New-York tribune., 1911-02-05

. and ranged in frowning circle about the
! mouth Of the cave. The ground was care
! fully gone over and the troops disposed t.
the best advantage to check an outrush ol
/ the pirates All that day and all that night
/ they lay on their arms The next day the
nervous strain and the sun began getting
in their work and heat prostrations and
fever were reported on all sides Plainly II
was going TO be necessary TO force matters.
Accordingly great quantities OF beams and
posts from the bombarded houses, drift
wood, dry grass and other innammabie
material were collected. heaped at the
mouth of the cave and ignited The pirates
were To be smoked out.
The fire burned furousy; so well. in fact.
that all Of the soldiers. assisted by press
gang" Of the good people" of the island.
were hardly able to replenish it fast
enough THE pirates will be sufrocated.
roasted alive. or forced to come out and
fight. The capture Of the entire gang is
hourly expected" was the days bulletin
from Macao The following evening the
assembled watchers on the picturesque
Praya Grande at Macao saw the lurid
glare against the transchannel sky fade
and die out. The end has come" they
told one another: the pirates are dead or
captured" And with few rounds Of
"vivas" for their brave soldiers they went
home TO bed.
But what really had happened was this :
The available wood for the fire having come
TO about the same stage OF exhaustion as
the strength of his soldiers and coolies. the
officer in command bethought himself that
it might be well to investigate the reason
for the surprising voracity Of his big
smudge. He probably had not had great
experience in the building OF fires at the
mouths OF caves. but even TO a novice there
must have been something a little peculiar
in the persistent air current which drew
the flame into the cavern as though a
mammoth suction pump was working
somewhere in the cavernous depths. The
result of a sortie into the hitherto Stunned
wilderness Of powders on the opposite side
OF the island was the discovery OF a place
where the smoke was issuing as from a
volcano. The generalissimo had been try
ing 20 smoke the pirates on; o. a tunnel,
Almost Immediately following the dis
covery Of this outlet to the cave d typhoon
of considerable force swept the South
China coast and during the day and night
Of its height all Of the launches and gun
toats We're forced to run to Macao FOR
shelter being absent from their stations
something more than twenty-four hours
In this interval the pirates got away from
the island ard were never captured, save
few Who had been wounded and could
not get far from the cave outlet. The rest
found hiding places among the powders
and were at once made prisoners.
While in Hong Kong my attention was
attracted by telegram from Canton in a
local paper stating that young woman
named lp SEE had been sent by the Kwang
Yam Charitable Institution to the Fong
Pin Hospital for medical treatment, where
it was learned that she had been one of
the captives abandoned TO the Portuguese
by the COlowan pirates before they took to
their cave. A short account OF her vicis-
STUDIES followed The opportunity for con-
versation with one who had actually been
with the pirates during this remarked bic
affair was too good to miss, so. taking that
nights boat TO Canton. | there got an in
terpreter and went 10 the hospital the fol-