of several revenue cutters' log-books, while Sunday
newspapers in the large cities began a series of special articles about
the mysterious schooner-rigged pirate of the fishing-fleet.

The future looked dark for her, and when the time came that she was
chased away from Plymouth harbor--which she had entered for
provisions--by a police launch, it seemed that the end was at hand; for
she had done no wrong in Plymouth, and the police boat was evidently
acting on general principles and instructions, which were vital enough
to extend the pursuit to the three-mile limit. Her trips had become
necessarily longer, and there was but two weeks' supply of food in the
lazarette. The New England coast was an enemy's country, but in the
crowded harbor of New York was a chance to lie unobserved at anchor
long enough to secure the stores she needed, which only a large city
can supply. So Cape Cod was doubled on the way to New York; but the
brisk offshore wind, which had helped her in escaping the police boat,
developed to a gale that blew her to sea, and increased in force as the
hours passed by.

Hard-headed, reckless fellows were these men who owned the _Rosebud_ and
ran her on shares and under laws of their own making. Had they been of
larger, broader minds, with no change of ethics they would have acquired
a larger, faster craft with guns, hoisted the black flag, and sailed
southward to more fruitful fields. Being what they were,--fishermen gone
wrong,--they labored within their limitations and gleaned upon known
ground.

They were eighteen in number, and they typified the maritime nations of
the world. Americans predominated, of course, but English, French,
German, Portuguese, Scandinavian, and Russian were among them. The cook
was a West India negro, and the captain--or their nearest approach to a
captain--a Portland Yankee. Both were large men, and held their
positions by reason of special knowledge and a certain magnetic mastery
of soul which dominated the others against their rules; for in this
social democracy captains and bosses were forbidden. The cook was an
expert in the galley and a thorough seaman; the other as able a seaman,
and a navigator past the criticism of the rest.

His navigation had its limits, however, and this gale defined them. He
could find his latitude by meridian observation, and his longitude by
morning sights and chronometer time; his dead-reckoning was
trustworthy, and he possessed a fair working c