The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1910-06-25

shorthanded. However blind the shipping
commissioner might be in other ways; ne sa"
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 were 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 ship
reached port
This official insistence 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 one or two men to NIL 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 was out of sight beyond the bar.
For Jack and Pete were respecters of persons.
All men looked alike to them, and they sent to
more than who held himself too acute to
be trapped into unwilling voyage Well-edu-
Gated, well-dressed and companionable, 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 one day,
against the advice of the upper town, to see the
sights He wise to the world and had
years thirst and pay with him. He met the kings.
who were glad to see him. Just one more man
was needed for the square-rigger Good Hope, then
lying in the stream waiting for crew, with her
captain, Black. swearing at Jack and Pete for
delaying him. The kings attended to Hunters
thirst and 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 one 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 was even asked to and did
sign his name once or twice 'as a witness" A
friend from the upper town risked broken head
to warn 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 an attempt to drug
his whisky and left the kings, with a laughing
comment on sailortown ways. Well outside the
deadline he stopped in quiet saloon. 1t was
late and he and the lonesome bartender had
nightcap together. When he came alive next
morning he at sea in the Good Hope and
beefy English mate was kicking him in the ribs.
OF the months that followed Hunter never
told much. He learned sailors work; he had to.
He picked up a scar 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 a Frenchman who
would neither speak English nor 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 an
advance note" "Ees thees votre nom% he
asked. 1t was He remembered his signing "as