The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1916-04-05
A Sea Yarn
BY JOHN Y. LARNED

oid salts. the youngest of whom was
over seventy. were summing themselves
when one said to another:
Bill. how did y git that scar on
yer foreheady'
1 didn't suffer from the wound that
lett that scar nothing like the man that
give 1t to me. Thar's a yarn about that
scar"
Spin it,
W hen | was young Teller more N
n1ty year ago. l shipped in a brigan-
tine for China voyage. We had bad
iuck Tor weather. the cap'n got sick,
and when we got to Hongkong he
died. The owners decided to sell the
snip and the crew was discharged, TO
snlIt Tor themselves. 1t was starya-
tlon FOR us or findin' some sort o. berth.
Me and Jim Hughes and Tom Hawkins
round berth with an American who
was maxim up crew for a small
schooner rugged vessel to trade between
China and Japan, and signed one even
IN In a sailors boardin' house without
even SEEM the ship or the rest O. the
crew. | dsln't want to sign them ar
tlcles, but Tom said we coulint help
ourselves. The cut O. the cap'n's lib
didn't suit me at ALL There was some
tnln wicked in his eye, and | was
afeared he'd be tyrannical
lie TUX us aboard at night and put
us In our hunks. tellin us to rest our
selves, for we wouldn't be needed till
mornin'. This looked mighty kind of
him. but when mornin came we saw
what it meant. We'd sailed durin' the
night and was out o. sight O. land.
When we went on deck there was the
worst cutthroat crew y ever see, made
up of Malays. Cinnamon, Japs and ev-
cry other copper colored devil in that
hemisphere
The capn didn't make no bones
about 1t. He said the ship was a pi-
rate, and what he wanted of us was
a first and second mate. seem there
ant no intelligence in the crew for
SIGH purpose. He give us our choice
to take the places or walk the plank.
In course we took the places, for while
we was alive there was hope of gettin'
away. and if we was dead that end
ed it,
The capn told the crew that Tom
and | understood navigation and was
competent sailors SO he had the crew
back of him. We knowed that on the
fust sign o 1nutiny we'd be cut down.
and we didn't show no SIGH sign. The
wust thing about it was that white
man was in command of yellow dew
lis and had forced two other white
men to be his officers
The fust ship we TUX | managed
to communicate with the captured crew
ana led EN- down to where arms was
stored. Then we all turned on the
cutthroats that rushed after us and,
a-hghtin for every inch. slowly drove
EN- back on deck, and by this time
they'd got SO thinned and demoralized
that they begun to try to lower the
boats and git away. Some OF em did.
but the balance we either finished on
the deck or they went over the side to
drown
"Durin' the fight the cap'n made for
me with cutlass and give me the
blow that left that scar. He was run
through the vitals by Tom Hawkins
and lived about six hours. Known
that he was goin' to die big change
came over him. He realized what he'd
been donna white man runnin a lot
o cutthroats. I've committed an un.
pardonable SIM he says, and I'm ago
in to suffer for it forever. You kin
pitch me into the brine, but l won't rest
there. oh. for a grave on the coast
o New England where / was born
and was respected, 1t was a desire to
go back there rich that led me to hoist
the skull and bones. My old mother
lives there now, and If she knowed
what I'd done
His voice died out by this time. and
purity soon there was a gurgle in his
throat, and he was dead We chucked
him overheard, and that was the end
o him for this world
"HoWSomever, | don't know whether
it was or whether it wasn't. What |
do know is this: Five years after all
this happened | was on a coaster and
one evenin' was lookout while roundin'
Cape Cod. 1t was between daylight
and dark, and there was thin mist.
I'd been without much sleep for a
couple o nights in bad weather and
was trifie drowsy. l nodded between
sleepin and wakin, and on openin' my
blinkers there down in the water off
the port bow. was a boat with a lego
mutton sail and man at the tiller.
There wasn't enough wind to stir the
mist, but the sail was full
But the man sailin' her. He looked
up at me, aud if l hadn't been held by
canvas Id fell down on to the leck
He was the cap'n O the pirate we'd
chucked overheard in the Indian ocean
five years before
Il never seen such awful sufferin on
any face, He didn't move his lips. He
list kept them turrable eyes on me
turnin' his head as we passed till he
disappeared in the mist astern.
Then | remembered when he was