Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1907-06-29
The Plunderers"
Bye j. cuTLIFFE HYNE.

'What-you-you're a poet?" raped
out Cambel
( Il knock off a bit of verse occasion
Slly said the skipper complaceutly
when I'm I'm the mood, that is. II
Seneraly comes like this when I've
been tail twisting the hands and have
spell Of a rest and think after
ward
Il see. The outcome OF vivid con-
trast," said Cambel He imagined to
himself that these boasted poems would
be Of the "heroric" order to the verge
of melodrama AS il happened. he
could not conveniently have made a
worse guess Kettle tugged from his
pocket a doubled up exercise book red
dened slightly under the tan and hand
ed It across. His companion hatteuei
out the crease, and from the light that
came from ChartroOm port dipped
into the manuscript verses for himself.
TO his establishment they were one and
all sonnets and ballads which might
well have been written by a sentimental
schooi girl. They breathgd of love and
devotion and premature fading away,
and at least three gushing adjeCtiycs
qualified each tender noun
There was no word about the sea ON
which their author had spent his life
or Of the things Of the sea with which
he had had all his dealings. He knew
about these as few men did, but they
seemed common 10 him and uucleau.
Consequently he had delivered himself
TO an ode OF that spring which he had
never witnessed ashore and love songs
10 ladies he had never met out side the
covers of cheap fiction. 1t was all
imagination, and uututOred, uninspired
Imagination at That
AS a result, Cambel found the poems
too killiugly funny for words and was
consumed with a wild desire for laugh
Ter, but that red bearded little savage
their maker, glaring anxiously at him
from the opposite shadow, he does not
let so much as the tail Of a smile dance
up from the corner Of his mouth. He
had TO enjoy and endure in silence. and
with the exercise book thrust out 10
the yellow light then he read on
through the stanzas diligently.
In one, evidently autobiographical,
the writer spoke of himself as "timid
frail gazelle," in another he addressed
his remarks from the mouthpiece of a
coy and cooling turtledove' TO "sylph-
like maiden Of naughty nien' who at
the time Of narration was the "bewitch-
ing. enhancing, unparalleled queen" of
another gentlemans hearth An ode
10 Excellence" which commenced
Hairy Alfred, brother bard, was evil
IDENTIFY directed at a contemporary, but
a. a
Lament which a fOOtnote stated could
be sung to the tune of "Greenland's
Icy Mountains" Probably as a collec-
tion Captain Kettles was unique In its
clumsy maUdlin sentiment and its gen
eral uneNpeCtedness.
Meanwhile the auditor was fidgeting
nervously. He had not got over that
initial nervousness which publication
gives He huugered for criticism
favorable if possible. At last he made
bold 10 ask for IT,
You're wonderful man, Kettle, re-
turned his companion quite meaning
what he said, and unless l had seen
those verses for myself I'd never have
believed you capable OF producing
them, no matter what had been told
me about your powers"
The poet gave sign Of relief. and
was Ding to pursue the subject further
when something fell upon his ear which
turned his thoughts into a very differ
eut key
by James. there's the engine
stopped What's up now. / wonder?"
He jumped TO his feet and stood with
neck craned out. listening The ring
of heavy boots made itself heard on the
engine room ladders. Then there was
a murmur Of voices and a patterlng of
footsteps from the forecastlC. ana pres
ascend the bridge deck ladders. Among
the growing babel Of voices came ref
erences to the gold, Half a million vel
low sovereigus boys" and threats
there was no mistaking, Teach the old
man manners or put him over the side
BY an evident previous arrangement
the men were massing themselves on
the port side of the bridge deck
"Mutiny by James. that's what this
means!' commented Captain Kettle i'm
an undertone He was cool as ice and
on the moment had decided how 70 act.
Now Mr.. Cambel. slip into the chart
room for your pistol. I have mine iu
my pocket. It's US two against the lot
OF EN- and Wen finish ont top side.
Oh, don't YOU make any error Itll be
a red nights work for those dog. But
Wen rub the fear of death into them
before we've done this time-into those
that are left, that is. Get your pistol.
quick. sir and skin your eye for handy
shooting"