The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-01-06
The Ia les Tuned
An Awful Revenge Turned
on the Revenger
By WILLIAM G. EMERSON
Copyright 1910, by American Press
Association

Captain Hazeltine of the Penguin, hav-
ing four swivel guns on board, two
port and two starboard, or larboard
and starboard, as the terms then were,
with plenty of muskets and cutlasses,
| gave the pirates fight that cost them
one third of their number in killed and
wounded, mostly killed. But the pi-
rates were too strong for the mer-
chantmen, who were at length over
powered.
The captors were 50 irritated at the
fight they had been put to and their
loss that they resolved to inhict a tor
ture upon Captain Hazeltine, to whom
they were indebted for both as they
we'll knew, for it was he who had led
every movement against them. They
forced every person on the Ill fated
Penguin to walk the plank except
Hazeltine, whom they put in irons
down In the hold. Then the pirate
commander invited suggestions as to
methods Of execution that would give
the most suffering.
Many of the plans that were handed
in were impracticable, since the pl-
rates did not possess the means of car
rying them out. One struck the cap
tainS fancy as soon as 1t was pro-
posed 1t was that they should bury
their victim up to his chin in the sand
at receding half tide, so that on its re-
turn 1t would gradually drown him.
Death would thus confront him for
hours and would linger when 1t came.
1t seemed to the pirate that this men,
| tai strain on a man in sound bodily
health would be far worse than phys
ical pain. He ordered his craft headed
for the shore and anchored near q
beach. On arrival the boats were low
cred and filled with eatables and cases
of wine that had been taken from the
! Penguin, for the pirates had deter
mined to have spree on shore, where
! they could have plenty of room to
stretch their legs. However, their
numbers were so reduced by the fight
they had been through that one boat
sufficed, and, since two men were left
to guard the ship, but five men, includ-
| ing the captain. went ashore with the
victim.
They found the tide within an hour
of the ebb. Burying Hazeltine on the
verge, he would see the tide recede for
an hour, then return for an hour. The
/ pirates faced him toward the water,
leaving only his head exposed. His
and when his eXecutioners had stamped
on the sand about him he felt himself
in wise. Having finished their work,
they carried their supplies little far
ther up on the beach and began to eat,
drink and be merry.
Hazeltine soon discovered that no
more frightful death could be devised.
He watched the tide recede, pause and
begin it's return. By this time the
! pirates were very drunk, screaming
! and fighting like madmen. Hazeltine
hoped some one of them, infuriated
| by liquor, would come and cleave his
skull with a cutlass. But he was dis
! appointed.
And now the first wave reached the
victims chin. The next did not come
so high, nor the next, but the fourth
washed his jaws. When it receded it
| took an inch of sand from under his
chin. The next wave took more, and
| successive waves left his throat bare.
But while the sand was sucked away
in front it was piled up at the back of
his head.
BY this time the yells Of the pirates
were few and soon ceased altogether.
They had intended to watch their pris-
oner die, but had got drunk instead.
The waves, dashing over Hazeltine
while he held his BREATH kept suck
| ing sand from his front Finally he
could work his body backward and for
ward. The water poured in around him
and softened the sand. BY an effort he
| freed his arms and dug with his hands.
In a few minutes he was free.
Looking about him, he saw the pi-
rates lying in drunken stupor. His
! first impulse was to run, his second to
take their boat and pull away. His
third-oh, his third marked a great
change in him. Seeing the shovel with
which the pirates had dug his grave,
he seized it and dug five other graves
a few feet above where his would be
eXecutioners had dug his own. Then,
taking up a pirate, he put him into an
upright hole and filled in the sand
about him. Then he buried another
and another till all were up to their
| chins in sand. Some of them awaken
ed, but did not realize at first where
they were. Others were too drunk to
| know anything.
| Half an hour later the water reached
| them and sobered them. The sand
| gave way before them, but Hazeltine
threw more sand in its place main
! tanning his position and theirs until
! the waves rolled above their heads.
But Hazeltine was not satisfied.
Waiting till night had fallen. he rowed
| IN the boat to the ship aud, armed
! with captured weapons, stealthily
| climbed the side. The two men who
had been left aboard had initiated the
example Of those who had gone ashore
/ and drunk themselves to sleep. Hazel
tine dispatched them and threw their