The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1912-04-26
CRUISE OF The
YACHT H!LDA
Why Her Disappearance Re-
mains q Mystery.

TELL Us about he t,iida. Brownow.
TX >sn safe "a &li! that yarn. Some
o. you might cot me INFO trouble"
n promise 0i Sc recy Was made, and
the yarn WAS $1rn.
THE lli,dH had ike newest thing in
engines. and as soon MS She had been
tested Ter owner, Mr.. Chinrildnle.
started III her for Il trip around the
world. With me as en&nccr.
"A great many people thinl; the days
OF pirates are p"st ard gone. Don't
you believe ii. ships 20 out and are
never heard fronl--%cnc down in a
storm: iuorr likely their crews are
murdered and the ship is plunGcrcd
and >nUttloG. Wei. W" were steamins
westward soncWAr." Nes wrcn Hong
kong and ManiIa Nitan we net sailel
wearing British 90. r. ,'un.iME through
Che water, tN,H.>s: ~" white before
her, heading +, b, far IL, and signaling
us TO slow loWu. T liNlsilg she had
sonnet hing Important tn communicates.
we stopped the eM+ ines and Il boatlOaI
OF men ci,l!p ;,huH",l IS soon as they
We're Nn our deck he ship they came
| from hauled down III" British flag and
raised the skull and cloSsl}oncs.
I'm not going over the doing away
with ever man of MS That's what
Keeps me from Slp"pin4"-
"Wcren't you one of the yachts
crew"
Sure. Ent | WIS til, engineer and
not one Of ihr pirates could run an en-
gine. Gooi' &c. INel.' ,.tli ain, said to
me: 'i.Nn tEHm engines. and SO long as
you run thpm ri;,ht you live When
you r,in them wrong
II knew what he c,ilt without his
finishing, and you Ent ran the en-
gineS right. This was TN" TING wien
the Spanish war WAS coming ON, and
we'd learned al! about ii from speak
ing an A.lrricnn cruiser. especially
that Dewey was soon to sail from
Hongkong BESIDES. all the nations
were sending men uf-wnr to the Phil
ippines to soc fair play. Coolidge had
been dodcing vessels That were cal
culated to give him this information
and did not know anything at all
about it. He came to me and asked
me what kind of craft we'd been meet
ing, and | concocted Il story. told
him that a couple of hundred miles
east of Manila we'd passed q small
steamer, capable of making eight knots
and no moro, that carried express mat
ter. Coolidge suspected that a money
safe belonging to the express compa-
MES might be aboard and was itching
to get at it. We would have to go
back between Hongkong and Manila
to reach the steamer and We're likely
to fall in with a cruiser.
"Sure enough, one morning we saw
black line on the horizon to the
northward, then another and another.
1t was Dewey's fleet, but we didn't
know it.
"As luck would have it, we were
steaming across the line of a scout
ship. | looked out and saw the smoke
north by northeast and made up my
mind that the stranger would pass
astern Of us. | kept an eye out tho
portfolio, and when she came within
sight | saw Il signal flying for us to
heave to. Goolcdge didn't dare risk
an inspection and paid no attention to
It, The cruiser came on. but was only
two knots better than us and gained
slowly. l didn't know that she was
ordered to overhaul everything she
met, and | was afraid she'd get tired
Of the chase, so contrived to loosen
screw and let 80 q rod, then called
Coolidge and told him Id have to stop
the engine few minutes and fix it or
the thing would break us up. If
hadn't been necessary to him he would
have killed me right there, but instead
he told me he'd give me just five min
utes to fix it after stopping and held
his watch in one hand and a pistol in
the other.
II kept asking him the time, blundcr-
ing as well as l could without his seq
ing me do it. until he called four min
utes. Then | screwed her up and
started on. ! hadn't more than done
so when a shot went skipping before
our bows, and made up my mind
we'd be oyerhauled. | heard Coolidge
come below and 80 into Mr.. Chippln-
dale's stateroom, which he'd appropri-
ated to his own use. and in a few min
utes there was the report OF pistol.
I went to the room. looked in and saw
the pirate giving his last gasp.
II hurried on deck, ana there in the
distance was Il feet of war vessels,
and the cruiser that had been follow
Ing us had turned to join them. Seiz-
ing Gooledge's glass lying on one Of
the quarter deck wicker chairs, l lev
eled it and saw the flagship of the
feet signaling tho cruiser to come in.
"When it was known that the cap |
tain had blown ont his brains, two Of |
the crew came to me and said they
had been taken when Coolidge was !
short handed and had joined to escape .
walking the plank. They said they
would have hard work to get clear /"
taken. The others We're tired of t