The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-03-12
The Moons
Waning
.CcOpyrirht. 1917. western Newspaper UniOn.J
By ALAN HlNSDALE

completely displaced sails for long
ocean voyages, 1 was mate on a bark
rugged ship running between the Ara
bian coast and New York.
One night when we were anchored
off a small town not far soutfNof Bel
rut, the captain. fearing a mutiny,
concluded to take the crew ashore for
amusement. He left me In charge of
the ship with two men, but he had
no sooner disappeared than they took
a boat and followed him. / knew that
in their present mood / could not pre-
1t was very hot, and taking off my
clothes / sat on the deck smoking a
cigar. The moo was near the full,
but was obscured by the clouds. Pres
emily there was a break In them n
looking over the water in the direc-
ton of the land, / saw a tiny flash.
This led me to strain my eyes on the
point where l had seen IL, but l could
discover nothing except a repetition
of the flash at stated intervals OF two
or three seconds.
Had l not been familiar with the
region and the people | might have
wondered till doomsday what 1t
meant. But / knew the Arab well,
and / was not long in coming to the
conclusion that what l saw was the
glitter of the moonlight on a knife in
the grasp of one of these Arab devils
swimming hand over hand.
My first thought was to arm N.Y.
self but at once remembered that the
captain, fearing mutiny, had locked up
every weapon on the ship and had the
key with him. l confess this fright
ened me, for l was absolutely defense
less. l looked about for some sort
of club, but say nothing handy. Be-
sides, If the robber could get on the
ship without my being at his point Of
boarding he would probably pc so
agile that l could not hit him.
An Arabs clothing Is easily thrown
off, and for purposes of defense. they
keep their bodies oiled. Remembering
this, / hurried to the gallery, where l
IOultn q OONlAC VI "a doCd LII NOphAAA
and In two or three minutes had
smeared myself from head TO foot.
Then l ran on deck and concealed my
self behind a lifeboat. hoping to take
my enemy unawares.
Although my superstition that a
thief was coming was based entirely
upon seeing a succession of flashes In
the moonlight, l was correct In my
reasoning In every particulars. Pres
emily from my concealment l saw a
black object, floating without the
slightest sound on the port side of the
ship. There were no flashes, for the
mans hands were under water. In
deed, 1t was swimming hand over hand
that had betrayed him. Then / saw q
black head seemingly resting on the
gunwale. The fellow was looking over
the deck for a guard. His body next
appeared and he dropped to the deck
with no more sound than would have
been made by a cat.
There was nothing on deck for him
to steal, and / knew hat he would &c
down the companionway to look FOL
loot below. To do this he must pass
within a few yards of the boat be
hind which I was concealed.
He first satisfied himself that the
ship was deserted, then made for the
companion way. Just as he was about
to descend / jumped for him from be
hind, making 1t my principal object tc
get a hold upon his right wrist, where
/ presume he carried his knife.
jumped upon him from his right and
caught his wrist. Despite the fact
that II was oiled, I held II for a few
minutes. But I felt a blow on the
arm that held II and warm blood run
ming down above my elbow. The dag
ger was In his left hand.
I had an advantage in being be
hind him. With my chest against his
back, I had an arm on each side of him
and secured his dagger wrist with my
left hand. He had by this time freed
his right hand but before he could turn
himself to oppose me l had his right
wrist in my grasp and with my right
knuckles dealt the back Of his left
hand a blow that forced him to drop
his dagger. He made a dive to take
IL up with the hand that was free, but
before he could do so / had kicked II
into the port scuppers.
Then followed a wrestling match be-
tween two men. both Of whom were
stripped and oiled. The fight depended
on which could get the knife. For
perhaps ten minutes first one then the
other got the upper hand. We drifted
10 where the weapon lay. and l made
a grab for 1t, and seized 1t. But at
this time the thief had me under, and
before / could put the blade into him
he freed himself and In an instant was
over the gunwale and In the water.
I was so enraged at his escape that,
like a fool. / threw the knife at him.
All he had to do was to dive for 1t, re-
turn and kill me. He went down, but
luckily as he came up with the knife, I
heard the sound Of oars. The crew