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Show Count Luckner, the Sea Devil I 9 Tke Seeadler l wrecked and Ike Ceaat and his craw fiad themaclvea cutaway a coral toil. CHAPTER XII Continued , -17- Onr overloaded cockelsbell wltb a craw of six waa tbe smallest auxiliary cruiser In tha. war. For cruiser wa were, and wa were setting out to capture cap-ture a ship, sail back to Mopella. pick up our comrades there, and continue our raid. To find and take a ship on lbs blgh aea waa a doubtful propoal tlon, but wa might get to some of tbe other Islands, not too well populated and guarded, and Hud a vessel at anchor. We could board ber at night, overpower tha captain and crew, and sail of wltb ber. Wa planned first of all to visit the Cook Islands, some eight hundred miles distant, snd if wa found no ahlp there, continue on another an-other thousand mllea farther to the FIJI Islands, where there were sure j to ba ahlps loading wltb copra for tbe ammunition factories of Europe. We figured on making around sixty nautical nau-tical miles a day, so that. If we had to go alt the way to the FIJls, It would take us approximately thirty days. Thus we should be back wltb a ahlp ; In three months at most. Wo discussed our tactics thoroughly for the expected capture. Wa would ateal aboard. Half-past three In the morning was tha best bour. Men sleep their aoundest then. A couple of ua would go to tbe officers' cabins tha rest to the forecastle. Wa would show our pistols, disarm them, and herd them below. It would be good to soeak to their clothing first and take away their belts and anlp tbe LOWELL THOMAS Coprrijht ar DwMaoar, Dorea C motor power. Tiny craft bare dona It, and at beat It la not a comfortable kind of voyage. In sporting events, your ocean-going email boat always had cabtn, or an Imitation of one. That la what we should hive bad, but we were not so lucky, and, besides, the load wa carried made existence aboard our lifeboat that bad been converted Into a cruiser a cramped affair Indeed. There waa only one place wa could trust to be dry, tbe buoyant air tanks at tha aldea of the boat. In these wa pscked our hardtack, a few pieces of clothing, photographic apparatus, and the all-Important tobacco. It affected tbe buoyancy of our craft, but we bad to keep some things away from the aea water. In the body of the boat were placed tbe water tanks, our large supply of weapons and ammunition, cordage for tha rigging, and several spare sails. Canvas shields at the side, which could be drawn over at the top and be made to form some kind of tent, sheltered us somewhat from wavea and dirty weather. Without With-out these we should have been practically prac-tically drowned. Four mattresses could ba at retched on the bottom, where four men could Bleep while two kept watch. As a concession to civilisation, civili-sation, we bad six pairs of knlvea and forks, als mugs, a coffee pot. and $5,000 In silver, gold, and paper, much of It in pounda sterling. At six In the morning, the two men on watch filled tbe coffee pot and ap- ... Tha resident looked at me auspiciously. aus-piciously. It waa a true British mistrust mis-trust Ordinarily, your Englishman Is tbe beat of fellows, a pleasant cbap to meet, a perfect boat But In wartime war-time yon bad to admire them. Tbey were on tbe lookout for everything. Tbelr brains seemed made only of suspicions. sus-picions. Klrchelss, who spoke English better than I did, continued: "Wo are Americana of Dutch birth. A few months ago wa made a bet at tba Holland club In San Francisco that wa would sail from Honolulu to and open boat via tbe Cook Islands to Tahiti and back to Honolulu. Tba wager la for twenty-five thousand dollars. dol-lars. Would yon, my dear air, kindly give me a certificate that wa bave been hero In accordance wltb tba terms of our bet Also, wa should Ilka to lay In a supply of fresh water, canned goods, and fresh fruit" The resident yowned, looked us oyer with a watery eye and replied. "Well, a man must be a' bell ef a tool to go In for that kind of sport.' "Sure," Klrchelss said politely, "but. Just the same, we should like to have the certificate. Won't you give it to us or tell us who will?" "Oh, to bell with you, don't bother me. I've Just bad dinner and want to take my nap." Even hla British mistrust with which he first regarded us, subsided Into the Indescribable something that comes over a wblte man who yields to the soft enervation of the tropica. He now looked at ua merely aa mad fellowa who wanted htm to do something some-thing too crazy to merit his consider atlon. "Any news from the bloody war" be asked. "Why are tbey so stupid buttons off their trousers. Then, when yon have them put on tbelr clothes they aland, without belts, suspenders, or buttons, holding op tbelr trousers. Thus they are helpless. Wa bad a few bombs loaded only with powder, harmless, bat capable of making t terrific ter-rific noise. If there la any trouble, yon throw one. It hurts nobody, but the terrible exploalon creates a general gen-eral panic. A couple of men wltb (heir heads about them can do wonders won-ders wltb dozens In a panic. Another good thing Is to have a couple of fellowa fel-lowa outside shout suddenly and make a great disturbance. That creates excitement ex-citement and throws people off their guard. I said to my bo's'n: "Don't hurt anybody unless you bave to. We don't want to spoil our clean record by killing anybody. But by Joe, if a captain or a watchman raises a rifle or a pistol, don't wait till be shoots. Get him first" On a bright summer morning August Au-gust 23, 1917, to be exact we all shook hands. There waa no cheering, merely mere-ly quiet earnest words of friendship and good luck. It was the first time that we sixty-four seamen bad parted since tbe Seeadler bad set sail to run tbe blockade eight months before, and It waa only now, at the moment of saying good by, that we realized bow closely attached to one another we bad become. We who were going could see a brooding question In the eyea of those who were staying be bind: "How will that overloaded cockel-shell cockel-shell atand beavy weather" Never mind, we would probably find out soon enough. The understanding was that, If we did not return In three months, something had happened to us, Tbey should wait for us until then. Afterward, Kllng and his men were to get away from the atoll as best they could. piled fire to It from a soldering lamp. Wltb tbe slightest breeze and a rocking rock-ing of tbe boat It waa Impossible to bring the water to a bolL Then we were glad to get tepid coffee-bean soup Instead of coffee. After tolleta had been made wltb aalty aea water, we aquatted In the cockpit for breakfast break-fast of coffee and hardtack. Navigation Naviga-tion waa difficult In ao small a boat. It was Impossible to spread tbe charts out properly, and wltb the slightest carelessness the wind might take our priceless navigation papers overboard. We had to use the sextant and other navigation Instruments In a boat that often pitched ao much we could scarcely atand. Tbe papers, charta, tables, logarithms, and so on, got sopping sop-ping wet and when we dried them In the sun they grew swollen and difficult diffi-cult to handle. It was cool at night but not unpleasant un-pleasant so long aa our clothes were dry. The weather was fair, but an occasional whale would come alongside along-side and douse ua wltb tbe spray of his spout Then, In our damp clothing, cloth-ing, we felt tbe chill of the night The days were broiling hot but even while taking advantage of what little shade we bad, wegrew heavy and torpid. We bad, above all things, to be careful care-ful of our water supply. We never dared drink enough to quench our thirst completely, and were, In fact continually thirsty. By way of amusement, we bad readings read-ings aloud from the one book we bad brought along, Frits neuter's comic story, "A Trip to Constantinople,' and at night the squealer wheezed and blared, and we whlled away tbe tedious tedi-ous hours singing old German folk songs. After three days we sighted Atlu, the first Island of the Cook group and a British possession. There was no ship In sight. Too bad, but perhaps ti1n mti.li ha atnuu'tad .Ann Antf. as to carry on wltb tbla fighting business busi-ness In tbe end, it will only heir, these yellow races." He continued like this and spoke highly of the Germane. Naturally, wa did not express any pro-German sentiments. "We simply must get this old bird to give us that certificate," I aald to my comrade In Low German, pretending pretend-ing that It waa Dutch. "Tea," he replied In the same dialect dia-lect "it may come in mighty useful later on." Tbe resident as he told us, bad served In tbe Boer war, and ahould have known better, but ha took our Plattdeutseb for the language of Holland. Hol-land. Presently be scribbled a oote saying say-ing that we bad called on blm In the course of our sporting cruise. "Any ships expected In port soon?" Klrchelss asked quite casually. "How In bell do I knowT" the rest dent responded wearily. "Everything goea to the bloody war, and we don't see anything around bere but these Kanakas." He continued In this strain and curse his boredom on the Island. The resident was still rambling on In bis lazy monotone when along came a man who wore a cassock and bad a beard down to hla waist He was a French missionary priest who waa overjoyed when we saluted blm wltb a few worda of French. The resident and an English trader were the only two white men on the Island besides himself, and neither talked any French. "Allona, a lions," he shouted, "by Joe, boys, you must pay me a visit." And straightway be seized our arms and took us over to tils mission house. There he poured out glasses of excellent ex-cellent wine. "You are Americans," he cried, "yon fight for la France? Voo are Holland- We sailed out of the lagoon, through the coral entrance, Into the open aea. Tbe bulk of tha Seeadler lay there helpless on the reef. The tide waa blgh, and tbe breakers swept over the coral. She was a red brown now from rust and weathering. Each flooding flood-ing billow raised her a bit and then she sank back hopelessly wltb loud groans and creaks of despair on the coral bed. As we passed ber she seemed to call over to us: "Come aboard, I want to take you on your voyage. Don't desert your old friend." And aa a wave raised ber It seemed as though she were struggling to get on an even keel again and come to us, only to find that tbe coral held ber In a relentless grasp. Tears Oiled our eyes. "Good-by, 8eeadler," I called; "per hapa we shall never aee you more. And even If we do, you can never sail way, we had to make port and get fresh 'food. Aside from the danger of storm. If our voyage continued for any length, we feared most of all berl-bert and scurvy, which our diet of hardtack hard-tack would Inevitably bring upon us unless we varied It with fresh vege-tablea. vege-tablea. A crowd ot natives, One looking Polynesians, watched curiously as our little craft drew up to the dock. Klrchelss Klr-chelss and I went ashore and straight to the bouse of the British resident. He lay stretched out In bis shirt and trousers on a Borneo long chair on bis porch, and didn't even get up when we approached. Be was a good looking look-ing fellow, but lazy as the devil. The lassitude of tbe South aeas bad certainly cer-tainly got him. "My name Is Van Houten," I began, "and this Is my chief officer Soutbart. erst an, u is ioo uau nun your country coun-try la not In the war wltb France. But I can see that you love Is belle France." "What will be your next stop?" asked the Jovial missionary In parting. "I think we will put In at Aitutakl," I replied. That was the nearest Island and the next field of action In our hunt for a ship. "Fine," exclaimed the priest cordially. cordial-ly. "1 bave a friend there. You must call on blm. Just mention my name. He will be delighted to see you. He Is a Hollander, too." A Hollander, tool And our knowledge knowl-edge of the Dutch language was so strongly salted with a German accent) ac-cent) In that case, when we got to Aitutakl we certainly would he anything any-thing but Hollanders, probably Norwegians. Nor-wegians. fTO BE CONTINUED.) again. Nevermore will aonga resound on your decks. Nevermore will you raise your sails and fly a flag from your masts." A brisk wind carried ns westward wltb a swelling of our sails. The happy Island receded. The last German Ger-man colony and the wreck ot the Seeadler See-adler slowly dropped out of sight over tbe rim ot the horizon. Today the Seeadler still remains on the reef at Mopella. After we had' gone. Lieutenant Kllng. afraid that the stumps of ber mast might attract a passing warship, blew them out wltb dynamite. Tbe explosion aet a Ore that burned away part of the woodwork. wood-work. A quuntity of ammunition still aboard blew op and cracked the forepart fore-part nf the hulk. CHAPTER XIII From the Society Islands to the Cook Islands in en Open Boat. It baa been eumetliing of a sport of recent years to cross the Atlantic and even the Pacific In a small boat, smne-tlmea smne-tlmea under sail and sometimes under |