Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1910-04-01
BY JOSEPH; {. LINCOLN
co7yrisl;. ico7 by a. S. Barnes q Co.

IL t6l-if yarn being done ANA
IL (, Friend Davidson done, too. and
IL III brown at that, Peer 7. pa >er.l
49, aTut.td another relay Of cigars.
and we lit up. Twas Capn Fri that
spoke first
Loves ii queer disease anyway"
says lac. "Ain't Il. now? II must he
a dreadful. responsible thing to be so
f"S !aj,iuG. never felt that respon-
s.bieu s., lat oucc-eXccpt when got
married. Of coursc-and that was
GOOD many years ago. when l WIS 60
iug To- sea on long wages and was
cruising around the East Indies in the
latitude OF Our new troubles. the Phil
ippines.
Il was fo'mast hand on Boston
hooker bound to Singapore after rice.
The shippers name was Perkins, Mala-
eli c. Perkins, and be was the mean
est man that ever wore a souwester.
I've bad the pleasure Of telling him so
sence-'twas in Surinam long in To-
We'll. when | got to Singapore !
was nothing but skin and bone and
considerable of the skin had been
knocked off by the marline spike and
the mates boots. I'd shipped for the
wage out and back, but the first night
in port slipped over the side, swum
ashore and fell in with Britisher
named aInmond-'Ammond, he called
it-:ld as he was on the same hunt
that l was We kept each other
comp'ny.
"Wcll, to make long story short,
We shipped with Il Teller whose
name WAS Lazarus. He was a shrewd
rascal and nothing more nor less than
Il pearl poachcr
I'VE landed at little one horse coral
island, where there want no inhabit-
ants, but where we was pretty dead
sartin there was pearl oyster banks in
the lagoon. There was five Of us on
the schooner, a Dutchman named
Rhinelander, a cody cook and Laza-
rus and Hammond and me- We put up
slab shanty on shore and went to
work pearl fishing, keeping one eye
out for Dutch gunboats.
"Well. we got together quite likely
mess Of pearls, and as twas part Of
the agreement that the crew had q GER
tain share in the stake, why, Ham,
mond and me was f1ggering that we
was going to make enough to more'n
pay us for our long spell Of starving
at Singapore.
Zone morning me and Hammond
come out Of the shanty, and, 10 and be-
hold you, there want no schooner to
be seen. That everlasting Lazarus had
put up job on US and had sneaked
of In the night with the cook and the
Dutchman and took our share Of the
pearls with him. There we was. ma
rooned on that little two-for-a-cent
island.
1.-The first day we didn't do much but
cuss Lazarus up hill and down dale.
We had fish lines in the shanty, and
there was plenty Of water on the
island. SO we knew we wouldn't starve
to death nor die Of thirst, anyhow.
But, land. how we did miss that cody
cook.
"'W'y don't yer get to work and
cook something fit to heatY says Ham,
mond. ERE broke my bloomin' back
'auling in the fish. and you doing moth
ing but 'anging around and letting 'em
dry hup in the 'eat. Get to work and
cook. Blimed If amt sick Of these
ere custard applesv
"tGo and cook yourself says I. 4
didn't sign articles to be cook for no
Johnny Bull!
'Well. we jawed back and forth for
an hour, maybe more. Two or three
times we got up to have it out, but
twas too hot to fight, SO we set down
again. Fin'lly we eat some supper,
custard apples and water, and turned
In.
'But twas too hot to sleep much.
and l got up about 8 o'clock In the
morning and went out and set down
on the beach in the moonlight. Pretty
soon out comes Hammond and sets
down alongside and begins to give the
weather a general overhauling. calling
1t everything he could lay tongue to.
Pretty soon he breaks OF in the middle
Of a nine Tinted swear word and sings
out:
".Am I going crazy, or is that a
schooner?
II looked out into the moonlight, and
there. sure enough. was a schooner
about q mile of the island and COM
ing dead on. First on we thought
twas Lazarus coming back. but pretty
soon we see twas considerable small
er boat than his.
'She was acting dreadful queer.
First she'd 60 ahead on one tack and
then give heave over and come about
with a bang. sails tapping and every
thing Of q shake; then she'd give an
other Stat and 60 OF another way. but
mainly she kept right on toward the
island.
"'W'at's the matter aboard therer
says Hammond. Is hall 'ands drunk?
"'She's abandoned says I. That's
what's the matter. There amt nobody
aboard of her.
'Then we both says. 'Salvagev and
shook hands.
1.-The schooner came nearer and
nearer. 1t begun to look as II she'd
smash against the rocks In front OF us.
but she didn't. When she got opposite
the mouth Of the lagoon she heeled
over on q new tack and sailed in be-
tween the rocks as pretty as anything
ever you see. Then she run aground
on the beach just about a quarter Of a
mile from the shanty.
"'Twas early morning when We
climbed aboard Of her. l thought Laz-
arus' schooner was dirty. but this one
was nothing but dirt-dirty sails. all
patches; dirty deck. dirty everything
won't get much salvage on this
bally tub says Hammond. She's one
OF them niger fish boats; that's wat
she is
Il was kind of skittish about going
below-'fraid there might be some dead
fOlks-but Hammond went. In min
ute or so up he comes. looking scary.
There's something mighty queer
down there saws he. kind of w'eez-