Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

ee ——— ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. 13 by the arm of some marine giant about to smash him upon the crag, away he goes, Clutch ! clutch! his fingers slither along the side of a mass of stone. The sea-weed is stronger here, He seizes a bunch in his fists, With the clutch of a vice he fixes his toes on a jutting ledge. Hold on Jack, for dear life |! The mountain-wave sinks under his feet; it slides and slips like a toppling avalanche, till, at no slight distance beneath him, it falls and bursts among the thickly-strewn rocklets in ten thousand foamy thunders, For a moment, Jack hangs, suspending himself, and panting for breath, then he frantically clambers to the top of the crag, He kneels upon the exact spot where, but a few minutes before, the spectre had stood ! And he looks round upon the wild and awful storm-scene with a fainting glance of horror and despair, CHAPTER VII, ROVING JACK’S FIRST MEETING WITH JONATHAN WILD. ROVING JACK soon roused himself from his state cf stupor and exhaustion. Creeping on his hands and knees, he reached the other end of the rock, and found that, though viewed from the lee side it appeared to be quite isolated and detached from the rest of the reef, it was, nevertheless, connected with a rugged little island by a long and narrow causeway, over some parts of which heavy seas were breaking. A strange suspicion took possession of Jack’s mind, He could not suppress a shudder as he thought of the terrible issue that might attend his rash adventure, At the best, here he was, prisoned on this lone rock, at least three miles from shore, a desolate spot on which he might be left to starve for aught he could tell, for whether or not the rock was haunted (though, to him, there -ould now be no doubt of the fact) the fishermen aud sailors shunned it with dread and abhorrence. But as his hand rested on the hilt of his father’s sword, and as, with gratitude to Providerce, he recalled his late remarkable deliverance from such fearful dangers, his bold spirit rose with the occa- sion, and he determined that he would follow up with unquailing courage what he had begun with such thoughtless temerity, Scrambling down on to the causeway, he crept along in imminent peril of being swept away by the heavy seas that ever and anon dashed over him till he gained the island. Here he rested himself for awhile, sheltered under a cavernous hollow, and listened with breathless intentness to the noise of the wind and the waves, At last, upon turning his head towards the inner wall of the cave, he was startled to perceive a faint ray of yellow light, emitted from certain crevices between the stone. He cautiously approached the place where this ray of light penetrated the dark cave. He touched the stones and found*them to be loose. Carefully removing one or two, he found that he had opened a space large enough to admit his head. He peered in. To his surprise, he beheld a rude ladder-stair descending into a vault below, hewn out in the living stone, and lighted by a flaring torch stuck in a sconce in the wall, He descended, and found himself in a aort of shaft, on either side of which were heavy doors, seemingly formed of massive bulk-heads and other ship timbers, All were closed and dark except one, through the cracks of which rays of light poured in, He listened and could distinguish the - faint, hollow echoes of distant voices. He gave the door a slight push and it opened, Jack drew his sword and boldly entered. Very softly he trod the slippery floor of a sort of corridor or tunnel, and came at last to a heavily barred trap-hatch in the ground. Here the voices grew loud, and he could plainly distinguish every word of conversation, carried on in gruff tones, and interspersed with hoarse laughter and savage oaths, Peeping through a cranny in the hatch he looked down into a large chamber hollowed out in the rocks below the water mark. It was cumbered on all sides by spars, casks, sea- chests, cabin-fittings, bales of various costly stuffs, vessels and utensils of gold, silver, glass and china, bags and strong boxes probably containing money, and arms in great diversity, In the centre of the cavern and beneath the Swinging lamp which threw its lurid flare upon the strange scene, was a long table at which no less than forty swart, weather-beaten ruffians in leathern kilts or petticoat-trousers gathered at the knee, belts bristling with long knives and clumsy pistols, and with red woollen caps on their heads, were seated, smoking long pipes and drinking strong liquors in horn cups, “‘Odsfish !” laughed one of them, an undersized, deformed, but powerful rascal, whom Jack at once recognized as his former friend Barabbas, “ and so the old beggar mistook you for the devil, my black beauty ?” This question was addressed to a tall, lank negro, who seemed to be greatly diverting the company by a story he was telling. “Yah! ah! yah! yah!” yelled the black, snap- ping his fingers, and displaying a formidable row of flashing white teeth ; “yo see, mate, no soon as de ole jackamarass see me wid de cuss long cow- horn stick on head, he sing out, ‘Oh, yo! skipper dere, what yo do?’ ‘What medo? Yah! I Mumbo Jumbo! Why yono clear out? I go jump on yo, tear yo tousand lilly piece, like one Korimante debil! Yo savey dat, yo dam buccra fisheryman ! yah! hi! whoo!’ Gorramighty, messmate, me sing out like one mad bull, poke wid horn, pour more blue fire in chaffer, makee more blue light, yah! den screechee, screechee, nuff frighten Massa Davy Jone’, pose him hear. By gum, sar, dat skear he ; he sheer off good; nebba see um no mo’, big sea swamp um boat, pose he shark-meat now, dam *quisitive swab lubber! Yi, ho! tink me larf to split |” And the negro clutched his sides and burst into shrieks of mirth, chorused by the others, “ And that’s old Clem’s bugbear |!” thought bold Jack, who could scarcely help joining in the laugh himself. ‘‘ Well, he’s a funny devil, no mistake !” A shrill whistle ringing down the rocky passage caused Jack to turn with a start, Vanderdecken ! Torch in hand, the apparition of the Foamy Recf approached. He was followed by a number of men. Jack clutched the hilt of his sword and confronted him with dauntless courage. “Donner und blitzen!’” roared the Dutchman. “ What for a stranger is dis?” “Ha! a stranger!” cried a deep, authoritative voice,