OUR PIRATE HUNT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue IX, 29 August 1896, Page 287

OUR PIRATE HUNT.

BY JOE BROWN. CHAPTER I. ONE day a boy came to see Dick Smith, and Dick said he was Sammie I. Shooter of Baltimore U.S.A. Next day Dick told me that a rich uncle in America had died, and Mr Shooter (bammie’s father) was going to buy their house. In about three weeks Smiths moved out and Shooters moved in. Before he left Dick gave me the cance, which we had just finished. Sammie and I are as good (if not better) friends than Dick and I had been. We went to the same school, and after lessons we went sailing in a punt. But Sammie said we must make a dock for our cance to lie in. As the river ran through Shooter’s place we easily did this. Then Sammie and I lighted the canoe with electricity, and a search light at the bow. But I forgot to say that I lived near a river which runs through Sammie’s place, and about half a mile in a bee line from my place the river joined the sea in a gulf.

The creek —Bay River we boys call it—rises in a hill about two and a-half miles away from our dock, and from there to the sea, in a bee line, is about half a mile. Between our places and the sea the land belonged to an old retired major, who let us do what we liked with it. Sammie had four brothers —Hiram, Abe, Pete, and Tom. We had another ally, John Stokes or Jack. Sammie’s brothers did not have any share in the ownership of the canoe. Jack was a skilful pilot, knowing every inch of the river. By our combined efforts we dug a canal from our dock to a lake about half a mile off. * Dug !’ I should have said * ploughed,’ for we borrowed a plough aud harnessed two horses to it, and ploughed it to the lake. We got shovels and shovelled out the earth which the plough turned up till it was deep enough to float the canoe, which seated six and Jack steering. One evening we had resolved to go fishing. I bad charge of the electric light, and Jack was in the bow steering. We had fixed on a couple of paddle wheels which were under my control. We had brought our guns with us, and I had lent Jack one of mine, as he had not one of his own. When we were near the lake we heard some one firing off guns. We wished, of course, to know what it meant, so I put the full power of the electric battery into the wheels, which cut off the light. As we got into the lake we saw on the opposite side some camp fires. We were anxious to learn what it meant. •It is the pirates of Starlit Head I’ said Jack. There was no fishing for us that night, for we went to all the people near and told them what we had seen. Pete got their cart, and we put the canoe in it and he took it home for safety. Next day there was a reward offered for the capture of the pirates, who had committed a lot of robberies in the neighbourhood some time before. CHAPTER 11. We resolved to gain the reward, so we set out to walk to the Starlit Head, taking a very light canoe (which held two) and our guns. In the canoe were pencils and paper, heaving lead, and tape for measuring distances. We looked at the pirates’ stronghold, whtch had the appearance of being uninhabited, so a few set out to examine it while Jack and I paddled out in the canoe and made a very good chart of the headland. As we were coming back we saw the pirates cutter with their flag flapping in the breeze. Sammie and I made a very strong boat fitted with twin screws and a double seat in the bow with the battery there for driving the boat and the steering wheel too. There were loop holes in the sides for us to shoot through, and a strong search light so made that I could turn it in almost any direction. We went to the settlement, and one of the farmers, who lived a long way off, said that the thieves had stolen three turkeys, one cow, and a pair of ducks. Every day we went to the settlement we heard of robberies, but there was some mystery overhanging all of them. The man who lost the cow found it again when he went home. One day we resolved to sail past the stronghold in the afternoon. When we got in the open sea we hoisted up our sail and went slowly past. We saw some boys looking at us, but they did not fire guns off at us as we thought they would. We anchored a little way farther on. A few of us went to explore the country. At dusk we saw the pirates’ cutter tacking toward their strong hold. We all got on board our boat, and as soon as the pirates were near enough we ran our boat a long side and boarded the other cutter. We found only two boys on board. These we made prisoners, and I put three boys on board as a prize crew, and we towed the cutter up the river and as near as we could to our dock. We put the two boys in the hold of their boat, and we all had a very good tea. They wanted to know what it all meant, but they were told to go to sleep. The prize crew were told to watch them while Jack, Tom, and I went again in the canoe to see if we could get any more prisoners. Pete went to tell our people what had happened. We landed near the head, and Tom and I went towards a light, when we saw six boys coming towards us. We ran back to the canoe and paddled on towards the light. The boys had not seen us, so we got near the head and we saw four boys, two of whom soon surrendered, and after some trouble we captured the other two. We made our prisoners paddle while Jack steamed seaward. Then we turned the searchlight towards the land and saw plainly the six we had seen before. Our prisoners began to paddle, and early in the morning we got home and to bed, leaving the prisoners in safe keeping. They were tried next day, and were found to be twelve boys who were out on a fishing expedition, and had taken the poultry for fun. The boys had to return the poultry and were heavily fined, while we were rewarded. The guns we heard on the lake were fired by the boys, who were shooting wild ducks.