The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-04-19
CRUISE OF THE
YACHT HILDA
Why Her Disappearance Re-
mains a Mystery.

Tell us about the Hilda, Brownlow.
ut isn't safe to spin that yarn. Some
OF you might get me into trouble"
promise of secrecy was made, and
the yarn was spun.
The Hilda had the newest thing in
engines, and as soon as she had been
tested her owner, Mr.. Chippindale.
started in her for a trip around the
world, with me as engineer.
"A great many people think the days
of pirates are past and gone. Don't
you believe it. Ships go out and are
never heard from-gone down in
storm; more likely their crews are
murdered and the ship is plundered
land scuttled. We'll, we were steaming
westward somewhere between Hong
kong and Manila when we met sailer
wearing British colors coming through
the water, turning the white before
her, heading right for us and signaling
us to slow down. Thinking she had
something important to communicate.
we stopped the engines and "A boatload
of men came aboard. AS soon as they
were on our deck the ship they came
from hauled down the British flag and
raised the skull and crossbones.
I'm not going over the doing away
with every man of us. That's what
keeps me from sleeping
Weren't you one Of the yachts
crew"
Sure. But l was the engineer, and
not one of the pirates could run an en-
gine. Coolidge, their captain, said TO
me: Run them engines. and so long rs
you run them right you live. When
you run them wrong
81 knew what he meant without hs
Finishing, and you bet | ran the en-
Hgines right. This was the time when
the Spanish war was coming on, and
we'd learned all about it from speak
ing an American cruiser especially
that Dewey was soon to sail from
Hongkong. Besides. all the nations
were sending men-of-war to the Phil
ippines to see fair play. Coolidge had
been lodging vessels that We're 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 n story. | told
him that couple OF hundred miles
|east of Manila we'd passed a small
steamer, capable of making eight knots
and no more, that carried express mat
ter. Coolidge suspected that a money
safe belonging to the express compa-
mics 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 were likely
to fall in with a cruiser
"Sure enough, one morning we saw
n black line on the horizon to the
northward, then another and another.
|It was Dewey's feet, but we didn't
know It.
"As luck would have it, we were
steaming across the line Of 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 the
porthole, and when she came within
sight saw a signal flying for us to
heave to. Coolidge didn't dare risk
1u llbpGCllOu anu p1lO dlltullpu "
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 l contrived to loosen
"a screw and let go a rod, then called
Gooledge and told him I'd have to stop
the engine a few minutes and tx It or
the thing would break US up. If 1
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, blunder-
ing as well as could without his see
ing me do 1t, until he called four min
utes. Then l screwed her up and
started on. ! hadn't more than done
30 when a shot went skipping before
our bows, and l made up my mind
we'd be overhauled. I heard Coolidge
come below and go into Mr.. Chippin-
dale's staterOom, which he'd apprOpri-
ated to his own use, and in few min
pies there was the report Of a pistol.
went TO the room, looked in and saw
the pirate giving his last gasp.
II hurried on deck, and there in the
distance was a 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, lev
eled It and saw the flagship Of the
feet signaling the cruiser to come in.
when it was known that the cap
tain had blown out 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 +
kaken. The others were tired OF the
business. They proposed that If
would run the yacht ashore and de-
stroy her l might go free. As there
was nothing else to do and was in