The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-01-19
THE IRON PIRATE
"A Plain Tale Of Strange
Happenings on the Sea
BY MAX PEMBERTON

rived at the hotel; and so one great link
in my theoretic chain snapped at the first
test. As he had not sailed with the 9th
ers, he could have no direct connection
with the nameless ship, no nautical part
or lot with her. But what was he, then?
tunity should serve.
II have led you up, Strong, step by
step, through the details of this work to
this point. am now about to move over
the ground more quickly. will quit
Spezia, and ask you to come with me,
after the interval of nigh year, to Lon
don, where, in an hotel in Cecil street,
Strand, I was again the neighbor OF the
man with the jewels. The day on which
the nameless ship left the dock this man
whom, may say at once, l have al
ways met under the name of Captain
Black-quitted the town and reached
Paris. Thither followed him, staying
one day in the French capital, but going
onward with him on the following morn
ing to Cherbourg. There he went aboard
small yacht, and lost him in the Chan
mel. I returned at once to Italy, ana
/
New York, at London and San Francisco,
and at three ports in South America Tor
news (a) of new warship lately COM
pleted at Spezia for the Brazilian repuD-
lie; (b) of a man known as Captain
Black, who left the port OF Cherbourg
in the cutter-yacht La France on the
morning of Oct. 30. For nearly twelve
months I waited for an answer to these
questions, but none came to me. no the
best of my knowledge, the nameless war
ship was never seen upon the high seas.
I began to ask myself, if she existed. how
came it that a vessel, FURNISHED to the
beauty of gold, had been spoken OF none,
seen of none, reported in no harbor, men
toned in no dispatch? Yet in the month
when the cruiser quilted Spezia three
ocean-going steamers, each carrying specie
to the value of more than one hundred
thousand pounds, went down in talr
weather, and were paid for at Lloyds.
II was much occupied making list
as far as that were possible. OF all the
gems and baubles which the dead men
and women on the sunken steamers mao
owned. This was paltry record OF
bracelets, and rings, and tiaras, and
clasps, such stuff as any fellow of jew
eler NAV sell; unconvincing stuff, worth
no more than a near relation for purposes
of evidence. There was but one piece OF
the whole mass that did not come in my
category-a great box with fine paint
ing by Jean Petitot upon its lid, and
curious circle of jasper all about the min
iatures. This was a historic piece men
toned as having once been the property
of Necker. the French fnancier: then
lost by q New York dealer, who was tax
ing 1t from Paris to Boston in the steam
ship Catalania; the ship supposed to have
foundered, with the loss of all hands, OF
the banks of Newfoundland. sixteen days
after the nameless ship left Spezia.
made a record of this trif1e, and forgot 1t
| until, many months later, private COM
munication from the head Of the New
York secret service told me that the man
wanted was in London; that he was an
American millionaire, who owned house
on the banks Of the Hudson river, who
had great influence in many cities, who
came to Europe to buy precious stones
and miniature paintings, man who was
considered eccentric BY his friends. l
took rooms In the hotel where Captain
Black was staying. Three days after
was disguised a. you have seen me, SELL
| Ing him ministries. Within a week, by
what steps I need not pause to say,
knew that the Jasper box, lost, by report,
in the steamer Catalania. was under lock
and key in his bedroom.
agitated me. Here, indeed, was my sec
| ond direct link. The man had In his pos
session an historic and unmistakable cas-
ket, which all the world believed to be
| lost in q steamer from which no soul had
escaped. How I treasured that knowl-
edge! Three months the man remained in
| London; during three months he was not
thirty hours out Of my sight or knowl-
edge. l resigned my work for the gov
eminent, and henceforth gave myself
heart and soul to the pursuit of the man.
| I followed him to Paris, to st. Peters
burg; I tracked him through France to
| Marseilles; watched him embark, with
three of the rufians had seen at Spezia,
| In his yacht again and within a month
| the yacht was in harbor at Cowes with
out him while q steamer, bound from the
| Cape to Cadiz, and known to have specie
aboard her, went out Of knowledge as the
Others had done. Then was sure that I
alone shared with that man and his crew
one Of the most CHASTITY secrets that the
deep has kept within her.
II had positively to connect the man
Black with the nameless ship, for this I
had only done 70 Tar By pure circum-
stance. For many months have made
NO gain In this attempt. Last year In
Liverpool sketched in yet another point
In my picture. received tidinxs Of the
man In that city, and there did trade
with him IN my old disguise; bat he WAS
not alons-ths crew Of rufians you have
known By this time kept company with
him. I kept vigil there 4 week, but lost
him at the end Of that time When he
reappeared In the circles Of civilization It
was In Paris, but two days ago, when I
asked you to accompany me. You know
that I attempted to sail with him on his
cruise, and your instinct tells you Why.
It could, BY being two days afoat In his
company. prove beyond doubt that he used
his yacht a. . pretense: II could prove
that when be left port In her he sailed
some miles out to sea, and was picked mp
by the nameless ship, my chain was forg-