The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-01-27
DICK RODNEY:
Or. The Adventures of
An Elton Boy.

by JAMES a

40 Lag OA
the morrow I'll overhaul you, in the
watch. Till then, good-by;'
and before l could say anything more
old Jack was gone and | found my
self alone OIL the stone mole, with the
key of the polacca's companion In my
hand.
There seemed nothing for me but
to accept the temporary home thus Of
fered; SO, in the hope that 1t might lead
to something better, l stepped into the
light punt, cast loose the painter, and
after a few minutes vigorous sculling
found myself on the lonely deck of the
silent polacca.
Her canvass was unbent; most of
the running rigging had also been
taken off her and slowed away-so her
tall and taper spars stood markedly up
from the straight flush deck, with a
sharp rake aft.
Thick banks of dark-blue clouds
were coming heavily up from the Gulf
of Florida. The air was hot and sui
%phurous; some drops of rain, warm
and broad as doubloons, began to
splash upon the deck and to make
circles on the sea: while at the far
edge of the horizon a narrow streak of
bright moonlight, against which the
waves were seen chasing each other,
gl1ttered through the flying scud, the
bottom OF which was uplifted in the
offing, like a dark curtain that was bat
tered and rent.
Then a flash Of red lightning, tip
ping the waves with fire, shone, but to
be replaced by instant darkness, and all
became black chaos to seaward, ave
where a p%ale-green beacon burned
steadily at Santa Cruz, on the western
side of the bay.
"These signs prognosticated a rough
night, but l was glad to perceive that
the polacca was well moored at stem
and stern; SO l unlocked the compan-
ion door and descended, not without a
shudder, into the dark and cold cabin,
where the dead men had been found,
and where all was silence and gloom.
81 struck a lucifer match; my teeth
chartered; and while cropping about for
a candle, to make myself comfortable
" IL Ll5AI L bCSdh W "lSu L udu re-
manned on shore.
Il found a ~ship-lantern with the fag-
end of a candle in it. and this, when
lighted, enabled me to take a survey
Of the cabin; which stood on the table
and when looking about, found my
eyes wander so necessarily to the side
berths in which the dead Spaniards
had hnon found fhof of Loot 7 o1roo,f
fancied their pale sharp profles and
rigid figures were visible in the flick
ering light of the candle.
Come said l, Sam Weston-this
will never do! Are you a man. or have
you become a child again.
Another applications long one,
toto the rum jar, and I wrapped
some bunting. a rug, and a pea-jacket
that lay on the locker, round me, and
lay down OF the cabin floor to sleep;
and scarcely had I stretched myself
there when the candle f1ared up, and,
after casting some strange kaleido-
scopic figures On the beams overhead,
through the perforated lantern-top-
went out!
81 was in total darkness now, but
more awake than ever.
81 felt as if In a great floating coffin,
but heard no sound except the gurgls
of the sea under the counter, or the
splash of the stern warp, as it whip
ped the water occasionally.
Il kept my eyes closed resolutely,
and determined, perforce, to sleep, and
not to wake till morning; but still I
could not help thinking of the two poor
fellows who had died in the berths
of that cold, dark, and silent cabin, and
had been tossed to and fro SO long
upon the sea before they received
Christian burial.
Which had died f1rst-the man in
the larboard, or he In the starboard
berth? Why were they thus aban-
doned? What had they said to each
other? What messages had they sent
to wife, to father, or mother? What
tale of love to repeat-of guilt to re-
veal-messages given by the dead to
the dead, and never delivered!
These thoughts crowded upon me
till | almost imagined the dead men
lay there still, and that they might
rise up and give their last messages to
me.
Then I heard a sound in the forehold.
1t made my blood curdle! Was it
caused by rats? Perhaps they had fed
on the dead Spaniards and now were
come to take a nibble at me. Rats
were bad enough, but ghosts were
worse. l took a third and last pull at
the Jamaica jar; said my prayers over
again, with more than usual devotion,
adding thereto the wish that l should
soon have a spanking craft of my
own.
Still the idea of the two dead men,
with their pale faces and Enclosed eyes,
would come before me again and again,
and | could have groaned but for dread
of some similar response that might
make my heart wither up and my
flesh creep. And creep it Dol did;
for, just as this horrid idea of an over
strained fancy, fostered by magma
ton and fashioned out of the silence
and darkness, became strongest within
me, what were my emotions-how
painful the t%hrobbing Of my heart-on
beholding a strange, green, CHASTITY
light glimmering about, and playing
within each of the side berths.
while shrinking into a corner OF
the cabin, with eyeballs straining, l
gazed at them alternately with a spe-
cies of horrid fascination. The two
Ill IT, -- xaI1,