The Island School — page 304: what you’re looking at

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

CHORKER THINKS HE WILL FOLLOW A BAD EXAMPLE. 255 Her amazement reduced her to speechlessness. She waved him off, and he sullenly walked away. When he was near the door, he happened to look under the table, and there he espied the lost front. He cast a backward glance at his aunt. She was looking the other way. Of Mrs. Farrell he took no heed. It was the work of a moment, and he had the wig in his possession. & Go about bald as long as you live!” he muttered, as he thrust the front under his jacket. “Blow it! I'm getting sick of being bullied and worried about things I haven’t done.” It certainly was exasperating, but his revenge was a very bitter one. What he did with the wig must be recorded anon. Shortly after his departure, Mrs. Farrell left the hall, and then Miss Elegantine searched for her lost treasure. Of course, she could not find it, and the conviction that it had been burnt to nothing by the powder of the gun came upon her. “Ttis a horrible fix,” she muttered; “and not a hairdresser on this benighted island. All this comes of having a nephew and a fool of a doctor who sent me abroad for my health, I should like to kill the pair of them !” With sundry angry jerks of her body, she, too, vanished, and all that was left of her recent perform- ance was the broken stock, the rent barrel, and five bullets that had been flattened against the stone wall, on the floor. / CHAPTER CXXXVIII. CHORKER THINKS HE WILL FOLLOW A BAD EXAMPLE.— MORSE’S LAST INVENTION. T was night, and the trio of niggers sat round their kitchen fire. One white man was in their company on sufferance. It was Chorker, He had to eS bear himself in SS J a becoming manner in the company in which he found himself. Once upon a time he had looked down on niggers, but, in the whirligig of time, they had come to look down upon him. #VYou was a-sayin’, Mister Romeo,” said Chorker, “that in your belief the master and them two under ones got out of your bedroom winder ?” ig, ty] i, eete va See -aeg “T say dat,” said “ Mr.” Romeo, loftily, “and it am de trufe. You got anyting to say to de contrairy opposite P” “No; I shouldn’t take the liberty, Mister Romeo,” said the all toohumble Chorker. “ What I wanted to get at is, how did they do it ?” “Let theirselves down wif a rope, Mister Tick- head.” ) “Oh, that was the way ?” rejoined Chorker, placidly accepting his new cognomen. “I see, Let their- selves down, did they P” “They did,” said Romeo. Macbeth and Hamlet shook their heads doubt- fully, but declined to take any verbal part in a dis- cussion between Romeo and Chorker. “Now, as to the fixin’ of that ’ere rope, now ?” con- timued Chorker. “I ain’t got your brains, Mister Romeo.” y Romeo was flattered, but he was not going to show 1 rey “Dat no news tome,” he said. “’Bout fixin’ de rope, now, dat a chile’s job.” He took up the poker and held it horizontally. “See dat, now P” Chorker saw it, and was, to all appearances, much edified. “Say dat you put him ’cross de winder. Den you tie de rope to de middle and t’row him out. You git out and slide down. Dere you am outside safely sound.” “T shouldn't have thought of that in ten years,” said Chorker, perspiring with admiration and gratitude. “Not habin’ de brains,” remarked Romeo, com- placently. “Dat not de way old Nap shunt off,” said Macbeth tartly. “ What oder way he go, den P” demanded Romeo. ‘He not go dat way. Whar de poker he leab behin’ him ?” “‘He not take dis poker. Mos’ likeler, a stick.” ‘‘ Whar de stick, den?” . “Dey all hang on de rope an’ break him t’rough.” Romeo spoke as one given to solving problems off- hand. Chorker, who saw the flaw in the story, finding it filled up in this way, was more than satisfied. He reeked with admiration as he rose to his feet. “TJ didn’t think there was sich a quantity of brains in any man’s head. You ought to be in London, making your fortune. Good-night, Mister Romeo. Good-night, gentlemen.” They all responded with graciousness, and he Ieft them, not to go to bed, as they thought, but to look up some bits of rope to piece together, for he was bent on emulating the fictitious story of the school- master’s escape, Eom Cc 300 €55 com