Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-06-30
The Argus Daily Short Story
A Sea Secretly D. Thorne Taylor.
Copyrighted 1911. by Associated Literary Press.

during the next half hour. Thank
heaven 1 did not witness them. I will
only say that the crew, excepting Jack
Coyne and Swede, jacobson, who beg
ged to be allowed to join the pirate
gang, and !, were forced to walk the
plank There were also several pas
sengers, whose names 1 will give in a
separate paper, who shared the same
fate.
While our vessel was not much of
a craft, it was far better than that of
our captors, having the advantage of
steam power, and they decided to
scuttle the sailer and use the steamer.
This they did during the night, which
was coming on, and in the morning
the Mary Blame was sailing on, to all
outward appearances, as If nothing
had happened. The pirates gave 9th
er ships as wide a berth as possible
and when unable to do so kept only
the two men of our crew whose lives
had been spared on deck.
And so it was that we three white
men were forced to obey the orders of
some twenty copper colored devils,
thus enabling them to attract small
propriate anything of value found in
them. No ship of any Importance was
attacked. When we were spoken by
such Coyne or jacobson was forced to
run up signals stating that we were
the Mary Blame of New York. home
ward bound, and all was well aboard.
The murders we saw committed and
Indirectly helped to commit haunt me
and will always haunt me. My two
other white companions in misery and
iniquity were often compelled to do
these things directly. Tie stain on
my own conscience is that had 1 re-
fused to run the engine and been shot
down for my disobedience of orders
the pirates would have been obliged
to run her ashore or abandon her for
a captured sailer for there was not an
engineer among them.
One afternoon late in June, 1893. we
were cruising off the island of For
mosa. / was so worn with my con-
dition that 1 showed signs of breaking
down. Through the interpreter L ask
ed permission to be permitted to go
on deck for fresh air My life being
necessary to my masters, their cap
tain consented that Jacobson should
come down into the engine room, and
since there was nothing Of Importance
to do there l should go up, being
ready for a call from below If my
services were needed.
We were steaming along northward
at about six knots when saw on the
horizon a faint line that looked like
smoke. There were but few Of the
pirates on deck, most of them being
below drinking liquor that had been
captured the day before. Those on
deck had been drinking, but were con-
sidered able to keep watch over the
white members OF the crew. But they I,
were not sufficiently in control of their
faculties to notice the line Of smoke
on the horizon or they would have
called their captains attention to it.
Meanwhile there appeared under the
smoke certain black dots. They were
nearly equidistant. and over each
could soon distinguish a thin film lead
ing to the cloud above. The dots
grew larger. and It was evident that
we and they were drawing nearer to-
gether.
CHANGING aside. I saw Coyne, who
was busy over some cordage, standing
looking at what had arrested my at
tention. We dared not speak to each
other. but he cast a meaning glance
at me. Then / looked about at the
Malays. One was sitting on the deck
with his back against the gunwale,
another was DOING in a hammock,
while a third was walking about T1s
steadily.
I gave Coyne a meaning took, COM
btned frst Of glance at what was
approaching, seeoEd Of one at the Ma