Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-03-03
CHAPTER XII.
"a URING the next few days the
crew discussed our destination.
DiSciDlinn while maintoin od

IN URING the next few days the
crew discussed our destination.
IU Discipline, while maintained
u strictly, was not conventional.
During the dog watches often every
man aboard would be below. for at
that period Captain Selover loved to
take the wheel in person, thick cigar
between his lips. the dingy checked
shirt wide open to expose his hairy
chest to the breeze. In the twilight of
the forecastle we had some great sea
lawyers talks-I say I'VE" though
took little part in them. Generally
lay across my bunk smoking my pipe
while Handy Solomon held forth, his
speech punctuated by surly specula-
lions from the niger, with hesitating
deep sen wisdom from the hairy Thrac-
kles or with voluminous bursts of
fractured English from Perdosa. Pull
had nothing to offer, but watched from
his pale green eyes. The light shifted
and wavered from one to the other as
the ship swayed; garments swung; the
empty berths yawned cayernous.
could imagine the forecastle filled with
the desperate men who had beaten off
the Oyama. The story is told that they
had swept the gunboat's decks with
her own rapid fires turned in.
No one knew where we were going
nor why. The doctor puzzled them
and the quantity of his belongings.
ut amt pearls" said Handy Solo
mon. "You can kiss the book on that,
for we amt a diver among us. 1t amt
Chinks, for we are cruising sou-'sou'-
west. Likely it's trade-trade down In
the islands"
We were all below. The captain
himself had the wheel. Discipline,
while strict, was not conventional.
Contrabandista," muttered the Mex.
lean, "for dat he geev us double pay"
'tWe don't get her for nothing"
agreed Thrackles. Double pay and
duff on Wednesday generally means
get your head broke"
mo trade" said the niger gloom
ily,
They turned to him with one accord.
"Why not?" demanded Pull, break
Ing his silence.
mo trade" repeated the niger.
"Ain't you got reason, doctor?"
asked Handy Solomon.
mo trade" insisted the niger.
An uneasy silence fell. could not
but observe that the others held the
nigger's statements in respect not
due them as mere opinions. Suisse
quently understood little more of
the reputation he possessed. He was
believed to see things hidden, as their
phrase went.
Nobody said anything for some time.
Nobody stirred except that Handy Sol
ONION, his steel claw removed from its
socket. Whitfield and tested, screwed
and turned, trying to fix the hook so
that, in accordance with the advice of
Percy barrow, it would turn either
way.
what is it. then, doctor?" he asked
softly at last.
Gold" said the niger shortly
"Gold-treasure."
That's what said at frst!' cried
Handy Solomon triumphantly. IT was
extraordinary, the unquestioning and
entire faith with which they accepted
as gospel fact the negro's dictum.
There followed much talk of the ma
ture of this treasure, whether it was
to be sought or conveyed, bought, stolen
or ravished In fair fight. No further
soothsaying could they elicit from the
niger, They followed their own ideas.
which led them nowhere. Some one
lit the forecastle lamp. They settled
themselves. Pulz read aloud.
This was the programme every day
during the dog watch. Sometimes the
watch on deck was absent. leaving
only Handy Solomon, the niger and
Pulz, but the order of the day was not
on that account varied. They talked
they lit the lamp, they read Always
the talk was of the treasure.
AS to the reading, 1t was of the sort
usual to seamen, cowboys, lumbermen
and miners. Thrackles had number
Of volumes Of very cheap love stories.
Pulz had brought some extraordinary
garish detective stories. The others
contributed sensational literature with
paper covers adorned geographically.
BY the usual incongruity n fragment
OF t'The Marble Faun" was included in
the collection. The niger had his
copy of "puyall on Alchemy" 1
haven't the slightest idea where he
could have got It.
While Pulz read, Handy Solomon
worked on the alteration Of his claw.
He could never get 1t to hold, and l
remember rs an undertone to Pulz's
reading the rumble of strange, exas.
perated oaths. Whatever the even
ing's lecture, it always ended with the
book on alchemy. These men had no
perspective by which to judge such
things. They accepted its speculations
and theories at their face value. Ex-
tremely laughable were the discus
sions that followed. often wished
the shade Of old .Duvall could be per-
mitted to see these, his last disciples,
spelling out dimly his teachings, mis-
pronouncing his grave utterances but
believing utterly.
Dr. Schermerhorn appeared on deck
seldom. When he did, often his fingers
held. "A pen which he had forgotten to