Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-03-24
Talec Fol-
a Winter
Evening
The Love of Lobelia
'Ankins
By JOSEPH c. LINCOLN.
Copyright. 1907. by A. S. Barne. @ Co,
From, the "Old Home House"

I@IBED'S yarn being done and
Friend Davidson done, too, and
MI brown at that, Peter T. passed
~ around another relay Of cigars,
and We lit up. Twas Cap'n Fri that
spoke first.
Loves a queer disease anyway
says he. Amt it, now? 1t must be
a dreadful responsible thing to be SO
Fascinating. 1 felt that respon-
s1bleness but once-except when I got
married, Of course-and that was q
good many years ago, when I was 60
ing 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 a Boston
hooker bound to Singapore after rice.
The shippers name was Perkins, Mala-
Chi z. Perkins, and he was the mean
est man that ever wore a sou'wester,
I've had the pleasure of telling him so
sence-'twas in Surinam long in '72.
"Well, when I got to Singapore I
was nothing but skin and bone and
considerable Of the skin had been
knocked off by the marline spike and
mates boots. I'd shipped for the
wage out and back, but the first night
in port I slipped over the side, swum
ashore and fell in with a Britisher
named ACKNOWLEDGMENT, he called
lt-and as he was on the same hunt
that I was we kept each other
comp'ny.
well to make a long story short,
we shipped with a Teller whose
name was Lazarus. He was a shrewd
rascal and nothing more nor less than
a pearl poacher.
"We landed at a little one horse coral
= island, where there want no inhabit-
<Qts, 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-
u and Hammond and me. We put up
a slab shanty N shore and went to
work pearl fishing, keeping one eye
out for Dutch gunboats.
"Well we got together quite a 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 fggering that we
was going to make enough to more'n
pay us for u 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 a job Oh us and had sneaked
off 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 t~wo-for-a-cent
island.
'The first day we didn't do much but
cuss Lazarus uu hill and down dale.
We had fish lines in the shanty, and
there vas plenty Of water on the
ISLAND, so we knew we wouldn't starve
Z to death o die Of thirst, anyhow.
But, land. how we did miss that cody
cook.
"'W'y don't yer get to work and
cook something lit to heat?' says Ham
mond. Ere 1 broke my bloomin' back
'auling in the fish, and you doing moth
ing but 'anging around and letting EN-
dry hup in the 'eat. Get to work and
cook. Blimed it l amt sick of these
'ere custard app3es!'
eco and cook YOURSELF says I. Il
didn't sign articles to be cook for no
Johnny Bull!
"Well. we jawed back and forth for
A on 1ho,,r r,~1l,o Trro ~, +J,~aa
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 toe hot to sleep much.
and / got up about 3 o'clock in the
morning and went out and set down
on the beach in the moonlight. Pretty
oon out comes Hammond and sets
. weather u general orerhauling, calling
<everything he could lay tongue to.
Pretty soon he breaks off in the middle
Of q nine Tinted sweFr word and sings
out:
cam l going crazy, or is that a
schooner
II looked out into the moonlight, and
there, sure enough. was a schooner
about a mile of the island and com
ing dead on. First of we thought
twas Lazarus coming back, but pretty
soon we see twas a considerable small
er boat than his.
"She was acting dreadful queer.
/ First she'd go ahead on one tack and
then give a heave over and come about
] with a bang. sails tapping and every
thing Of a shake; then she'd give an
4 other slat and 60 off another way. but
mainly she kept right on toward the
Z island.
"tW'at's the matter aboard there?'
says Hammond. lis hall 'ands drunk
"t.She's abandoned says /. that's
what's the matter. There amt nobody
aboard OF her.
'sThen we both says. 'salvages and
4 shook hands. M ~ &s