The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-26
bM4Rp IF RNcxZ ZAW11e..

1 your dear little sister wen club | your prize money and mine together. The Rattiesnake was ordered back 1 to her station off Martinique again, and soon there came another chance | for cutting out expedition. The boats were lowered away in pitch black | night, The heat was excessive and un. I long before they were almost over | come. Suddenly. without warning, there came a moaring that increased | almost at once into a roar, and the | next moment a hurricane burst on the boats with a force that drove the oars back on the men and dashed them un- | der the thwarts.
 Nothing could be done before that | fearful wind, The helms were put down and the boats drove before 1t. | The sea rose awfully and lowered around them, while the wind cut off the crests of the waves and filled the small craft. The men baiIed in silence. | Suddenly large wave eliminated over the stern of Peters boat. filling 1t to | the thwart.
 The next instant there came a ter rible shock. The coxswain was hurled | over Simple's head, and the boat seem- ed to dissolve under them The sea dashed the men high up on rocks It smashed Peter against a cliff and broke t"o oA HIS EIos' put ne neld on ana succeeded in crawling up. When he called out at last only ten men of ths crew of eighteen ans~ered. and of | these five had broken limbs
 When daylight came they looked out anxiously for the brig, hardly daring to hope that she had lived through that frightful storm At last they saw her rolling in the sea. with jury rig. For more than an hour they watched VI al rocks. She was so near them that a sailor cried: She's struckv but at that moment she passed to weather of the dread spot and won the open sea again.
 [ Peter and his uninJured men now set out for the town, to give themselves up and get help for their shipmates. But they found everybody too much | occupied with the havoc or the storm to pay any attention to them. They set to work to help clearing away wreckage and extricatlng unfortunate wretches from the ruins of their fallen houses.
 While they were doing this a party of French officers came riding along. One, in a generals uniform, took of | his hat to the sailors and thanked them. The next moment he was off his l horse. shaking hands with Peter. It | was General O'Brien. He took Peter home. where his injuries were attend | ed to- but not till he had seen Celeste. 1 The French officers called and thank ed him for his courtesy to them and their wives when he took the ship. The town treated him and his men not as prisoners. but as guests; and. indeed. the French would not accept their sur render at all but insisted that they | were free to return to the Rattlesnake, I which had already appeared outside of the harbor. and sent In a flag of truce to ask news of her men.
 Strangely enough, Peter was not bit happy at this. He declared that he was too i'll to be moved just then. and General O'Brien sent word to his namesake of the Rattlesnake that 1t would be another two days before his guest could go aboard.
 Peter used those two days sc well that he and Celeste confessed to each other that they were both of one mind, | which was that it would be most sat- | isfactory If he could remain a pris- oner in the generals house.
 It was a most Respondent young lieu- tenant who finally left the harbor 70 go aboard his ship, and saw St. Pierre shut from his longing sight. So soon as the Rattlesnake had been rerigged she was ordered to England again. and Peter returned home. to ind his poor old father quite mad. Sometimes he imagined he was a pump, sometimes a balloon. Every few hours he developed a new delusion. Peter was exceeding ly anxious to stay at home for a time to aid his sister and straighten out the affairs of his family. and he had no doubt that he could easily obtain leave of absence. But fortune forsook him when he needed her most
 oBrien was promoted to post captain lw. nR Semiramis frigate. His efforts to have Peter Simple appointed as his first lieu tenant were in vain. and he sailed away | to the East Indian station. leaving Pe- ter to be first lieutenant of the Rat tlesnake under a new commander. Cap tain Hawkins. who, it was generally understood. was no other than an ille- gitimate son of Peters uncle. Lord Privilege.
 That gentleman refused even a days leave of absence to Lieutenant Simple and kept him on ship constantly till l they sailed into the Baltic to convoy a fleet of more than 200 merchantmen. l During the constant fighting that fol- | lowed Captain Hawkins showed him self not only unskilful. but so clearly coward that the men hated him. They lost no opportunity of showing | it. and he took his revenge by losing no opportunity to humiliate Peter, whom he blamed for the spirit that obtained among the crew.
 Hardly had the Rattlesnake come to anchor at Portsmouth before Peter learned that his frather was dead, and when he asked for leave of absence he was confronted with a notice that he was to be courtmailialed forthwith. Twelve charges had been made against him by the captain, most of them exceedingly frivolous, but cover ing the entire time of his service un- der him. Almost the whole crew had been changed since then officers who could have testified for him were on