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Show ! DICK RODNEY; j si f s Or. The Adventures of J ; An Eton Boy.., I s j J j BY JAftlES GRAN T. j $ X ,,-,----rt--crr ct21tt cttStC proceeded methodically to fish them We p-cured strong lines, baited the hooks 'with pieces of pork, lashing thereto a buoy formed of u common cork! and lowered four of them over the stern. Thev had scarcely touched the water." when amid a furious flapping of heavy pinions, they were eagerly swallowed; the hooks and lines began to bear taushtly, and we soon had four gigantic albatrosses splashing the water into froth in their Ineffectual efforts to escape. We towed them in, hand over hand, and after measurement found the smallest to be eleven feet from the tip of one winn to the tip of the other. ' Though rank and fishy in flavor, the flesh of these birds was made into sea-pies, on which the crew were regaled re-galed for two days after, and they partook par-took of it with great apparent relish. But Jack is not very particular, especially es-pecially when at sea. Though none of the crew shared the superstition connected with the destruction de-struction of an albatross, and probably none, save Hislop and myself, knew the splendid ballad written by Coleridge, Coler-idge, it would seem as if our misfortunes misfor-tunes commenced with that day's wanton wan-ton sport! The huge sea birds became shy and left us. The sun set amid saffron-colored waves, and the western sky was all aflame, when the sails began to 11 and collapse as the. wind came in heavy puffs, causing the masts to sway from side to side, and the bellying courses to crack and flap with a sound like thunder. At last there came a steady breeze;, the courses were left fall, and with both sheets aft, for the wind was fafr, the Eugenie once more walked through the shining waters. Full, round, and silvery the moon arose, and tipped with liquid light every wave, that seemed to dance onward on-ward with the brig, which in half an hour had the snow-white foam flying in sheets over her catheads. It was about the hour of 1 in the morning that the horrible events which I am about to relate occurred. c:-r--T" - - - in the same fashion, and all wore false roses of singular size and great brilliance, bril-liance, with low wigs and long tails. On Ntptune and his goddess receiving receiv-ing a dram and questioning the captain cap-tain about his irew, it was discovered that Antonio and 1 were the only two on hoard who had never crossed the line before; whereupon the Tritons whooped and danced as they laid violent vio-lent hands on me. I submitted to the usual shaving and so forth with a good grace, and compounded, to avoid other annoyances, for two bottles of brandy, and ascending to the main-cross-trees without going through the lubber's hole. But for the Cubano there was neither ransom, escape nor outlet; and the poor wretch, in conso-quence conso-quence of his mysterious antecedents, was very roughly handled, the more so that he had threatened to use his knife if molested. It was soon trundled out of his hand by one body of Tritons, while another soused him well with salt water as he was conveyed past the long boat, which was lashed amidships, and in which they were stationed with buckets buck-ets ready filled. Held fast on every side, he was brought before the "goddess-born" and inexorable monarch of the main, who ordered "the Lord Chief Barber at once to shave him." Now, as Antonio had a rather luxuriant lux-uriant beard and mustache, the plentiful plenti-ful application thereto of a compound of tar and slush, such as we used for greasing the masts, was the reverse of agreeable; but the stern orders of Nep- CHAPTER XVII. (Continued.) Soon after this, when evening came on we heard a noise in the forecastle, and the voice of Hi-hip exclaiming: "Stand char-sheer off. Antonio! If ' you come athwart me. 1 11 knock you down with a handspike! What! you J (trip your knife, do you? Well, just j do it again, and I'll chuck you over- j board like a bit of old junk." "What is the matter now?" said I, hastening forward. "Oh, this rascally Spanish creole has been swearing at the men again, and threatening old Roberts." "He vows, sir, he will burn the ship," said Roberts, who seemed considerably con-siderably excited. : "Burn the ship," reiterated Weston. "I have a great mind to put him in the bilboes for the remainder of the voyage." " 'Twere best for all concerned,,-." said Tom Lambourne, touching his forelock with his right hand, and giving giv-ing the deck a scrape with his left foot; "or set him adrift with some provisions in the jolly-boat." "Come, come, Antonio," said Weston, Wes-ton, with greater severity than I had hitherto seen expressed in his open and honest countenance, "you must haul your wind for some time you have been going too far. I can't spare my jolly-boat, and, thank heaven!. the days of marooning are past among British sailors, but beware you, shipmate, ship-mate, or the bilboes it shall be, and we have a pretty heavy pair below. And as for you. Marc Hislop," he added, in a low voice, when we walked aft, "take care of yourself, for these Spanish Creoles are as slippery and treacherous as serpents." "I'll keep my weather eye open," said Hislop. "You will require to do so, I think." "You do?" exclaimed the Scotsman, with growing anger. "If he proceeds thus, I'll break either hia heart or his neck." Next morning, Roberts, the old man-o'-war's man, who had always been Antonio's chief accuser concerning his dreams, was nowhere to be found on board! All the hands were turned up; the whole brig was searohed, the forecastle fore-castle berths, the cable-tier, and every place below from the fore to the after peak, but there was no trace of Roberts, Rob-erts, save his old tarpaulin hat lying crushed and torn in the lee scuppers. He was last seen when turned up to take the middle watch, which extends ex-tends from 12 to 4 o'clock a. m., and Antonio was then in his hammock. Roberts was entered in the log as "having fallen overboard in the night;" but his loss cast a terrible gloom over all the ship. Suspicion grew apace, and seemed to become confirmed, con-firmed, as open war was soon declared between the crew and Antonio. Every man was ready to take his "trick" at the wheel, rather than trust the Eugenie to his steering in the nttrhr lest h ynip-ht let hor hrnonti tn 1 was ui Lue iniuoie atcn, ie.iie.ving Weston, who, as the tropical dews were heavy, always ordered Billy the cabin boy to give me a glass of bran-dy-and-water before going on deck, foi fear of ague, and then he turned in. The sullen Spaniard Antonio was at the wheel. Tom Lambourne, Ned Carlton Carl-ton and I were walking to and fro, loitering at times, and looking at the compass to see how she headed now aloft to observe how the sails drew anon over the side, where the water bubbled merrily past, or ahead at the patch of blue and star-studded sky which was visible under the leach of the fore-course, as the brig's bow filled every now and then, and she rolled heavily from side to side, as all vessels ves-sels do when running before the wind. All was very still, for, save the bubble bub-ble of the water in the wake astern, or a gurgle as it surged up in the rudder rud-der case, the creaking of a block, or the iron slings of the lower yards, not a sound stole upon the first hour of the silent morning. Two of the albatrosses we had caught were hanging by the legs from the gallows-top abaft the foremost, where their great extended wings swung somewhat mournfully to and fro in the wind and by the motion o the ship. (To be continued.) ".. . tune, which were bellowed hoarsely through a tin trumpet, were faithfully and elaborately obeyed, and the contents con-tents of a dirty iron pot were smeared over the cheeks, beard and mouth of the Cubano by Billy, a mischievous ship-boy, with an unsparing hand. "Demonio! Maldita!" was heard at intervals, and greeted with laughter; but when be attempted to storm or swear the brush a reeking tuft of oil, tar and every horrid grease was thrust into his mouth. The Lord Chief Barber was now commanded to remove this noisome mess with his razor, and he scraped it off with a piece of hoop, which had been carefully notched for the purpose a process which, as it uprooted sundry sun-dry thick portions of Antonio's coal-black coal-black bristles, caused him to yell and sputter out hoarse Spanish oaths alternately. al-ternately. He was again deluged with salt water; and greater serverities were about to be practiced upon him, as some of the Tritons cried for "the ghost of Roberts to come out of the sea;" others, to "smoke him, by putting put-ting his head in the hood of the cook's funnel," when Weston ransomed him for two bottles of brandy, and he was permitted to slink away to his bunk, breathing vengeance against all his tormentors. Grog was again served round, the and lose her spars, or do some other mischief; and no man, if he could avoid it, would lay out on the yard beyond him. No man would walk on the same side of the deck with him, or exchange' a word, or a light for a pipe, or use the same cup or plate; so he was generally to be seen, leaning moodily and alone, against the windlass wind-lass bitts, with his black eyes fixed on the horizon, as if he expected a sail or something else to heave in sight. We shall soon see how all this ended. CHAPTER XVIII. We Cross the Line. We were now in the latitude of burning burn-ing days, of starry nights, and bright blue seas. The vinds were light, and, as usual, near the line, there was a tremendous swell upon the ocean, which rose in long and slowly-heaving i hills, without foam or ripple smooth, glassy and without sound. On a lovely night, when the ocean seemed to sleep in the moonshine we crossed the equator. The Eugenie was running with the ; lee clews off i. e., with a flowing : sheet when Father Neptune came on board, and the usual unpleasant pranks were played on those who had never passed the girdle of the world before, i Great preparations had been in i progress all day in the forecastle, and j these were perfected under cloud of ' night. All the crew were on deck save Antonio, who turned in, having prob- ably a dread of what was about to en- -ue, and knowing that he w-as anything but a favorite. Accompanied by the shouts of the crew, and preceded by Will White, playing "Rule Britannia" on a violin, old Father Neptune was drawn on a species of hurdle aft to the quarterdeck, quarter-deck, where Weston stood ready to re-' re-' ceive him, with his hat in one hand and a case-bottle of brandy in the , other. Under an old swab, which had been well dried and curled to make a wig for the son of Saturn and Vesta. I recognized the grotesquely tattooed . visage of my friend Tom Lambourne. ' A cutlass was stuck in his girdle, and 1 he w-ore a huge paunch of canvas ; stuffed with oakum. j In a gown made by the sailmaker, i Ned Carlton officiated as Amphritrue; j snd both deities were armed with harpoons, har-poons, as emblems of their dominion I over the sea. j The attendant Tritons were got up deck was cleared for a dance, and the crew footed the hours away in a succession suc-cession of hornpipes, while the grim Cubano lay growling in the forecastle. Three cheers for the Captain, and three more for Marc Hislop, terminated the fun, and all but the watch retired below. "They have gone too far with that fellow, as some of us may discover before be-fore the voyage comes to a close," said Hislop, when we were having a parting glass in the cabin. "Yes," replied Weston; "he is a dark dog, and though I am not very rich, I would give a hundred pounds to fathom the mystery of old Robert's disappearance. Well, here's to our wives and sweethearts at home." "I have neither sweetheart nor wife," said Hislop, as he tossed off his glass; "but I have a poor eld mother who loves me as well as either could do." Weston's eye wandered to the portraits por-traits of his wife and child, to whom he was tenderly attached, and for whom all hi:; savings, by salary, ton r.age, and hat-money, were carefully hoarded; for whom, poor fellow, he tempted the dangers of the great deep, the war of '.he elements, and endured the hardships of a sailor's life his i wife, his little one. and their home "his all; his sheet-anchor in this world, and his guide to the next," as I once heard him say, forcibly and strangely. CHAPTER XIX. The Cubano Unmasked. As we kept the coast of South Africa ; well aboard, a few days after we saw 1 Cape San P.oque, or, as it is sometimes : called, Point Pelinga, the northeast-ern northeast-ern extremity of Brazil, rising from the blue water like a purple cloud. But it dinnnished to a low black streak on ur weather quarter when the sun set., and we found ourselves ploughing the waves of the South Atlantic. j There fell a calm for a whole day ' after this, and while the Eugenie roiled lazily on the long giassy swells : with her topaiis flapping, and her courses hauled up. the sole amusement ' of the crew consisted in catching albatrosses, al-batrosses, or in killing them, unde-1 unde-1 terred by the old superstition that it ; was a bird of "good omen," or by the story of the "Ancient Mariner," of i which they were probably ignorant. A flock of these gigantic sea-birds congregated under our stern, where they gobbled up everything that was thrown over to them; so Hislop and I |