The Elbert County tribune., 1913-04-04


@ Hayes, the Australian bush shell.
tered the notorious Captain Star.
light and Tasmania In the seventies was the
theater for the exploits of Coventry strtke-a.
Light. but 1t is doubtful II either of those wor.
thies at their best worst had anything on
the bright particular star of the Indian Ocean
Red Saunders
To have known Saunders was a liberal e.uca-
ton, and when \ turn of Dame Fortunes wheel
pltcned me out on the beach at Maize and into
his company, the tickle old lady unwittingly did
me a service not to be too highly esteemed
Ihere is only one place in the little town that
sailor is likely to bring up in-Francois' Ma
hogany Bar" and like everybody else had hung
around that rum ranch until money was as
scarce as frogs feathers. l was trying to figure
out my next move when Red Saunders hove in
sight.
The barkeep, I suppose on the same principle
that leads sawbones to give poor devil
dose OF dope preparatory to abbreviatng his
Longitude by a leg, set bottle of liquid tin
tacks up for me. with the kind ntimation to
have one on the house and clear to blazes o.t
or here, and my outlook seemed about as bright
as the soul of Chinaman, when a red-topped
giant, six feet six by about four feet BEAM rolled
in through the door and strode up to the bar
Barkeep, where in Tophet are all the hugger-
muggers today?" he growled in voice like
MaunaLoa in eruption.
Suds" briefly indicated my now improbable
carcass and shrugged his shoulders, remarking
that business bad or even l should have
been on my way before now.
Solitude will breed strange comradeship any
where, and having nothing else to nail his at
tention Saunders took good look and
showed the "tacks" my way again, saying as he
let go the bottle
You don't seem dazzling with diamonds,
matey, but maybe you can shoot the gun, so take
another pearler's peg and -;eep company for
SPELL"
We took vitrio over to a table and stretch
ed legs. giving and receiving the news of the
beach, while was debating in my mind whether
1t would be worth while for me to broach to this
copper-nobbed stranger the scheme that had kept
awake nights for months. Though gossip and
rumor had made Saunders familiar to everybody
on the beach. the man had never crossed my
bows until ten minutes before and what or who
he was little Willie could not have guessed Pre-
vious to his entry there had been nothing on my
horizon. and he certainly a sociable sort of
brute; so putting all my trade in bottom,
opened out and laid my dream out for Red to
pass Said I:
You look like blue-water man, none bluer.
and, If you find the hooker can lead you to
the place where mnted mogus lying, not too
far down for number diver to get at; but
I'm cleaned out busted to blazes, and can't even
subscribe to the tucker bill. I'm all in, but this
yarns straight stun; if you're looking for fut-
ter. here's chance What dye say?"
/ was keenly aware of cold steely drive
through and through from a gimlet eye before
that mighty voice rumbled forth:
Show your goods perish your pelt! That gun
is too easy to pass If you've got rocks at bot
tOm I've got a nttle schooner out IN the pay
right now; she's ready for any trip from niger
stealing to pearlpoaching, and can be handled by
two sailormen; but give us the yarn and give 1t
straight. by the peak of perdtion I'll haze you
for trying to throw the bull at Red Saunders!
Here, Francois, give that bottle fair wind, and
leave it here"
Back in 1875" began "the clipper ship
Strathmore, outward bound for Otago New Zea-
land. piled up the Crozets, and when she went
up had fifty odd people aboard, all coionists. and
all carrying their entire worldly capital in the
ships strong box The amount Of cash aboard.
including a sum for payment of government sal
aries somewhere around twenty thousand
pounds sterling. one hundred thousand If you
want 1t in dollars.
The people taken of after more than
six months of misery, but the stun is still there
and l think be got by diver. The spot is
well laid down and can take you there. How's
it strike you, capn"
Red took his seeond-mate's nip at gulp and
gripped my the arm growing like a south
erly buster:
See here young fellow-my-lad, I've got
streak of intelligence in today. and it seems
to me that you are sailing straight Anyway,
like the cut of your phiz. and as I've got nothing
better hand I'm going to take you up on that
Strathmore job, and we'll get our hook this same
ruddy p m. I'll stand the stores and put my
boat in it; you'll take there and wen go alone,
share and share fifty and fifty; and you'd bet
ter be sure you're sailing straight for I'm
ugly blighter when find I'm being blstersd!"
That settled the hash far as was con-
cerned; / had dunnage to stow, and Red sim
ply yanked out of the bar and down to the
beach where his boat lying. telling me to
row out to a little black schooner in the road
stead and cast off the stops while he went up to
the town to get barrel of beef and some small
stores.
The little vessel / boarded certainly
beauty-reguar yacht in lines and deck fittings.
When we'll under way and heading for the
east coast of Madagascar, we arranged to keep
watch and watch. and each to call the other II
the schooner got out Of hand but after Red
showed me how the little hooker would lay her
course with the wheel in beckett had no
oualms as to the necessity for more hands. and