Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

RR RR ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. 11 On retiring thither, the boy, who had been much excited by the old fisherman's strange story, threw open his casement, and gazed intently forth through the deep darkness. Ever from the beach spread far below, soared upwards the grand, ceaseless roar of the billows, plunging and scattering on the rattling shingles, while the wind sourhed past, and alternately raved and howled round the half-ruined dwelling. For almost an hour our hero had kept his glance steadfastly fixed upon the dark ontline of the Foamy Reef dimly discernible against the night sky. Hitberto all had been darkness and desolation, when suddenly a faint blue light broke forth on the sky line, and shone like a halo round the rifted crag in the far distance, Jack drew back, and scarcely repressed an ex- clamation of awe, and his heart throbbed audibly. A heavy locker stood on one side of the room containing tve arms and nautical instruments which had belonged to our hero’s father. Jack opened this sea-chest and took out a nivht-elass, He returned to the window, and having adjusted the focus to suit his sight, took a long and careful look at the distant reef, “Some one is moving on the rocks!” he mut- tered, bieathlessly. “ Ah! there are more figures than one—three! four! They seem floating about in the weird blue glare. Who or what can they be? Devils! Aye, they are pirates, the crew of that ugly craft in the offing !” Jack sat down upon the coping of the window and rested the telescope upon his knees, ‘What can be done?” he asked himself, men- tally. ‘‘If I could beard these dread spectres, unmask their black tricks, and bring the murder- ous villains to justice, what a glorious feat that would be !” He pondered deeply. ‘“‘But if—if they should really prove beings of another world—horrible phantoms! To brave them, alone too, on such a wild night! My blood freezes, my hair stirs at the bare thought! Ah! the light is waning! it flickers, it dies out as if quenched in the bosom of the sea—all dark |” Several moments elapsed, measured as distinctly by the beating of the daring boy’s excited heart as -by a watch, At last, as if forming a sudden reso- lution, he sprang to his feet and shut up the telescope with an emphatic snap. “T’ll go!” he exclaimed aloud. Walking quickly to the door he opered it softly and listened. Silence reigned in the house. “ Wot that way,’ he muttered, drawing back. “Mother will be waked ; she'd die of fright if she knew what I was about. I deserve the worst that can happen to me for my rashness and dis- obedience. It is so wrong of me to play these pranks, Ah! the light again. I can’t help my rature; I’m restless, reckless Roving Jack, and ghosts are not to be met with every night in the twelvemonth! ‘The tide’s on the turn; the wind dies off in catspaws, I shall be back before dawn. I'll go !” Ouce more Jack rummazed the locker. “T’ll take the dark Jantern with me,” he thought, “and the night-glass, and here’s my father’s sword.” He drew the shiny blue blade from the sheath, and lovuked on it with reverence. “May the Lord of Hosts grant that this pure steel may never be stained with innocent blood !” he murmured, devoutly. “I will be no marauding ‘soldier, no gold-griping blood-thirsty robber; but, oh! may this arm be nerved to strike in defence of OMG the righteous cause, to smite the base robber on land and sea! May my life’s wild romance move every brave, adventure-loving boy to own how much more noble it is to be a deliverer than a ‘destroyer, an heroic robber-hunter than a selfish, cut-throat robber !” He kissed the gleaming blade, and, sheathing it, buckled the sword about his slim waist. Then he laid bis hands on a case of pistols, “No; let them rest. In my.rash hands they might be dangerous—to myself, to my own honour. After all, they are the tools of the coward ; foot to foot, hand,to hand, breast to breast, I will fight my foes with Iny father’s sword, which is hallowed !” The young enthusiast drew himself up to his full height, and folding his arms, burst into a buoyant laugh, as his vivid imagination and his strong, bold heart pictured and confirmed the truth that he was born to a high and noble destiny. “ But now comes the cliach !” muttered Roving Jack, starting from his reverie. ‘‘ How am I to get down from the window ?” - He looked out. “Phew! it’s an awful height—but, ‘where there’s a will there’s a way.’” He took the blarikets, sheets, and coverlet, from his bed, and tying them tightly tegether fastened one end to a strong nail in the wooden case of the window. He stood for an instant looking down into the dark, dizzy depth. Then he launched himself forth into mid air. Hand under hand, knee under knee, tightly eripping the swaying line, he descended alittle way. The strain was ¢reat, and the’ line’ shook aad seemed to be tearing out the nail from the beam, Jack looked dowa—down ! He shuddered, clenched his teeth, and a qualm of deadly sickness rose in his throat, He arched his fingers, loosened the clasp of his entwined feet, and down, down he shot likeastone, the line rushing through his burning palms like a round red-hot bar. At last he hung, suspending himself by his hands, full twenty feet above the ground. He set his toes in a crevice between the time- wcern stones. Heleaped. Stumbling a yard or so, he rolled over on his side half stunned. | He had struck his foot against some obstruction, and was thrown heavily. He rose, however, and, after a rest, descended the cliff by a rugged and slippery rock-way. The night was pitch dark; the rough breakers poured along the echoing coast with their continuous and tremendous rvuar. ! The place became dank and piercing’ chill, and the situation was drear, lone and dangerous, But peril was pleasure to Roving Jack. Reaching the stony beach, he plodded across the crashing shingles till he came to the very margin of the foamy main. Here he stood for a moment, looking heedfully on the white frothy mountains of brine as they came rolling, bursting and founting in, bellowing amid the hollows of the rocks, and hissing harshly up and down the pebbly strand. “JT shall have some trouble to launch a boat in such a sea as this,’ thought Jack, as he ran out of reach of a bouncing head-wave that seemed to give him chase with conscious spitefulness ; “‘but it’s not so rough under the cliffs in the little bay. But what shall I do for a boat? and if I find one how can I Jaunch her? Iam afraid I shall have to give up.” Sarotatilg on over the sharp and massive rocks which formed the footstool of the headland, Jack