Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-06-19
ong intervals. we had no visitors at that

long intervals. we had no visitors at that
Arts point.
Peter and his old bag of a mother
soon discovered were confirmed opium
smokers, and wiler they went in for
regular spree, ami negan to suffer re-
eovery, they made things hum in Monkey
Island. as | called il. Once I was fool
enough to interfere and stop Peter from
choking me life gu; CT her. For thanks,
the pair turned on me: but managed to
dress them down, although Peter nearly
got lis knife into me. And can tell you,"
laughed Harding pausing in his story, and
rising TO conjure again with the kettle and
other adjrnCts, that two to one. with
precious little room, and break-neck fall
If you're not careful, isn't as funny as it
might be-
Having replenished the glasses and re-
filled and lit his pipe Harding proceeded:
We'll, after this l could see that the two
had taken down upon ME, and as l, on
my part, was heartily sick of the whole
contract, / told the officer who commanded
the Bitten. next time she called that 1
wanted to leave, ana that the sooner he
found substitute the better l should be
pleas ed For answer he called me an Eng
fish schelm. which means rascal, and told
me that had agreed for two years, which
was lie, and that there l should stay.
Also, that bed make it his business 20 see
that 1 didn't get away.
Seeing that escape for that's what 1t
really came to, by water was not to be
q,
sharks pretty well put that out Of the ques-
ticn determined to see what the land side
was like. A muddy banked river emp-ied
itself just below the light house, and this
one day l started to follow up. But l
didn't follow long. l don't believe l got
mile before l was mother-naked and nearly
bitten and stung to death. Every bush
and shrub. nay the very flowers. seemed
TO carry e thorn And what with fire ants
mosquitoes, lesches. centipedes. singing
flies, and. worse than all, blamed cater
pillar that drops on to you off the leaves
and sticks hairs into you that break off
In your flesh and tester, / can assure you
1T was the toughest picnic 1 ever had
Why. l almost thought 1 could hear the
alligators chuckling as made home again
Certainly Peter laughed for the first time
since we'd been mates on Monkey Island
when he saw the plight l was in.
"a day or so after this the gunboat sent
ner sig ashore again, and, from the ham
mock, l had slung n ny portion Of the big
hut. could near much laughter among
the Dutchmen as Peter detailed my adj
venture l heard also illusions to some
other verdamde Englander, and long talk
about the light anG bearings. the gist Of
which, for want of more intimate knowl-
edge of the language escaped me. Next
II orr.ing 1 saw Peter marching off along
the narrow strip of bank that separated
bush from sea with a ta!l-block over his
shoulder, and, though wondering nightly
what he could be up to, l wasn't going to
way I ought to tell you, Is the cofnmon
block that you reeve a rope through only
to one end Of It is attached a long tail Of
plated stuff, usually, by which it can be
made fast to spar or holt, allow or alofr
Very little gave me food for thought in
those day. and puzzled over this till Peter
came back and rummaging among the
stores. walked off once more with a coil of
Few ratiine line, and in the same direction
He d.d not appear at dinner, and, as
| hhisned my mess of rice, salt fish and
picked manages. said to the bag, What
has become of Peter? He's gone to set a
saw at the foot of the ladders yestnr-
day, she replied grinning and leerine
ard. added she sarcasticaIly, If you don't
believe me. go and look. only leave your
glish fools
Peter came home that evening and in
! the interest created by new visitor in
those waters, and whose acquaintance
incident of the tail-biock was completely
| for gotten.
dutch soundings, 1t appeared, havtag
| been found so unreliable as to bring a
| good few British vessels to grief, that gov
| eminent. charscterasticaly enough, had
dispatched a vessel to correct them with
| out giving the Dutch notice or saying by
| your leave anything else.
i And although We, or rather l. was una
ware of it, H. NJ. S. Badger had for some
time been thus engaged at the upper por-
! ton of the straits. Now she appeared
| off Mat Arts busy. in sporting parlance.
wipins the Blitzens eye. very much to
the disgust of the latter's officers. whose
speciality, If they possessed one, was sup
| posed to be surveying
The Badger was paddle-wheeled, brig
rugged old tub, sure enough. But she
was British. and as / stared and stared
through the glasses at the white ensign
and the good red cross flying from her
peak. l was tempted often to swim off to
her as she puffed and churned away fuss
| ing around after her boats like an old
| hen after her chicks.
But when I looked at the black. three
! sided fins sticking up at high water right
| alongside our piles, I felt my toes tingle,
| and thought better of It, trusting that some
| day she'd send a boat to give us a call.
when I determined that go I would II all
| the Dutch In the East Indies were to try
| to stop me.
| notions / could see from the mean, yell
| low-brown, grinning face OF him. And
| I'd try to get his dander up sometimes.
'Look at that. Peter, I'd say. That's
derneath Its folds, sweating and toiling.
half starved and taxed to deaths Doors
like there is under yours. Hip! hipl hoo
| ray! Rule Britannia and God save the
| queen! He didn't understand all OF Il,
OF course. but he used to shake his fist
at the Badger and look az nasty Is q hate
4 full snake
Twice while I was on watoh-As W
used to call the intermittent, sleepy look
out we kept at Mat Aristotle Blitgenss
boat came ashore. and could hear the
| omcer and Peter each time having Q 3on1
confab together. During the night the
old bag always used to have colfse srossud
and hot water on the flre. 20 that Ne eeu31
make our own II we wished Tor q S1rtak,
| "ons night, shortly after Tie Dutch -