Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — In Sheeps Clothing. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

In Sheeps Clothing.

BY Capt. Ormond Steele

CHAPTER XXV,’l—Continued. Lieutenant Hedges tried to induce Untilla to go below and occupy Captain Denham’s cabin, but to his solicitations ■she replied: “Why lie down when I am not weary and cannot sleep. No; I shall s’and and drink in your daring with ray eyes if I cannot help with my hands. Day will soon be hore, and the Montauks must find me ready." “But surely, Untilla, you will not expose yourself to dan.-er. We have Slenty of men to do the work, and your fe is precious—very preciom to me to all of us.” “The Great Spirit commands; I wear the plumes and carry the spear of the mighty Wyandauch. Where they are seen the Montauks will follow; and where could they be seen but in iny keeping. To-morrow's sun will see me as now standing by your side,” said the heroic princess. “Ah, Untilla, would that it were my fate to stand by your side through all the suns of my life.” Alarmed at his own boldness, and perhaps struck by the incongruity of hinting at love on such an occasion, Mr. Hedges turned and left. The men not directly engaged in the sailing of the ship at once made preparations for the morrow’s battle. All laid away their caps and bound kerchiefs about their heads; and as the night was warm, many of them stripped to the waist and tightened their belts. The long gun was cleaned and loaded, and the broadsido guns were doubly shotted.

The boarding pikes in the racks about the masts and the cutlasses which the men girded on were all examinod by Mr. Dayton. The lire buckets were filled and placed within rea h, and in the cookplt the ship’s surgeon and his assistants made every preparation for the reception and treatment of the wounded. Batlons were cooked for the men, to be used on the morrow, and then the fire in the galley was extinguished. W’hile these preparations were going on, Lieutenant Hedges, who with Untilla stood near the helm, saw the lights on board the Wanderer off Gardner’s Island. “There is the ship we are looking for,” said Untilla. “I see her; but we shall keep on till we see the Montauk beacon, then ’bout ship and comeback; by that time It will be daylight," replied Mr. Hedges. The Sea Hawk bounded away, the waves hissing from her prow like the voice of an angry serpent, and her ropes straining like the muscles of a creature hungering for the contest that lay before her.

“Montauk light on the starboard bow,” repeated the officer of the watch. “Bear away one point to the east," said Lieutenant Hedges to the two men placed at the wheel. On sped the Sea Hawk with the eager flight of the bird after whom she was named. Montauk light rose up bold and clear from the headland; and as the eagle in wild speed stops and wheel's back on the course he has come, so wheeled and turned the ship. A gray streak of dawn in the east, but the Sea Hawk faced the darkness to the west. Gardner’s Island was now dead ahead. More light filling land and sea, and the Sea Hawk turned tho point, and up to her. peak ran the ensign of the province. There at anchor, not a mile away lay the Wanderer, her boats alongside after landing her visitors. In alarm Captain Fox ran forward and shouted to the coming ship. “Larboard, you lubbers! Larboard!” A shot from the long gun of the Sea Hawk was the only reply The ships were now only a hundred yards apart. Fox saw his danger and shouted to his boatswain, and then rang out the shrill whistle calling the startled crew of the Wanderer to arms. The Sea Hawk folded her wings. She was alongside, and her grappling irons, like great talons, were fastened in her victim. Down went the anchors, and Hedges’ guns and the cheers of his men rang along the shore.

CHAPTER XXVUI. Tnn END OS’ THE CONTEST. It was Captain Fox’s boast that he •never permitted himself to be taken by •surprise. But he was certainly surprised now. He could not credit his eyes and ears when he saw the Sea Hawk grappling with the Wanderer, and heard the shot •that came from the signal gun crashing through the hull of his own ship. Quick-brained, he took in the danger, .and his first thought was that one of the men he had senton board the Sea Hawk had betrayed him. In no other way, he was sure, could his personality and schemes be detected. But there was no time for guessing; no time for anything but to shake off the foe that had swooped down on him and fastened her sharp talons in his side in a death grip. So well trained were his men that they threw off their jaokets, tore the pikes from the racks, and rushed to their posts while yet the shrill whistle of the boatswain was piping all hands to quarters. The Wanderer was always ready for action: her guns were shotted at all times, and never left unloaded except when the charges were drawn to clean them. Now the great gun amldship turned her muzzle to the neck of the Sea Hawk, and its fiery breath blazed through the shrouds of both ships. The fifteen broadside guns were run •out until they touched the black side of •the Sea Hawk, close lo the water line, and then the solid shot went tearing and crashing through her timbers, a fountain of splinters flying up from the shook.

Lieutenant Hedges had hoped, from the suddenness of the attack, to find the Wanderer wholly unprepared for resistance. He thought to board the foe and overpower him before he could strike a blow; but now, as he saw the wonderful alacrity with which the pirates rushed to their posts, he almost forgot, in the momentary admiration of the act, the all-important mission on which he had come. It was agreed between him and Untilla that her peopie should remain out of sight till his men had gained the deck of the foe, where they expeoted to meet Balph Denham, when the Montauks were to swarm on board shouting the battle cry of their tribe. In accordance with this plan. Lieutenant Hedges, sword in hand, was the rfirst mu to loop oa the deok of the

Wanderer, Mr. Dayton remaining back to direct matters on board. With the quick bound of tigers two score stalwart young men imitated their daring leader, and, quicker than the heroic deed oan be recorded-, they made for the long gun am'dships, and drove back or killed the men who were fighting it. With that quickness of perception and action that would have made him the foremost seaman in the world, had he been engaged in a righteous cause, Captain Fox saw his oppor. unity. “Throw off the grapples!” he roared, “leave the deck to me, Frenauld! Hurrah for the men of the Wanderer!” High over the clash of swords, tho rear of cannon, and the quick, harsh, era liing of firelocks, rang out the voice of the pirate chief; his men heard his words and seemed transformed into fiends. Frenauld ran to part the ships; another instant and the tide and wind would have separated them, so far that, though they were anchored nearly head to head, boarders could not go from one to ihe other. But before tho axes could sever the last ropes a high, shrill cheer rose up from the deck of the Sea Hawk. It was like the united cries of a hundred eagles when circling in mid-heaven they see far beneath them the robbers despoiling their nests, and they sweep down 1o defend and destroy. “I wear the plumes of Wyandauoh! Men of Montauk, follow your queen!”

Untilla stood on the bulwark of the AVanderer and waved the glittering blade above her head. “AVe come! Our princess, we come!" shouted the Montauks. Untilla leaped to the deck, ana when she raised the spear of AVyandauch again It was redder than the waves, blushing in the light of the rising sun. In the meantime Frenauld’s men swung their axes with all their might; and when about cne-half the Montauks reached the AVanderer s deck tho gap between the shiphad increased so much that the others were forced to remain behind.

Wondering why Captain Denham, who must have heard the signal given, did not respond, Lieutenant Hedges, with a view to cheering his own non as well ai to attract the attention of his commander, raised the cry: “.Ralph Denham! Ralph Denham!” Fox heard him, and pressing his men to one side, he replied; “Ralph Denham is dead, curse you!" Tho next instant he was before Lieutenant Hedges. “Murderer, you lie!” retorted tho gallant sailor, and with a leap that would have been surprising even in an athlete, he stood face to face with the pirate. There was no time for taunt or expression of rage. The red swords circled and fell; glanced, flashed, and rose again, and Hedges, the stronger of tho men, pressed on, and bore back his assailant. At the best, tho contest between the men would have been uncertain, had not one of the pirates leaped at the first officer of the Sea Hawk, struck him over the head, and sent him reeling and bleeding to the deck. Untilla saw the act, and, with a cry of rage that appalled those who came in her way, her spear gleamed like the lightning, and, like its bolt, transfixed the man who had stricken down the Lieutenant. While this was going on Capt. Denham and his men, at the sound of the signal gun, had made their way through the opening, which Don had arranged. But the very shot that had called them to action had so torn tho timbers in the advance as to virtually block them in.

In the dim light they worked like giants to release themselves, but whenever they lifted one timber from their front another dropped in behind it. Capt. Denham heard his name shouted on the de.k, and he recognized the voice of Lieut. Hedges. He felt like answering back, but checked himself. Still the Captain and his men worked, and still roso and fell tho tramping of feet, the oath and shout, and the clashing of arms overhead, while the ships, though no longer side by side, used their cannon on each other with murderous effect. In despair, Capt Denham was about to turn back, for the purpose of finding some other way to the deck, if that were possible, when he heard Don in front calling out: “Patience, men of the Sea Hawkj patience!” By the dim light they could catch the gleam of an ax in the hands of the youth, and they saw that it rose and fell. A few minutes, and there came a crash, followed by a cloud of dust. Don had cut the key-piece,, and the whole mass of rubbish came down.

The men, eager to speed to the aid of their comrades, could not restrain the cheer that leaped to their lips. “God bless you!” was all the Captain could say, as he ran past Don into the armory, the walls of which were lined with outiasses and guns. For the latter the sailors cared nothing. They flew for the outiasses, drew the blades, and flung away the scabbards, and then rushed after the (laptain, who was on the stairs leading to tho deck. The sight that met Captain Denham’s eye would have appalled a heart less resolute. The handful of men that Lieutenant Hedges had led to the ship were gathered about the prostrate form of their leader, fighting desperately, though against overwhelming odds. The Montauks under Untilla had just charged over the dock, and were repulsed, and the pirates, confident that the tide of battle was turning in their favor, cheered and fought like incarnate demons.

Ae Balph Denham hurried to the deck he threw off his disguise, and though dressed exactly like his crew, there was no mistaking him. The Sea Hawk men and the Montauks, on the forward part of the ship, saw and recognized him before the pirates did. “Balph Denham! Balph Denham!” went up the cry from the gallant sailors who saw victory coming, personified in the rerson of their beloved leader. “Men of the Sea Hawk! To the rescue! Charge!” thundered Balph. There was only need to follow his example. Those who had been burning with anxiety to get to the deck, now saw their chance. In the front Frenauld wheeled his men, and tried to stem the unexpected onset. He fell beneath Denham’6 blade, and many of his followers, to avoid the fury of that irresistible onset, leaped into the sea. That part of the deck was speedily cleared, and Balph knelt to raise his old friend, but Lieutenant Hedges grasped his hand, and in a voice still strong, though he was bleeding to death, said: “Don’tmind me! Don’t stop till the ship is ours." Telling one of the sailors to call Mr. Dayton to send the surgeon on board the Wanderer at ones, Captain Denham eajoined hie men to follow again, for it

was all Important that the plrafet should not have time to recover from the demoralization which his coming had caused. “Never mind your pistols, my lads!“ cried Denham, when he saw his men drawing the weapons they had concealed on their persons. “Give them the cold steel, and drive them into the sea.” “Aye, aye, sir!" “Sweep the quarter deok; capture Kidd alive!” This Captain Denham shouted, as, with Untilla by his side, and the sailors and warriors pressing close behind, they sped to the place where the pirates, rallied by their desperate leader, were to make their lasi stand. Fox saw Ralph Denham, looked into his blazing eyes, but still he could not credit the evidence of his senses. Ghost or man, he would try him. And Fox did try, with a heroism worthy of a better cause,-to defend or check the onset. But his men had lost heart. They wont down before the flashing blades as the ripe grain drops before the sickle of the reaper, an 1 the pirate chieT was loft nearly alone on the quarter-deck of the AVanderer. “Surrender, Kidd! Surrender!" shouted Balph. For answer the pirate with a horrible oath, discharged his remaining pistol at his conqueror, and waiting only long enough to note that the shot had no effect, he turned and flung himself into the sea. It will be remembered that the boats in which the visitors were landed, were still alongside, there not having been time to hoist them on deck before Lieutenant Hedges made his daring attack. Captain Fox found a number of the pirates in one of these boats, and they had seized the oars and were in the aot of cutting the rope when he crawled on board. He never for an instant lost the power to command. Seizing the tiller he called out to his men: “Better luck next time, my lads. AVe have booty enough or shore to fit out a score of ships like the AVanderer. Tull away!” The pirates took the oars and obeyed him, for obedience is a habit that dings to men after the power to enforce it has gone. So busy were Captain Denham and his men, that they did not see this act of the pirato chief, an act that was not destined to be of great advantage. AVlthin a few minutes after the disappearance of Fox, every pirate on the AVanderer not dead was a prisoner and under guard. Mr. Dayton had by this time worked his ship alongside the AVanderer and again they wore made fast, with their shattered hulls grating against each other.

Captain Denham was about to go forward to where the surgeon was dressing Lieutenant Hedges’ wound, when Don touched him on the arm and said: “If you please, sir, there’s some ladies in the cabin that was locked up till I released them. They wished to come on deck, but I advised them not, and they want to see you.” Ralph Denham did not wait to ask who they were; his heart told him, so he ran atonoe below. He bounded down the companion-way and into the cabin, with its piotures and articles of luxury untouched, and he saw in tho middle of the floor, with their arms encircling each other as if lor mutual protection, Lea Hedges and Ellen Condit. [to be continued.]