The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 20, 1903, Page 6

curred to you to n terrible to look m first without 1S to be some- in the effect three time tury ¥ iis ends. She had er frocks were gath- neck. So the vicar, t mai y. had pri- vately a high collar of ber uncle. The shirts her ncle’'s drawer had p d inside them, “Wear a seventeen-a 114 collar with this shirt,” so I not be surprised to learn th occasionaily fell into the collar, so to speak nd found herself most effec muzzle But the worst was her mask. Her hair came down in a heavy bang almost to her straight brown eyebrows; her round, brown eyes we omewhat short sighted; her eye-holes were too small. In conse- quence of these facts, whenever it was de- sirable or necessary to see an inch before her nose she was obliged to push the mask up over her bang, when it waved straight out and up, and looked like some high priest's mitre. Her title was due to her uncle, who, to @o him justice, was as innocent of his in- fluence in the matter as of the loss of bis collar. “When a person isn't the head of the pirates, but is an officer just the same, and has some say about things, what do you call that?” she asked him abruptly one day. He was reading at the time and not unnaturally understood her to say “the head of the parish.” “Why, that is called a vicar, I suppose you mean,” he answered. “A vicker! Does he have some say?’ “Some say?" “Yes"—impatiently—“some say. He hasn't got to do the way the others tell bim all the time, has he?” “Oh, dear, mo. Don't you know Mr, Wright down at the chapel? He's called the vicar. He really manages it, I think. Of course it's not like being the rector—"" “Chapel? Is that the ouly kind of vick- er, like Mr. Wright?” “Why, of course not, silly! Jots of different kinds.” “Oh!” and she retired, practicing the word. ‘the others were much impressed by her cleverness in discovering such a fascinating title. - It savored of wicked and villain, to begin with; and, pursuing the advantage of their previous ignorance of it, she invented several privileges and perquisites of the office. One of these was the right to sum- mon the band, when the head captain had decided on an expedition, to any meet- ing place she saw fit; and, though in a great many ways her superiors found her & nuisance, the lieutenant in particular objecting In & nageing, useless sort of way to most of her suggestions, they could not but admit that her selection of mysterious, unsuspected rendezvous was There are often brilllantly original. On one especial occaston, - warm after- noon late In June, when the houses and yards were all quiet and the very dogs lay stiil in the shade, the vicar led them softly to the chicken yard, mystified them by crawling through a broken glass frame into the covered ruost, crouching along beneath the perches and going out agaln by the legitimate door without stopping to speak. This effectually silenced the lleutenant—the chicken house seemed an old ruse to him, and he was sniffing in preparation for the expression of his opinfon. Out across the yard and twice around an enormous hogshead they walked eolemnly. Such a prelude must mean a great finale, and the head captain felt decidedly curlous. The vicar paused, made a short detour for the purpose of getting two empty boxes, piled them one on the other, and lightly swung herselt into the cask. A loud thud announced her safe arrival at the bottom, and flushed with delight at the incomparable secrecy of the thing the head captain followed her. The lieutenant, grumbling as usual, and very nearly hanging him- self in his sash, which caught on the edge, tumbled after, and standing close together in the great barre] they grinned consciously at each other. The head captaln broke the silence. “Are we all here?” he demanded, his volce waking strange and hollow echoes. “Yes,” replied the vicar delightedly, bursting with pride. “Aye, aye!” sald the lleutenant with careful formality. “Then listen here!” the head captain spoke In a hoarse whisper. “This’ll be a diffrent way. This is golng to be the real thing. To-day we're going to steall" The. vicar gasped. “Really steal?’ ghe whispered. “Steal what?” sald the lleutenant with & non-committal gruffness. “I don’t know till I get there,” replied the head captain grandly. “Gold, I sup- Pose, or treasures, or something like that, Of course, if we're caught—"" The leutenant sucked in his breath with a peculiar whistling nolse—ons of his most envied accomplishments—and ran his finger nall with a grating sound around his side of the barrel. b “Jim Elder stole some apples from my father’s barn, and my father licked him go0d,” he suggested. “Appl Apples!” The head captain frowned terribly, adding, with biting irony, “I s'pose Jim Elder's a pirate! I s'pose he wears a uniform! I s'pose he knows the ways this gang knows! I s'pose he meets in & barrel like this! Hum?” There was no answer and the head cap- tain settled his neck more firmly. “Come on!” he sald. ) They looked at the sharp edge of the hogshead; it was far away. They looked inquiringly at the vicar; she dropped her eyes. The head captain smiled to himself. “I guess you kids never'd get out o' here unless I showed you how,” he re- marked cheerfully. “Forward! March!” He took the one step possible and scowled because they did not follow him. “Don’'t you se¢?’ he sald {irritably. “When I say ‘three,” fall over. Now,; one, two, three!” He pushed the lleutenant and vicar eagainst the side of the barrel and pre- ~clipitated himself against them. The bar- “*rel wavered, tottered and fell with a bang on its side, the subordinate officers Jouncing and gasping, unhappy cushions for their head captaln, who crawled out over them, adjusted his collar and strode off across the chicken yard. At the gate they caught up with him. “Lieutenan “Aye, aye, sir!” “Go straight ahead and watch out for us. Whistle three times if the coast clear. Beware of—of anything you see! “Aye, aye, sir!” The lieutenant slunk off, a peculiar cau- tien In the slope of his shoulders and his long, nolseless stride. He rounded the barn and disappeared from sight. There was a moment of suspense. Suddenly he appeared again, his hana raised warn- ingly. “Sst, sst!” he hissed. Promptly they skipped behind the wood- house door. In a moment a man's foot- steps were audible; somebody wes swing- ing by the barn, whistling as he went. He called out to the cook as he went by, “Pretty hot, ain’t it? Hey! I say It's pretty hot.” He was gone. He had absolutely no idea of their presence. The first of the delicious thrills had begun. Presently three soft whistles broke the silence. They glided out round the barn and scaled the first fence. “Which way, head captain?’ A dusty forefinger indicated the neigh- boring barn. “Secret way or door?” “Secret way."” They carried hurried glances about them; nobody was In sight. At the corner of the barn the lleutenant again per- formed scout duty, and his three whistles brought them to a back entrance hardly noticeable to the chance explorer of stable yards—a low door into a disused cow house. Softly they stole in, softly peeped into the barn. It lay placid and empty, smelling of leather and hay and horses, with barrels of grain all about, odd bits of harness and tins of wagon grease, wisps of straw and broken tools scattered over the floor. Broad bands of sunlight streaked everything. They crept through a lane of barrels and mounted a rickety stair, heart in mouth. Who might be at the top? A moment’s pause, and then the head captain nodded. “All right, men,” he breathed. They went carefully through the thick hay that strewed the upper floor, avold- ing the cracks and- pits that loosened boards and decayed planking offered the unwary foot. The perspiration dripped from the vicar's round cheeks; she panted with the heat. Walking on . his tiptoes, the head cap- tain sought the darkest-depths of the cor- ner, stumbling over an old covered chest. He stopped; he put His'®ands on the lid. The two attendant officers gasped. The head captain, with infinite caution, lfted that lid, R, THE SUNDAY CALL. Suddenly a qull, echoing crash shook the floor. The vicar squeaked in nervous ter- ror. I say squeaked; because with grand presence of mind the lieutenant smothered her certain scream n the folds of his ever- ready sash, and only a faint chirp dis- turbed the deathly silence that followed the crash, The head captain’s hand trem- bled, but he held the cover of the chest and walted. Again that hollow boom, followed by a rustling as of hay being dragged down and a champing, swallow= ing, gurgling sound. “Nothin’ but the horses,” whispered the Ileut'enant, removing his sash. “Shut up, now!" The vicar breathed again. The head captain bent over the chest. “‘Oh! Oh! Oh, fellows! Look a-here!* His voice shook. His eyes stared wide. They crept nearer and caught big breaths, There in the old chest, carelessly thrown together, uncovered, unprotected, lay a glittering wealth of strange gold and sil- ver treasures, Knobs, cups, odd pleced, shallow saucers, countless rings as big 2s small cookies, plain bars of metal, heavy rods The head captain’s eyes shone feverish- 1y, he breathed quick. “Here, here, here!” he shispered, and thrust his hands into the box. He ladled out a handful to the vicar. For a mo- ment she shrank away; and then, as & shallow, carved gold-coversd thing touched her hand, her cheeks heated red, she seized it and hid it in her pocket. “‘Gimme another,” she begged softly; “gimme that shiny little cup!” If there had been any doubt as to the heavenly reality of the thing, it was all over now. No more need the head cap- tain’s swelling words fill out the bare gaps of the actual state of the case. Here were the things—this was no pretend game. Here was danger, hers was crime, here was glittering wealth all unguarded, and no one knew but them! The head captaln first mastered himself. “H'm, that's enough—from here!” he commanded with dreadful implification. “Come on. They'll kill us If they catch us! Soft, now. Don’t breathe so loud, vicar!” Off in & different dtrection he led them, having closed the box softly, and instead of making for the stairs, stoppcd before three square openings in the floor He lay flat on his stomach and peered down one. The vicar caught the idea before the lleutenant. Light as a cat she dropped, scrambled out of the manger, and as a step sounded in the outer barn, dragged the lleutenant through in an agony of apprehension, stumbled across the great heap of stable refuse, and crouched, pal- pitating, behind the cow house door, The head captain, whom crises calmed end immediate danger heartened, himselt crept back into the stable to gather from the sound of the steps the direction taken by the intruder. He was talking to the horse. “Want some dinner? I'll bet you do. Btealing hay, was you. That'll never do.” It was enough. Soon he would go up- stairs to count over the treasures—who would ever have supposed that this sim- ple looking stableman had known for years of such a trove?—and then woe to the pirates! “Come on, you! Run for youglife!” he shot at them, and they tore across the yard and over the back fence, and across @ vacant lot, panting, stumbling, mutter- ing to each other, the vicar crying with excitement. The leutenant caught his foot in his sash and fell miserably, mis- taking them for arms of the law, as they loyally turned back to plck him up, and fighting them with feeble punches. They dragged him through a hedge and took refuge in an old tool house. - Slowly they got back breath. The de- licious horror of pursuit was lifted from them. It appeared that they were safe. ‘“You goin’ home now?” sald the lieu- tenant huskily. Home? . Home? Was the fellow mad? The head captain vouchsafed no answer. “Forward, march!” He strode out of the tool house and made for the barn. A large dog barked and a volce called: “Down, Danny, down!” They returned hastily and climbed la- borlously out of a little window on the other side of the tool house, striking a bee-line for the adjoining property. The treasure. jingled in their pockets as they L = qrIS e S g DRAE FIEATE. /FE DIED DEFENDING-— DEFENDING I3 LIFE~ =4 ran stealthily into this barn. The last restraint was cast away; they were on new territory. It was a clean, spacious spot Great shadowy, white-draped carriages stood along the sides; a smell of varnish and new leather prevalled. On the walls hung fascinating garden tools; quaint-nosed ‘watering pots, colls of hose, a lawn foun- tain. All was still. The head captaln strode across the floor, extending his hand with a majestic sweep. “All these things—all of ‘em—anything ‘Wwe want, we can takel” he muttered, but not to them. They could plainly see he was talking to himself. Wrapt in wild dreams of unchecked depredation he stamped about, fingering the garden hose, prying behind the carriages, tossing his head and breathing hard. Buddenly came a step as of & man walking on gravel. It drew nearer, near- er. For one awful moment the lleutenant seemed In danger of thinking himself a trightened little boy In a strange barn; he plucked at his sash nervously. The next instant two hands fell from oppo- site directions on his shoulders. “Get Into a carrlage—quick, quick, quick!” hissed the head captain, and he heard the vicar panting as she shoved him under the flap of the sheet that draped a high-swung victoria. Thump! thump! thump! went her heart, and the lleutenant’s breath whistled through his teeth. Never In their lives had such straining excitement possessed their every nerve. Oh, go on, go on, or * . shall scream! He sauntered by, he opened some door at the rear. The latch al' but clicked, when a hollow but unmistakable sneeze burst from the head captain’s surrey. Im- mediately the door opened again. The man took a step back. All was deathly still, the echoes of their leader's fateful sneeze alone thrilled the hearts of his an- gulshed followers. “Humph!"” muttered a deep voice, “that's queer. Anybody cut there?” Bllence. Silence that buzzed and hummed and roared in the -icar's ears. “‘Queer—I thought I heard * * * Damn queer!” muttered the #man. The leutenant shuddered. That was a word whose possibilities he hesitated to con- sider. Piracy is bad enough, heaven knows, but profanity is surely worse. Again the latch clicked. After an art- ful pause the nose of the head captain appeared, inserted at an inquiring angle between the two sheets that draped the surrey. Cautlously he swung himself down, cautiously he tiptoed toward the others. “Sst! sst! All safe!” he whispered. ‘They scrambled out, and a glance at his reserved frown taught them that the re- ¢ent sneeze must not be mentioned. Like cats they crept up the stairs and only the head captain’s t presence of mind prevented their falling backward down the flight, for there on the hay be- fore them lay a man stretched at full length, breathing heavily. His face was @ deep red in color and a strong, sweet- ish odor filled the loft. They turned about at the head captain’s gesture and waited while he stole fearfully up and examined the man. When he rejoined them there was a new triumph in his eyes, a greater exaltation In his hurried speech. “Come here, lieutenant!” “Aye, aye, sir.” “This 8 & dead pirate. He died de- fending—defending his life. He will be discovered If we leave him here.” This seemed eminently probable. The lleutenant looked alarmed. He took & step or two on the loft floor and returned, relieved. “No, he ain't dead, either,” nounced, “he’'s only as—'" “He 13 dea repeated the head cap- tain firmly. “Dead, I say. You shut up, will you? And we must bury him.” The lleutenant looked sulky and chewed the end of his sash. To be put down be- fore the vicar! It was hardly decent. And she, in her usual and frritating way, grasped the situation immediately. “We must bury him right off,” whispered excitedly, “before that gets up here.” “That man,” added the head captain, “is a dreadful bad fellow, I tell you. If he was to catch us up here I don’t know—I don’t know but he’d—here, come back, lleutenant! Come back, I say!™ “If you take him off to bury him he'll wake—"" “Hush your noise!” head captain angrily. The vicar could not wait for any one else's initlative, but began feverishly pulllng up handfuls of hay and plling them lightly over the dead pirate’s boots. The head captain covered the man’s body with two hastily snatched armfuls, and as the vicar's courage gave out at this point, coolly lald a thin wisp directly over the red face. The pirate was buried. It gave one a thrill to see hardly a dim out- line of his figure. “Hats off, my men,” whispered the head captain, hoarse with emotion, “and we will say a prayer. Lieutenant,” with & noble renunclation In his expression, “you may say the prayer! The lleutenant was touched and melted from his sulky scorn. “What'll I say? What'll T say,” he mut- tered, excitedly. “Not ‘Hallow Be Thy Name? That's a long one.” “Now I lay—" suggested the vicar, be an- she man interrupted the tremulously. “Pshaw, no!” Interrupted the head captain. “Not a baby thing like that! If you don’t know one, lieutenant, I'll make one up.” “No, I'll say one,” urged the Heutenant, hagtily. “T'll say one, captain. I'll say \ ) (7 74 ey wwuum tnat 1 Dad yesterd: & second till I remember it. The heavy, regular breathing contin ue: fo come out from under the hay whae lay the martyred pirate. The leutenant cleared his throat, shye his eyes tight to assist his memory and began his burial service: “Almighty 'n’ everlastin’ God, who's siven unto us, thy servants, grace by tha ¢'nfession of a true faith t' acknowledgs Eternal Trinity, and— In the power of the Divine Majesty—" prompted the vicar ostenta- tiously. “Will you keep still, worship the Unity, we beseech thee that thou wouldst keep ‘s—keep ‘s steadfast er wouldst keep 's steadfast—" The lleutenant paused helplessly. “In this faith,” added the vicar with triumph, dashing on with almost unintel- ligible rapldity, “and evermore defend us from all ‘dversities, who livest 'n’ deign-~ est one God, world "thout end. Amen!” Bhe took a necessary breath, and pushed back her mask still further from her tumbled bang. The head captain was visibly Impressed. It had never occurred to him to ay a collect. The lleutenant was not such a poor stick after all. Gravely he led the way downstairs climbed abstractedly through the littls window. Something was evidently on his mind. “The last time I saw that plra began. The Heutenant tripped, and sat down abruptly. “Tle—the last time you saw him? he stammered. “That's what I sald,” responded the head captain shortly. “The last time I saw him I didu’t s'pose 1I'd have to bury Miss? Majesty to * he him. He'd just got a lot of treasur nd stuff and—Sst! Sst! For your lives They scuttled off desperately. The ground was new to them, and had it not been for providential garbage barrels and outhouses they could hardly have hoped to conceal themselves from the man who ‘was raking up the yard. To avold him they dashed straight through his barn wnd rounded a summer house without percetving a small tea party going onthers tiil they ran through it, t& their own sick terror and the abject amazement of the tea party. T tore through a hedge, panted a doubtful moment In a woodhouse, then took up thetr headlong fight with the vague, straining pace of crowded dreams. On, on, on. SlUp behind that lilac clump—walt! Sst! Sst! Then get along! Oh, hurry, hurry! Pick up your sash! Whose is this yard? Never mind! Hurry! They dropped exh: own pear tree. “My, but that wi close shave! I thought they’d got us sure!” breathed the head captain. “Wh-who were they?' asked the leu- tenant, round-eyed. “Who were they? Who were they?™ the head captain repeated, scornfully. “The {dea! I guess you'd find out who they were If they caught y.u once!" The lleutenant shot a sly glance at the vicar. Did she know? You never could tell. She pretended She shivered at the head captain’s implication, “Yes, mrree, I guess you'd find out then,” she assured him. Suddenly the head captain’s face fell. “The treasure!” he gasped. “It's gone!" In dismay they turned out their pock- ets. All those vessels of gold and silver were lost—lost in that last mad rush. All but the shallow, gold-colored saucer in the vicar's hand. They looked at it en- viously, but honor kept them silent. To the vicar belonged the spotls. “I1 don’t see what good they wers, any- how,”” began the lleutenant, morosely. “‘Good? " mimicked the head captain, enraged. “‘Good? " Why, didn't we steal ‘em?™" Slowly they took off their uniforms and hid them under the back plasza. Slowly the occasion faded Into the light of com-~ mon day; objects lost their mystery, the barn and tool house imperceptibly divest- ed themselves of all glamour. It was only the back yard The head captain and the leutenant threw themselves down under the pear tres and fell Into a doze. The vicar, grasping her treasure, stumbled up the back stairs and took an informal nap on the landing. It must have been at this time that the gold colored saucer slipped from her hand, for when she woke on the sofa In the upper hall it was nowhere about. Some time during the hours of the next morning, as ¢ played quietly on the long piazza, she caught her mother's voice, slightly ralsed to reach the cook’s ear: ““Why, I suppose it is. I shouldn’t won- der, Maggle. I suppose the child picked it up somewhere. Did you hear that, Fred, about Mr. Van Tuyl's best harness? All scattered through half the back yards on Winter street. All those brass orna~ ments and parts of the very side lamps, too. Fortunately they found it all. Take that plece, Maggle, and give it to the man when you see him.” The vicar sighed. Just then she felt, with the poet, that homekeeping hearts are happlest. —— ADVERTISEMENTS. sted under their DR. CHARLES FLESH FOOD For the Form and Complexion. Has been success- fully used by lea ing actresses, sing- ers and women of tashion for more than 25_years. 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