Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 14: what you’re looking at

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= : — ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. 10 : Neen immediately mixed for her guest a stiff jorum of hot brandy. She then kindly induced the old fellow to remove his wet pea-jacket and bucket boots, and drawing the arm-chair before the fire, invited him to light up his pipe and make himself comfortable. The old chap sipped the steaming grog, gasped, spluttered, shook his head and moaned. “ And now, Mr. Cleats,” said Jack, placing a chair for Violet, and carelessly throwing himself along on the hearth, ‘ now let us hear your terrible story.” ‘Pray do,” urged Mrs, Warbold, taking her seat beside the young folks, “we are dying with im- patience to learn what could have given you such a terrible fright.” “Fright, marm! Douse my toplights, if the hap- parition I beheld this blessed night warn’t enough to frighten Old Benbow himself; but, belay, I'll twist the yarn, and you shall judge for yourself whether I have reason to thank my stars that I’m now in dock, every timber taut, and a blowin’ my cloud, and a tipplin’ my toddy with all gratitood to you, marm, for yer hospital kindness, Here’s health and dooty !” é Tie old chap took a pull at his forelock, and then at the grog. ‘But let’s get under weigh. About dog watch, I put off in my shallop to look arcer the floatin’ buoy as marks our boundary o’ the fishing grounds, for as ’t were blowin’ great guns and small arms, some 0’ my mates were afeared as the buoy would slip its moorin’s ; not one o’ ’em would wolunteer for the sarvice, for there was a choppin’ sea on, so I went alone. Ye see, my deaizs, I had to pull agen the underlow, and I'd a’most tugged my arms out o’ their sockets betimes I made the Foany Reef. I found the buoy had slipped her anchor, and had drifted a point to leeward, so I towed her astarn by the hawser, and were pullin’ back to shore when— O my eyes !” “ When ? when?” “ Hasy, master Jack ; I kept a bright look-out on the Reef with a sort o’ foreknowledge that all warn’t ataunto, for why? Mother Carey’s chickens were wheelin’ around my boat, dippin’ their beaks in the surf, and screamin’ like storm hags—a thing as never bodes good—when, suddenwise, up flares a hazy blue light, like the ocean flame in the Medi- terranean, and spreads all around the rocks, lightin’ up the spray of the boundin’ breakers till it skimmered like a cloud o’ diamond dust. I were taken aback, I acknowledge, for though I’m not one o’ them misbelievin’, baboon-behaved lubbers as larfs at omens and wisitations, I cert’n’y had my humble doubts about Mynheer Van Teufel the Phantom Pirate as haunts the Foamy Reef, and so I resolved to try conclusions, for, ‘Dam’me, Clem Cleats,’ says I to myself, ‘a thorough seaman should be ready to face’ old Blazes hisself in the coorse o’ dooty,’ and I plucks up a brave heart, gives a tug at the larboard oar, pulls through an ugly cross sea, and runs my craft astem on the reef. I looks up, and what I beheld, cur’ous to say, were sheerly——” “ What, what?” “ Jes’—nothun, Master Jack.” ‘ And you were scared at—nothing ?” ‘“ Steady a bit; raising my peepers a second time, I were amazed to behold a great sea-chest lyin’ on top o’ the rock, and could hear a noise from the Ice- side of it, as of some unscen chap, a knock, knock, knocking on the rock, and then (still inwisible) a long, loud, shrill whistle on a bo’swain’s pipe, ‘Ahoy ! skipper, ahoy !’ I sings out. ‘What chcer, what are ye doing up there, my hearty?? When— O, lors !” “Do go on.” . ; ‘“ When up popped a black head, fitted with a pair of horns as long as the main-yards, and eyes like fightin’ Janterns, and sich glitterin’ white fangs, showing like a tier o’ white ports, and a pair o’ red blubber lips opened as wide as the main-hatch of a man-o’-war, and a woice as loud as all the guns 0 Gibraltar roared out . Well, just a leetle drain, marm ; this is rare good stingo.” Jack sloushed the whole contents of the brandy bottle into the old fellow’s glass, swamping the floor in his eagerness. men “Yes, yes; this dev——well, mother, this big- horned black fellow——” ‘‘ Roared out in the voice of a walrus, ‘Sheer off ! sheer off, yo dam buckra mortal ; I, Mumbo Jumbo, an ’pose yo not clear away, I clapperclaw yo like de debil in more less nor no time,’ ” “ Must ha’ been a nigger |” “Belay, Master Jack, we all know his colour. But I was that flabbergasted that I shoves off with the oars, and thea swooned right away on the gratin’s of the boat. Ididn’t cometo my senses till the current had carried me half a cable’s length from the reef, when I were roused up by a heavy sea that dashed over the bows, and a-nigh swamped the shallop. I looked back “ And tke light 2” ‘Had wanished like a shootin’ star or an ice- blink in the No’th’n skies ; all were black asashark’s maw, ’ceptin’ for the white surf of the breakers leapin’ over the reef.” ‘Did you pull back ?” ‘My jib, Master Jack, wasit for a honest seaman to tempt the devil?” “Did you hear {nothing more? Where you chased?” ‘Well, not to prewaricate, I fancied I heard the dip of oars, but I rowed so fast that Old Nick ina Symoon couldn’t a overhauled me.” “ So the light went out, and you were chased—ah |” And Master Jack fell into a fit of abstraction, At length he looked up quickly. ‘‘T say, Mr, Cleats,’ he exclaimed, “suppose you and I row over to the reef, and see whether the— the black gentleman will appear again,” “ How dare you, Jack?” “Why, mother, dear, you needn't be angry, there’s no danger ; the goblin didn’t hurt Mr. Cleats, and surely I,a mere boy, would be beneath his dark majesty’s notice; I’m not afraid of Mynheer Van Teufel, though he does reside in such strange quar- ters. Will you go with me, Mr. Cleats ?” « Avast | not for all the treasure of Prester John,” growled the old fisherman ; ‘‘so now, marm,as I've spun out my yarn, and the wind has fallen a little, with your good leave I’ll weigh anchor ; it is time I turned in, for I must be on the beach by eight bells to-morrow ; and do you accept this piece o’ partin’ adwice, Master Jack—never tempt the devil! And so good night, my dears,” Jack soon had reason enough to remember the old man’s warning ; but of that more hereafter, CHAPTER VI. THE SPECTRE OF THE FOAMY REEF, THE storm had in some measure abated, but the gale still blew hard in fierce, fitful. gusts, with squalls of rain, which spouted and battered dismally againt the darkened windows of the lone tower on the cliff. _Jack’s bed-room was a quaint little chamber, situated in an abutment of the turret on the side facing the sea, SSS ae COM) GEomichbooks