The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1925-01-22
Snake cold

6SNNhASd4 a FlHe DuIleI cTdSneu
- through the pinnacle lamp in the
forward deck house. and the islands
the captain had plunged straight into
his yarn.
In those days / was just young
lad not mite bigger than some of
you who are listening to my tale. 1t
was before steam had come much into
use Our ship was an old-time sloop
fitted with special clipper rig over
head and in her day there were few
of her size afioat to whom she
couldn't show clean pair of heels.
eve had put to sea over two
months before. The day we sailed
there had been overmuch whispering,
and coming and going, and taking on
Of strange parcels, as I thought at
the time. Few of the others seemed
to mark it though, which set my mind
more or less at ease. / said nothing.
Many a time after did l think how
much better it would have been had
voiced my fears aloud and perhaps in
that way have saved the life of many
a good seaman who's only fault was
that he had shipped in boat along
with the devil-or it may be one of
his prime ministers.
Never was there a harder working
or better-minded crew than ours
when we left port. We had scarce
been two days out of harbor though,
when the devil began to show his
presence. And the devil in this case
was no other than our skipper, Cap
tain Lorsin.
'There was none who saw him do
the first shooting. But there were few
of us who did not see his poor vic
tim lying stark upon the deck. From
that moment Captain Lorsin was a
hated man-and doomed one.
sour destination was set down in
the ships papers as Lima, Peru; but
it was with no thought of making
Lima that Captain Lorsin had sailed.
He had got hold of a copy of an an
cient map showing a certain island
off the Chilean coast where Inca gold
was said to be hidden. The legend
held that it was gold sacred to the
snake god and that curse fell on
anyone who touched it, Captain Lor-
sin must have touched 1t in his dreams
for he never saw it alive; yet he was
surely cursed if ever man was.
ct was late in the evening when
we at last drifted into the channel
at the south end of the island which
formed a sort of landlocked harbor.
A gray mist hung low over every
thing. No sounds could be heard dis
tinctly above the rustling of waves
sliding up the sand of the beach.
'The bullet which shattered the bin
nacle lamp came out of this mist
cloud. Others followed Captain Lor-
sin was hard put to it to know what
to do. At last he called into the cabin
such men of the crew as he thought
he might trust Rifles were put in
their hands. Then the fight was on.
1t lasted most of the night, with our
men aiming at the rifle flashes which
spat out at us through the darkness.
"Just before dawn the firing died
out AS the sun rose, / saw another
ship of much the same size and form
as our own There was a 'HalIoo,
from the others deck. Our mate
called back. In few minutes we
were all gathered at the rail and
shouting across at one another.
GAS we talked there came sudden
explosion between decks. Several men
rushed down to see what it was.
shall never forget the look in Captain
Lorsin's eyes when they came back
bearing him between them. Apparent
ly he had hidden a lot Of ammunition
in the hold and it had exploded when
he had attempted to get at some of it.
He was mortally hurt. A little later
our boat began to sink appreciably
in the water and we got into the life
boats, taking with us whatever things
could be easily borne.
captain Lorsin died before we
reached the shore. The captain of
the other ship had been killed by a
rifle bullet He had got his pay for
starting the fight. His thought had
been to drive us away, so that he
might get the entire treasure for him
self. 1t seems that he had got word
of the island at about the same time
as Captain Lorsin, and had scarce
more than reached 1t when we ar
rived Between them, in their love
Of gold. these two men had been the
means Of killing eight true, honest sea
men and wounding twelve more.
sAs for the gold, we found no real
gold on the island. There was only
the snake-gold of the Indian legend
We came upon the Indian gold as
soon as we started to climb about on
the rocks back Of us. 1t was infested
with sort of yellow snakes which gilt
tered golden bright In the sunshine