The Island School — page 356: what you’re looking at

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

_ Itisn clear Grek was yor fis: pad ‘of Hae man aN ie mo ane ieiee hey was seized by the ankles and possibly | he thought that Lucia di Valo and’ her men | thrown violently upon his back. He gasped out an 4 > Ae i} iad come back again. But the kitchen was dark, and | appeal for mercy, but the knife of the half-caste was. ‘9 Bi tah ‘there was nobody stirring. already at his throat, and he would have been killed: a i B | - Puzzled, he waited for a time, but there came no | but for Maravello, who interposed. | ai) fh me iin Then thinking he had dreamt the pace he | “He speaks English,” he Sate cutee he may be one of ey returned to his bed. our friends.” | ie | _. Inthe morning, on entering the kitchen, he found | Chorker caught the Inet word, and hastened bol i os “4 - abasin that the night before had been full of soup, | | declare that he was one of their friends. le and safe upon a shelf, lying in the middle of the floor “All I want,” he said, “is a crust of bread.” OH shattered into a score of pieces. Maravello passed a Band down his arm, tracing the- i i Now, if the basin had been lying close to the shelf | box of matches he still held tightly between his. Bs there would have been nothing very marvellous about | fingers. He wrenched it away, and Inddiag Harac i it. Things have occasionally slipped from shelves in | hold hae fast, struck a light. i a most unaccountable manner. But the inanimate is Rising to his feet, he lit a lamp that stood upon the ; not able on its own account toyump. — kitchen-table. “ih _~-~“Nothing else had apparently been disturbed. “ Let us see him well,” he said, laconically. | aa os Harac called Maravello, and putting their heads | Holding the lamp aloft, he closely scanned ‘the together, they tried to get at who it could be. features of Chorker. They were strange to him, ay fi It was not the boys, that was clear. What onearth *“T do not know you,” he said. ‘i . __-was there in the kitchen to lure them into it in the “But eyeny bcs else here knows whe said Chorker. % fay middle of the night? Nor was it the men, for they | “I'm one on’em. You may let me go.” ee would not have bolted away after what was evidently “No let go,” replied Harac. “ ep you, and shaw e an accident. you to the captain in the morning.” a Who or what, then, was it ? “ All right !” groaned Chorker. ale “We must watch,” said Maravello. “We owe it It was his one chance of life, and he ctahiaeeal it, a _ to those who spared our lives when they could justly | But Maravello was still of opinion that there vas have hanged us.” something wrong in his being there, and he deter- Gratitude was the mainspring of their actions now, | mined to securely bind Chorker. So they got ee whatever their previous acts may have been from an | cords and bound his legs and arms. Then they ~ _ ethical point of view. carried him to their room, and kept watch over him. | i) During that day there was no movement of im-~| through the night, taking that duty in turns, one Ri | portance in the castle. From the ramparts nothing | sleeping in snatches while the other was left on “ie was seen of the boat that had taken Eveline and guard. i the others away. What had become of it was doubtful. Chorker felt he was in a parlous fix. He was ate rsh Two, or three vessels passed at a distance, but | sure how much of his evil conduct was known, but hell that was all. Upon the land no movement of any | feared, in his natural cowardice, that the truth had ‘i sort was discerned. come out. If so, what would Jim Gordon and his. _ _That night, when all was apreelt Harac and Mara- | friends do with him ? My iW) vello crept out of their room, and hid themselves There was no sleep for the wretched old man that. | a ie under the kitchen-table. They were of the material | night, and the hunger which had brought him to the: : to make patient watchers, and for two hours they | kitchen vanished. Fear for once effectually destroyed. scarcely stirred. Then a slight shuffling sound was | his appetite. re a heard from the direction of the hall. They nudged Jim was always up early, and as soon as it was day- each other, and drew their knives. light he was informed of the capture of the traitor. — A stream of light flashed out near the doorway, Both Harac and Maravello were immensely ¢ gratified) — i and by its aid they saw no less a person than Chorker | by the approval he expressed of their ganduee My | a standing there with a lighted match in his hand. He “You have done me a very great favour,” he said,. . : was a stranger to them, and they knew he had come | “and I shall not forget it.” ? in for a forbidden puree. What it was they were not Then he went on to the room where that unhappy i eh is _ interested i in, old rascal lay still securely bound. : BH) _ Itwas clearly their duty to kill him. - aa nat after looking about him and seeing nobody Ba), —it never occurred to him to look under the table— ae t hrew the’end of the match down, and in the dark- | : | sen ma “nes a s stol le eae a kitehen. ih / ‘ i% ny Va d - Line, j | nd Vu. TO ae Ai) j x ' f BY a : he taal ie rng Lory 1g!) . p i 4 AN 4% aie bs hy. hd , « wee yj 4 iy as Viaty ' ;