Hard Harman: A South Seas Rover of the 40’s by Dan L Read online

  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.