The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1907-02-02

from a foreigner, and may want help.
Shall we leave her, or shall we stand by!''
They gave a great shout at this, and
the skipper touched the bell, which stop
ped our engines. Glasses were turned
upon us from the decks of the yellow ship,
and from the Ocean King, whose men
were still busy with the signal flags, and
| this time, as we made out, in direct re-
quest to us that we should stand by.
watched the captain of the steamer par:
leying with the men in the launch below
him.
While a tall man with fair hair-my
| glass gave me the impression that he was
the fellow known as Roaring john
stood in the bows of the launch, and ap-
peared to be gesticulating wildly to the
skipper of the Ocean King, the nameless
ship set up of sudden great shrieking
with her deck whistle, which she blew
three times with terrific power; and at
| the third sound of it the launch, which
| had been holding to the side of the steam
| er, let go, running rapidly back to the arm
ed vessel, where it was taken aboard
again.
The whole thing was done in so short
| a space of time that our men scarce had
| opportunity to express surprise when the
! launch was hanging at the davits again.
| The great activity that we had observed
on the decks of the war vessel ceased as
mysteriously as it had begun. She bound
| ed past us at a speed the like to which
1 had never seen upon the deep.
So remarkable a face-about seemed to
| kho Eoxv 10 f6n
| riddle was given, not by one of them,
but by Paolo, whom 1 now found at my
| elbow.
!" he cried, "she's American
l saw what troubled him. There was
| great white steamer coming up at a
high speed, and 1 knew the form of her
| at once, and of two others that followed
| her. She was one of the American navy.
The secret of the flight was no longer in
applicable the yellow ship had fled from
| the trap into which she was so nearly
falling.
"You have sharp eyes, Paolo," said I /;
Il imagine it's lucky for the pair of us. "
The nameless ship, of sudden, ceased
her flight and came almost to a stand
some half a mile away on our port bow.
As she swung round to head the seas, I
saw at once that another cruiser, long
and white, and seemingly we'll armed, had
| come up upon that side, and now barred
her passage.
The nameless ship hau now hundreds of
men about her decks, and these were at
| the machine guns and elsewhere active in
preparation. The great hull swung round
slowly and passed at a moderate speed
| past the bow of the other. When she
was nearly clear, her two great guns
| were fired almost simultaneously, and, as
the shells swept along the deck of the
cruiser, they carried men and masts and
deck houses with them, in one awful con-
fusion of wreckage and of death. The
cruiser was utterly unprepared for the
treachery, and lay Keeling on the sea as
her opponent treated her to the hail of
her machine guns.
The battle could have ended but in one
| way, had not the other American war
ships now come so close to us that they
| opened fire with their great guns. The
| huge shells Kissed over our heads, and all
| about us. The captain of the nameless
| ship fired twice from his turrets, and then
headed off at prodigious speed. In five
| minutes he was out of gunshot; in ten,
| the American vessels were taking men
| from their crippled cruiser, whose antago-
| nists had almost disappeared on the hori-
zonl
Upon our own decks the noise and hub
bub' were almost deafening. We put out
| boat with ease upon the still sea and
hailed the passenger steamer after twenty
| minutes stout rowing. She was yet pit
iful spectacle. When we got up on her
main deck, Captain Ross, her commander,
greeted us with great thanks. He took
| us to his chart room, for he would have
| all particulars about US
| twenty years." he said, with tears 81
anger in his eyes, II. have crossed the
Atlantic, but this is the first time that /
ever heard the like! It's piracy on the
high seas; and they shall swing, If there's
only one rope in Europe. What does il
mean? Are we at war? You saw the
Gillian flag. Is there no treaty Of Paris? p
| The first of the American ships came
up with u3, and the commander of her
put out a boat, and having gone aboard
the MANNED cruiser, he came afterwards to
the Black Anchor ship, and joined us in
the chart room.
| "It's an international question,
guess" he said; "and If he doesn't pay
with his neck for the twenty men dead
on my cruiser, to say nothing of the TWEEN
ty thousand pounds or more of damage to
her, will-why, we'll run him down in
four-and-twenty hours"
! I heard 1t agreed between them that
the second cruiser of the American feet
should start at once in pursuit, while the
ironclads should accompany US to New
York, SO making little convoy for safe
| TVS sake.
| With this arrangement we left the ship
and regained the Celsis. Paolo stood a,
the top Of the ladder as came on deck
and listened, l thought, to our protesta.
tons that the danger was over with
something Of sneer ON his face. In.
deed, thought that heard him mutter
but did not know then how much the
laugh was to be against us, and that we
should leave the convoy long before We
reached New York.
CHAPTER z.
l Tnp fYvN Eva 10 - -