The Springdale news., 1909-02-27
fcoNTfNUEp.l
tcoNTtNUED.l
 CHAPTER TX. T HAD every reason to be sa fled with my disguise-if sl i4 nan1l hn nnlIad Cant
CHAPTER K.


 eackle
 "Didn't know you," he trebed. But you look shipshape. Come, I'll show you your quarters
 Immediately l discovered what I had suspected before-that on so small q schooner the mate took rank with the men rather than the afterguard. Cabin accommodations were of course very limited My own lurked in the waist of the shlp-a tiny little airless hole
 Here's where Johnson stayed. prof fered Selover. You can bunk here or you can go in the foc'sle with the men. They's more room there. We'll get under way with the turn of the tide
 He left me I examined the cabin. It was just tritle larger than is sin gle berth and the berth was just q trifle larger than myself. My chest would have to be left outside l strongly suspected that my lungs would have to be left outside also. For the life of me could not see where the air was to come from. With men tal reservation in favor of investigat- ing the forecastle l went on deck
 The Laughing Lass was one of the prettiest little seheoners l ever saw. Were 1t not for the lines Of her bilges and the internal arrangement of her hold il might be imagined she had been built originally as fl pleasure yacht. Even the rake of her masts, little forward of plumb. bore out this impression, which Il comparatively new suit of canvas. well stopped down. brass stanchions forward and two lit- tie guns under tarpaulins almost con firmed Her complement of boats was ample enough She had two surfboats. dingey and q dory slung to the davits In addition another dory-the one you picked me up in-was iashed to the top of the deekhouse.
 They'd mighty near have q boat apiece" thought and went forward.
 Just outside the forecastle hatch I paused Some one below was singing In voice singularly rich Ill quality, The words and the qaantness of the minor air struck me immensely and have clung to my memory like n bur ever since:
 |" Are you q man=o'-war or priYateer.
 said he.
 Blow high. blow low what care wei oh, l am jolly pirate and I'm sailing
 for my fee,
 Down on the coast of the high Bar
 bare-e-e
 l stepped to the companion. The voice at once ceased. l descended.
 4 glimmer of late afternoon strug- gled through the headlights. l found myself in a really commodious space, extending far back of where the for ward bulk kheads are usually placed, accommodating rows and rows of bunks-eighteen of them in fact. The unlighted lamp cast it's shadow on wood stained black by much use. but polished like ebony from the continued friction of mems garments l wish l could convey to you the uneanny ef feet this-of dropping from the decks of miniature craft to the internal arrangements of square figged ship. It was as though entering Il cottage door you were to discover yourself on
  A fresh sweet breeze ef evening suck ed down the hatch l immediately de cided on the forecastle. Already 1t was being borne in on me that was little more than glorifed bo's Il s mate. The situation suited me, how ever. It enabled me te watch the course of events more safely, less ex posed to the danger of recognition.
 l stood for moment at the foot of the companion aecustoming my eyes to the gloom. After moment. with q shock of surprise, l made out a shining pair of bead points gazing at me unblinkingy from the shadow un- der the bitts Slowly the man defiued himself, as shape takes form in a fog. He was leaning forward in an attitude of attention, his elbows rest ing on his knees. his forearms depend ing between them, his head thrust out. l could detect no faintest movement of eyelash, no faintest sound of breath ing. The stiffness was portentons. The creature was exactly like a wax figure, one of the sort you meet in corridors of cheap museums, and for a moment mistake for living beings. Almost thought to make out the customary gray dust lying on the wax of his fea- lures
 I am going to tell you more of this man because, as you shall see. he was destined to have much to do with my life, the fate of Dr. Karl Augustus Sehermerhorn and the doom of The Laughing Lass.
 He wore on his head red bandan- na handkerchief. l never saw him with other covering. From beneath 1t struggled oily and tangled locks of glossy black. Ills face was long nar- row, hook nosed and sinister. His eyes. as I have described them, a steady and beady black. I could al first glance ascribe great activity, but only moderate strength to his slender, wiry figure. In this I was mistaken. His sheer physical power was second only to that of Captain Selover. One Of his forearms ended in steel hook. At the moment could not understand this; could not see how man so maimed could be useful aboard Il ship. Later l wished We had more as handy He knew a jam hitch which he caught over and under his hook quicker than most men can grasp line with the naked hand. It would render one way, but held fast the other. He told me 1t was cinch hook hitch employed by mule packers in the mountains and that be had used 1t on swamp hooks in the lumber woods of Michigan. l shouldn't wonder. He was a Wander