Poison Island

fin, and by invitation, and watched his whaleboat building, and ate more of h

n truth, I believe, a kind of superstitious terror restricted him. He trusted me, yet was afraid of overt signs of trust. You may put it that during this while he was testing, watching me. I can only answer that I had no suspicion of being watched, and that in discussing the boat's fittings with me-her

e holidays with it. As

hristmas! W

schoolboy ho

ounced 'schule' in

d mistletoe

ivances for bani

stance-of which I h

ssociations denied

hould find him changed; and changed he was, less perhaps in appearance than in the perceptible withdrawal of his mind from all earthly concerns. He seldom spoke, but sat all day immobile, with the lids of his blind eyes half lowered, so that it wa

k cottage, batt

rough chinks that ti

rew little by little, and contracted itself like the pupil of an

aking affection for Stimcoe's; and to Miss Plinlimmon's cross-examination upon its internal economies I opposed a careless manly assurance as hardly fraudulent as Mr. Stimcoe's brazen doorplate or his lady's front-window curtains. The ca

w and a good seaman. You may take him back my compliments, Harry-my compliments and remembrances-and say that if Hea

ken aback by his reception of it. He began in a sudde

honour to call and chat with the Major. At what

at my word and start off at once, and at my pate

of one another; but the Major from the first fulfilled my conception of all a soldier should be-a gentleman fearless and modest, a true Christian hero.

g kindly manner divested them, of all offensiveness. I did not resent them at the time or consider then impertinen

the tea and guava-jelly, to be sure, but appeared to take no interest in my doings during the holidays, and was uncommunicative on his own. Thi

ll to me had not changed, as I was to learn. He had paid a visit to Captain Branscome, and give him special instructions to teach me the art of navigation, the intricacies of

t repeating. "I'll wring his neck one

ice-and each time to find him in the same sullen humour-between then and May 11, the day when the Wel

and prepared to welcome her poor passengers home to England with open arm. A sorry crew they looked, ragged, wild eyed, and emaciated, as the boats brought them ashore at the Market Stairs to the strains of the Falmouth Artille

own Hall, where the Mayor had arrayed a public banquet. There were speeches at the banquet, and alcoholic liquors, both affecting in operation upon his Worship's guests. Poor fellows, the

a boat's crew to take a dozen of these inebriates on board for the transport, when I heard my name called, a

s reckonin' that you an' me between us might get him home quiet before the house fills up an' mi

and, moreover, providential that he had dropped in at the Plum

to him, and he would grope his way home through the traffic at high noon in profound, pathetic belief that darkness and slumber wrapped the streets; on which occasions the dialogue between him and the barber's parrot might be counted on to touc

its attenuation and the number and depth of its wrinkles. This neck showed above the greasy collar of a red infantry coat, from which the badges and buttons had long since vanished; and for the rest the fellow wore a pair of dirty white drill trousers of French cut, French shoes, and a round japanned hat; but, so far as a glance could discover, neither

in Coffin, for his eyes blinked as in a strong light, and he seemed to pull himse

e a-coaxin' of, you two? Old Coffin, eh? Well, take the o

turn slowly about, and peer at us. He seemed to be badly scared, to

is it? Danny Coff

ring, and, as he peered, crouching to

voice that, as it lost its wondering qua

hat his eyes, though rigid, expanded a little. But th

lower, as he drew close and thrust his fa

e Danny-tip us a stave!

the Keys o'

f sea-birds crying over a waste shore), I saw the shiver run across Captain Coffin's face and neck, and with that his s

ow, at a choking sound, put out a hand to loosen Cap

! Not yo

longshoremen and out through the doorway into the street. As we gained it I h