Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-01-31
THE IRON PIRATE
A Plain Tale Of Strange
Happenings on the Sea
BY MAX PEMBERTON


The rain ceased and the sun shone,
drying my clothes upon me. | struggled
and in doing so | found that the ropes
binding my right arm were tied with
common bitches and my experience as a
yachtsman let me get free of them with
very little trouble. | did not sit up at
once, but turned my head to look at the
boat which towed me, and saw that she
was a barque-rigged yacht after the Amer
lean fashion; her name Labrador being
conspicuous across her stern. My boat
was towed by double hawser. but no
man watched me, and lay down again
| reassured. The hope of escape was already
in my head for l judged that we could
not be far out from New York. 1t oc-
Cured TO me that if they would only let
me be until night l could get my left hand
free.
Finally there was a change in the mo-
notony of the scene. | heard an order to
heave the harque to. felt all motion
cease. and then someone hauling at the
hawser, 50 that the iolly-boat was pulled
against the side of the bigger ship; and
looking up, | saw half dozen of Blacks $
gang watching me from the quarterback
Then ladder was put over the bulwark
and -Four Eyes" came down it with
great can of steaming stuff. He stepped
off the ladder to the stern seat, and then
bent over me. But | saw this only, that
he had a knife in his belt: and | made
up my mind in moment to get it from
him.
He held to the rope with one hand
y Il. l
lips with the other. | drank half of it
with great gulps. feeling the warmth
spread through my body 10 my very toes
as the broth went down and a great hope
consoled me-. for | had his knife having
snatched it from him when first he stoop-
ed The good luck of the theft made me
quick to empty the pot of gravy. Four
Eyes went over the side again. and the
yacht moved onward lazily in the softest
of breezes from the west
When | deemed that | had waited long
enough | cut away the remaining ropes at
my feet, and crouched unbound in the
boat. | crawled to the bow. and began
to cut the strands of the hawser one by
one. l felt my boat go swring away on
the backwaSh. 1t was a moment of su-
eACileLltul. anu 1 lay quite Hat, |
waiting to hear if | were missed but | |
heard no sound, and looking around me
presently. | saw the yacht away a mile, |
and knew that l was a free man.
When a couple of hours had passed | |
COX a new consolation in the thought that |
must be in the track of steamers bound |
out from. or to. New York and in this
nope | covered myself in the tarpaulins
md lay down again to shield myself from
he wind which blew with much sharpness
IS the night grew. | did not sleep. but
ay halfdazed for an hour or more and |
vas reused only at curious light which |
flashed above ne in the sky. The light |
was clearly focused. being a volume of |
Intensely bright. white rays which passed |
light above me with slow and guided mo- |
ion. and then stopped altogether. almost |
fixed upon the iolly-boat. I knew then |
what it was. and sat up to see the great |
beams of man-of-war's searchlight, |
showing an arc Of the water almost as |
clear as by the suns power.
The light shone in all its brightness for |
some FIVE minutes: then it died away sud |
denly, and on the spot whence it had |
come | could just distinguish the dark |
null OF a steamer. Some moments, long |
to me. passed in feversh con-
lecture; and then in the pathway Of the
light rekindled l saw in all diStinctness
the outline of a long-boat, fully manned |
and she was coming straight to me. Its |
progress seemed slow; the men in it |
made me no manner of signal. They came
in bee-line towards me- and the radiat-
ing light never moved once whilst they |
rowed. In the end | myself broke the |
silence, shouting Justify to them, but get
ting no answer until | had repeated the |
rall thrice. The fourth cry, loud and in |
something desperate. brought the response |
so eagerly awaited but when | recognized |
the voice of him who then hailed me | |
fell down again in my boat with a heart |
stricken burst of sorrow, for the voice was |
the Irishman's, and Four-Eyes spoke
"Avast hailin', young 'un,' he cried
I'VE amt goin' TO part along O your socie- |
ty no more, don't you be frettin'."
They dragged me into their boat and. |
taking my own in tow, they rowed rapidly |
to the distant steamer, on whose deck | |
stood presently; but not without pro-
found fear, for | knew that at last | was |
a prisoner on the nameless ship.