Nine Dead Men on the Fairy Flats and a Ship Without a Name A tale reminiscent of the Barbary Coast was recently told by a Chinese detective in Court. It almost puts Captain Long John Silver to shame, for the Chinese junk that can now be seen from the Bund, moored to the River Police Hulk, seems a fitting companion of the Hispaniola, on which the redoubtable Long John was that formidable cook.
Two pirate junks had been cruising on the fishing grounds around the mouth of the Yangtze, extracting toll from the Woosung fishing fleet as they drifted helplessly with nets down at the mercy of any passing marauder. The practice of the pirates had been to, demand a sum of money—from $50 to $500—from some particular junk, to be paid over when next it visited the fishing grounds. One junk, either more impecunious or more brave than its companions, returned to the fishing banks one day without the ransom, taking one of the chances: to which fishers in these waters are inured by typhoon, sandbank or privateer. Her luck was out, for one of the pirate junks caught her and as a warning to the others to pay their legitimate piratical dues secured the crew of 10 men in the hold, bored holes in the bottom and sank her. One of the fishermen, however, was not born to be drowned; he struggled free, came to the surface and drifted down on the Yangtze ebb to be picked up by another fishing junk a few hours afterwards.
The tale of revenge was related to the Junk Guild when anchor wags dropped at Woosung and a watch was kept for the craft that would answer the description of the two pirates.
A week ago, months after the sinking of the crew related above, a junk laden with stone made sail up the Huangpu and dropped anchor at the village of Woosung. It was recognized as one of the two pirates for which watch had so long been kept and was boarded by men of the Junk Guild. They found, however, that the crew had forsaken it, probably suspicious of every move made on shore. The junk was, therefore, moored to the side of Woosung Creek and a watchman placed on board till a decision had been reached regarding its disposal.
Pursuit Up tHe Huanapv.
True to the best traditions of the Clyde the watchman watched so many hours a day and left the boat to watch itself so many hours a, day, till one morning, returning from an unusually long session at the tea house, he was astonished to find that the vessel had disappeared. Casting round for a solution of the extraordinary phenomenon he discovered that a crew of four or five men had been
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.