Show t r ff a r j COBIS by LLOYD gobourne copyright by joseph bowles things bad been dull in apia before the arrival of capt satterlee iee in the southern belle bisot business alone which was of course only to be ex pecked what with the civil war being just over and the banakas driven to at their cocoanuts instead of sellin them to traders in the form of i but socially loci ally speaking the littia capital or the samoan group had been next door to dead possibly this long spell 6 monotony contrib cited to capt satterlee Satter iee s pro bounced and instant success the of the southern belle had hardly more than appeared over the horizon when people began to wake up and realize that stagnation had too long held them in its thrall satter lee was not at all the ordinary kind 0 sea captain to which the beach as apia always alluded to itself was more than well acquainted gin had DO attractions for capt satterlee Satter iee nor did he surround himself with dusky impropriety he played a straight social game and lived up to the rules ven to party calls and finger bowls on his cabin table he was a tall thin american of about 45 with floor walker manners grayish whiskers and a roving eye the gen eral verdict of apia was that he was very superior his superiority was apparent in his gentlemanly baldness his openwork socks his well turned references to current events his kind ly and indulgent attitude toward all things samoan he deplored the rival ry of the three contending national ties german english and american whose official representatives meled fiercely among themselves and mismanaged the affairs of this anfor dunate little south sea kingdom and whose unofficial representatives sold guns and cartridges indiscriminately to the warring native factions sat berlee let it be interred that the role of peacemaker had informally settled upon himself in a little place everybody ought to pull together he would say his bland tolerance falling like balm from heaven and he would clinch the re mark by passing round 40 cent cigars the southern belle was a showy little vessel of about 90 tons with the usual trade room in the after part of the ship where the captain himself would wait on you behind a counter and sell you anything from a bottle of trade scent to a keg of dynamite he never was so charming as when en in this exchange of commodo ties for coin and it accorded so piquantly with his evident superiority that the purchaser had a pleasant sanse of doing business with a gentle man of course I 1 might run her as a yacht and play the heavy swell he ifould remark but candidly I 1 like this kind of thing it puts me on a level with the others you know and then it s handy for buying supplies and keeping one in touch with the people with this he would give you such a warming smile and perhaps throw in free a handful of fishhooks or a packet of safety matches or a toothbrush indeed apart from this invariable prodigality his scale of prices was ridiculously low and it you were a lady you could buy out the ship at halt price As tor young skiddy the american consul the bars in his case were lowered even more and he was just abbed to help him self which young skiddy did though sparingly capt satterlee Satter iee took an immense fancy to this youthful depre of their common country and treated him with an engaging mixture of respect and paternalism and skiddy not to be behindhand and dazzled besides by his elder s marked regard and friendship threw wide the consular door and constantly pressed on satterlee Satter iee the hospitality of a cot on the back veranda the little consul had never known such a man he had never heard such talk he had never before realized the extent and splendor of the world sitting in the cabin of the southern belle often far into the night he would give rapt attention to this ex being who had done everything and seen everything paris london constantinople new york all were as familiar to satterlee Satter iee as the palm of bis hand and he had the story telling gift that can throw a over the humblest incident it is a sad commentary on human nature that it Is so easily deceived A glib tongue an attractive manner few hundred dollars thrown carelessly about and presto you have the coun kerfeit of a cecil rhodes we are not only willing to take people at their own valuation but are ever ready to multiply that valuation by ten ob trude romance rich stirring romance into the lives of commonplace peo pie and they instantly lose their heads romance more than cupidity is what attracts the gold brick in vestor of course satterlee Satter iee was a poser a fraud a liar the highest type of liar the day dreaming well read genuine ly inventive highly imaginative lov ing it for its own sake liar but to skiddy every word he said was gospe true he never doubted the captain for an instant life grew richer to him stranger and more wonderful it was like a personal distinction a medal or the thanks of congress that satterlee Satter iee should thus I 1 sin aled him out his gratitude was un bounded he felt both and elated his cup was brimm ng over As the time began to draw near for the monthly mail from san francisco satterlee Satter iee got restless and talked re gret tully of leaving he gave a great P P bargain day on board the southern belle where sandwiches and bottled beer were served to all comero and goods changed hands at a ing prices coal oil at one seventy five a case hundred pound kegs of beet at four dollars turkey red cotton at six cents a yard square ace at 30 cents a bottle and similar cuts in all the standard commodities there was no custom house in those days and you were free to carry everything ashore unchallenged A matter of 80 tons must have been landed all round the beach and the pandemonium at the gangway the ish and jostle in the trade room and the steady hoisting out of fresh merchandise from the main hold made a very passable south sea imitation of a new york department store at an rate there was the same loss of temper th same harassed expression a tha faces of the purchasers and the same difficulty in getting change As like as not you had to take it the change in the form of jews harps screw ees or anything small and handy that happened to be near by it was the most lightning performance apia had ever witnessed and the captain carried it off in a brisk smiling way as though it was the best joke in the world and he was only doing it all tor fun unfortunate captain unhappy des tiny that brought in the mail cutter two days ahead of schedule thrice unlucky popularity that found thee basking in the sunshine of woman s favor instead ot on thy tour inch deck the pilot signaled the mail skiddy put forth in his consular boat intercepting the cutter in the pass and receiving on his head his own espe cial government bag the proximity of the southern belle and the hikell hood ot satterlee being at home caused skiddy to board the ship and open the bag on her quarterdeck on stout blue and important looking let ter at once caught his eye he opened the stout blue and important looking letter and there were no white men in the crew of the southern belle they were all boys with the ex of ah foy the chinese cook this amiable individual was singing over his pots and pans when he was suddenly startled by the apparition of skiddy at the gaily door the lit tie consul was deathly pale and there was something fierce and aut honta tive in his look come out of here he said abrupt ly I 1 want to talk to ou the chinaman followed him aft he had a prett good idea of what was coming that was why he was sewn ip with in hard cash together with a twenty dollar b 11 under his left heel H beagan to cry and in arve minutes had blu ted out the whole thing the law and he had besides some dim conception of state s evidence skiddy made the conception clearer and promised him immunity it he would make a clean breast of it this the chinaman forthwith did in h s labor ous p geon A good part of it was in comprehensible but he established certain main facts and confirmed the stout blue important looking letter As satterlee came off on a shore boat pulling like mad and then darted up the ladder in a sweat of apprehension he was met at the top by skiddy not skiddy his friend but skiddy the arm of the law skiddy the retributive skiddy the world s avenger with I 1 yf n sekiko his towering cox sl amling square behind him john forster he said alias sat berlee I 1 arrest you in the name ot the united states on the charge of hav aig the crime of ba fory and warn you that anything you say now may be hereafter used against you it was a horrible thing to say to ba to ced to say and ni sense of public duty could make it less than detestable skiddy almost whispered out the words the brutality of them appalled him remember this was his friend his hero the man whose intimacy an hour before had been everything to him satterlee gave him a quick blank panicky look and then with a pitiful bravado took a step forward with an attempted re turn to his usual confident air he professed to be at the ac causation cusa tion he was the victim of a dreadful mistake he tried with a ghastly smile to reassert his old do minion calling skiddy old man and old chap in a shaky fawning voice and wanting to take him below to talk it over but the little consul was adamantine the law must take its course he was sorry terribly sorry but as an officer of the united states he had to do hs h s duty satterlee preceded him into the boat the consul followed and took the yoke lines they were both de ejected and neither dared to meet the other s eyes it was a mournful pull ashore and tragic in the retrospect A silence lay between them as heavy as lead the crew conscious of the cap bains humiliation though they knew not the cause felt also constrained to a deep solemnity yes a funereal pull and it was a relief to everyone when at last they grounded in the shingle off the cons o 0 less time than it takes to write affied scanlon was appointed a ted states marshal charles scanlon an assistant united states marshal and the arrangement was made with them take full charge of capt sat berlee during his trial he was to live in their cottage have his meals served from the international hotel and while carefully guarded night and day was to be treated first class throughout the law of the united states boomed out little skiddy assumes that a prisoner is innocent until he is actually convicted I 1 want both of you to remember that the dian didn t understand a word of what he said but they saluted and looked very much impressed when you bought a scanlon you got a lot for our money including a pro found gravity when you addressed him it was the scanlon way of rec that you were paying and the scanlon receiving two dollars and fifty cents a day at the head of his two satellites who kept pace respectfully behind him skiddy next directed himself to find dillon dillon was a variety of while scanlon though of an infinitely lower human type who kept a tiny store and cobbled shoes near the mull vae bridge and who from some as fumed knowledge of legal procedure invariably acted as clerk of the court any court american english or the samoan high you associated his heavy bloated grog blo domed face and black dyed whiskers as an table part of the course of jus ice it was his custom to take longhand notes of all court proceedings as of course stenographers were unknown in apia and at times it would seem as though all samoan jus ice boiled down to dictating to dillon As a wit ness yo i never looked at the judge you looked at dillon and wondered whether he was taking iou right A careful witness always went slowly and used the words that D 1 ion was likely to understand what a stir was made in the little town as the news went round sat berlee the cherished the entertained the eagerly sought after satterlee iee had been discovered to be a i irate the southern belle was no southern belle at all but the james H pea body he had shipped as supe va 30 putting in a thousand dollars of his own to lull mr Crawf suspicions ten had marooned the captain and mate on ebon island and levantes lev anted with the ship heavens what cackle what excitement what a fun ous flow of beer in every saloon along the beach it was rumored that the great bargain day sales m be can caled that the goods might have to be returned that not a penny of corn sensation pensa tion would be paid to the un lucky purchasers then what a rub bing off of marks took place what a breaking up of tell tale cases what soaking off of tags the whole 80 tons disappeared like magic and you could not find a soul who would even confess to a packet of pins the trial took place in the large room of the consulate the big front doors stood open to the sea where a mile away the breamere bre akere tossed and tumbled on the barrier reef the back door was kept shut to keep out the meaner noises of but at intervals in the course of the trial you could hear the deliberate grinding of the consular coffee the chasing of consular chickens the counting of the consular wash shrill arguments over the price of fish a grotesque juxtaposition that seemed to make a mock of the whole proceedings on the reassembling of the court on the morning of the third day little skiddy from the majesty of the dais summed up the case at length it covered nine sheets of foolscap and had cost him hours of agonizing toil beginning with a general rhetorical statement about the policy of na ARREST YOU IN THE NAME OF THE UNITED STATES alons and the security of the high seas he descended by degrees to the crime of barratry or in plainer eng elsh the theft of ships he looked at barratry from every side and ohp more he looked the less he seemed to like it it was the cradle of piracy it destroyed the confidence of owners barratry it frequently repeated would shake the whole commercial structure A person who committed barrath barr would commit anything in this man ner he went on and on reviewing the evidence of the case destroying the whole fabric of the defense dwelling at length on the enormity of the en tire transaction the james H pea body had been deliberately seized the prisoner had lawlessly converted her the property of another to his own base uses he had broken into the cargo and shamelessly sold it as his own he could plead neither the extenuation of youth nor ignorance nor the urging of others he had con the crime and bad carried it out single handed the court could not accept the contention that ah foy the chinaman had been tn any sense a confederate or an accomplice the court dismissed the charge against ah but after mature deliberation its unanimous a was that john forster alias satterlee was guilty the court sentenced john forster alias satterlee to ten years penal servitude purdy popped up with some ques tion as to the scale of court tees thacher winked at dillon and began to roll up his papers skiddy de scented irom the dais and became an ordinary human being again the captain leaning forward in his chair gazed absently out to see the scan ion brothers appeared officiously wanting to know what they were to do next skiddy was unable to tell them except that they were to stay by the prisoner until he could consult with the authorities he put on his hat lit a cigar and forthwith departed the president was kind the chief justice urbane the income of the kingdom barely sufficed for their two salaries and they judged it incumbent as they could do nothing else to be as polite as possible to the american consul but oh no they coulden couldn t obi ge skiddy with a new jail he ft as welcome to what the had but it aan t in reason t sf he cou d expect anything better skiddy said it ws a hog pen the president retorted that the king s allowance wab eight months in arrears and that the western end of the island was still in rebellion jails cost money and they had no money skiddy declared it was an outrage and asked them if |