Show 1Tv rtl Xfti m I I r l n RONALD FLETCHER A CASTAWAY 1 BY PERCIE W HART 5 In 1703 the ship Goodly Hope was thrown upon one of the many shifting bars of Sable island The seas broke over her The hungry restless sand slowly but surely gulped her down It was not particularly novel This island monster of the North Atlantic ocean had merely swallowed another tidbit Of all that gallant crew only a single soul escaped to shore S A young lad good family Ronald Pletcher by name had been lasted l to I I S S 4i k L Co S They were coins of silver and gold a wooden grating by some rough seamen sea-men The vagrant eddies swept the prating well into a shallow cove As oon as he was able the boy cleared himself from the saving fetters and aded thankfully tjU the Tlryland But a brief surey of the treeless waste dashed his new hopes As far as the eye could see was nothing but an expanse of rolling sand dunes with but an occasional patch of rank grass to vary the monotonous landscape Seabirds with their eggs and an occasional oc-casional drowned fish tossed upon the strand furnished Ronalds only food for many days Portions of wrecked es < = ols were abundant and be secured a crude shelter by creeping underneath under-neath them but nevertheless he suffered suf-fered terribly from exposure tt tile neverending procession of storms His clothing was soon worn to tatters His hair grew long and matted His skin became frightfully tanned and also disfigured dis-figured by eruptions resulting from the unnatural food he was compelled to eatIn In one of his excursions about the island he found the hull of an old fashioned hip standing upon an even keel between two sand hillocks Ronald Ro-nald eagerly chambered all over her i hoping to find something that might prove useful to him But she was ap parently an old wreck cleanstripoed j by the remorseless I years In further searching the lad scraped away the sand and opened a small hatch which showed Itself in the floor of the after I cabin Little daylight could find its way below deck but L2 discerned several sev-eral great metal bound chests With a piece of loose timber he managed to smash in the end of one of them Out tumbled a stream of discolored metal j i I I pieces They were oins of silver and j geld and ornaments and trinkets in the I same precious metals The craft undoubtedly un-doubtedly had been a treasure ship mayhap a Spanish galleon bringing her Voi tribute from the Indies Before he left the hulk the lad took a heavy gold chain and fastened it around his waist The thing served to bind his tattered clothes together During the frequent storms Ronald was compelled to remain beneath pieces of reckage The clouds of flying sand at such times were overpowering His larder was so illsupplied that he frequently fre-quently endured the pangs of hunger along with the confinement Upon one such occasion in particular his fasting had been exceedingly prolonged W1th the first signs of the storms abatement he hastened to a great stretch of salt swamp much affected by the gulls where he gathered an armful of eggs Crouching down upon the soggy grass unmindful of the noisy birds circling overhead or anything else he commenced com-menced to crack the shells and swallow I their contents In the midst of this poor feast he heard an exclamation of I surprise He looked up scarcel be lieving that he had heard aright A big redbearded man attired in rough sea fashion and wearing a woolen cap upon his head stood some few rods distant gazing wonderingly at him RonaJd at once fell into a perfect de lirium of excitement and joy Quickly tossing aside the remnants of his meal he rushed toward the newcomer with the evident Intention of embracing him j nut the latter was not over cordial At first sign of this advance he drew a S short sword or hanger which herbore In his belt and presented its point towards r to-wards the breast of the enthusiastic S youpi S Not so fast monkey ape or wild 5 man of the island whichsoever you i may be cried the stranger with an t S accompaniment of oaths Keep your distance and Ill keep mine Oh sir have mercy upon me poor I Ronald streamed falling uppn his t 1 l 1 > knees and u S nees an extending his hands pitifully towards the Smj assive stranger I 2 am an unfortunate cast away alone i upon this horrible place You surely will sympathize with me No human heart could steel Itself to my condi rI r tion tionAnd I And rapidly at times incoherently the wretched boy told the story of his shlpwTeck and wept in mental anguish k an-guish The redbearded stranger listened impatiently im-patiently and without making any effort ef-fort to conceal his lack of attention S So so interrupted before the J lad had well finished VYouneed enter into no more precise details I < have r just been through something of the I S S same sort This cursed island has proved the death of my own good ship and left me with but half a dozen companions com-panions and our pinnace tohey knave What is this bravery His eye had just caught sight of the golden chan around the lads waist The rubbing of the rags had cleaned away the discoloration in places and brought out the yellow luster of the rich metal With trembling nervous fingers Ronald Ron-ald unfastened the trinket and laid it at the strangers felt meanwhile sobbing sob-bing out his discovers of the stranded galleon with its chests of treasure in the afterhold NOw this is omething like chuckled chuck-led the redbearded one snatching up the bauble and examining it greedily Tis a brave lad All will be well with you Fear nothing Bear me company com-pany to the shore Why could you not have mentioned this matter first and left the other tale for idle hours My merry comrades will brisk up their ears mightily when they find that their captain brings them reward even though misfortunes Lively boy play me no tricks Try but to dodge away andtremble not You will find me as gentle as a fond father if your own duty is performed with a good grace So saying in curiously alternating accents of harshness and forced geniality gen-iality the newcomer started away at a lively speed half pushing half dragging drag-ging the boy along vith him They soon reached the same cove which had received re-ceived Ronald so hospitably Some thirty or forty yards from shore was a ships boat manned by six repulsive looking fellows They were engaged in hoisting sails and did not at first note j i the approach of the p tir I Hi lads I say shouted tIlt > red I bearded man excitedly but neverthe lees keeping fast hold of the willing > Ronald Is this the fashion in which you obey the orders of your commandant command-ant Did I not bid you await my return re-turn Would desert an old shipmate Shame upon you for fair weather sailors sail-ors Easy all Capn Rbgers replied one of the men in the boat Your watch I is done with us Me and my mates I have figured that this boat is too small j for seven You dont mean itBully Ned > cried II the captain with a hoarse laugh Se if we dont several of the crew retorted angrily j Where might you have come across I the young shaver inquired the one whom the captain had addressed as Bully Ned Hell be a nice messmate for you if there is anything to mess with on such a sandbar What do you make of this lads called the can lln holding up the precious pre-cious chain which Ronald had so freely turned over to him < There was a dead silence in the boat but the men all stared eagerly Ill tell you what I make of it went on the captain impressively It is all gold pure gold and better still theresa theres-a whole shipload of the same and finer back among the hills Who says so bellowed one of the sailors This poor shipwrecked lad who we are going to take away with us The gold pays his passage went on the redbearded skipper with a curious intonation in-tonation that hardly pleased Ronald Toull come ashore Jively the captain continued addressing the men and maybe well sail off together with doubloonsinstead of sand bags for ballast bal-last The sailors in the boat consulted together to-gether but the sight of the chain with its attendant promises was A strong argument The unhappy Ronald heard the captain cursing at his men in an undertpne while they were making up their reluctant minds But when they had decided and pushed the boat back to the beach the crafty skipper received re-ceived them with an assured smile Tjtfudhave only gone to Davy Jones locker without me lads he said to them Who would have laid a courseZ Im the only one that can pilot in these waters As for being marooned on this island nothing would have pleased me better Some ship would have taken I me off in good time and Id have had the best part of the treasure to myself I But Im honest Share and share alike among gentlemenadventurers is my motto Treat me right and Belay We aint no lubbers to beg be-g mmone by a sealawyer growled I Bully Ned Captain Rogers eyes flashed fire at this ungracious interruption but he I knew letter than to waste words Push along to the galleon boy he ordered giving Ronald a by no means gentle shove Up and down across the billowy sanddunes went the lad closely followed fol-lowed by the little band of tyrants From their conversation and appearance I appear-ance Ronald quickly realized that he had met with nothing more or less than buccaneers Such gentry infested J the seas in those days The poor lad I S S mm jI V W He looked uPJ scarcely believing that he heard aright knew that he could expect but little kindness from them However he thought that the sight of the treasure might render ithem more generously disposed towards him than if he came emptyhanded And so he trudged on with a heart heavy enough to be sure yet still not completely downcast But a sad blow awaited him The storm which had wrecked the buccaneers bucca-neers craft had also changed the sur face of the island considerably He could not now find the galleon From hillock to hillock he hurried the rough crew ever growing more impatient without catching a sight of the hulk which some few days before had reared Itself aloft above the sand At j I last he had to admit his search was useless Ife tried to explain the incessant inces-sant mot nient of the island and that Fthe galleonmust have been covered up But buccaneers were in no mood S to listen to excuses Captain Rogers t perhaps fib motives of selfis policy i was particularly aggressive He led i the rest 3m cursing and threatening i vengeance upon the unlucky guide i Finally the whole party came to a halt upon the summit of a sand hillock Im for going back and i tiling away in the beat while we have fair weather announced one of the men j t Aye aye thats the talk Its breezing breez-ing up now growled another Sure enough in the excitement of the search they had not noticed it but the clouds were scurrying overhead and the distant surf beginning to roar in a ° fashion that presaged another blowHow How about this young shaver with his lying tale of chests of treasure to be taken away for the carrying cried Bully Ned with a volley of profanity I Put him where he can keep looking for It until his eyes give out cried the redbearded captain scowling savagely sav-agely at Ronald S Before he could well comprehend their intention the boys arms were bound fast to his sides with some pieces of lanyard a hole was scooped in the I very summit of the hillock and the trembling lad roughly placed tlierein The crew then filled up the excavation and heaped the sand about until only his head protruded Ronald shrieked screamed and pleaded with his captors But it was unavailing Not untilfthe calloused ruffians had marched aAVay unheedingly did he realize his true position He tried to squirm InV in the cruel sand kept him absolutely1 I movable In fact he found to his horror hor-ror that even the twitching of his muscles caused him to sink lower The I sand now came up to his chin He gave upall hope He prayed He became more composed and resolved if he must die to meet death bravely To this period of resignation succeeded a sort of stupor Later on he became entirely unconscious Several hours passed Meanwhile the wind had steadily been gathering force It soon blew a gale Through some caprice it eddied about the hillock in which Ronald was very nearly entombed At first a few minute grains shifted Then whole layers were carried off Slowly but surely the work went on until at last the boy lay all exposed Not till then did he completely recover consciousness I conscious-ness It was now night pitch dark and storm He managed to relieve himself of his fetters but knew not I how to find a way to shelter And so he stayed where he was not forgetting I to return a fervent prayer to heaven for his wellnight miraculous deliverance deliver-ance and braved the elements as best he could After long h < < mrs of suffering the storm subsided and the sun came up on a cloudless blue sky Judge of I Ronalds astonishment Within a few feet of him lay the galleons hulk once I I more entirely exposed Poor Ronald was well nigh out of his j wits He argued that the buccaneers were too experienced sailors to have ventured putting to sea in their frail craft in the teeth of a rising gale If he could come to them with practical proof of his sincerity in regard to the treasure he imagined that they would relent And so he clambered down into the after hold of the hulk and utilizing the greater part of his wretched clothing cloth-ing for the purpose made up a bundle i of the tarnished gold and silver coins The package was not large but it was very heavy and < > 11 he could well carry In fact he made but slow progress with it shoreward having to put it down repeatedly re-peatedly and rest his weary arms During Dur-ing one of these pauses he saw something some-thing which looked familiar at a distance dis-tance It was the woolen cap that Captain Cap-tain Rogers had worn Coming nearer Ronald noticed that it lay in the very center of a boggy spot The lad was cautious He extracted several coins I from his bundle and threw them near the buccaneers cap The pieces of metal lodged innocently beside it Then Ronald approached a little nearer and tossed the heavy package in the same direction It landed close alongside of the cap and sank out of sight in twos two-s onds The spot was a cup hole j in other words a quicksand or treach 1 erouo morass another common attribute attri-bute of this hungry ocean island J The buccaneers had probably walked into it all unknowingly At any rate they had disappeared leaving their weil equipped boat upon the shore of the cove In an agony of fear and sorrow and I yet with deep compassion for the men who had so cruelly used him young I Ronald waited for three days Then he put to sea in the pinnace willing to risk any fate rather than to remain I longer upon the island Hcwas picked I up by a Dutch warship and after safely many vicissitudes reached England I |