Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-07-27
he P1underers#
CHAPTER XIII.
A PIRATES HARBOR.

Nlndless swell and a burning sky.
Ahead broken palings OF mop headed
tree Trunks growing straight across the
sea. On one beam scattered patches Of
white where the surf crumbled over
the hidden coral reef, on the other the
bright blue water of the Mexican gulf.
With it's yellow floating tangles of weed
a steamer lungins through the rollers
~ small six knots
on her decks was visible one man.
and ore akone, and he was on the upper
bridge, with his fists ON the spokes Of
The steam steering wheel He was
svaying with WEAKNESS; his eyes were
dull and leaden; his checks were OF an
unwholcsome yellow because tan would
non let them turn pale white Yet his
tack was one which put to strain every
piece OF his alertness. lie was taking
steamer drawing l9 feet through a
channel whose very existence no man
on earth besides himself had ever
St't's.',d, and already he was deep In
sea territory which the charts Of 1893
still mark as unsurveyed. He had
vasueH found the channel some months
before in an open boat and written
Cross compass bearings on the back OF
I . crumpked envelope These he carried
in his head now and used as the sea
marks closed. htrt they were a frail reed
for mrh dependence
For such work a leadsman is an ab-
cofUte necessity, and on board the Port
lcdes leadsman was an absolute inn
Possibility. The remaining two of her
manning were working as ten men 10
keep up any head Of steam for her en-
gfnes. And SO Patrick Cambel took his
sCundfngs with eye and nostrils as do
:rcrr1s OF the more ancient of the coaster
rolb and instinct did not. upon the
whole, serve him badly. Twice he
ecoursd the steamers bottom plates
oVvr branching coral plants, which
orcse away with Gathering jars and
let her through 20 deeper water be-
yurd, nnd once he ran upon a tail OF
white sand, which pinned her Just for
ward of nidships. But he rung off the
engines, walled tin the scream of the
escape pipe showed a fun head OF steam
and then on a flowing tide put her fun
spee-d astern and slid clear
The skipper in the stokehold below
V-sN-s1 blaSphCmous at the man who
had got the shore on board " but he
did not cease shoveling Goals. Neither
did tho big donkcyman save at those
moments when the Clang Of the tele-
graph bell called him to stand by the
/ throttle or reversing gear in the engine
room.
So the Port Edes drew up this mar
row unknown sea river through the
shadows which dll that blight Of the
southwest Fioridian coast and the tired
man vho was governing her steered
ev~Yy hour with stronger confidence
and duller consciousness. Now ne held
on 20 what was apparently an un-
DrotSen line OF sand, where, If the
steamer stuck. she would be a stove In
Wr~ck within the hour, but as she
Cicred with II a passage opened out
which took her through I'm clear water,
although the yeasty surccs of the back
p'sreh would leap like live things far up
hey rides and scream and below
through the scuppers Now he lodged,
with helm hard starbolrd Cne minute,
hard 20 the port the next, among an
archipelago OF unnamed keys, where
the flT-st mangruve trees were getting to
work at building these outlying scraps
- animal stone into part OF the North
American continent.
Beyond wus a broad, smooth lagoon
@hirTrering in the sunlight, dancing
with little silver waves. and beyond
again was wall of woodwork growing
in one solid mass of trunks from be-
hind the tangle OF Shiny mangroves
which Pprawled along the waters edge.
Bare land was TO be seen nowhere All
was biotted out by the rank luXuriance
OF the subtropical flora.
The steamer held on her course
1thuart this placid sea lake, aiming
straight as a rifle shot for what ap-
peeired TO be the densest part Of the
forest. But as she neared an overlap
from the rest of the grccntry. and di-
rycrly afterWard banks OF milky sand
sprang out, with a gut OF river between
them.
Camhel steered on, sitting upon the
grating now and holding the wheel one
handed by the lower spokos, and in the
fat, hot stew Of the stokehold below
Kettle ana the donkey2.an shoveled
coal 10 the light Of reeking slush lamps
and the tune OF furnace roar
The steamer in the grip OF the river
stream swung round the bights and
twisted, finding deep water everywhere
though often she could not make the
turn quickly enough and bruised with
her fory foot the Shiny mapgrove stems
which marked the bank. But the cur
rent was strong and each time swept
her clear. and those below were scarce
| ly conscious of the Craze
Knot By knet the brine of the Mexi-
can gulf was being left behind, ana the
noises of the woods and odors OF the
| trees and the swamps were closing i'm
on them The swell tanning out from
the steamers wake wet the alligators
in their basking places behind the saw
grass, and the reek from her smoke
stacks Scared the sult legged water
| fowl afish in the shadows. She coasted
round a bayou of black water walled
in by stern ranks of cypress trees. She
.
palmetto scrubbed on either hand and
ragred cabbage palms spouting
( ont from above. And then she swung
again where the river forked and
steOned down a straight. answering
water lane which led to the very heart
of the Everglades.
But the pace was slowing now. slow
/ fng indeed till the steamer would hard
! ly steer against the current which ever
and amen gripped her by the head or
/ the tail and carried her with suilen
she-rings dead onto mangrove cluster
or tree clad bluff. and tho reason was
] that the head OF steam was failing.
! Captain owen Kettle like more Chris
t!an srcn have done before, ignored his
/ own previous preaChings when the APP
/ p.ication came in ana proved only hu-
| man soon after ne had taken up the
| role Of fireman. Driven half lunatic by
/ tnc heat of the work he kept dipping
his lips in the water bucket and drink
/ ing heavy drafts. AS a consequence
| that unpoetical complaint in
/ tho -tomach-overtook him at last and
/ tied him into those ungainly knots OF
torture which he had so frequently OBJ
/ served upon scientifically IN others.
! But az there was none at hand to adj
/ minister the heroic remedy OF chIoro-
/ dvnc cum rhubarb cum laudanum cum
/ pill and give him something else to
/ drink about i'm the original kind of
knots he remained.
The donkeyrnan. with a hearty Bel
( fast curse tried to do double work, bur
as he had been lahoring quite to the
I ton Of his strength for many hours IRE
, |EI'' q = 7 M a
sa, 2x