The Island of Gold: A Sailor's Yarn Read online

theair, caught 'em coming down, and swallowed 'em like eggs."

  All the time the talking was going on the Admiral stood twisting hisbody about, sometimes crouching low to the ground, his neck stretchedstraight out towards them, the head on one side and listening, the nextmoment erect as a bear pole, and seeming to look surprised and angry atwhat he heard them saying.

  Bob had rushed to see about the setter. He lay down at some distanceoff, with his nose between his paws, and the setter _set_, and finally_sat_.

  "Not a yard nearer, Mr Sportsman, if _you_ please," said Bob; "I'm arough 'un to look at, and a tough 'un to tackle. I suppose you callyourself a gentleman's dog; you live in marble halls, sleep on skins,and drink from a silver saucer. I'm only a poor man's doggie; I sleepwhere I can, eat what I can get, and drink from bucket or brook. But Ilove my master maybe more than you love yours. Yonder is my home, andyonder is our cat in the door of it; but my humble home is my master'scastle. Just try to come a yard or two nearer, if you're tired of yoursilly life."

  But Dash preferred to stay where he was.

  Murrams the cat behaved with the utmost dignity and indifference. Hesat in the doorway washing his face, with dreamy, half-shut eyes. Tohave seen him you would have said that butter wouldn't melt in hismouth, so cool was he; yet if Mr Dash had come round that way, Murramswould have mounted his back and never ceased clawing the dog till he hadridden him half a mile at least from Hangman's Hall.

  It wasn't, however, until the visitors had taken their departure thatthe grand jubilee commenced.

  "_They're_ gone!" said Bob, running up and licking the pussy's ear."That's a jolly good job!"

  "_They're_ gone!" said pussy in reply, as he rubbed shoulders with Bob.

  "_They're_ gone!" cried the crane, hopping madly round the pair of them.

  And as she nestled closer in her brother's arms, Babs sighed and saidjust the same thing.

  "Hurrah!" cried Ransey Tansey; "let's run off to the woods."

  "Let's wun off to ze woods at wance," echoed Babs.

  Had little Eedie seen Ransey five minutes after this, I question whethershe would have pronounced him the prettiest boy she had ever known.

  Ransey was himself again, old shirt, ragged pants, and all.

  I think that the children and Bob, not to mention the gallant Admiral,enjoyed themselves that afternoon in the woods as much as ever they haddone in their young lives.

  Babs insisted on taking her ragged old dolly-bone with her, and leavingthe new one at home upside down in a corner.

  Well, Ransey fished for just an hour, but had glorious luck and a goodstring to take to Mrs Farrow. This was enough, so he put away his rod,and read some more horrors to Babs from "Nick o' the Woods." Thetorture scenes and the scalping took her fancy more than anything else.

  So Ransey Tansey invented a play on the spot that would have broughtdown the house in a twopenny theatre if properly put on the stage.

  He, Ransey Tansey, was to be a wild Indian, Babs would be the white man,Bob the bear, and the Admiral the spirit of the wild woods and ghost ofthe haunted canon.

  The play passed off without a hitch. Only Ransey Tansey himselfrequired to dress for his part. This he did to perfection. He retiredto a secluded spot by the river's bank for the purpose. He divestedhimself of his pants and his solitary suspender. These were but theevidences of an effete civilisation. What could such things as thesehave to do with the red man of the wild West, the solitary scalp-hunterof the boundless prairie? But a spear and a tomahawk he must have, andthese were quickly and easily fashioned from the boughs of theneighbouring trees. He tied a piece of cord around his waist, and inthis he stuck his knife, open and ready for every emergency. He fuzzedup his rebellious hair, and stuck rooks' feathers in it; he thrust hisfeet into the darkest and grimiest of mud to represent moccasins, andstreaked his face with the same.

  When enveloped in his blanket (the big shawl) he stalked into the openin all the ghastliness of his wur-paint, and said "Ugh!" He was RanseyTansey no longer, but Chee-tow, the Red Chief of the Slit-nosed Indians.

  On beholding the warrior, Babs's first impulse was to scream in terror;her next--and this she carried out--was to roll on her back, her twolegs pointing skywards, and scream with laughter.

  "Oh," she cried delightedly, "'oo _is_ such a boo'ful wallio![warrior]; be twick and tell somefing."

  For the time being Babs was only the audience. When she became an actorin this great forest drama she would have to behave differently.

  And now the red chief went prowling around, and presently out from abush darted a grizzly bear.

  The bear was Bob.

  Chee-tow uttered his wildest war-cry, and rushed onwards to the charge.

  The grizzly held his ground and scorned to fly.

  "Then began the deadly conflict, Hand to hand among the mountains; From his eerie screamed the eagle [the crane] ...the great war-eagle, Sat upon the crags around them, Wheeling, flapped his wings above them. * * * * *.

  "Till the earth shook with the tumult And confusion of the battle. And the air was full of shoutings, And the thunder of the mountains Starting, answered `Baim-wa-wa.'"

  This fierce fight with the terrible grizzly was so realistic that theaudience sat silent and enthralled, with its thumb in its mouth.

  But it ended at last in the victory of the red chief. The bear laydead, and the first Act came to a close.

  In Act Two an Indian maiden has been stolen, and borne away by a whiteman across the boundless prairie to his wigwam in the golden East. Thered chief squats down on the moss with drooping head to bewail the lossof his daughter, during which outburst of grief his streaks of war-paintget rather mixed; but that can't be helped. Then the spirit of the wildwoods appears to him--the ghost of the haunted canon (that is, betweenyou and me, the Admiral comes hopping up with his neck stretched out,wondering what it is all about)--and whispers to him, and speaks in hisear, and says:--

  "Listen to me, brave Chee-tow-wa, Lie not there upon the meadow; Stoop not down among the lilies, Lest the west wind come and harm you. Follow me across the prairie, Follow me across the mountains, I will find the maiden for you, The maid with hair like sunshine, Who has vanished from your sight."

  So Chee-tow gets up, seizes his arms, and follows the spirit, who goeshopping on in front of him in a very weird-like manner indeed.

  Meanwhile Babs, knowing her part, has hidden herself in a bush, and indue time is led back in triumph as the white man who stole the maiden.He is tied to a tree, scalped, and tortured. Then a fire is lit, andthither the white man is dragged towards it to be burned alive.

  But another bear (Bob again) rushes in to his assistance and enables himto escape.

  The same fire built to burn the white man (Babs) is being utilised toroast potatoes for supper; only this is a mere detail.

  And the play ends by the spirit of the wild woods bringing the maidenback (Babs again) to the camp fire in the forest, and--and by a supperof baked potatoes with salt.

  All's well that ends well. And shortly after the denouement there maybe seen, wending its way in the calm summer gloaming up the littlefootpath that leads through the green corn, the following procession.First, Bob solemnly carrying the fishing-rod; then Ransey Tansey with astring of red-finned fish in front of him, and Babs on his back, wrappedin the Indian's blanket; and last, but not least, the Admiral himself,nodding his head not unlike a camel, and lifting his legs very highindeed, because the dew was beginning to fall.

  Babs had gone soundly to sleep by the time they reached the farm, butshe was lively enough a few minutes after this.

  And Mrs Farrow made them stay to supper, every one of them, includingeven the Admiral, although he said "Tok--tok--tok" several times, out ofpoliteness, perhaps when first invited in.

  The kitchen at the farm was in reality a sitting-room, and a very jolly,cosy one it was; nor did the fire seem a bit out of place to-night.

  It took Rans
ey quite a long time to tell all his adventures, and dilateupon the kindness of his visitors, especially rough but kindly CaptainWeathereye.

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  It was almost dark before they got to the little cot at the foot of thehill that they called their home; and here a fresh surprise awaitedthem, for a light was shining through the little window, and through thehalf-open door as well.

  Babs herself was the first, I believe, to notice this.

  "O 'Ansey," she cried, struggling with excitement on the boy's back, "O'Ansey, look! fazer [father] has tomed! Be twick, 'Ansey, be twick."

  And Ransey quickened his pace now, while Bob ran on in front.

  "Wowff, wowff," he barked, "wowff--wowff--wow!" But it was in ahalf-hysterical kind of way, as