The Frontier, May 1926 — page 30: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

20 lived a man better suited for his réle, — I have yet to encounter him. The giant was in his element. He appeared as happy as an actor who has taken the center of the stage; he seemed fairly to glow, as with a light from some powerful inner lamp. “Propose?” he cried. “Well, now, Johannsen told you, I suppose?” ‘He dit,” the skipper grunted. “Then [’ll repeat it, just to be sure all hands got the word,” said Dono- van. “All them as is in the crew is free for to jine with Cap’n Gentry— which is me, and not Donovan, as I’ve been called. Free to jine and share, by the Flymg Dutchman! I knows where the treasure is. As for the cabin party, you can all come aboard, unarmed, you can, and I'll put you ashore on the coast of Brazil. If you don’t—why, you can live like Robin- son Crusoe.” “Und subbose no more of der hants vill choine?” “Why,” Donovan—or Gentry—re- turned easily, “we ain’t in no terrible hurry, we ain't. We'll leave’m to think it over. We ain’t for killin’ more’n we have to; you saw how we let them three go free. Point is, we need more hands. Meantime, us as has the ship, the supplies, and plenty water and liquor aboard—why, we'll stand by a while.” “Und how long?” ~ “Not too long, by the Flying Dutch- man!” said Gentry. “If no one wants to jine, why, of course we couldn’t get the treasure aboard. Come such a case, I’m off to the new colony in Bot- any Bay. I’ll get hands, and you may lay to it. When we comes back, and the cannibals ain’t got you, then you look out. Not a man’ll get quarter.” Captain Van Tassel removed his pipe from his mouth and held it grip- ped in his right fist. “Vell, now,” he said, “shpeaking for der cabin party, you can go to hell.” ‘Me, too!” roared Johannsen. “And me!” cried Killifer. Several others growled low in their throats, and crowded nearer to the skipper. Some of the rest moved more slowly; but at the time no one of them declared his intention of accept- ing Gentry’s offer. “Ah, well,” said Gentry, “we'll see what we'll see. Them as changes their mind can work round to the other side of this here bay, and I’ll send a boat ashore. There’s a ford further up the river, you'll find.” Then, waving his hand at us, he ordered his men to pull back to the ship. THE FRONTIER CHAPTER X GENTRY’S STRENGTH GROWS mn NY remaining e doubts about the seriousness of our position were now swept away. We had no boats; re- taking the ship, therefore, seemed to be an impossibility. Even a strongly barricaded raft was out of the ques- tion. We had brought only two axes ashore with us and could not have constructed anything suitable even though we spent a week at it, for the guns would have swept our deck clean before we had fairly left the shore. Meantime there was the problem of defence, as well as that of existence to solve—with one meal gone from our three-day’s supply of accustomed diet, and the prospect of subsisting there- after on coconuts, mangoes, wild hog, and deer. ‘Too, we had a doubtful crew. One glance at the unsmiling features about us assured me _ that many of them would ultimately prefer the far-off risk of swinging from a gibbet to sharing our dubious lot. We held a brief council, while the men moved apart and muttered in guarded talk. “Id’s der loss of tobacco and der tought of dem cannibals more as any- thing we haf to fear about der men,” said the skipper. Thereupon he declared that we must at once find a position where water was obtainable and which would com- bine some degree of comfort as well as the means of defense. Pointing southward, he announced that he had noted a cave, when entering the bay, which might suit our purpose admir- ably. “T saw a prook running down, trough mine glasses,” he said. Forthwith he gave orders to move, and within a half hour we had reached it. It needed but a glance to assure us that we could have found no better place for our immediate needs. The cavern was located in the face of a bluff, or promontory, about one hun- dred feet above the level of the bay, and midway between the river mouth and the footslopes of Kidd’s Mauley. From its mouth one could obtain a fair view of the bay to northward, as well as the entrance, through which canoes might come. The approach to it was steep, and clear of trees for a hundred yards or more. And the in- terior was large enough to house a regiment in comfort, with a clean, sandy floor, a bubbling spring with a brook running from it, and, better. still, a natural opening nearby in the roof to allow for the passage of smoke. Once within, the skipper took im- mediate steps for the prevention of men deserting with their arms. The muskets, pistols and powder horns, as well as the cutlases, were placed in charge of Johannsen, who arranged them in neat rows. The men were given to understand that arms would be issued only to hunters, or in case of attack. The rations were also pooled and turned over to our three negro servants, who were to act as cooks, while my uncle and the judge were immediately despatched to try their luck in bagging a wild hog or deer. Another detail, meantime, was sent out to cut firewood and fell logs for a bar- ricade, while the rest were sent out to make what progress they could before sundown in gathering mangoes and coconuts, and digging clams. But even this activity did not serve to keep many of the men from brood- ing. When night fell, four of them failed to return. The acquisition of Gunderson, Johannsen and Killifer had raised our numbers to twenty-five, leaving seven on board ship, and two on Kidd’s Mauley; now we. were twenty-one to the buccaneers’ thirteen. When a man was sent to hail the sen- tries on Kidd’s Mauley, he was greeted with a musket shot, whereupon he promptly deserted us, raising the pi- rates’ crew to fourteen, and reducing ours to twenty. Nor were the minor events of the evening designed to make our men happier. We had brought but one large coffee pot ashore, with two frying pans; and the pot proved to be leaky. | Uncle George and the judge also returned Without any game. They had not sighted a deer; while the wild hogs scampered so swiftly, they said, that it was useless to fire. They declared that these hogs, like our domestic porkers, loved mud, and sought dense patches of grass which shielded the oozy bottom from the sun; they fur- ther pointed out that it would be quite possible to bag them by stationing the hunters at one end of a glade, with perhaps two others to charge in and rout the hogs out at a given signal; but this optimistic conjecture failed to arouse any enthusiasm. The men were in the dumps. They muttered and frowned, and were surly in their an- swers; and shortly after supper, when EOMMICOOOKS. COR