Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1917-08-01
Found the Body of a Dead Japanese.

Found the Body of Dead Japanese.
cifully anonymous. For he had been
severely manhandled before ironed and
imprisoned.
Now he had knowledge neither of
his whereabouts-save that he was not
far from bilge-or of how long he had
lain there insensible.
Vaguely he apprehended that the
ship was once more under steam. But
be suffered too much to reason from
this that the fog must have lifted. :.
1t was, in fact, only just lifting at
that sunset hour. And as the evening
breeze gained strength and swept clear
the face of the sea. it showed those
on the Sandals bridge the slender,
graceful, white shape of a Naval Re
serve cutter standing between her and
the open sea.
Aboard the cutter Patria Claiming
indicated the freighter with a trem-
bling hand.
A moment later a two-pounder spoke
from the cutters deck, and its shot
dropped neatly beneath the Sandals
bows.
Now the freighter had drlfted almost
dangerously near inshore during that
afternoon of fog; while the cutter was
still well out. She would need several
minutes in which to lay her boats
alongside the Japanese-mOre minutes
/ by several than the Japanese would
require in which to land her own boats
on the nearby, lowlying shore. And
the crew Of the freighter, no more than
her passengers, desired to become pris,
| oners of the United States government,
There followed. consequently. some
thing of a scramble aboard the Sandal.
But her boats We're launched quickly
and in sailorly fashion, and were actu-
ally headed shoreward and pulling fast
] by the time the cutters We're wei
started toward their destination.
But before the japanese abandoned
the freighter, Donald Parr was briefly
entertained by a fugitive caller.
a manhole above his head was sud
| denly opened. An active little officer
slipped down the iron ladder to the
plates whereOn the American rested.
| Without noticing Parr in any way, the
officer moved off into the gloom, and
for moment was busy in some mys-
| terious fashion. He reappeared, pur.
sued by a noise of gushing water,
swarmed briskly up the ladder, re-
closed the manhole.
! Parr moved uneasily in his irons
| Cold water was swiftly enveloping his
body in a pool. Then abruptly he I'M
derstoOd, and with desperate effort got
upon his feet. His tongue clave to the
roof of his mouth and his heart was
like a mad thing in his breast.
For the sea-cOcks had been opened
to scuttle the ship-and he was penned
in there to die by drowning in the
dark
When the Naval Reserve men opened
the manhole, they found Parr clinging
with his manacled hands to the upper
rungs of the ladder, his head barely
out of water.
/ But he wasn't long about regaining
his poise. when they bore him up to
Patria on the deck. Under the influ-
ence of that surprise he was even able
to muster a Pickering smile when the
! lieutenant in command of the board
ing party laughingly explained that his
life had never been in real danger,
since the japanese had tried to scuttle
the Sandal at a point 80 shoal that she
could not have sunk or even have
filed beyond the point the waters had
reached when Parr was rescued.
As for the treasure, that
was saved without any loss what.
! soever.
(END OF THIRD EPISODE)