Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-11-09
PART LII
My Shore Adventure


live-oak and squatted there, heark
ening, as silent as a mouse.
Another voice answered; and theI
the first voice, which l now reeOg
nized to be Silver's once more tool
up the story, and ran on for a Ions
time in a stream, only now and theI
interrupted by the other. By the
sound they must have been talking
earnestly, and almost tfiercely, but
no distinct word came to my hear
ing.
At last the speakers seemed tC
have paused, and perhaps to have
sat down, for not only did they cease
to draw any nearer, but the birds
themselves began to grow more
quiet, and to settle again to their
places in the swamp.
And now l began to feel that
was negleeting my business; that
since l had been so foolhardy as to
come ashore with these desperadoes,
the least l could do was to overhear
them at their councils, and that my
plain and obvious duty was to draw
as close as 1 could manage, under
the favorable ambush of the crouch
ing trees.
| could tell the direction of the
speakers pretty exactly, not only by
the sound of the voices, but by the
behavior of the few birds that still
hung in alarm above the heads of
the intruders.
Crawling on all tours l made
steadily but slowly toward them, till
at last, raising my head to an aper-
ture among the leaves, 1 could see
clear down into a little green dell
beside the marsh, and closely set
about with trees, where Long John
Silver and another of the crew stood
face to face in conversation.
The sun beat full upon them. Sill
yer had thrown his hat beside him
ON the ground, and his great,
smooth, blond face, all shining with
heat, was lifted to the other mans
in a kind of appeal.
"Mate," he was saying, 'it's be-
cause 1 thinks gold-dust of you
gold-dust, and you may lay to that
If 1 hadn't took to you like pitch,
do you think I'd been here a-warn-
ing off you? All's up-you can't
make nor mend; it's to save your
neck that I'm speaking, and if one of
the wild 'uns knew it, where'ud l
be, Tom-now tell me, where 'ud 1
be?"
Silver" said the other man
and / observed he was not only red
in the face, but spoke as hoarse as
a crow, and his voice shook, too, like
a taut rope-"S Silver" says he, "you
are old, and you're honest, or has
the name for it; and you've money,
too, which lots of poor sailors hasn't
and you're brave, or I'm mistook.
And will you tell me you'll let your
self be led away with that kind of
a mess of swabs? Not you! AS sure
as God sees me, I'd sooner lose my |
hand. If l turn agin my dooty-"
And all of sudden he was inter |
rupted by noise. l had found one |
of the honest hands-well, here, at |
that same moment, came news of |
another. Far away out in the marsh |
there arose, all of a sudden, a sound |
like a cry of anger, then another on |
the back of it, and then one horrid, |
scream. The rocks of the |
Spy-glass re-echoed it score of |
times; the whole troop of marsh
birds arose again, darkening heaven /
with a simultaneous whir; and long 1
after that death-yell was still ring
ing in my brain, silence had re-es-
tablished its empire, and only the |
rustic of the redescending birds and
the boom of the distant surges dis
turbed the languor of the afternoon.
Tom had leaped at the sound, like
a horse at the spur, but Silver had
not Winked an eye. He stood where
he was, resting lightly on his crutch,
his companion like a snake
about to spring.
Joint" said the sailor, stretching
1ut his hand.
Hands off" cried Silver, leaping
Jack a yard, as it seemed to me, with
he speed and security of a trained
symnast.
"Hands off, if you like, John Sill
rer,' said the other. tits a black
conscience that can make you feared
If me. But, in heavens name, tell
ne what was that?"
"That?" returned Silver, smiling
way, but warier than ever, his eye
/ mere pin-point in his big face,
tut cleaning like crumb of glass.
That? Oh, 1 reckon that'll be Alan"
And at this poor Tom flashed out
ike a hero.
"Alanl" he cried. "Then rest his
oul for a true seaman! And as for
-ou, John Silver, long you've been
mate of mine, but you're mate of |
nine no more. If l die like a dog,
IL die in my dooty. You've dlleds
Alan, have you? Kill me, too, IL
-ou can. But 1 defies you"
And with that this brave fellow
urned his back directly on the cook
nd set off walking for the beach.
Iut he was not destined to go far.
With a cry John seized the branch of
tree, whipped the crutch out of
is armpit, and sent that uncouth
Missile hurting through the air. 1t
truck poor Tom, point foremost, and
With stunning violence, right be-
ween the shoulders in the middle of
is back. His hands flew up, he !
ave a sort of a gasp and fell.
Whether he was injured much or
title, none could ever tell. Like |
nough, to judge from the sound,
is back was broken on the spot. But
e had no time to recover. Silver, I
gile as a monkey, even without leg !
r crutch. was on top of him next
and had twice buried his
nife up to the hilt in that defense
ass body From my place of ambush