The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-02-16
THE IRON PIRATE
A Plain Tale Of Strange
HAPPENINGS on the Sea
BY Max PEMBERTOn
900

Inc rain ceased duO UHe SuA SnOAo'
drying my clothes upon me. I struggled
and in doing so I found that the ropes
binding my right arm were tied with
common bitches; and my experience as
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 lowed me, and saw that she
was barque-rigged yacht after the Amer
lean fashion her name Labrador being
conspicuous across her stern. My boat
was towed by a double hawser. but no
man watched me, and I lay down again
treasured. The hope Of escape was already
not be far out from New York. It oc-
Cured to me that if they would only let
me be until night could get my left hand
free.
Finally there was a change In the mo-
notony Of the scene. l heard an order to
heave the barque to. l felt all motion
cease, and then someone hauling at the
hawser, so that the jolly-boat was pulled
against the side Of the bigger ship; and,
looking up, saw half dozen of Black
gang watching me from the quarterback.
AuCu q lduuCI "do PUT oNCA IA1O OuA a. ~
and "Four-Eyes" came down it with a
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 knife In his belt; and 1 made
up my mind in a moment to get it from
him.
He held to the rope with one hand
while he put the can Of hot stuff to my
lips with the other. l drank half of it
with great gulps, feeling the warmth
spread through my body to my very toes
as the broth went down !; and great hope
consoled me, for l 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 I deemed that I had waited long
enough cut away the remaining ropes at
my feet, and crouched unbound in the
boat. I crawled to the bow, and began
to cut the strands of the hawser one by
one. l felt my boat go swirling away on
the backwash. 1t was a moment Of SUI
preme excitement, and l lay quite fiat,
waiting to hear if 1 were missed but 1
heard no sound, and looking around me
presently, I saw the yacht away a mile,
and knew that 1 was free man.
When couple of hours had passed l
took a new consolation in the thought that
must be in the track of steamers bound
out from, or to, New York: and in this
hope l covered myself in the tarpaulins
and lay down again to shield myself from
the wind which blew with much sharpness
as the night grew. l did not sleep, but
lay half-dazed for an hour or more. and
was reused only at a curious light which
flashed above me in the sky. The light
was clearly focused, being a volume of
intensely bright, white rays which passed
right above me with slow and guided mo-
ton, and then stopped altogether, almost
fixed upon the jolly-boat. 1 knew then
what it was, and l sat up to see the great
beams of a 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 I could just distinguish the dark
hull of a steamer. Some moments, LONG
| moments to me, passed in feverish con-
lecture; and then in the pathway Of the
| light rekindled 1 saw in all distinctness
the outline of 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 Decline towards me. and the radiat-
| ing light never moved once whilst they
rowed. In the end, 1 myself broke the
silence, shouting Justify to them, but get
! ting no answer until l had repeated the
| call 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 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 l knew that at last I was
| a prisoner on the nameless ship.