High Seas Series : The Mary Joyce

They worked on Phillip for several hours, he had a concussion, two cracked ribs and a fractured wrist. The doctor wanted to keep him for observation, but Andy pleaded with him to let him accompany them to O'Toole House. He whispered to the doctor, "His Boyfriend is waiting for him over at Nawiliwili Harbor, he has probably gnawed his fingernails off to the elbow by now." Doctor Ben Tate agreed to release Phillip on the condition he didn't do anything strenuous for the next forty-eight hours. He winked and said, "Kissing your boyfriend is OK!" Phillip's face turned as red as his hair and hid his face against Andy's shoulder.

Phillip's injuries healed rapidly and the lawyers were as good as their word. By the time Phillip was ready to go back to school, the papers were signed making Andrew the legal custodian of Phillip Andrew Causey.

Wil was concerned about the problems they had experienced in Honolulu and asked Min if the problem was widespread. Min told him it was and because the restrictions on firearms were so stringent in Hawaii, the police were severely hampered in stopping the problem, most of the police officers patrolled unarmed! He said that Tangimora Security had a Federal License to carry and use firearms anywhere within the state of Hawaii. The state had tried to get their license revoked several times, but they have never succeeded.

The gangs had imported hoodlums from the mainland and street children were disappearing at an alarming rate. Some thought slavers were involved. That got Wil's attention immediately and he asked, "How are they getting the children out of Honolulu?"

Min responded, "Probably by boat, it is thought that the children join the mainstream of child slaves headed into Portland and Seattle."

That set Wil to thinking that maybe they ought to take the Mary Joyce and the Wilson O'Toole out for a voyage!

Min added, "You know, Andy has the perfect solution to the firearms problem."

Wil looked up and replied, "How's that?"

Min showed him, "This here sawed off baseball bat was fixed up for me by Andy. It's legal AND it's lethal!"

Wil brought the subject of another voyage up at supper that evening and everyone thought it was a good idea. Jeff said, "Ya know, when I were livin' on tha' streets, boys and some girls was disappearin' an' everybody said theys had tooked a voyage offin' Ka'ena Point."

Wil noticed that Jeff's English got worse when he was excited or he felt strongly about something, so he said nothing. The boy was trying very hard to fit in and he was a likeable young man. Besides, Phillip loved him and that excused a lot!

Oscar noted that Ka'ena Point was a deserted area with no people around, except during the surf board competitions. It would be an ideal place to land a small boat and take off prisoners OR captives!

Wil made up his mind, he announced, "Let's take a voyage, we will use BOTH the Wil and the Joyce!" He was fooling nobody, they all knew they were going slaver hunting!

School was out for the summer and all the boys were "hot to trot", they got both ships fueled and stocked in no time and they tested out their new radios and the new search radar on the Wil. They bought the same model as was on the Joyce; it had excellent resolution and could reach out about sixty miles under most conditions.

They were delighted with the new radios, they had a wonderful range and their on-board computers could lock onto a weak signal, thus eliminating the problem of frequency drift!

Four days later, the boys reported both ships ready to go, Jowto and Trong had to stay home, they would be leaving shortly for New York. Jow was entering the Julliard Academy and Trong was entering the Federal Maritime Academy as a Fourth Class Midshipman.

Captain Bullard did indeed run interference for Trong and made it possible for Trong to have weekends off, except for those weekends he had duty. He cautioned Trong to never divulge why he received that permission, but he could tell anyone who asked to check with ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) at the Pentagon if they wanted more information. The very few who asked, never called ONI, it had a reputation that if you ever got on one of their lists, you would never get a security clearance or even a passport again!

The two ships sailed a week later, leaving Trong and Jowto standing on the pier. They would be gone by the time they came back, Captain Bullard had promised to see both young men to their destination in New York. He had become very fond of the boys with Wilson O'Toole and his partner, Oscar Robbins.

Captain Peter Bullard was a regular visitor at Nawiliwili Harbor and was strongly considering living there when he retired. Wil had already told him there was a place for him in their organization and he was thinking he would just "do it"! His wife had left him many years earlier, taking their two daughters with her. He only got to see them infrequently and his ex-wife had made sure they had no interest in the sea or sailors!

Oscar headed the Mary Joyce for Makaha Bay on the west coast of Oahu and Wil steered the Wilson O'Toole for Kaiaka Bay near Haleiwa on the north coast of Oahu. That way, they could cover both coasts of Ka'ena Point and any vessel large enough to haul slaves would be picked up by their radars.

The radios that Bill Maxwell had sent them were equipped with an encrypted channel that changed codes every thirty seconds, there would be no practical way anyone could listen in on their conversations; it would take a major computer and a very lucky operator to crack the code and its changes.

The boys on both ships pretended to be fishing, and they actually did catch enough fish to have a great meal at least once every several days!

The boys swam in the ocean and worked on their ships, keeping themselves ready for an instantaneous chase. Trong had shown them how to maintain the distillers and to keep the engines ready at all times before they had left Lihue. They missed him and Jowto, but they all knew that the two were doing what they were meant for and they were following their destiny.

They got their first break after being "on station" two weeks, they spotted a small "blip" working its way slowly from the north. Nawilwili Harbor was the only anchorage on Kauai to the north and Min had already reported that no vessels had sailed from there. They tracked the blip to a small inlet, popularly known as "Sun Burn Beach."

Both Captains got underway immediately and headed for the small inlet, they both pushed their ships as hard as they dared, Oscar had the Mary Joyce under both sail and engines and Wil had the engines in the Wilson O'Toole wound up as tight as they would go, as they had further to go than the Mary Joyce.

They both arrived about the same time and they anchored just off the beach, blocking the small ship from exiting the bay, as it could not turn around to leave in the space they had left it.

All through the night, they heard children crying and both Wil and Oscar agreed to let the slaver load the children and then nab them as they attempted to get underway. Only their strength of determination prevented them from raiding that slave ship immediately!

The wheelhouse roof of both ships began to look like fortresses. They had rocket launchers and fifty millimeter machine guns on both roofs. Wil had signs made up that said, "UNITED STATES NAVY CADET TRAINING OPERATION" to ward off any interested bystanders.

Captain Bullard had made arrangements with Naval Air to be ready to sweep the area whenever Captain O'Toole called for surveillance. Shortly after daylight, they heard the ship start its engines in an attempt to turn out of the small bay. The boys had been up since three am, knowing that the ship would have to leave at daylight if it was going to escape local attention. They had all watched through "night glasses" as children had been loaded on the small ship. By daylight, they all had itchy fingers, ready to put a shell in the wheelhouse!

Andrew laid a rocket in the water just off the bow of the small ship and Wil picked up the loud hailer, "Put your anchor down and secure your engines, you cannot leave!"

The gangsters attempted to turn in the other direction and Jeff put a rocket into the stern of the small ship, disabling its rudder and propeller.

Oscar used his loud hailer and ordered, "Put your hands up, you are under arrest for felony kidnapping and international child slavery!"

Andrew let off a burst from his machine gun, racking the wheelhouse of the slave ship. Window glass and ship parts went flying and they could see two men down, bleeding on deck.

Wil used the hailer again and said, "Throw down your weapons and prepare to be boarded. If anyone so much as touches a weapon he will be shot!"

Those on the Wil kept them covered while the Joyce maneuvered close enough to put over a boat loaded with the adult sailors, all armed with machine guns.

One man picked up a rifle and was pointing it at the approaching boat, Andrew put a burst of fifty caliber slugs through the man, he screamed and tossed his gun over the side as he collapsed in a pool of blood. He did not survive his wounds. That put an end to any resistance!

They handcuffed the crew to their own railings and went below to find the slaves they had collected. They found twenty children stuffed into a compartment forward of the wheelhouse. There were twelve boys and eight girls, all naked and ranging from six years old to fourteen! They were all handcuffed together and chained to the bulkhead in the filthy cavity below the deck.

As soon as the crew had been secured, Andrew brought four boys over with him and a huge bolt cutter to free the children. The girls were afraid of the boys, they had been abused and used cruelly by the slavers the night before.

Andrew sat down beside them and said, "Sisters, we have all been where you are now, nobody will hurt you further and these boys would rather die than see you hurt again. I will send over for some blankets and sheets so that you may cover yourselves and we will head for our home on Kauai, where you will be taken care of by doctors and fed by our cook, she makes the best food in the Pacific, I guarantee!"

One girl asked, "You were captured and made a slave?"

Andrew said to her, "Yes, Sister, I was and they murdered both my Mother and my Father. Captain O'Toole and Captain Robbins saved me and many others before the slave ship sank in Alaska. If any of you are badly injured, we will swing by Pearl Harbor and have the Navy Medics take a look, otherwise, Doctor Ben Tate from Wilcox Hospital on Kauai will be at the pier to take care of you."

The girls were all crying in relief and told him they would wait to see Dr. Tate.

None of the boys were badly injured, except two small boys who said they had been raped. When Andrew asked them who had done it, they both pointed to a man chained to the railing, Andrew walked over to the man, who sneered and spate, saying, "Watcha ya gonna do about it, pretty boy?" Andrew raised his machine gun and put a slug through the man's kneecap and replied, "Nothing at all, cripple!"

All the children looked at Andrew as if he walked on water and one small boy asked him, "Will you take care of us, Mister and make sure that Doctor don't hurt us none?"

Andrew knelt down and hugged the child, despite his horrible smell, and said, "I know Doctor Ben personally and I know he would not intentionally hurt any of you. But, yes, I will be there when he examines you and I will make sure he knows not to hurt any of you. His nurse is his wife, Mrs. Tate, and she is real nice, too."

Andrew just sat on the deck, surrounded by the children until they had rounded up all the slavers and chained them to the deck of the Mary Joyce. He then led the children to the Wilson O'Toole and got them covered in sheets and blankets. He introduced them to Captain O'Toole and got them settled below deck.

Wil called for the Coasties to come and haul the slavers and their ship away. They had a Cutter waiting ever since the two ships had been reported at anchor off the coast of Ka'ena Point. A Young Ensign came on board from the Cutter and signed a receipt for the boat and slaver crew. Andrew told them that one of the crew hurt his knee falling when they captured them and would probably need medical attention when they got him back to Honolulu.

The Ensign went and looked at the man, he was laughing as he came back, "Clumsy fellow, he must have fallen going down a ladder!"

All the sailors at the Coast Guard Station knew about the Mary Joyce, but the Wilson O'Toole was a new ship to them. There were several young sailors who had decided that, when their enlistment was up, they were gonna "hot-foot" it over to Lihue to sign on!

They loaded all the rescued children on the Wilson O'Toole and the two ships began the short trip back to Nawiliwili Harbor. None of the children were willing to go down below and rest on a bunk, they sat, huddled all together on the foredeck. They were wrapped in clean sheets and blankets and one had only glance at their faces to see their fear.

Andrew went and sat with them, telling them his own story and how Captain Wil and Captain Oscar had taken care of him and those who had been with him and that most had been reunited with their families.

Several of the girls and the two young boys who had been violated began to cry.

Andrew knew what their problem was, so he gathered them all up in his arms and hugged them, "Guys, if your folks are not good enough to care for you, we will do it, we will care for you and feed you and clothe you and see to it you can go to school. You know, as we are sitting here, one boy these guys have saved, is flying right now, to New York City to go to the Julliard Music Academy. He sings like an angel. Another boy should be just now walking in the gates of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, where he will spend the next four years learning how to be a Marine Engineer. That is what these guys do and they will do it for you, also!"

He added, "If'n you don't have family to care for you, we will be your Family and we WILL take care of you!"

The two little boys crept over to Andrew and one said, "Mister, our Daddy already throwed us out an' we's got nowhere to go." Andrew put his arms around the boys and hugged them tight, wondering if he was old enough to take on two more little boys and be their parent. He was and he did!

The Wilson O'Toole led the parade into Nawiliwili Harbor and Wil pulled on the horn chain until the air tank was nearly empty. Everyone in town knew the signal; that the ship was bringing rescued children home. The housekeeping staff at O'Toole House started laying out stacks of clean underwear and bathrobes for the new children.

Mrs. Tangimora got on the telephone and asked Dr. Ben to come quickly, she was sure there were children that needed him and his wife. Ben Tate had seen that both the ships were not in port when he and his wife were in town the previous day, so the call was not unexpected.

He called for his wife/nurse and they both jumped in their car and headed down to O'Toole House. Dr. Ben had grabbed a large box of medical supplies that he had collected and put them on the back seat of their automobile. He was sure they would be needed. They were!

The guards let them in immediately, as they knew both of them and suspected there were hurt children on at least one of the ships. The pair raced out to the pier and jumped aboard the Mary Joyce, Oscar pointed at the Wilson O'Toole, so they hopped over the railing and went aboard the Wil.

They found Andrew sitting with the children, so they hung back while Andy told them about the nice doctor and his nurse who were going to take care of them.

He stood and whispered to Ben about the two boys and the girls who had been sexually abused. He added, I'm gonna set my lawyers on the problem of little Jason and Jimmie, its time I were a Daddy of two little boys. I got Jeff, but he is near adult and will be leaving me soon."

Ben gave Andy a little hug and said, "Well, let's see what we can do to make these guys feel better, send me the two boys first and then all the girls together. That way, they will feel a bit safer."

Ben treated the boys and gave them several shots just to be safe. He tested them for AIDS and, fortunately, both boys came back negative. When he was finished with them, he whispered to them, "You guys go over there with Mr. Andrew and he will take you up to the house where you can get cleaned up and eat some of Mrs. Tangimora's good food."

The salves the Doctor had put on their bottoms made them feel much better and they wrapped a towel around their waists and trotted over to Andy, where he was waiting for them.

The girls presented a more severe problem for Doctor Ben Tate and his wife. All of them had been subjected to repeated rape and there was no reason to believe that, at least one of them would not become pregnant. There were severe laws in the State of Hawaii against termination of a pregnancy for any reason, so they would just have to wait and see. He dosed them all up with antibiotics and hoped the spread would take care of any infections.

Mrs. Tangimora sent her granddaughters down to bring the girls up to the house, where they could shower and get some clothing on themselves. They had plenty of girls' clothing at O'Toole House and she laid it out on the table so the girls could choose their own clothing.

Then, Ben started checking the boys, only the two little boys had been sexually assaulted, but all the rest had various cuts, bruises and sprains. It took him until suppertime to get everyone checked out, medicated, bandaged and preventative shots. Their injuries were appalling and both he and his wife were hard pressed to not cry in the presence of the children.

One boy already had gonorrhea, and he loaded the boy up with medicines to clear him up. He hoped the damned slaver who had given it to the child had gotten close enough to have caught the disease from the boy, but he doubted it. It looked like it was in the early stages and Ben told the boy that he would come back in two days and he would check him for progress.

The boy was ready to burst out in tears, "Am I gonna die, Doc?"

Ben replied, "I'm not gonna kid you son, this is nasty stuff and it can cause awful problems if it is not treated. But, it has just gotten started and the meds I gave you are pretty powerful, I don't think it will be around for very long."

When all the children had been treated, Wil invited Ben and his wife up to the house for supper. They were all sitting around the table, enjoying an after meal coffee, Ben asked, "Wil, Oscar, how do you do this, time after time? I would be huddled in a corner, crying my eyes out. These kids are so hurt, yet they are so brave. Don't you have nightmares?"

Wil looked at the Doctor and replied, "Doc, yes I do, I go in my room and cry my eyes out, but in front of those kids, NEVER. If they want to come to me, sit on my lap and cry, so be it, but I will never breakdown in front of them. That would tell these children that those who had captured them were right and more powerful than those who freed them. NO, I will remain strong and show them that those damned slavers are the weak ones!"

Ben just shook his head, "Wil, you are much stronger than I am, I could not do what you do nor could I face those SOBs and grin while they are chained to the handrails, like you did. Yes, I saw them on the TV News and I would have just shot them all and rid the world of some nasty trash. You are a better man than I!"

Wil replied, "Nope, that is an easy way out for them, my way, they will suffer for years before God grants them release in death. They won't ever see the outside of prison again, EVER!"

Life went on around the Harbor, about every two weeks they made a run over to Ka'ena Point, but after the third time, the slavers must have found a better place or they had run out of slavers, because none showed up anymore.

They had over fifty kids living with them, all rescued kids they had collected from the slavers and they were waiting for parents to show up to claim their children.

Like always, very few parents showed up to claim their children and, a few that did, acted so abominably. Wil and Oscar refused to release the children to them. Most just shrugged their shoulders and walked off, never returning to try again.

Some of the children were absorbed into the local community and those who remained were loved by those living at O'Toole House. The people living on the small island of Kauai were generous to a fault and like most people of Polynesian descent, and they brought many of the abandoned children into their own families.

Andrew fought hard for little Jimmie and Jason and his lawyers even took the case to the Federal District Appellate Court in San Francisco, before Andrew Causey had them for his own sons. The State of Hawaii fought him every step of the way and made all sorts of outrageous claims against him. It wasn't him they were after; it was the entire operation at O'Toole House. The very idea that the O'Tooles were mucking up a beautiful area that could be used by high paying tourists stuck in their craws.

Andy was becoming an important figure in Hawaii, the businesses that were left to him after the murder of his parents were very large and they were thriving. He had a bright idea he wanted to "bounce" off Wil and Oscar.

He found them in the den, discussing how next to attack the slaver problem. He sat down and, when they noticed him, Wil asked, "Watcha got, Andy?"

Andrew replied, "Dads, I think I got an idea on how to house and care for our kids that we rescue. How about, Causey Industries build's a special hotel and a series of cottages right here in Lihue, where the old Lihue Plantation Mill and Boiling House used to be. I will build the buildings and purchase the property, I am sure Mrs. Tangimora can come up with house Mothers and Dads and we give these kids a real home, a place where they can be safe, loved and cared for!"

Oscar asked, "That sounds great, but can we afford such an undertaking?"

Andy smiled, "Pop, I already own the land and have let a contract to Dillingham Industries to erect the buildings. Kaiser will start next week pouring the concrete!"

Wil looked at their one-time son and said, "Wow, boy, you don't waste any time, do ya'?"

Andy said, "Dads, if I can't use a bit of what I inherited to help kids escape from what I went through, then what good is it? Money doesn't do any of us any good sitting in a bank, bankers are already rich and don't need the money that will help our kids!"

Wil said, "OK, I'm in, but with one stipulation, the place must be named Causey Plantation!"

Andy laughed, "Yeah a Kid Plantation where we grow boys and girls!"

Wil just smiled and said, "YUP!"

Wil stood up and looked at Oscar, "Well, bro, I guess we had better get busy and get the kid seeds for this plantation, if Andy, here, is moving that fast, we can't have empty rooms and cottages up on the hill!" Oscar just giggled and joined Wil as they both headed down to the harbor where their ships were berthed.

Before the end of the week, Kaiser Corporation's bright pink earthmovers were leveling the old sugar mill property and preparing it for a three hundred room Children's Hotel and sixty cottages that would hold four children and a house parent in each cottage.

The economy was so bad on Kauai since the sugar industry had collapsed; people were beating a path to Andrew's door, asking for jobs. Fortunately, most of the ones who came looking were exactly those that Andy wanted to work with HIS children. He hired a complete staff and put them on the payroll so they would be available as soon as the first children arrived to occupy the new hotel.

Captain Bullard seemed like an ideal candidate to Andrew to manage the new facility, so he put in a telephone call and caught Pete Bullard on a day he was particularly bored. The man said immediately, "OK Andy, I can retire and be there in three weeks, can you hold out that long?"

A relieved Andrew Causey replied, "OK, but bring your running shoes, we are going "Hell Bent For Election" here, I hope to have enough cottages ready for kids and house parents to live in by the time school starts!"

Andy enlisted the help of Min Tangimora to vet all prospective employees, when they found a good employee he hired them immediately, just to keep them available.

The first row of cottages went up quickly and they had enough new House Parents to open six of the cottages. It wouldn't empty all the temporary bedrooms downstairs at O'Toole House, but it was a good start.

There were two cottages filled with girls and the rest were boys. The lucky children who got to move were selected by a lottery and, when they were allowed to go look at their new homes, they were completely "wrung out". One breathless small boy said, "An I gots a potty all for myself, I don'ts got to share it wid nobodies else!"

The cottages were furnished with a bathroom for each bedroom and the bedrooms were designed just for one child each. The house parents would have two bedroom apartments with a kitchen, dining room and living room, along with a full bath and toilet facilities, all located in the center of each cottage. All the bedrooms were of sufficient size that, in an emergency or a special circumstance, a second bed could be placed in it.

Andy provided for janitorial service twice a week and laundry would be taken care of at a central location. He had purchased a small fleet of small electric trucks to carry bedding and needed materials back and forth around the cottages and the hotel.

The children would eat breakfast with the house parents, but lunch would be at school and supper would be served cafeteria style in the ground floor area of the Hotel. Until construction was completed, the meals would be catered by the Kauai Beach Boy Hotel in a large tent currently being erected on the premises.

Every day, after school, Andrew Causey toured the facility with his sons Jimmie and Jason. Andrew was finishing his own classes at the University of Hawaii and they allowed him to complete his last two classes in the "Distant Learning Program" over the computer.

It was during this time that Patrick James O'Toole, Wil's only child, came home. He had been a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy and had been injured when one of the boilers blew up on his ship. He was a graduate of the Naval Academy and had a brilliant future ahead of him until the accident.

Patrick was emotionally destroyed and viewed himself as a cripple with only one leg and a metal monstrosity to walk on. He was only a couple of years older than Andrew and, slowly, they became friends.

Better, it was Andrew who pulled the young man out of his doldrums and showed him how to care for children and see to it they were happy. Pat found it hard to be sad when there were boys and girls all around him playing games and laughing.

Andrew made Pat the Facility Manager of Causey Plantation. Pat was so busy, he soon forgot about his missing leg. He loved working with the children and they, apparently, loved him. Whenever he walked through the campus, the children all would wave at him and the little ones would come running, they all knew that Mr. Pat kept sweet treats in his sweater pocket!

At the Grand Opening of Causey Plantation Hotel for Children, Andy and Pat arranged for bands and clowns to entertain the children while the adults showed various dignitaries around the campus.

The Governor of the State was particularly unpleasant; he had tried everything he could to prevent this blight on the tourist area from being built. They didn't need nasty street children living where the high class tourists came to spend money!

He said some things that set Pat to thinking, so he called Min Tangimora and asked him, "Is there any possibility that Governor Saki is involved with the slavers?"

Min replied, "I don't know, in fact I have never even considered it. Let me nose around, yeah I saw his performance up at the Plantation and it didn't set well with me, either. I will let you know what I find out."

The Hotel filled rapidly, it seemed like children living on the streets were coming out of the woodwork. Andrew was concerned that they had not built the place big enough, but, finally, the census leveled off and they were able to keep enough rooms available for emergency placements.

Dr. Ben was lured away from the hospital, along with his wife, Doris, and they opened a clinic on the grounds. It was equipped with several examining rooms, two treatment rooms and a small surgery, before things had leveled out, he had enticed his brother-in-law, Doris' brother, Thomas Bolt, to join the practice. With that many children in residence, it kept both doctors running full time to keep up with the skinned knees and barked shins!

Pete Bullard loved working with the children and he became one of their favorite patsies! When they saw him carrying a paper bag, children came running from all directions, they knew he had some of Mrs. Tangimora's goodies in that bag and they wanted their share!

He also kept his hand in with the Navy Department and one day, he received a call from the officer who had replaced him, Captain Roger Mack. The Captain said, "Pete, can your guys start up their ships again, the flow of children into Seattle and Portland is awful, we just gotta shut them down!" The newspapers are taking aim at the government to do something and we just do not have the resources any longer. Our hands are tied and Congress will not give us a dime more.

Pete replied, "If it's that bad, I think that we could get both ships underway in a few days, let me get with Captain O'Toole and Captain Robbins and see what we can do."

Both men were alarmed at what Pete had been told and they told him they would get the ships ready immediately, there was still time to make a tour through the Gulf of Alaska before the winter weather set in.

The boys were all hot to trot; even Andy said he would come. As he left the meeting, Jason and Jimmie jumped him and told him in no uncertain terms that he was NOT going without them! They were all of nine years old by now, but he knew he would have no peace unless he allowed them come along!

All the boys worked long hours getting the ships ready, they scrubbed out both ships and started the reefers cooling down. They would have to swing by the fueling facility to refuel both ships, but they could fill the water tanks from their own system. It took them four days to get ready, the kids up at the Hotel all came down to see them off, the boys and some of the girls were drooling, promising themselves that they would get to go next time!

When the ships both blew their air horns in the customary salute, some of those boys and girls were willing to see if they could walk on water and get out to the departing ships!

They made a run to Pearl Harbor to load ammunition and refuel, before heading north. Oscar had the Mary Joyce and Wil was Captain of the Wilson O'Toole, Oscar kept the engines running on the Joyce in order to make better time, five days later, they were off Adak Island with their radars running, stretched out as far as they would go, searching for suspicious vessels. They had a long experience in spotting the sailing characteristics of slavers!

Wil got a coded message from Captain Mack that they were looking for a former small cruise ship; it had two stacks and was once called "The Pride of Calgary". Wil got out his copy of the Ship's Registry and groaned, the damned ship was supposed to have been scrapped! He had visions of the ship that they had rescued Andrew from!

They set a counter-figure eight course, each ship following an opposite track that crossed the most likely path the Pride of Calgary would take. They had done this so many times now; they could almost predict what the target ship's Captain was thinking.

As surely as little green apples came on apple trees, a week later, a ship matching the description came up over the horizon, headed on an easterly course. According to the radar, it was tracking a somewhat erratic course at nine knots. Oscar was closest, so he hailed the vessel on the loud hailer and he was ignored, they seemed to take no notice of him at all. That brought Wil in the Wilson O'Toole up with both engine throttles crammed to the stops.

Their best rocket launcher was Andrew and he climbed up on the top of the Wil's wheelhouse and lobbed a rocket across the Pride's Bridge, there was no way they could have missed seeing it, but, still there was no response.

Now both Wil and Oscar were getting concerned, Wil brought the Wilson O'Toole all the way around the slow moving vessel and spotted a rope ladder hanging over the side. Andrew hollered, "Come alongside, Cap'n Wil. I will take two guys and go see what's going on!"

Andy picked Peter Bledsoe and Roger Dackett, two of the biggest boys still living with them. As far as those two were concerned, they planned on staying until they were carried off in a box! Peter and Roger did remain at Causey Plantation for many years and were buried on the premise. Andrew was soon to discover that Roger and Peter were a couple.

The Away Team was all equipped with the smaller 40-millimeter machine guns, as they were easier to carry and they had to climb a rope ladder. The 40 mm's were sometimes called "squirt guns" because they squirted bullets out in a solid stream.

Each Away Team member carried several handcuffs clipped to their belt loops. As Wil maneuvered the Wil alongside the ship and Andy went first, leaping from the deck of the Wilson O'Toole and grabbing the rope ladder. As soon as he clambered over the railing on the deck of the Pride, Roger followed him and then Peter.

They looked around and found nobody around. The wheelhouse was empty as was the engine room. None of the crew's cabins showed any sign of being occupied, although the Master's cabin had a mussed up bed and there was blood on the sheets. They found more blood on the decks of the crew's mess and there was a trail of blood down one passageway and ended in a pool of blood out on the fantail.

Andrew figured out how to stop the main engines and, as the ancient diesel engines wheezed to a stop, there was utter silence on the eerie ship.

They found a cargo hold up forward that was labeled, "BAGGAGE" and the hatch was not welded shut, like all the others, so they opened the hatch cover and they were met with a scene from Hell itself and the smell gagged them all. Several of the Team lost their breakfast.

The Baggage compartment was sectioned off with heavy, welded wire cages, obviously for First, Second and Third Class Passenger Baggage. Inside each compartment were twenty boys! They were all naked and ranged from about five years old to some in their late teens.

Andy called out, "Does anyone speak English here?" A Chinese looking boy, he could not tell how old the boy was in the dim light, cried out, "Me splek onglish sum blit! Pluz uses help, no fud dazs minny! No dink wuter!"

Andy screamed at Roger and Peter, "Get these damned cages open, NOW!" He stuck his head out the hatch to make sure he had a good signal and radioed back to Captain Wil what he had found. He said to Wil, "Would to God we had Doc Ben, I got some hurt boys here and there is blood topside!"

Both Wil and Oscar radioed back that they were on their way over!

They broke open the locked cages with fire axes and brought the boys topside to count noses, they counted sixty four boys. All of them were in awful condition, Oscar and Second Mate, Tony de'Lissa, lugged a ten gallon insulated jug of cold water and the boys went through it like "salts through a goose!" They had to send it back for refill twice more before the boys' thirst was quenched.

Both Wil and Oscar had some first aid training by Dr. Ben and they proceeded to patch up the boys as best they knew how. Wil swore that they were NOT gonna go out again without a doctor on board at least one of the ships!

They sure missed Pedro right then!

Some of their own boys came on board and began to search the ship more thoroughly, looking for any members of the crew. Billy Dink found them, there were corpses piled up in the steering engine room, back under the fantail! There was no clue as to who had killed them or why. It was a gruesome and bloody find, Billy was only thirteen years old.

Oscar called the Coast Guard and reported what they had found, the yeoman who worked the radio asked, "Are you guys the ones who rescues kids?"

Oscar replied, "Yes, we have sixty-four boys here that we hauled up out of stinking, filthy cages. We are gonna get them on our ships and get some food in them before we even try to run them through the showers!"

The yeoman replied, "Yes sir, I understand, I have a message for you from a Navy Captain Mack, it says "Keep your eyes open, gang warfare has broken out between two groups involved in slave traffic."

Oscar replied, "Thanks, that's all we need. I think we will collect all the boys and get the hell outta here, pronto!" Oscar blew the Mary Joyce's air horn with four long blasts to get everyone's attention, they he hollered out on the loud hailer, "Get the boys and get off that damned ship, there is gang warfare going on and we don't want to be caught between 'em!"

They began ferrying boys over to the two ships as fast as the two launches would run. As soon as the last boy was onboard, both the Joyce and the Wil got underway and got the hell outta "Dodge", while the crews were still retrieving the launches.

Instead of continuing their patrol, both Captains agreed to head for home and they pushed their ships as hard as they dared to get out of the immediate area. The diesel engines on both ships were protesting as their throttles were crammed against the stops!

Wil radioed the Coast Guard Base to come sink the tired old cruise ship, it wasn't worth trying to tow it anywhere and it would make a fitting grave for the bodies they found aboard the old wreck.

They saw a couple of blips on their radar, but none came close enough for a visual contact. A Coastie seaplane passed overhead several times, they later learned the Coast Guard was watching out for them all the way back to Lihue! They were never off the Coast Guard's radar and they were followed all the way from the Gulf of Alaska to Nawiliwili Harbor!

The rescued boys were starving, it was like they just absorbed their food as fast as Cookie could get it hot on the stove, let alone cook it properly!

The young crew engineers were tweaking full time to keep the distillers running at peak performance on both ships as sixty four boys ran through the first shower they had in many weeks!

Trong had shown them what to do and they were able, just barely, to stay ahead of the demand. Trong was away at school now and they were doing their best to keep staying ahead of the water demand.

The young Chinese boy who was spokesman down in the hold, said, "Us miny tankyus gif, us fraid us die in bot. Yus not bois wunt sex stufs?"

Andy sat down beside the child, who called himself SongGat, and explained to him, "We are all boys Captain Wil and Captain Oscar have saved, we have a big home in Hawaii where we are taking you. You can live with us or we can try to find your families."

The boy shook his head violently, "Mi fater sel me for bad mans, me no back go, no evr!"

Andy continued, "Captain Wil's own son has just come back from Navy Duty and Capt Wil is looking for a ship for him to help us rescue more boys and girls from these evil men!" The boy said something to the other boys and they were climbing on Andy, making sure that they would not be sent back either!

Andy was not sure that Pat wanted or was ready to command a ship again, but, the more he thought about it, the better it sounded. At supper that night, he bounced the idea off Wil. Wil thought about it and then said, "Ya know, that might just be the thing to bring Pat back to us. He is so unhappy and sad and considers himself useless because of his missing leg. Yeah, I will work with you on locating another ship!"

They finally reached Nawiliwili Harbor and the two ships eased their way to their home pier, both vessels were blowing their air horns to let everyone know their voyage had been successful and that they had a shipload of children to offload!

Doc Ben and Doc Tom groaned and got up from their supper. They grabbed their bags and headed out to the pier, there were kids to repair! They were not seen again until lunch the next day, bleary-eyed and shuffling in fatigue, but they grinned in satisfaction that every child had been taken care of.

How will Patrick O'Toole take to finding himself in command of a ship again? How soon will Causey Plantation be filled to overflow and, how much trouble can the Governor cause them? It looks like a rocky road ahead for a while!