionate I'M
cle's counting house, when the last of
his slender inheritance had been frittered
away in the fangs of the law.
| One day his worthy uncle Gam return
ed to Edinburgh by the packet. The
/ case had been decided against him, and
the court was about to name trustees to
| look after the estate of the orphan boy.
Mr. Gamaliel Balgonie was unusually
grave stern and distracted; but he de-
| liberately seated himself at his desk,
and while humming, as was his wont,
verse of psalm, he penned letter adj
dressed 20 the captain of a vessel then
lying in the harbor, and gave it to his
nephew for immediate delivery, desiring
him to wait for the answer.
The boy, then in his fifteenth year,
started on his errand with alacrity. He
soon found the ship, which was moored
at some distance from the shore, with her
fore-t opsails loose, to indicate that she
was ready for sea; yet Charlie had no
| suspicion of the trap into which he was
running or the cruel fate that awaited
| him.
| The skipper, a rough. surly and brutal
! looking man, eyed the boy keenly, while
| tearing the letter into minute fragments,
after he had perused it, with a grim
smile of satisfaction. He then went to
| a locker, where he poured out a glass
of milk.
| Drink that, my lad" said he. while
1 write an answer to your uncle"
Charlie drained the glass; but scarce
| " had he done so when the cabin seem
ed to be whirling round him; he thought
that he was becoming seasick, and was
| in the act of staggering toward the cabin
stairs when he was felled to the floor
/ by a blow from the shippers heavy hand
"a blow dealt cruelty and unsparingly.
He recovered consciousness some time
after, to find himself-stiff, sore and
bloody. from a won id in the temple
/
twenty-five other boys, several of whom
were in the same state of stupor in which
| they had been brought on board. To his
horror and dismay, Charlie now found
| that the ship was at sea, and running
between the dangerous reef known as the
| Bell Rock and the fiat sandy shore of
Barrie; and that, through the machina-
lions of Uncle Gamaliel, he had been
| lured into the hands of one of the most
notorious plantation crimps that ever in
tested the Scottish coast, Captain Zach
ariah Coffin of New England, whose
craft, the Piscatona, was a letter of
marque, carrying twelve six-pounders
and fighting her own way.
After this the Piscatona was hauled
up. in order to go north about by Cape
Wrath, having on board nearly fifty
boys. Storms came on when the Pisca-
tona entered the Pentland Firth, and
| four days after Dunnet Head with its
finty brow, 400 feet in height, had van
! ished into the wrack and mist astern,
sudden cry of fire caused every heart to
thrill on board the lawless vessel
Whether an act of treachery or not, it
was impossible to ascertain; but it had
broken out near the ships magazine. to
which it communicated with frightful ra-
/ pidity, for suddenly, while the crew were
all running fore and aft with buckets,
dreadful explosion seemed to rend the
Piscatona in two. Half of the main
! deck was blown away with two of the
boats. A whirlwind of fragments few
| in every direction, and then the flames
shot into the air in scorching volumes.
Discipline, or such system of it as
| Zachariah Coffin maintained on board
was totally at an end. Some of the crew
/ lowered the only remaining boat and
| fought like wild beasts for possession of
! II, knocking each other into the water
without mercy. Captain Coffin cooked
his pistols at the gangway, shot one man
dead and swore that he would kill the
next man who dared to precede him; but
he was struck from behind by an iron
marine spike and, falling. together with
his savage dog, into the flaming gulf that
yawned amidships, was seen no more.
Some of the crew ultimately pushed off
the boat: others sprang overheard and
held on to the sparS and booms. But
these persisted miserably after being half
scorched. Some were crushed to death
by the falling yards and masts. Many
held on to the fore and main chains, till
these became so unbearably hot that they
had to drop off. with screams of despair
when they sank, faint. weary and help
less. to the bottom at last.
How il all happened Charlie Balgonie
never knew. But hours after the whole
affair was over and the detested Pisco-
tona had burned down to her waterline
and sank. leaving all the sea around her
discolored and covered with floating
pieces of charred wood and the buoyant
parts of her cargo. he found himself
adrift in the wide and stormy Pentland
Firth. but wedged with comparative
safety in a large fragment of the fore
top, TO which, the yard being still at
tached by the sling, certain amount of
steadiness was given; yet his heart leap
ed painfully each time when the frag-
ment of wreck rose on the summit of
green CLASSY wave or went surging down
into the dark and watery trough between.
To add TO the terrors of his lonely sit
uation. the sun had sunk amid gloomy
purple clouds and rainy night was
drawing on. Half drowned the poor boy
soon became faint and exhausted and
would seem to have dropped into a spe-
cies of stupor, for when reused by the
sound Of strange voices he found himself
close by great and towering ship, which
lay 10. now right in the winds eye with
her mainyard aback and her gunports
and hammock nettings full of weather
beaten faces. gazing at him with eager
ness and curiosity in the twilight, while
boat was lowered and pulled steadily
toward him by six sailors clad in dark
green.
She proved to be a Russian hfty-gun
ship, the Anne Ivanowna, commanded by
Thomas Mackenzie, one of the many
Scottish admiralS who have hravely car
ried the Russian flag in the Baltic and
the Black sea.
His youthful countryman became his
protege. The worthy admiral sought TO
make a sailor OF Charlie. but the latter
had seen quite enough of the sea while
on board the Piscatons, and while he
was ciinging like a limpet or barnacle
~ IL. hs ke-