OCR Text |
Show SOUTH CACHE COURIER, HYRUM, UTAH CThe Qreen .Pea Pirates I 'Ey PETER ( 3. KYNE i Author of ( Mans Man, 'The Valley of the "Webster Giants, i Etc. Copyright, by Peter B. Kyne 0 GUN RUNNING. Synopsis. Captain Fhlneas P. Scruggs has grown up around the docks of ban Francisco, and from mess boy on a river steamer, risen to the ownership of the steamer Since each annual inMaggie. spection promised to be the last of vessel, the old weatherDeaten Scraggs naturally has some difficulty in securing a crew. When the story opens, Adelbert P. Gib-ne- y, likable, but erratic, a man whom nobody but Scraggs would n, hire, is the skipper, Nells Halvor-sea solemn Swede, constitutes the forecastle hands, and Bart a wastrel of the Gibney type, reigns in the engine room. With this motley crew and his ancient vessel. Captain Scraggs is in freighting garden engaged truck from Halfmoon bay to San Francisco. The inevitable happens; the Maggie goes ashore in a fog. A passing vessel hailing the wreck, Mr. Gibney gets word to a towing company in San Francisco that the ship ashore is the Yankee Prince, with promise of a rich salvage. Two tugs succeed in pulling the Maggie into deep water, and she slips her tow lines and gets away in the fog. Furious at the deception practiced on them. Captains Hicks and Flaherty, commanding the two tugboats, ascertain the identity of the "Yankee Prince" and, fearing ridicule should the facts become known along the water front, determine on personal Their hostile visit to vengeance. the Maggie results in Captain Scraggs promising to get a new boiler and make needed repairs to the steamer. Scraggs refuses to fulfill his promises and Gibney and With marvelMcGuffey "strike. ous luck, Scraggs ships a fresh crew. At the end of a few days of wild conviviality Gibney and McGuffey are stranded and seek their old positions on the Maggie. They are hostilely received, but remain. On their way to San Francisco they sight a derelict and Gibney and McGuffey 6wim to It. The derelict proves to be the Chesapeake, richly laden, its entire creW stricken with scurvy. Scraggs attempts to tow her in, but the Maggie is unequal to the task and Gibthe-shiney and McGuffey, alone, sail to San Francisco, their money amounting to $1,000 apiece. His crew having deserted him. Captain Scraggs Induces them to return. At an old horse" sale the three purchase two mysterious boxes which they believe to contain smuggled "Oriental goods." They find, instead, two dead Chinamen. Scraggs seeks to double cross his two associates, but Mr. Gibney outwits him and makes a satisfactory financial settlement with the Chinese company to whom the bodies have been consigned. leaving Scraggs out In the cold. y, sal-,va- CHAPTER IX. Even after allowing for the expenditures on the engine weighing heavily on Captain Scraggs, that individual continued morose and more than ever Inclined to be sarcastic. Mr. Gibney commented on the fact to Mr. McGuffey. "Hes troubled financially, Gib." Well, you know who troubled him, dont you, Bart? I mean about the cost o them repairs In the engine room. Unless he can come through In thirty days with the balance he owes, the boiler people are goin to libel the Maggie to protect their claim. Mr. Gibney arched his bushy eyeHow do you know? he debrows. " manded. me, Mr. McGuffey He was admitted weakly. me. Mi. Well, he wasnt Gibneys tones were ominous; he glared at his friend suspiciously as from the Maggies cabin issued forth Scraggs.vs voice raised In song. llelio! The old boys thermometers gone up, Bart. Listen at him. Ever o thee hes fondly dreamin. Somethins busted the spell an Ill He bet a cooky It was ready cash. menaced Mr. McGuffey with a rigid Index finger. Bart, he demanded, did you loan Seraggsy some money? The honest McGuffey hung his head. he replied childishly. A little bit, What dye call a little bit? Three hundred dollars, Gib. ' . Secured? He gimme his note at eight per cent. The savins bank only pays four. "Is the note secured by endorsement or collateral? , No. Hum-m-m- ! Strange you didnt say nothin to me about this till I had to pry it out o you, Bart. Well, Seraggsy was feelln bo dog- goned blue The truth, Mr. Gibney Insisted firmly, the truth, Bart. Well, Seraggsy asked me not to say anythin to you about It. Sure. He knew Td kill the deal. He knew bettern to try to nick me for three hundred bucks on his danged, worthless note. Bart, whyd you do it? Oh, h 11, Gib, be a good feller, Dont be poor McGuffey pleaded. too hard on ol Seraggsy. Were discussin you, Bart. Tears to me youve sort o lost confidence In your old shipmate, aint you? Pears that way to me when you act sneaky like. I aint a sneak. McGuffey bridled. A. rose by any other named be just as sweet, Mr. Gibney quoted. You poor, misguided simp. If you ever see that three hundred dollars again youll be a lot oldern you are now. However, that aint none o my business. The fact remains, Bart, that you conspired with Seraggsy to keep things away from me, which shows you aint the man 1 thought you were, so from now on you go your way an Ill go mine, I got a right to do as I blasted please with my money, McGuffey defended hotly. I aint no child to be lectured to. Considerin the fact that you wouldnt have had the money to lend if it hadnt been for me, I allow Im insulted when you use the said money to give aid an comfort to my enemy. Im through." McGuffey, smothered In guilt, felt nevertheless that he had to stand by his guns, so to speak. Stay through, if you feel like it, he retorted. Where Aint I free, dyf get that chatter? white, an twenty-on- e year old? Mr. Gibney was really hurt You poor boob, he murmured. Its the old game o settin a beggar on horseback an seein him ride to the devil, or slippin a gold ring in a pigs nose. An I figured you was ray friend I Well, aint I? Fooey! Fooey! Dont talk to me. Youd sell out your own mother. Gib, you tryin to pick a fight with me? No, but I would if I thought I wouldnt git a footrace Instead, Gibney rejoined scathingly. Cripes, what a I been handed I Honest, Bart, when it comes to that sort o work Scraggs Is in his infancy. You sure take the cake. I aint got the heart to clout you an make you eat them words, Mr. McGuffey declared, sorrowfully. You mean you aint got the guts, Mr. Gibney corrected him. Bart, I got your number. Goodbye." Mr. McGuffey had a wild impulse to cast himself up6n the Gibney neck and weep, but his honor forbade any such weakness. So he invited Mr. to to a region betake himself Gibney several degrees hotter than the Maggies engine room; then, because he feared to linger and develop a sentimental weakness, he turued his back abruptly and descended to the said engine room. On his part, Adelbert P. Gibney entered the cabin and glared long and Ill menacingly at Captain Scraggs. have my time," he growled presently. Give It to me an give It quick. The very intonation of his voice warned Scraggs that the present was not a time for argument or trifling. Silently he paid Mr. Gibney the money due him; in equal silence the navigating officer went to the pilot house, unscrewed his framed certificate from the wall, packed It with his few belongings, and departed for Scab Johnnys boarding house. Hello, Scab Johnny saluted him at his entrance. Quit the Maggie? Mr. Gibney nodded. Want a trip to the dark blue? Lead me to it, mumbled Mr. Gibney. Itll cost you twenty dollars, Gib. Chief mate on the Rose of Sharon, bound for the Galapagos islands sealdouble-crossi- n ing. Mr. Gibney Ill take it, Johnny. threw over a twenty-dolla- r bill, went to his room, packed all of his belongings, paid his bill to Scab Johnny, and within the hour was aboard the schooner Rose of Sharon. Two hours later they towed out with the tide. Poor McGuffey was stunned when he heard the news that night from Scab Johnny. When he retailed the information to Scraggs next morning, He Scraggs was equally perturbed. guessed that McGuffey and Gibney had quarreled and he had the poor judgment to ask McGuffey theenuseof the row. Instantly, McGufl'ey informed him that that was none of his business and the incident was closed. The three months that followed were the most harrowing of McGuffeya life. Captain Scraggs knew his engineer would not resign while lie. Scraggs, owed him three hundred dollars; wherefore he was not too particular to put a bridle on his tongue when things appeared to go wrong. McGuffey longed to kill him, but dared not. When, eventually, the railroad had been extended sufficiently far down the coast to enable the farmers t dad-fetche- d haul their goods to the railroad to the Maggie automatically trucks, went out of the green-pe- a trade; simultaneously. Captain Scraggs note to McGuffey fell due and the engineer demanded Scraggs depayment murred, pleading poverty, but Mr. McGuffey assumed such a threatening attitude that reluciantly Scraggs paid him a hundred and fifty dollars on account and McGuffey extended the balance one year and quit. See that you got that hundred and fifty an the interest to your jeans the next time ve meet" he warned Scraggs as he went overside. Time passed. For a month the Maggie plied regularly between Bodega bay and San Fruncisco in an endeavor to work up some business In farm and dairy produce, but a gasoline schooner cut in on the run and declared a rate war, whereupon the Maggie turned her blunt nose rivenvard and for a brief period essayed some towing and general freighting on the Sacramento and It was unprofitable, San Joaquin. however, and at last Captain Scraggs was forced to lay his darling little Maggie up and take a job as chief officer of the ferry steamer Enclnal, plying between San Francisco and Oakland. In the meantime, Mr. McGuffey, after two barren mouths on the beach, landed a job as second assistant on a Standard Oil tanker running to the west coast, while thrifty Nells Halvorsen invested the savings of ten years In a bay scow known as the Willie and Annie, arrogated to himself the title of captain, and proceeded to freight hay, grain and paving stones from Petaluma. The old joyous days of the green-pe- a trade were gone forever, and many a night, as Captain Scraggs paced the deck of the ferryboat, watching the ferry tower loom into view, or the scattered lights along the Alameda shore, he thought longingly of the old Maggie, laid away, perhaps forever, and slowly rotting in the muddy waters of the Sacramento. And he thought of Mr. Gibney, too, away off under the life tropic stars, leading (he care-freof a real sailor at last, and of Bartholomew McGuffey, Imbibing pulque in the "cantina of some disreputable cafe.-- Captain Scraggs never knew how badly he was going to miss them both until they were gone, and he had nobody to fight with except Mrs. Scraggs and when Mrs. Scraggs (to quote Captain Scraggs) slipped her cable to her year Captain Scraggs felt singularly lonesome and In a mood to accept eagerly any deviltry that might offer. Upon a night, which happened to be Scraggs night off, and when he was particularly lonely and inclined to drown his sorrows In the Bowhead saloon, he was approached by Scab Johnny, and Invited to repair to the latters dingy office for the purpose of discussing what Scab Johnny guardedly referred to os a proposition. Upon arrival at the office, Captain Scraggs was Introduced to a small, g gentleman of tropical appearance, who owned to the name of Don Manuel Garcia Lopez. Scab Johnny first pledged Captain Scraggs to absolute secrecy, and made him swear by the honor of his mother and the bones of his father not to, divulge a word of what he was about to tell him. ' Scab Johnny was short and to the point He stated that as Captain Scraggs was doubtless aware, if, he perused the daily papers at ail, there was a revolution raging in Mexico. His friend, Senor Lopez, represented the under-dog- s In the disturbance, and was anxious to secure a ship and n nervy sea captain to land a shipment of arms in Lower California. It appeared that at a 6ale of condemned army goods held at the arsenal at Benicia, Senor Lopez had, through Scab Johnny, purchased two thousand single-shSpringfield rifles that had been retired when the militia regiments took up the Krag. The Krag in turn having been replaced by the modern magazine Springfield, the old singleshot Springfields, with one hundred thousand rounds of ball cartridges, had been sold to the highest bidder. In addition to the small arms, Lopez had at present in a warehouse three macnine guns and four g pieces of field artillery (the kind of guns generally designated as a jackass battery," for the reasou that they can be taken down and transported over rough country on mules) together with a supply of ammunition for same. Now, then, Scab Johnny continued, the job that confronts us is to get these munitions down to our friends in Mexico. If were caught sneakin em into Mexico well spend the rest of our lives in a federal' penitentiary for bustin the neutrality laws. Ail them rifles an the ammunition Is cased an in my basement at the present moment and the government agents knows theyre there. But that aint troubling me. I. rent the saloon next door an ill cut a hole througli the wall from my cellar into the saloon cellar, carry em through the- saloon into the backyard, an out Into the alley half a block away. Im watched, but I got the watcher spotted only lie don't know It. Qur only trouble is a ship. How about the Maggie?" Id have to spend about two thousand dollars ou her to put her in condi e forty-thir- d fierce-lookln- ot 45-7- 0 breech-loadin- - tion for the voyage. Scraggs replied. Can do. Scab Johnny answered him briefly, and Senor Lopez nodded acYon discharge on a lightquiescence. er at Descanso bay about twenty miles below Ensenada. Whatll It cost us? Ten thousand dollars, in addition to fixin up the Maggie. Half down and half on delivery. Im riskin my hide an my ticket an I got to be well paid for it.- Again Senor Lopez nodded. What did he care? It wasnt his money. Til furnish you with our own crew just before you sail, Scab Johnny conGet busy." tinued. Gimme a thousand for preliminary After expenses, Scraggs demanded. that Speed is my middle name. The charming Senor Lopez produced the money to crisp new bills and, perfect gentleman that he was, demanded no receipt As a matter of fact, Scraggs would not have given him one. The two weeks that followed were busy ones for Captain Scraggs. The day , after his Interview with Scab Johnny and Don Manuel he engaged an engineer and a deck hand and went up the Sacramento to bring the MagUpon gie down to San Francisco. her arrival she was hauled out on the marine ways at Oakland creek, cleaned, caulked, and some new copper sheathing put on her bottom. She was also given a dash of black paint, had her engines and boilers thoroughand repaired, and ly overhauled shipped a new propeller that would add at least a knot to her speed. Also. she hud her stern rebuilt. And when everything was ready, she slipped down to the Black Diamond coal bunkers and took on enough fuel to carry her to San Pedro; after which she steamed across the bay to San Francisco and tied up at Fremont street wharf. The cargo came down In boxes, variously labeled. There were agricultural Implements, a cream separator, a windmill," and half a dozen In addition to a considerable number of kegs alleged to contain nails. Most of It came down after five o'clock in the afternoon after the wharfinger had left the dock, and as nothing but a disordered brain would have suspected the steamer Maggie of an attempt to break the neutrality laws, the entire cargo was gotten aboard safely and without a jot of suspicion attaching to the vessel. When all was to readiness. Captain Scraggs Incontinently fired his deckhand and engineer and Inducted aboard a new crew, carefully selected for their filibuster virtues by Scab Johnny himself. Then while the Dew engineer got up steam, Captain Scraggs went up to Scab Johnnys office for his final instructions and the balance of the first Instalment due him. Briefly, his instructions were as follows: Upon arrival off Toint Dume on the southern California coast, he was to stand in close to Dume cove under cover of darkness and show two green lights on the masthead. A man would come alongside presently in a small boat, and climb aboard. This man would be the supercargo and the confidential envoy of the insurrecto Junta in Los Angeles. Captain Scraggs was to look to this man for orders and to obey him implicitly, as upon this depended the success of the expedition. This agent of the insurrecto forces would pay him the balance of five thousand dollars due him Immediately upon discharge of the cargo at Descanso bay. There was a body of insurrecto troops encamped at Megano rancho, a mile from the beach, and they would have a barge and small boats in readiness to lighter the cargo. Scab Johnny explained that he had promised the crew double wages and a bonus of a hundred dollars each for the trip. Don Manuel Garcia Lopez paid over the requisite amount of cash, and half an hour later the Maggie was steaming down the bay on her perilous mission. The sun was setting as they passed out the Golden gate and swung down the south channel, and with the wind on her beam, the aged Maggie did nine knots. Late In the afternoon of the following day she was off the Santa Barbara channel, and about midnight she ran in under the lee of Foint Dume and lay to. The mate hung out the' green signal lights, and in about an hour Captain Scraggs heard the sound of oars grating in rowlocks. A tew minutes later a stentoriiin voice hailed them out of the darkness. Captain Scraggs had a Jacobs ladder slung over the side and the mate and two deckhands hung over the rail with lanterns, lighting up the surrounding sea feebly for the benefit of the lone adventurer who sat muffled In a great coat in the stern of a small boat rowed by two men. There was a very slight sea running, and presently the men in the small boat, watching their opportunity by the ghostly light of the lanterns, ran their frail craft In under the lee of the Maggie. The figure In the stern sheets leaped on the Instant, caught the Jacobs ladder, climbed nimbly over the side, and swore heartily in very good English as ills feet , struck the deck. Whats the name of this floating r coffin? he demanded in a voice. It was quite evident that even in the darkness, whfere her many defects were mercifully hidden, the Mag sewing-machine- s, chain-locke- gie did not suit the special envoy 0 the Mexican Insurrectos. American steamer Maggie the skipper frigidly. "Scraggs is m name, sir. And if you duut like nq oj vessel Seraggsy!" roared the special ea Seraggsy, for a thousand Am the old Maggie of all boats ! Scras, old tarpot, your fin! Duke me,0, doggoned old salamander! Gib, my dear boy! shrieked Can tain Scraggs and cast himself into Mr Gibneys arms in a transport of i0J Mr. Gibney, for it was indeed he pounded Captain Scraggs on the bacl with one great hand while with th other he crushed the skippers fingeri to a pulp, the while he called on al' the powers of darkness to witness In all his life had he received such a pleasant surprise. It was Indeed a happy moment AC the old animosities and difference were swallowed up In the glad hand clasp with which Mr. Gibney greetef his old shipmate of the green-petrade. Scraggs took him below at onct and they pledged each others health Well, Ill be and skull dragged! said Captain Scraggs, pro duclng a box of cigars and handing it to Mr. Gil ney Gib, my dear boy, wherever have jot been these last three years? Everywhere, replied Mr. Gibney "I have been all over, mostly in Pana ma and the Gold coast. For two year. Ive been navigatin officer on the Co lombian gunboat Bogota. When I war a young feller I did a hitch in the nav; s and become a gunner, ani then I went to sea In the merchant ma rlne, and got my mates license, ant when I flashed my credentials on tin president of the United States of Co lombia he give me a job at dos cient pesos oro per. Thats Spanish foi two hundred bucks gold a month. Ivi been through two war?-- and I got f medal for sinkin a fishin smack. talk Spanish just like a native, I doni drink no more to speak of, and Ivf been savin my money. Some day when I get the price together Im goin back to San Francisco, buy me a nict little schooner, and go tradin In thf South seas. How they been comin with you, Seraggsy,' old kiddo? Jus' Lovely, replied Scraggs. simply grand. Ill pull ten thousan( out of this job. Mr. Gibney whistled shrilly througl his teeth. Thats the 'ticket for soup," he said I tell you, Scraggs, thi? admiringly. soldier of fortune business may be all right, but it dont amount to much compared to being a sailor of fortune eh, Seraggsy? Just ns soon as I heard there was a revolution in M 'xico I quit my job in the Colombian navy and come north for the pickins. . . No, I aint' been in their rotten little to army. . . . Dye th'nk I want . . There . killin around people? go aint no pleasure gettin killed In the mere shank of a bright and prosper a dead hero dont ous life . voy. r s keel-haule- d first-clas- ) .. Heads all gather no moss, Seraggsy. appeal dont it but right in books, none to me. I'm for peace every time, of so right away as soon as I heard 1 hinge I to myself: the trouble, says has been pretty quiet in Mexico for shift twenty years, and theyre due to "hat much, things around pretty an them peons need Is a man with if and out. em imagination to help P. theyve got the money, Adelbert Bib-ne- can supply the brains. So I comes Inorth to Los Angeles, shows the medal and my ho- nsurrecto junta my Id norable discharges from every ship Bthe gunboat ever been to. Includin swelled ogota, and I talked big and some in run around and told em to nil up it framed I arms and get busy. for this filibuster trip youre on, hear that Seraggsy, only I never did that co told I on you. theyd picked rat of a Lopez man him hunt up Scab Johnny and hed set me y told had right, but if anybody in on nad the nerve to run the Maggie him a this deal, Seraggsy, Id liar. Scraggs. youre so use Is, youre all right. Im I forget mysem to talkin Spanish this little e of end one Still, theres to a that I aint exactly explained can was they hands. If Id terin' the Maggie. Id have hlociei game. fee-color- mucho-bueno-th- Seraggsy and Gib prepar for war, horrid war. (TO BE CONTINUED.) Easy Finance. are some persons who met es flnancers whose essential'? not are tog money small W from that of the the oth house it Into the and showed his inotl1. Look of pennies. i" he exclaimed. re astonished mother. 5 j get them. Harold?' the corner. retuiwdln They were opeful. door f newspaper, to the them store." And be put Q one of air icket with the , t |