The daily Alaskan., 1915-04-05

tage over us In numbers, while they were at disadvantage as to position, for it is not an easy matter to board a vessel from boat much lower than the ship to be boarded. Unfortunately we were at some distance from the shore or any other vessel. One or two ships had been near us when We an chOred, but they had sailed or docked Turing the day.
 While l could not tell who these men were, l presumed that they were Ital- ians who had heard the crew talking In Naples about the treasure in the ship. Quite likely some members of the crew had been heard talking about the practicability of boarding the Peli- can, seizing the gold and making off with It. There was TO time to con- lecture who they were. Our main business was to stand them off.
 The captain and the purser were ig- norant of what had appeared to me, and since l had no time to enter into an explanation in words I decided to do so by shot. put ball in among the men huddled together In the boat. That l hit some person or persons was evident from the fact that there was q commOtiOn aboard. But the rowing was not long intcrfered with. A jab- bering in the Italian language follow ed, but they did not reply to my fire. l attributed this to their having in- tended a surprise and that they had not expected to attract the attention of the police by the sound of firing.
 My companions were by this time convinced by ocular demonstration that there was mischief in the boat near us, and both blazed away. But the boat was under the bulwarks, and We were obliged to lean over to see her. We heard one clear, composed voice, evidently that of commander giving orders, but since we did not un- dcrStand the Italian language we were ignorant of what he said. This con- vlnccd me that we were attacked by a party of hrigands under q competent leader and would all be murdered un- less we could drive them off.
 The Prlican's crew had gone down into their boat by means of the wood- GU steps rJpod together, used for talk ing on and letting off pilots and such other purposes. !t wRs hanging ready for them when they should return. would have pulled it up on seeing a suspicious uoal approaching, but had not time. The brigandS began to climb it. Captain Wainright claimed the DO. SitiOn to receive the first man who came up. The bandit must use his two bands and could not very well fight his way on to the ship, but he was protected hy a man in the boat, who threw a knife at tie captain, which struck him in the chest. pushed him away and took his place. A knife whiZZed hy my ear so close as to clip off enough of 1t 10 draw blood, but succeeded in landing blow on the head of the top man on the ladder with the butt of my revolver that dropped him.
 His fall diSc0nccrtcd the man be- low him. aud before he could reach the top Step the pUrscr brought a cutlass down on him which sent him after his companion.
 Meanwhile { had noticed man be- low take to the water and swim to- ward the stern. 1 surmised that he was making for tue anchor chain to climb on board. Captain Wainright had pulled the knife out of his chest, and, thinking he might he able to pro tect the bow from the swimmer, sug. gcStcd that he do so, leaving me and the purser where the principal danger lay. WainriEht SIid that he was up to the job and started forward with a muskct. stanching the blood flowing from his chest at the same time. He was not seen by the man in the water, who seized the anchor chain and was beginning t0 shin up it when the cap tain dropped him by shot from his muSkct
 Meanwhile the purser and l were fighting at the steps to keep off board. CTS. We were somewhat protected by the bulwarkS from those in the boat and after the captains mishap kept as well below as possible. But believed the battle would at last go against us when l thought of Way to cut off the ascent I told the purser to bring an 7x, while I fought on. He did so, and when he returned I cut the ropes that held the steps. There were three men on them at the time, all of whom tum- bled into the boat or the water.
 Hearing the sound of oars, looked and saw another boat rapidly ap- preaching. That it did not contain re- achievements for the bandits was evl- dent from the fact that they pushed off and pulled away as East as they could. They were chased by the other boat and were fired at, As the latter passed near the Pelican could see in the moonlight that the men in 1t wore the showy uniforms of the Carabineers, or national police of Italy. We watch ed them till we saw them overhaul the