The Jolly Roger Tales: 60+ Pirate Novels, Treasure-Hunt Tales & Sea Adventures. Лаймен Фрэнк Баум

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СКАЧАТЬ you have found out for an owl to hide himself in at mid-day, or a ghost to revisit the pale glimpses of the moon, as the divine Shakspeare says.”

      “Well, well,” answered Cleveland abruptly, “ your jest is made, and now let us have your earnest.”

      “In earnest, then, Captain Cleveland,” replied his companion, “ I think you know me for your friend.”

      “I am content to suppose so,” said Cleveland.

      “It is more than supposition,” replied the young man; “I have proved it — proved it both here and elsewhere.’’

      “Well, well,” answered Cleveland, “ I admit you have been always a friendly fellow — and what then?”

      “Well, well — and what then? “ replied the other; “ this is but a brief way of thanking folk. Look you, Captain, here is Benson, Barlowe, Dick Fletcher, and a few others of us who wished you well, have kept your old comrade Captain Goffe in these seas upon the look-out for you, when he and Hawkins, and the greater part of the ship’s company, would fain have been down on the Spanish Main, and at the old trade.”

      “And I wish to God that you had all gone about your business,” said Cleveland, “ and left me to my fate.”

      “Which would have been to be informed against and hanged, Captain, the first time that any of these Dutch or English rascals, whom you have lightened of their cargoes, came to set their eyes upon you; and no place more likely to meet with seafaring men, than in these Islands. And here, to screen you from such a risk, we have been wasting our precious time, till folk are grown very peery; and when we have no more goods or money to spend amongst them, the fellows will be for grabbing the ship.”

      “Well, then, why do you not sail off without me?” said Cleveland — ”There has been fair partition, and all have had their share — let all do as they like. I have lost my ship, and having been once a Captain, I will not go to sea under command of Goffe or any other man. Besides, you know well enough that both Hawkins and he bear me illwill for keeping them from sinking the Spanish brig, with the poor devils of negroes on board.”

      “Why, what the foul fiend is the matter with thee?” said his companion; “ Are you Clement Cleveland, our own old truehearted Clem of the Cleugh, and do you talk of being afraid of Hawkins and Goffe, and a score of such fellows, when you have myself, and Barlowe, and Dick Fletcher at your back? When was it we deserted you, either in council or in fight, that you should be afraid of our flinching now? And as for serving under Goffe, I hope it is no new thing for gentle men of fortune who are going on the account, to change a Captain now and then? Let us alone for that, — Captain you shall be; for death rock me asleep if I serve under that fellow Goffe, who is as very a bloodhound as ever sucked bitch! — No, no, I thank you — my Captain must have a little of the gentleman about him, howsoever. Besides, you know, it was you who first dipped my hands in the dirty water, and turned me from a stroller by land, to a rover by sea.”

      “Alas, poor Bunce!” said Cleveland, “ you owe me little thanks for that service.”

      “That is as you take it,” replied Bunce; “for my part, I see no harm in levying contributions on the public either one way or t’other. But I wish you would forget that name of Bunce, and call me Altamont, as I have often desired you to do. I hope a gentleman of the roving trade has as good a right to have an alias as a stroller, and I never stepped on the boards but what I was Altamont at the least.”

      “Well, then, Jack Altamont,” replied Cleveland, “since Altamont is the word”

      “Yes, but, Captain, Jack is not the word, though Altamont be so. Jack Altamont? — why, ‘tis a velvet coat with paper lace — Let it be Frederick, Captain; Frederick Altamont is all of a piece.”

      “Frederick be it, then, with all my heart,” said Cleveland; “ and pray tell me, which of your names will sound best at the head of the Last Speech, Confession, and Dying Words of John Bunce, alias Frederick Altamont, who was this morning hanged at Execution Dock, for the crime of Piracy upon the High Seas?”

      “Faith, I cannot answer that question, without another can of grog, Captain; so if you will go down with me to Bet Haldane’s on the quay, I will bestow some thought on the matter, with the help of a right pipe of Trinidado. We will have the gallon bowl filled with the best stuff you ever tasted, and I know some smart wenches who will help us to drain it. But you shake your head — you’re not i’ the vein? — Well, then, I will stay with you; for by this hand, Clem, you shift me not off. Only I will ferret you out of this burrow of old stones, and carry you into sunshine and fair air. — Where shall we go?”

      “Where you will,” said Cleveland, “ so that you keep out of the way of our own rascals, and all others.”

      “Why, then,” replied Bunce, “ you and I will go up to the Hill of Whitford, which overlooks the town, and walk together as gravely and honestly as a pair of well-employed attorneys.”

      As they proceeded to leave the ruinous castle, Bunce, turning back to look at it, thus addressed his companion:

      “Hark ye, Captain, dost thou know who last inhabited this old cockloft?”

      “An Earl of the Orkneys, they say,” replied Cleveland.

      “And are you avised what death he died of?” said Bunce; “ for I have heard that it was of a tight neck-collar — a hempen fever, or the like.”

      “The people here do say,” replied Cleveland, “ that his Lordship, some hundred years ago, had the mishap to become acquainted with the nature of a loop and a leap in the air.”

      “Why, la ye there now!” said Bunce; “there was some credit in being hanged in those days, and in such worshipful company. And what might his lordship have done to deserve such promotion?”

      “Plundered the liege subjects, chey say,” replied Cleveland; “slain and wounded them, fired upon his Majesty’s flag, and so forth.”

      “Near akin to a gentleman rover, then,” said Bunce, making a theatrical bow towards the old building; “ and, therefore, my most potent, grave, and reverend Signior Earl, I crave leave to call you my loving cousin, and bid you most heartily adieu. I leave you in the good company of rats and mice, and so forth, and I carry with me an honest gentleman, who, having of late had no more heart than a mouse, is now desirous to run away from his profession and friends like a rat, and would therefore be a most fitting denizen of your Earlship’s palace.”

      “I would advise you not to speak so loud, my good friend Frederick Altamont, or John Bunce,” said Cleveland; “ when you were on the stage, you might safely rant as loud as you listed; but, in your present profession, of which you are so fond, every man speaks under correction of the yard-arm, and a running noose.”

      The comrades left the little town of Kirkwall in silence, and ascended the Hill of Whitford, which raises its brow of dark heath, uninterrupted by enclosures or cultivation of any kind, to the northward of the ancient burgh of Saint Magnus. The plain at the foot of the hill was already occupied by numbers of persons who were engaged in making preparations for the Fair of Saint Olla, to be held upon the ensuing day, and which forms a general rendezvous to all the neighbouring islands of Orkney, and is even frequented by many persons from the more distant archipelago of Zetland. It is, in the words of the Proclamation, “a free Mercat and Fair, holden at the good Burgh of Kirkwall on the third of August, being Saint Olla’s day,” and continuing for an indefinite space thereafter, extending from three days to a week, СКАЧАТЬ