Adventure Magazine Cover — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

_-—__— gave it to the court may be glanced here as _____ typical of the sea folk who homed in Mada- » ___ gascar. He said he “‘sailed out of Plymouth in the year 1695 in a merchantman, bound -__ for Cork, in Ireland, there to take in pro- visions; thence to the Island of Barbados; and in sight | of the island of Barbados I was taken by a’ French privateer, and carried - to Martinico; and thence coming in a trans- port ship I was brought to Barbados; there I shipped myself in a vessel bound for New- foundland, and thence to Madeiras; and then I went to Madagascar, and there I - staid some short time after, and came in company with Captain Kidd; and then the _ commander and I had a falling out, and so I went ashore at that island. And under- standing that Captain Kidd had a commis- sion from the king, I came aboard Captain Kidd’s ship.* Se Romantic words—‘I came aboard Cap- - tain. Kidd’s ship.’’ Haw they quicken the pulse of old,sober-sided fellows such as we are. Suppose we had sauntered about old New York and had read his appeal for men to go off to the Indies? Or been in Mada- gascar and had a “falling-out” with some blockhead of an old merchant skipper, and seen Kidd and his bully boys swagger by? Eh? : Delaware Bay did not detain Kidd long. _ He slipped the little St. Antonio out of there Pry _ ; ~~ - Jamont was off in Boston. _ began to get the full blast of his unsought and put in at Oyster Bay, from which he - now began the most difficult job of his life— to rehabilitate himself and yet come out of it all a rich man. He and the remnant of his crew flocked openly about the old town. Governor Bel- And now Kidd notoriety. He was told that the mother country and the colonies, yea, even the seven seas were vibrant with the name of Kidd; that, in the language of that day, he was everywhere “published a pirate,”’ for whom there was no day of grace or pardon. Quite in the spirit of New York pirates, ancient and modern, he sought out an adroit lawyer, one Emmott, a man then at the head of his profession, as the saying is, though that-did not mean, any more than it does now, that he shone by the purity of his principles; the breadth of his learning, or the transparent propriety of his manners. Pirates can’t use that kind of lawyer. Seri- ously, we do not reflect on Mr. Emmott _ individually ; we know nothing of his morals, -of his time. Adventure a and he was indisputably a leader of his bar, appearing in the most important litigation Whatever his character, he engaged himself to assist the projects of Captain Kidd. - X BOSTON was having a hot Sum- mer. The noble governor was tak- ing the air, such as there was, with his wig laid off for coolness, and his decorat- ed coat carelessly open. No doubt he gazed at the dusty road, the blistered frame build- A ings and longed for the temperate downs of. Sussex and the fresh, green lawns of his ancestral mansion. How afflicting that a noble earleshould be subjected to heat and cold just like a wretched porter! The entrance of a negro servitor to announce a visitor did not refresh the excellency. Just then the last man he . wanted to see was he whose name had been brought in. The governor and lawyer Emmott did not get along together very well. It is not hard to understand the tribulation of a ruler, whose technical knowledge of the art of government was probably weak, at the hands of a turbulent, sharp and well-informed colonial attorney— the intelligent, persistent and irritating mouthpiece of the perpetual discontent of the cdlony. | Whether he would or no, it was Emmott who was without soliciting audience. He was ordered admitted. One simply can not turn the Emmotts away—especially when one is a governor, somehow such fellows ‘seem to have an impish art of getting-the gubernatorial _attention whenever their cheekiness suggests it to them. Imagination may perhaps reconstruct the interesting interview. Enters Lawyer Emmott, his bright eye appraising at once the mood of the man in the seat of authority. But Emmott is not half-saucy*now; in this matter he is not ° backed by the sturdy burghers and sup- -ported by a Jaw whose exact application he thoroughly knows, while as thoroughly knowing the glazed ignorance of his op- ponent. He is now after a private fee in the service of a private client. His tune, therefore, is somewhat different. With a bow and a most respectful attitude the lawyer carefully unwraps a package which he has brought with him. From this he seems to take a ball of snow, which,: ? | EOMIcbooks (E@)