Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-07-11

Il tell you what you do. captain
continued Jenkins. TOW it,
The captain looked relieved He told
the purSer to take down a list Of the
articles in the box from the owner.
with their values. so that in case the
box were lost the amount of claim
would be limited But he did not
want to have this done before getting
rid of the box. He directed one of the
crew to carry it to the upper deck,
where the lifehoats were swung on
the davits, and put it in one Of the
lockers intended for provisions. wedg-
ing 1t so that it would not slide about
with the motion OF the waves. This
was done. The boat was lowered, a
cable attached to her bow. and she
was suffered to drift hundred yards
astern.
While this was being done the cap
tain gave orders that what was in
the boat. or rather what was supposed
to be in the boat. be confined to those
who were in the baggage room when
the matter was discussed. He did not
consider that bomb n hundred yards
away from the ship could endanger
her.
The Tartaric sighted Fire island on
the fourth day out. She was twelve
knots east of Montauk point just before
daylight on the morning of the fifth
day. A man stood on the after deck Of
the ship. where the cable that towed
the lifeboat was attached. He tied
loosely to the rope pair of oars, which
d,iff od 10 hn no
fixed to the rope a clutch with handles
like those of pair of timers shears.
Grasping the handles. he swung him
self off the stern and let himself down
slowly till he reached the water. The
pressure against him exerted by the
Roadway of the ship was so great that
he would not have been able to main
tain his hold had it not been for this
clutch. By its use he let himself be
slowly forced backward till he reached
the lifeboat and pulled himself up by
the cable on to its bow.
Once in the boat he cast an eye to
the westward, where shone a light,
which he recognized as one on Mon
tauk point. Taking from the bow the
oars he had sent before him, he put
them in the boat. Then he cast OF
and was left astern. AS the dark body
of the Tartaric grew darker in the dis
lance he smiled and raised his hat to
her.
"Goodby. my friends" he said. II
think 1 can now get on without your
valuable assistance"
Taking the box from the locker in
which it had been placed, he ripped 1t
open with a screwdriver he drew from
his pocket, took out q clock, which he
threw overheard. and small package.
which he concealed in a pocket of his
flannel shirt. Then. beginning to shiver
with the cold, he took up the oars and
pulled for the light on Montauk point.
By this time a streak of gray light
appeared in the east end, in due time
the sun came up, but the man in the
boat did not need its warmth to dry
his clothes, for the heat Of his body,
kept up by the exercise of rowing, had
| already done that. He was making
| slow progress. for one man pulling on
| so large a boat could not move it rapid
| ly. However, by 8 O'Clock in the morn
| ing he was but half a dozen miles from
| the Long Island coast, and. motor
| boat passisg him, he made a bargain
with the man running her to take him
| ashore.
| Once on terra firma, leaving his boat
hauled up on q beach, he started in
land till lie came to a town, where he
hired a horse and buggy to carry him
| to the northern coast of the island.
| There he chartered q motorboat to
! take him across the sound to Saybrook,
where he boarded a Long Island east
bound train for Boston. Arriving
there in the afternoon, he purchased
clothing and, dropping into a diamond
dealers, took from his pocket the pack
age he had taken from the box sup
posed to contain the Internal machine,
unroled it and displayed dozen enor-
nous diamonds. Before leaving the
shop he sold a number of them to the
dealer and early the next morning
parted with the rest of his stock, real
izing 4 handsome profit between what
the stones had originally cost him at
the diamond mines and what he re-
ceiyed for them. He had reached the
end of a series of brilliant impostures
to defraud the customs
On the morning of the day the Tar
taric arrived I'm port an officer an
nounced to the captain that the life
boat astern was missing. The captain,
surprised. asked IL the owner of the
box had been notified. and. on being
told that he had not. steward was
sent to find him. Later the messenger
returned to say that Mr. Jenkins was
missing. The captain looked astonish-
ed: then light broke in upon his
brain.
"a smuggling dodgew he exclaimed
Keep II from the inspectors"
Befote the Tartaric sailed again her
captain had been notified that a life
boat with his ships name on the bow
was lying On beach on the eastern
end Of Long Island He gave orders to
have 1t shipped by water to New York
but asked no questions as to how 1,
came there.