white, and she appeared nervous, and
now that you’ll sail with me. You’ll sail
Connor had left her, afraid she was going
with me, as my mate, whether you want to
to lecture him again for drinking so
or not!”
heavily.
“I don’t care to sail with any one
Together with Morgan and the
just now,” said Connor, remembering the
others, he had gone to another resort. There
girl he had met, and her half promise that
Morgan and he had seated themselves in a
he was to see her again. “And, if I did, I’d
corner and ordered a Chinese to bring
not sail with you! I’ve got money and drinks.
friends, and Astoria is my home port.
He had tossed his off—and that was
“And even Captain Bill Adams all he could remember.
can’t make me sign on when I don’t want
Shanghaied! Jack Connor
to do it! You can understand that!”
Shanghaied!
Connor laughed mirthlessly as he
held his aching head. He did not doubt that
CHAPTER III.
he was aboard the Amingo, that Captain
Wild Norene.
Bill Adams had won.
He found a bucket of water in a
corner and drank deeply, then bathed his
All-Story Cavalier Weekly
14
head. A groan caused him to whirl around.
heels. Oh, we’ll have experience and
A cry escaped him. Crawling out of excitement, all right, and maybe get shot up another bunk was Morgan, his friend.
and maybe go to jail!
“You!” Morgan gasped. “You?”
“We’ll be lucky if we have only the
“The same!” said Connor.
Mexican to deal with. One of Uncle Sam’s
“Where
are
we?”
revenue cutters might take a notion to
“Aboard some old hooker, just overhaul us before we get on the high crossing the bar, I should imagine. We’re
seas.”
shanghaied, that’s what!”
“What are we going to do?”
Morgan cursed as he made his way
Morgan asked.
toward the water-bucket.
“Go on deck. Come on.”
“But—”
he
began.
Connor led the way. They reached
“It isn’t a hard puzzle to solve,”
the deck to discover that day was breaking.
said Connor, laughing again. “I’ll bet we’re
To starboard the light at North Head
aboard the Amingo.”
flashed. Behind was the river and Astoria.
“She wasn’t to have sailed for
And they were aboard the Amingo,
twenty-four hours.”
as Connor had guessed.
“Maybe it’s been twenty-four
Her lights were not burning, and
hours,” replied Connor, “and maybe Cap’n
Connor guessed they had not been burning
Bill made up his mind to sail earlier. Cap’n
when the craft slipped from the river. Her
Bill has a habit, I’ve understood, of nose was pointed toward the open sea, and changing his mind at times. Take another
the throbbing of her engines told that they
swig of that water, and we’ll go on deck
were being driven to the utmost. Captain
and face the music.”
Adams was barking orders, and members
“Shanghaied!” gasped Morgan, of the crew were hurrying about.
only half able to get the idea through his
Morgan followed at Connor’s heels
befogged brain. “Now, by Davy Jones—”
as he led the way across the deck toward
“Going to whip the skipper and the skipper. There was a grin on the face of crew and put back into port?” sneered Captain Adams as he met them. He stood Connor. “If we’re shanghaied aboard the
Amingo we might as well take our one of them to speak.
medicine, that’s what! We’re due to obey
“Would you mind telling us, cap’n,
cap’n’s orders until we make a port, then
what we’re doing here?” Connor asked.
there’ll be a chance to desert. We might as
“Sleep must have robbed you of
well make the best of it.”
your wits, Mr. Connor,” came the reply.
Morgan sat down on the edge of a
“You are aboard the steam schooner
bunk and held his head in his hands. Amingo, Portland to Mazatlan, with Connor stood before him smiling.
lumber, of which craft you are first mate
“We might get a chance to get and your friend a member of the crew.”
square with Cap’n Bill, you know,” he
“Oh! That’s it! I’m first mate, eh?”
said. “That is, if we are aboard the Amingo,
“You must have taken too much
and I’ll make a big bet we are. And, if we
liquor, Mr. Connor, that you fail to
are, we’re helping pack arms and remember. I shall be obliged to deny you ammunition to the Mexican revolutionists,
shore leave when we make port. You’ll
and there’ll be a Mexican gunboat at our
ruin your health.”
Wild Norene
15
“Would you mind telling me just
deserved the smashing, but I didn’t want
how it came about?”
you for mate because I admired your fistic
“Delighted. I offered you the berth
ability. I can supply all of that necessary on
and you refused, you’ll remember. When
this craft. I wanted you under me where I
you left that resort you went to a saloon
could give you the punishment you
where the proprietor is under obligations to
deserved.”
me. He put the old reliable knock-out drops
Connor’s face flushed as he looked
in the poison you ordered. A couple of my
the other man squarely in the eyes.
men took pity on you and your friend and
“You gave me your word of honor
carried you aboard. We didn’t want to that, if I made the voyage with you, you’d leave you behind.”
not lay hand on me,” he said. “Now that
Morgan took a step forward. His
you have me aboard, I suppose you’ll take
chin made an inviting target as he bent
it out on me. Start in, Captain Bill Adams.
toward the skipper.
You’ll win, maybe, and anyway I’m
“And let me tell you, you’ll suffer
helpless on your ship and out at sea. But
for this!” he cried. “No man can shanghai
I’ll leave my mark on you—”
me and get away with it!”
The look in the captain’s face
Captain Bill’s arm flashed through
caused him to hesitate.
the air, there was a crack, and Morgan
“I am a man of my word,” replied
stretched his length on the deck.
the captain, “and when I said I’d not lay
Connor did not make a move. hands on you I meant it. I’m not going to Morgan should have known better, he beat you up on this voyage.
thought. Shanghaied or not, no man can
“But I am going to mak
e your life a
rebuke a ship’s master and expect to go
hell!
unpunished.
“I overheard you last night, as you
“I am glad to see, Mr. Connor, that
know. I don’t care what you think of me or
you take a sensible view of the matter,”
what you have said about me. But you
said the captain. “I’ll ask you to take the
spoke of my niece. You divided women
deck presently. Just now I am interested in
into classes, and put her in the worthless
putting three miles of the Pacific between
class.
the schooner and the coast.
“You called her wild and untamed,
“Of course, you must understand.
and said you could tame her. You could
There’s a little vessel in the river that might
make her love you, promise to marry you,
follow us. You mentioned her last night
you said. And you intimated she was a
during our interesting conversation.”
woman of loose character, my niece, one of
He called a couple of the men and
the sweetest girls God ever let breathe the
ordered them to take Morgan to the breath of life! You can tame her, can you!
forecastle for the time being and place him
Very well, Mr. Jack Connor, that’s exactly
in irons, then faced Connor again.
what you’ll have to do!”
“I said I’d have you for mate, and I
His eyes blazed into Connor’s, and
have you,” he announced. “I am a man of
Connor took a step backward, not because
my word. I suppose you wonder why?”
of sudden fear, but because of the spectacle
“Because I smashed your old mate,
of wrath and pain mingled that those eyes
Riney, I reckon.”
held.
“Wrong, Mr. Connor. Riney
“I’ll be watching you,” the captain
All-Story Cavalier Weekly
16
continued, “and Heaven help you if you
the skipper had said was damnably true—
show an instant of disrespect. I’ll tell the
Adams could, perhaps, do as he promised.
girl what I heard you say. She’s a good girl,
Ordinarily, Connor would have had
a sweet and honest girl. I’ve kept her with
no scruples. He would have laid siege to
me because I was afraid to leave her alone
the heart of Wild Norene and won it to save
in some port. I worship her. Whatever I
his own life, if he could.
have been, Norene is honest and good.
But now the scheme seemed
“Tame her, then, if you can; make
distasteful to him. Even if such a thing
her love you and promise to marry you, and
were possible after the girl’s mind had been
do it honestly and honorably. You have
poisoned against him, he did not want to
until we make port. I’ve put you in the play with a girl’s affections only to cast her mate’s place so you’ll have every chance.
aside if he won.
I’m playing fair!”
He remembered the girl in Astoria,
“Suppose I do not fancy making a
the one he could not meet now on
young woman fall in love with me,” said
Commercial Street, as he had hoped. He
Connor. “Suppose I do not make the saw a vision of her before him—her large, attempt; suppose I grant you that I made a
trusting eyes and frank face. She was the
mistake, that she is a good, sweet girl?”
first woman he ever had met for whom he
“There still remains the fact that
thought he could care.
you said you could tame her, boasted of it
What would she think of a man who
before your worthless companions. You would make love to a woman when he did have until we reach port.”
not mean it, merely to save his own half-
“And if I do not try, or do try and
worthless life?
fail?”
“I’ll not do it!” he muttered.
“Then you stand proved a liar, Jack
“There’ll be some other way. I can wait
Connor, and I’ll remember the insults and
until the last—put up a fight. Morgan will
deal with you.”
help me!”
“But you’ve passed your word
He took charge of the deck and for
you’ll not lay a hand on me.”
a time worked frantically. Captain Adams
“And I’ll not. But I can do watched him and recognized that Connor something else. I can make it appear you
knew his business, that the new mate was
are guilty of certain things, violating familiarizing himself with the men and the international law, for instance. I can swear,
ship.
and my men will back me up, that what this
Half an hour passed; then Connor
vessel carries is known to you alone, was
turned aft—to meet the vision of which he
shipped by you, that I thought it honest
had dreamed.
cargo—for so it looks. I can have you stood
She was coming across the deck
up against a wall, a file of Mexican Federal
toward him, her face flushed, her eyes wide
soldiers before you, and shot.
in wonder. She was dressed in a loose
“Do you understand now? Make blouse and short skirt, and her hair was good your boast. Tame Wild Norene after
whipped about her face by the wind.
she knows what you have said about her—
Connor stared at her as she advanced.
or die! Take the deck!”
What could she be doing here? he
Captain Adams went aft. Connor
wondered. If she was surprised to see him,
stood near the rail, looking after him. What
he was more surprised to see her. But his
Wild Norene
17
heart beat wildly as he realized she was
face, was thinking of the predicament in
aboard, that he would see her every day,
which he found himself.
talk with her, walk the deck with her.
That this girl could be the Wild
Tame Wild Norene to save his own
Norene of whom he had heard so much
life? Not with this girl aboard! He could
was not to be believed. How she would
not act falsely before her, could not let her
despise him when her uncle told her!
despise him, as he felt sure she would if he
There was a pleading in Connor’s
did such a thing.
face as he locked at the skipper, but
“You?” he heard her say. “You are
Captain Bill did not show mercy.
the new mate?”
“Norene,” he said, “I’ve something
“I whipped Riney, then got his job,”
to tell you in Mr. Connor’s presence.”
he replied, laughing. “But how do you “Well,
uncle?”
happen to be here? I was to have met you
“You know I went to a certain
this afternoon in Astoria.”
resort in Astoria last night to learn the truth
“I intended to sail on the Amingo,
about Riney
being a man I could not trust?”
but she wasn’t to have sailed until tonight,”
“I heard you say you were going
she answered. “There was a change in with Senor Guerrero.”
plans. I really expected to see you in
“Mr. Connor was sitting at a table
Astoria this afternoon. And now—to find
near me with some of his companions.
you here—”
They began talking of the Amingo, of me
“But why are you here?” he asked.
and my business, finally of you.”
“I didn’t know the Amingo carried
“Of me!” she exclaimed.
passengers.”
“Very complimentary, wasn’t it, to
Captain Adams, smiling evilly, speak of you in such a place? Mr. Connor stepped between them.
spoke, too, in a tone half the persons in the
“Mr. Connor,” he said, “let me resort could hear. One of his companions make you acquainted with my niece, Miss
remonstrated with him about mentioning
Norene Adams!”
your name there.
The captain’s eyes were upon him,
“Do you know what he replied?
but Connor could not prevent the look of
That there were but two classes of women,
amazement and pain that came into his
one too good to be mentioned by men of
face.
his stamp, and the others of such standing
Norene Adams! This woman he had