Commodore Junk — page 276: what you’re looking at

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

THE ASSASSINS. 269 “Try if you can walk now,” said the buccaneer in a low voice. ‘ You will be better in your own place.” “ Yes—soon,” replied Humphrey, abruptly; and once more there was silence, a silence broken at last by the buccaneer. “Captain Armstrong,” he said softly, at last, “surely we can now be friends?” “Friends? No! Why can we?” cried Humphrey, an- grily. “Because I claim your life, the life that I saved, as mine —because I owe you mine!” “No, no! I tell you it is impossible! Enemies, sir, enemies to the bitter end. You forget why I came out here!” “No,” said the buccaneer, sadly. ‘“ You came to take my life—to destroy my people—but Fate said otherwise, and you became my prisoner—your life forfeited to me!” “ A life you dare not take!” cried Humphrey, sternly. “I am one of the king’s oflicers—your king’s men.” “T have no king!” “Nonsense, man! You are a subject of His Majesty King George.” “No!” cried the buccaneer. ‘ When that monarch ceased to give his people the protection they asked, and cruelly and unjustly banished them across the seas for no greater crime than defending a sister’s honour from a villain, that king deserved no more obedience from those he wronged.” “The king—did this?” said Humphrey, wonderingly, as he gazed full in the speaker’s face, struggling the while to grasp the clues of something misty in his mind—a something which he felt he ought to know, and which escaped him all the while. “The king! Well, no; but his people whom he entrusts with the care of his laws.” “Stop!” cried Humphrey, raising himself upon one arm COnnicloooks