The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1919-08-29
CHAPTER u.

Tho Narrative Of Henry p. Tobias,
ek-Pirate, as Dictated on His Death
bed, in the Year Of Our Lord 1859.
The good John had scarcely made
his ~leisurely. distinguished appearance
at his desk On the morrow when l too
entered by n door and Charlie Web
ster by the other.
Nov for the document" we both
exclaimed in q breath.
Here 1t is" he said, taking up a
rather grimy-looking roll of foolscap
from in front Of him. which, as he
pointed out, was evidently the work
OF a person of very little education,
and began to read as follows:
County OF Travas, State of Texas,
December 1853.
Feeling my end is near. I make the fol-
lowing statement of my own free will and
without solicitation. In full exercise Of all
my faculties, and feel that l am doing my
duty by SO doing.
l was born in the city of Liverpool, Eng
land Con the 9Th day OF December 1885,.
My father was a seaman and when l was
young ! followed the same occupation.
And 1t happened, that when, on a passage
from Spain to the West Indies. our ship
wa attacked by f~ree-traderS, as they
called themselves, but they were pirates.
We all did our best. but were over
powered, and the whole crew. excep,
three, were killed. I was one Of the three
they did not kill. They carried us on
board their ship I'M kept us until next
day when they asked US to Join them.
They tried to get US to join them willing
~, but we would not, when they became
enraged and loaded three cannon ana
dashed each one Of us before the mouth
NJ oqCh CannOn md fo1H IN - %olo n,~
choice to join them. as they would touch
the guns and that damn quick. 1t is USE
less to say we accepted. everything before
DEATH, SO We came one OF the pirates
crew. Both of my companions were killed
In less time than six months, but l was
with them for more than two years, In
which TIM We collected q vast quantity
OF money from different ships we captured
and we buried a great amount in two
different lots. / helped to bury 1t with
my own hands. The location Of which 1t
ID my purpose to point out, 30 that 1t can
be found without trouble In the Bahama
islands. After I had been with them for
more than two years. we were attacked
by . large warship and our commander
told us to tight for our lives, as 1t would
be death II we were taken. But the guns
of our ship were too small for the war
ship. % our ship soon began to sink.
when the man-Of-war ran alongside Of our
vessels and tried to board 10, but we were
sinking too fast, 20 she had to haul OF
again. when our vessel sank with every
thing on board. and ! escaped by swim
ming under the stern Of tho ship, as ours
sank. without being seen, and holding on
to the ship until dark, when I swan to q
portion Of the wrecked vessel floating not
far away. And on that I noated. The
next morning the ship was not seen. /
was picked up by . passing vessel the
next day AZ a shipwrecked seaman.
And let me say here. I know that no
n escaped alive from our vessel except
myseff and o that were taken by the
man-of-war And those were all executed
- pirates-so ] know that no other man
It u be and IL where we buried 1t until
today and unless you get It through this
statement It will remain there always and
do no one any good.
Therefore, It Is your duty to trace It up !
and get It for your WI benefit, as well as |
others. 30 delay not, but act as soon 40
possible.
/ will now describe the places, ,ocations,
marks. ETC.. ETC.. 20 plainly that It can be
found, without any trouble.
The frst is q sum of one million and q
half dollars q. 100000
At this point John paused. We all
took a long breath. and Charlie Web
ster gave q soft whistle and smacked
his lips.
"A million and a half dollars. What
no! !"
Then ], happening to cast my eye
through the open door. caught sight
OF Q face gnxing through the ironwork
OF the outer ONCE with q fixed and
glittering expression. . face anything
but prepossesslng, the face Of d halt
breed, deeply pockmarked. with q
coarse hook NOSE and evil-loOking eyes,
unnAturally close together. II was
evident from his expression that he
had not missed q word OF the reading.
There Is someone h the outer Of
nee" ! said, and John rose and went
ont.