The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-04

According to the refugees a rebe
were among the victims of his orders.
| been sent to punish the rebels.
.ss.....su.s.s..s......s
Captain Nathan been familiar with the
lip alphabet, he would have been able to
hear him:
In sun an shade our horrid trade
We follers night an day.
To make folks croak we think a joke
We murders while we may.
Some men delight in lilywhite
And see-dentary lives;
But loot an kill we allus will
While one O. us survives
We risks TIL moose. but wots tn use
O. swingin till ye're swung?
They does tn trick so neat an quick
Ye hardly know ye're hung.
TO die in bed, when all is said.
Is ladyike an tame.
II lacks tn fun o bein one
As dies eXceedin' game:
Our sharpened steel we likes to feel
A-carvin' human
"Avast tn ditty, Bald head said the
Cap'n's a-wrlgglin' of his starbord ear
an il amt no use teilin' tn poor cuss
wot's a-comin' till we hists TIL rover
Sharpened Cutlass on Feet
AN wot'sth' matter o histin ole Skull
an Bones to once, Whisker?' queried a
tall wickedlY handsome fellow who's
long, graceful yellow mustaches had becn
tucked over his ears to keep them out OF
| harms way as he sat with six Others
under the weather bulwarks, all more or
! less naked, busily sharpening cutlasses
on the soes of their bare, leathery feet
| He tried the edge of his cutlass on his
hairy forearm, and smiled with cruel sat
! fsfaction to find it almost sharp enough
| to shave with.
"Th' matter O. that, Yaller Mutaches,"
said Red Whskers, decisively, lis as here
be two pooty vessels a-eomin together
an we wants to git both on en- And
he again waved his hand to the threat
ened Susan Mary with hypocritical friend
| liness.
Behind the bulwarks. safely hidden from
Captain Nathans telescope, the seven
/ men grinned at one another with horr;-
BILE understanding. The helmsman stopped
singing, but he continued to. hum, and
as the seven blade sharpeners hummed
in chorus the effect was curiously and
! hideously beeish. Every now and then
they paused and dipped. bee-like, into
! pannikin of rum that went from one TO
another and even if their occupation had
not betrayed them. the untamed crlml,
nality of their hard baked faces, had
the captain seen them, would have left
no possible doubt of their character.
Preparations for Struggle
"Pirates it be, Mr.. Tarr." said Captain
Gill to his mate IAN they're on that
schooner. But eff they think Cap'n Ma
than Gill is easy looted, they're off Their
rec5onin' I've fit 'em with guns an
now-God bless my soul!-I'n fight 'em
with glue an bilin' water! Have tn men
heave up a hogshead o tn e Pluribls
Jnum, Mr. Tarr. an spread tn sucky
stuff over th' deck just back o tn wash
biler, hitch tn fire hose to tn biler, man
the pump an bring me tn nozzle.
Half an hour ran rapidly into eter-
nifty. The schooner was on them, It's
bow alve with bandaged heads, neiar-
iously expectant faces and teeth grlpped
cutlases and above this awful eXhlblt
the captain wished that Mr. Silas
Pettigrew might be there to see it,
a black ball climbed the mast and un-
folded it's grinning deaths head with
a flippety- flp-flap flip that sounded
like demonaic litter. Everybody, such
is the power of imagination and sug-
gestion' smelt pirates; everybody if
the noise they made could be called
music) heard them singing:
'erhe good ole man. he walks tn
plank
His step is firm but slow,
Ho boys, no!
He hits tn ocean"
'Pump!.iw roared Captain Nathan,
and leveled the nozzle.
The ships ground together, and Red
Whisker, always first in any desperate
hIlIN
Captain Nathan got him in mida1r and
he landed back again, upside down
and cursing defiantly, on his own ves-
sci.
Only One Got Aboard
/ Passing him like living oath, che
bald -headed pirate lodged the hose and
was over the bulwarks. He landed IKE
the first raindrop of summer shoWeF'
only considerably harder and at the
same instant. like speech and motloh
in the latest improved photoplay, q
cannon doomed unexpectedly aboard
the Susan Mary. Quickly as 1T mad
made the attack, the pirate schooner
/ dropped astern and Captain Gill wasted
hot water on the China sea as IL wld-
| ened between them-
The side OF the merchantmen, now
well within gunshot, had opened In u
dozen portholes through which a dozen
/ guns spoke viciously. The schooner
/ fled II. NJ S. Spitfire, disguised as
a peaceful merchantmen for thls very
purpose of fooling pirates, pursued her
vindictively And from the deck OF the
| Susan Mary arose a plaintive stream OF
! lindescribable profanity.
Just inside the bulwarks the bald
headed pirate sat on the tenacious deck
and tried in vain to get up-very much
like an enormous fly on the sticky
flypaper which had not yet been IN
vented. Now he lifted foot, but there
remained always a larger surface d.
rectly under him--and to detach that 1T
was necessary to put back both hand
and foot again. Unstieking himself was
hopeless business, and yet he stuck
to it.
All the time he, talked to himself bit
terly tthe cutlas that he still gripped
in his teeth giving a sharper edge to
what he was sayingk without paying
the slightest attentionfo whoever was
looking at him. And AL the time his
evil associates, who v4y likely had
not yet missed him, led the spitfire far
ther and farther from he\Susan Mary.