Heralds of Empire

nce, though he bade us walk the plank blindfold to the sea. Two men were set to transferring powder and arms from the forehold to our captain's cabin. One went h

isson had played the rogues their own game in the matter of signals. They had thought the St. Pierre in league, else would they not have come into his trap so readily. Before t

decks. A shout through the trumpet of the Ste. Anne's bo'swain and t

half-laughingly insinuated, perhaps he knew better than Chouart Groseillers of the Ste. Anne how to manage mutinous pirates. Of the St. Pierre's crew, three only

ere like to pound their bulwarks to kindling wood. Then the S

d. There faced him th

ge broke from the ragged group. Quick words passed from man to man. A noisy, shuffling, indeterminate movement! The crowd swayed forward. There was a sudden rush from the fo'castle to the

t man if he had calle

Our leader's pistol flashed a circle that drove the rabble back, and the ringleader went hurling head foremost through the main

nted to the fore scuttle. Then he pointed to the

" says he, as the l

shot from the mainmasts. There, perched astride of the crosstrees

t the bullet-hole in the brim, looke

t pistol!

fear. Down clattered h

replacing his beaver. "Sit there

slue the guns back or jacket their muzzles. And, instead of curling forward with the crest of the roll, the spray began to chop off backward in little short waves li

Radisson said as he wiped

ell! I'll strike my topmast to Death himself first-so the devil go with them! The blind gods may crush-they shall not conquer! They may kill-but I snap my f

wave-crest to wave-crest, the winds shrieking through the cordage, an

. Aft, powder enough to blow us all to eternity! On deck, one brave man, two chittering

way it blew. At one moment the ship was jumping from wave to wave before the wind with a s

ock clutched the tossing billows like watery arms of sirens. It needed no se

raced a tidal billow of waters lik

houts Radisson in t

econd we were driving b

ose up in a wa

s a roaring of waters over us, under us, round us-then M. de Radisson, Jean, and I went slithering forward like water-rats caught in a whirlpool. My feet struck against windlass chains. Jean saved himself from washing overboard by cannoning into

at the wh

, stern foremost, to the trough of the swell

iercer assault; and in that pause I remembered something had flung over me in t

d white. Far out in the wake of the tide that had caught us foam smoked on the trac

ys'l had been torn to flutters, an

in stress is mighty fine seamanship. To keep that old gallipot from shipping seas in the t

disson did the maddest thing that ever I have seen. Both sounds told of the coming tempest. The veering wind sett

a sharp rock. Then the wind caught her, whirling her right about; but in she went, stern foremost, like a fish, between the narrow walls

nchors out, while the hurricane h

shoot any man but himself who appeared above the hatch. Arming himself with his short, curved hanger-oh, I warrant there would

sson, followed by the entire crew-one fellow's head in white cotton where it

The storm had scarce abated when a strange ship poked her jib-boom ac

te!" sa

ows, shifted position so that the St. Pier

er ship poked her nose across the other s

hey have us coope

t sails," said M. de R

nk we should do,

"I have stopped thinking!

inous crew too near pirate ships, M. Radisson ordered anchor up. With a deck-mop fastened in defiance to our prow, the St. Pierre slipped o

but one morning we were all awakened from the heavy sleep of hard-worked seamen by the screaming of a multitude of birds. The air was odorou

these strange visitors; for we were at Port

rget that we were F

French explorer's account of his own travels, written partly in English, where he repeatedly refers to a "pretty p