The Argosy, April 1916 — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

122 if we had Black Henry with us—he could handle them blacks pretty nearly as good as William—and we could run our business all by ourselves. Ain’t that funny to think of —yuss like this?” Jake Haas spat far and decisively before he replied: “It ain’t so awful funny, Pete. It’s a fack. You don’t think Black Henry is not expectin’ William to get him out, don’t your If William don’t, when Black Henry is let out won’t he be ready to go with us and run our own business like you said. “Besides, ain’t we got nothin’ to say? You and me, masters of our trade, ship’s carpenters, and without us no boat would never have been builded yet. “No, Pete; that's not such a funny joke of yours about Black Henry and you and me. It’s a good idea—let’s stick to it. Let’s go ahead with it.” Having spread the word among his men that he would spend the evening at the cot- tage of Jake Haas and Sailor Pete playing cards, Overseer Ransom carefully put out all his own lights and shut his door as soon as the negress who served him as cook and housekeeper had taken herself off to her own home. He did not wish any of the men to come seeking him here; and also he wished to im- press on them that he would be out for an evening’s entertainment and was not to be disturbed: - Down into his cellar he slipped then, where Mother Juliet was in hiding. Boldly she had chosen this cottage be- cause she believed the people of the big house would never suspect her of so ven- turesome a piece of finesse. They would suspect her of having fled to Little Twin Island, or of concealment in the ravine- woods adjacent to the Settlement. Moreover she had need to be near Wil- liam Ransom at once, for the promised stranger and ally, H. A. Danforth, was with her. : Mother Juliet had rediscovered him the previous night after she had made sure that Michael Sands and the Brothers were gone for good. Danforth, wrapped in his blank- ets, was staggering along the path behind the timber shed. From the folds of her ample yellow satin Skirts she produced the complete outfit of clothes she had stolen from William Ran- som. He put them on while she waited for him in her hut. THE ARGOSY. When they arrived at Ransom’s house the overseer never guessed that the stranger was with her. He was willing enough to have her take refuge in his cellar so long as he was to know nothing about it. Mother Juliet agreed readily to his con- dition of admittance. Ransom returned to his bed. The seeress, recovering Danforth from the hedge in which she had secreted him, led the way into the cellar. It was a livable room of stone walls, with dwarfed windows on four sides. Its pur- pose was not so much for storing things as for security and shelter in times of storm. There were an abandoned mattress on the floor and a few chairs, one of them a rocker —all the cast-off furniture of the prosperous overseer. Mother Juliet pointed to the mattress for Danforth, and with signs of a return of her normal tranquillity planted herself in the rocker. The lantern was their only light. Its lowered flame showed them to each other as mere black bulks in the semi-darkness. Despite Danforth’s protests Mother Ju- liet contrived to hold him that night and all the next day in the cellar, nourishing him richly and plentifully and waiting on him constantly, as well as watching over him. The man who was to show him the way out of his difficult position could come only at night because of spies who might be slinking about the Settlement. This was all that Danforth perceived in full clear-- ness, but from Mother Juliet’s ramblings of the day he had absorbed a hazy notion of something like internecine warfare between the people of the big house and the people of the Settlement. The windows were neatly screened with dark cloths. Three lamps illuminated the cellar for the reception of this man. Danforth judged it must be somewhere between seven and eight o’clock when a trap-door in the roof of the cellar was opened and he saw a giant figure descend the ladder rapidly. CHAPTER XV. THE MEETING. WILLIAM RANSOM had abiding faith in the supernatural gifts of the seer- ess. Whether he ever really believed her prophecies about a stranger arriving on this island, where it was inspossible to land COMMICLOO© S (C©@