White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1925-10-30
Hawk Of the North
CONTINUED from Last Week)
BY KENNETH GILBERT
CHAPTER XIV
In the NIqht

IN the Nl9nt
Penned up in that close, steaming
hole, we passed the hours. Once we
heard them trying to force the door
below, but apparently they decided
that we had 1t braced too strongly.
Now and then we heard the thump of
the pirates feet as the ship was
worked.
Nausea came to most of us, and
lastly l felt blessed drowsiness.
Cant be far from the Alaskan coast"
heard Captain Allen, just before
slipped into slumber. The next thing
/ knew-it must have been hours aft
erward-was tremendous shock,
which hurled me out of the fetid bunk
where had been lying; and then the
almost human grooming of timbers.
The foc'sle was pandemonium itself.
knew what had happened even be-
fore the cry Of someone:
"We've struck"
Mulvane said afterward that all
through the nights the pirates had
made merry; carousing, drinking, sing
ing, dancing, and now and then whoop-
ing with glee when fight started.
That must have been the cause Of
the disaster; that, coupled with the
fact that The Hawk had decided to
finish the job of getting drunk, which
he had started earlier in the evening.
Before the crash came, even the Off
GERS and helsmen Joined in the bout
had vision of the schooner weav
ing her way drunkenly across these
hazardous northern waters, sails
Stating and booms rafting as she
fell off and then came up again into
the winds eye. A drunken ship and a
drunken crew; hell.bent. and no one
caring.
There was another splintering
crash, as the schooner lifted and fell
settling more firmly on the rocks
Excited cries, and the sound of run
ming feet. Then our own men, ordi
narily cool under hazards, went pan
icky at the thought OF being cooped
up in that hole, nor could blame
them. There was every chance that
the ship would slip off the rocks at
any moment, and go down.
Reckless of the odds they faced,
they flung open the foc'sle door, and
boiled out The ship was twisting and
groaning; waves swept over the side,
while blocks ratified as the pirates
every man for himself to
the boats Gone was desire for gold;
gone was fear Of their master, The
Hawk, in that narrowing moment.
The arch-pirate himself was nowhere
In sight.
A dozen pirates fought with the
gear of cutter In the waist. We
charged, swept them off their feet for
a moment then the battle was on in
earnest In their haste to launch the
boat, most Of them had dropped their
weapons, and now they gripped bare
handed with our men.
A gun barked, and men began to
drop. From aft came a thunderous
below, and there was The Hawk him
self, automatic pistol In his right hand
while in his left he gripped the neck
Of heavy sack-one OF our sacks of
gold. Although 1t must have weighed
nearly hundred pounds, he swung 1t
as easily as though 1t were filled with
wool, and charged for us.
We fell back from the davits, and
his men, heartened by his presence
rushed us. With clatter OF blocks
the cutter went into the water, men in
her. A monstrous wave, rising then
hurled them away from the ship, just
as The Hawk caught hold OF the falls
and prepared to slide down to them
He blistered them with curse, and