OCR Text |
Show 1 Stealing the Davy Jones I v Sj an Rjc-Operative of the Jnited States Secret Service. x rTlAPTAIN DICKSON, a Retired I 1 I Officer, Uncovers and Nabs ( S-rT-rrl PerPet"ators of Most Daring A y XBuJ Theft- Full-Grown Steam- 5 A I boat Is Taken on Inland- River A t Vessel Long Used by Government and Then Sold to Hank Parlow V His Part in the Tale of the Davy Jones Last Cruise of Famous Craft. a Wm TY. J RT SEEMS preposterous," said Capt. Dickson, "that thieves could steal and get away with a full grown steamboat and thai, too, on an inland river. But , i a I his is just exactly what m l a KS of l iver pirates did W O 'if "lc case of tne Davy H vf f J nes a stern-wheel steam-li'AitEitJ steam-li'AitEitJ boat that once belonged to wilfittlikiM be government service and which was employed wiih other boats of the government govern-ment fleet on the Mississippi river in looking after the levees, keeping the channel clear and the government lights burning, and the numerous other oth-er matters that the government has assumed in connection with the navigation navi-gation on that stream." Capt. Dickson was a retired secret service officer and I had known him for many years. He had no thought of publishing his reminiscences, but when I could get him under the influence influ-ence of a warm fire in his cozy parlor, par-lor, a pipe, and a glass never more than two In an evening of his favorite favo-rite sherry, I always got something that was worth publishing and 1 used to tell him so. And as the principals to the affairs were so hidden in the telling and the locale of the events was usually so far away he did not object. I prefer- to tell it in his own words. ' The boat had been operated by the government until It had been considered consid-ered unsuited for its needs, and then on it and after some difficulty I deciphered de-ciphered this message: the dav Jones is up st francis River. It was not signed and the writing showed that its author was in no sense a scholar. 1 was pondering over it when Parlow came in to tell me that the gasoline launch was ready for my den' n whenever I wished to set out. I had not really intended going on a cruise, as 1 thought the boat would be found in a day or so. but the anonymous letter had put the idea in my head. I showed the note to. Par-low Par-low ana he became highly excited. He swore. "That's just what I thought they'd do. They've run out there iu the swamps to pick the boat to pieces so that they can find my gold. There ain't no gold aboard it, but them thieving thiev-ing river-rats think there is, and this ain't the. first time they've tried to get at it." We lef. about one o'clock an 1 made rapid time down the river. I had often oft-en seen the Mississippi river during a flood but I had never fully understood its ii resistible force until tin's trip down it in the 30-foot launch We traveled at the rate of a race-horse. Parlow wanted to run after nightfall, and whiie I was more in favor of lying up, he and Wastrow assured me that traveling was absolutely safe an:., as they were experienced river men and seemed to understand the boat and the river, too, I consented and turned in. making a bed on the locker seat of the forward cabin. My bed was a little It was sold to a curious old river man named Hank Parlow, who employed it as a- trading boat, towing a large flat boat with it, and picking up such odd jobs of towing and freighting as chance threw in his way. I was in the office of the surveyor of customs at a certain Mississippi river city one day when Parlow came in to have his license renewed and the surveyor sur-veyor introduced him to me. He was a peculiar character, and when it came to paying the fee for the license, Par-low Par-low drew forth a greasy pouch from some indeterminate place of concealment conceal-ment about his person, and paid the amount from a $20 gold piece. He asked for his change in gold, but as there happened to be none in the office just then he accepted the silver and bills with some showing of reluctance reluc-tance and bowed himself out of the office. After he had left, the surveyor told m that Parlow was a miser and was reputed to be worth many thousands of dollars. His fortune, so the river-men river-men said, was concealed somewhere about the boat Davy Jones, and it was thought to be all in gold, as Par-low Par-low invariably had every bit of silver and every bill that fell into his hands converted into gold coins at his first opportunity. I didn't see Parlow again until some weeks later, when he came into my office and told me that his boat had been stolen from the wharf the nighi before and he wanted me to find it. He was frenzied with grief and chagrin cha-grin and swore, with many black and long-winded oaths, that he would kill the thieves on sight if he could find them. I doubted if the case was one in my jurisdiction, but 1 wired the particulars par-ticulars to the department at Washington Washing-ton and received instructions to go on search for the vessel and endeavor to capture the rogues. It seems that there had been considerable complaint from the port where I was then stationed, sta-tioned, of thefts of goods and other articles from steamboats, and as the work was attributed to a gang of river pirates, the chief thought it would be a' good job to round up the gang and put them where they would do no harm. Parlow offered to pay all expenses, and he told me that a friend of his. a sallow, slouching fisherman named Wastrow, owned a fast cabin gasoline boat that would be put at my disposal. I wired notice of the theft of the Davy Jones to points along the river and its tributaries, as I felt sure that the boat could not remain long undetected if it ' showed itself at any port of the Mis sissippi. The next morning when I opened pay office, I found a dirty slip of paper among the letters in my mail box. Ex-Aminlnfi Ex-Aminlnfi It. I ilBOoverad neneil writing i cramped and the situation was a novel one fiat I soon dipped asleep and didn't wake until it was broad daylight day-light next morning. It. was close to noon when we turned a sharp bend in the -river, which Par low told me was 30 miles from the Mississippi. On tho farther shore there was a depression in the treeline. which Parlow said indicated that a slough or lead put out there, and that if it were followed up one would probably find a lake back in the timber. I looked at it curiously, and was on the point of asking some question when Wastrow, Was-trow, who was steering, became greatly great-ly excited and called Parlow to his side. He pointed across the river at the mouth of the slough and seemed to be endeavoring to show some object ob-ject to his companion. Parlow saw it in an instant, and the boat's prow was headed for it. I couldn't make out what they had discovered, although I strained my eyes, as I asked what it was. Parlow pointed with his long, skinny arm at a tree limb which had been broken half off near the trunk and which dangled down, hanging by a strip of bark. I saw, even at that distance, dis-tance, that the break was white and fresh. My companions seemed to attach at-tach the greatest weight to it, for they gesticulated and pointed at it, talking excitedly all the while. We were now approaching it closely, and I suddenly saw Parlow grab up his rifle and point it at a streak on the trunk of the -tree in which hung the broken limb. I saw what he referred re-ferred to, and as we ran close beside it I saw that it was a smudge of paint and splinters of wood as if something had rubbed against it. Then I realized real-ized the purport of these signs and did not need the excited explanation that the rivermen gave me. We slowed the engine down until its muffled exhaust was scarcely audible and stealthily crept into the narrow slough that ran back into the timber. The men were sure that some boat had run up this slough, and I felt that they were right, and that it must be the vessel that we were after, for no sane pilot would drive a boat into such a channel unless un-less he were endeavoring to find a place of concealment. It was a tortuous course through the forest, by this narrow slough, or lead, fringed with stately cypress trees standing as straight as arrows. Even my inexperienced eye could detect that the boat had surely passed along the channel ahead of us. The drifi was disordered and willows and saplings sap-lings were broken off here and there. A.s we proceeded, the rivermen Slipped their rifles nervously and peered ahead through the open window win-dow of l he cabin with baleful glare of ranthers. They swept every bit of the channel on both sides with eyes that overlooked nothing, and at the discovery discov-ery of a new sign of the boats having passed that way, they would nudge each other and exchange glances that boded no good for the thieves. Par-low Par-low was especially noticeable for the steely glitter of his eyes, and I read murder in them as plainly as I have ever seen it in box-car letters on the front page of a yellow journal. We must have traveled- a mile or more, when, just as we darted around a clump of willows and saw a stretch of open water loomed ahead, there was a spiteful report far down the lake, and a rifle ball sung over our heads. I had been under fire before, but it happened so suddenly that I ducked involuntarily. But not so with Parlow and Wastrow. They seemed to hail the attack with a fiendish delight, de-light, and I saw them stick their rifles farther out of the open window and sight carefully down the barrels. Our course was changed slightly, and as the prow of the boat swung to the right in obedience to the rudder, rud-der, I saw the Davy Jones tied up to a gigantic cypress tree at the farther side of the lake. We headed directly for it. and there were several more shots from its direction, and one bullet bul-let plumped into the woodwork of the cabin and sent a shower of splinters about my ears. Over the bowed heads of the two river-men I could plainly see the steamboat, and on its lower deck I saw three men. each firing at us with a repeating rifle. We were now less than 200 yards' distant from them, but neither of my companions had replied to their fire. Our progress was slow, and we made an excellent target, as the sullen crunching of bullets bul-lets through the woodwork and the splintering of glass indicated. As coolly as if he. were giving some direction about the running of the launch, I heard Parlow mutter to his companion: "You take the one on your right side and I'll lake care of the one on mine. You say when." Wastrow Immediately grunted his understanding, and although he didn't say "when," he said something that caused two fingers to curl about two triggers. There was a loud report from their rifles, sounding like a single shot, and I saw two of the men on the steamer crumple up like a sere leaf, stagger a step or so. and fall to the deck. The third man turned to run, but he had only gone far enough to permit of the flinging back of a lever and a hasty taking of sight before be-fore 1 saw him pitch forward in response re-sponse to a spiteful crack from Par-low's Par-low's rifle. "I'd a' got him if you hadn't." Wastrow grunted in a matter-of-fact way, just as if he had been shooting at squirrels or ducks instead of human beings. It made me turn sick to hear them speak so lightly of killing three of their fellow men. We ran alongside, and one of the river-men jumped out and made fast to the steamer. Par-low Par-low looked apprehensively about the boat, and I followed his gaze, which finally settled on the brick foundation for the boilers. I saw a glad light come into his eyes, and somehow I jumped to the conclusion that his treasure, whatever it might be, was concealed in that brickwork. Wastrow had not noticed this. The boat was in the wildest confusion. confu-sion. It was evident that the thieves were literally following Parlow's suggestion sug-gestion and picking it to pieces. The stuffy cabin and squalid staterooms had been absolutely wrecked. The mattresses were slit open, planking-torn planking-torn away, and every place of concealment conceal-ment laid bare. Parlow grinned maliciously mali-ciously at the wreck of his boat, and I saw that he felt the keenest satis faction at the knowledge of the three inert things that lay out Upon the forward deck, stiffening in the drizzle which had now turned to sleet. Parlow examined the corpses and said that he knew all three of them; they were members of a gang of toughs that infested the river, and he began to display symptoms of alarm as soon as he had looked them over. "This ain't all of em." he said. "There's more'n ihis. and they will be coming back here and takin' a pot shot at us if we don't hurry up and get away." Wastrow seemed to share this apprehension, and suggested that we had best leave as soon as possible, for the pirates would have every advantage ad-vantage of us if they should come back, the limber about the boat affording af-fording excellent places of concealment conceal-ment from which they could fire upon us with safety. Acting upon this advice, Parlow secured se-cured a crowbar and attacked the brick foundation under the boiler at a point near the farther end from the fire-box. while Wastrow stood by and watched him with greedy eyes. With a few lusty strokes Parlow pried out some of the bricks, and I saw a small iron-bound box within the opening. Parlow dragged it out with some difficulty. diffi-culty. It was heavy, and something within it clinked like metal when it was moved. With W'astrow's assistance assist-ance he carried it lo the gasoline launch and placed it inside. Then he hastened up the companio.nway into the stuffy office and dived into the rickety stove that stood in one corner. He scooped the ashes from the waste box at its bottom, and disclosed a small ring. Pulling on Ibis, he raised an ingeniously contrived door which had been quite concealed by the ashes. The stove had a false bottom and from the cavity in it he brought forth three heavy sacks which 1 saw contained coins. Wastrow had watched these pro ceeding with eyes that were nap rowed to t&y slits. I could see thai he was interested, and 1 didn't like the cupidity and cunning which showed in his entire face. Parlow had lugged his sacks dowD the companionway and started for the launch, declining the assistance that Wastrow offered him, and he was in the act of stepping into the launch when there came a spiteful crack and a puff of smoke from somewhere back in the timber, and a bullet plumped into a stanchion beside him, to which the launch was tied. It was no lime for hesitation, so we three jumped into the launch and Wastrow cut the rope which moored us to the steamer. The -surviving members of the gang were returning, and we had no desire to be trapped on the dismantled steamer. In a trice Parlow had started the engine and we were headed away from the Davy Jones. Bullets sang all around us, and although we returned the fire, the pirates were hid away in the timber, and there was small chance of. silencing silen-cing them. We tore through the water with bullets skipping and ricocheting about us on every hand until we turned the bend in the slough. Not until then did we draw a full breath or feel that we were out of danger from the murderous bandits hid back in the thick timber. It was an uneventful cruise back to the city, it having been decided that it was better to return there and send out a strong party to recover the stolen boat, than for us three to attempt at-tempt it. I am sure that Parlow aidn't sleep a wink on the return journey, for whenever I was awake I saw him huddled down upon the ironbound box into which he had surreptitiously slipped the sacks of money that he had taken from the bottom of the stove. I was dog tired when we reached port late ihe next afternoon, so I left the river-men aboard the launch after offering to help Parlow carry his box to a place of safety, an offer w hich he declined. That was the last I ever saw of either eith-er of the river-men. Parlow was found dead, floating in Ihe river some months later. Wastrow, who had disappeared, was suspected of the murder, but he was never apprehended. I don't know what became of the ironbound box, but the Davy Jones never went on another cruise. The pi-raies pi-raies burned it clear to Ihe keel where it was tied up iu the isolated lake. (Copyright, llioi. hy W. G. chapman.) (Copyright in Ureal Britain.) |