Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1902-02-01
TREASURE
ISLAND =: e ::::::::
G~~ON~~~~1

long exhausted, and still my father
never plucked up the heart to insist on
having more. If he ever mentioned 1t,
the captain blew through his nose SC
loudly that you might say he roared,
n stared my poor father out of the
room. / nave seen him wringing his
hands after such a rebuff. and / am
sure the and the terror ne
lived In must have greatly FASTENED his
early and unhappy death.
All the time he lived with us the cap-
tain made no change whatever in his
press out to bu.v some stockings from
a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat
having fallen down, he let ii hang from
that day forth, though IL was a great
annoyance when it blew. l remember
the appearance OF his coat, which he
patched himself upstairs in his room,
n which, before the end, was moth
ing but patches. He never wrote or re
ceived n letter, and he never spoke with
any but the ~neighbors, and with these,
FOR the most part, only when drunk on
rum. The great sea-chest o Of us
q ever seen open.
He was only once crossed, and that
was toward the end. when my poor
father was far rome in a decline that
took him off. DR.. Livesey came late
n afternoon to see the patient, took
a bit of dinner from my mother, and
went into the parlor to smoke a pipe
until his horse should come down from
the hamlet, for we had no stabling at
the old Benbow. / followed him In,
n l remember observing the con-
trast the neat. bright doctor, with his
powder as white as snow, and his
bright, black eyes and pleasant man
ners, made with the coltish country
folk, and, above all, with that filthy,
heavy, bleared scarecrow of q pirate of
AYAV.n Z F@... 1850 L., x,N. IA 81
arms on the table. Suddenly he-the
captain, that is-began to pipe up his
eternal song:
Fifteen men on the dead mans chest
Ho-ho-ho, and a bottle OF rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the
rest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle Of rum!'
At first I a supposed 1.-The dead
mans chest to be that identical big
box of his up stairs I'm the front room,
and the thought had beer mingled in
my nightmares with that OF the one-
legged s~eafaring man. But by this time
we had all long ceased to pay any par
tiCular notice to the song; it was new,
that night. to nobody but DR.. Livesey,
and on him / noticed that it did not
produce an agreeable effect, for he
looked up for a moment quite angrily
before he went on with his talk to Did
Taylor, the gardener, on n new cure
for rheumatics. In the meantime the
captain gradually frightened up at his
W music, and at last tapped his
hand upon the table before him in a
way we all knew to mean-silence. The
voices stopped all at once, all but DR..
Livesey's; he went on as before, speak
ing clear and kind, and drawing brisk
ly at his pipe between every word or
two. The captain glared at him for
awhile, tapped his hand again, glared
still harder, and at last broke out with
a villainous, low oath: SILENCE, there
between decks!"
Were you addressing me, sir?" says
the doctor; n when the ruffian had
told him, with another oath; that this
was so, II have only one thing to say
to you, sir" replies the doctor, that
If you keep on drinking rum the world
will o be quit Of q very dirty scoun-
drel!"
The old fellows fury was awful. He
sprung to his feet, drew and opened a
sailors clasp knife, and, balancing 1t
open on the palm Of his hand, threat
ened to pin the doctor to the wall.
The doctor never so much as moved.
He spoke to him, as before, over his
shoulder, and in the same tone Of voice;
rather high, 81 that all the room
might hear, but perfectly calm and
steady:
III you don't put that knife this In
slant into our pocket, l promise, upon
my honor, you shall hang at the next
assiZes."
Then followed a battle of looks be-
tween them; but the captain soon
knuckled under, put up his weapon,
and resumed his seat, grumbling like
a beaten dog.
"And now, sir" continued the doctor,
"since / know there's such n fellow in
my district, you may count I'll have
an eye on you day and night. I'm not
a doctor, only; I'm a magistrate; and If
/ catch a breath of complaint against
you, If it's only for a piece OF incivility
like tonight, I'll take effectual means
to have o hunted down and routed
out of this. Let that suffice"
Soon after DR.. Livesey's horse came
to the door, and he rode away; but
the captain held his peace that even
ing, n for many evenings to come.