Adventure, August, 1913
HE Anna Lee lay in Gibraltar Bay,
Bedell, the first luff, held that he could
swinging at her moorings off the tell a fighter the moment he clapped eyes on T ragged staff-landing. We—the skipper him.
and his crew—sat on the quarter-deck under
“Show me a man,” he went on,
the awning, sheltered from the scorching heat
warming to his opinion, “with a square-cut
of the sun. Everything was snug below and
jaw, high cheek-bones, eyes deep-set under
taut above and we but awaited our clearance-
heavy brows, atop a body that’s stocky with
papers to drop down the bay and head out for
broad, high shoulders and feet that stay where Funchal.
they’re put, and ninety-nine times out of a
There was not a man of us but had
hundred he’s a fighter. He just can’t help
bunked in almost every port of the world, and
fight. Even if he has only the face, he has the our conversation had been mainly about the
fighting-spirit, and will wade in against any
strange experiences we had encountered kind of odds. But if he has a weak face, no between voyages, but finally it veered around
matter if he’s as strong as a bull, he won’t
to a discussion of whether one could always
fight any more than a worm.”
judge a man’s fighting-abilities correctly by
We of the crew listened with approval
his physical characteristics.
while he expounded his theory, but when he
Adventure
2
had finished the skipper voiced a dissent in his chicken that got too pert.”
characteristic non-argumentative tones.
“There’s where you’re wrong,” said
Captain Harter was an old man, close
the old man, reminiscently. Then, after a
on to seventy. He had been educated at moment, “that was Dan Harman—‘Hard Annapolis and, despite the hard, rough life he Harman’ they used to call him—and he was
had led on the sea and in out-of-the-way, half-sure the hardest fighter among hard-fighting
civilized countries, his language and manner
men when we sailed the South Seas some
gave evidence that there had once been a
forty years ago. I’ve owed my life a score of
polish so well put on, that, though worn off in times to his fearlessness and ability. If there spots, much of it still clung.
was anything to be gained by it, he’d rush in
He liked to mingle with his crew and
where angels ’d fear to tread, and I never
would go to a good deal of trouble to get men
knew the time when he didn’t bring home the
above the average in seamanship and general
bacon. No, not once. He was a wonder—a
education. Once a man sailed with him he
born fighter, you can bet your life, but not a never left of his own accord and any change in scrapper. He was never looking for trouble,
the crew was an event on board.
but when it came his way he could take care
He was known personally or by of it and everything, and everybody that went hearsay to every man who “went deep-sea”
with it to the queen’s taste. His body wasn’t
from Suez to Singapore and back again around
puny, even if his face was thin. He was the
the world. “Hongkong Harter” some called
most deceiving man with his clothes on you
him, and spoke with awe of the wild doings
ever saw.”
with which he was credited, when in his
“Let’s hear a yarn about him,
younger days he sailed out of far eastern ports.
Captain,” I ventured.
I had been his second mate for two
“Well, I guess there’ll be no harm In
years, and during the long dull watches of the that. He’s dead now and left no folks; cashed
night many were the marvelous tales of in shortly after you saw him. But anyhow depredation and daring he had told me, mixed
there’s nothing to tell that isn’t to his
with interesting observations of the everlasting credit.”
philosophy of life as he had found it. So now, Musingly, he began the yarn:
when he spoke, I lent an attentive ear.
“CRIME is largely geographical. Many a
“RECOLLECT two years ago,” he began, man’s serving time in different parts, of the
“when we lay in Suez, of a youngish-looking
world to-day for things that in other times and old man coming aboard and throwing his arms
other places would only have earned him the
around me for sheer joy at finding me alive?
title of hero.
He was rigged in white flannels, carried a
It seems as if people have just got to
cane, had a face like an old-time spinster and have heroes. If they can’t get the real thing, was as soft-spoken as he was soft-looking.
they’re going to manufacture ’em out o’ what
Recollect him?”
materials they’ve got. With nearly every spot
We nodded our affirmations.
on earth civilized and all this talk o’ universal
“Well, was he a fighter?”
peace, they’re turning to the second-story
“No,” declared Bedell. “He just workers and confidence-men. After a while I couldn’t fight with that face and build. Why
suppose they’ll take in the grafters and
he’d run if a swarm of ants were headed his
pickpockets. Goodness! But that’s a far cry
way. I could shoo him away like I would a
from the spoils of war and adventure taken in
Hard Harman: A South Seas Rover of the 40’s 3
the open.
all you’ve got, he could play ’em high or low, But Dan Harman was different from
soft or loud, as he pleased, just whichever way any of these. He led a wild life in wild tunes, suited the subject best.
but he hated bloodshed and even more he
Those were wild days. Hongkong
hated trickery. He never defied the law for his wasn’t the sedate English-ruled port it is now.
own ends, nor robbed any one, but the way
It was the toughest place in the Far East, well things were those days, before England off the edge of civilization. The scum of the asserted her rule in the East, it was sometimes earth was gathered there. Soldiers of fortune, necessary to take the law into one’s own Russian renegades, Malay cutthroats, opium-hands to kind o’ even things up.
smugglers, escaped convicts from Australia,
If Dan were living in New York to-day
Dutch traders—a jumble of all kinds of men
and needed the money, you’d never find him
from different parts of the world, most of
in any high-finance hold-ups or confidence-
whom were seeking cover for one reason or
games. No siree. It’d be hard to tell what he’d another, walked about its dirty streets.
do, but it wouldn’t be anything like that. Like They were sure a reckless, devil-may-as not he’d be burning midnight oil in a hall-
<
br /> care crowd of adventurers and fortune-
bedroom, pushing a pen and leaving behind a
seekers, none of whom cared much for human
trail of our adventures in the South Seas that’d life and least for his own. It was a regular
hold the hero-worshippers for a while.
Sargasso Sea of human derelicts, drifted there But seeing as he’s not here to write
from the four corners of the earth.
’em and it’ll probably be quite a spell before Everybody was stealing from
the papers come aboard, I’ll tell you about the somebody else. A highway-robbery sort of
first time he saved my life, and when I’m
trade was going on all the time. Things
through I’ll ask Bedell whether Dan could
changed hands without any pretense of a
fight or not.
money-transaction. If you could get away with
It was in Hongkong I first met him.
a thing, it was yours, just like a bluff in a
The brig Seton brought me in, and he dropped poker-game, and if the man you stole it from
off the old windjammer Cuttledory, that went wanted it back he had to work a slicker game
on the rocks off Liverpool a few years ago.
than you had.
We met ashore, saw the town together, missed
It was a case of who was the smartest
ship and from then on kept in pretty close
crook, and the one who was cleverest at
touch until he left the sea ten years ago.
stacking the cards took the pot. Not so
We were about the same age—along
different from the way they do some things
pretty well in the twenties—and were both
nowadays and in places nearer home than
from the United States, he from Down East
Hongkong, only, this was open and above
and I from the Middle West. He’d been board, and every one knew the game he was through college and afterward started to rough up against. Eternal vigilance was the price of it on a trip around the world, and became so
keeping what belonged to you. It mattered not
attached to the wild life that he couldn’t be
if it were a keg of whisky or a full-rigged ship.
induced to give it up.
“Take a chance and everything that goes with
He looked much the same as when you
it” was the watchword and the basis on which
saw him, except that his gray hair was a new-
all business was done.
rope yellow and the muscles that bound his
The Malay pearl-fishers were
frame together were as vibrant and strong as
considered lawful prey, but if you went south
piano-wires imbued with life, and you can bet
among the islands with the intention of getting
Adventure
4
a hatful of pearls, you might have to cleanup a consulate for mail, Dan was handed a long
few of the squint-eyed cannibals, and in return legal-looking envelope and a smaller one with
take a chance of having your head hacked off
a black border. He opened the latter with
with a rusty cutlass or blown away by a blast
trembling fingers and, while reading it,
from an old-fashioned musket, jammed to the
dropped the other unheeded to the floor, then
nozzle with nails, pebbles and broken shells.
without noticing it or me, crushed the one he
Every once in a while a pearl-hunting
had read in his hand and walked rapidly away.
expedition went out. Some came back and
I picked up the long envelope and followed
some didn’t, but when one did, and him, but at a distance, as his actions showed successful—well Hongkong made a Wild that he wanted to be alone.
West rumpus, even of those days, sound like a
He walked for miles, and I tagged on
Methodist prayer-meeting in comparison. It
as far behind as would permit me to keep him
was hell—just plain hell with the lid off, with in view. He finally reached an open space on
the devil serving the drinks, and you can bet
the outskirts and disappeared behind some
the timid ones took to cover like a fishing-
bushes. I followed, cautiously, and saw that he fleet before a nor’easter.
had thrown himself face-downward on the
ground. His shoulders were heaving like a
IT DIDN’T take Dan and me long to catch the
man shaken by some strong emotion, but there
spirit of the time, for we hadn’t been ashore
was no sound.
twenty-four hours until we had been relieved
I walked a short distance away and
of everything of value about us, and it wasn’t waited. It was an hour before he came out,
much longer before we were needing showing not a sign of the stormy weather he something badly to keep from dropping our
had run into. I gave him the long envelope
mud-hooks in the port o’ dead men, for want
and, after he had read the contents, he handed of the necessities of life.
both letters to me and told me to read them. It We weren’t the only ones traveling
took but a few minutes to understand the
light amidships. We ran across a trio that were whole situation. His father and mother had
running without cargo or ballast, looking for
died within a few days of each other, was the
something that somebody wasn’t watching all
gist of the black-bordered sheet, and the legal the time. They were ordinary British seamen,
communication set forth that, in compliance
but they’d been there for some time and could
with his father’s will, all cash on hand was to give us pointers that otherwise we could only
be divided immediately between his three
have learned from experience. They were daughters and Dan.
known respectively from the leader down as
A man from the law-firm was at once
Red Rooney, Happy and Scuttle, but, as they
sent on the trail of Dan with his share,
were inseparable, Dan and I always referred to amounting to thirty thousand dollars. As the
them as the “trio.”
lawyer would probably not be far behind the
We joined forces with the idea of letter, when we returned to the consulate we mutual protection and, under Dan’s were not surprised to find him awaiting the leadership, got odd jobs on the docks, so that heir in the consul’s private office. Before the we were able to fire up and get our boilers
day was over, Dan was in full possession of
going steady again. All the while we were on
his inheritance.
the lookout for a decent opportunity to get
He at once announced his intention of
away.
buying a trading-schooner and asked me to go
One day when we called at the into partnership with him, offering to let me
Hard Harman: A South Seas Rover of the 40’s 5
pay for my interest out of the profits. I if he can handle it at once, will net him half accepted his proposition, until I could turn
the value of the Schooner. However, my
some property I had in America into cash.
lawyer will be here for several days, and he
After we had discussed our plans and shaken
can look into it.”
hands on the agreement, we hunted up the trio
Well, to make a long story short, the
and
enlisted them as members of the crew. All
Dutchman qualified as sole owner, and we
that we needed further was two more men and
bought the schooner the next day, with a
the schooner.
stipulation for the Chinese cook and the
The trio almost immediately called our
privilege of signing up two of his men. The
attention to a three-masted schooner which
former owner and the balance of the old crew
had cast anchor that day. They had seen the
were to pack up and get off the following
Dutchman who owned her come on shore with
morning, as we were anxious to try our new
his crew. It was a nice schooner, a clipper-
possession on the high seas, and intended to
built ninety-footer, and as trim a craft as ever weigh anchor at the earliest possible moment.
came off the ways. The only sign of life
aboard was a Chinaman puttering about the
THAT night, Dan and I lay in our bunks till
deck, and the clean, compact lines of the long after mid-watch discussing our plans.
vessel stood out in bold relief against the
After we finally went to sleep, it couldn’t have western sky, out of which the sun had just
been more than a few minutes when I
gone down.
suddenly awoke to find one of the crew
“Perhaps you can buy her,” suggested
standing over me with a pistol while another
Happy.
was tying my ankles with a rope. The same
“There comes the Dutchman now,” operation was being performed on Dan, and said Red Rooney, excitedly, pointing to a after we’d been bound and gagged we were rolling figure of enormous girth coming carried on deck and laid in one of the boats, toward us. “Maybe he’ll sell.”
where we found the trio awaiting us, but in no
“No harm in asking,” said Dan and,
condition to extend a welcome.