The Skeleton Crew; Or, Wildfire Ned — page 110: what you’re looking at

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

peer t THE SKELETON CREW; OR, WILDFIRE NED. 104 «“ A single glance to the main-yard explained the occasion of Jake the negro’s shout and curse. “The nurse had been coming up from the cabin when Jacko perceiving her near him, broke his thin chain, dropped suddenly down from the main- mast and running along the boom cover seized the nurse’s cap from her head, frightened her into a fit, and seizing the child, immediately darted up the main-topsail sheet, and thence to the bunt of the main-yard, where he now sat grinning and screeching most horribly, tossing the child about and each moment threatening to killit, ‘But one of our young midshipmen, a great favourite on board, who was a sprightly active fellow, and called Ned, though he could not climb so nimbly as an ape, yet had no mind to let the child suffer or be strangled without an effort to regain it, and kill the monster. “ Perhaps he was the more strongly excited to make chase after Jacko and the child, from noticing how much the commodore had praised him for former acts of bravery, and by the loud curses of the nigger Jake, who seemed suddenly horror- stricken at what had happened, because it might have been thought that he had been the main cause of the sad occurrence by teasing Jacko. «Ha, you rascal Jacko, hab you no more respect for de commodore den to steal his child ?. We bring you to de gangway, you black nigger, and get you.a dozen on de bare back fora tief, and afterwards skin you alive.’ ; “The ape looked down from lis perch, as if he understood the threat of the negro, and chattered a sort of defiance, showing his teeth, and each instant seemed as if he would bite the crying infant. “Ha, ha! Massa Ned, he say you must ketch bim ‘fore you flog him, and it’s no so easy for a midsbipman in boots to ketch a big ape barefoot.’ « A red spot mounted to the cheeks of Ned, as he cast a glance of offended pride and contempt at Jake, and then sprung across the deck to Jacob's ladder. “Jn an instant he was half-way up the rigging, running over the ratlines as lightly as if they were an easy flight of stairs. “‘ The shrouds scarcely quivered beneath his elastic motion. ‘Tn a second more his hand was on the futtocks. « «Massa Ned,’ cried Jake, who sometimes, from being a favorite, yentured to take liberties with the younger Officers. “ ‘Massa Ned, you best crawl through the ‘lubber’s hole,’ it take a sailor-man to climb de futtock shroud,’ “But he had scarcely time to utter his pretended caution before Ned was in the top. “The infuriated ape, in the meantime, had awaited the gallant middy’s approach, until perceiving he held a glittering dirk between his teeth; he began to chatter and scream, and toss and - twirl the screaming infant about, until each moment seemed to be its last. “The sight was sickening, for no one knew how to eatch the ape. “He might at any moment, in his fury, have dashed the infant’s brains out against the mast. ‘No one dared to fire, for the same shot might have killed the child. “ Besides, if the ape had been wounded, he would then have surely killed the babe for revenge. “Gallant Ned had nearly got up the rigging, when the ape clasped the baby more firmly, and, running along the yard to the opposite side of the top, sprang up a rope, and thence to the topmast back-stay. “ Up this it ran to the topmast cross-trees, where it again quietly seated itself and resumed its work of scratching the baby’s head, and pulling its clothes to pieces. “The cries of the child were now ear-piercing and heartrending. “For several minutes I stood watching the gallant young middy follow Jacko the ape from one piece of rigging to another, the ape all the while seeming only to exert such speed as was necessary to elude its pursuer, and pausing whenever the latter appeared to be weary of the exciting chase. “ All on deck were breathless with excitement. “ At last, by mancuvring thus, the mischievous animal, which looked now more ferocious than ever, succeeded in enticing the gallant young middy as high as the royal mast-head. “Springing suddenly from place to place, the chattering ape climbed the sky-sail pole, and, to the horror of every one, was actually tying, and did tie, the child on the main truck, a small circular piece of wood on the loftiest mast, and at a height from the deck so great that it made one dizzy to think of it. ‘A shout of horror ran through all the crew. «The ape had succeeded in tying the child with its own clothes on to the highest point of the tallest mast, and there it was, swaying to and fro, and in danger each second of falling off and being crushed to atoms. “The cries of the mother were beartrending. “ Having done this amount of mischief, Jacko ran nimbly down to the fore-top gallant mast-head, thence down the rigging to the fore-top, when, leaping on the fore-yard, it ran out to the yard-arm, and there began capering about, chattering, screeching, and making the most hideous noises. _ “The young middy was completely tired out with chasing Jacko, to save the child; but, unwilling to return to the deck while the child was in such unearthly danger, he took deliberate aim at the ape, and shot it in the head. “The infuriated monster was only wounded, but with a scream it rushed at the brave middy, and there, in the rigging, took place one of the most awful fights man ever witnessed ! “The excitement on board was now something awful and intense, “Every moment it was thought that the gallant lad would be killed or crushed to death by the infuriated monster. . ‘* Men on all sides rushed to his assistance. ‘But before they climbed half-way up, the gallant middy stabbed the ape and ran it through and through with his sword. ee SS GIVEN AW AWY!! SCENES, SHEETS OF CHARACTERS, AND A LARGE STAGE FRONT FOR A NEW PLAY, CALLED “ALONE IN THE PIRATES’ LAIR.” READ THE “BOYS OF ENGLAND,” AND SECURE THE ABOVE MAGNIFICENT GIFTS. ONE PENNY WEEKLY. 24: TA 6" GEomicboo