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or another, and had even encouraged him to believe that there would be a renewal of the boom in the following winter, when prices would go up faster than ever, and he could realize on all his lots at handsome figures. But now his worst fears were more than realized. He sought out Major Hornblower, and found him in a badly fuddled condition. It was not an easy matter to get an intelligible answer from him, though the Colonel plied him with indignant questions. "No ush talk to me," the Major obstinately repeated, with impaired articulation. "See Gheneral Hushler."

66 And where is the General?" "Shush Africa," was the Major's only re

sponse.

"O, my God!” cried Colonel Chesley. "I am ruined!" A weakness of the heart, which he had long suspected to exist, but never mentioned, now overcame him, and he fell to the floor. He was taken home in a hack, and days passed before his physician would allow him to leave the house. Kate and Arthur who were married between Christmas and New Year's, had not yet returned from their long wedding journey in Mexico, and were still in blissful ignorance of the changed conditions at home.

When the Colonel had sufficiently recovered to be able to give his mind to business, he called one day at the office of Roe & Doe, with whom George had begun the study of law, and was ushered into the consulting room of the senior member of the firm. Mr. Roe proved to be one of those undemonstrative men who conceal a kind heart under an appearance of professional reserve.

"Colonel Chesley," he began, goingstraight to business, "your son has already acquainted me with the facts in relation to this Hustleton muddle. So far as I have looked into the matter, it seems to me that you are practically master of the situation." "I do not understand," said the Colonel, surprised and bewildered.

"I will explain," said the lawyer. "I find that the Hustleton Land and Improvement Company, like its side-show companies, has conducted all its business in the most reckless disregard of law. It has never had a legal existence as a corporation. stock was all unlawfully issued, and is worthless. You are still the legal owner of the land, and may easily recover possession, as the company cannot fulfill its contract with

The

you, and is already in default. In fact, since that scoundrel Hustler absconded, there has been no visible representative of the company. As the owner of the land the improvements fall into your hands, though most of them, in that locality, are now of little value, since the boom has collapsed. You may be obliged to pay back the ten thousand dollars that you originally received, should action be taken by the creditors of the company, but, if necessary, you could easily arrange that by a mortgage, or sale of some of the land."

"I want to do whatever is right," said the Colonel.

"Very well," the lawyer responded, his manner perceptibly softening. “But you would better leave to us the settlement of the business. The property has become more valuable, we understand, through the development of the water right, and if the adjustment be well managed, you will be much better off than you were before the contract was signed. As for the fools who have thrown away their money in gambling on Hustleton lots, there is, of course, no help for them. Their money has been either stolen or squandered in buildings that nobody wants. If they make any trouble, however, we shall tell them to pay up the installments on their lots, and that then we will give them a valid deed. It would be impossible for you to restore what they have paid, even if you wished to do so. They will never pay the balances on those lots, which are worthless, as the buyers must know by this time, or will soon find out. The only exceptions may be the winners of the houses that were raffled off in the homestead scheme. Should you desire it, you might let them haul away the houses, in case they want to realize something; or you could buy the houses at your own price, should you think it worth while.

"After this matter is all settled, and the title quieted, it would probably be a good thing for you to have the tract cut up into ten-acre lots, and sell them, reserving enough land and water for your own use. That land, with water for irrigation, is worth, I am assured, at least five hundred dollars an acre. It's a pity there is not water enough to irrigate the entire tract.

Colonel Chesley followed the lawyer's advice, and the settlement of the Hustleton business was eventually made with no great

difficulty. The original owner could not be held responsible for the collapse of the town-site bubble. Numerous other speculations of like character fell through about the same time. The losers, as a rule, realized their past folly, and held their peace.

One perfect day in Spring, two years later, the elder Chesley was seated where he was when this narrative opened, except that the old ranch house had given place to the best of the dwellings constructed at Hustleton during the boom. He occupied an easy chair on the veranda, and was smoking his favorite pipe. The majestic mountains, lifting their snowy tops into the deep blue of the sky, were as he had always known them, but nearly all else in sight was changed. The thousands of town-lot stakes had long since been plowed under, and the hills once bare were now hidden by young orchards and vineyards,

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That is good," the Colonel responded, well pleased.

She paused a moment beside him, and with a hand upon his shoulder, said,"We are happier here than we were in the city, don't you think so, Robert?"

"Yes, mother," he answered, looking up with the old tranquil air of deep content. "I hope we shall never move again, and that there will never be another boom." [THE END]

WAG BENTON, THE BLACK-BIRDER

A TALE OF AFRICAN SLAVE STEALING

BY W. F. OLIVER, M. D.

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a recklessness that was emboldened by a powerful reserve force.

The leading nations of Europe had also declared against the slave trade, and in concert with the United States had offered a tempting reward for every slave and slaverobber that was captured. Thus set the navies of those nations to keeping a sharp lookout for slavers, for the sake of both prize-money and exciting adventure.

A certain high officer in the United States Navy had a venturous brother-in-law who was the leader of a gang of black-birders, as the slave thieves were called, and very adroitly used his authority to protect and prosper the audacious freebooters, with an open pocket for a share of the ill-earned profits.

The leading spirit of the expedition was

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Wag Benton, who was sought after for his special qualifications as an expert adventurer. He began his dubious career as a sailor in the United States Navy during the Mexican War of 1846. His appetite for adventure increased with each hazard, and he joined the Walker filibustering expedition to Honduras. After Walker's discomfiture at Leon, his few followers who escaped death or capture were vigilantly hunted for by Honduras spies. Wag Benton was of the few who eluded them, and he only escaped by "holding up" a New York coffee merchant, robbing him of his money and passport, and then pushing boldly across the country to the Caribbean coast and sailing for New Orleans.

He was just the man that his old naval shipmate, Captain Rexton, was looking for to act as super-cargo of his slaver, which he was fitting out under the name of the Trafican, and the guise of a trading ship for South Africa. An armament of eight cannon and a hundred stand of arms was smuggled on board in bales of goods, and a hundred reckless men were sneaked on board and stowed away. The Trafican then, with a stuffed cargo of trading goods, a crew of twenty men, and regular clearance papers for South African ports, let go her cables and steamed away for the slave fields of the Congo river. The Captain had also a set of false clearance papers for the Congo river, which a treacherous clerk in the custom house had forged, to display to any inquisitive man-of-war that might be patrolling the track of the Congo slavers. The clerk had an interest in the enterprise.

As was expected, a United States cruiser was lying at the mouth of the river, but it had the rather cumbrous company of a Spanish cruiser and a French corvette. The Captain of the Trafican, having paid his respects to his brother-in-law and partner on board of the cruiser, proceeded up the river, and began trading with the long-shore natives for their prisoners of war, at the ratio of a red handkerchief for a five hundred dollar negro. At the same time Wag Benton at the head of a company of blackbirders was out netting the dusky prey in its native rookery.

It was the intention of the buccaneers to purchase all of their contraband cargo, and not attempt to make any captures themselves, but the supply of prisoners was lim

ited to about two hundred men, it being a time of comparative peace between the Congo tribes. They did not have time to wait for a renewal of hostilities and take the chances of the merchant warriors securing the necessary merchandise, and so it was decided to attempt a stratagem for the capture of an entire village.

The Captain set out with a party of thirty men for the enemy's country. Each man was armed with a brace of concealed pistols, and supplied with a pack of trinkets. This was called the "baiting brigade." They marched boldly toward the "black-birds' roosts."

Wag Benton with seventy well armed men, known as the "cagers," sneaked along a day's march behind. They traveled only at night, and camped in the jungle without fires during daylight. So cautiously did they proceed that their presence in the country was not discovered until the unwary birds found themselves in a cage of armed men.

On the afternoon of the sixth day's journey, the Congo guide pointed out a village of his enemy, containing about eight hundren inhabitants, and then went back to inform Wag Benton's party. The chief of the village led his army out to meet the unexpected visitors, but finding that their attitude was friendly, escorted them back to the village, laid weapons aside, and began to barter their ivory, dye stuffs, and skins, for the flashy trinkets of the slave traders. Business was so brisk that it did not stop for night, but continued by the light of the huge fires until the stock in trade of the natives was in the hands of the white men. Then the glittering beads were displayed, which set the negroes wild with delight. They had nothing left now to trade, and the merchants, feigning reluctance, finally agreed to accept arrows and spear heads, which were urged upon them.

It was at the darkest hour that just precedes daylight, when the last arrow and spear head were securely packed away among the merchants' goods, that the cagers, having cautiously surrounded the village and crept behind the out-skirting huts, fired off their guns into the air, and rushed forward with a fiendish yell upon the astonished natives. The warriors, remembering that they had sold their weapons, ran toward the traders' stand to recover them, only to be met with a volley of blank cartridges from

their pistols. The terrorized negroes turned to flee, but the bristling bayonets of the cagers turned them back upon the baiting brigade, to receive another harmless volley which utterly demoralized them. Tumbling over each other in their confusion made them think that they were being slaughtered, and being hemmed in on all sides by fire and steel, there was nothing for them to do but to prostrate themselves upon the ground as a token of submission. They were quickly hand-cuffed in pairs to a long chain, and at once started for the ship.

It was a surprising fact that during all of the confusion and recklessness, no one was hurt, excepting a few children who were run over. It was more remarkable still that not a single native escaped.

It was a sorrowful sight to see those inoffensive creatures suddenly snatched from perhaps life's happiest condition, the primitive state that is limited in knowledge, wants, and hope, to be chained together for days under the burdens of their captors; to suffocate or rot in the contagious hold of the slave ship; or to be driven to a living death under the lash of the slave driver.

It was a heartrending scene to see a mother trying to carry her infant all day upon one arm, for the manacled hand was of no use, and the wrist was often chafed or bleeding, until completely exhausted, she let it fall by the wayside, to perish from hunger or be destroyed by wild beasts. It is cruelty to animals to keep them harnessed together for a longer time than a day. Yet these brutal black-birders had no thought of humanity while keeping eight hundred men, women, and children, locked to a chain for more than a week. Eating, sleeping, or marching, they were never for a moment released, until they were unshackled on board of the ship, to endure a worse imprisonment in the filthy hold.

The Trafican, having on board also the slaves that had been purchased, dropped down the river and came to anchor a few miles above its mouth. A boat was sent at night to notify the captain of the United States cruiser. That artful officer had issued a challenge to the other men-of-war to join his crew in a prize drill in their boats as soon as he could overhaul and repair his, which pretended task came to a sudden end when the Trafican was reported as ready to sail. The captain of the American ship

notified the other ships that he would be ready for their aquatic tournament the same afternoon that the slave ship proposed to escape from the river. At one o'clock he left his moorings, and followed by the Frenchman and the Spaniard, led the way to a quiet bay out of sight of the mouth of the river. The slaver then got under way and sailed for Cuba; but not, however, adroitly enough to avoid the suspicious Spaniard, which was hanging on the outer limits of the bay. The Spanish captain at once. signaled his boats to return to the ship and gave chase.

The American captain well knew the cause of the Spaniard's sudden withdrawal from the contest, and as he dared not explain to the Frenchman, nor could frame any plausible excuse for abandoning the tournament, he instructed his men to allow the Frenchmen to win easily, in order to shorten the sport. The American guardian was anxious to follow, and if possible, protect his illegitimate ward, by capturing her himself, if necessary to keep her out of the hands of the Spaniards. It was almost dark when the ships reached their anchorage at the river, and the curious Frenchman was very much concerned as to the whereabouts of the Spaniard. The American captain was just suggesting that she might have gone up the river for fresh water, when a shot was heard out at sea. Without exchanging another word, both ships slipped their cables and started at full speed in the direction of the sound. A four tandem sea race then stretched across the Atlantic course, with the slaver and the Spaniard far in the lead, and the American ahead of the Frenchman by an eighth of a knot.

When the Trafican saw that she was being chased, port holes were cut and covered with cloth the color of her hull and the guns mounted. The crew was piped for grog and all things made ready for action. Just before dark the Spaniard came near enough to throw a shot across the Trafican's bow. This failing to stop the slaver, another was sent a little nearer, without effect. It was only after a chain shot had crashed through the rigging that the slave ship rounded to and ran along-side of the Spaniard, as if to surrender without a parley. The Spanish sailors were congratulating themselves upon their easy prize, and getting their grappling hooks ready to make

fast to it, when four shotted cannon thrust their muzzles through the side of the Trafican, and poured a broadside into the astonished Spaniards. Scarcely had the guns recoiled when a hundred men rose from behind the slaver's bulwarks, and cleared the Spanish deck with "buck and ball." The Trafican disappeared in the falling darkness. An hour later the American and French ships found the Spanish ship a drifting morgue and hospital, with a hundred dead and wounded on board.

The American captain sent his surgeons to help care for the wounded men, and his engineers to help repair the damaged machinery.

After two days both ships got under way toward the West Indies, the destination of the slaver as one supposed and the other knew. The excited Frenchman had sailed away on the wrong track, the northwest, as soon as he knew that the Trafican was a slave ship. This gave Captain Rexton no uneasiness, for it was understood that in case the slaver was discovered she would head for the southwest as soon as darkness concealed the movements. At daylight the Trafican drew her fires and spread her sails, for the smoke of a steamer can be seen farther at sea than a sail. Steam was raised at night and canvas in the morning, and thus the alternating wheel and sail carried her unobserved to the latitude of Montevideo.

In prolonging the voyage to escape capture they had incurred a horrible calamity. Smallpox broke out among the natives crowded into the noxious hold, and raged in its most virulent form. The crew was contaminated, and the bodies of twenty white. men, and over four hundred negroes were thrown into the sea. There was no escaping from the terrible situation. The contagion pervaded the entire ship, and poisoned the air with its loathsome infection. The dare-devil black-birders, who had never faltered before any visible enemy, now surrendered to this insidious foe, and awaited their melancholy fate with the fortitude of heroes of a noble cause.

Wag Benton, who had been sick-bay steward in the Navy, and a half dozen others who had had smallpox, were the only persons who would venture below decks during the six weeks that the pestilence raged. Nor did it cease its ravages until its fires

went out because there was no more fuel left.

When enough of the crew had recovered sufficiently to man the ship, she turned her prow toward the West Indies, and cautiously proceeded upon her perilous way. The guns had been dismounted, the port-holes mended, the rigging changed, and the hull painted another color, hoping by this means to delude the revengeful Spaniard, in passing as a merchantman. She was no longer in condition to "fight and run away." She must surrender without a powder and ball protest if again overhauled.

The masquerading slaver threaded the Windward islands during the night, passed well north of the Leeward group, kept out of sight of Jamaica, and would have had her contraband cargo safely in the hands of the slave-dealers at Matanzas, before another morning, had she not grounded upon a reef near the Isle of the Pines at falling tide, where daylight found her, stuck fast, but in no way damaged by the shock.

The Americans had kept close company with the Spaniard, hoping to divert her from the expected route of the slaver, or in case of a discovery, to capture her rather than have their friends fall into the hands of the revengeful Spaniards. It would not be a very risky piece of carelessness to allow the black-birders to escape, and their share of the prize money for the slaves and ship would to some small extent repay the men who had risked their lives in the hazardous business if they ever could be found. The vigilance with which the Spanish ship patrolled the southern coast of Cuba annoyed the American captain, and made him keep all the closer to his malignant companion at He had agreed with Captain Rexton that he would always display his lights in a certain unusual arrangement, so that when sighted he would not lack a friend, nor fear an enemy. The Spaniards protested against showing any lights at all, justly claiming that they were only danger signals to the black - birders. The American cited his Naval regulations and trimmed his lamps anew. The Spaniard never displayed a light while upon a slaver cruise, but gave close attention to spark arresters. The Trafican was equally economical with her oil.

sea.

When the slaver had stopped the useless reversal of her wheel in her struggle to get afloat, the welcome constellation of friendly

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