The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-01-26
SIXTEENTH EPISODE
A Modern Pirate

People who raise children are SURE
of a life of surprises. They would
have more than they get If they could
see everything that goes On.
Pierpont Stafford had been KEEP
pretty well surprised of late by his
daughters actions. In his haste he
had said that she was probably ION
that canal barge in the river" he
did not expect to be taken seriously
by the fates. But there his daughter
was, at least on another barge, miles
farther up the stream but drifting
downward. She was in command of
the ship, at the tiller, trying to steer
the bulky hulk.
When Gloria saw that the captain
of the tug had noticed the slight de-
tail of the parted hawser and the lost
convoy she was vexed. When she saw
the tugboat turning around to recap
ture the barge she felt that it would
be hard to explain about the prisoners
she had fastened down in the cabin.
thing for a passenger to tie up cap
tain, crew and cook, and change the
course of the ship. She believed that
people who did that were usually hung
from the yardstick or something. She
hoped that the old barge did not have
such a thing on board.
The nearer the tug came the louder
the pilot and the crew yelled at her
and the less Gloria wanted to meet
them. She had never met any tugmen
| and she felt no ambition to get into
their social set. 1t was growing so
dark by now that they could not see
who was at the tiiler, and they kept
calling her: ''Trask" or "Oh, Jed!'
At length Gloria decided that she
was not needed any longer. She had
noted a little boat bobbing along
after the barge and she felt that she
might as well capture that. 1t was
more nearly her size. She would be
safer alone on a skif than on the
barge when the tuginen released that
fiend of a Trask. He had planned to
kill her before she tied him up. He
would certainly do no less now that he
had escaped. Jed had evidently picked
himself up from the rocking-chair trap.
united Trask and unmufied Nell. The
three had been pounding and bowling
for some time. The hatch held for a
while, but they were going at it now
with something as heavy as a batter
ing ram. 1t would yield soon surely
and hen where would she be?
She ran to the edge of the barge and
hauled in on the painter attached to
the little boat. The barge was swish
ing in the tide and it was trying to
run over the skiff. But Gloria had no
other avenue of escape. She hung
across h edge of the barge and
dropped into the skiff. Her aim was
not very accurate and the river nearly
got her. But she sat down quickly
and steadied herself and the boat. She
began to ply the oars with great eager
ness, but little progress.
At length she noticed that she had
forgotten to cast off. She ran to the
DOW and had to unite the painter. The
vet knots were torture to her delicate
lands, but at last she was free and the
,Oat fell away from the barge. The
liver was dark and menacing. and its
'urrent was like some invisible gent
the skin away to its lair.
still, when Gloria saw the tug come
lOngside the barge and make fast,
nd saw Trask, Jed and Nell dash UP
companionway and meet the tug
ands on the deck, she felt hat the
urrent would be kinder to her than
he men would have been.
What explanation Trask and Jed
lade she could not imagine. Evidently
was not a good one, for the crew ,
the tugboat gesticulated violently ,
nd 1t looked as if there would be a J
ig fight. Gloria hoped hat they all .
throw n another overheard. ,
The tugboat crew went back to their q
Trask ran back to stare at f
lOria. He shook his fist at her and r
lie rowed faster. But the barge p
owed northward, following the puff h
ng tug. f
Gloria breathed a sigh of relief at t
ar escape. Then she realized that "
all Trask had also escaped. She o
as so angry at this cancellation of
ar success that she started to row v
Ick after the barge. What she would D
i've lone had she overtaken it she did q
It stop to think. The current pre- h
nted the possibility of knowing. The n
udson streaming ipto the sea carried s,
oria with it in spite of all her eff W
rts at the oars. She gave up at fl
lgth and devoted all her energies it
rowing ashore. The nearer shore
is the farther from her, because a al
nding on the west bank would com r
| a lengthy roundabout to fetch her III
her home on the east bank. hi
She rowed for the New York shore an
d crept toward it slowly, though the tn
at turned southerly SO fast that she be
ared to be swept on down to the