Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-12-17
TIE MARRIAGE OF
'CAPTAINKETTLE ~
4 ROlnaDCe0fheSe Sea
BY CUTcLIFFE HYNE
CHAPTER X.-(Continued.)


sailors into a squad of infantry said
the little captain. 81 don't see that it
would make me any the happier to
have you taught soldiers drill. But
you've got to. learn to shoot off those
guns without shutting your eyes; and
II you can learn to hit target, so
much the better. Bo's'n, get up a
thousand rounds of cartridges, and
make fast twenty-five fathoms Of line
on to the case when you have emptied
It, and tow it astern. don't suppose
any Of you men will hit it, except by
accident; but the spouts in the water
will be much better practice for you
will show you where your shots 90
and firing at bobbing target like that
than blazing at a fixed mark on
steady beach. 1t may occur to those
among you who've got thinking ma
chimes that man, when he's being
shot at, doesn't always keep quite
still The main point I want you to
remember about this rife practice is,
don't hurry. Fourteen shots that miss
don't do near as much damage as one
that's well thought out and plugs the
other party in the liver. That's a
military fact"
Captain Owen Kettle, at that period
OF his career, was not in any way
learned in the art of war. But at the
same time one Is forced to admit that
he had fine natural instinct for it.
To be sure, he was hampered by no
text book knowledge of pipe-clayed
military science, but out of his inner
consciousness he evolved q scheme,
and, as 1t subsequently proved so
eminently successful for irregular
warfare, 1t may be here commended.
In a few words, 1t may be described
thus: First catch your man, and
take care he Is not in a state Of pros
perity; work him and handle him till
he Is as hard as nut, quick as flash,
and bold as bull terrier; and then
teach him to shoot and take cover.
Leading will do the rest"
The letter from Sir Georges cousin,
Harley street who had gone astray,
on which the plan of the whole expedi-
ton was built, though excellent in
many details, was weak where 1t
touched on the exact art of nautical
astronomy.
The admiralty charts, also, of the
whole of the West African seaboard
are VIGOROUSLY defective, and those
of that section of the coast which just
then interested Sir George Chester
man and his skipper were worse than
this-they were imaginative. They
marked reefs where there was none,
islets where the sea swells swept I'M
checked, and deep waters to which
ominous breakers gave the open lie.
Once, good five miles out from the
rolling dunes of the beach, the Wang
aroo stopped suddenly in her steady
eight-knot gait, shivered a little, and
then went on; and Captain Kettle
shivered also when he thought how
near he had come to casting away his
first command.
Henceforth the steamer kept an
offing where the depth of water was
beyond suspicion, and crows nests
were rugged whaler fashion at the
mastheads, in which the hands took it
in turn to be seasick, and to search the
shore-line with strong binoculars.
Even then they missed the object Of
their search on the first run down the
coast, but when they had passed the
southern limit of possibility, the
Wangaroo turned north again to re-
peat doggedly the hunt with more
thoroughness, and at slower pace.
This time, when an atom Of doubt
rested on the exact position of the
shore-line, a boat was manned and
sent away to explore it at closer range,
and the jottings on the chart which
afterward forward by Sir George
Chesterman to the proper quarters,
form today very useful addition to
the worlds knowledge of photography.
That northwest coast of Africa had
by no means the smooth shore-line the
authorized sea maps would have led
them to believe. 1t swung out into
CULTS and bays, and was incrusted
with islets; here, the mouth OF dead
river that had once (perhaps no furth-
er back than Roman days. flowed
from the Sahara country. showed a
silted lagoon dry at half-ebb; there,
sand-polished rocks and scour of cur.
rent had made q deep-water harbor, in
which navy might moor
For miles the coast would show
nothing but barren rock and roasting
sand; then few lean palms would
straggle across the crest of the dunes;
and once in way, in the mouth of
some wady that carried a trickle of
moisture, there would be q genuine
patch Of good dense tropical bush.
But on the whole, the coast-line and
it's islets were for mile after mile
sterile and uninviting, and for big
ore steamer to be tucked away there
in hiding seemed to be thing i'm.
possible.
Twice indeed there were loud cries
of, There she Isl" and consequent ex-
citement. But the first, on nearer in
spection, proved to be the shell of a
wrecked iron sailing ship, a ruin that
had been grilled there by twenty years
of outrageous sun; and the cause OF
the second alarm showed itself on ex.
animation to be no ship at all, but an
outcrop of red hematite rock fashioned
presumably by satan for their irrita-
ton and annoyance.
'This," said Sir George, tanning
himself under an awning, "isn't nearly
as amusing as l expected" He and
his black retriever had been off in the
boat on the lure Of the iron outcrop,,
o1d TIM ,,oir ~ fhov, hod hoo,, - - IL,