Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

a ee = = = = ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. 5 ee eareer of wild but worthy adventures! I mean to vindicate the title you and all my young comrades haye given me, for am I not, all the world over, ' Rovine JACK?” CHAPTER III, BARABBAS, KEENLY blows the freshening gale, heavier dash and huger swell the thundering tidal waves as Roving Jack and his trusty friend mount the slip- pery stairs of the rugged jetty. “Avast, my chum ; look yonder at that fellow !” said our hero, suddenly checking his companion. “ What fellow? The seaman leaning against that wing aee ? He looks an ugly customer, Do ye know im ” “Yes ; his name’s Barabbas,” “A very appropriate one for such a hang-dog- looking wretch. Did ever a human being wear such a fiendish countenance? Thief and murderer seem stamped upon his face,” “T have reason to suspect him to be both,” replied our hero, “Come, let’s pass him quickly ; I want to have no talk with him,” “But how came he by such an undesirable name?” “His father was hanged for highway robbery, his mother was whipped at the cart-tail through all the market towns in the county, and was afterwards transported ; he was born in prison, and, I suppose, the gaolers gave him his pretty name, Come, let’s step past him quickly ; I don’t want him to recog- nise me.” But the jetty was narrow, and it was impossible for the boys to pass the evil looking fellow, who had excited their unfavourable remarks without being seen by him. A more hideous-looking ruffian it is scarcely pos- sible to picture ; his face was broad, sallow, and of the Asiatic type; his thick, black, beetling brows met in the centre of his low, brutal forehead, and from beneath their shaggy penthouse a pair of little, blasting eyes, glittered with snake-like venom and ferocity ; his large, hard mouth was deformed by an irregular row of yellow tusk-like fangs, one of which protruded over his nether lip; he was further disfigured by a broken nose and a ghastly scar, which seamed his left cheek; his hair was of reddish black, as coarse and shaggy as a bison’s mane; his body was broad-built and ungainly, his arms long and wiry like those of a gorilla, and his legs bandied ; he was dwarfish in stature but evidently a man of immense muscular power. He wore a loose pea-jacket, a woollen guernsey, a leathern kilt, high boots, and a scarlet night-cap, a murderous-looking pistol, and a long, slim, sheath- less knife were thrust through his heavy belt. He was smoking a short pipe, and stood leaning awk- wardly with his long arms lightly folded acroas his wide breast. The boys passed him with downcast eyes and hastening steps. He started, unlocked his long arms, and as they. fell by his sides his broad fists were seen to drop below his knees. Strange devices were punctured on the back of his hands with some bluish pigment, and on the third finger of his left hand he wore a large bril- liant ring, seen at a glance to be of fabulous value, ‘“‘ Ahoy, there! ahoy, my little cheeries.” But the boys returned no answer. “ Ahoy, there, Roving Jack !”’ cried Barabbas, with a gruff laugh, ‘ Won't ye heave to, my little cheery? Have ye forgot your old messmate? Never! Why, strike my toplights! when you were but a teething brat, didn’t I use to carry ye out into the surf, and larn you to swim like a young dolphin? And who was it that made ye name every part of a wessel from hull to trucks, till ye got to be as knowing as the oldest sea-dog in the sarvice, and above all, who twisted ye the rattling yarns about Old Mob and Mull’d Sack, the high tobymen, and Captain Kid that hoisted the black flag, and sailed ‘on the grand account ?’ *¢¢ My name is Captain Kidd, As I sailed, as I sailed; I had the Bible in my hand, And I buried it in the sand, As I sailed!’ “Ho! ho! Iwon’t believe ye’ll sheer off without so much as a flying salute to your old chum! Roving Jack was born to be Jack the Rover, A jolly free trader or a bold buccaneer, and has he turned out a milk-sop ?—a snivelling Johnny Good- child, the parson’s pet? No! no!” “ Mark me, Barabbas,” said Jack, drawing him- self up, and fixing a steady glance upon the coarse and hideous face of the ruffian, “I don’t want ye to think me ungrateful for any favours you have done me when I was achild; but as for the fine yarns you spun about a pack of thieves and cut- throats, when I was a ‘teething brat’ as you say, whatever I thought of them then, I’ve cut my wisdom teeth since, and am now well aware that your heroes were showy, sham, paltry, ruffianly humbugs, and that there was no more of the real grit in them than there is in the cowardly skunks that fired the false beacon on the Foamy Reef, and lured that noble brigantine, the West Indiaman, ‘ Malabar,’ on to dreadful destruction, .Do ye call that a manly affair?” “ You dog !” * You wolf! There, I don’t want to quarrel with you, Barabbas ; but do you think I’ve forgotten the awful night when I stole away from home to lenda hand to the really manly fellows who strove to save the lives of the poor sufferers betrayed by you and your treacherous, filthy gang of inhuman devils?” “ How ?—what ?—have a care |” “T will have a care—to shun you as I would shun a fiend or a vampire, Perhaps you don’t know who struck you down with the broken oar that night when, your hands wet and crimson with blood, you were rifling the pockets of the poor sea- man, whom you murdered? Tl tell ye who it was then—it was I, Roving Jack!” The ruffian stared aghast at the noble boy, astounded at his calm audacity, He tried to rave out an oath ; but his astonish- ment at the coolness and determination with which our hero spoke rendered him breathless ; however, he gripped his long knife, and hissed !ike a roused adder. “T give you warning, Master Barabbas,” the boy continued, in the same measured tones, ‘ that if you come athwart hawse with me I'll play the deyil with ye.” The villain glared upon him for a moment, as if designing to spring upon him with the upraised knife, Then he lowered his arm, and broke into a chuckling laugh. “Cockalorum! crow away my game chick. Smash my eyes, if it wouldn’t tickle a ship’s chap- lain to hear sucha bantam’s clarion, Ha! ha! but Jack, now, you touch little sapling of true oak, I admire your pluck, and I don’t want to see ye fling away your chance for life in the miserablesarvice of (ELD OOLKKS (CO) CO 5}