The Golden Argosy: Tom Gale's Ride — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

: ar. See a | States, Jack?” in his | was Jack’s mechanical reply. 534 THE GOLDEN ARGOSY. 4 JULY 23, 188%. ‘*There ain’t no way the cap’n can play | went to sleep again himself, waking about |as heglanced from the two motionless forms | most intense blackness that can be imagined any kind of agame on us, is there?” asked | sunrise to find Peltiah up before him, per- | to a far away speck on the undulating sur- | or described, against which the foam driven Peltiah, as they made ‘heir way along the | forming his ablutions in a bucket of salt |face of the sea, above which appeared a| from the wave crests seemed whiter than firm hard beach ; “ for there’s somethin’ in | water. that one eye of his I don’t like exac’ly.” Following his companion’s example, down to the Nancy inside of two hours, faint blurr, as of smoke, ‘‘we could run | wool. Screaming and shrieking like the united “Tt will pay to watch him, I fancy, or any | Jack obeyed the call to breakfast, wonder- | for she’s layin’ to down to looard tryin’ out | voice of ten thousand fiends, the terrikle one else in this Jack’s concise reply. ‘*’Ceptin’ that air Pepe, poor little chap,” said Pejtiah regretfully. *‘ I wisht we could a’ took him along to the States with us, and have him growed up decent,” he added rather wistfully. Jack, who was by no means as confident concerning the colored youth’s sincerity, made no reply, and in a few moments the two were standing on the Donna’s deck. Bob, who was a negro of almost gigantic descending the broken ratlines in the main | aloft, jest about breakfast time.” rigging, holding a battered spyglass in one hand. The captain, who even at this early hour CHAPTER XIX. in the morning smelt strongly of spirituous SWEPT AWAY BY THE HURRICANE, liquors, muttered something about having | * A’ that little black scamp of a been looking out for ‘‘a steamer,” and led Pepe laidin with old Paquita to do the way below, where Bob had breakfast the job, so they two would go already served. halves on the reward. But Bellingham Broiled turtle steak again, cassava cakes | caught Pepe hidin’ nigh the tree where his and hot coffee. Both Jack and Peltiah | dogs was killed, and made him own up. art of the country,” was | ing not a little at the sight of Captain Kelly |—I see her all plain with the glass from | wind struck the little schooner. One cry was faintly heard from the black, who was swept from his foothold on the bowsprit into the seething waves, and he was gone ! Captain Kelly, bareheaded, clung to the wheel, which was hard up, while Jack and Peltiah were struggling to extricate them- selves from the folds of the sail which had for the moment completely hidden them from view. Down—down to her bearings the little frame, was just putting on the hatch over| would have declined the latter, the morn-/He took the drug old Paquita gave Pepe | Donna reeled, but recovering in a moment, the now completed cargo. Some fifty or sixty sea turtles, principally of the hawk- ing itself being both hot and sultry, with |away from him, and this mornin’ I slipped only an occasional puff of air trom the/it into their coffee. Saved us a heap of with her bulwark boarding torn completely away by the inrush of the seas, she darted bill species, lay in the bottom of the hold | higher lands, but Captain Kelly seemed to | trouble, for we was cal’latin’ to have a job off before the blast with fearful velocity on masses of wet seaweed. A rude pen, containing slimy, malodorous substances, not un learned was sponge in its native state, oc- be hurt at their hesitation. of it if we tackled and tied ’em whilst they ‘** Maybe our cookin’ ain't such as you've | was asleep last night ; they’re both strong- look; ‘‘but you won't get no such coffee as | as good as dead tor two hours yet, Bob, and under the three reefed foresail alone. The head of the jib and the bellying e pieces of liver, which they/| been used to,” he said, with an aggrieved | er’n bull mooses by the look. But they’re | Masses of the lowered mainsail flew out to leeward, but it was useless to try to secure O° at Sead of the hold, while most of the | that, wherever you come from. It growed} by that time we'll have ’em aboard the|them. The force of the wind was such aining portion was filled up with newly | here on the island, and if Bob can’t do | Nancy—she ain’t mor’n five mile off now at | that it was actually impossible to face it cut sugarcane stalks. Jack briefly explained their presence on board to the black, who pean good-na- turedly, and went to wor nothing else he can make good coffee, eh | the furdest.” and draw breath. Bob?” : : Was Jack dreaming, or did he actually |. Captain Kelly mutely pointed gaath one “T t'ink so, sah,” was the subdued reply; | hear the foregoing words as he lay with | hand ahead. The loudest sh® uld broiling turtle| and rather than wound any one’s feelings | closed eyes on the Donna’s afterhouse? | have been completely lost in the 1 tu- steak for them over a charcoal fire in a| the two began to absorb the black and bit-| The creaking of the main boom directly mult of wind and sea. yam, they found very palatable. The normal condition of the average West Indian is somnolency, so as soon as Bob had cleared away the two tin plates composing the supper service, he coiled| which the Donna’s commander left the! was just awakening from sleep—a drugged e keel of the bowsprit | little swinging table and clambered up the| sleep, as he at once realized by what he himself up near apd went to sleep. The cool breeze from the sea kept the | some errand of his own. gnats and mosquitoes at a respectful dis- tance. | Sitting on the after honse of the little hot and too all fired strong,” said Peltiah, | was holding his nearly half emptied mug in his | saw Captain Kelly standing by the wheel, | Overhead, while the electric flame was heard to hiss as a bolt struck the watera mugs. **Cap’n—oh, Cap'n Kelly!” _ tude brazier on deck. This, with boiled|ter compound contained in two yellow | over his head, the “ plap ” of the reef points |__ Under close reefed foresail alone, the against the canvas, and the swash of the | Nancy lay down to the blast, with her lee water about the counter, as the vessel set- | Tail under, and the smoke from her try- It was the voice of Mr. Bellingham from | tled into the long heaving swells, quickly | Works streaming off to leeward. alongside the schooner, in obedience to} assured him that he was not dreaming, but compunionway steps, followed by Bob on | had heard. Unclosing his eyes far enough to peer be- They could just see the half fletched of a small whale alongside as the — swept by the stern like a winged Then came an instantaneous and awful ‘No use; I can’t drink no more—it’s too| tween his long lashes, Jack, whose head | lull, in which another thunder peal seemed illowed rather higher than his bod: schooner, Jack and Peltiah watched the / hand, and eying Jack, who was making a| which he occasionally moved a spoke or stars blazing out overbead, while in the| rather wry face over his own. 9 south the gorgeous constellation of the _ southern cross shone forth in full pence. down there,” he added, pointing to a small . | trap bar the table leading to the after} T ‘* What'll we do when we get bac to the quired i Peltiah, | 1 matters on came perfectly naturally. ** We can tell better when we get there,” - Somehow the curious vision, if such it may be called, he had seen in the strange liqnid which old Paquita poured into the palm of his hand, a few hours before, kept presenting itself to his mind. He spoke of this a moment or two later, but Peltiah only laughed carelessly. ‘* The idee of believing that you really see anything more’n your own face, Jack!” he said, incredulously. “I thought you was sensibler’n all that.” But Jack only laughed, and as the scat- tering lights in the hitle settlement began to be extinguished one by one, they let the mainsail drop from its gaskets and stretched themselves out on the folds of the sail upon the after house. _Jack’s full intention was to sleep with one eye open, but both he and Peltiah were very tired, and slept tninterruptedly till somewhere in the vicinity of midnight. At that time Jack was awakened by the sound of loud talking and considerable hilarity on the flat portion of the ledge alongside the schooner. Then followed a fragmentary duet, in which the united voices of Captain Kelly and Mr. Bellingham, somewhat punctu- ated by hiccoughs, were prominent; while another and sbriller voice, which Jack rec- ognized as belonging to Pepe, chimed in at decent intervals: “Oh. whar was you goin’, my pretty maid? 1, you Rio. I sails for M’tanzas to-morrer, she said, 2 Ons the banks of the Rio Grande.” **’Member, cap'n,” said Mr. Bellingham, brokenly, ‘‘I share all same you—you all|gan coiling up the same me.” : Captain Kelly was heard to reply with evident difficulty that he’d remember. ‘*Me, too,” piped in Pepe, but a sound not unlike that of asmart box on the ear, followed by a subdued howl, was evidence that the suggestion was not taken in good Then, after a little further inaudible conversation, the conclave dissolved. Mr. Bellingham’s uncertain steps died away in the distance, and Captain Kelly, climbing over the rail, succeeded in getting below - and into his berth. Presuming that they had been diseussin the snticipated ts of the voyage, Jac lay listening till Captain Kelly's snoriag two. Bob, ‘*Wonder if we can’t pour what's left was meditatively smoking a short black rt of the hold, ‘‘and then let ‘em think | by the sch om ‘Suiting the action to the word, Peltial’| over which Jack saw . > atling’s Island ap- and Jack turned the balance of the steam- | parently some six miles distant. ing liquid through the aperture and re-/ ‘J don’t just like the look of the weather, placed the trap. Hardly had they resumed | Bob,” said Captain Kelly, who, in lieu of their places on the locker before Captain | other companionship, was evidently in the Kelly returned to the little cabin, just in| habit of conversing freely with the negro; time to see each taking his empty mug from | **s9 maybe we might as well have things his lips. se ready soit it should blow up sudden, we ‘’T wasn’t so bad after all, then?” he| can work back to the island under easy said with a hoarse chuckle, as they rose from | sail, after we've passed our live cargo the table. Jack said: ‘‘no indeed, it was| aboard the Nancy.” more the heat than the taste that he ob- : jected to—” with which the three left the aside his pipe, went forward with Captain stifling cabin for the deck. Kelly, who slipped a becket over one of It was a rather singular morning. A sort| the wheel spokes, so that the Donna would of indefinable haze seemed to lie directly easily sieer herself for a time. against the sky, hiding its blue completely} «Aboard the Nancy, eh? ” muttered from sight, yet not in the least interfering| Jack between his tecth, as he thrust his with the ocean view. hand inside the breast of his woolen shirt. Through this haze the red eye of the sun, | «TJ rather think not——” shorn of some of its intense heat, looked| Were he stopped suddenly. The revolver down upon the oily surface of the sea,|ypon which he had relied for protection which outside the harbor mouth was run-| was gone—taken from him while lying thus ning in long irregular swells from the| asleep. : west. ‘‘Peltiah, wake up!” he whispered The little puffs of air from the hill tops | Joudly in the ear of his companion, who lay were fitful and irregular, yet Captain Kelly | beside him. But the effects of the partial began to meke ready for sailing. : dose of the narcotic, which Captain Kelly r. Bellingham, with Pepe at his side, | presumed they had drunk entire, were wear- stood watching the sails going up. Jack | ing off as with himself, and Peltiah’s eyes noticed that both himself and Peltiah were | opened with a sudden snap. ‘ the recipients of some very peculiar glances | Before he could speak, Jack clapped his both from the colored governor and his | hand over his mouth. small aide-de-camp, who grinned at each in ‘‘Lie still—don’t speak or move,” he turn, but uttered no word. said, in the same low whisper; ‘‘ we've The fasts were hauled in, and very slowly | been drugged, and Captain et is taking the Donna began forging toward the harbor | ys off aboard the Nancy, instead of carry- mouth. : ing us to Matanzas——” ‘Never was so plaguy sleepy in all my| ‘+ That'll do the fores’l, Bob,” interrupted born days,” said Peltiah, with a great yawn, | the voice of Captain Kelly ; ‘‘now take the as Captain Kelly took the little wheel, | the bonnet off the jib, stow it snug on the while Bob, eying the speaker curiously, be-| boom, and hoist away again, while I let the alyards about the| mains’l run down, for it’s blackin’ up to cluttered up deck. i the wind’ard, and I'm afraid now it'll come «‘ Why Jack’s gettin’ lazy, too,” continued |on to blow before we get down to the Peltiah, vaguely wondering why Captain schooner.” Kelly grinned so as he advised him tolie| There was no further opportunity for down on the roof of the small afterhouse, | whispered consultation just then, as and take a nap if he wanted to. _ | Captain Kelly, hurrying aft, slashed away For Jack, after helping hoist the sails,|the peak and throat halyards together, felt giddy and light headed, and had him-| holding one in each hand, until the sail self leased back on the cabin top with his | was down. ) head pillowed on a coil of rope ; and before ‘‘Hurry, Bob,” he shouted suddenly, he knew it, he had drifted off into dream- | * quick, or by——” land, } The oath never left his lips. With a And so, giving heed to Captain Kelly’s | rush and roar so terrible as to almost drown kindly advice, Peltiah stretched his awk- | the awful thunder-peal that crashed over- ward length beside his companion, and | head, simultaneous with a blinding flash of dropped asleep almost immediately. lightning, came the hurricane ! ‘If it would only breeze up alittle, Bob,” | ‘The haze which had covered the sky was = * wind from a different quarter—the south- to fairly rend the blackness of the, arch squatted on deck close at hand, | cable’s length distant. With another rush and roar came the the shock. | Following it went the long main boom. Jack and Peltiah dropped in the gangway just in time to save themselves, but the un- teak? Captain Kelly, struck on the head, was knocked like a log over the low rail, and in an instant lost to sight in the boiling surge, while the little craft went flying on- ward like a mad thing before the gale. Jack sprang to the wheel and steadied it. Nothing could be done but to keep the little The black grunted assent, and laying | craft dead before the tempest till it might . abate somewhat of its fury. All at once the weather lanyards of the main rigging parted, the mainmast reeled, swayed an instant, and with a crash snapped off a foot or so above the deck. ‘The axe!” yelled Jack in the ear of Peltiah, who, with the whitest of faces, was clinging to the little upright binnacle be- fore the wheel. For once Peltiah proved equal to the emergency. A sharp axe, with its blade in a becket, was secured close to the after com- ionway. Releasing it, Peltiah dealt low after blow to the lanyards, and in an- other instant mainmast, booms and heavy sail were sweeping astern. Relieved of this encumbering mass of wreckage, the little schooner flew on with increased speed. She rolled in great green seas over the remains of either rail, as she sped over and through the rapidly risen waves which followed towering half mast head high above the stern. Overhead rolled the rattle and crash of heaven's artillery without cessation, while such lightning as is only seen in the tropics, or the vicinity of the Gulf Stream, added terror to what was already more terrible than anything either Jack or Peltiah had ever imagin Suddenly a great sea, following in the schooner’s wake, reared its cresting head above the stern, and, with a crash, flooded the poop. Stunned and blinded, Jack clung convulsively to the wheel spokes, while Peltiah, beaten to the deck, clutched a fragment ot the parted main sheet keg had still remained belayed to its cleat. Luckily the companionway scuttle had been pulled over, else the cabin would have been filled at once. As it was, the binnacle containing the compass was wrenched from its fastenings and swept away, together with the little dingy lashed across the stern davits. ‘* We must keep her ahead of the seas or go down,” bellowed Jack, as, shaking off assured him of sound slumber. Then he|said the worthy captain with an ugly smile, | transformed os though by magic into the | the great volume of water, the little Donna GOmitiG | €s) 900 (E(0) ni