Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

16 ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. Jack Sheppard laughed, tossed off a brimmer of hot brandy, and without hesitation trolled forth, in a fine mellow voice, the following HIGHWAYMAN’S SONG. «¢ Pale Oliver* rears his shining face, Above the rushy fen, sirs ; | The horseman rides with hastening pace, Adown the ‘ Deadman’s Glen,’ sirs. The roving wind now ramps about, Claps to the cotter’s door, sirs ; Or clanks the rusty gibbet-bolts, Where Mat swings on the moor, sirs. So up, my boys! up, my boys! Deeds to-night, to-morrow joys! To cheat the day, Let’s mount—away ! Hurrah! hurrah, for the road, boys! The mill-kent lurks behind the pale, The Romonert haunts the glen, sirs ; And where the road winds down the dale, Ye meet the tobymen, sirs! But man must live—they gain the least That labour most, I think, sirs! So when poor hunger finds a feast, I feel inclined to wink, sirs. Then up, my boys! up my boys! &e. ‘* Beneath the dark and shadowy elms, That skirt the lonely lane, sirs, When night the world with gloom o’erwhelms, Our prancing prads§ we rein, sirs ; His lordship’s rumblers|| rattle by, Our barking-irons{ click, sirs, ‘Stand and deliver, or you die!’ Then gelt** and gems we nick, sirs. So up, my boys! up, my boys! &e. “ Brayvo !” shouted the whole conclave; “hurraw for Captin Sheppard, and his pal, Blueskin !” In the midst of the tumultuous applause that suc- ceeded, Jonathan Wild and Wolfgang, the skipper of the pirate schooner, entered the cavern. “Ze gale shtill blowsh shtiff, Meister Vild,” said the Hollander; “it ish ein teuflesh ugly night. Von’t you shtay mit uns, her-re in ze cave, till morgen ?”’ “No; get ready the boat,’’ returned Jonathan. _ © Quilt, Arnold, collect our men. Come, Jack, and Blueskin, we must be on our road to London before daybreak,” ‘Pardon, Mr.- Wild; what of the chick we’ve caged?’ rejoined Barabbas, maliciously. ‘“ Shall we keep him under hatches till further orders, or wring his neck at once?” “T had not forgotten him,” said Wild, coldly ; “bring him hither.” 4 Barabbas uttered a barbaric whoop, and bounded off to the gloomy recess in the cavern beneath which our hero was lying, bound and in darkness, The ruffian lifted the trap and : urried down. Soon he re-appeared, brutally Gragging along the gagged, fettered and disabled prisoner. “ Unmuzzle him,” said Wild, with a leer; “let us hear whether he will change his tune; he has had time for reflection. Speak, Roving Jack, your answer to my offer, repeated for the last time. Will you enter iny service, or are you prepared to pay the penalty of your foolhardiness !” “You can kill me, Jonathan Wild,” returned our hero, in thrilling tone, ‘‘ but you cannot make me your slave, I can die, but I cannot be a thief |” “Die, then!” growled the villain, uplifting the pistol, which he grasped by the barrel end. * The moon. ft Housebreaker. ¢ Gipsy. § Horses. | Car- J Pistols. riage wheels, ** Money, For an instant he paused, with upraised arm, glaring threateningly upon the calm, dauntless countenance of the noble lad, He uttered an awful imprecation, and struck our hero down with a fearful blow. Roving Jack reeled backwards and fell flat; his battered brow spouted blood, his arms sank list- lessly by his side ; he groaned, his eyes closed, and a mortal shudder ran through his frame, then his limbs stiffened, and he lay quite still. ‘Myn Got! dat vos a fery prave jonker!” said Wolfgang, with a dark scowl at the thief-taker, “Ts he tead ?”’ Barabbas leaned over the prostrate boy, and laid his hard hand upon his delicate but firm breast. “ Humph |” said he, ‘his heart has ceased beat- ing ; but it’s best to make sure of him.” “ Chive (stab) him |” growled Blueskin. With a satanic leer Barabbas drew his long, sharp knife from his belt, and was about to draw its keen edge across our hero’s throat, when the pirate cap- tain raised his foot and kicked the bloodthirsty villain half-across the cavern. “Donner und holle!” he thundered. “ Vot for a trick is dis? Sall you make my varehoush von bleeting shambles ?” Barabbas stumbled on to his feet, and looked rather sheepishly towards his irate captain, “‘ Ax yer pardon, captin,” he mumbled. “ But shall I stow away the little stiff ’un ?” ‘Ja; pitch him down the “‘ Dead Hold,” returned the pirate, coolly. Barabbas seized the senseless form in his brawny arms, and hurried it along to the end of the cavern, where a flight of steps led to another of the numerous passages cut in the living rock, Taking down a torch from a sconce in the wall he brandished the lurid flame about his hideous head, and with the air of a gloating fiend, chuckled over his lifeless burthen. He reached a heayily barred door. He unbarred and then opened it with a large key that he selected from a bunch hanging at his belt. As the ponderous door jarred back a small circular chamber appeared. From the centre of the ceiling hung a pulley and a long chain, one end of which was at'ached to an iron ring in the floor. : A horrid, sickening stench pervaded the place. Barabbas laid the body down by the door, and stationing himself close by the wall, caught hold of the chain pending from the block, and pulled at it with all his strength. A large and heavy trap was slowly raised from the floor, and a deep black shaft displayed, from which arose increasingly a foul, stifling smell, “So ends the career of a Pirate-hunter !” chuckled the ruffian. “Ho! ho! shouldn’t wonder if his ghost doesn’t join some phantom crew of ‘jollies’ (men-o’-war's-men), and give chase to the ‘Flying Dutchman !” Here he placed his arms round the boy’s slim waist and dragged him to the hatch. “More meat for the worms !” he laughed, fiendishly. ‘Ho! ho! they can’t grumble at me for a stingy purser; they gets their ‘lowance. There, you epicures, there’s a luscious morsel for ye; no tough salt-junk that, but a bleater, fresh killed, young, and tender, the flower of the flock ! ho! ho! That all this big round world should be nothing but a grazing ground for worms’-meat !” So saying, he lifted the inanimate form in his arms and dashed it down into the darkness. A dull thud, a clatter as of bones, and hollow, oy WOTICE TO OUR READERS.—In preparation, another very beautiful Engraving, which will pe given away with an early Number. dur next, The subject of the Engraving oy sy ovoyrta COM