Adventure, November 1915 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

sloop an’ ran down with the tide, hidin’ up in a slough that divided one of the islands. ’Cordin’ to schedule the schooner come along after dark, buckin’ the start of the flood. There was a mist, what they call a tule-fog, all over the river, an’ Ellersby slid the schooner on the mud so soft that the four miners, asleep in the cabin, didn’t know a thing till we’d boarded the schooner in a small boat, an’ when Ellersby called down to ’em to come on deck they found us waitin’ for them with belayin’ pins. “Henley showed a bit of himself there, if we’d had sense enough to see it. He was all for gettin’ rid of the miners, claimin’ dead men told no tales. Chappell backed him up, but the rest of us wouldn’t stand for it. So we set ’em, bound an’ gagged, on a little reedy island, all bog, an’ floated the schooner off easy enough on the full tide, runnin’ on the ebb down San Francisco Bay, out through the Gate, a Golden Gate to us that trip all right, with the dust an’ nug- gets stowed away in the hold—ours! “Once free an’ fair of the Farallones we held a palaver. There was a chance of the miners gettin’ picked off the island sooner than we expected. That might mean we’d reach the Isthmus to find the news ahead of us an’ a law-an’-order committee waitin’ for us. The same thing might happen in Honolulu, which port we figgered on for a long while, or in any of the South American | ports. A trip clean ’round the Horn was out of the question in the schooner, let alone that we didn’t have grub enough for that long a trip. “Finally, Ellersby, who had been mixed up in opium smuggling in the Hawaiian Is- lands—Sandwich Islands they called ’em those days—proposed to sneak quietly into Pearl Harbor, eight miles from Honolulu, hide up in one of the arms of the big lochs there, find out if the coast was clear as far as news of the affair was concerned, an’ if everything was all right buy or charter some other craft an’ sail-to New Zealand or Australy in her or, better still, ship the gold as parts of machinery an’ take passage in a steamer. “We settled on that plan finally, though if we’d carried it out, we’d have run right into trouble, for the news of the robbery was in Honolulu long before we’d have made it.” Fellowes paused and took a sip of his toddy which Peggy had made hot again. The Gold Lust es en, ae Cn ae a — - + oe . s ae? € = ' « : ~. s ss. ‘<< rw. hen g oe His auditors were silent, transported from the New York studio by the straightforward vividness of the old man’s delivery to the pirated schooner on the Pacific Ocean out- side San Francisco, with the eight bucca- neers in council in the tiny cabin. Addams broke the pause by picking up the papers he had deposited on the table and separating them. “T’ll read you a couple of extracts while Fellowes rests for a minute,’ he said, un- folding a newspaper yellowed with age. ‘This is the Sacramento Bee of July sixth, eighteen fifty,’’ he announced. you the article: PIRACY ON THE SACRAMENTO GANG OF VILLAINS ROB MINERS OF THEIR HARD- EARNED TREASURE The River Steamer Chrysopolis brought back to Sacramento today four miners whose luck on the North Fork of the American has been the comment, and possibly aroused the jealousy of many. These “Tl read - men, Rivers, Thorn, Edwards and Burns, who char- . tered the schooner Lady Mine from Captain Ellers- by to convey themselves and their dust, amounting to about eight hundred thousand dollars, to the Isthmus, were waylaid by a ruffianly gang of pi- rates, acting in consort with Captain Ellersby, who is, it appears, himself somewhat notorious, and rob- bed of their gold. They were captured without the chance to make resistance for the treasure they had wrung from the river-bars, and set, bound and gag- ged, on a little island, while the schooner, with El- lersby and the ruffians aboard, sailed through Car- quinez Straits, presumably for the Isthmus or some other port. The villains were something short of a dozen in number, consisting of two men appearing to be the - leaders, by name Henley and Chappell, the last sus- pected of being a convict from Australia, and their followers. Henley and Chappell were recently run out of Fort Sutter for suspected trickery at cards. Another who was recognized by the unfortunate miners was a young man named Jared Fellowes who had been employed out of charity at the Davis House as dishwasher and bedmaker, where, it is thought, he learned of the plans of Rivers and his three companions. Rivers managed to work the gag from his mouth and succeeded in getting the attention of the up- bound Chrysopolis from which Captain Rollins promptly despatched a boat in answer to the call for help. The unfortunate men are now penniless, but, with the spirit of true Argonauts, leave within a few days for the North Fork where they hope to recoup themselves for their stolen fortunes. The news will be sent to San Francisco on the hope of apprehending the men. All outgoing steam- — ers will carry the story of the outrage and it is trust- ed the rascals will soon be apprehended. Should they be returned to Sacramento, we recommend them to the attention of the Vigilance Committee. It is high time that some semblance of law and order be maintained. comichook