Show ibis m 33 3 3 a 3 J fa adick C K rodnay P ak to 0 10 16 W i M or the adventures adventure 5 of W b k on b J rk j an eton F ton boy I 1 W 1 f I KI L at 4 w t jimes ar 2 ik c CHAPTER V continued in a moment his blue shirt was off and placed on the lift ot of the this meant mr rodney that as merchant seamen we appealed to the mano war for protection and wanted an armed boats crew thank heaven such an is never made in vain by a poor jack of any country to a british mano man nian o war but the lubberly spaniards never noticed the signal or it if so go never heeded it the yankee skipper uttered a fierce laugh douse that shirt shift and come down you sir air he thundered out down instantly all st or I 1 will shoot you like a loon coon but desperate with fear the poor fellow now stood upon the yard and while one hand grasped the topping lift with the other he waved his shirt to the spaniards I 1 heard the crack of a pistol and next moment he tell fell a quivering mass upon the deck stone dead shot by the revolver that will teach you to make signals from my ship you varmint sni belled the merciless skipper giving the body a kick and as for you he continued addressing me and ramming home hie bis words with an oath but before he could get further I 1 leveled him on the deck by a blow from a handspike and tossed his knife and revolver overboard his right arm was broken there was a great row about all this before the alcalde when we got into harbor our bell was unshipped and our canvas unbent by a party of spanish marines but the captain crossed the al caldes hand band with silver or gold and there was an end of it there was an end of my engagement too for the yankee weathered me about my salary seized my chest my quadrant even an old silver watch which my mother gave me to make me comfortable when I 1 first went to sea and then turned me out of the ship so with nothing except a mexican dollar in my pocket but followed by my newfoundland dog hector I 1 found myself on a wet and dusty evening on the great quay of matanzas which faces the bay that opens into the gulf of florida low alike in spirits and funds I 1 had to endure being jostled by negro P porters scowled at by algua ordered about by red and black bearded spanish sentries who were shirtless and tattered and whose brown uniforms and red worsted apau lettes tainted the very sea breeze with the odor of garlic and coarse tobacco the sun had set behind clouds as red as blood the bay was all of a deep brown tint and the shores were black or purple I 1 was very sad at heart and thought it hard that 1 I a british seaman should be there an outcast and all my kit reduced to the clothes on my back tn in the very place where the same flag cag that and albemarle hoisted on havana and brought all the don spaniards on their knees in old king georges time however that would neither find me supper or a bed I 1 lost or missed my newfoundland dog hector and in the bitterness of my heart I 1 banned the poor animal for ingratitude in leaving me just as I 1 was looking about for a humble posada where a moiety of my dollar might procure me a bed a man iaan stumbled against me look alive cucumber shanks said he angrily in english do you talce take me tor for a negro I 1 asked fiercely you are grimy enough for anything said he and after being a n night ight in the Al caldes lockup house I 1 certainly was not the cleanest of men but now non it seemed as it if the voice of the stranger strai iriT was familiar to me I 1 examined ins his features what I 1 exclaimed hislop jack hislop is this you 11 1 1 I jack hislop certainly replied the other who proved to be my old fri nd marcs father but who the deuce are you your old shipmate sam weston who abird with you foi fai ninny many a day in th hood intent 0 of port glasgow 1 I lor it a moment bis seemed absent without leave ehlt vh it you sam wanton english engli sam ti os we called you ile ariere at t matanzas matanza among these ii h land crabb C 11 AN ac e adrift sure enc cue h ild 1 I 1 we hands he hearell heart artil ll id d i ahin h u journee jour nert to a taberna when I 1 told hun all abbin my with the yankee and arc present hopeless hope lebs condition II 11 i over a rl of at nor nor I 1 1 I hi eriv a bri hrin hete on the gridiron re trin fr we e loat olin oine of b hi i copper in i i a roe roc near th portugal tortugal Tort Tor h T 1 AD my erow tre ire ot course 0 hr hor md ind at a pro pr nt I 1 am residing with a friend said haslop but I 1 can find permanent quarters tor for you vou till 3 jou oil got a III arth rth do you bee uial that ri III ift out in lin has tin till li iio 11 IT i 1 I I 1 I 1 nhoun 1 I mile on off yc f I 1 h 1 i rn i w d to CON on 0 vil ir i i ii i II 11 0 ial abaslon anlon ab ihan flon il b ov tl il h r or r w I 1 in 0 about W u 1 11 tit l 0 h r I 1 I 1 0 a hi alli the salt key K c y Y hank ban k I 1 have charge of i i her now and there ro you may sleep ev cry if vou ou choose what ay you to anif abit 11 that I 1 thinh vou iu old inmate w with lab all my hi brt bul 1 what 1 I have heard of that polacca and i that two of her crew who remained on board were dead yes true enough they were found in their berths one on the starboard and the other on oa the port side of the cabin but what of 0 that I 1 buried them off the point of 0 santa cruz and there they sleep sound enough believe me each with a couple ot of cold shot at his heels here Is the key of the companion batch and take my revolver with you for are pretty common hereabouts thanks Ill hislop slop said I 1 but how am I 1 to get on board scull over to her in the punt that is moored beside the quay when on board make yourself quite at home for the agent and I 1 left plenty of grog beet beef biscuits and tobacco in the cabin on the morrow ill overhaul you in the forenoon watch till then goodby good by and before I 1 could say anything more old jack was gone and I 1 found myself alone on the stone mole with the key of the po laccas companion in my hand there seemed nothing tor for me lut but to accept the temporary home thus offered so in the hope that it might lead to something better I 1 stepped into the light punt cast loose the painter and after a few minutes vigorous sc found myself on the lonely deck of the silent polacca her canvass was unbent most of the running rigging had also been taken off her and stowed away so her tall and taper spars stood nakedly up from the straight flush deck with a sharp rake aft thick bankson banks bank of dark blue clouds were coming heavily up from the gulf of florida the air was hot and sulphurous phu rous some drops of rain warm and broad as doubloons doub loons began to splash upon the deck and to make circles on the sea while at the tar far edge of the horizon a narrow streak of bright moonlight against which the waves were seen chasing each other glittered through the flying scud the bottom of which was uplifted in the offing like a dark curtain that was battered and rent then a flash of red lightning tipping the waves with fire shone but to be replaced by instant darkness and all became black chaos to seaward save alere a pale green beacon burned steadily at santa cruz on the western side of the bay these signs prognosticated a rough night but I 1 was glad to perceive that the polacca was well moored at stem and stern so I 1 unlocked the companion on door and descended not without a shudder into the dark and cold cabin where the dead men had been found and where all was silence and gloom 1 I struck a lucifer match my teeth chattered and while groping about tor for ft a candle to make myself comfortable tor for the night I 1 began to wish I 1 had remained on shore 1 I found a ship lantern with the fag end of a candle in it and this when lighted enabled rne me to take a survey ot of the cabin which stood on the table and when looking about found my eyes wander so BO incessantly to the side bide berths in which the dead spaniards had been found that at last I 1 almost fancied their pale sharp profiles and rigid figures were visible lu the flickering light of the caudle come said 1 I sam cestou this will never do are you a man or have you become a child again another application a long one too to the rum jar and I 1 wrapped some bunting a rug and a pea jacket that lay on the locker round me and lay down on the cabin floor to sleep and scarcely had I 1 stretched myself there when the candle flared fared up and after casting some strange kaleidoscopic figures on the beams overhead through the perforated lantern top went out 1 I was in total darkness now but more awake than ever III 1 I felt as it if in a great floating cofrin but heard no sound except the gurgle of the sea under the counter or the splash of the stern warp as it whipped the water occasionally 1 I kept my eyes closed res resolutely an and d determined perforce to sleep an and not to wake till morning but still I 1 could not help thin thinking Ping of the two poor fellows who had died in the berths of unit that cold dark and silent cabin and had bron far en tood to od pd to and fro so long upon thi r i ectore they received C lin t r in but bui i i il X herh h hal d olit I 1 flit t the man in III the larboard or he be in the starboard berth why were they thus abandoned dobir d what had bad they I 1 said aid to each othi I 1 what raea me sages ages had Q they dry bent to ife ie to father or moth mother rl whal tolo of 0 lov to r p kt of guilt to r il v il I 1 in IL given by the dadd to tb d il d and nc act j rood fh L on iti eded upon TOO me till I 1 almost imagined the dead moll men lay there still and that they might rise up and she their la lat 1 messages to rac ahi ahrn n I 1 hearil heard a jund in n ohp for ti it made my hlo hi oil od curdle I 1 we wa it u od d by bv rat 9 peruis they had td t d I 1 ll 11 i rd id alard and now were come to lane a nibble at me rat hats ocic bad c but ghosts were se I 1 tool took a third and last pull at the jamale Jamal tl JT JIT md aid tny my prayers over II 11 tin nn alti mii mt i tann foual dr addlor i i h arti rott i avii h hat but I 1 should soon have a span spanking kini craft of my own still the idea of the two dead men with their pale faces aces and unclosed eyes would come before roe me again and again and I 1 could have groaned but for or dread of some similar response that might make my heart wither up and my flesh creep and creep it soon did for just as this horrid idea of an over strained fancy fostered ost ered by imagination tion and fashioned out ot of the silence and darkness became strongest within me what were my emotions how painful the throbbing of my heart on beholding a strange green ghastly light glimmering about and playing within each of the side berths while shrinking into a cornei 0 of the cabin with eyeballs straining I 1 gazed at them alternately with a species of horrid fascination the two lights were weird wavering and pale they seemed to me as two warnings from the land of spirits tor for they played upon the curtain and in the recess of each berth port and starboard in which a dead man had been found and while these lights shone there came upon my ear the palpable sound of it a heavy breathing anil and snorting as from the oppressed chest of some one close by me 1 I placed my hands upon my eyes and on my ears to shut out these horrid lights and sounds but when I 1 looked again the former had feared and all was opaque darkness on putting forth my hand to rise a cry ot of uncontrollable terror escaped me mea a yell that rang in wild echoes through the silent polacca when my fingers came in contact with something icy and then a cold clammy and wet head of hair then two glistening eyes seemed to peer and to glare into mine in horror and bewilderment and followed by something I 1 knew not what I 1 sprang up the companion and halt half fainting inting ta reached the leek deck ot of the polacca then I 1 turned to find that the object which had excited so much dismay was no other than my poor dog hector which had swam off to the brig in pursuit ot of me the eyes that in the dark seemed to glare into mine were his the icy object from which my fingers shrank was his honest black nose and what seemed a wet head of hair was his own curly front while the lights the mysterious lambent lights that had flicek ered about the dead mens berths proved to be nothing more than the green beacon on the promontory ot of santa cruz which anone at times through the two stern windows of the polacca 4 4 being moored with the chain cable ahead and a manilla warp from her port quarter to a buoy astern she swung to and fro ro a little with the ebb and flow of the tide hence the oscillation which caused the moving gleams that terrified me ila ha ha be said 1 I on descending into the rabin cabin a wiser and a more sleepy man scared hy by my own dog hector I 1 have been as great a gull as ever touched salt water A fortnight afterwards I 1 shipped with old jack hislop as second 1 I mate and the fifteenth day saw us running before a smart topgallant breeze into the gulf ot of florida bound with a cargo of 0 rum sugar and molasses tor for the clyde clyd so that la is ay ghost yarn it conveys a moral does docs it not order them to strike the bell forward hislop call the watch see how her head bead bears aud and let us turn in to bo be continued |