Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Lexington wheatfield. (Lexington, Or.) 1905-19?? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1907)
.- ,V S v r mess." ka M. ",l ! V iliwm'i nil ABrirctT 1 1 spiii r w a-aa-ru THE. IRON' PIRATE A Ttain fatf qfSt?in . ;l . Happening " on tAe S a' ' By MAX PE1IBERTOS -oco- CHAPTER IX. ,, ;:. , There were two great ships abreast of each 'other, and they were steaming with ro great a pressure of steam that the dark green water 'was cleaved into two huge waves of foam before their bows: ftnd the spray' fell in tons upon their ;decksf , k ,.. . . The more distant of the, two ships was long in shape and dark In color ; she had two funnels painted white, but marked with the anchor which clearly set her . down to be one of the famous Black An chor fleet. Her decks were dark with the figures of passengers and crew all crowd ing to the port side, wherefrom the other ehip was approaching her. It was this other ship which drew our gaze. Almost of the same length as the passenger steamer, which she now ap proached obliquely, she rode the long swell with perfect grace, and many of her deck houses and part of her prow shone with the brightness of pure gold. Full the sun fell upon her in a sheen of shimmering splendor, throwing great reflected lights which dazzled the eye. Every ornament on her seemed to be made of the precious metal, now glowing to exceeding brilliance in the full power of the sunlight. She was a very big ship, and she had all the shape of a ship of war, while the turrets fore and aft of her capacious fun nel showed the muzzles of two big guns. I could see by my glass a whole wealth of armament in the foretop of her short mast forward. There was a great deck erection, with a gallery and a bridge for navigation ; but no men showed upon the platform, and, for the matter of that, no soul trod her decks, so far as our observ ation went. Yet her speed was such as I do not believe any ship achieved before. Now rising majestically on the long roll of the swell, now falling into the concave of the sea, she rushed onward towards the steamer she was evidently pursuing as though driven by all the furies of the deep. As we watched her the gun In her fore most turret belched out flame and smoke, end we observed the rise and fall of a shell, which cut the water a cable's length ahead of the straining steamer. At that moment she ran up a flag upon her signal mast, and, as I read It with my glass, I saw that it was the flag of the Chilian republic. It was a matter of satisfaction to me that Mary Btill slept, and I looked for the appearance of Paolo with some ques tion. But he remained below through It all. The skipper was the first to speak. s "That ship yonder," said he, jerking his thumb to starboard, "is it any business of ours?" j "None that I know of," I replied : "but !lt's a mighty fine sight, skipper, don't you .' -think, a Chilian warship running after a "liner in broad daylight? What's your opinion?" "It's a fine sight enough, but I would Vgive half I'm worth to be a hundred miles , .-away from it ; do you want nie to' get Ihis boat into port again?" ' ' , "Of course." v Then I'm going to put up the helm and sheer off. I'm not a man that loves fighting myself, and, with a ship and crew to look after, I've no business In any af fair of this sort." ;, "Hold on a bit, skipper," said RoderJ lek, "as we are, If you please ; why, man, it's a sight I wouldn't miss for a for- tune." I had my glass to my eye in a moment and the light was so full upon the vessel, which must have then been a mile and a half away from us. There was now some one moving upon the bridge, and could recognize the shape of a man. Throughout the strange scene, this ves sel of mystery never gave one sign that men worked at her furnaces below. No evidence of that terrible power which was then driving her through the seas at such fearful speed. But of the activity of her human crew we had speedily further sign; for, there was some belching of flame from her turret, and this time the shell, crashed full upon the forepart of the great liner, and we heard the shout of terror which rose from those on the decks. Then men ap peared at the signal-mast of the pursuer, and rapidly made signals in the common code. Then there was activity on the deck of the nameless ship, and men were swinging oft a launch, which dropped presently Into l!ic sea and with a crew of some half doz en men. Again I got glass full upon the mn who walked the bridge ; and I knew .Mm. - He was the man I had met at Pans, I he one styled Captain Black by my friend Hall. The last link In the long chain was welded then. The whole truth of that weird document, so fantastical, so seem ingly wild, so fearful, was made manifest ; the dead man s words were vindicated. There on the great Atlantic waste, I had lived to see one of those terrible pictures ' which he had conceived In the midst of his lone dreaming. "Mark." said Roderick, "it's time to go; we'll be the next when that ship's at the bottom. Remember we have Mary on board." Indeed, she stood by us as we spoke, Tery pale and quiet, looking where the two ships lay motionless, the boat from the one now ai. the very side of the black steamer, whose name, pie Ocean King, we could plainly read. Don't you think you're better below, Mary?" asked Roderick. "Not until you go ; and why should I make any difference? I overheard what you said. Am I to stand between you and those men's lives?" "I am for 'standing1 by to the end," said I ; "if we can save one soul."., .,- "Gentlemen," said the snipper, "its your yacht, and these are' your men;'if you care to keep them afloat, keep them. If its your fancy to do the other thing, why, do it. It's a matter. of indifference to me." "Men," I said, "there's ugly work over there, work I can make nothing off; but it's clear that an English ship is running from a foreigner, and may want help. Shall we leave her, or shtll we stand by?" They gave a great shout at this, and the skipper touched the bell, which stop ped our engines. Glasses were turned upon us from the decks of the yellow ship, and from the Ocean King, whose men were still busy with the signal flags, and this time, as we made out, in a direct re quest to ns that we should stand by. I watched the captain of the steamer par leying with the men in the launch below him. While a tall man with fair hair my glass gave me the impression that he was the fellow known as "Roaring John" stood in the bows of the launch, and ap peared to be gesticulating wildly to the skipper of the Ocean King, the nameless ship set np of a sudden a great shrieking with her deck whistle, which she blew three times with terrihe power; and at the third sound of it the lannch, which had been holding to the side of the steam er, let go, runlng rapidly back to the arm ed vessel, where It was taken aboard again. The whole thing was done In so short a space of time that our men scarce had opportunity to express surprise when the launch was hanging at the davits again. The great activity that we had observed on the decks of the war vessel ceased as mysteriously as it had begun. She bound ed past us at a speed the like to which I had never seen upon the deep. So remarkable a face-about seemed to dumbfound our men. But the key to the riddle was given, not by one of them, but by Paolo, whom I now found at my elbow. "Ha !" he cried, "she's American !" I saw what troubled him. There was a great white steamer coming up at a high speed, and I knew the form of her at once, and of two others that followed her. She was one of the American navy. The secret of the flight was no longer In explicable ; the yellow ship had fled from the trap into which she was so nearly falling. 'You have sharp eyes, Paolo," said I; "I Imagine it's lucky for the pair of us." The nameless ship, of a sudden, ceased her flight, and came almost to a stand some half a mile away n our port bow. As she swung round to head the seas, I saw at once that another cruiser, long and white, and seemingly well armed, had come, up upon that side, and now barred her passage. The nameless ship hau now hundreds of men about her decks, and these were at the machine guns and elsewhere active in preparation. The great hull swung round slowly and passed at a moderate speed past the bow of the other. When she was nearly clear, her two great guns were fired almost simultaneously, and, as the shells swept along the deck of the cruiser, they carried men and masts and deck houses with fhem, in one awful con fusion of wreckage and of death. The cruiser was utterly unprepared for the treachery, and lay reeling on the sea as her opponent treated her to the hail of her machine guns. The battle could have ended but in one way, had not the other American war ships now come so close to us that they opened fire with their great guns. The huge shells hissed over our heads, and all about us. The captain of the nameless ship fired twice from his turrets, and then headed off at prodigious speed. In five minutes he was out of gunshot ; in ten, the American vessels were taking men from their crippled cruiser, whose antago nists had almost disappeared on the hori zon 1 Upon our own decks the noise and hub bub were almost deafening. We put out a boat with ease upon the still sea and hailed the passenger steamer after twenty minutes' stout rowing. She was yet a pit iful spectacle. When we got up on her main deck, Captain Ross, her commander, greeted us with great thanks. He took us to his chart room, for be would have all particulars about usw "Twenty years," he said, with tears f anger In his eyes, "I have crossed the Atlantic, but this is the first time that I ever heard the like! It's piracy on the high seas ; and thev shall swing, if there's only one rope In Europe, What does it mean? Are we at war? You saw the Chilian flag. Is there no treaty of Taris?" The first of the American ships came up with us, and the commander of her put out a boat, and having gone aboard the maimed cruiser, he came afterwards to the Black Anchor ship, and joined us in the chart room. "It's an International question, I her. I will why. we'll run him down In i muuaaaa pounds or more ot aamsga her, I will why, we'll run him down In four-nnd-twenty hours." I I . heard If arrimt Ktmin thorn thai th secopd .cruiser b( the American fleet hould start it wipe In pursuit, while Che Ironclads hoold accompany oa' W N York, ho iriaking a little, convoy 'for safe ty's .sake. .'; ., . ' " .. With th.s arrangement we left the snip and regained the Celsls. Paolo stood at the top of the ladder as I came on deck, and listened, I thought, to our protesta tions that the danger was over with something of a sneer' on his face. In deed, I thought that I heard him mutter, but I did not know then how much the laugh was to be against us, and that we should leave the convoy long before w reached rew York. ' CHAPTER X. ' For full five days we steamed with the other vessels, under no stress to keep the sea, with them, since Ihey made no more thatf twelve knots, W the sake of the cruiser which had been so fearfully maim ed in the short action with the nameless ship. ' On the early morning of the fifth day I found myself unable to sleep and went above at daybreak, to see the white hulls of the American war vessels a mile away and the Black Anchor boat a few cable-lengths ahead of them. Paolo was on the bridge. I heard Dan the other side of the skylight, and he was holding forth with much fine phrase to Roderick's dog, Belle. I called him toMne, and had It out with him there and then. "What's in the wind now, Dan," I ask ed, "that you're preaching to the dog? Is there any more nonsense amongst the men forward?" "There's a good deal of talk maybe more than there should Be." "And what do they talk about? Tel! me straight, Dan." "Well, I've got nothing, for my part, to hide away, and I don't know as they should have ; but you know this ship Is a dead man's!" "Who told you that stuff?" "Plain Xf J... f -1. I. 1 4. ..14 in tU fo'c'aVtir TT mr father to you gentlemen than if I was nat'ral born to it ; and this I do say what's this trip mean? what's in yer papers? and why ain't It the pleasure vige we struck flag for? 'Where's it going to endr says the second mate to the men; A 4-1. A. J , ' 'what is yer wages fo. takin yer lives 1 tory; Almost every man looks at where they shouldn't be took?' And what! wateQ when tue flr8t b, t u soun follows? why, white-livered jaw ngs, andrr. . . .... i-hi- mnn .fa.ii Ja rt!. m.n i hT the big whistlo at 7 o'clock In this mnn ferH tA W. ent man afeared to go there, and the Old One amongst 'em, so that half of 'em says, 'We was took false,' and the other half, 'Why not 'bout ship and home again?' No, and you ain't done with It, not by a long day, and you won't have done with it untu you arop ancnor in lanaee-iana, If ever you do drop anchor there, which I take leave to give no word upon." "It's a curious state of things. Yon mean to say, I suppose, that there's ter ror amongst them--plain terror, and noth ing else?" "Ay, sure !" "Then it remains for us to face them." I went to bed at 10 o'clock, and for an hour or two I slept with deep forgetful ness. At what hour Dan awoke me 1 1 a little community by themselves, cannot tell. He shook me twice in the ,. , . . ... effort, he said, and when I would have I England have Up turned up the electric light, he seized my 000,000 Invested In mortgages in- for hand roughly, muttering in a great whls- e'gn. countries. These Investments an- per, "Hold steady." I knew then that mischief was afloat, and asked him what to do. "Crawl above," he said, "and lie low a-deck ;" and he went up the companion ladder when I got my flannels and rubber shod shoes upon me. But at the topmost step he stood awhile, and then he fell flat on his hands, and backed again down the stairway, so that he came almost on top of me; but I saw what prompted his ac tion, for, as ,he moved, there was a shadow thrown from the deck light down to where we lay; and then a man stepped upon the stair and descended slowly, his feet naked, but in his hand an iron bar; for he had no other weapon. At the sight of him, we had backed to the foot of the stair way ; and, as the man crept down, we lay still. Swiftly and silently he entered the place;' and, going to my cabin door, he slipped a wedge under it, serving the oth er doors around the big cabin in the same way. me success seemed to please him ; he chuckled softly, and came again to tne laauer, wnere wicn a, quica motion, Dan brought his pistol butt full upon the fellow's forehead, and he went down Kke a-dead thing at the foot of the swinging table. There we left him, after we had bound his hands with my scarf; and with a hur ried knock got Roderick from his berth. He, in turn, aroused his sister, and in five minutes we all stood in the big saloon and discussed our plan. flan'o nrltia'riaitArl ol. fl,t TIia watc rwa. Paob's, who Za T persuaded four stokers and six of the forward hands to his opinion. These men, the dupes of the second officer, had determined on this much that the voyage to New York should be stopped abruptly. We, being locked in our cabins, were to hnve no voice in the affair; or, if waked, then we should be knocked on the head, and so quieted to reason. It was a desperate endeavor, wrought of fear; but at that moment the true hands of the fo'castle were battened down, and Dan, who had seen the thing coming, escaped only by his foresight. That night , he had felt danger, and had wrapped him self up in a tarpaulin, and lain concealed on deck. As It was, Paolo stood at the door of the skinner's room : there were three men guarding the fo'castle, and five at the foot of the hurricane deck. One man we ghum, "I am afraid some of my ene had settled with; but we were three, and niles might call me a silver-tongued or eight men stood between us and the true , ator and so get people to pnvlug more bands. I (To be continued.) I - Crrf T.. Mile.. ' East St. Louli now has the bluest team whistle lu tle world. It Is A remarkable Hrlpls machine with threq Volcea-a three-chime wbtler, wis ; fof aiullullutlon peiuV is extraordinary. Tula whistle, blows a ten-mile Must at hjiif-steiim, and: ; wltn favorable wind lias a disturbing power of twenty miles. It coats a dol iur every time It is blown. But this great whistle In not all noise. It is an idea lu economy, a whistle trust, a noise .combine. AI- ost a" tuo !' "u1". yelps, toots and wuluen, .,of. ; smaller, ..meuUinlcal throats lu East St. Louis are now dumb. The giant whistle tru.-tc whis tles for them. : The Independent v. his ties have to whistle oft time to ' be heard. Within the range of this whistle are said to be 100,000 people who tell time by It This remarkable whistle has been installed by the East St. Louis and Suburban Electric Railway Company, at the Belt power house. Stuti and Twentieth streets, where the eoirpauy's machine shops and car barns are lo cated. The greatest modern slron com prises three whistles. The largest Is almost six feet In height and nearly as big around as a man. On ea.h side of the main one Is a smaller wmstle. The three units combine to make one noise, with which even Babanne miles away, across the Mississippi river,' In the west end of St Louis, Is weil ac quainted. This big triple whistler was also set ' up t the railway company's electrical generating station "as a feature." It Is connected with an electric clock, which Is regulated by the government "rd time UV ton on the dropping of a ball at ex actly noon each day. The electric clock which connects with the whistle is guaranteed not to vary five seconds In time a year, and the clock's record to data Is satisfac- his sounded ' u ul " ' mornln- AImost every housewife In East St. Louis glances at her mantel timepiece when the siren wooes noon the second blast of the day. The third blast Is an hour later, and the last at e In the evening. St. Louis Post- Dispatch i 1 OTHER PEOPLE'S WAYS. About 20,000 people live In the crater of an extinct volcano In Japan. They dwell contentedly In this pit-like town, surrounded by a vertical wall eighty feet high, rarely making a journey Into the outer world, and practically forming nually drain the foreign countries of about $27,500,000 In gold. In Russia an unmarried woman re mains under the absolute sway of her parents until her death, regardless of her age. England Is to-day the virtual ruler of 3.300,000 square miles of African territory. A hundred years ago the population of London was Just one-flfth of what , 11 ls now- The '500-000 ,a Greater London live In 928,000 houses, Only two American vessels have en tered the harbor of Bordeaux In ten years, and those were private yachts which sought refuge during the Spanish-American war. Germany ls now experimenting with a new automatic repeating rifle capa ble of firing five shots in ten seconds. If the tests are successful Its adoption by the army Is considered probable. After a struggle lasting several years, the respectable portion of the English community In Burmah has succeeded In securing the passage of a law for bidding the employment of women as barmaids. The Lancet hopes that this example will be followed In England. Motor-boats of all sorts are becoming more and more numerous on the Vene- tenlng to displace the ' old-time gondola. The gondoliers are much disturbed. In a dispute between two of them and two electric launch men the latter were stabbed, one fa tally. Some Polish editors have a hard time. In a parting word to his readers the retiring proprietor of the Polish paper Gornosalazak says that during the five years of the paper's existence ' the responsible editors have spent four ' and a half years In prison, while $3,750 , has been paid In fines. DaiiKerona, "Why don't you make more speeches?" asked the friend. "Because," answered Senator Sor- atten Ion to my rhetoric than to my opinions." Washington Star. I f U t O This is one reso$ why Ayer'e Cherry Pectoral -is o valut- l ble in consumption. It stops the wear and tear of useless couching. But it does more it controls the inflammation, quiets the fever, soothes, and heals. Sold for 60 years. " Arr't Cherry f etnrl tiM hn r(tnlr life preiervar tn in It lirotilrt iuo through t cTre attHck if iiieiininnl, mid I tl that I owe mj life tn In womtnrftil curative iiniiertc."- William 11. Tuurrr, ww, M6 by . O. iyer Co., Lwoll, I line Alec aunuitoturere 01 SABSAPACILU. PII.LS. turn viaoR. tiers Hasten recovery by keeping the bowels resular wit! h Ayer's Pills. Rrlilfje l.nre. "What Is that poem about the bridge at midnight?" asked Mrs. Flashington. "I don't know," answered Mrs. Dasher; "but the poet knew what he was writing nbout. Bridge will keep you Up till midnight and after If you happen to be loser." Washington Star. Rather Inetnoaf Inax. Gussle Gunn By George, Miss Ta basco gave nie the coldest turndown I ever got In my life, wenliy. Reggy Sapp What did she say, old chap? Gussle Gunn Why, I asked If I might call on her and she snld the Janitor didn't allow children In that npartmcnt house. Mothers will find Mrs. Winnow! toothing Byrup the best remedy to uh for their children during the tea thing period. Ai Amine of Eec.pe. Rival committees were appealing for funds. "Let's see," said the capitalist, mus ingly. "If I give $3,000 to each com mittee one donation would nullify the other, and, so far as I can see, leave both relatively where they started." Musing a little more, he decided that $10,000 would Just buy the sort of auto mobile be had In mind. Philadelphia Ledger. "Gone." The red hammock slowly swayed In the gentle night breeze. Two hearts with but a single thought. "Dearest," she said, dreamily, "we are, here to-day and gone to-morrow." , "Not here, my love," whispered the ardent suitor. "And why not?" "Because I am 'gone' now without waiting for to-morrow." And then only the chirping of the crickets disturbed the blissful still ness: " Ft. Vitus DsiM-e end all Nervous JIsms ocrmaiientlv cured by Dr. Kline's Ureal rvB Romorer. Send for FKKK 12 trial bnttl and treatise. Dr. It. K.Kltne, UL.m Arch UU, Phlla.,!'. ne'e Find It "O. K." The Phlladelphlan was staying at a hotel In a Georgia town. He rang for an attendant, whom he asked If bath tubs were provided. ' " ; "Yessuh," answered the negro, "we'se got some nice tubs," and he presently returned ' bearing on his shoulders a coffin with silver-plated handles and lid all complete. !- ; ' "What do you mean by bringing me that?" demanded the traveler. "Dat's de bathtub, suh." . "The bathtub?" "Yessuh. You see, suh, de lanlode he used to be In de undertakln busi ness, an' he had a lot o' coffins on han' ; an' when he sol' out an' took dls hotel he brought all de coffins de new man i didn't want. His son Is in de tinsmlf I business, suh, so he done had de cof I fins lined wlf tin, an' dey make nice i ba!htubs. Jes' you try an' you'll iind dls one all right."r-Succes Magazine. UTTERLY WORN OUt Vitality Sapped by Years of Suffering With K dney Trouble. Capt. J. W. Hogun, former postmas ter of Indianola, now living at Austin, lexas, writes: "I was afflicted for years with pains across the loins and in the hips and shoulders. Iliad V.n,l..nl. 1 iicmnigin. my lrgni eye.from pain, was ol little use to me for years. The constant flow f)f tiririA Irunt my system depleted, causing nervous chills and night sweats. After trying seven different climates and using all kinds of medicine I had the good for tune to hear of Doan's Kidney Pills. This remedy has cured me. I am as well today as I was twenty years ago, and my eyesight is perfect.". Sold by all denlers. 50 cents a box. Foster-Mllburn Co., Buffalo, N. Y. I A A