Evening Star Newspaper, April 3, 1897, Page 20

20 THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1897—28 PAGES. = THE PIRATING OF THE SHAH, (Copyright, 1897, by Catiiffe Hyne.) ‘Written for The Evening Star. Now, I'll not deny I guessed there was semething fishy about the Shah from the very first minute her skipper talked to me, but I wes not in a position to pick and choose. In fact, I was that pusbed it was a choice between taking the berth I was of- tered or going to sea as ordinary fireman at i4a month. It was my better of me, New Orleans Pacific boats, was third on weakness that had got the as usual. I had come into on one of the West Indian and the berth was good. I her, and though I ought to e been second, the berth as third was Gistinetly good. We engineers had a mess room, with a steward all to ourselves, ard bread was baked on board fresh three times a week. There was no stint of any- thing; evon pickles were to be had for sticking out your fork, and any one but a fool would have stayed on that ship and read up text books and won promotion. I was a fool. He was a very nice, quiet, gentlemanly fellew, the one who got me to go ashore with him, and he could play hymn tunes on the accordion like an organ in a chapel. I did see him laughing and joking with some ot the others, but then, as he explained to me, a boarding house master had to suit himself to his guests. He admitted he wasn't Seotch himself, but his mother had come from Kilmarnock as a girl, and he'd a strong liking for the north country in con- sequence He wasn’t wanting me to go and stay in his house, he explained to me, but only to come and have a cup of tea just for the sake of the place I came from. It Was not to cost me a single sixpence. It seemed he was a member of the Free Kirk of Scotland himself, and that explained it. ready, packed up and waiting for you; take {t or don’t “Fm coming with you, captain “Very well. We'll go right now and get you signed on, and then we'll be off to the ship. There's a tender running down to the quarantine station half an hour from this. You don’t want any advance or you might be tempted to go on the spree again. You can fill up your kit from_the slop chest when we get aboard. The Shah’s got a fine slop chest.” “How do you know I've no Kit, captain?” He laughed pleasantly. “Never you mind how. But you can take it from me I do know. I know all about you; yes, siree, every blooming thing, or the pair of us wouldn't be talking now here. And I say, also, you'll find €me a good shipmate. Fin- ish your beer, Mac, and let's be going. Here’s good luck to you.” We got down to the Shaw that after- noon, ard I must say she was a vessel that pleased the eye. She was a fine new ship, built and engined on the Clyde, and owned by a Liverpool firm. She was some 1,500 tons burden. Her last skipper had died of yellow jack in Pensacola, Fla.; Mr. Knowles, the mate, had brought her across to New Orleans, and Capt. Blake had been engaged by cable from Englard. He had to sail in two days from getting the billet, ard he certainly made good use of his ‘time, for in those two days he not only planned how to run away with the Shah as she stood, but had also got together the men who were necessary to help him. But about that, of course, I did not know till later. Steam was ordered for daybreak, and so I was pretty full up till then finding my way about and getting the hang of the machines. The chief was a nervous man, and he seemed to have a small opin- jon of my capabilities. I wondered much what he would think if he got to know I was to step into his shoes. Of course, though, I said nothing about that, but just followed him about, and listened with @ puckered face whilst’ he gave me tips about his engines. Whilst they were get- ting up steam he even thought good to blow off a test can full of water and show me how to use litmus paper on it. At daybreak punctually we got under way, with a Fort Edes pilot on the bridge to take us through the Southeast pass. I was free after the watch was set, and went “HELLO,” My father had once been minister to that sect at Ballindrochater. We had a bit of a social after tea, and there was hymn singing to the accordion, | and I sang, too. They seemed to like it, | they drank my health. I just had a} to drink t back. There was corn whisky in a demijohn on the table, and yeu could help yourself, with nothing to pay. It would have looked unfriendly not | to taste. | Well, Tl admit that night was a bit | thick when it got to the finish, and where | I slept the guid Lord may know, but I a I'd a thirst on me like Welsh coal ashes next morning, and the whisky was still there, and by mid-day I was full up to{ the eyes again, and inclined to talk. I went back to the ship, found the old man | on the levee cursing ‘some nigger roust- | abouts, and forthwith told him what I thought of his conduct. I wasn't content h telling him quietly, either; I must reeds mount on a cotton’ bale and preach aloud to all the niggers and loafers who would hear, that any skipper who would | use language like that was no sort of / company for God-fearing men Ike us; and | firally whilst 1 was advising them to duck | him in the Mississippi, a policeman came | up and lugged me off to the calaboose. ‘There was no foolery about that policeman. He drove me before him with the small end of a revolver, and I had to go. Policemen are valuable in New Orleans, and drunks | are not. They don’t allow their police to | go scrapping with madmen in the public | streets, and if a drunk won’t come when) he’s told, he’s shot, and there's a good rid- | dance of him. { Well, of course, I was sacked from the West Indian Pacific after that; the British cousul wouldn't look at me; and after the | bearding-house master had mopped up my pay, and what he lent me on my chest, he | showed me the door, too. He woulda't keep on in hopes of getting his dollars out my next advance. He satd straight he n't think I'd get another ship. id $2 left when I got shown the door there, and with $2 a man doesn’t starve all at once In New Orleans. There are free lunch counters everywhere, and with a J0-cent glass of beer you can have a very toleraivle fill out of fish pie,dry hash, cheese, and so on; but it doesn't do to go to the same place too often, or the nigger behind the bar will forget to fill your plate when you pass it on. But $2 won't last long, and when I'd got down to my last 25 cents, and this berth on the Shah turned up, I'd just ot to take it and hold my tongue. I: was hor skipper himself that lured me into it He was a smallish chap called Blake, American Irish, I think, and the biggest thief in'the two Atlantics. He'd a face on him like a saint in a stained glase window, and a reputation that would have spoiled a gallows. But he could talk polite fit to make an actor of. He came across me sitting on a cotton bale on the levee at the foot of Canal | street. He had just come down river in a | big “stern-wheeler.” and I was the first Person he spoke to after he walked down her gang plank. “You're Mr. Sandy McTodd, ain't you?” “Neil Angus McTodd.” lame thing. Still out of a berth, ‘son- dil haven't decided which to take.” take mine, or I reckon you'll | starv, s that stern-wheeler yours, captain?’ ‘o, sirree. I'm Capt. Blake of the She's down river at anchor by | quarantine station, waiting orders. | 4 I want a new second engineer. My | ed. If you think you'd like the and liquor.” tight-O,” said I, and I walked with him | down Canal street, and we turned off and the French | ore respectable places. | ato an upstairs room, and a nig- ht us two schooners of beer, and ! + had gone we were alone, except- { he flies, who wouldn’t repeat what | y heard. Now,” sald the captain, “let'a get to ss. Item the first, you're stone Ht m with you there all the way.” And could be content to ask no ques- ns 2" About what, captain?” ‘arrajo! There you are, beginning al- realy. You've got to ask no questions whatever, my son, if you come rd of me, and you're to see nothing you're not in- tended to see. I can get the ordinary type of inquisitive idiot cheap apywhere. uy an lest second engineer was brand, I had no use for him, 80 I fired him out. You can bet I'm not offering big pay for nothing. No, sirre, I want a man who can keep his head shut.” “I'm that way, captain, if the pay’s big enough.” “Sufficient siller will make you concen- trate your thoughts on that and not see Bpything clse? I quite see your idea. Weil, ‘Mr. McTodd, there's £12 a month for you #0 long as you're second engineer, and £30 when you're chief." “Me chief!" ‘That's what I said.” “Will you tell me if there's of that happening? eghoerey “Every chance, With deemt luck, you ought to be chief it ove Be © ohis engineer of the Shah by | inore talk about this. | that the propeller stopped. SAID Il, “WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?” out on deck for a whiff of air. The river | Was smeared with a three-foot layer of white mist; you could hardly see the yellow water as it scrubbed along the steamer’s side, ard the trees on the shore were cut off clean by the whiteness half Way up their trunks. There was a smell to the mist like new-turned earth; it was just the smell you get up the Congo and the west African rivers, and it as good as said to me, “My lad, you take precautions, or you'll have a dose of fever coming back to you." So I went below to rout up the cabin steward to get a dose of quinine out of the medicine chest, when who should come ir there but the old man himself. “Quinine?” said he. “Certainly, Mac, my lad; wade in and help yourself. Say, you'd better take a couple of Cody’s pills to ram it hom “Cody's?” said I. ‘They’re new to me.” ‘Best pill that was ever rolled,” said he. ‘Your English pills make me tired. I | Suess a man might as well swallow shot corns for all the good they do. Now, Cody's are regular twisters; it doesn’t ' matter what a man has the matter with him, Cody's get right there, and let him know they’re attending to business. Are you in- terested in drugs, Mac?” “No man more so. I've been In the west coast trade, captain, and drugs just kept me alive. I fairly lived on them and no expense spared.” “Sit down right here, that cigar in your face. said he, “and put We must have I need a great deal of drugs myself, and what I don’t know about them isn’t worth knowing. Bear a hand and we'll pull out the medicine chest and go through it right now.” It was while we were having this talk D1 He gave me @ curious look, and “I reckon,” said he, “that means we're on the ground.” But he didn't offer to move from his seat. “Well,” thought I, “the ebb's making fast, and if we don’t get off quick, here we'll stay for another tide. But as it was not my place to say anything, I held my tongue. “Dangerous things, those Mississippi “Very likely to get some “Oh, no,” said I, all soft mud underneath. felt her going on. whatever.” He leaned across and whispered in my gar: “But I say there is danger, Mr. Mc- “there's no danger. It's Why, we never There was no shock Todd. I tell you that this ship's bottom has very likely received such damage here that it is quite on the cards she may sink when she gets into the seaway outside. If you let news of that slip out among your grubby crowd in the stoke hold, I shall be your debtor. Now, ‘sonny,’ don't stop to think; go right now and do your bid.” I said “Aye, aye, sir,” by force of in+ stinct, and went away below. The third engineer was standing by the reversing gear, and asked me what was amiss. I told him we were on the ground, and said I'd a fear we might have some of our bottom plates started. He cackled at me with laughter, and I felt my face grow red. “Why, what a blessed scary Scotchman you must bel” said he. “She took the ground lke butter going onto a bar of soap. It wouldn’t have cracked the glass in @ greenhouse.” “There are snags in thig Mississippi mud,” I said. “We're down in the Pass now. if you go on deck and look over the banks you'll see the sand outside in the gulf Tegularly sown with tree trunks. They're as ae to a ship’s bottom as coral rock." “MecTodd,” said he, “get away to your bunk and sleep it off. Your nerves are a bit jogeled up still.” And off I went, feel- ing pretty foolish. But I had noticed one of the firemen listening to our talk, aud judged that I had done what the captain intended. We did not get off that tide, or the next, but stayed there stewing in the heat and gnawed at by the mosquitoes, whilst the engines ran ahead and astern in half hour spells alternately, and the captain on the brige talked to the pilot for trying to rip the bottom out of her. Indeed, when we did get off the bar at last, and slowed down off the lighthouse on the Port Edes spit to drop the pilot into his boat, I thought then that he must have been glad to see the last of us. But I have guessed since that tl fellow must have been paid to let us ground on the bar, so as to pave the way for what was to happen afterward. Only one other conversation did I have with Capt. Blake before the Shah was pirated, and that was the afternoon we were off Key West. I met him, as it were by accident, in the Port alleyway, and he asked me to come along to the charthouse and gee if I could find out what was wrong with his hanging lamp. “The carpenter has tried his hand,” ae he, “‘and made no sort of a job of it at 1, and I guess my room stinks of kero- sense like a Pittsburg tool shop. But you're @ man of ideas, McTodd, and you'll see what's wrong at a glance.” “I can no smell oi! Just the now, captain,” said I when we got inside the charthouse, “but if you'll just let me handle the lamp & minute or so—” “Shuck: he says, “let the lamp alone. That was only a blind, because I didn’t care to say below wi ate wanted you for, in case somebody wa: ening. Sit down on the sofa, Mac, and fill your pipe. What do you think of the chief engineer?” “It's no for me to ar evil of my su- pe but—I'd call him a very careful o “He's an old woman, a nervous old. wo- man, t what the chief is. And he's ne idea which side of his bread’s marger- “But how—” He cut short with a laugh, “I'm not going to "he said. “Here's the offer, ined. Now I guess you have, Mac. There are no files on you—and—I belleve you could Keep your head shut if a secret were told you?” “That depends.” “Oh,” satd the old man, “If you can’t give me a promise, I can hold my tongue.” “Well,” I said, “I'm pinning myself to nothing, ye'll understand, but I'll not re- Feat any matter you choose to speak up- on. “That's good enough for me,” says the skipper, and he started in to reel out a tale which made the hair tickle on the top of my scalp. He was not very long about it. He tuld me his scheme in forty words, and then he asked my opinion upon it. Man,” I said, 's piracy; no less. he says, “it’s that.” You are going to take the ship and her cargo at one steal?” “At one steal, Mac. No use taking four bites at a persimmon.” “But if you're caught?" ‘o begin with, we shan’t be; there’s no chance of it. And supposing we were, we'd get it no hotter for taking the whole ship than we should for annexing one of her boats. Now, are you going to be sensible and bear a hand?” “Capt. Blake,” I said, “you’re talking to the wrong man. My father was a min- ister In the Free Kirk of Scotland, and if I'd gone straight I might be living in his manse even today. I've a failing (and a taste for the sea) which has brought me down to what I am now, and I'm fond of a good wage, but neither the one nor the other can induce me to do what you ask. Man, it's most immoral, besides, it’s no as safe as you seem to think.” “Well, Mac,” he said, “if we don’t trade we don’t, and there's an end to it. Only rememStr I hold your promise not to re- peat what’s been spoken.”’ “Em not likely to forget,” I sald, and took my cap and left the chart house. IL. Now, although he had told me he intend- ed to steal the Shah, Capt. Blake said noth- ing about his method; and when he got to work that very night, I had no idea that what was happening came from his hand and was the outcome of his knavish in- genuity. I ‘had gone off watch at midnight, had turned in and had been sleeping some hour and a half when the fireman came to rouse me. He said, “She's half full of water, sir, and one of the bilge pumps is broken down. It's two foot deep over our foot plates al- ready and coming in like a mill race. It'll reach the fires directly, sir, and then {t’ll be a case of Golden Shore for all hands if we don’t look out. She must have started a plate as you said, sir, when she took the ground in the pass yonder.” Of course the yarn about the plate being started when she struck on the bar ought to have given me a hint. But it did not. When a man Is woke out of sleep with news that the ship is settling under him, he has enough to think of in the present without bothering his head about things of that kind; and I just slipped on a pair of boots and ran to the engine room in pajamas, just as I was. The chief and the third were hard at work at the broken bilge pump, but it wasn’t easy work, because every time she rolled down that side a good ten foot of water soused over their cars. The water was gaining, there was no misiak about that; you could feel the steamer grow more sodden with every roll; and it was clear enough that with the one steam pump we had working we could not keep her afloat another two hours. The stoke- hold was full of steam from the ashes fall- ing into the water, and presently the splashing began to hit the bottom of the fire bars, and the steam grew worse. Then the fires started to die, and the gauges fell so that you could not see them, We did not stop the engines. They slowed by degrees, and brought up of themselves. And then, like drowned rats, we went out on deck. The chief and I were the last to go; there was nothing else to be done. There was a snoring breeze, with a stif- fish sea running. It wasn't cold, because we were in the thick of the gulf stream, but the night was as black as coal with driving rain, and not a bit inviting for a boat cruise. However, there was no help for it; Knowles and the two other mates and the carpenter had got the two lifeboats swung out; the stewards and the cook were victualing them; and the hands were bid- den to tumble in without any more delay. A tailor could have seen that the old Shah had not got very much longer to float. I wasn’t going to lose the things I had bought out of the slop chest, so I had ft in my mind to go below and put them to- gether. I had got to the head of the com- panion to do this, when Capt. Blake came out of the chart house with the light from inside shining full on his face. He was as cool as a fish and smiling. Ah, Mac,” he said, “glad to see you ore keeping your head. I'll remember this in your favor afterward. Say, just slip into the chart house here, will you, and take charge of a bag of bullion? Carry it with you to the port life boat, and if you get it safely ashore, you shall have 10 per cent as salvage for your pains. Come right in. I stepped into the chart house, the door closed behind me, and I found myself face- on to a curious sight. The carpenter was sitting on the captain’s sofa, and opposite him was one of the deck hands, a fellow who had joined from New Orleans when I did, fingering a nickel-plated revolver. “Hullo,” said I; ‘what does this mean?’ “It means,” says Blake, from behind e, “that you've got to stay right here n this ship, Mac, and be her chief en- gineer, whether you like it or not. Now I've got a knife in my hand this min- ute, and it would annoy me very much to kill you. I've no time for long argument. Will you stay alive, or will you stay dead?” eae “J've got to save my life,” I said. “You're a sensible man, Mac. Just sit beside Chips, on the sofa there, and talk to Mr. L2grand. Oh, I forgot to intro- duce you. Legrand is the new mate. And now I must be off, to see that all the mem- bers of this ship's company I don’t want go off cruising sociably together in the lifeboats.” He went out in the dark, closing the door on his heels, and I found myself sitting beside the carpenter, looking at the big sallow-taced creole who held the revolver. “Man,” I said, “the skipper’s gone mad. I've just come from below myself, and I know what {t's like. She'll swamp in half an hour. Ye’re just holding us here to drown.” “Shucks!” sald he. “That's only part of the game to get the ship to ourselves, and to scare off those we didn’t want.” “What do you mean “Why, there have been a couple of sea cocks opened, that’s all; and if you want to know who did it—here’s the man standing @ Stayed There Six Months and Might Have Stayed a Lifetime. before you. I did another thing, too; it ‘was me that smeshed the bilge pump.” “And who's going to work the ship when the crew have gone?” “Oh, we'll have eight of a crew all told, counting in you and me and Chips her ang the skipper. Two of them stow eway in the forehold and two signed on as coal trimmers.” “I'm shipmate with some very clever acourdrels,” 1 thought, and wished myself far enough away. But as there was no means of getting clear, I thought it was best to save my throat by doing as I was bid. Legrand seemed to guess what was paseing through my mind. “Be a sensible man, Mr, McTodd,” sald he, “and do as we want you, and draw your £30 @ month, sand then go ashore and spend it when the time comes. About the right end. the wrong. of the: business you have no con- cern; that ligs between us and our con- sclences; you have been forced into it against your will “Weel,! I said, “Mr. Legrand, yon’s a very sensible way of putting it. You'll go to hell when the time comes; I shalln't- and £80 a month’s a very pleasant wage to finger.” |; an “Bonny Scotland,” says Legrand, with a laugh. “Hullo, here’s the skipper again. Well, sir?” Blake came into the chart house, his face glistening with the wet. “They're off,” he said, “all in the starboard lifeboat, and they blew out of sight in a dozen minutes. Knowles is steering, and the old chief has manred the bailer. They expect that the balance of us are following them in the port Loat to rendezvous at Key West, and as we shan’t turn up by tomorrow or the next day, we shall be reported as lost. Nothing coulg have happened better. That crowd will be ready to swear, ail of them, that they saw the Shah founder before they had left her neighborhood, and so the lot of us can start fresh with purser’s names on a fine new steamboat which hasn't cost us a cent.” “And being without papers,” T said, “you won't be able to get into a single port to sell her, or to look for freights, or to do anything.”” “My dear Mac,” said Blake, “do give me credit for a child's sense. Of course this ship's got papers, a brand new set of papers, and she’s got to be altered to suit them. Her name's the George M_ Wash- ington, her engines were built at Liverpool, her port—Lut you'll hear all that afterward. At present there’s work to do, and I guess all hands have got to sweat this night as they’ve never sweated before. Come out now and bear a hand to get the water out of. her.” It was difficult to stand on deck, for every roll sent her down to the rail, and the foredeck was afloat half its time. Of course the steam pumps below were use- less, but by a mercy she had a hand pump on deck, and we manned that, watch and watch about, for half hour spells, and picked the water out of her by gallons to the minute. The sea cocks had been turn- ed off, so we'd no further leak, and we got the trysails and the two topsails on her and shaped a course almost free for the Cuban shore. We hadn't got her clear by daylight, or anything like it, for the hand pump had its limits, but we'd pulled the water down below the fircbars of the fur- naces, and were able to get lit up again and see the steam rise in the gauges. It was an anxious time then. If any other steamers saw us drifting about there un- der sail alone they would come up to offer assistance, find out who we were and the game would be up. ‘he spot was likely to be crowded, too, Lecause we were in the ship track between the gulf ports and the Florida channel. But the thieves’ luck held, and we got her under steam again, kicked out the balance of the water with the bilge pumps, and stood across for a lonely bay in Cuba, where we could alter the poor old Shah's appearance undis- turbed. We were at anchor thereby early after-. noon, and a rough, wild place it was, walled in with trepical trees and closed from all view to seaward. Sea fowl were the only livirg. creatures which met the eye, unless one could count the sharks and the sawfish which cruised around us in the water. As a pirate’s harbor no better spot could have heen found in all the world; and that is what we were then, just pirates; all, that is, except Chips and myself, who were forced into the business against our will. The work began at once. Stages were rigged over the s\ and the black paint was changed to era The names on the boats and the lifebuoys were altered. The funnel was turned from red and white to black and blue. The yards were taken off her forrard, the two topmasts sent down and two ten-foot stump topmasts put on end in their place. The Clyde name plates were shifted from the engines, and the wheelhcuse, was krocked away ‘from the upper bridge. She looked a different ship. The gray, paint and the stump top- masts seemed jo make her half as big again as the British steamer Shah that had sailed out pf the Mississippi river. I could have sworn that her own builders wouldn’t ‘have recognized the ship, even if they had stocd beside her on a dock wall. Well, there was no time lost after that work was done. We were not there pleas- uring, any of ub, and we upped anchor as soon as we had finished transmogrifying her, and. set out for the Horn and the Chilean coast. Legrand was for putting in to a Brazilian port to stay and pick up a few more, hands; but Captain Blake said “no.” He was rot a nervous man, but he was no f¢ol to stand in the way of un- necessary risks. The George M, Wash- ington was to keep out of all human sight till she made her Chilean port, and then no one covld connect her with the Shah, which had been lost in the Mexican gulf. She was to get a cargo from there to China, or else go across in ballast, and in China she was to be sold. That was the program. He was quite aware It would be desperately hard work for all hands, but the pay was big to match, and they could have free run of all the grub in the ship. Besides, he was not sparing himself. ir. w the end of this pirating business came in a way which no one had quite foreseen, and though the underwriters did not get back the insurance they had paid on the Shah, the George M. Washington was never turned Into a targible profit by those who had stolen her. It seems that Mr. Knowles, the former first mate, had taken the starboard life- boat safely enough into Key West, had found himself out of a berth, was given the offer of a captaincy on a guano bark then in Panama, whose late master had died of coast fever, and had jumped at the chance. He got a cast down to Aspinwall in a freight steamer, crossed the isthmus by railroad, and left Panama for the south the very day we pulled our anchors out of that bay of Cuba. It was not much of a coincidence that he should be coming into Callao roadstead through the north chan- nel past San Lorenzo Island when we were steaming in through the southern. We were in first and had brought to an anchor, waiting for the health office. I was half dead with work and heat, and had come up out of the engine room, and was sitting in a chair under the bridge deck awning, getting a spell of rest. There was a glare from the water which hurt, so by way of ease I kept my drowsy eyes on a little old bark that was coming in under lower topsails, with just enough breeze to give her steerageway. She was heading so as to pass within a dozen yards of us, and I watched her with eyes that did not see. Presently the sound of voices came dully to my ears. “The color of her sides ts different, the funnel’s different, those stump topmasts are diffegent and the wheelhouse is un- shipped from the upper bridge. Still, she’s remarkably like my old ship for al] that.’ “But she’s got a starboard lifeboat. It was the starboard you went off in, wasn't it, captain?” . “That's not a lifeboat in those starboard davits. That's a quarter boat they’ve shifted from aft. And the after davits have been unshipped. Look, you can see the sockets of them. By gum, matey, I believe it is the Shah and no other.” I was beginning to wake up. The con- versation went on. “Can't be, captain. Look at the name all over her—George M. Washington. That's no name for a British ship. I can't say, though, come:td‘look at her, that she does lcok like attblazing Yankee.” “Yankee ibe Hanged. Look at those main shrouds. I) rattled them down myself in Pensacola,;sand‘iwe put in wire for every third ratline.”” = “What eter for?’’ “Supe Isean'tlsay. Some crank the old man had. Perhaps he was off his nut; he died directly after of yellow jack. But wire it was, and if yeu look there you'll see it for yourself. Hy gum, it is the Shah, sure as death. -She’s!'been run away with, and for a bet,/it’s that mealy mouthed Blake that’s done it. However, Blake or whoever it was, I't going to lay information so soon as ever I get ashore, to the custom house. I'd # good berth on that ship, and I don’t think much of the man who kicked me from there ‘to come and be skipper of this stinking old dunghill here.” I was awakexenough by this time, and had recognized Knowles, and was beginning to wonder why he had not recognized me. But when I remember that, first of all, I was sitting in deep shadow, and secondly, I was wearinga five weeks’ beard, so I lay still where I was till the guano bark had cragged slowly past over the swells, and then I got up and slipped into the chart house. There was no need to tell my news. Capt. Blake hed heard every word that had been said through a port above his bed place. He looked at me as coolly as though everything was smooth, “It’s a beastly rulsacice, isn’t it, Mac, just when we were so near fingering our dividends, too?’ “Than shall I lose my wages?” I asked. “I guess, Mac, you can earn nothing more peas this cruise at present than a hemp necktie.”* é “Oh, I’m.ciear of that, at any rate. Man, | do. ye not-remember I: was forced into the “business against my will?’ . “Quite so. Go ashore and tell that to the authorities. They’re certain to believe your bare word on the subject.” “Phew! I whistled. It hadn't struck me that way. Of course, I had got no sort of a tale that would be believed when it cal to putting it in bare words. “No, my son,” said Blake. t's a case of all sticking together yet, and with luck we'll not only save our necks, but we'll realize on the ship.” e've only two days more coal.’ know that.” “Then what's your plan, captain?” T'll tell it you later. For the present gO away right now and make steam again. I guess we've little enough time to waste. There's a cruiser over yonder that can put to sea in two hours, and they'll send word to her directly Knowles gets ashore with his news. Away with you now, and make your sweeps hump themselves, or eise they'll hang.” There was every inducement for hurry, and every one knew that. Legrand was down helping me, and so was the carpen- ter. We coaxed the steam up by every means we knew, and when at last Legrand was able to go on the foredeck and heave up it was none too soon. The cruiser astern of us was bustling with life. A naphtha launch was coming to us from the inner harbor as fast as she could pelt, and it was plain that all Callao was alive with Knowles’ tidings. The skipper had got the upper bridge alone, and held the steam steering wheel in his own hands. He was heading her for the northern channel between San Lorenzo Island and the land, and, as usual, he was taking matters quite calmly and with a smile on his saintly face. He neither swore nor shouted. He was the most unaccount- able ship master I ever came across in that way. But it was the naphtha launch that de- stroyed us. We started slow, and she nearly boarded; but as steam got up, so did our pace improve, till at last she could do no more than keep her place. The hands were making steam for every- thing they were worth, and all I had to do was to run about my machinery with a hot oil kettle and keep everything lubricated. The excitement was too big for me to keep myself below ali the time. I just had to pop my head out of the engine room door every now and again to look astern. But if for a moment the naphtha launch was out of sight, she'd roll up again high against the horizon over the next swell, and if we dropped her at all it was only for a few fathoms to the hour. Still, it wasn’t her duty to board. She was only ing as a jackal to the bigger craft, and presently the masts and smoke of that showed up against the sea line. Landsmen might have chucked up the sponge then. But we hung on. Everything was possible in a stern chase at sea; besides, darkness would be down in another hour, and we might slip away under its cover. We felt cramped about the throat, I can tell you, then. It didn’t take much imagination to see the gallows ready rigged. Night came down when the cruiser was five miles astern, but it did not help us. The sky was lit like a theater; the swells were full of speckles of phosphorescence; and where they broke upon the beach you might have thought there was a line oi bonfires. The cruiser followed us, and came up as though she had a line to our stern, and was heaving it in on her winches. At a mile and a half she began to shoot, and I'll not say her practice was good. I cod outside my engine room door when I could spare a moment to watch, and saw the shots plow gutters in the swells, and send fountains of flame toward the sk: ‘Then all of a sudden the motion changed: the roll gave way to a steady pitch, and I krew what had happened. Capt. Blake had starboarded his helm, and was going to put the stolen steamer on the beach. Well, there was a poor enough chance for us there in all that surf. A minute later there was a whistle down the voice tube, and he told me In words what I had guessed al- ready. He said also we'd be on the ground inside a dozen minutes, and we were all to come on deck, so as to get the best chance | of reaching shore. I sai ‘Aye, aye,” and told the hands, and they went willingly enough. But for myself, I stayed. I'd got my engines to look after. It was pretty tough work waiting, though. I marked off 12 minutes on the engine room clock, and lit my pipe. But I had to fill it twice before time was | up. The toba seemed to burn quicker than usual, somehc At last she did it. She took the ground | somewhere forward, and jarred fit to knock one’s teeth out. Then she lifted on a swell, and lit the whole of her length on the ground, till you'd have thought the foot-plate would have risen up *through your cap. Then she lifted twice more, and began to make a nolse like a meat tin does when boys kick it along a paved street. By that time she had broached to, and she was on her beam ends, with the en- gines racing badly. I shut off the throttles before the poor things rived themselves clear of their bedpiates. Then 1 opened the escape valve to the full, and climbed out on deck. The seas were making a | clean breach over her by that time. But I | did notice that the port lifeboat was gone, and the falls showed she'd been lowered. There was not a living man left in sight, but whether they had been washed over- board or had gone away tn the boat I could not tell. I never saw any of them again. The docr I was holding to went with the next sea, and there was I in the surf, two hundred yards off the dry beach. I can swim like a rat or a Krooboy, and I had to do it then. That Pacific surf is something awful when one of those big ground swells is on. But I got spewed up by the sea at last, bruised as though I had been beaten with sticks, and there I lay on the sand and watched the surf smash my beautif#l en- | gines tM they weren’t fit to put on the scrap heap. The cruiser had done her | work and was steaming back for Callao; the naphtha launch was out of sight; the life boat, if she had survived, had slipped far away from view; and the sea lay dead empty. Day sprang up over the water, and I got up stiffly and walked north along the coast. A dozen miles brought me to an Indian village, where I must say that, niggers though they were, they treated me like a king. I stayed there six months, and might have stayed a lifetime, but I was a fool, and got restless. The sea always drags me. And I went along to a little port and found a ship. The sea always does drag me like that. It is my luck, I suppose, to be that kind of a fool. Of course, Capt. Blake treated me badly, and I worked a long time and very hard without a sixpence of wage. But some- how, I don’t wish that man evil. I’ve never come across any one with a nicer knowl- edge of drugs, or a freer hand in giving them out to his engineer officers. Why, I must have taken eight boxes of those Cody pills at the very least. ——.—__ “Want” ads. in The Star pay because they bring answers. Law of Variation in Children. From Harper's Bazar. Variation is the universally recognized condition of all living creatures, human and brute. It has ever been one of the prime factors in the development of: the race, and is as purely scientific and imper- sonal as Kepler’s laws of the motion of the planets. In discussing. heredity, therefore, the physician, recognizing the universality of the law of variation, simply seeks to ascertain what particular variation or com- bination of variations was peculiar to the immediate ancestors of the child under con- sideration, who is their natural and in- evitable exponent. No child is the child of its father and mother alone. It is the grand- child of four ancestors, the great-grand- child of eight, and the great-great-grand- child of sixteen. It may revert to the in- dividual idiosyncrasy of any one of these thirty ancestors, or even go further back, and be most like some one of the multiply- ing numbers still more remotely removed. ‘The responsibility for a child’s deficiencies may not rest with either one of the two parents, and the remedy for these defects, which is in their hands, can only be found after careful consideration of the individual variations manifested in the ancestors. i} TO BRING GOOD LUCK A NUMBER OF PERSONS The Fad of the Day is for Talis- manic Ornaments. PRECIOUS STONESWITH OCCULT POWERS Searching Ancient Lore to Find Rare Portents. pees SUPERSTITIONS > POPULAR Written for The Evening Star. HEN PRETTY MISS Manhattan strolls down 5th avenue in the morning sunshine with a litte branch of Scotch heather pinned on her waist or thrust through her belt, she does not in- tend to proclaim her- self a worshiper of Scotch literature; she wears it only for “good luck. Whoever imagines that the vagaries of superstition have ceased to exist, except among persons of mean intelligence or neglected education, is quite mistaken; they are rapidly re- viving under the fashion of the hour. The maiden of Vanity Fair now cherishes a litle pet credulity which she allows to guide her actions and regulate her move- ments. Although she heartily believes in the malign power of black cats and the far from genial influence of the number thirteen, she does not adopt as her mental crest any such commonplace gullibility. But she searches ancient lore to find some rare portent which shall be her mark of interesting individuality, and gives it the place of honor among her weird conceits. For irstance, when she hangs an old norse- shoe through the loop of the long silver chain which she wears around her waist, ljares her southern ancestry and her ntation traditions, for in the old slave sa ho we hung ever the cabin door, » keer all harm away, was the rule rather 1 the exception. To step out in the mud, or submit to any roundabout inconvenience, rather than valk under a ladder is so‘purely an Eng- ich superstition, and go faithfully observed by fasnionable London, it s, of course, be- loved by fashionable America. Popular Superstitions. A dread of spilling the salt is also quite “smart,” as It is of aristocratic origin and dates from distant antiquity. It has been amusing to note at luncheons and dinners this winter intelligent women throwing salt in great solemnity over the left shoul- der three mystic times, in order to discom- fit bad luck. Also, one of them may have asserted thoughtlessly her immunity from colis, or headaches, or any of the common ills of life. In that case, she hastens to rap three times upon the table while she mur- murs the word ‘unberufen.” By this it may be known that she has adopted a Ger- man superstition for her own special weak- D and, having repented of her rash statement, tries to appease the jealousy of Luck by saying that her boastfulness was “uncalied for. However, very few of us are free from this fear in one form or another. When we desire some precious thing very earnestly 2 pretend to believe that it is beyond our reach; we will even try to persuade our- selves that it is undesirable, from a vague feeling that it is necessary ‘to hoodwink a dim power which would otherwise thwart our wishes. In fact, the belief in a watchful destiny that would be angered by our un- usual prosperity, and therefore must be soothed by a rigid abstinence from boast- ing, is almost universal. But the most notable form of the super- stition of the day is the craze for talis- manic ornaments, and for this fashionable feticbism there is the distinguished author- ity of Napoleon, who left this bequest: “Let my son keep as a talisman the seal I used to wear.” A ring forged out of an old horseshoe ts bound to keep a lover faithful, but it is too cheap and unbecoming to be within a-la- mode acceptance, especially as a sapphire arswers the same purpose. From earliest limes this stone has been the emblem of sincerity and enduring fidelity in love af- fail and when we consider also {ts more prosaic efficiency in keeping the liver up to its work, its popularity ought to be quite intelligible. Symbolic of Faithfulness. In all ages of the world, every well-regu- lated woman has loved diamonds, and she loves them today, though with less reason than the woman of medieval times, for in that era they rivaled, in point of salutary agency, the bones and other relics of the saints. They have always been pre-emi- nenuy the symbols of purity and faithful- hess, yet “how many the women that have drowned honor in the clear water of dia- at’s-eye” is the gem preferred by those that aro vividly interested in the mystics of India. The Hindoos believe that each cat’s-eye is inhabited by a “fa- miliar demot who exempts the owner from the chill of poverty. There is at least one excellent excuse for the belief—she must indeed be safely sheltered from the chill of poverty who can purchase one of these glistening gray gems at their pres- ent precious valuation, The ruby has been a favorite love token since the time of the crusaders, because of the tradition that it warns the wearer of misfortune by distinctly darkening. The turquoise also benefits by the belief of the symptomatic and diagnostic power. in fact, the hypochondriac of the medieval world always wore a turquoise upon the middle finger, and had a most interesting time consulting it. The supposition that it will change at the inconstancy of lovers loses value when compared with its quall- ities as a health indicator. Opals in High Favor. The opal is the only gem credited with possessing evil propensities, but the super- stition that once befouled its good name with mistrust of its uncanny gleam is now compensating for past errors by bringing it into fashion; and it not only is sunning itself in popular favor at present, but it is bound to be the sione of the future. There ere many beautiful legends in re- gard to the opal, but the loveliest of all is the one most ancient--the one that tells of a woman’s loving heart imprisoned in a milk-white stone, and of the throbs of passion and of pain) that shone through the half-opaque surface, making it dart and flash and flutter with flame color, and rose, and violet and golden tints. When the beat high with hope the sur- face e opal was radiant with light; when sorrow oppressed, the rays lost their brillianey. That the opal is really almost human in the variation of its moods and in its sus- ceptibility’ to outside influences accounts for the weird reputation that has so long banished it from popular use. But now that women are looking more keenly into the science of psychology, they believe they have found in the opal the link be- tween humanity and nature. It is a fa- vorite stone for engagement as well as for talismanic rings, but to be properly responsive to the humors of the wearer it must be set to touch the . Then it will be sullenly dim, richly brigat ten- GAMBLING TERM: From Life, ‘ “A FARO LAYOUT.” IN WASHINGTON CURED BY DR. SHADE’S CHLORIDUM DISCOVERY FOR CONSUMPTION. Willing to Be Interviewed. The “United States Health Reports” Indorse the Treatme Mrs. Hughes. 440 7th at sumption two years ago as ix also Miss im's daughter, 2 1 2. ay also cured 5 consumption eat. Dr. McKim and di sw. was cured ‘Ws willing ary McKim ho reasonable gu dinary virtue “We give Dr. Consumption the wi indorsement United States Health Reports.” Call o write for booklet and sym) loridum Discovery for of the fom blank for “home” treatment. Dr. Shade in charge on Mon- day, Wednesday and Saturday, 1232 14th street. Consultation free, mh2Y-6t Pop} cork froma bottle of Hires is a signal of good health and plea- sure. A sound the old folks like to hear —the children can’t resist it. Rootbeer is composed of the very ingredients the system requires. Aiding the digestlon, soothing the nerves, purifying the blood. "A temper- ance drink for temper- ‘ance people. Mate on} ‘The Charles E. tiles © . Phila, ‘A package mates 5 gations, ‘Bold everwhere. OR.CHASES Blood*Nerve Food iH Q Wace SEFoRE raxinGlin For Weak and Run Down People. What is It! ‘The richest of all restora- age the esrentialx of life that are eahausted by disease, indigestion high Mving, overw 4 Sorry. exces mes ete NINE en What it Does! (7, ant ind ne digestion perfect 1t creates solid flesh, muscle and Stcagth, "ike guves toaey Mine, savens_aee brain becomes tive and clear. It restores lost Vitality, stops all wasting drains and weakness in either sex, and as a female regulator has no equal, Price 50c., or five boxes $2.0. Druggists or by rail. We can help you. Advice and book, free. Write Us About Your Case. The Dr. Chase Company, derly beautiful tn hue, reflecting every mood. “Grandmamma England,” as Queen Vic- toria’s descendants call her, has presented all her daughters and granddaughters with splendid opals, and they are so moch in English favor now, opal tiaras are usually numbered among the wedding gifis of titled brides. And so runs the fashion. From the “lucky day” and the iron ring of the mod- est purse to the amber amulet and the opal cirelet of unlimited wealth, we all may have a pet superstition and wear a pro- tecting talisman. nd Rainbows for the Stage. From the London Public Opinion. A most novel and ingenious method of e2dding the representation of a rainbow to stage realism has recently been discover- ed, the effect which ts produced being as beautiful as the means employed are sim- ple. The apparatus consists of an ordl- nary box, having a semi-circular opening in front to give the shape of the rainbow, within which are two candelabra prisms, mounted on supports, so that they can be revolved by means of handles fixed out- side. To work the apparatus, a strong light is projected through the prisms and through the opening, across which strips of wire are fixed in order to break up the rays, and thence on to a back-drop scene. When the prisms are turned in opposite directions, it is asserted that the most beautiful and vivid color effects are pro- duced. —— - — +e+— .—__ “It was Napoleon, you know, who said that heaven was on the side of the army with the heaviest artillery.” “Yes, Napoleon was all right in his day, but he is a back number. Heaven nowa- ays is on the side of the country that has the most bonds outstanding in foreign hands.”—Indianapolis Journal. It is a mother’s duty to crown her child > with that greatest blessing any human woe Possess—good health. This she can only do by tal Tr care of h rt te ene PE, a ttn luring the period of gestation. ‘00 few ‘women realize the im ince of thei health. ‘Too few understand that the health of their children is dependent upon the vigor and health of the ins of reproduc- tion. ‘A woman who is to become a mother rapes ied anne ent a saree by taking Dr. Pierce's Favorite ro seri; SS ene Sor Se cure of