The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1909-02-27
!: Off the Great
Barrier Reef eff
BY Albert Darlington
. HERE was a sound of tapping
water on the seward side of the


water on the seward side of the
Il trade-house. The stiff, spike
crested palms seemed to pierce the
Dlue span of sky overhead In the
the east lay Espirtu Santo, with it's
1nnumerable Jungle screened inlets and
sloping hills. The tip Of young moon
glinted with tropic brightness over the
distant headland. .,..-. -
The strade-house veranda was in
darkness. A white-coated German
heat-fretted and lazy, reclined in the
hammock, and watched a -beamed
lugger crawl to her mornings across
the bay. .-n
Chow at the helm. Brings his craft
up to a three-knot breeze, as though it
was sparring with an old-man cy-
clone'
Capt. William Hayes moved from the
deep veranda shade and glanced sea-
wards through his night glasses.
Jimmy All Lee chasing trepang and
beche- demer. Wonder if he ever goes
to sleep?"
Der elbows hat der luck of mules"
grunted the German. Awhile man
gets blown to hell if he makes half
deir mistakes at sea-"
II used to laugh at chinkies once"
said Hayes thoughtfully. But now I'd
sooner skin a live wolf than NEEDLE
with Chinese bank or a pigtail on the
high SEAS"
'Dey hat no more brains dan mon
keys. Dey vas shoost a nation off flies
crawlin' about der East. I vos sooner
admire your skinned wolf anyway,
Hayes
Hayes licked a big green cigar and
padded uneasily up and down the wide
veranda. up in Swatow nine years
ago they sold me a cargo Of golden
tip Pekoe for 5000. After I broke all
cot 70
found that they'd loaded me with dried
dogweed and warehouse refuse. Fancy
me tearing south to hit the market
with a cargo of pig mash and planta-
ton litter!"
A big shouldered lion footed adven-
turer was Capt. William Hayes. In his
younger days he had bartered human
lives for pearls and dollars. AS a navi-
gator he lowered above Teach, Ross
In his worst moments Hayes was al
ways ready to laugh at his own blum
ders. He eluded gunboats and COM
missions of inquiry with the ease and
diplomacy of sultan. At pinch he
could pose as a cultured diplomat, even
in the presence of British and Amer
lean consuls. From Manihki to the
line the sound of his name uttered sud
denly on an island beach brought men,
rifle in hand, to their trade-house pail
sades.
1--WE had hard life,' he continued
slowly, fighting kanaks and keeping
dirty little island kings in their places.
There was time when I'd have kicked
the Inch pins from the wheels VI a
Juggernaut car to upset a rival. And
there were times when things used to
hit back. Women put me away. and
the gunboat dudes treated me like a
dog whenever [ hurt a black mans
feelings"
Hayes, Hayes, you vas bad mani"
The German sat up in the hammock
and regarded the buccaneer closely. II
Don't say it. Schultz" growled
Hayes. I've stood knee deep in wine,
I admit; I've bluffed big-headed con-
suls and licked what I couldn't eat.
The grandest bluff I ever put up was
my scheme for stopping the Ming Pc,
a China steamer bound from Brisbane
to Shanghai. carrying 1000 ounces of
gold in her bullion ROOM
yah! You will bump the yardarm
some day, Billy. You hat no belief in
der size of tings."
"Guess the hemp isn't spun that will
hoist me-" grinned the buccaneer. II
had smart schooner once, and a nice
lot of white lads lying idle on the beach
at Mount Eames island, twenty seven
Long reef and Nine-pin rock. Chasing
copra and hunting kanakas had made
us tired. And a crew that sails under
me for year is good enough to swap
curses with anything that floats. Black
crews are. no good at pinch. Strike
a match in their faces on a dark night
and they fold up at the knees.
well, we settled it among ourselves
that the Ming Pc, with her gold box,
was ours the moment she showed her
black funnel ten miles east of the Bar
rier light.
i've helped myself to loose cargoes
of trade from the Straits to the Mar
quesas, but my mouth grew hot and
my heart danced the night we waited
for the China-bound steamer. She
carried gold won from Australian soil,
stuff that had been dolled out of the
Fraser creek beds and Gulf mining
camps; it was going to fatten the
Chinese banks at Hongkong and
Shanghai.
"She was 1000 tonner, with a nose
like a plunging bison. She. carried a.
coolie crew and four white officers. Her
steel clamped vault was between bunk
ers and storeroom. 1t was guarded
night and day by a gang of yellow
dogs, armed belt and fist. I guess a
Chinaman can nurse his gold like a
bulldog hugging bone-When it's
worth while.
THAT night was black enough to
hide crew. It was a night to help
a poor man like me into nice white
goal or a Chinese savings bank Most