Omaha daily bee., 1907-04-14

into the bay. The captain of the schooner
a big American with a tremendous mus
tache, came ashore to get water.
Russians wined and Tricked.
The captain was an affable man. He was
Jolly They had not seen eny stranger for
many months and they were glad to meet
this big captain and his crew and to have
jolly time with them.
The American captain brought two cases
Of champagne ashore and that night they
had a big drinking bout. The captain
could drink more than anybody else. Every
body got blind. stone drunk.
The next morning when the Russians
awoke they found themselves triced up like
fowls for the bastinE, each to his bedpost,
and the big captain and all of the sailors
had vanished. When they had loosed
themselves the guardians CT Russla's furs
discovered that the storehouse lock had
been forced and that between $4,000 and
$4,000 worth of seal pelts were gone-all
the store Of Copper island.
That is one Of the tales OF Sandy McDean
that Reilly told; and this the other, passing
in strangeness even the first:
When he put into Petropauovsky just
three days before the Japanese cruiser
came down on him, Reilly was told Of how
one Alexander Mclean, sea pirate and
seal poacher sailing under a Mexican faG
in the auxiliary schooner Acapulco, had
put a Russian revenue cutter out of com
mission in the summer OF 1873 and escaped
from under the guns of that same cutter
under cover OF fog.
McLean's schooner had been caught by
the Russian cutter poaching OFF the Kom-
mandorfsky islands, northeast Of Kams-
chatka, caught fairly and with bloody evil
,F HaI pT
to run, but he surrendered when a shot
was fred through his rigging and he gave
I'D. His papers showed that his craft was
the Acapulco, Mazatlan register; his flag
Mexican.
Escape of the Acapulco.
The Russian revenue boat took the AGA
pulco under convoy to the nearest port OF
the Kommandorfsky group, where Nc
Lean was to be tried and sentence passed
upon him. When the little harbOr was
reached the Russians uncoupled the aux
HiaTy engine Of McLean's boat and took
some Of the parts on board their own boat
to prevent the escape of the Acapulco.
Two days Mclean and his crew re-
NAMED on the schooner, anchored a short
distance away from the Russian boat. The
American captain seemed ready 10 take his
medicine.
The third night heavy fog settled over
the bay just after shutdown. The COM
mander OF the revenue cutter was pTepar-
ing TO send a guard on board the Acapulco
at o'clock. lie heard the sound Of ham
mering coming through the fog from the
direction Of the captured schooner and de-
cided to hasten the sending OF the guard,
when suddenly there was heavy explosion
just under the overhang Of the cutter.
followed by the splash Of oars.
Then the Russians heard the rattle Of a
windlass and the excited coughing Of an
engine. orders were given 20 get the cutter
under way and investigate the state q the
Acapulco. Al the hrst turn Of the engines
the revenue cutters tall shaft spun fran
tically and the machinery raced.
The propeller and part OF the rudder
had been blown away by the explosion Of
a bomb and the revenue cutter was help
less as log. While the Russians stamped
and swore, they could hear the pufhng OF
McLeans engines as the Acapulco felt
its way through tho fog out 20 the open
sea.
Mclean must have had extra parts for
the engine concealed somewhere in the
hold OF his boat for use in just such an
emergency. He had coupled up In the fog
and then rowed over in a boat and set OF