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Thackery Fox & Associates
The Pirates
The Pirates
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Wasn't the age of the three-masted pirate ship long past? Hadn't piracy on the high seas gone that way as well? So, what was this compact steel ship doing?
"Steamer ahoy! What do you want?"
"Want all that bullion stowed in your strong room," answered Forsythe through a megaphone; "and, if you please, speak more distinctly, for the wash of your bow wave prevents my hearing what you say."
The officer was handed a megaphone, and through it his voice came down like a thunderclap.
"You want the bullion stowed in our strong room, do you? Anything else you want, sir?"
"Yes," answered Forsythe. "We want a boat full of provisions. Three barrels of flour, the rest in canned meats and vegetables."
"Anything else?" There was as much derision in the voice as can carry through a megaphone.
"That is all," answered Forsythe. "Load your gold into one of your own boats, the provisions in another. Lower them down and let the falls unreeve, so that they will go adrift. We will pick them up."
"Well, of all the infernal impudence I ever heard, yours is the worst. I judge that you are that crew of jail-breakers we've heard of that stole a government boat and turned pirates."
"You are right," answered Forsythe; "but don't waste our time. Will you give us what we asked for, or shall we sink you?"
"Sink us, you scoundrel? You can't, and you'd better not try, or threaten to. Your position is known, and three scouts started this morning from Boston and New York."
"That bluff don't go," answered Forsythe. "Will you cough up?"
"No; most decidedly no!" roared the officer, who might, or might not, have been the captain.
"Kelly," said Forsythe, "send that Whitehead straight into him."
Whitehead torpedoes, be it known, are mechanical fish of machined steel, self-propelling and self-steering, actuated by a small air engine, and carrying in their "war heads" a charge of over two hundred pounds of guncotton, and in their blunt noses a detonating cap to explode it on contact.
At Forsythe's word, Kelly turned a lever on the tube, and the contained torpedo dived gently overboard.
"Steamer ahoy! What do you want?"
"Want all that bullion stowed in your strong room," answered Forsythe through a megaphone; "and, if you please, speak more distinctly, for the wash of your bow wave prevents my hearing what you say."
The officer was handed a megaphone, and through it his voice came down like a thunderclap.
"You want the bullion stowed in our strong room, do you? Anything else you want, sir?"
"Yes," answered Forsythe. "We want a boat full of provisions. Three barrels of flour, the rest in canned meats and vegetables."
"Anything else?" There was as much derision in the voice as can carry through a megaphone.
"That is all," answered Forsythe. "Load your gold into one of your own boats, the provisions in another. Lower them down and let the falls unreeve, so that they will go adrift. We will pick them up."
"Well, of all the infernal impudence I ever heard, yours is the worst. I judge that you are that crew of jail-breakers we've heard of that stole a government boat and turned pirates."
"You are right," answered Forsythe; "but don't waste our time. Will you give us what we asked for, or shall we sink you?"
"Sink us, you scoundrel? You can't, and you'd better not try, or threaten to. Your position is known, and three scouts started this morning from Boston and New York."
"That bluff don't go," answered Forsythe. "Will you cough up?"
"No; most decidedly no!" roared the officer, who might, or might not, have been the captain.
"Kelly," said Forsythe, "send that Whitehead straight into him."
Whitehead torpedoes, be it known, are mechanical fish of machined steel, self-propelling and self-steering, actuated by a small air engine, and carrying in their "war heads" a charge of over two hundred pounds of guncotton, and in their blunt noses a detonating cap to explode it on contact.
At Forsythe's word, Kelly turned a lever on the tube, and the contained torpedo dived gently overboard.
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