The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-01-30
had failed to bring down the night Of


the raid upon the eocoanut grovel
At sight Of me it relinquished its
hold upon the wheel and sprang at
me, barring its teeth In sudden rage.
Whipping out my pistol, began to fire
and back away and brought it down
with a shot in its gaping mouth just
as it was reaching out Its horrible
corded arms to seize me. AS 1t col
lapsed with a gasping shudder at my
very feet sprang backward from sheer
repulsion and In doing SO fell into the
lagoon through a hole in the railing
that the thick branch Of tree had
carried away
Not till then did the full Significance
of what had TRANSFERRED dawn upon
me. Crew there was none, but apes
from the surrounding trees and the
two rusty hulks that had so puzzled
me and that now lay on either side
came swarming upon the steamer
till they covered everything -winches,
forecastle head, the empty davits, the
spare anchors, the very rigging with
gray, writhing mass that struggled
and fought and screamed In wild
rush for the cocoanuts, which could
easily be reached through the main
hatch, left open to prevent overheating
Swimming round to the rudder, now
completely out Of water above the mad
" racing screw, climbed up beyond
the reach of sharks and listened to
the appalling pandemonium till the
last cocoanut must have been removed
from the hold, when the brutes grad
ually dispersed through the forest.
Afraid to venture back on deck
at daylight | mounted a piece Of the
round house that had been swept over
board and made my way on the in
coming tide up the channel which led
to the plantation. On the edge Of the
grove / paused In incredulous wonder,
and then the truth came home to me
Under a fierce attack of the apes the
wire fence had at last given way
and the cocoanut grove was In ruins
Shacklefords bungalow found in a
state of pillage SO complete that only
the four upright posts remained, and
the filmsy huts occupied by the Chi
nese laborers were scattered about as
If struck by typhoon-
Not far from the ruins. l found
Shackleford's beautifully stained meer-
schaum pipe trampled into the earth
by a host Of passing feet, and protrud-
ing from under tattered cocoanut
leaf was a Chinaman's cue, streaked
with gray, but no, Celestial at the sew.
cred end. Prepared for the worst, !
was Fastening down the newly beaten
path toward the jungle when groan
to my left attracted my attention, and,
rushing over. I found Shackleford and
bis Cinnamon neatly trapped under the
barbed wire fence.
you see,' Shaekleford explained
when had pried up the edge of the
deadly netting, which they were IN
able to raise with their bare hands be
cause of the inch long barbs, I'VE were
poking the bally brutes off the fence
with sharpened bamboos and having
no end of fun when their weight
doubled the whole thing over and shut
us into as fine little fort as a fellow
could wish for. Ha, hap
Shackleford, followed by score of
bedraggled Cinnamon, crawled out
stifly from his Involuntary but lucky
imprisonment and looked ruefully at
his blood spattered clothes "They rip
ped and tore at the netting like a lot
of mad devils" he continued. and the
blood from their lacerated feet came
through on US like a shower Of warm
rain, but none of us was hurt except
All Cong over there. He was a bit
careless and let his pigtail stick out.
through the netting. Lucky thing i
had a knife. you sour old heathent'
turning to a grizzIed Chinaman whose
cue had been severed close to his head
"or that big, ape that got hold of the
end Of it would have pulled it out by
the roots" And Shackleford laughed
uproariously as he reached for his pipe,
examined the coloring with the eye Of
a connoisseur and then began to dig
the dirt out of the bowl "But / don't
understand what made the brutes all
quit and go tearing away toward the
bay" he added thoughtfully as he
opened his tobacco pouch.
For answer I led him down to the
third derelict and showed him the emp
~ hold.