Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-05-05

asked me 10 Wf1Le QORn tue Whole par
ticulars about Treasure Island, from
the beginning to the end, keeping moth
ing back but the bearings of the island,
and that only because there is still
treasure not yet lifted, / take up my
pen in the year of grace IL, and go
back to the time when my father kept
the Admiral Benbow Inn, and the
brown old seaman, with the saber cut,
first took up his lodgings under our
roof
1 remember him as if it was yester-
day, as he came plodding to the inn
door, his sea chest following behind
him in hand-barrow; tall, strong,
heavy, nut-brown man.. his tarry pig
tail falling. over the shoulders of his
soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and
SCARED, with black, broken nails, and
the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty,
Iiyid white. / remember him looking
round the cove and whistling to him
self as he did So and then breaking out
in that old sea song that he sung so
often afterward:
Fifteen men on the dead mans chest
To-ho-ho. and bottle of rurn.''
in the high, old tottering voice that
seemed to have been tuned and broken
db Inc cdpSldn DdES. ueH ne TdpDSQ
on the door with bit of of stick like
handspike that he carried, and when
my father appeared called roughly for
a glass of rum. This, when it was
drought to him, he drank slowly, like a
econnoisseur, lingering on the taste,
and still looking about him at the cliffs
and up at our signboard.
This is a handy cove" says he. at
length; land a pleasant sittyated
grog-shop. Much company, mate?"
My father told him no, very little
company, the more was the pity.
''Well, them" said he, this is the
berth for me. Here you, matey,'' he
cried to the man who trundled the bar
row; bring up alongside and help up
my chest. I'll stay here a Bit" he con-
tinued. I'm a plain man; rum and
bacon and eggs is what I want, and
that head up there for to watch ships
off. What you mought call me? You
mought call me captain. Oh, 1 see
what you're at-there;" and he threw
down three or four gold pieces on the
threshold. You can tell me when I've
worked through that" says he, looking
as fierce as commander.
And, indeed, bad as his clothes were,
and coarsely as he spoke, he had none
of the appearances of man who sailed
before the mast; but seemed like a
mate or skipper, accustomed to be
,obeyed or to strike. The man who
came with the barrow told us the mail
had set him down the morning before
at the Royal George; that he had in
quired what inns there were along the
coast, and hearing ours well spoken of,
\ 4 4 Il 4 4
chosen it from the others for his place
of residence. And that was all we
could learn of our guest.
He was very silent man by custom.
All day he hung round the cove, or up
on the cliffs, with brass telescope;
all evening he sat in corner of the par
Tor next the fire, and drank rum and
water very strong. Mostly he would
not speak when spoken to; only look
up suddenly and. fierce, and blow
through his nose like fog-horn; and
we and the people who came about our
house soon learned to let him be.
Every day, when he came back from
shis stroll, he would ask if any seafaring
men had gone by along the road? At
first we thought it was the want of
company of his kind that made him
ask this question; but at last we began
to see he was DESTROYS to avoid
them, When a seaman put up at the
Admiral Benbow {as now and
then some did, making by the coast
road for BristoD, he would look at him
through the curtained door before he
entered the parlor; and he was always
sure to be as silent as a mouse when
any such was present. For me, at
Oh ~,
matter; for was, in a way, sharer in
his alarms.
He had taken me aside one day, and
promised me silver fourpenny on the
first of every month if I would only
keep my 'weather-eye open for a. sea
faring man with one Leg" and let him
know the moment he appeared. Often
enough, when the first of the month
came round. and applied TO him fol-
my wage, he would only blow through
his nose at me, and stare me down, hut
before the week was cut he was sure tC
think better of it, bring me my four
penny piece, and repeat his orders te
look out for ''the seafaring man witt
one Leg
How that parsonage haunted my
dreams, need scarcely tell you. Or
stormy nights, When the wind shool
the four corners of the house, and the
surf roared along the cove and up the
cliffs, would see him in a Thousand
forms, and with thousand diaboliea
expressions. Now the leg would be GU
off at the knee, now at the hip; now IA
was a monstrous kind of creature
who had never had but the one leg
and that in the middle of his body. IL
over hedge and ditch, was the worst o
II rei<