The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-01-31
PART I.
THE OLD B~UCCANEER.
P I.
THE OLD SEA-DOG AT THE AD-
MIRAL BENBOW.

lIlC GOV " |
asked me to write down the whole
particulars about Treasure Island. from
the beginning to the end, keeping MOTH
ing back but the bearings OF the ISL
and, and hat only because there is
still treasure not yet lifted, l take up
my pen in the year OF grace IL, ana
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
root.
I remember him as If it were yester-
day, as he came plodding to the inn
door, his sea chest following behind
him in a h~and-barroW; a tall, strong,
heavy, ~nut-brown man.; his tarry pig
tail falling over the shoulders Of his
soiled blue coat; his hands ragged Inc
SCARED, with black, broken nails, and
the saber cut across one cheek, a dirty,
livid white. I 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 afterwards:
Fifteen men on the dead mans chest
Yo-ho-ho. and a bottle Of rum!'
in the hight, old tottering voice tina
| seemed to have been tuned and broken
at the capstan bars. Then he raped
on the door with a bit of stick like a
handspike hat he carried, n when
my father appeared called roughly for
a glass of rum. This, when it was
brought to him, he drank slowly, like a
connoisseur 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; and a pleasant sittyated
grog-shop. Much company, mate?"
My father told him no, very little
company, the more was the pity.
"Well, then" said he, this is the
lortL for No Eora VIM natpV' 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. Tn a plain man; rum and
bacon n eggs is what ! want, and
that head up there for to watch ships
off. What you mought call me? You
mought call me captain. Oh, I 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 a commander.
And, indeed, bad as his clothes were,
and coarsely as he spoke, he had none
Of the appearance Of a. 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 old us the mai
had set him down the morning before
at the Royal George; that he had In
QulTEu VIA HI lllSlC "SiS " SAS
coast, and hearing ours well spoken or
I suppose, and described as lonely, hac
chosen it from the others for his place
of residence. And that was all w
could learn Of cur guest. b., " -
He was a very silent man by custom
All day he hung AROUND the cove, O.
upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope
all evening he sat in a corner of TIL
parior next the fire, and drank run
=. and water very strong. Mostly h
would not speak when spoken to; onl.
look Vi suddenly and fierce, and blov
. through his nose like a fog horn; AM
we and the people h came about GU
house soon learned to let him be
, Every day, when he came back fror
his stroll, he would ask If any seafar
; ing men had gone along by the road
At first we thought it was the want 9
company of his kind that made hir
ask this question; but at last we be
gan to see he was DESTROYS to avoi
them. When a seaman put up at tn
Admiral Benbow Gas now and the
some did, making by the coast roa
for BRISTOL, he would look at hi
through the curtained door before h
entered the parlor; and he was alwa5
D sure to be as silent as a mouse Whe
d any such was present. For me, at leas
there was no secret about the matter
Y. for I was, in a a a sharer Of h
alarms.
He had taken me aside one day, ar
promised me a silver fourpenny on tt
first of every month If 1 would on
9 keep my "weather-eye open for a SCI
faring man with one leg" and let nj
know the moment he appeared. Ofte
o: enough, when the first Of the NOM
came round, and I applied to him +
my wage, he would only blow throus
~ his nose at me, and stare me down, b
= before the week was out he was sure
"; think better Of it, bring me my fou
)W penny piece, and repeat his orders
look out for the Seafaring man wi
one leg"
How that parsonage haunted r
dreams, Ianeed scarcely tell you. {
stormy nights, when the wind sho
the four corners Of the house, and t
surf roared along the cove and UP
,,L cliffs, I would see him in a thousa
'H forms, and with a thousand diabolit
sx expressions. Now the leg would be {
off at the knee, now at the hip; now
was a monstrous III of a creall
). who had never had out the one il
St and that in the middle of his body.
see him leap and run and pursue Z;
~ over hedge and ditch, was the worst
rG nightmares. And altogether / p;
pretty dear for my monthly fourpen
ear piece In the shape of these abomina
fancies.
But though I was so terrified by
log idea Of the seafaring man with one !
I was far less afraid OF the capt
himself thar anybody else who KIN
him. There were nights when he t.
a deal more rum and water than
~ head would carry; n then he wo
sometimes ST. anu sung AiS W,eheu'
wild sea songs, mlnoins NOBODY
sometimes he would call for glas
round, and force all the trembling &C
pany to listen to his stories or bea
eraI chorus to his singing Often I h
SIC heard the house shaking with "Yo-
o5c, no and q hottie of rum all the nei
o. 3 ho.s itsinIng IN for dear life with
j q sroiss Sf a1aeh ,,Dan tha,nt "a =.
and singing louder h the other, to a,