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Full Title
Civilian Against Plebe; or, Trying to Down Clif Faraday / by Ensign Clarke Fitch, U.S.N.
Author
Fitch, Clark. Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1898-12-31
Publisher
New York : Street & Smith
Series
True blue : a weekly devoted to the stirring adventures of our boys in blue > no. 34
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Trying to Down Clif Faraday. True blue : a weekly devoted to the stirring adventures of our boys in blue, no. 34, December 31, 1898.
Topic
Popular literature > Specimens. Dime novels > Specimens. United States. > Navy > Juvenile literature. Sea stories, American. Spanish-American War, 1898 > Juvenile fiction. Faraday, Clif (Fictitious character) > Juvenile fiction.
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Disclaimers
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OCR
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2
- TRUE
“They will give my father lieart failure!”
groaned Kafoozelum.
“Do you know exactly where?” inquired
Clif.
“Pretty nigh. Now then, follow my ad-
vice; we are ten—they are six, active. We
can handle them alone. You have small-
arms.” .
“What’s the matter with getting the guns
from the fellow who traded for them, in yon-
der?” suggested Vic.
“No, don’t disturb him or his suspicions,”
advised the tramp. “What you need is a
boat—a large rowboat.”
“And a cut across for Talbot?” insinuated
Clif.
“Direct.”
“Good enough!”
Clif was delighted with the services of their
guide and pilot, so far.
He drove right at a point, once it was in
sight, in a masterly, effective way, and the
Sanguine naval cadet saw unmistakable suc-
cess in their-enterprise in the near future.
They returned to Cumberstone and got
breakfast.
After that they had to put in fully an hour
searching for the boat they needed.
It was a stanch four-oared cutter of quaint
construction, but capable of stowing -them all
comfortably.
Nearly all the cadets aboard had cruised
past the rugged broken archipelago forma-
tion that comprised the western end of Talbot
County. /
Sherwood, Harper, Wittman and Royal
Oak were familiar names to them, but¢‘Circle
Cone” was entirely new the first time the
tramp pronounced it.
“That is where Grigsby has located him-
self, is it?” inquired Clif.
“Intrenched, I imagine,”. explained the
tramp. “Ever been there ?”_-
“Never.”
“It is a little wooded hill of an island—a
mere dot, somewhat north of Tilgham. From
it he can see who may come and who may go,
and still be out of hailing course of the gen-
eral run of crafts. Glad you did what I sug-
gested,” observed the tramp, as he noticed the
four rowers draw on new caps and long linen
BLUE, 93
dusters, thus removing all trace of cadet sem-
blance so far as uniform was concerned.
It took nearly five hours to cross the bay
and skirt south down the much indented Tal-
bot shore.
They were cutting through a narrow strait
when the tramp, looking behind, fixed his
eyes shrewdly on a sail yacht bearing in the
direction of Annapolis.
“Stay the oars,” he directed... “Well,” he
observed, after a long scrutiny during which
.the distant craft crossed his direct range of
vision, “that’s the boat.”
“What boat?” propounded Nanny with a
flutter. “Not the one——”
“That took our friends away from Cumber-
stone, yes,” assented the tramp pilot.
“Then, they »
“Only two aboard; know what I think ?”
“Give it words,” suggested Clif.
“That check—they’ve got their prisoner to
buy his liberty, and those two’are city-bound
to see if they can raise the wind on it.”
“We shall catch them short-handed, then!”
exulted Vic.
“But not. like weasels asleep,” announced
the tramp meaningly. “TI see Grigsby is not
one of the two city-bound. Now then; I
know all these channels and bays like a pilot.
Do just as I say.”
There was a hot strain on all nerves as they
finally came in sight of Circle Cone.
A wooded hill, isolated from all other land,
occupied a mere spot in the water,
Under the last available cover, the tramp |
directed that all hands, save the rowers, lay
flat in the bottom of the boat, and these and
himself were covered with tarpaulins brought
for the purpose.
At the stern was affixed a trolling crotch,
and a piece of thick cord answering for a
line, weighted with a piece of lead.
It had neither hook nor bait, so there was
no danger of being compelled to pause to pull
in fish.
“Now then,”
tion, “pose as careless rowers out for exer-
cise and fish, testing the line astern once in a
while.”
Then he bobbed under the tarpaulins, keep-
was the tramp’s last injune-