Evening star., 1926-06-13

my $40, and on to the Sui An. the last
passenger aboard. BY what slender
| threads our destiny sometimes hangs
| One small brass ring-a little thing
and yet how fateflll.
Through the gathering twilight the
little ship steamed onward toward
| Hongkong, her passengers boa sting
about the sums they had won, or
| grumhling at what they had lost.
| Nothing was farther from our minds
than piracy, yet at the very moment
! the resurrected spirit Of skull and
crossbones was ambushed in our track
waiting to pounce with glee upon its
! fat-pursed. helpless victims.
! Some 10 miles out from Macao the
purser approached two chinese pa ssen-
gers to ask for their tickets. TO his
| anazement. he received instead a
! poke in the ribs with q revolver and
an order to throw up his hands. The
| frightened man turned and fled down
! the pa sSage, followed by wild shots
! from the high. .seamen.
/ This was the signal for carefully
planned assault. simultaneously, in
| every part Of the boat from saloon to
steerage. the passengers found them
selves confronted by masked men and
| leveled guns.
| was seated on the first ella So deck
| trying to console a young English
! bank clerk. who had lost his entire
weeks wages. Along with every one
else. we jumped to our feet at the
sound of the uncomfortably close re-
/ volver shots.
Pandemonium had broken loose. Pi-
rates. pirates. armies of them, seemed
to have swooped upon the deck from
| thin air. For an hour after leaving
Macao the Sui An had been the peace
| ship itself. then presto.-she swarmed
with yelling bandits, and the air sang
with bullets. There was nothing mag
! ical, however, about the attack. except
! for the astonishing efficiency with
which it was executed
There We're so briga nds in all A
number of them. to assist in deceiving
the ships officers, had boarded Sunday
morning at HonEkong. bought round
| trip tickets and to all appea rance
were nothing more than model Chinese
gamblers. The remainder of the gang
came aboard at Macao and stationed
themselves in their allotted places
some first class, some second ella SO
| some steeraRe.
With the first shots two of the four
Indian armed guards rushed to the
scene. From three sides bullets were
poured into their bodies before they
had a chance to strike a blow in de
fense of the ship. The two remaining
guards were beset by the wolves. and
bleeding and unconscious, left for dead
on the deck
EROM the tangle of rushing terrified
people, a young Chinese girl, OBJ
viousy the leader of the band, de
tached herself and ran up the ladder
toward the captains cabin just as the
captain himself appeared on deck
She fired point blank ut him, and as hi
collapsed an accomplice beat in his
skull.
The girl, losing no time over hel
first victim dashed to the cabin of the
Chinese purser. who, she knew, kept
the keys to the ships safe. She found
him, but not before he had time tt
secure his own pistol. The girl fired
away at her second victim, ane
missed.
He returned the fire, and did not
miss. She fell into the arms Of hel
confederateS, shot through the shoul
der, and while not killed was disabled
the rest of the evening.
In 10 minutes the Sui An was com
pletely at the mercy ofethe attackers
the captain was all but dead, the two
murdered guards had been pushed
overheard, the other two were uncon
lscious, the engineers had been dra ggeC
on deck. and the passengers were
huddled in corners, driven into cabins
or stretched on the floor. where they
had prostrated themselves to esca pt
the flying bullets.
The initial assault had been directed
against the second.cl passengers
who, being all Chinese. could be
make no resistance But the pirates
allotted to the saloon had not beer
idle. Speeches. with astonishment
every one of us stood, helpless ant
Inundated, with our hands as neal
heaven as we could get them.
/ was not so frightened but that
could congratulate myself on beins
present to participate in this little
pirate party--even though the price
was $50 and my hat and coat and bell
and what was left of my pride
Neither could l help being tremen
dously impressed by the contrast of th'
ominous. tense quiet prevailing among
the Europeans and the chaos anC
howls and Mysteries coming from the
Chinese.
The very composure of our group
it's moral resistance to this outrageou.
treatment. began to disconcert oul
handful of assassins. They made nt
move to rob us; their eyes betrayed
the fact that they were really the
more uncomfortable Of the two sides
I am inclined to believe an audacious
blow, or an act of resistance, from
lens Of us would have routed then