The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1907-10-30

She had twice taken the ground. once
so hard and fast that she had shifted
her guns and lightered a hundred tons
of stores among the gulls and news OF
q half sunken reef She had had an
affair with the unruly natives Of the
Walker group and had blown a village
to fragments and not n few of the
Walkers themselves into a land as UNI
charted as their own. She had tried
beach comber for murder and had
dangled him at the main yard arm,
giving him later on a Church of Eng
land service, hammock and the use
of a cannon ball at his feet. She had
poked her nose into cannibal bays,
where women Of wild beauty and Wild
er license swan off to the ship in hun
dreds until the marines drove them
back with muskets and fired at their
own comrades, who, In their madness,
leaped after them into the water. She
had lain for weeks In enormous atolls,
where the only life was that OF birds
and the silence was unbroken save for
the long roll of the surf and at night
the ghOstly scurrylng Of turtles over
the sand. She had been everywhere in
those labyrlnthlan seas, those haunts
Of romance and mystery, with love,
danger and death always close aboard.
II was morning when Hadow raised
the island, a fleecy speck Of cloud
against the sky line and he shortened
sail at once and fingered out the day
so as to bring him up to 1t by dark.
After supper every light on board was
doused, and the great hull, gliding
through the glass smooth water, merg
ed her steep sides and towering yards
and canvas into the universal shadow.
With whispering keel and a wind so
fair and soft that one wondered to
see the sails stlffen in the bolt ropes,
the man-of-war stole steadily to lee
ward, with no sound but the occa-
sional creak Of cordage or the hoarse
murmur of voices from the lower deck.
By 10 the ship was hove to close
ashore. and the lights Of the little set
tlement glimmered through the palms.
The warm night, laden with exotic
fragrance and strangely exciting in the
intensity of It's stiffness and beauty,
hid beneath its far reaching pail the
various actors Of an extraordinary
drama With pistols buckled to their
hips. Brady. Wintcrslea, Hotham and
Stanbury-JOne four officers of the
ship, together with Hatch. a fiinty
faced old seaman who could be trusted.
all slipped down the ladder into the
captains gig and pulled with muf1led
oars for the break i'm the reef Picking
their way through the pass, with the
surf on either hand roaring i'm their
ears, they slowly penetrated the lagoon
and headed for the kings house. The
shelving beach brought them to a stop,
and all jumping ont to tighten the boat
they drew her over the shingle and
made her painter fast 20 a pandanus
tree Then. acting in accordance with
a preconcartel plan, Wnterslca was
sent forward to track down their prey,
while tl,n rest huddled together to
await his return.
Ton minutes. twenty minutes. pass
ed i'm pllp.t3ting suspense. \ girl drew
by wrelticd in flowers. She looked
out t. sea. then up at the stars and
Shrank again into the shadow. From
the neighbOring houses there came the
sound Of mellow voices and of laugh
ter \ pig rooted and rustled among
a heap Of cOcOanut shells. Half an
hour passed. and from far across the
water as faint and silvery as some
elfn signal, the ship sent her message
Of the time-siX bells.