Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1910-06-10

sea short-handed However blind the shipping
commissioner might be in other ways, he saw
to it that the shipping laws were obeyed as 10 the
number of men required for types and tonnage OF
ships. man might never have seen the sea-
but If he not too drunk to say he was an
able seaman and to sign his name to the ships
articles. that settled it. He would probably be an
able seaman or a dead greenhorn before his snip
reached port
This official nsistence on the letter of the law
sometimes caused the kings to do strange things
Toward the end of the season they were at times
hard pushed for two men to fill out
crew. Then did all men in sailortown not in the
kings special favor hunt cover and stay hid I'M
til the last ship out of sight beyond the bar
For Jack and Pete no respecters of persons
All men looked alike to them, and they sent to
sea more than one who held himself too acute to
be trapped into an unwilling voyage. Well-edu
Gated, welldressed and companonable, the kings
mixed with the best and worst that drifted into
their realms, and once in their clutches no man
escaped from them except by the open sea.
Jimmy Hunter Yale man and cowpuncher
went down to the waterfront alone day,
against the advice OF the upper town, to see the
sights. He was wise to the world and had
years thirst and pay with him. He met the kings
who were glad to him. Just
was needed for the square-rigger Good Hope, then
lying in the stream waiting for a crew with her
captain. Black swearing at Jack and Pete for
delaying him. The kings attended to Hunters
thirst ana were friendly, even CONFIDENTIAL No
secret was made of their trade. They told him
stories of shanghaied sailormen and of crews they
had stolen from ship for another He was
much interested. Jack took him up to the ship
ping commissioners to the crew of the Good
Hope shipped He even asked to and did
sign his name twice "as a Witness"
friend from the upper town risked broken head
to him. But the Sherman boys were also
friends-at least three hours old-and. anyhow.
he could take of himself.
At last he caught Pete in attempt to drug
his whisky and left the kings. with laughing
deadline he stopped in a quiet saloon. 1t was
late and be and the lonesome bartender had a
nightcap together. When he came alive next
morning he was at sea In the Good Hope and a
beefy English mate kicking him in the ribs
OF the months that followed Hunter never
told much He learned sailors work; he had to-
He picked up or two from the English
mates brass knuckles Also he acquired deep
desire to kill the kings OF sailortown, Captain
Black and the mate.
At last he found himself IN the consul's Office
at Dunkirk, France dressed in the clothes he had
on when he met the Sherman boys. For won
der. they had sent them aboard with him. He
was in United States territory again, and. first
off, he would square yards with Captain Black.
But-the consular agent was a Frenchman who
would neither speak English understand
Hunters French unless he wanted to. Captain
Black lolled in an Office chair and grinned while
Hunter told his troubles. When he had finished.
without word of comment the consular agent
spread out two papers, the ships articles and
advance note" "Ees thees votre nom?" he
asked It was. He remembered his signing "as