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Show COUNT LUCKNER THE SEA DEVIL "Well, by Joe," be continued. "1 wish yoa wouldn't mj anything about It Don't say anything about my having hav-ing a wife along. My real wife might find It out, and then there would be h-tU to -pay. , i . "Oho," I exclaimed, "so that'e the way the wind blows, eh 7 "I said ahe waa my wife," be continued con-tinued lamely, "because I thought It might help to aave ber from your sail-ors. sail-ors. But I don't want my wife to And It .OUt" - " - v. "All right sir," I aald, "1 wont report re-port It, and I won't let my officers or crew know anything about It That will be beat Treat the girl aa your wife. I wilt keep my mouth abut and you keep your mouth ahut" It waa a difficult point of morals aboard ship. If the aallora found out that the girl waa not the officer's wife, but only a kind of stowaway, tbey would lose all respect for ber, and there waa no telling what they might try to do. Sal lora are not angels, but usually, In fact, lot of rogues, but they are highly respectable. They have a very fine code of honor, and a woman who la off the line la simply off the line to them. Certainly, I did not want them to know that the officer's offi-cer's wife waa not the officer's wife. : One of my prisoners turned out to be an acquaintance of the officer of the ... I told him that the officer offi-cer of the . . . . had his wife along, and Introduced him to the girt tie laughed so bard he nearly full over. lie wanted to tell the joke all around. It waa awkward for a moment, mo-ment, but I got the two men aside and talked earnestly to them. . "We must be gentlemen lo this matter." mat-ter." I aald. "She la a girl. We are men. We must protect her. The aallora aall-ora must not know about It Tou most both give me your word of honor that you will keep mum and tell nobody." They both promised they would obey. Everything went all right until this other prisoner took a shine to the girl, too. It was funny business. She kind of liked tilm. 1 kept an eye on the whole affair and saw what was happening. hap-pening. Here waa more worry and trouble. I took the two men aside and said to thera: "1 don't care what arrangements you two fellows make with your fair playmate, but It has got to be kept Hy Lotat ell Thomas Coprrlaht br Doubledar, Peraa Ce. Koliiinl thai their aeeawira la tfce Sauta AllaaUc areuW be kaowa u ma their Iww prlaooara tamdm part, the raldera ei the Seeadler started trlta all peea tar the touts Paciflc kopiut la sat erouaa Caae Hera Mora tba Britiab craiaara could to. tartapl than. OH the Hon that raa hat atama thai vara aatraarataarr eeea lor that stoma raftoa an were farcea aa far to the aouth that they earrowlr aataaas eUeaeter aawaa tha leeberfa. tha aridat of a burrkana thav elghted Ms euxUlara erulen but tradrd U by nnmtne adore tha tried Willi a raliutona blotteS thrai frooa Ita vUw Turalnf aorth hi 10 tha Pacific, thay throw ovarboard thair extra Uloboata and Ufa praaarvara, hoplnf soma would ba plckart ua and load to tba btllof that tha Saaadlar had fona down off tba Home. Thh) waa fust what havpaaad. CHAPTER X Continued . 14 This left the way clear for us, and now we suited out to continue our adventure on the greatest of all the seven sens. Fourteen days after rounding the Horn, we picked an Interesting aud rather puzzling wireless out of the air: Seemlier gone down with flags flying. fly-ing. Commander and part of crew taken prisoners and on their way to Montevideo. "What's thatr I thought "By Joe, Johnny Bull Is telling a whopper." Now, when old John Bull tells a fib. you can bet, by Joe, that he has gooa reason tr it We tried to figure it out, and came to the conclusion that It had something to do with the scare we had created. The news that our prisoners had given out at Mo had iient Lloyd's rates skyward and caused nnny ships to lie In harbor until the dinger from the German raider had biown over. The British, In order to bring Lloyd's rates down and to liberate liber-ate all the shipping that bad been tied up, took pains to spread a highly colored col-ored report of our disaster dressed up with suitable Imaginative trimmings to make It more convincing. atlng waa new enemies and fewer friends. The American declaration of war came as a blow expected, but bard nevertheless. Some of the mors pessimistic pes-simistic of us could spell the doom of Germany In it It altered tha position of our buccaneering expedition somewhat some-what too. It reduced the number of neutral ports Into which we might sail. It also increased the number of cruiser cruis-er we had to look out for. However, neutral ports did not enter en-ter Into our calculations much. All ports really were hostile, anyhow. Neutrals would limit ns to a short, Inhospitable In-hospitable stay, the wireless atatlons nearby would broadcast our presence, and the cruisers would come flocking The American naval ships didn't mean much, either. They would doubtless lie kept, nearly all of them, to guard the Atlantic shipping lanes for the passage of American troop vransports and leave what patrol of the Taclfic was necessary to the British and Jap-! Jap-! anese. The principal change of circumstance cir-cumstance for us was thnt now we could tnke American prizes. I We steered across the Pacific past the Marquesas, fur lo the south of Hawaii. We made 'Lis waters near Christmas Island our iruislng ground. There, near the equitor, the east-bound east-bound and west-bound routes for sailing sail-ing ships crossed. We sailed backward back-ward and forward, croislng the equator equa-tor two and three timet; each day. We captured three t me r I can ships lo these waters, the a. B. Johnson, the R. a Slade, and the Manila. Our prisoners npnibercd fortj-flve men, one woman, and a pet opossum. ' The captains were not half so as tonlshed and bewildered as the former for-mer captains when we unmasked ourselves our-selves aa a buccaneer. Tbey knew that the sailing ship raider was abroad. So we were deprived of some of our former amusement of astounding and befuddling' officers and crews by suddenly hoisting the German flag, unmasking our cannon, firing n mnchlna mm Into their rip. "Well, Johnny Bull," I thought, "we'll fi you." Our wireless operator, s very capable capa-ble fellow, worked out a scheme with me. "Sparks" sent out the following message purporting to come from a British ship: SOS-r-SOS Cerman sub ... He cut the message short, as If Interrupted, In-terrupted, to make It seem as If at that moment the ahlp had been torpedoed. tor-pedoed. After s suitable Interval he sent out another call, this one merely reporting report-ing German submarines off the coast of Chile. Did Lloyd's rates go ufl again 1 And did those ships that were getting ready to put to sea put back to their berths? Well, you can bet your boots they did. And we sent out other submarine sub-marine warnings every so often Just to keep our little joke alive. These were all small Injuries, but we had been sent out to harass the enemy, en-emy, and this was one way of doing it What more could you expect of a lone windjammer? And then, It's these Injuries all added together that more often than not win the day. It was good sport for us, anyhow. Our course was northward, with the Chilean coast and the Andes almost In sight We steered almost to the Galapagos tslands, and at Bobloson Crusoe's Island, San Juan Fernandez, we trimmed our sails and turned our bow west We sailed for weeks on the broad expanse of the Pacific without with-out sighting ship. Except for the occasional crackle of the wireless, we were alone In the world. Our wireless antennae kept us in touch with the latest phase of the International In-ternational situation. Nor was It particularly pleasant on those long Idle days at sea to sit and meditate on the fact that the United States was going into the war against us. We sailors knew better than some of our people at borne the tremendous pow er of the great republic of the West. There were closeted statesmen and generals who might talk as they pleased about the American lack of military preparedness and the Impossibility Impos-sibility of American troops being mus-, toroH anil anfflrlentlv trained in time glng, and similar pleasantries. Rv. Srything went off according to routine. rou-tine. On one occasion we ran Into a most Intricate complication. We had expected ex-pected the complications of war and piratical strategy. That was part of the game. But at the time to which I refer we were faced with a new and tender complication, a romatlc complication. com-plication. "He's got his wife along," Boarding Officer Prelss informed me. lie referred to an officer of one of the ships. Indeed, we had noticed a woman aboard the captured ship. The officer In question presently Introduced In-troduced me to his helpmate, and a knockout ahe was, pretty, petite, and well, Just n bit roguish. "By Joe," I thought, "the sailors of these days are marvelous fellows. Where do they get these swell-looking wives? When I was In the forecastle, forecas-tle, It was different" In those days an officer's wife was something to run away from usually usual-ly fat, usually savage, and always sloppily dressed. I thought of all the windjammer captains under whom had sailed, and I couldn't think of one who had a wife that looked like a chorus girl. Well, times do change! There, was the captain we had captured cap-tured In the Atlantic who had such a pleasant little bride, and now here -was this officer and . bis sprightly beauty. I guess 1 can also ad- myself to the list Mere 1 am, skipper of a peaotful windjammer now, taking my three-master the Vaterlnnd around the orld, and I have my wife along, t have already described Irma, the fairy princess of my green Islund In the Cunaries. Yes, sailors' wives have improved in looks these days. Aboard the Seeadler we greeted the pretty little lady with great cordiality. Our former fair company had been so pleasant that we anticipated another an-other similar brightening of the dull monotony aboard. The monotony was indeed broken somewhat 1 But In a decidedly different way than we had expected. The officer had not been long aboard before be took me aside and made an awkward and somewhat quiet The sailors must think that she Is the wife of the officer of the ... and that ... Is only a friend." . They made some kind of change, 1 believe. I never could figure Just how It was. 1 never was mucb good at mathematics or at figuring out anything, any-thing, for that matter. At any rate, they kept It quiet The other prison-er prison-er was married, too, and he didn't want anything of the complicated romance ro-mance to get around either. I had come to expect my prlsonera to be good company. Our former Captains' Cap-tains' club had been one of the most delightful social organizations ever formed. These two sentimental swains, however, were not much good for comradeship. It was difficult to get together with thera for a pleasant chat or game of cards. They were always thinking about the girl, and, although they were acquaintances In captivity, their feelings toward each other had become slightly strained. There is something about, the air down there In the South Seas, I guess. One of the captains made up for the companionship that had been lacking, lack-ing, lie was a One fellow.' He was jovial and Intelligent, and a thorough seaman If there ever was one. We became be-came fast friends and had many a long and sympathetic talk about the war. ; Weeks passed, and we did not see another ship. The Idle days became very boresoiue. It was broiling hot, and we had little exercise. Our water turned stale, and we had no fresh provisions. pro-visions. Our prisoners did not find their stay with us so pleasant now, but we could not find a vessel on which to ship them. One decided that he could not stand It any longer. He wanted to put tils feet on land at any price. He came to me with a strange idea. Would I not land bim on a desert des-ert Island and leave him there a castaway? cast-away? Anything was better than shipboard. ship-board. But the principal part of bis plan was more subtle. He would be reckoned dead at home, and his people peo-ple would collect bis Insurance money. Perhaps I would be so kind as to make it seem certain that he was lost Yes, no? On the Island he could live as a ttoblnson Crusoe, a kind of exlst- embarrassed confession.' He bad been thinking things over. "Count," he said, 'In your reports you may say something about my having hav-ing my wife along." "Yes," I replied. i i i i i i l i i i i l l 1 I I 1 1 I I I I I I I ence which be fancied would be quite agreeable. Unfortunately for him, I felt obliged to decline. I was not interested in-terested In swindling Insurance companies. com-panies. (TO BE CONTINUED.) I I I I I 1 I I H-l-H I I I I I I I I I I IH- to be of any service In the critical hour of the war. We sailors had traveled. trav-eled. Many of us had been In the United States and bad served on American ships. All fine technical points aside, we had had opportunity to sense the might of the North American Amer-ican giant with Its numerous and virile population and Its Incalculable wealth. With Btich strength behind it, even an awkward, poorly aimed thrust was enough to push almost anyone over. We caught one radio dispatch that caused us to sit and gaze hopelessly Into the sky. It told of the famous Zlmmermann note. What madness had dictated that extraordinary state paper, pa-per, which proposed to Mexico that she join Germany In the war and receive re-ceive In return a slice of American territory Including Texas? I had served as a soldier tn the Mexican army, and knew something of Its probable prob-able prowess In a war. A few American Amer-ican regiments on the ' Rio Grande could hold back the Mexican army as easily as I can bold a child. And did our statesmen think the " Mexicans were such fools? The folly was one that could only enrage the people of the United States and make the Mexicans Mex-icans laugh. We of the Germoo fighting fight-ing forces could only curse the luck that had given our country such diplomacy. di-plomacy. All It succeeded lu negotl- |
