Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1929-06-20
CHAPTER V-Continued

CHAPTER V-Continued
We added another allied nation to
our list of prizes when the Buenos
Aires came bowling along. She was
an italian ship built In England,
fine vessel but tlthy dirty. Every
thing was untidy from stem TO stern
Her captain, fat, unkempt man OF
about fifty-hve with a bristly nous
tache and d months growth Of scrag-
ely stubbe on his face. came aboard
the Seeader carrying an umbrella
Can you imagine a skipper of wind
TANNER carrying an umbrella at seai
We couldn't. and my men all burst out
In rude outlaws. ! suppose he had 1t
to protect himself during q hurricane,
the Italian commander In chief, Count
Cadorna, carrying an umbrella. So
we Immediately dubbed our new skip
rper Cadorna. He was a genial fellow.
full Of good nature and fun. You
should have seen his establishment
when he saw tile fine quarters we pro
vided for our captive shippers, He
never did quite get over It. Apparent
ly. he was better off as our prisoner
than he had been before.
One night, our lookout saw a tiny
flash of light astern. A ship was com
Ing along behind US, and somebody on
her had looked at his watch with a
pocket flash. We kept along on our
way. No doubt In the morning she
would still be close to US. Dawn
came, and there she was, a magnifi
cent French barque, the La Rochefou
cauld. We signaled her:
important news"
She hove to. The captain, who was
on deck In his carpet slippers, saw our
gun but thought we were the mother
supply for squadron OF British sub
marines Seeing that he was under
some Illusion, decided to have lit
tie fun with him. | called our cup
tured sailors to deck In patches. First
up came the Cinnamon They lined
up along the rail 50 that the French
man could get q. good look al them
Then | called the West Indian negroes
on deck. After them the white men.
Now Chinese, DOW BLACK men, now
CaucasianS-th captain of the La
Rochefoucauld thought he must be
having nightmare. And most dis
agreeable nightmare II was when he
saw the German flag run swiftly TO
the flip of our mainmast You should
have heard him swear.
He climbed onto the Seeadler's
deck picture OF wrath and despair
He still had on his carpet slippers
and had brought nothing with him
His name was Lecoq.
Don't you want TO send for your
Belongings Captain Lecoq?" | asked
IF have to lose my Ship mon
Dieu, | want to lose everything be
replied.
"You don't want to take anything
with your"
mo, let everything go down with
the ship"
| sent a couple OF his sailors back
aboard the LIE Rnchefoucauld to pack
his luggage and bring 1t aboard the
Heeader
One of my sailors came to me. say
Ing:
"They met cruiser q couple OF
days ago"
In no. a.
among captured sailors and talk with
them 10 see what they could pick up
This sailor had heard mention OF
cruiser In the talk of the French
sailors.
That was funny. | had asked Cap
tain LecOq whether he had sighted any
ships within the past week. and he
had replied no. In his log | had
found no mention OF being searched
by cruiser. One OF my officers ex-
amined the log again and found that
n page had been torn out. a thorough
questioning of the French sailors
brought out tile fact that they had
been thoroughly searched by q British
cruiser. This warship had taken her
position three hundred miles south of
us and was cruising back and forth
across the Pacific ship une, examining
every vessel that passed. So you see.
we, apparently, we're picking them up
after she had O. KID them. Captain
Lecoq had hidden his men to say moth.
Ing about The cruiser. Apparently he
hoped that we would wander far
enough south to run afouI of the Brit
Usher and be captured.
CHAPTER vi