"STAR" TALES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9911, 28 July 1910, Page 4

"STAR" TALES.

THE ARREST OF CAPTAIN

BANGS.

(By MOR GAN, ROBERTSON.)

Detective' Fitzgerald, of tho Central Office, San Francisco, wandered into tlio station-house at- tea in the morning, 111 the tranquility of coming of duty Woll performed—his mau was landod, ami in a cell—and was greeted by :i vociferous call from the desk.

; " What ?" lie demanded, when In.' fared the sergeant. Inspector Smith wants you. Get in there quick and don't be chesty; for I'm thinking he'll take it out o ! you. 1 ' ■Fitzgerald entered the office of the inspector, who glared at .him over a polished desk loaded with documents. "Fitzgerald," he asked sternly, "ever been to sea?"

'"' No, and don't want to be," answered Fitzgerald. - V Our wants are nofc considered in this cold, hard world. Can you box the compass?" „ " I cannot."

' " Know whether to go to windward or to leeward o' the mate when yon go aft to the wheel?"

No; what are-you giving me?" ■ ''Know which side the maintopsail leads down ?" i': Don't know anything about if, inspector. Are you stringing me?" ).?■>" Not a hit. You acknowledge you , don't know a blame thing about ships Briil seamanship ?" 1 "I acknowledge. I never saw the sea except when I came over with the Did folks when I was a kid."

. 1 You'll do. For I wouldn't send a man on this job who had been hammered and bullied and starved, as I have been, until 110 forgot that ho was 'lranian. I've been to tea, Fit-Kgerakl, Sn my young .days, and .the effects are frtil] with 1110. I wouldn't go myself on this job, for I couldn't make good, ©'you see? Irishman like you that I 'am; I had my manhood thumped out o' ;ine by bucko mates and skippers, and eyelv now I would be oppressed and stulitilled by the sight and the sound and ithe contact with 'em. See, Fitzgerald.? But you're youixg, and you're fresh, and •.■you're'lrish, and you're lacking in 'the bailor's respect for law that hangs him while it gives the skipper a gold chronometer—all for the same job. Rut, I've ' n case here'that promises a reversal, find I'm interested. 'I wont you to get captain Bangs." "Where is he, arid what's he done?" "Murdered one of his crew, if you ■ want the legal explanation of my interest. Nearly murdered me, if you Want the human explanation. He toyv<?4 an ordinary seaman over the stern, just outside the three-mile limit, and .when they pulled the seaman in he was daffy, and died in the hospital ashore ill ere. The offence was committed on tlio high seas, but, as the ma-n died n shore, it came under the juvistlictio'n of the local authorities, .and he was indicted by the 'irand jury, hut had already sailed. ,Me can't be extradited, because, ' though a Yankee skipper, he's in command of a Blue Noser, a Nora Scotia ship, and, again, though ho cleared for Yokohama and a market, wq don't .know that he'll fetch. See?

" You've got to catch him in some (American port or some colonial port, in. the Philippines, Guam, or Alaska. ,Gt) .down to' the Comptroller's office .with this order and draw, five hundred. Cable for more when you need it. Take your badge and your gun, and get that ' scoundrel. He knows he's vaulted, and. may dodge American soil for years, or until he thinks, it's blown over, for lie's controlling owner in. the ship. r OBut you get him. Take steamer passage "for Yokohama, and ship with . 'him, and- when he touches an AmeriIcan port, or comes under tho American '\flag, put tho darbies" on him, and ,;bring hini hack. Go along with you, (Fitzgerald!" : "You mean Fm to become a sailor 'to get this man?" i "1 do, and when you're a. sailor you'll have the necessary grouch. On with you, Fitzgerald, and learn -fortiitude, temperance, vegetarianism and 'submission of the spirit. Ship More (the mast, in a Blue Noser, commanded Ihy a' Yankee skipper, and doubt the •existence oi a God. Then think it out 'and revise yourself. Get out o' this, 'and don't let me see you until you "liavo Captain Jim Bangs, the worst bucko out o' Boston, who skinned mo • ajiye with a deck scraper when 1 was j'fore the mast with him in the old (Singapore, twenty years ago. t D'you liear me?"

i'.Tli® last words were roared at Fitzgerald, and he decamped. Ho had enough of 'human sympathy to bo impressed .by the- inspector's description al';J3angs, and on reading the data in the District Attorney's office he Avas further impressed. Bangs, 110 doubt, deserved the gallows. ' He learned further details at the Maritime Exchange, and with five hundred dollars in his pocket, the warrant of arrest, liis badge, his pistol, and his Irish manhood to fortify him, Fitzgerald, took* steamer passage to Yokohama. Arriving here, ho reported his errand to the American consul, found small comfort, and loafed along the Bund, awaiting the arrival of Bangs, in the [Nova Scotia ship Waldo mere, raid 'gleaning - such gossip and tutelage as lie could from, the sailors he met. •

I, He soon, learned that to ship as a sailor he,must look like one, and,-to this end, provided himself with a cheap, ready-made suit, a sailor's can,vas bag, and an outfit of sea clothing —cilskfris, rubber boots, flannel shirts, etc. Further, that he needed "discharges," and these ho bought of a broken-down old wreck, who had spent ja lifetime in procuring them; but he 'gave back all but a few selected ones of-'a late date, whioh gave him the ■ name of John Larson, Able Seaman. > Fitzgerald was a well-formed', athletic and'well-favoured young fellow of ■ thirty, keen of obsei-vation and judg- . inont, quick of speech and action, and jrell equipped to master in a short time enough of a sea-man's work to escape all but severe criticism. Yet, within on© hour of bis going aboard the Waldejibere, two weeks later, as an. A.8., he twas thumped into unconsciousness by [an Irate mate for the simple fault [of coiling a rope down back-handed. IjH'e came to in the scuppers, but desired rising until he had studied the jMfoblsm. jr BattjK. a Mild-mannered gcntlbman pi age, who grievously comslsined that half of bio ingrate crew jjad d&mt&l, had shipped ft the Britfeh consul's office on lm din- . awl repreaentatioricf, and had j&ier I'spieteci hj« crew with a dozen T nie«, vrho ? <rmi now, while {Fltegffftm wpi renaming hw faculties, ,Wsfe üßceagcioua i« their bunka. ■> Fii»s§fal)| had hte badge, and" his warrant hung to a holt lil6 shirt, hat it waa 110 part of flis pfcs them at present. The : gigt ronnd-steraod Nova §&6tia@sa liad called at YokoKainS fP/ Kfovisio-ns and men, and was piijM? Jffl. earns ballast, for S&azig-.'HS-i: Tflfe was net a colonial port, but *H§Fe> eteamars under the AmsriRJtil Sftg ?i*ftaing there from San Ftpj-w ' cisco> and an American consul, in

whoso office lie hoped to catch Captain Bangs. 80, he rose up, asked a shipmate about the' coiling of- ropes, and .was instructed suid laughed at; but he held his peace. . There were about twenty men in that crew, of various nationalities, a.ud I sonic unable to speak English, but the I poorest of the lot was a hotter sailor : than Fitzgerald, even though, in strength and intelligence, he topped them all. His discharges had fooled the skipper, but there was no pas-sing of the test in the forecastle. He was derided, ridiculed for his ignorance, and even pushed—-a little too heavily —out of the way by a Swede.

Fitzgerald, realising that his bodily comfort was at stake, and his mission in no danger from conflict with the moil, thrashed the Swede, quickly and skilfully, without in nnv way interfering with tlio work going on. He thrashed—in the next watch, below—one. other critic, and proved to the understanding of all. that, though he was a poor eaiior, lio was yet able, of good courage, and intelligence and worth developing.

So the- better clement of the crew took io him, made him their friend, and tutored him—which tutelage saved him much friction with the afterguard. There were but three of these to deal with—for the two boatswains and carpenter Avcre practically of the crew—the first mate that had floored him, who v»s a big-shouldered Scotchman, and Capt.iiv Sana's, the mild-mannered, middle-aged' Captain Bangs, who had bewailed his troubles into his ear at the consul's office, but who had remained out of sight since then, .until, with topgallant sails corning in on the third morning out, he appeared on deck, 110 longer mild and gentlemanly, but pur-ple-faced, drunk, and temporarily deranged. He pounced upon the man at the wheel, who was Fitzgerald. " How're you headin' there, liev?" lie demanded. " How you headin' ?"

" youth-west, by west, sir." answered Fitzgerald respectfully, and accurately, for boxing the compass had been his first lesson after rope coiling, quickly learned.

"You lie!" yelled the skipper. "You're a point off your course." True enough at tho moment. The ehip wiis swinging before a rising sea and gale, and the best .steering could be no more than a balance between the yaws. She swung back, and a point the other way; but by this_ time the skipper had taken his eyes off the compass. "I'm doing my best, sir," answered Fitzgerald mildly. "Your best!" shrieked the madman —mad from drink, and the evil forces within him. " Your best won't do for niv worst." He launched out his fist and struck Fitzgerald in the face. Things went red bel'oro tho eyes of Fitzgerald. The binnacle, tlio cio : - jack, the two lines of rail leading forward, the house; masts and deck fittings in sight, and the quivering form of the skipper—all took on the same crimson hue, and for a moment Fitzgerald went mad. He dropped the spokes, sent forth his fist, with the weight of liis body behind, and caught the skipper on the chin. Captain Bangs dropped like a log before tho binnacle, and Fitzgerald, his environment taking on a more natural lino, seized tho wheel and ground it to port. But with all his strength, even though ho hove the wheel hard over, ho could not bring her back. She breached-to in the trough, diid amid slatting of canvas, and tho shouts of the. mato and crew, she lay, soggy and helpless, with no steerage way, and green seas rolling over 0110 rail and on over tho other.

Then tho slatting upper topsails 011 all three masts went to ribbons, tho mizzen royal mast went over the side, and the fore topmast staysail sheet parted at the clew, leaving the sail to flap like a flag until it went to pieces.

Tho mate—who had tho deck—braced the fore yards, set the jib, and tho ship payed off; then, with steerage way, Fitzgerald brought her back to her course, and the observing mate squared the fore yards, and sent men aloft to clear away tho broken gear and the fluttering shreds of the topsails. And, this going 011, ho wandered back to tho wheel to inquire of the helmsman, and noted tlio prostrate form of tho skipper, just regaining life. He lifted him to his feet.

Captain-Bangs glared at Fitzgerald, while tho mote gliineed sternly, .from one face to the other.

"He hit me," stuttered Bangs wildly,'as he felt of his sore chin. " He. hit me. Put hiih in irons. Get your irons, Mr Bruce, and send another man to the wheel."

" Difl you hit the captain?" asked the big mate, looking sternly into tho tense face of Fitzgerald. " I did. I forgave you for the first offence, because I was green. But when lie hit me I struck back—that's all.". Mr Bruce lifted his voice-. " A man aft hero to tho wheel," ho called, and ono of the crew separated himself from the rest and came. And Mr Bruce, going to his room, returned _ with a pair of wrist irons by the time the man appeared. '" Up with your hands and take these," he commanded. Fitzgerald, shocked, enraged, and helpless against the situation—with his mission in mind, obeyed. He had lost his temper, and made a mistake—which was fatal in. good detective work. Captain Bangs looked on until Fitzgerald was ironed, then- he said: "Tries him up on the after house by the end of tho cro'ja-ck buntlines. Let him swing until he gets the conceit out of him." And so, Fitzgerald, with "his mission still in mind, suffered himself to be led to tho top of the after-house and triced up with his feet just touching the deck when the craft was on. an even keel, and his body crashing against the port or starboard rigging as she rolled. He stood it -stoically, hoping that it_ would soon end, but acquiring, as the inspector had predicted, a good, wholesome " grouch." At the end of an hour he was muttering curses upon the head of Bangs. At .the end of two, he was offering mental prayers for deliverance to tho whisky-soaked autocrat, stumping around tho poop deck; but Fitzgerald made no oral plea, and at the end of three hours, he was unconscious, and 'his body plunged and whirled, from rigging to mast and rigging, giving no sign that be felt, or thought, or resented.

Then, inert ns a dead man, he was taken down, and., still ironed, lowered to the lazarette, where he lay until his senses returned—in the middlo of tho uight, with his shipmates' voices sounding in his ears abovoj as they further shortened tail, and the screaming wail of tho typhoon singing through the gear like the winter song of the kitchen chimney in his boyhood homo. Few men that n;o to sea escape tho experience that Fitegerald was undergoing, but fpw that go to sea do so for other t!;i;n a living, which living dtipeads upon the good will of the skipper, and a "discharge" at the ond (if tho voyage which will soaure further employment. Fitagerajd vrrn not rw» W.nui. He was a e&iW, tese»9?a?lly) W-ilh other

objects in life than further employment, and all tho bitterness of which his soul was capable arose in rebellion against his treatment. A few hours of fuming brought the reaction of tranquillity and deep-seated purpose—purpose in no way connected with the Golden Rule, but strongly involved in the old biblical doctrine of an eye for an evo, and a tooth for, a tooth. Captain Bangs had hanged him by the wrists. Captain Bangs should hang by tho neck. So decreed Fitzgerald, manacled, sore in every joint, and drenched with the wetj cold drift from the open hatch above. At breakfast time lie was fed—with hard-tack and water—and he ate as would a famished wild beast in captivity. It was the steward who fed-him, and when tho steward came again at dinner time, with more bread and water, Fitzgerald, sufficiently composed to be civil, asked him for liniment, witch-hazel, croton oil with water—anything from the medicine chest that would assnago the aches and pains in his shoulders coming from his tricing up.

Tlio steward demurred. He dared not ask the captain, but would speak to the first mate, and ; if authority was granted, he would bring the remedies. Fitzgerald, in his early life, had been a trained nurse in a criminal hospital, and he knew what he wanted; but he was somewhat surprised when, ten minutes after the stewahl had gone, tho first mate dropped down the hatch and said

" What d'ye want? Relief from the medicine chest?"

"Yes, sir," ansivere/1 Fitzgerald sullenly. "Every bone in my body aches."

" All right. You'shall have it; but don't make your request to the okipper. Yon did the blackguard up, and I "wish that it was me—only, I couldn't afford it. See? I'm a mate, with a future." " And I'm a sailor, with none." "Right. Sing small for a few days, and I'll so represent things that he'll lot you out; and. maybe, some day, when I see things clsar, you'll have the satisfaction of seeing me do him up in better ehapo than you did. Meanwhile, say nothing. This is confidential, and I only talk this way because I see you're no ordinary man. He hit you at the wheel, and you knocked him out. Never saw it done beforo by tho man at the Vrhe-el." Ho departed, and soon Fitzgerald received his remedies, which helped him to bodily comfort. But he was not released, and the mate visited him no more—not. even through the long days and nights after the gale, while the ship made her offing, took on it pilot, anchored in the Woosuug River, and filled up with a cargo of tea for Liverpool—a six wooks' count of time. And in this time his bread and water had reduced him to a dyspeptic wreck, which brought about a frame of mind conducive to amnesty when the captain, on tho town down the river, dropped into the lazaretto, and offered him his liberty and his chance to labour with tho rest on his avowal of penitence.

Fitzgerald was penitent—outwardly, and so avowed. He was released and put to work, so weak that he had troublo at times in keeping his legs; but it was noticeable that, while the second mate and the captain swore at him, raaligmrd and ridiculed him, the big-shouldered first mate was kind to him. Once, when Fitzgerald had the wheel, he volunteered this much in the way of explanation: '' He didn't dare," he said, " to send you to gaol in Shanghai, because he hit you at the wheel—dead against tie law."

So, in the sweet and balmy breezes of tho .Pacific, Fitzgerald recovered his strength and his nerves; and whatever of resentment he had felt toward the big first mate melted away in the atmosphere of his sympathy and fellow feeling. The mate disliked the skipper, and so did he—much more.

But nothing material happened in tlie long passage around the Horn and up the two Atlantic? to Liverpool. Fitzgerald developed into a first-class sailor, his natural intelligence aiding him iii mastering seanianlv problems that with the ordinary beginner requires years of service; and on the run up tho Western Ocean lie had occasion to display skill of another kind.

His unofficial friend, the mate, broke .liia arm in a bad scramble with a sea that swept- the ship in tho Bay of Biscay, and Fitzgerald was the hi an who set the broken bones, bound tlicin tight in. splints and piaster bands, and so prescribed nnd directed, that the mate lost but a few days from duty. The still drunk and truculent skipper observed, passed a number of irrelevant and blasphemous remarks, and kicked Fitzgerald out of the mate's room when the .job was done. All- of which found montal not© in the brains of Mr Bruce and Fitzgerald. At Liverpool the crew was " worked out"—that in, put to such hard, distasteful and impossible, tasks that the men shouldered their dunnage and jumped to the dock, leaving all the pay duo them, rather than submit. But 0110 man did not go—Fitzgerald, the man who wanted Captain Bangs. He scraped hardi paint from the topgallant crosstrees m zero weather; he scoured the copper at the water line on a stage so low that hi;? feet were im-

mersed. He scrubbed paint work with sand and canvas when tin? sand, froze to the canvas, and liis knuckles bled from the friction, and h© swabbed decks among stevedores that continually soiled tho in. But he did.not desert. JTe held on, End soon the skipper and the two mates gave it up, the first mate probably from sympathy; for his word Avent far, both ivitli his inferior and his superior, end in a few flays Fitzgerald, his purpose still unrsvonled, was let alone, or giren light tasks in the forecastle. And he iva-s the only man left. A new cargo came aboard—salt, machinery, bridge material, and farm implements.. for Monte Video—and when this was stowed there came a, new -crew —a number of Liverpool Irishmen and outlawed Italians, Dutchmen and " Sou'wegiaus," that promised trouble for the afterguard. .But the afterguard, met the difficultywith almost success. jM«n after man was knocked down, and sometimes knocked oat, and the crew finally adopted a working hypothesis, which, while it involved no surrender of their viewpoint, yet left them intact from physical tutelage or correction. Each side was ready for murder, and each side forebore to act. And so installed, the .ship crept- down, tho Atlantic, drifted, through, the doldrums, and reached the svuth-east trades, with no one. forward or aft, out of commission, and Fitr.gerald, the man. with a mission, now the leading spirit in the- forecastle, and befriended by the mighty first mate. Then there came the climax. The second mate, knocked down, an Irishman, who retaliated with a belaying pin, and, the fracas arousing the watch, other belaying pins were brought into use, while the skipper and two mates used their revolvers. Fortunately for Fitzgerald, he was at the wheel, and immune from criticism. But his immunity did not extend beyond corporal punishment ; in. fact, be. was tho hardest worked man on board for a time, bandaging wounds, probing for bullets, and setting broken bones. And among his patients was Captain, Bangs, suffering from concussion of the brain, and wavering between life and death, while the shin, tho mutiny (fuelled, sailed into tim harbour of Monte Video. . Fitzgerald brought the skipper around in a manner that won praise from the surgeon who came aboard, to repair damages, and in a few days Captain Bangs was able to go 011 shore and transact business—which business embraced the jailing of several members of his crew, and the stopping of liberty and money for tho rest"; for a fixed, hand-written clause in the-articles that all had signed contained the proviso : " No money or liberty in foreign ports except at master's option." This debarred Fitzgerald from leaving th© ship—a, grievous disappointment, for he had hoped to catch tho skipper in the British consul's office, which at this port was also the American consul's office, and avrest him upon American soil. And his disappointment was not lessened by the angry attitude of tho mate, who, when the skipper was ashore, berated him for a fool. " For the dog might have died, and I'd got command if you hadn't been so almfghty handy as a doctor," he said. To which Fitzgerald could put in no defence except the logic of the Golden Rule, unknown to Mr Bruce. The ship sailed, with a cargo of hides, a new balance of crew, a rejuvenated skipper,, and a sullen first mate, and sneaked and boat her way around Capo Horn without trouble of' note, But up in the roaring forties, when the wet, the cold, and the loss of sleep told heavily on the temper of all hands, and the whole crew on the fore yard wrestled for an hour in getting in the foresail. Captain Bangs and Mr Bruce indulged in an argument as to which clew —tho lee or the weather—should first be raised in the difficult operation of furling this sail. In this argument Captain Bangs struck Mr Bruce in the face, and ilr Bruce in return planted his fist against the ribs of Captain Bangs with such force as not only to knock him down the poop steps headlong to the main deck, but to fracture a couple of ribs, the broken end of one puncturing his lungs. Captain Hangs, whining like a shipped child, was carried below. Mr Bruce, with thoughts of the penitentiary dominating his mind, assumed full command, and. Fitzgerald, the embryo surgeon—skilled beyond his normal powers by the exigencies of the situation—was deputed to nurse the invalid. Mr. Bruce, glaring hatefully into the face of Fitzgerald, so decreed. " Give the dog his chance," be said; '' hut if he wants to die, let him die. I'll stand my share and take my medicine." !

Fitzgerald, with little sympathy for the mate, and dominated "solely by his own hatred and his mission, nursed the, stricken skipper, while ilia ship, under the navigation of tli© mute, charged tip the "West Coast toward Celiac, where she was hound. Fitzgerald could do little, but that little he did. Re drew the fractured bone away from the punctured lungs bv pressure, massage and the grip and pull of plaster bandages; and. little by little, Captain Bangs regained health and activity. Then Fitzgerald resumed his work as a sailor, and bore, the usual alms© of the, skipper and the second, mate, and even the first, who now held a secret grudge. It worked out simply—very shindy. Fitzgerald, as tho ship sailed into Callao Harbour, was guilty of passing to ■windward of the disgruntled Mr Bruce, and was promptly collared. Thon, pressed against tho rail by the officer, be listened to this: "You dog, why didit'i you let hiiu die? Now, I've got to face court, proceedings." " Let up," choked Fitzgerald. ''Let up, or I'll do you. D'you hear?" Mr Bruce heard, but did not respond. He still choked Fitzgerald, and. Fitzgerald used his strength. He shook off tho officer, struck him in the face, and, in the ' ensuing conflict Fitzgerald kneeled on the chest of hiu superior and hammered his I'aco into a pulp before ho was interrupted. Tiia interruption eauio from Captain Bangs, who, armed with, a belaying pin, scon reduced Fitzgerald to a condition more helpless and harmless than that of Mr Bruce. "Whatever Captain Bangs may have felt toward Mr Bruce. this was a case of a sailor .assaulting an officer, and ho noted according to the ethics of seafaring. Fitzgerald, under the captain's pistol, stood quiet while Mr Bruce, his face puffed and disfigured,-with all the base and conflicting emotions of jealousy and hatred showing through the contusions, put the irons on him and led him to tho lazaretto. Once more was Fitzgerald confined, and in disgrace. There lie remained while the ship sought her anchorage, and her crew furled the canvas. Thou • Fitzgerald was brought up. He looked around the harbour. A few ehips of various nationalities were there, with American schooners in the coasting trade, a few tramps, and one man-of-war, a tambowocl white cruiser showing the Stare and Stripes at the flaastafi on the. stern. A small steam launch was creeping up

to the YValdeuicre's gangway, and Captain Hangs was speaking to'the young officer in the stern sheets. " I've a. man here," lie said, " that I want sent to jail, for assault upon my first, officer. The whole thing is down in my official log. Will yon take us ashore?" ■

"I can only take you aboard my ship," answered the ensign. "Bring your man down the gangway." So Fitzgerald, in irons, and enlivened by tho vicious looks of the first mate, went down the steps, followed by Captain Bangs. Re was placed in tho stern sheets, next to the young; officer in charge, and abreast of Captain Bangs. Above them all, on tlie flagstaff of the launch., floated the Stars and Stripes; and Fitzgerald, bruised find subdued, suddenly cam© to life. He worked his manacled hands around his waist, felt his badge, his money roll, p.rid his gun; then said to Captain Bangs: " 'Why not take those irons oil, captain? I'm here and can't get away." "Sure," said the confident skipper. " You're under tho American, flag, and liable to -tho jurisdiction of America. Off with tho darbies, of course. You'll get throe months in jail E?t least." ibid ho kindly and considerately unlocked. the irons on Fitzgerald's 'wrists. Then, before the captain know what was. happening, Fitzgerald jerked the irons away from him, twisted his pistol out from beneath hie. shirt, levelled it in the face of Captain Bangs, and said sternly: '*' You're my prisoner; X»p with your hands or I'll shoot you dead.'' • Captain Bangs promptly raised _ his hands while the ensign in charge of the launch demanded: " What does this mean?"

"It means, eir," said) Fitzgerald, '"'that I, a detective of the Ban Francisco police, have, arrested Captain Bangs for the murder of Hans Hansen, one oi : his crew on tho_ voyage from Hong Kong to San. Francisco. He could not he. extradited, but I've got him. This boat is under the American flag, and, under the law, is American, soil. Keep your hands up Bangs while I put the darbies on you."

The amazed Captain Bangs made no resistance. In a flash Fitzgerald had snapped the irons on his wrists; then, deftly abstracting the key from his pocket, he said to tho ensign,: We will arguo matters on board your ship, str," he paid. " I am a policeman who shipped with this man to get him. I have, got him. Any question of my amenability to punishment can be offset by my position as a policeman. Go ahead with your launch, sir, and we'll interview your superiors." The ensign smilingly bowed his head, and while" Bangs expostulated -the launch crept up to the gangway of the cruiser. Fitisgerald and his protesting prisoner went up the ladder, where a stern-faced commander_ received them. To him Fitzgerald showed his shield, explained his mission and read the warrant of his arrest. The commander listened quietly. "You have got Captain Jimmy Bangs." he said, on a charge of jpntrder. Well, God bless you! I've heard of him lor years. Become the guest of this ship and the Government-, sir. Wo sail for San Francisco in the morning, and you can take your man. homo under the flag." Fitzgerald delivered his prisoner in Sail Francisco, and had only this to mar his sense of triumph. It was Inspector .Smith's sarcastic remark: '• You had him foul on several occasions. Why didn't yon jday him a.-s the Almighty directed? Now the scoundrel will only hang_! I'm disappointed in you, Fitzgerald." But a. month latar, when Fitzgerald was rated inspector, lie hardly believed Smith.