Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-03-10

..or1d md n rough one your ma II
~ t.an : sailor myself. as you know
Tor f;fty years and am glad 10 nno a
- horhor here at home. You'll nave
to 90 through some pretty narrow no'es'
ord xour getting through ct ali "iii oe
nond on your courage. your cooiness
81 yo,,r wits. / can give you way
nv vrhtch I once saved myself from
he,ne put under the table at a drinking
hout. We'd gone ashore. hoeiE
,artv was a beardless boy at the
time. and my mates. who were al oiu'
Az than I. thought 1t would be me
thing TO get me drunk. We went INTO
ON inn md called for drinks. The iand.
lord seeing their game ana oisPoseu
TO favor me on account or my youth
suppose. beckoned to me TO come ln'o
n side room and. pointing to tuin pIer
on the table, told me to drink IL Inc
stuff was olive oil. That olive OIL kept
mo sober when all the rest or the gang
one nv one slid down under the ia pie.
That's all the experience l can give
YOU. my boy. The day may come "heh
it will help you out IL some one Ii Try
ing to lay you out
If would seem that this was but
moor ouantum of experience TOT
father to give his boy, but the time dln
come when it served me well, and that
time wasn't long coming. either Any
way. il was while WAS stilPbefore the
mast. We sailed for the West Indies,
taking out a cargo Of cotton goods TO
make clothes for the negroes, and were
tn bring back dried fruits and what
ever could be bought cheap and sold
dear when we got back to England
We first struck the Bahamas, then
Haiti and lastly Jamaica. Those were
the DAYS of the buccaneers, and King
sion. Jamaica, was a rendezvous Tor
them.
One day when we We're at ahchor on
Kingston a piratical looking chap came
aboard and had long talk with our
captain. The next day he came back
with a box in the bottom Of his boat
1t wasn't more than three feet square.
but it was hoisted on deck by block
and tackle. and it took four men TO
carry il below. Considering the looks
of the man who brought it and IFS
weight, / suspected that it was full or
gold that had been looted from some
Spanish ship, TO be transferred to Eng
land.
The next day we sailed back through
the Windward passage, striking the
Atlantic to the southwark of Turks
islands and after that pointing due
north. When we We're about &c de
grees north of the equator one morn
ing we noticed a ship that carried
good deal of sail for her tonnage COM
ing out from among the Bahamas in
the neirhborhood Of San Salvador.
saw that our captain had his eye on
her. suspicious like. and every few
minutes he would bring his glass 70
bear on her After rounding San Sal
vador she pointed due north on the
course we were sailing, iut after a
few hours she seemed to be little
nearer us.
About noon the captain called the
crew aft and told us that the ship 70
the westward looked mighty suspi-
cious. True, she showed British colors,
but there were plenty of British ships
in those days that had been privateers
when the war between England and
Spain was on that didn't have 10
change much to become pirates. The
vessel was apparently sailing the same
course as we, but really point or two
toward u.s. She was between us and
the islands, and all she had to do was
TO keep getting nearer all the while till
she Joined us. If we sheered off she
would. if she was after us. sheer Off
too.
True enough, the ship kept edging
nearer to us all that afternoon. To-
ward evening the captain ordered out
every bit of canvas we had and turned
the ships nose due eastward. The 9th
err vessel turned at once TO follow us.
showing distinctly that she would over
haul us if she could. She ran up more
canvas, ard it was soon evident that
her sailing qualities were far better
than ours.
I'm not going TO describe chase.that
soon brought the ship up with us or
the fight that was sure to be a losing
one for us. because these chases and
fights are all the same. And I'm not
going to tell how the captain and most
of the crew walked the plank. watch
ing them struggling in the water.
When it came my turn an idea popped
into my head. The pirate captain,
man with a long black curly beard.
was experimenting the job, and as l
was ordered on to the plank l said:
Captain. there's a treasure aboard
the ship, but l don't believe you can
fin6 it,
A covetous look came into his face,
and he ordered me to step aside.
"I'll help you to hunt for it IL you'll
let the rest of us or" continued.
He agreed to the proposition at once.
II there was treasure aboard he
didn't care 10 drown any man who
might be able TO give him any infor
nation about It. He could continue
the plank walking after finding it. So
he ordered me and four men who had
not vet been put into the sea to be
left where we were and the plank
hauled in.
''Now. young man." he said to me.
tell me about the treasure"
told him about the box that had
been brought aboard, but since 1 had