Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1929-07-25
CHAPTER X-Continued

This left the way clear for US, and
now we sailed out to conthue our
adventure on the greatest OF all the
seven seas.
Fourteen days after rounding the
Horn, we picked an interesting and
rather puzzlIng wireless cut of the
air:
Seeader gone down with flags fly
Ing. Commander and part of crew
taken prisoners and on their way to
MontevIdeo.
"What's that?" | thought. "By Joe,
Johnny Bull is telling whopper."
Now. when old John Bull tells a fb.
you can bet, By Joe, that he has goon
reason for 1t. We tried to figure II
out. and came to the conclusion that
1t had something to do with the scare
we had created. The news that our
prisoners had given out nj Rio had
sent Lloyds rates skyward and caused
many ships to lie In harhnr until the
danger from the German raider had
bloh oNGis HG LII HlStf III UfdCi W
bring Lloyd's rates down and to lIber-
ate all the shipping that had been tied
UP. took pains to spread highly col
ored report of our disaster dressed up
with suitable imaginative trimmings to
make It more convincing.
swell, Johnny Bull" | thought,
well fix you"
Our wireless operator, very capa-
BILE fellow. worked out scheme with
me. Sparks" sent out the following
message purporting to come from a
British ship:
SOS SOS-German sub
He cut the message short, as If In
terrupted, to make II seem as If at
that moment the ship had been tor
pedoed,e
After a suitable interval he sent out
another call, this one merely report
Ing German submarines off the coast
of Chile
Did Lloyd's rates 20 up again? And
did those ships that were getting
ready to put to sen put back to their
berths2 Well, you can bet your boots
they did. And we sent out other sub
marine warnings every so often just
to keep our little joke alive.
These were all small INJURIES but
we had been sent out to harass the en-
envy, and this was one way Of doing
1t. What more could you expect Of a
lone windjammer? And then, it's these
injuries all added together that more
often than not win the day. II was
good sport for us. anyhow.
Our course was northward. with the
Chilean coast and the Andes almost
In sight We steered almost to the
Galapagos islands, and at Robinson
Crusoe's island, San Juan Fernandez,
We trimmed our sails and turned our
bow west We sailed for weeks on
the broad expanse of the Pacific with
out sighting ship. Except for the
occasional crackle of the wireless, we
were alone In the world.
Our wireless antennae kept us In
touch with the latest phase of the In
ternational situation. Nor was 1t
particularly pleasant on those long
idle days at, sea to sit and mediate
on the fact that the United States was
going into the war against us We
sailors knew better than some of our
people at home the tremendous pow
er of the great republic OF the West.
There were closeted statesmen and
generals who might talk as they
pleased about the American lack of
military preparedness and tile impos.
sibilty Of American troops being mus
tered and sufficiently trained In time
to be of any service In the critical
hour Of the war. We sailors had tray
eled. Many Of us had been In the
United States and had served on
American ships. All fine technical
points aside, we had had opportunity
to sense the might of the North Amer.
lean giant with its numerous and
virile population and its incaculable
wealth. With such strength behind il,
even III dNkNulu, fi'lVlty Hiitlcu tiii uSl
was enough to push almost anyone
over.
We caught one radio dispatch that
caused US to sit and gaze hopeIessly
into the sky. 1t told of the famous
Zimmerman note. What madness had
dictated that extraordinary state pa
per, which proposed to Mexico that
she Join Germany In the war and re-
ceiye In return a slice of American
territory including Texas7 hod
served as soldier In the Mexican
army, and knew something of its prob
able prowess I'm war; A few Amer.
lean regiments on the Rio Grande
could hold back the Mexican army as
easily. as can hold d child. And die
our statesmen think the Mexicans
were such fools2 The folly was one
that could only enrage the people Of
the United States and make the Mex
leans laugh. We Of the German fight
ing forces could only curse the Iuct
that had given our country such dl
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