The Democratic advocate., 1907-06-14
Seleet Stnrw.
The Physician and the Pirates.
BY LAURENCE j. YATES.

One morning in September, 19O-,
there came to the Office of DR.. Frederic
Curtin, young English physician in
Hongkong, native junkman from the
Chinese city of Swatow, about two hun
dred miles northeast of the English city.
The junkman brought letter to the doc
tor from an old acquaintance, the Rev.
James Burren, a missionary in the vicinity
of Swatow; and the letter begged Curtin
to come and attend the missionary's young
son, who was suffering from puzzling and
lingering illness.
As none of his patients in Hong gkong
demanded his immediate attention, Curtin
was free to respond to the call. The Sill
yer Moon, the trading junk that had
brought the letter of appeal, was to leave
on the return voyage the next day at noon
and as this junk offered the only means of
reaching Swatow for several days. Curtin
engaged passage on the slow sailing, clum-
| sy vessel.
There had been much activity that sum
mer among the native pirates that infest
the coast waters of the China Sea; and
although the doctor did not expect to en-
counter any of these gentry, he took the
precaution of placing in his valise two
heavy navy revolvers and quantity of
cartridges.
The Silver Moon sailed on the morrow
at midday, as scheduled, and driven by a
wide spread of canvas, slipped through the
deep blue, tapping water of this Eastern
sea at a much better speed than the doctor
expected. That evening nearly full
moon foated in the clear sky, and gave a
glory to the ocean that Curtin had never
seen surpassed. He sat on deck until
late, and when he did go down to his
cramped berth in the cabin below, he
dropped into sleep so profound that his
first intimation of danger was when he was
awakened by fierce, wild cries and the
scurrying and tramping of many feet on
the deck overhead.
He sprang to get his revolvers. But
while he fumbled with the catches Of the
case, there was a rush of footsteps down
the passageway outside; and the next mo-
ment the frail door burst in with a crash
before the attack of half a dozen nearly
naked Cinnamon, who had American re-
volvers and short curved swords. The
Silver Moon had fallen prey to pirates
and Curtin calmly submitted himself to
the invaders.
He was allowed to dress. In the mean,
time the pirates rummaged through his
baggage, including the rather portly black
leather case in which he carried his medl-
cines and surgical instruments. When he
was hustled on deck few moments later
he found lying alongside the Silver Moon
huge junk, and swarming over the cap
tured vessel motley horde of il-looking
barbarians. The crew of the Silver Moon,
awed and cringing, was huddled forward
under guard.
But Curtin was not placed with the
other captives. At word from the thin,
wiry man who appeared to be the leader,
two of the pirates marched the doctor
straight abroad the strange junk, where
they proceeded to bind his arms and legs
with ropes, and left him near the foremast
to sprawl or sit on the hard deck, as he
chose. As soon as everything Of value on
the Silver Moon had been transferred to
the robber junk, the crew returned to their
own vessel, and cast off, leaving their
countrymen to 60 their way in peace.
The pirate junk now headed to the north
east, following the coast.
Curtin, sprawllng on the bare deck in
his bonds, could only conjecture what was
to be his fate. He knew that the native
pirates often made a practice OF holding
prisoners for ransom, and he fancied that
his captors intended to do so in his case,
otherwise they would not have singled him
out from all those on the captured junk.
1t did not reassure him to reflect that his
bank account in Hongkong was an ex-
tremely modest one, and that he had few
friends in the city who could place any
large sum at his disposal.
About the middle of the forenoon his
attention was attracted to one Of the pirate
crew-a big man who was restlessly pacing
up and down the -scorched deck not far
away, apparently in intense agony. On
observing the fellow closely, the doctor saw
that there was an angry, unhealed wound IN
the muscles of his bare left forearm, and
noted that the arm itself was swollen to
nearly twice its normal size.
At once Curtin's professional instinct
was stirred. On the impulse of the mo-
ment he stood up awkwardly on his pin
ioned legs, and said in Chinese
"That is bad wound you have in your
arm. am an English doctor of Hong
kong. Perhaps if you will let me see
your arm can relieve the pain.
The big Chinaman stopped his uneasy
striding to stand and look doubtfully at
the speaker The pirate leader happened
to be near, heard what Curtin said, and,
the wounded sailor continuing to hesitate,
signed to him to allow the doctor to ex-
anime his arm.
The sufferer obeyed stolidly, and one
glance at the inhamed wound, which evil
IDENTIFY had been made by sword thrust,
was enough to tell Curtin that he had to
deal with case of threatened blood-pois-
oning. But he thought that if the arm
was Immediately lanced the Chinaman
would have good chance for speedy re-
eovery.
This he told the pirate captain, who
had come over to stand beside his fellow
cutthroat. He said that If the black case