Commodore Junk — page 286: what you’re looking at

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

THE PLAN OF ESCAPE. 279 “Take it. It is in my hand.” ‘“‘Liberty chained to you, sir! No. There, place me under no further obligations, sir. I will not fight against you; but pray understand that what you ask can never be.” “T can wait,” said the buccaneer again, quietly, as he let his eyes rest for a few moments upon his prisoner's face, and then left the room. Humphrey sprang up impatiently, and was about to pace the chamber like a wild beast in a cage when he heard voices in the corridor, and directly after Dinny entered. The man looked troubled and stood listening, then he stole to the curtain and went down the corridor, to stay away for quite a quarter of an hour before he returned. “He’s gone, sor, safe enough. Faix, captain, dear, I fale as if I ought to be hung.” “Hung, Dinny ?” “Vis, sor, for threachery to as good a friend as I iver had.” “What do you mean, Dinny?” cried Humphrey, eagerly. “Mane, sor! Why, that all the grate min in the world, from Cesar down to Pater Donovan, have had their wake side. I’ve got mine, and I’m a fallen man.” “Speak out plainly,” cried Humphrey, flushing. “ That’s just what I’m doing, sor,” said Dinny, with a soft smile. ‘It’s Nature, sor. She was bad enough, and thin you helped her. Oh, there’s no foighting agen it! It used to be so in Oireland. She says to the little birds in the spring— choose your partners, darlin’s, she says, and they chose ’em ; and she said the same to human man, and he chooses his.” “Oh, Dinny, if you hadn’t quite such a long tongue!” cried Humphrey. “Faix, it’s a regular sarpint, sor, for length, and just as desaving; but as I was saying, what Nature says in owld Oire land in the spring she says out here in this baste of a counthry CONnnicloOol<s —)