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Show Tke CJRERN PEA F L LT3 L SsaSSas GIANTS," Etc Zty PETER B. KYNE I Copyright, by Peter B. Kyne "We got a quorum without u...i, .. besides this business la Just between us three." "Meetin'll come to order." Trie commodore tapped the hot deck with his bare heel twice, "Haul away, Mac." "I move you, gentlemen, that It be the sense o' this meetln' that B. Me-Guffey, Me-Guffey, Esquire, be an' he is hereby app'inted a committee o' one to lam the everlastin' daylights out o' that sinful former chief mate o' ourn for abandonln' the syndicate to a horrible death on that there desert island. Do I hear a second to that motion?" "Second the motion," chirped Captain Cap-tain Scraggs. "The motion's denied," announced Mr. Gibney firmly. "Now, looky here, Gib, that ain't fair. Didn't you fight Tabu-Tabu an' didn't Scraggsy fight the king o' Kan-davu? Kan-davu? I ain't had no flghtln' this entire en-tire Vyage an' I did cal'late to lick that doggone mate." "Mac, it can't be done nohow." "Oh, It can't, eh? Well, Til Just bet you two boys my Interest in the syndicate syndi-cate " "It ain't that, Mac, it ain't that Nobody's No-body's doubtln' your natural ability to mop him up. But It ain't policy. Yon wasn't sore agin 'em cannibal savages, was you? You made Nells by some sixth sailor sense Nells Hal-vorsen Hal-vorsen became convinced that his old friends of the vegetable trade were marooned. They had gone ashore for some kind of a frolic, and the crew had stolen the schooner and left them to their fate, believing that the castaways cast-aways would never be heard from and that dead men tell no tales. He rushed on deck, carried his prisoner pris-oner down Into the cabin, and locked the door on him, A minute later he was clinging to the Jacob's ladder, the canoe shot In to the side of the vessel at his gruff command and passed on shoreward without missing a stroke of the paddle. An hour later, accompanied by three Kanaka sailors picked up at random along the water front, Nells Halvorsen was pulled out to the Maggie IX Her crew had not returned and the bogus captain was still triced hard and fast in the cabin. The Swede did not bother to Investigate Inves-tigate in detail the food and water supply. A hasty round of the schooner schoon-er convinced him that she had at least a month's supply of food and water. Only one thought surged through his mind, and that was the awful necessity for haste. The anchor an-chor came in with a rush, the Kanaka Ka-naka boys chanting a song that sounded to Nells like a funeral dirge, and Nells went below and turned the gasoline engines wide open. The Maggie II swung around and with a long streak of opalescent foam trailing trail-ing behind her swung down the bay and faded at last In the ghostly moonlight moon-light beyond Diamond head; after which Neils Halvorsen, with murder In his eye and a tarred rope's end In his horny fist, went down Into the cabin and talked to the man who posed as Captain Scraggs. In the end he got a confession. Fifteen minutes later he emerged, smiling grimly, gave the Kanaka boy at the wheel the course, and turned in to sleep the sleep of the conscience-free and the weary. Darkness was creeping over the beach at Tuvana-tholo before Mr. Gibney could smother the despair In his heart sufficient to spur his Jaded Imagination to . working order. For nearly an hour the three castaways had sat on the beach in dumb horror, gazing seaward. They were not alone In this, for a little further up the beach the two FIJI Islanders sat huddled on their haunches, gazing stupidly first at the horizon and then at their white captors. It was the Bight of these two worthies that spurred Mr. Glb-ney's Glb-ney's torpid brain to action. "Didn't you say, Mac, that when we left these two cannibals alone on this island that It would develop Into a case of dog eat dog or somethln' of that nature?" Captain Scraggs sprang to his feet, his face white with a new terror. However, he had endured so much since embarking with Mr. Gibney on a life of wild adventure that his CHAPTER XIII Continued. 14 A Jacob's ladder was hanging over tie side of the schooner as the canoe bot In under her lee quarter, and half , minute later the expectant Neils tepped upon her deck. A tall dark can, wearing an ancient palmleaf iat, sat smoking on the hatch coam-og, coam-og, and him Nells Halvorsen ad-Iressed. ad-Iressed. "Aye bane want to see Cap'n Icraggs," he said. The tall dark man stood erect and 4 last a quick, questioning look at Nells aalvorsen. He hesitated before he oade answer. "What do you want?" he asked de-lberately. de-lberately. and there was a subtle nenace In his tones. As for Nells ffalvorsen, thinking only of the surprise sur-prise he had in store for his old em-)loyer, em-)loyer, he replied evasively : "Aye bone want Job." "Well, Tm Captain Scraggs, and I kaven't any Job for you. Get off my oat and wait until you're invited before be-fore you come aboard again." For nearly a minute Neils Halvor-ten Halvor-ten stared open-mouthed at the spurl-ius spurl-ius Captain Scraggs, while slowly (here sifted through his brain the notion no-tion that he had happened across the track of a deep and bloody mystery f the seas. There was "something otten in Denmark." Of that Neils Halvorsen was certain. More he could lot be certain of until he had paved lie way for a complete Investigation, ind as a preliminary step toward that end he clinched his fist and rprang swiftly toward the bogus skipper. skip-per. "Aye tank you bane d n liar," he nuttered, and struck home, straight md true, to the point of the Jaw. The man went down, and In p.ff instant in-stant Nells was on top of hlra. Off tame the sailor's belt, the hands of tfie half-stunr-ed man were quickly Hed behind him, and before he had Bme to realize what had happened Sells had cut a length of cord from t trailing halyard and tied his feet lecurely, after which he gagged him lecurely with his bandana haodker-thlef. haodker-thlef. A quick circuit of the ship con-rtneed con-rtneed Nells Halvorsen that the remainder re-mainder of the dastard crew were evidently ashore, so he descended to the cabin In search of further evidence evi-dence of crime. He was quite prepared pre-pared to find Captain Scraggs' master's mas-ter's certificate in its familiar oaken frame, hanging on the cabin wall, but ae was dumfounded to observe, hanging hang-ing on the wall In a similar and equally familiar frame, the certificate Df Adelbert P. Gibney as first mate Df steam or sail, any ocean and any tonnage. But still a third framed :ertiflcate hung on the wall, and Neils igaln scratched his head when he read the wording that set forth the egal qualifications of Bartholomew McGuffey to hold down a Job as chief engineer of coastwise vessels up to 1,200 tons net register. It was patent, even to the dull-witted dull-witted Swede, that there had been toul play somewhere, and the schooner's schoon-er's log, lying open on the table, seemed to offer the flrst means at band for a solution of the mystery. Eagerly Neils turned to the last entry. en-try. It was not in Captain Scraggs' handwriting, and contained nothing more interesting than the stereotyped reports of daily observations, currents, cur-rents, weather csndltlons, etc., Including In-cluding a notation of arrival that day at Honolulu. Slowly Halvorsen turned the leaves backward, until at last he was rewarded by a glimpse of a different handwriting. It was the last entry under that particular handwriting, hand-writing, and read as follows: "June 21, 19. Took an observation at noon, and And that we are In 2048 S.. 178-4 W. At thte rate should lift Tuvana-tholo Tuvana-tholo early this afternoon. All hands well and looking forward to the fun at Tuvana. Bent a new flying Jib this morn-mg morn-mg and had the king and Ta-bu-Tabu notystone the deck. A P. GIBNEY." Nells Halvorsen snt down to think, and after several minutes of this unusual un-usual exercise It appeared to the Swede that he hud stumbled upon a ?lue to the Situation. The" last entry In the log kept by Mr. Gibney was juder date of June 21st lust eleven fifth day Captain Scraggs tainted twice. On the twenty-sixth day McGuffey Mc-Guffey crawled Into the shadow of a stunted mimosa bush and started to pray! It was the finish. The commodore knew it, and sat with bowed head in his gaunt arms, wondering, wondering. Slowly his body began to sway ; he muttered something, slid forward on hl3 face, and lay still. And as he lay there on the threshold of the unknown he dreamed that the Maggie II came into view around the headland, a bone in her teeth and every stitch of canvas flying. He saw her luff up Into the wind and hang there shivering ; a moment mo-ment later her sails came down by the run, and he saw a little splash under her port bow as her hook took bottom. There was a commotion on decks, and then to Mr. Gibney's dying ears came faintly the shouts and songs of the black boys as a whaleboat shot into the breakers and pulled swiftly toward the beach. Mr Gibney dreamed that a white man sat in the stern sheets of this whaleboat and as the boat touched the beach it seemed to Mr. Gibney that this man sprang ashore and ran swiftly toward him. And Mr. Gibney twisted his suffering lips into a wry smile as he realized the oddities of this mirage It seemed to him that this visionary white man bore a striking resemblance to Neils Halvorsen. Neils Halvorsen, of all men I Old Nells, "the squarehead" deckhand of the green-pea trade ! Dull, bowlegged Neils, with his lost dog smile and his Mr. Gibney rubbed his eyes feebly and half staggered to his feet What was that? A shout? Without doubt he had heard a sound that was not the moaning of their remorseless prison-keeper, prison-keeper, the sea. . And "Hands off," shrieked Mr. Gibney and struck feebly at the imaginary figure fig-ure rushing toward him. No use. He felt himself swept into strong arms and carried an Immeasurable distance down the beach. Then somebody threw water in his face and pressed a drink of brandy and sweet water to his parched lips. His swimming senses rallied a moment, and he discovered that he was lying In the bottom of a whaleboat McGuffey lay beside him, and on a thwart in front of him sat good old Nells Halvorsen with Captain Scraggs' head on his knees. As Mr. Gibney looked at this strange tableau Captain Scraggs opened his eyes, glanced up at Nells Halvorsen, and spoke : "Why if It ain't old squarehead Nells," he muttered wonderingly. "If it ain't Neils, I'll go to hades or some other seaport" He closed his eyes again and subsided into a sort of lethargy, leth-argy, for he was content He knew he was saved. Mr. Gibney rolled over, and, struggling strug-gling to his knees, leaned over McGuffey Mc-Guffey and peered Into his drawn face. "Mac, old shipmate! Mac, speak to me. Are you alive?" B. McGuffey, Esquire, opened a pair of glazed eyes and stared at the commodore. com-modore. "Did we lick 'em?" he whispered. "The last I remember the king was puttin' it all over Scraggsy. And that Tabu boy was no slouch." McGuffey McGuf-fey paused, and glanced warily around the boat, while a dawning horror appeared ap-peared In his sunken eyes. "Go back, Neils go back for God's sake. There's two niggers still on the island. Bring 'em some water. They're cannibals Neils, but never mind. Get them aboard the poor devils If they're living. I wouldn't leave a crocodile on that. hell hole, if I could help it." An hour later the Robinson Crusoe syndicate, including the man Friday and the Goat, were safe aboard the Maggie H, and Nells Halvorsen, with the tears streaming down his bronzed cheeks, was sparingly doling out to them a mixture of brandy and water. And when the syndicate was strong 'enough to be allowed all the water It wanted, Neils Halvorsen propped them up on deck and told the story. When he had finished, Captain Scraggs turned to Mr. Gibney. "Gib, my dear boy," he said, "make a motion." "I move," said the commodore, "that we set Tabu-Tabu and the king down on the flrst inhabited Island we can find. They've suffered enough. And I further move that we readjust the ownership of the Maggie n syndicate and cut the best Swede on earth in on a quarter of the profits." "Second the motion," said McGuffey. "Carried," said Captain Scraggs. CHAPTER XIV. The lookout on the power schooner Maggie II had sighted Diamond head before Commodore Adelbert P. Gibney. Captain Phineas P. Scraggs. and Engineer En-gineer Bartholomew McGuffey were enabled to declare. In all sincerity (or at least with as much sincerity as one might reasonably expect from this band of roving rascals), that they had entirely en-tirely recovered from their harrowing experiences on the desert Island of Tuvana-tholo, In the Friendly group. At the shout of "Land, ho!" Mr. McGuffey Mc-Guffey yawned, stretched himself, and sat up in the wicker lounging chair where he had sprawled for days with Mr. Gibney and Captain Scraggs, under un-der the awning on top of the house. He flexed his biceps reflectively, while his companions, stretched at full length In their respective chairs, watched him lazily. "As a member e" the Maggie syndicate syndi-cate an' owntn' an' votln' a quarter Interest." In-terest." boomed the engineer, "I hereby here-by call a meetln' o' the said syndicate for the purpose o' transactln' any an' all business that may properly come before the meetln'." "Pass the word for Nells Halvorsen." Halvor-sen." suggested Mr. Gibney. "Bless his squarehend ooL" be added. emy, and the enemy fled In wild disorder, dis-order, pursued by the syndicate. After a chase of half a mile Mr. Gibney led his cohorts back to the beach. "Let's build a fire not that we need It but Just for company and sleep till mornln'. By that time my lmaginatlon'll be In workln' order and I'll scheme a breakfast out of this Godforsaken hole." At the flrst hint of dawn Mr. Gibney, Gib-ney, true to his promise, was up and scouting for breakfast He found some gooneys on a rocky crag and killed half a dozen of them with a club. On his way back to camp he discovered a few handfuls of sea salt In a crevice between some rocks, and the syndicate breakfasted an hour later on roast gooney. It was oily and fishy but an excellent substitute for nothing at all, and the syndicate was grateful. The breakfast would have been cheerful, In fact. If Captain Scraggs had not made repeated reference ref-erence to his excessive thirst McGuffey Mc-Guffey lost patience before the meal was over, and cuffed Captain Scraggs, who thereupon subsided with tears in his eyes. This hurt McGuffey. It was like salt In a fresh wound, so he patted pat-ted the skipper on the back and humbly asked his pardon. Captain Scraggs forgave him and murmured something about death making them all equal. "The next business before the syndicate," syn-dicate," announced Mr. Gibney, "is a search of this island for water." They searched all forenoon. At intervals in-tervals they caught glimpses of the two cannibals skulking behind sand-dunes, sand-dunes, but they found no water. Toward the center of the island, however, how-ever, the soil was less barren, and here a grove of coconut palms lifted their tufted crests Invitingly. "We will camp In this grove," said the commodore, "and keep guard over these green coconuts. There must be nearly a hundred of them and I notice no-tice a little toro root here and there. As those coconuts are full of milk, that insures us life for a week or two If we go on a short ration. By bath-In' bath-In' several times a day we can keep down our thirst some and perhaps It'll rain." "What if it does?" snapped Captain Scraggs bitterly. "We ain't got noth-ln' noth-ln' but our hats to catch It In." "Well, then, Scraggsy, old stlck-ln-the mud," replied the commodore quizzically, "it's a cinch you'll go thirsty. Tour hat looks like a cullender." cul-lender." Captain Scraggs choked with rage, and Mr. Gibney, springing at the nearest near-est palm, shinned to the top of It in the most approved sailor fashion. A moment later, Instead of coconuts, rich unctuous curses began to descend de-scend on McGuffey and Scraggs. "Gib, my dear boy," Inquired Scraggs, "whatever Is the matter of you?" "That hound Tabu-Tabu's been strlppin' our coconut grove," roared the commodore. "He must have spent half the night up in these trees." "Thank the Lord they didn't take 'em all," said McGuffey piously. "Chuck me down a nut Gib," said Captain Scraggs. "I'm famished." In conformity with the commodore's plans, the castaways made camp In the grove. For a week they subsisted subsist-ed on gooneys, taro root, coconuts and coconut milk, and a sea-turtle which Scraggs found wandering on the beach. This suggested turtle eggs to Mr. Gibney, and a change of diet resulted. Nevertheless, the unaccustomed un-accustomed food, poorly cooked as It was, and the lack of water, told cruelly cru-elly on them, and their strength failed rapidly. At the end of a week, all hands were troubled with indigestion and McGuffey McGuf-fey developed a low fever. They had lost much flesh and were a white, haggard-looking trio. On the afternoon of the tenth day on the Island the sky clouded up -and Mr. McGuffey predicted predict-ed a willlwaw. Captain Scraggs Inquired In-quired feebly if it was good to eat. That night it rained, and to tho great Joy of the marooned mariners Mr. Oibney discovered, in the center of a big sandstone rock, a natural reservoir reser-voir that held about ten gallons of water. wa-ter. They drank to repletion and felt their strength return a thousand-fold. Tabu-Tabu and the king came Into camp about this time, and pleaded for a ration of water. Mr. Gibney, swearing swear-ing horribly at them, granted their request, re-quest, and the king, In his gratitude, threw himself at the commodore's feet and kissed them. But Mr. Gibney was not to he deceived, and after furnishing furnish-ing them with a supply of water In coconut calabashes, he ordered them to their own side of the Island. On the eighteenth day the last drop of water was gone, and on the twenty-second twenty-second day the last of the coconuts disappeared. The prospects of more rain were not bright. The gooneys were becoming shy and distrustful and the syndicate was experiencing more and more difficulty, not only in killing them, but In eating them. McGuffey, who had borne up uncomplainingly, was shaking with fever and hardly able to stagger down the beach to look for turtle eggs. The syndicate was sick, weak and emaciated almost beyond be-yond recognition, and a the rwenty- K Was tho Finish. The Commodore Krysw it-go it-go back an' save 'em, an' It took us two days to beat up to the first Inhabited In-habited island an' drop 'em off " "But a cannibal's like a dumb beast, Gib. He ain't responsible. This mate knows better." "Ah I" Mr. Gibney leveled a horny forefinger at the engineer. "That's where yon hit the nail on the head. He's too fly, and there's only two ways to keep him from flyln' away with us. The first is to feed him tg the sharks and the second is to treat him like a long-lost brother. I know he ought to be hove overboard, but I ain't got the heart to kill him in cold blood. Consequently, we got to let the villain live, an' if you go to beatin' him up, Mac, you'll make him sore an' he'll peach on us when we get to Honolulu. Hono-lulu. If us three could get back to San Francisco with clean hands, Pd say lick the beggar an' lick him for fair. Bat we got to remember that this mate was one o' the original filibuster crew o' the old Maggie I. The day we tackled the Mexican navy an' took this power schooner away from 'em, we put ourselves forty fathom plumb outside the law, an' this mate was present an' knows It. We've changed the vessel's name an' rig, an' doctored up the old Maggie's papers to suit the Maggie II, an' we've give her a new dress. But at that, It's hard to disguise dis-guise a ship In a live port, an' the secret se-cret service agents o' the Mexican government gov-ernment may be a-Iayin' for us In San Francisco ; and with this here mate agin us an' ready to turn state's evidence, evi-dence, we're pirates under the law, an' It don't take much Imagination to see three pirates swingin' from the same yard-arm. No, sir, Mac. I ain't got no wish, now that we're fixed nice an' comfortable with the world's goods, to be hung for a pirate In the mere shank o' my youth. Why, I ain't fifty year old yet" (TO BE CONTINUED.) Carried His Prisoner Down Into the Cabin. nerves had become rather Inured to Impending death, and presently his fear gave way to an overmastering rage. He hurled his hat on the sands and Jumped on It until It was a mere shapeless rag. "Let's call a meetln' of the Robinson Robin-son Crusoe syndicate," said Mr. Gibney. Gib-ney. "Second the motion," rumbled McGuffey. Mc-Guffey. "Carried." said the commodore. "The first business before the meetln' Is the organization of a expedition to chase these two cannibals to the other end of the island. I ain't got the heart to kill 'em, so let's chase 'em away before they get fresh with us." "Good Idea," responded McGuffey. whereupon he picked up a rock and threw it at the king. Mr. Gibney followed fol-lowed with two rocks. Captain Scraggs screamed deflsooe at the en- days ago. nnd on that date Mr. Gibney Gib-ney hnd been looking forward to some fun at Tuvana-tholo. Now where was that Island and what kind of a place was it? Nells searched through the cabin until he came across the book that is the bible of every South sea trading vessel the British admiralty reports. Down the Index went the old deckhand's deck-hand's calloused flnger and paused at 'Friendly Islnnds page 177;" whereupon where-upon Nells opened the book at p:ie 177 and aft a five-minute search discovered Wt Tuvana-tholo was a barren, uninhabited Island In latitude 21-2 south, longitude 178-49 west. Ten days from the Friendly Islands, the paper said. That meant undT power nnd sail with the trades abaft the beam. It would take nearer fl?-een fl?-een days for the run from Honolulu io that dese.-t Islnnd, and Nells Hal-versen Hal-versen wondered whether the marooned ma-rooned men would still be alive by ; the time aid could reach them. For |