The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 21, 1899, Page 22

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 21, 1899. of his lleutenants an and French fluently and at other times Yan he was out of the common ak with him. an was at Cavite. Later on I aff of Aguinaldo. After talking rently no nearer his confidence than 1 upon whose face was written un- v good education and had a splendld roundings. The only man to cated Tagello, Alexandrino, an ed undoubted confidence. fellow for conspiraclies and He sald to me once, “This country is doomed to years of war, end it {s better so, we will be rid of a surplus population.” I saw no more of Maclea or Yan Loo Tat, until one day after the capitulation of Manila, when Surgeon Whiting, in charge of the smallpox , me with the news that 2 friend of mine, one of Aguln- s dying and wished to see me. e to the cane c an feebly held out & hand and s life, L outars moialons iniyantd 1 some good. It has never been of Jish time 1 saw n at Bakor, o s &pD: despised owledge. med a He “a 1ge of Tamsul, during the time Liu-Ming-Chul was a man to bring the people her influence be or_since, s a provincial chief, was in- testant missionary, who gave 1 Mr. Maclean, the English t in his employ along the line n bes nt sted in me . where I entered one of 1 soon became dissatis he placed me with language. Mr. Maclean gave me per- me he placed me in charge of through the lowland provinces bes would permit nd extremely clannish. ing with him n under diff « fidence We have My father rent ‘sects of in I decided to take a trip into an uncle of mine, a brother warm welcome, but in this sa man was_dev t maining years of Y part Buddistical, part savage. He wi 2 5 ¢ vipers, and his performances with fire a to return, had T not c: 8 gt > than a minute to convinee she became my bride. As m e wom s matter, | immediately made my proposal LOCOoCCOOOO2COCOCOC00C000000000C00C ‘Do you, by Gad!”" sald the mate—and then the| pair of them closed without any further | preliminaries. Copyrighted, 189, by Cutcliffe Hyne. \’ ER cargo’ll have shifted,” sald the third mate, ““and when she got list her people will have felt frightened and left her. 5 s¢ary look to her. with her yardarms spiking every | said Captain Image, “‘and her decks like the side of T shouldn’t care, to navigate a craft that preferred to on her beam ends.” ss, sir, and you'll see the lee quarter boat davit tackles are overt at means they got at least one boat in the water. To my min s a dere! 2 ' w have got to dry land somewhere, poor beggars,” sald | “N things, those old wind jammers, Mr. Strake. ughts. “‘She’s an iron ship, and she’ll be 2000 tons good. the Frisco grain tra 1 at the white rail of the bridge. He was a Very young very keen on getting the chance of distinguishing him- d here, on the warm, windless gwells abeam, the chance seemed koning him. “I've been thinking, sir, if you could lend me half a dozen men I could take her in somewhere myseif.” “I'm as to lend you half a dozen angels. Look at the deck- bands; look ickly trip this has been. We've had to put some of 1 already; and as for getting any paint- or having the ship cleaned up a bit, why I can see we shall go | > Liverpool as dirty a Geordie collier. Mr. Strake, If you have a brains stowed away anywhere, I wish to whiskers you'd show mad at losing a nice lump of salvage,” thought Strake. 1 guess. i So he said, quietly: “Aye, aye, sir,” and walked to the he bridge. age followed him half way, but stopped irresolutely, with e room telegraph. m the fore main deck below him uin Owen Kettle, was leaning on the rail, staring wist- " Image mused, ‘“’tisn’t hard to guess what he's think- ing abo I wonder if T could fix it for him to take her home. It nyl%ht sct him on in, and he’s come low enough, Lord knows. 1f I hadn’t given him a room in the first class for old time's sake he'd have had to go home as a distressed seaman and touched his cap to me when I passed. Where we're going to scratch him up a crew from's the thing that Im;]' S Well, we'll see.” He leaned down over the upper bridge rall and Image ghe been? nodded toward the deserted vessel. ‘What do you make her out for?’ risco grain ship. Stuff the bulk. And it's shifted.” “Looks that way. Have you forgotten all your ‘mainsail haul' and the square rig gymnastics?"” “I'm d_enough pushed now to remember the theory sums they taught at navigation school if I thought they would serve me.” “I know. And I'm as sorry for you, captain, as I can hold. But you gee, it's this: I'm short of sallormen; I've barely enough to steer and keep the decks clean; anyway, I've none to spare.’ “I don’t ask for fancy goods,” sald Kettle, eagerly. “Glve me - “Fine full-rigger, hasn't aptain Kettle ran down off the bridge and was quickly out of sight and_hard his quest for volunteers. Presently Kettle came back. “Well, capt he said, “I got a fine crew to volunteer, if you can your wav to let me have them. 'T' a fireman and a trimmer, h English; there’s a third-class passeng dago of some sort, I think h that was a ganger on the Congo Railway; a negro stone- mason, Mr. Ds that'll make good, strong ship’s c “Dayto * said Image. . he’s an officer in the English army, and been some sort of a resident or political thing up in one of those nigger towns at the back there. What's he want to go fo! Sald he the fun of the thin; Captain ‘e a grim laugh Vell, I think he'll find all the fun Le's a » for hefore he's ashore again.” | The word was *‘ Y. e third m. fended off the boat while Kettle's crew of scrambled unhandily down to take their | illaces. The negi vho had been a stowaway, refused stub- thing with bands on {t—apes, niggers, stokers, what you Itke. and I'll soon to the father. The old man was indignant. speech against the outside world In ticular. “His venom was directed against my clothing, my hair and my unnecessary accomplishments. and finally wound up by denying me the girl's hand unless I became one of his tribe and dropped entirely the ways of clvilization. “I loved the girl her name—with a wild passion that may not be described. ays I brooded upon the condition, and then I came to the conclu at once she was my wife I could flee to Tamsul and defy the old man “The next day I lad aside the clothing of the white man and the ways of the civilized. "I donned the tribal headband and assumed & position of authority as the chief’s nephew. “Having complacently demeaned myself to suft his pleasure I now de- manded the girl of my uncle. We were sitting before a fire from which at Will he brought by passing his hands over It red, green or yellow flames. il turned his hideous, parchment-like face toward me and said: “‘You masquerade well, my nephew, but there is one condition you must fulfill. Remember that you must bring in a head, the head of a Chinaman, ere you can claim my daughter! “Filled with horror at his demand 1 made & mute appeal to the daughter. ““I am my father's daughter,’ you are a Japanese coward. Conform to our tribal customs, man, and I will be yours. You had better go at once. Go!" “After T had left that old devil at his mysterious fire and wandered into the moonlight, I broke into a run down the mountain path toward civiliza- tion. Before making the first turn in the road I looked back toward the great cleft in the rock. There was a green light in the sky, and in relief gtood & black figure. It was Geta, and as she saw me stop she flung up her arms. 1 thought I heard her laugh and the one word: ‘Coward!’ “Seating myself by the side of the road T pondered on the situation. Tt seemed fo me as if a welght of blackness, which never again has lifted had descended upon me. I thought of all my opportunities. I thought of my ambitions and of lean and the good missionary, Dr. Mackay. I also reasoned fhat between civilization and savagery it was but a ques- tion of clothing, customs and surroundings. I had seen the white man in China do things that would have shamed a tribesman. I had seen the wh with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other. The night lizard croaked incessantly and .it was always the same ing— ta. Geta, C a.’ “T wore a sword something like the Tagalo ‘bolas,’ and I tried its edge upon my thumb. After all, what was one coolie the less? : eling of numbness came over me and I think I dozed away. “When I was again consclous it was not yet morning and the night lizard still croaked. I was unutterably {ired. Presently I heard some one coming up the path. Instinctively I grasped my sword. It was a man. Just as he passed the spot where I stood 1 let him have the sword. With He delivered himself of a long general and the Japanese in par- the manner of dressing He criticized my father, at me, ‘and she sald, looking ““‘”’"{ ecome & true t all my strength 1 struck the blow. His head rolled down the road and the body blocked the path. 1 must have been demented, for I Flfked up the ¢ and tossed it in the bushes, muttering, ‘Somebody might fall over and get hurt! I remember that 1 was much surprised to find the hing still warm when I grasped it by the halr. It was then I discovered the man was no Chinaman. What matter? “It was with a of joy that 1 stood again in the cleft of the hill. The old man was still at his mummeries, but before I could speak he raised his head and said: knew vou would come back! 2 was lying beside him asleep, but at the sound of his voice sed her head and looked toward me “With a swing-of the arm 1 flung the head between them. The thing bounded upon the b, shelter and after remalining-a moment as if sus- nded it tumbled into the fire. W‘"'(;r‘-\.‘ e }u 3\'1]\1 cry and fell fo the ground, her hands pressed tightly to her ey Then rising, after one more look, she sprangJnto the jungle, from which rang back her shrieks. “The old man, too, hobbled away Into the underbrush as fast as his aged legs could carry him. | “Jumping down 1 made my way to the fire. Then for the first time In | the Tight I got a good look at the face “It was the head'of Geta’s brothe 000 0000000000000 C000 00000020000 - b i | lmg j & ® | teach them their dancing steps. Let me go round and see. I believe I can rake up ough hands somehow.’ “Well, vou must be quick about said Image. “I can only give bjected loudly that he came from Sa’ Leone ct, some one crammed a bucket over his head Titer of the onlookers Ahead of them the quiet ship shouldered clumsily over the rollers, now guehing down till she dipped her martingale, now swooping up again, sending whole cataracts of water swirling & her waist. The boat was run up canpily Kettle jumped into the malin chains and cl d on board over the bulwarks.” “Now, pass up was a frei umid_the crew, Mr. said he. T'm cgmin next, if you don’'t mind,” said the third mate. Must obey th n's orders,” he explained, as they stood together: sloping decks. “You heard yourself what he Well, Mr. Mate 1d Kettle, grimly, “'I hope you'll decide she’s sea- hy, because whatever view you take of it, here I'm going to stay.” 'he’ mate frowned. He was a young man; he was here in autharity, and hc had a great notion of making his authority felt. Captain Kettle was 1o him merely a down-on-his-luck free-passage nobody, and as the mate was large and lusty he did not anticipate trouble. aid, captain. The third mate led the way down to the lazaret hatch. He got his fingers in the ring and pulled it back. Then he whistled. ‘“Half full of water,” he said. “I thought 8o from the way she floated. It's up to the beams down here. Likely enough she'll have started a plate somewhere, "Fraid {t's no go for you, captaln. Why, if a breeze was to come on half the side of her might drop out, and she’d go down like a stone.” Now, to Kettle's honor, be it aid (seeing what he had in his mind) he did not fackle the man as he knelt there peering into the lazaret. Instead, e waited till he stood up again, and then made his statement coldly and eliberately ““This ship's not too dangerous for me, and I choose to judge. she’ll do for me, ghe's good enough for the crew I've got In ¥ I want them on deck and at work withow “Dn you. by gad!” said the mate, and then the pair of them closed without any further preliminaries. They were both of them well used to quick rough and tumbles, and they both of them knew that the n who gets the first grip in these wrestles usually wins, and in: tinctively each tried to act on that knowledge. But'if the third mate had bulk and strength, Kettle had science and abun it wiryness; and though the pair of them t their footing on the siopi cabin floor at the first embrace, and wriggled over and under llke a pair of eels, Captain Kettle got a thumb artistically fixed in the bigger man’s windpipe. and held it there doggedly. The mate. growing more and more purple, hit out with savage force, but Kettle dodged the bull-like blows'like the boxer he was, and the mate’s efforts gradunally relaxed. But at this point they were interrufled. making me seasick,” sald a voice, fellows. And if ur boat. Now any-more palaver.”” “That wobbly hoat 'so T came on board here. Kettle looked up. *Mr. Phillips,” he said, the rest of our crew, on deck out of the boat.” “But what are you two doing down there? “We disagreed over a question of judgment. He sald this ship fsn't safe and T shouldn’t have the chance toftake her home. I say there's nothing wrong with her that can't be remedied, and home I'm golng to take her, anyway. Tt may be the one chance {n'my life, sir, of gotting & balance at the bank, and I'm not going to mis; “Ho,” said Dayton-Phillips. “If you don’t like to come, you needn’t,” satd Kettle. to have the stone-mason and the Dago and those twe coa haps you'd better go back. It will be wet, sort of job to snit a soldier.” Dayton-Phillips flushed siightly, and then he laughed. “T suppose that's intended to be nasty.” he sald “Well, captain, I shall have (o prove to you that we soldiers are equal to a bit of manual labor sometimes. By the way, T don't want to interfere in a personal matter, but I'd Ike it oy a favor if you wouldn’t kill Strake quite. I rather like him.”" “Anything to oblige,” said Kettle, and took his thumb out of the third mate's windpipe. ‘““And now, sir, as vou've, s to speak, signed on for duty here, away with you on deck and get those four other beauties up out of the boat. b Dayton-Philiips touched his cap and grinned. and went back up the companion. aShortly afterward he came to Teport the men o addressed his late opponent. “Now, look here, youn, ¢ to have more trouhle on deck beforé the hands. Have Tgx'x"h{ar{mn‘x\;u:fis “For the present, ves,” sald the third mate, husklly, “But I hane we'll meet again some other day to have a bit of further talk L The third mate went down fo his boat, and the three rowers took her Beross to the M'poso, where she was hauled up to davits again " Thg steamer’s siren boomed out farewells as she got under way again, and Kettle with his own bhands unbent and reversed ensign from the shone ]m?én gxx;]m: ?;;Addrnn lg ;!rpetlo the pe%)k nng dipped it three times in sa. ute. @ breathed more ‘eely now. ne chance digers o e of i o ce and a host of unknown Alone of all the six men on thé derelict Captain were required. The vessel lay In pathetic helplessness on her sian Jionih to capsize in the first squall which came along, and their first effort must be to get her in proper trim while the calm continued, They pulled aw: the hatch covers and saw beneath them smooth slopss of Selllcd AWAY As though they were an invitation to work, shovels were made frst along the combings of the hatch. The six men took these, and witn sheris dropped down upon the grain: And then began a period of Homerls ol he heat u dust rose from the wheat as Hullo, you “I wish you'd go and get “But I'm going. 1-heavers. Per- . hard work here; no way the “Aye, aye, sir,” he said, n board, and Kettle R ]naer thg tez‘:}v,u was nl'fl.lr;lg. and choking volumes, but the pace of the circling . lowed to slacken. They worked there strieucf o ot ana thay understood one and all that they wers working for thelr. lives. A bree:‘s’ had sprung up almost as soon as the M'Doso had steamed away, and "With a swing of my arm I flung the head berween them. ’ HE Official Directory of the Far East speaks of the savages of Formosa In the following manner: ‘There are two classes of savages In Formosa, namely, ages of the plains and the mountaineers. The hill tribes coerce the men of the plains to assist them in carry- ing on war @ Japanese, the latter being reluctant to break the friendly relations that exist. Among these savages there are tribe hose young men a not allowed to marry until they have brought into camp the head of one Chinaman .at least. * * * The 1 bent on ‘winning his spurs’ as a valiant warrior lies in wait for some passing Chinaman, or perchance a party compossd of three or four Chinese tradesmen, upon whom he springs from ambush before they suspect danger. A short scufile, if any, ensues, and the headless trunk of an inoffensive Chinaman lies on the ground, while the savage, bounding over hill and dale, makes off to his camp with the coveted trophy in his hand. Upon arrival the warrior goes straight to his chief and lays before him the ghastly evidence of his prowes A war dance ig soon in full swing, amidst which the hero of the hour is introduced to his bride, and before many hours he is al< ake her to his bark hut.” lowed to ooooeooeoeooooooooooooooooooooooooooooeooooooooooooeooooooooo_‘ ¢ it was fresheni the barometer in the cabin was registering a “They no speakee English,” sald Kettle, dryly. ‘You might have e it D S e o with ugly clouds. g | heard me ask that, sir, before I started to talk to that skipper to make So far well had not been sounded. 1t was no use getting alarming | him begin the show. And he did begin it, and that's the great point. If statistics to discourage oneself unnecessarily. But after night had fallen, | ever you've been in a police court vou'll always fnd the magistrate ask, and it was impossible to see to work in the gloomy hold any longer with- | ‘Who began this trouble?” And when he finds out, that's the man he out lamps. Captain Keftle touk the sounding rod and found eight feet, | logs. No, those fishermen won't kick up a bobbery when they get back He mentioned this when he took down the ps into the hold, but he | to happy Portugal again, and as for our own crowd here on board, they did not 3 that as the sounding had been taken | aren’t likely to talk when they get ashore and have money due to them with the well therefore considerably under the truth. | ~ “Well, T suppose there's reason in that, though I_should have m-= Still he the trimmer on deck to take a spell | doubts about the stone-mason. He comes from Sierra Leons, remembel at the and hims resumed his shovel work alongside the others. | and they're great on the rights of man there.” Stra on through the night the x men stuck to their su\a%e “Quite s0,” said Kettle. “I'll see the stone-mason gets packed off to toil, the from their blistered hands: reddening the shafts of the | sea again in'a stokehold before he has a chance of stirring up the mud shovels. now and again one or anotherof them choked with the dust | ashore. When th ck man gets too pampered he has to be brought low. and went to get a draft of lukewarm water from the scuttle-butt. But | again with a rush, no one stayed overlong on the exce sions. The breeze had blown up inte | “I see, d Dayton-Phillips, and then he laughed. a gale. The n head w: rl and moonless, but every minute “There’s something that tickies you, sir?" the black heav vlit by bursts of lightning, which' showed the labor- | I was thinking, skipper, for a man that believes he's belng put in tha ing. disheveled ship set among great mountains of breaking seas. way of a soft thing by direct guidance from on high, you're using up a The sight would have been bad from a well-manned, powerful steam- | tremendous lot of energy to make sure the Almighty's wishes dont mals: boat; from the deck of the derelict it approached the terrific. | carry.” There w on board the ship during that terrible night who ““Mr. Phillips,” said Kettle, gravely, “it was understood when ha let openly .owned to ‘being cow v bewailed their insanity in ever | me know I was to have this chance I was to do my human utmost to being lured away from the M'poso. Dayton-Phillips had sufficlent self- | carry it through myself. God sends us all into this world with hands control to keep his feelings, whatever they were, unstated; but Kettle | and heads, and he isn't pleased with a man who doesn’t put thess to their faced all difficulties with indomitable courage and a smiling face. proper u: “I helieve,” said Dayton-Phillips to him once when they were taking The three captive Portuguese were brought up on deck and wers together at the clanking pumps, “‘you really glory in finding your- astly mess.” pull through, T tell s meanwhile had by quickly induced by the ordinary persuasive methods of the merchant | service officer to forego thelr sulkiness and turn to diligently at what rou. | s required of them. But even with this help the heavy ship was *n doing their work, and although the | still considerably undermanned, and the incessant labor at the pumps fell list was not entirely gone, the vessel at times (when a sea buttressed her | wearlly on all hands. The bay, true to its fickle nature, changed on them up) floated almost upright. The gale was still blowing. again. The sunshine was swamped by a driving gray mist of raln and The st was of less account now, and the vessel was once more under | the glass started on a steady fall. command of her can It was the leak which gave them most cause | for anxlety. Likely enough it was caused by the mere wrenching away of a couple of rivets. But the steady inpour of water tnrough the holes | would soon have made the ship grow unmanageable and founder if it was The night worsened as it went on. The wind piled up steadily in violence, and the sea rose till the sodden vessel rode it with a very babel of shrieks and groans and complaining sounds. Toward morning a ter- rific_squall powdered up against them and hove her down, and a dull not _constan attended to. i rumbling was heard in her bowels, to let them know that once more her The dreaded bay, fickle as usual, saw fit to receive them at first with a | cargo had shifted. smiling face. During the afternoon they rose the brown sails of a Portu- | For the moment even Kettle thought that this time she was gone for guese fishing schooner., and Kettle headed toward her. Let his crew be as willing as they would, therg was no doubt that this murderous work at the pumps could not be kept up for a voyage to | England. 1If he could not get further reinforcements he would have to take the ship into the nearest foreign port to barely save her from sink- good. She lost her way and lay down like a log in the water, and the racing seas roared over h as though she had been a half-tide rock. Then to the impact of a heavier gasp of the squall the topgallant- masts went, and the small loss of top weight'seemed momentarily to ease her. Kettle seized upon the moment. He left the trimmer and one of the ing. And then where would be ighed-for ? Woefully thinned, | Portuguese at the wheel and handed himself along the streaming decks he thought, or more probably whisked away altogether. Captain Kettle | and kicked and cuffed the rest of his crew into activity. He gave his had a vast distrust for the shore foreigner over auestions of law pro- | orders, and the ship wore slowly round before the wind and began to pay ceedings and money matters. So he made for the schooner, hove his own | away on the other tack. vessel to, and ialed that he wished to speak. Great hills of sea deluged her in the process.and her people worked A boat was slipped into t} er from the schooner’s deck and ten |like mermen. half of their time submerged. But by degrees, as the vast swarthy, I Portuguese nen crammed into her. Two or three | rollers hit and shook her with their ponderous impact, she came upright of them had a working, knowl of English; their captain spoke it with | again, and after a little while shook the grain level in her holds and fluent inaccuracy, and’ before of them had gone aft to Kettle, who |assumed her normal angle of heel. stood at the wheel, the ard the whole story of the ship being Dayton-Phillips struggled up and hit Kettle on the shoulder. “How's found derelic nd (very urally) were anxious enough by some means | that. umpire?” he bawled. My faith, you are & clover > or another to finge - of the salvage. Captain Kettle touched his cap. “God bore a hand sir”” he Their leader al at once. “All right-a, captain. I see | shouted through the wind. “If I'd tried to straigh how vou want. ta > now and take-a you into Ferrol without | without his help every man here would have heen fi ¥ou, being at more trouble Even Dayton-Phillips, 1 eptics though he mig! “Nothing of the kind. id Kettle “I'm just wanting the loan of two | there was “‘something in it s the voyage went on. th, or three hands to give my fellows a spell or two at that pump. We're a | Jeak stopped, They did not know how it had happened. and thes i aae bit shc nded, that's all. T'l} pay A. B.'S wages on Liverpool scale, | very much care. Kettle had his theories. Anyway, it stopped. To go on and th: lot more than you Dagos give among yourselves, and if the | with, although they were buffeted with every kind of evil weather, all men work well I'll throw in a dash besides for ‘bacca money.’ ™ | their mischances were speedily rectified. In a heavy sea their unstabls “Ta-ta-ta,” said the Portuguese, with a wave of his yellow fist. “It | cargo surged about as though it had been liquid, but it always shifted cannot be done, and I will not lend you men. It shall bé as I say: We |back again before she quite capsized take-a you into ¥errol. Do not fear-a, capitan; you shall have money for | All hands got covered with salt-water boils. All hands, with the ex- vou shall have some of our salvage.” | ception of Kottle, who remained. as usual, neat. grew gaunt, bearded, illips, who was standing near, and knew the little sailor's | dirty and unkempt. They were grimed with sea salt, they were fla od by | violent suns: but by dint of hard schooling they were becoming handy sailormen, ail of them, and even the negro stone-mason learned to obey an order without first thinking over its justice till he earned a premoni. tory hiding. “It's a_blooming Flying Dutchman we're on.” an outbreak. But Kettle held himself in, and still spoke to the man civill ““That’s good E: stand the langus “No,'”” said the fellow, readily enough, *‘that man does not, nor does lish you talk,” he said. “Do all your crowd under- sald the coal-trimmer, he, nor’ him who acted as mate. ‘‘There's no killing the old beast. Only hope she “Right-0.’ said Kettle. -‘Then as those three men can’t kick up a | gets us ashore somehow and doesn’t stay fooling about at sea forever bobbery ther end, they've just got to stay here and help work | just to get into risks. I want to get off her. She's too blooming lucky to this vesse As for the rest of you filthy, stinking, scale-covered |be quite wholesome, somehow.” cousins of 2 Thought you w yellow-faced—ah! 5 The hot-tempered Portuguese wak not a man to stand this tirade (as Kettle anticipated) unmoved. His fingers made a vengeful snatch toward the knife in his belt, but Kettle was ready for this, and caught it first and flung iv overboard. Then, with a clever heave, he picked up the man and sent him a# the knife. He tripped up one of the Portuguese who couldn't ‘speak English, dragged him to the cabin companion and toppled him down the ladder. Dayton-Phillips (surprised at himself for abetting such lawlessness) captured a second in like fashion, and the English fire- man and coal-trimmer picked up the third and dropped him down an open hatchway Into the grain in the hold beneath. But there were six of the fishermen left upon the deck, and these did not look upon the proceedings unmoved. They had been slow to act at first, but when the Initial surprise was over they were blazing with rage and eager to do murder. The Italian and the Sierra Leone negro over the side of the vessel yvou go berore you're put. In Bristol Channel a little spattering tug wheeled up within hall, toss- going to steal my lawful salvage, did you, you crawling, | ing like a cork on the brown waves of the estuary, and her skipper In the | green pulpit between the paddle boxes waved a hand cheer “Seem to have found some dirty weather, captain?” he bawled. “Want a pull into Cardiff or Newport?” “Cardiff. What price? Say £100.” «T wasn't asking to buy the tug. You're putting a pret on her for that new lick of paint you got on your rail.” “I'll take £80." h. T can sail her in myself if you're going to be funny. handy as a pilot-boat. brig-ricged like this, and my crew know her fne T'll give you £20 into Cardiff, and vou're to dock me for that.” ome, now, captain, thirty. I'm not here for sport. Tve got to make my living.” |~ “My man,” said Kettle, “I'll meet you and make it £25, and Tl see v fancy figure | She's as | you in Aden before I glve you a penny more. You can take tha ran out of theiir way on to the forecastle head, and they came on, vain- | sheer off.” 3 t or lorious in numbers-and armed with their deadly knives. But the two hrow us your blooming rope,” said the tug skipper. English roughs, the English gentleman and the liftle English sailor, wera all of them men well accustomed to take care of their own skins; the belaying pins out of the pinrail seemed to come by Instinct into their hands, and not one of them got so much as a scratch. | It 'was all the affair of a minute. It does not do to let these little | impromptu scrimmages simmer over long. In fact, the whole affair was decided in the first rush. The quartet of English went in, despising the Dagos, and quite intending to clear them off the ship. The invaders were driven overhoard by sheer weight of blows and prestige, and the victors leaned on the bulwark, puffing and nuplni, and watched them swim away to their boat through the clear water below. *Set of blooming pirates,” said Kettle. - 2 ‘But Dayton-Phillips sgemed to view the situatlon from a different point. “T'm rather thinking we are the pirates. How about those three we've got on board?"” “There, sir,” said Kettle, sotto voce, to Da; £ marvelousness of it. God’s stood by me to th ; I've saved at least £10 over that towage. and by James I've seen times when a ship mauled about like this would have been bled for four times the amount before a tug would pluck her in.” “Then we are out of the woods now?" “We'll get the canvas off her and then you can.go helow and s You can sleep in a shore bed this night if you choose, sir, and to-mors we'll see about fingering the salvage. There’ll be no trouble there ne We shall just have to ask for a check an Lloyds will pay it. and then vou and the hands will take your share, and I—by James, Mr. Phillips, shall be & rich man over this business. I shouldn't be a bit surprised but what I finger a snug £500 as my share. Oh, sir, God's been very good to me over this, and I know it, and I'm grateful. My wife will ba gratefal too. I wish you could come to our chapel some day and see her. : + 'vou see the