Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. £3 ready described, assisted Jack to climb up after im. Old Clem followed more nimbly than could have been expected from one of his years and weight, They passed along the narrow and low-browed tunnel; stooping low, and not escaping an occasional bump against the various sharp corners of the rock, they reached the entrance, and issuing forth, found themselves on a narrow rock-way that wound down the side of the crag ; immediately before them was a large mass of rock, which completely concealed them from their school-mates, who were clustered on the beaca below, and were shouting for Hal, and protesting that further search for Jack would be quite useless. Our hero leaped upon the rock. His sudden and startling appearance was greeted by the crowd of boys below with a stirring cheer, “He is saved! he is saved! Roving Jack for ever! Hurrah !” Jack ran down the rock, and, rushing into the midst of the group, heartily shook hands with his affectionate and brave young comrades, and thanked them warmly for their kindness and unselfishness. “ But did you really come to the reef on purpose to outface the ghosts, Jack?” asked Frank Harley, eagerly. “Aye, for what else?” laughed Jack; “but I have no cause to be proud of my foolhardiness, for what would have been my fate if you had not come to my rescue ?” ‘* You would have perished in the cave, I suppose,” said Will Ryan. “Yes; I was thrown down a dark shaft,” re- turned Jack, drawing a deep breath, “‘ bound, gashed, and insensible, and left to die amid the dead bodies of former victims of the fiendish gang.” The boys gave a shout of consternation. “ But have the pirates left the island?” asked Ned Ross, glancing round nervously, “ Aye, that’s certain, or you would not have re- mained on it so long without being attacked,” said our hero, “ Sit down, Jack, and take a rest before we start,” rejoined Bert Atherstone, the youngest of the party, a slight-built, delicate-looking, but supremely handsome little fellow; ‘‘sit down, and tell us your adventures.” ‘Aye, do, Jack,’ blustered Ben Bouncer, “and then I’ll entertain the company by adding an ac- count of a similar scrape I got into myself. I I suppose you know that when sailing round the coast in my uncle’s brigantine I was taken prisoner by a gang of pirates, much in the same way as you were, Jack. All to be set down to my own dare- devildom, I must own.” “ And were your pirates phantoms?” asked Jack, smiling. ‘No; there you have the best of me, Except a sort of hobgoblin I once met, and a glimpse I caught, one winter night, of old Horney, I never saw but two real ghosts in my life. The first was the headless spirit of poor Mrs, Lathers, that was murdered by her wicked husband, the village barber ; in one hand she held her severed head, in the other the razor with which the fearful crime was perpetrated, The second apparition——. Oh, laugh on, if you think there’s anything to laugh at in such horrible occurrences. Now I won’t tell you another word of this interesting and truthful story. But to return to the pirates.” — “ How many of them were there, Ben ?” “A whole fleet, Jack, I doassure ye ; about fifty sail, I should think, perhaps more, but I hate to exagcerate. Well, my sons, these wretches were, as Jack says, not phantoms, certainly, but what then? They were a deuced deal worse —can- nibals !” “Stopper all, Ben Bouncer; stash your lying yarns |” shouted his school-fellows, who immedi- ately set upon him with a rush, bonneted him, and, roling him over in the sand, pommelled him into silence, Order being restored, our hero electrified his hearers: by the thrilling account he gave of his perils in the pirates’ cave. “And you saw Jonathan Wild?” they all cried, in astonishment, “Aye! and I shall meet him again in open day, I trust,” said our hero, bitterly. And Jack Sheppard ?” . “Aye! the fellow that broke out of the New Prison some months ago,” ‘What was he like? Very handsome and dash- ing, wasn’t he?” “Well, there was a look of shrewdness, daring and good-humour in his pale countenance, but after all he appeared what he is, a sly, idle, dis- solute scamp, a born thief! altogether to be despised by every boy who loves real manliness !” “ But Blueskin ?” “The darkest, most evil, and sayvage-looking ruffian that ever a trusty house-dog barked at! a cut-throat, a drunkard, a bully, athief! So much for Joe Blake, the Blueskin !” “But I always thought highwaymen were such slashing fellows !”’ cried little Bert, with enthu- siasm, “So did I,” replied Roving Jack, “ until I gave up reading bad, false books, and studied the real lives and deeds of such murderous, skulking villains ; until I reflected on the baseness and un- manliness of robbing paltry money from others, Selling honour and self-respect for a watch or a bundle of notes! Would you do it? Would I? Never! Ugh! and to call such fellows heroes ! Oh, how I hate such humbug !” “So did I, Jack,” responded Hal; “I should like to clear the world of such rogues; they are like vermin in a granary, and ought to be killed off with as little mercy as rats are burned,” ‘‘ Yes,’”’ cried our hero, ‘‘the roads are not safe for honest men to walk ; women and children are not secure from insult and brutality ; the merchant vessels on the high seas are liable to be run down, plundered, burnt to the water’s edge, their honest crews murdered, perhaps tortured to death, and the villains who are the cause of all this trouble and distress are to be pictured in dashing clothes and ticketed up as heroes. Ain’t it rascally ?” “Tt is Jack, it is!” responded Hal, right heartily, ‘But boys are not such fools as they were ; there are those who have toiled and suffered in the work of convincing them of the utter nonsense of pic- turing a thief as a hero; and, now we have the real hero in the right place, we shall have all the fun and sensition of robber-hunting; we shall have all that is terrific and exciting —fire, slaughter, tempest and passion ; but, at least, our hero will be noble and kind and honest, and his name shall be Roving Jack |” “ Hip, hurrah! three cheers for our hero! three eee nn ——E———————————E————_— GOMIGIOOkKSEEO