The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-07


 with the outlawed skinner of the seas. The captain of the corvette had no sus- picion of the truth, and though he ordered a boats crew away to row him to Lust in Rust as soon as dusk had fallen, It was not to seek the Skinner of the Seas, but to have a few hours with Aida.
 While he was thus bound unknowmgfy on an errand that was to lead him into the very cove where lay the object of his search, Aida also was becoming entan- gled in her uncle's dangerous business. She was startled suddenly by the entrance of a sailor through balcony window of her room. The new conner was startled in turn to find her instead of the alder man but in a moment reassumed the gay, merry air that seemed habitual, and thanked fortune that he had been so well guided.
 Miss Aida was neither unaccustomed to fiattery nor impervious to 1t. In addi- ton her interest was excited by the face and garb of the intruder. He was not more than 22 or 23. The face was richly colored by hot suns, and it's expression was strangely alert and imperious. But the features were soft and of truly fem mine beauty.
 His costume was in the style behtting the sailors of his day, but the stuff was velvet and finest duck, and the ornaments of fouled anchors were of solid bullion, while heavy twisted gold lace and braid
 
 waist
 When her uncle arrived the sailor made mischievous allusions to the business that had brought him, so that Aida soon sus- pected that the famous Skinner of the Seas stood before her, suspicion that did not lessen her interest.
 Despite the beseeching glances of Myn- heer van Beverout, the sailor insisted on enumerating all the contents of the bales of contraband that the men of the water Witch had landed and when the alder man excused himself to get the gold TOT payment of the rich freight, the young stranger unrolled a small bale and showed Aida such faces and embroideries that she forgot everything else in her delight
  came a sudden~step on the balcony, and Captain Ludlow entered through the open window. His suspicious, aroused py sounds and lights that he had seen as no approached, was quickened by the signt of the contraband articles lying at Aida feet. Jealousy, added to his professional keenness, had led him to approach care fully. and he had heard the name, Wa ter Witch, pronounced by the fantastical- lv earbed sailor before he entered.
 The young man, far from being alarmed, merely laughed when he saw the onicer of the Queen. ''If the admiralty court itself were here, big wigs and high stans' it would be at loss to bring us to con- viction. Captain Ludlow" said he. Our lockers and holds are as empty as If they had been swept
 The alderman was not as light-hearted asS the rover when he found the naval captain on the scene. He framed elab- crate explanations. which the rover con- firmed with jocular comment that denied their truth.
 Captain Ludlow, like most naval men of his day, despised the business of hunt ing smugglers, and dismissed from his mind any thought of either arresting the free trader on land or reporting the se- crets of the alderman's business. But he was determined to get the craft. without a word he hastened to his boat and urged the crew to take her at top speed to the cruiser. Before dawn her towers of canvas swept in from the Sandy Hook and toward the cove. As soon as she rounded the man-of-war came full in sight of the brigantine; yet that vessel lay as still and deserted as IT there were neither soul on poaro nor an enemy in sight.
 The light canvas of the corvette now melted from her and left her under her three topsails and jib Although ner course to the brigantine seemed clear, none aboard knew the channel and a black cloud rising over Staten Island showed that one of the great squalls of