The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 29, 1903, Page 8

THE SUNDAY CALL. (Copyright by A. Conan Doyle.) HEN the great wars of the i d been by the « L cht, the vast number of ateers which gu he anthor whth m P pointed r P had had enough E e Tt caibo upon the A his 1g of sugar and € he i winced at every top- B g 1 over the violet edge t sea f the twenty-gun Happy Delivery, had he coast and had littered d vessels and with mur- anecdotes were im pleasantries and of From the Ba- Main his coal black barque, wi uous name, had been freighted with death and many things which are worse than death. So nervous was Captain Scarrow, with his new fi rigged ship and her full and wvaluable lading that he struck out to the west as far as Bird's Island to be out of the usual track of commerce. And yet even in those solitary waters Be had been unable to shake off sinister traces of Captain Sharkey. One morning they had raised a single skiff edrift upon the face of the ocean. Its only occupant was a delirious sea- man, who - yelled hoarsely as they hoisted him aboard, and showed a dried-up t~ngue like a black and wrink- led fungus at the back of his mouth. Water end nursing soon transformed him into the strongest and smartest sallor on the ship. He was from Mar- biehead, in New England,. it seemed, and the sole survivor of a schooner which had been scuttled by the dread- ful Sharkey. ke Now that they lay under the guns of ity. bhemas Basseterre, all-danger from the pirate was_at an end and yet the thought of nm lay_heavily upon the segman’s d as he watched the agent’s boat from the Custom house Morgan,” saild mate, “that the agent will speak of Sharkey in the first hun- words that pass his lips.” captain, I'll . have you a silver ar and-chance it,” Bristol said the rough an beside him negro ,rowers ., shot the boat ide and the linen-clad steersman dder. Captain _Scarrow!” ' he you heard about Shar- rinned at the mate. try has he been up to asked ¥!- You've not got him safe key. here at dev he heard, then! under lock Basseterre. He was tried last Wednesday, and he is to be hange Captain and mate gave a shout of joy, which an instant later was taken up by the crew. Discipline was forgotten as they scrambled up through the break of the poop'to hear the news. - The New Englander was in the front of them with & radiant face turned up to beaven, for he came of the Puritan stock ‘Sharkey to be hanged!” he cried. “¥ou don’t know, Master Agent, if they lack & hangman, do you?” Why and we've o-morrow morning.” “Stand back!” cried the mate, whose outraged sense of discipline was even stronger than his interest at the news. “I'll pay that dollar, Captain Scarrow, with the lightest heart that ever I paid a wager yet. How came the villain to be taken?” “Why, as to that,'he became more than his own comrades could abide, and they took such a horror of him that they would not have him on the ship. So they marooned him upbn the Little Mangles to the soyth of the Mysteriosa Bank, and ‘there he *was found by a Portobello’ trader, who*brought him in. There was talk of sending him to Jam- aica to be tried, but our good little Governor, 'SirCharles Evan, would not hear of it. ‘He’s my meat,’ said he. ‘and,I claim the cooking of it.’ If you can stay till to-morrow merning at 10, you'll see the joint swinging.” “I wish I could,” sard the captain, wistfully, “but T ‘am sadly, behind time now. I should start with the evening tide.” “That you can’t do,” said the agent with decision. “The Governor is going back with you.” “The Governor!” > “Yes. Heé's had a dispatch from Gov- ernment to return without délay. The fiy-boat that brought it’ has gone ‘on to Virginia. So Sir Charles has beén waiting for you, as I told- him you were due before the rains.” “Well, well!” cried the captain in some perplexity. “I'm a plain seaman and I douw’t know much of ;Governors and Baronets and their ways. I don't remember that I ever so much as spoke to ome. - But if it's in King George's service,,and he asks a cast in the Morn- ing Star as far as London, I'll do what I can for him. There’s my own cabin he can have and welcome. As to the cooking, it’s lobscouse and salmagundy six days In the week, but he can bring his own cook aboard with him if he thinks our galley too rough for ' his taste.” “You need not trouble your mind, Captain Scarrow,” said the agent. “Sir Charles ‘is in weak health just now, only clear of a quiartan ague, and it is likely he will keep his cabin most of the voyage. Dr. Larousse said that he would have sunk had the hanging of Sharkey npot put fresh life into him.' He has a great spirit.in him, though, and: yon smust not blame Lfm/if he s somewhat short “ia" his 'speech.” y “The early morning tide, then.” . - “Very good. I shall send his things aboard to-night, and he %ill - follow them to-morrow early if T can prevail upon him to leave:St. Kitts. without seeing Sharkey do the' rogue's horn- pipe.” . The first gray of dawn had hardly begun to deepen into ‘pink when® the Governer was brought alongside “and climbed with some difficulty up the lad- der. The captain had heard that the Covernor was an eccentric, but he was hardly prepared for the curious figure who -came -limping feebly down - his quarterdeck, his steps supported by a thick bamboo cane. #e wore a Ram- illies wig, all twisted into little tafls like a poodle’s coat, and cut so low across’ the brow that the large green glasses which covered his eyes looked as if they were hung from it. A fierce beak of a nose, very 'long and very thin, cut the air in'front of him, ~His age had caused him to swathe his throat and chin with a broad: linen cravat, and he wore A,loose damask powdering gown _secured by a cord round the waist. As he adyanced -he carried his masterful nose high in the air, but his head turned slowly ‘from side to side in the helpless manner:of the purblind, and he called in a high,- querulous voice for the captain. “You have my things?” he asked. “Yes, Sir Charles.” “Have you wine aboard?” “I have ordered five cases sir.” “And tobdcco?” . “There is a keg of Trinidad.” “You play a hand at picquet "Pa.ssa_bly well, sir.” “Then up, anchor, and to sea!” There was &'fresh westerly wind, so by the time the sun was fairly through the morning haze the ship was hull down from the islands. The decrepit Governor still limped the deck, with one guiding hand upon the quarter rail. “You are on Government service now, captain,” sald he. “They are counting the daye till I come to Westminster, I promise you. < Have you all that she will carry?” “Every inch, Sir Charles.” B il “Keep her so if you blow the sails ‘out of hér. I fear, Captain Scarrow, that you ;will find a blind and broken man-a poor. companion for your voy- age,” J . “I'am honored in enjoying. your Ex- cellency’s’ssaclety,” sald the captain. “But 1 am sorry that your eyes should be so aflicted.” “Yes, indeed. It is the cursed glare of the sun on the white streets of Basseterre which has gone far to burn them out.” E “I'had heard also that you had been plagued by a-quartan ague.” “Yes; I have had-a pyrexy, which has reduced me fnuch.” 7T “We had set asidd a cabin for your surgeon.” . - ¥ “Ah, the raseal! There was no budg- ing him, for he has a snug business among the merchants. But hark.” He raised his ring-covered “hand in the air.; From far astern there came the low, deep thunder of canmon. 4 “It is from the island!” cried the cap- tain in astonishment. ‘“Can ft'be’d sig- nal for ds-to put back?” The Governor laughed. “You have heard that Sharkey, the pirate, is to beHanged this morning. I ordered the batteriés to.salute when the rascal was kicking his last, so that I.might Know of it out at sea. Therc's an end of Sharkey!” “There's an end.of Sharkey!" cried the captain, and the crew took up the ery as they gathered in lttle” knots upény the deck dnd stared back at-the low, pugple line of the vanishing land. It was af@heering omen for their start across the, Western Ocean, and the in- valid Goy¢rnor found himself a popular man oniboard, for it was generally understodd that but for his insistence upon ‘an{immedidte ¢rial and sentencs, the: villajn might have played upor some more venal Judge and so escaped. At dinner thap day Siri Charles gave many angcdotes of the deceased pirate; and so @ffable was he, and so skillful in adapting his conversation to men-of lower ddgree, ‘that captain, mate and Governof smoked their long pipes and drank their claret as three good com- rades sHoulkl. “And What figure dia Sharkey cut in the decK®" asked the captain. “He is & man of some presence,” sald the Governor. ' “I had-always understood that he was an ugly, sneering devil,” remarked the mate. s il b THA LRI Y ‘“Well, T dare say he.could look ugly upon occasions,” said the Governor. “Y Have heard a New Bedford whale- man say ‘that he could not forget his eyes,” said Captain Scarrow. “They were of the lightest filmy blue, with red-rimmed lids. Was that not so, Sir Charles?” | L “Alas, my own eyes will not permit me to know much of ‘those of others! But I remember now that the adjutant general said that he had such an eye &% ¥Qu describe, and added that the jury wére so foolish as to be visibly discom- posed when it was turned upon them. It is well for them that he i3 dead. fcr he wa$ a' man who would néver forget 4n -fnjury. and if he had. laid hands upon ‘any one. of them he wouid have stuffed him with straw and hung him for a fizurehead.” The idéa seemed to amuse.the Gover- nor, for he broke suddenly into a high, neighing Jaugh, ‘and the two seamen laughed” algo, but not so heartily, for they remembered that Sharkey was nct the Mast pirate’ who sailed’ tha western sead; and. that as grotesque a fate ‘might ceménto be their, dwn. Anothe tottle Was broached to driik™o a pleas- ‘ant’ voyage: and ‘the Guverhor 'would drink Viun,‘npe‘ other on, the top of it, so. thaf the séamen ayete.glad at last to stagger off—the one. to,his watch and the other to his bunk. But whea, aftér hix four -hgurs’ spell,-the mate came daWn again, he,wak amazed to see the Governor. {n his “Ramillies wig, .- his ghdsses, and’his.powdering- gown still sedted sedately at the lonely table with his feeKing ‘pive and six black-bottles by his side. * “I Have drunk with the Governor of St.- Kftts' Wwhen he was sick,” said he, Ggod-forbid that I should ever, try e€p pace with him when ‘he 'is well.” 4 The voyage of the Morning Star was a successful ome, and in about three weeks she was at the mouth of the British Channel. From the first day the. infirm Governor had bégun to re- coyver his strength, and before they were ha!f way across the Atlantic he ‘was, save only for his eyes, as well as any man upon the ship. Those who uphold the nourishing qualities of wine might point to him in triumph, -for never a night ‘passed that he did not repeatithe performanc= of his first one. Angd yet he would be out upon deck in thé early morning as fresh and brisk as the best of‘them, peering about zvith his weak eyes, and asking questions about the-safls and the rigging, for he was anxious to learn the ways of the sea. And he made up for the deficiency _of his eyes by obtaining leave from the captain that the New England seaman \ —he who had been_cast away In the boat—should lead him’about, and above all‘that \he should:sit'beside him when he playeg cards and count. the number of the pips, for unaided he could not tell the king from the knave. It was patural that this Evanson should do the Governor willing service, since the onle was the victim of the vile Sharkey, amd the other was his avenger.sOné could sec that it was a pleasure to the big American to lend his arm to the invalid, and at night he would stand with all respect behind his chair in'the cabin and lay his great stub-nailed forefinger upon the card which he should play. Between them there was littleyin the pockets either of Captain Scarrow or of Morgan, the first mate, by the\time they sighted the Lizard. And- it was not) long. before they found that all.they had heard of the high temper of Sir{ Charles Ewan fell short of the mark.| At a sign of op- position or a. word \of argument his chin would shoot out, from his cravat, bis masterful nose wauld be cocked at a higher and more insolent angle, and his bamboo cane woauld whistle up over his shoulder. He cracRed it ence over the head of. the ‘carpenter when the man had accidentally jostled him upon the deck. Once too, when there was some grumbling and talk of a mutiny over the state of the provisions, he was of opinion that they shodld not wait for the dogs’ to.rise, but' that they shquld march forward and set upon them - until they had trngnved the devilmeént out of them. “Give me a knife and a bucket!" he cried with an oath, ‘and_tould hardly _be {withheld from“setting forth alone to deal with thé snokesman of the seamen. Yet for all his vaporing and his viol- ence he was so good a companidn, with such a stream of strange anecddte and reminiscence, that Searrow and Mor- gan had never known a voyage pass so pleasantly. . \ And thén at length came the last day, when, after passing ‘the iSland, ‘they had struck land again at the High white cliffs at Beachy Head. As even- ing fell the ship lay rolling in an oily calm, ‘a league off ‘from Winchélsea, with the long dark snout of Dungeness jutting out in front of her. Next morn. ing they' would pick up their pilot at the Foreland, and Sir Charles might meet the king’s ministers at est- minster before the evening. The boat- swain had the'watch and the three friends were met for a last turn of cards in the cabin, the faithful Ameri- can stil! serving as eyes to the Gov- ernor. There was a good stake upom the table, for the sailors hagd iried on this last night-to win their losses back from the passenger. Suddenly he threw his cards down and swept all the money into the pocket of his long-flapped silken waistcoat. “The game’'s mine!” said he. ' «Hah, Sir Charles, not so fast!” cried Captain Scarrow, “you have not play- ed out the hand, and we T losers.” “Sink you for a liar.” ernor. “I tell you th out the hand and that He whipped off his wig and his as he spoke, and there was a high, forehead and a pair of shifty blue with the red rims of a bull Said th “Good God!" cried the It's Sharkey!™ The two sailors sprang from their seats, but the big American castaway had put his huge back against the cabin door and he held a pistol in each of his hands. The passenger had also lald a pistol upon the scattered cards in front of him, and he burst into his high, neighing laugh. “Captain Sharkey is the name, gen- tlemen,” said he, “and this is Roaring Ned Galloway, the quartermaster of the Happy Delivery. We made it bot, so they marooned us; me on a dry Tor- tuga cay, and him in an oarless boat. You dogs—you poor, fond, water-heart- ed dogs—we hold you at the end of our pistols.” “You bay shoot or you may not!™ cried Scarrow, striking his hand upon the breast of his frieze jacket. “If it's my last breath, Sharkey, I tell you that you are & bloody rogue and miscreant, with a halter and hell fire in store for you “There’s a man of spirit, and one of my own kidney, and he’s going to make a very pretty death of I(t!" cried Sharkey. “There’s no one aft save the man at the wheel, 50 you may keep your breath, for you'll need it scon. Is the dingey astern, Ned? Ay, ay, captain!” “And the other boats scuttled?” “I bored them all in three places.” “Then we shall have to leave you, Captain Scarrow. You look as if you hadn’t quite got your bearings yet. Is there anything you'd like to ask me?” “I believe you're the devil himself!™ cried the captain. ‘“Where is the Gov- ernor of St. Kitts?” “When I last saw him his Excellency was In bed with his throat cut. When I broke prison I learnt from my friends— for Captain Sharkey has those who love him in every port—that the Gov- ernor was starting for Europe under a master who had never seen him. I climbed his veranda and I pai the little debt that I owed him. I came aboard you with such is things as I had need of, and a pair of glasses to hide these tellta t mine, and I have ruffled 1 ernor should. Now, to work upon them. “Help! Help! Watch aho the mate; but the butt of t pistol crashed down on and he dropped like a Scarrow rushed for the door, sentinel clapped his h mouth, and threw his ot struck ox. but his walst. “No use, Master Bharkey. “Let us ses your knees and beg “I'll see you —— shaking his mouth “Twist his arm will you?” “No; not if you twist it oft.” Put an inch of your knife int “You may put six inches, and then I won’t.” “Sink me, but I like the spirit Sharkey. “Put your knife pocket, Ned. You've saved y Scarrow, and it's a pity so stout.a should not take to where a pretty fellow Iving. You must be mon death, Scarre lain at my m story. Tie nim “To the stove, captain “Tut, tut! there's a fire in the stove. None of your rover tricks, Ned Gal- loway, unless they are called for, or I'll let you know which of us two is captain and which Is quartermaster. Make him fast to the table.” “Nay, I thought you meant to roast him!” sald the quartermaster. “You surely do not mean to let him go?” “If you and I were marooned on a Bahama cay, Ned Galloway, it is still for me to command and for you to obey. Sink you for a villain, do you dare to question my orders?” “Nay, nay, Captain Sharkey, not so hot, st said the quartermaster, and, lifting Scarrow like a child, he laid him on the table. With the quick dexterity of a seaman, he tled his spreadeagled hands and feet with a rope which was passed underneath, and gagged him secyrely with the long cravat which used to adorn the chin of the Governor ot St. Kitts. Now, Captain Scarrow, we must take our leave of you,” sald the pirate. “If I had half a dozen of my brisk boys at my heels I should have had your cargo and your ship, but Roaring Ned could not find a foremast hand with the spirit of a mouse. I see there are some small craft about, and we shall get ons of them. When Captain Sharkey has a boat he can get a smack, when he has a smack he can get a brig, when he has a brig he can get a bark, and when he has a bark he’ll soon have a full rigged ship of his own—so make haste into London town or [ may be coming back, after all, for the Morning Star.” Captain Scarrow heard the key turn in the lock as they left the cabin. Then as he strained at his bonds, he heard their footsteps pass up the compan and along the quarter deck to where the dingey hung in the stern. The still struggling and writhing, he h the creak of the falls and the splas of the boat in the water. In a ma fury he tore.and dragged at his es, until at last, with flayed wrists ankles, he rolled from the table, T over the dead mate, kicked through the closed door, and hatless on to the deck. “Ahoy! Peterson, Armitage, he screamed. “Cutlas an round, * eried our an pick up born for no com- the gig! Sharkey der dingey. Wh watch, bo'sun, a boats all hands. Down splashed the I down splashed the gi stant the coxswal swarming up the once more. “The boats are sct “They are leaking Ii The captain gave a ‘ had been beaten and outwitted at point. Above was a cloudless, sky, with neither wind nor the mise of it. The salls flapped idly in the moonlight. Far away lay a fishing smack, witn the men clustering over their net. Close to them was the little dingey, dipping and lifting over the shining swell. “They are dead men!™ cried the cap~ tain. “A shout all together, boys, to warn them of their danger.” . But it was too late. falls on \At that very moment the dingey shot into the shadow of the fishing bogt. There were two rapid pistol shots, a scream, and then another pistol shot, followed by silence. The cluster. ing ‘fishermen had disappeared. And then: suddenly -as the, first puffs of land breeze came out from the Sussex shore .tffe boom swung out, the main- sail fifled, and the little craft crept out with her nose to the Atlantie.