Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1929-08-08
CHAPTER XII
ID
Getaways on a Coral AtollN

Imperial German flag OF war flew from
the top OF the taIlest palm ! was the
vIceroy. by chance and not by desire,
of course, and my sailors and our pris-
oners were my subjects The only
visiting nationals from elsewhere we're
the three Kanakas, the turtle catchers.
'The White King OF the Society Isle
Of Mopella," my mate facetiously
called me. One OF the Yankee cap
tains put II differently. He called me
"the Sea Devil King OF the South
Seas" And be causticany described
our lovely Isle as "a poisoned pnra-
disc Everybody was good humored.
despite our hard luck.
But our little South Sea colony
passed its first nights uneasily. For
sleeping places. we slung hammocks
between the palms. AT intervals,
coconut would fall from height OF
fifty or sixty feet and go whlzzins
close by mans head. While our fel
low countrymen back In the cities
about the night raids OF the French
and British bombing squadrons, we
had our bombing problem also. II
didn't make much difference whether
you were bumped off with falling
coconut or a falling bomb. The result
was all the same. After one whizzed
by your ear. You would very likely
70 down to the open beach to quiet
your nerves. Then II you tried TO
sleep there, the land crabs would soon
convince you that the beach was no
place for a weary war veteran either.
Patrols of fighting murine crabs would
raid that beach every night After be-
Ing chased out by the crabs you
would go back to your hammock-Rnd
lie awake wondering when the next
aerial coconut bombardmeni would
commence. SO life during those first
days on our tropic' Isle was not all
skittles and beer or orchids and coco.
nut milk. You can bet we worked
hard getting up. huts Luckily, there
were no casualties from either crabs
or eoconnts.
We cleared large space for our
village, and built huts oul of timbers,
sailcloth. and palm leaves The first
one up was a queer-looking thing. but
our architecture improved with prac-
tfce. Our prisoners. who were all
Americans. helped us great deal
They understood the art OF pitching
tents They built special town for
themselves. and gave the streets such
names as Broadway, State street,
Pennsylvania avenue, and the Bowery.
In time we c0ntrlved to arrange quite
decent dwelling places. Or course. we
also installed our wireless set ashore
In order TO keep 10 touch with passing
ships and events happening out on
this side of the world Nor did we
neglect TO take ashore heavy arsenal
nf arms and ammunition. including
rifles. Luger pistols. hand grenades
and dynamite. In short. we had
perfect little town with everything ex
,rcept a caahoose. Some OF our men
who had romantic tendencies con
structed Country homes for them
selves few hundred yards away In
the jungle. Then we named the place
Seeadlerhurg. Sea Eagle Town,
There were gnlls' eggs everywhere
along the shore. but the birds were
hrooding now. and most Of the eggs
we collected had half-formed little
gulls In them We got around this by
clearing large section of beach and
throwing the old eggs into the lagoon.
Then the gulls focked hack and laid
more eggs. and thus supply Of fresh
eggs was assured.
Our American prisoners were nearly
all CHEEKY fellows. Some of them lit
ted In with The new life better than
my men. They seemed to know all
about the art of fishing, and taught US
Germans things we had never dreamed
Of. The, were accustomed to what In
the states along the Gulf OF Mexico Is
called spearing cells. They fastened
iron barhs to shafts of wood and with
these speared big fish In the coral la.
COON.
They also showed Us clever way
of catching fish on grand scale.
They took some forty men and boys
and, just as high tide was turning,
formed In a line about fifty yards off
shore. Then the line came spashlne
In. driving the fish before II toward
shore, just as the natives round. up
tigers for q rajah In India. Many OF
the fish tloundered into shallow water.
and q few minutes later were left
stranded by the receding tide. You
see, the water, as II hacked offsh0re.
left large pools on top of The ifregti-
lar coral reef, and there the fish were
trapped. Sometimes we caught five
or six hundred pounds q day. and It
was exciting sport
One night, while we were sitting
around our fire, we heard d scratching
sound. Ii seemed to come from ev.
erywbere. We looked and found a
lot OF crabs with big claws. They
we're hermit crabs We caught say.
eral and put them In boiling water 10
cook. Meanwhile, the crab invasion
continued. and more from behind kept
pushing the REST Harvard We tried
the ones we had cooked. and they
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