Part 28 (1/2)
”I hope not Indeed, I shall be very ain”
”Ah, that is excellent Our young lady here does not thrive on excitee of a high fever”
”Then she can cal to-day,”
said Courtenay, with a slance at Elsie which told her quite plainly that Christobal did not really knohat he was talking about
Which goes to prove that even a prudent ue and his eyes
CHAPTER XIV
THE FIRST WATCH
On his way back to the deck, the captain encountered Suarez The estures, and the satisfaction which lit up his wrinkled face, would have told the news he wished to convey if Courtenay were not able to catch the words ”Indianos” and ”van” In his excitelishman towards one of the peep-holes in the canvas screen Sure enough, the canoes wereoff towards Otter Creek
In thearht Even their raucous cries were yet audible Courtenay was glad he had not ued the necessity of continued watchfulness
The general attitude of the creas one of real annoyance that the fight had not been carried on at close quarters They had heard a good deal of noise and yelling, the starboard squad had experienced the thrill of having a man fall dead in their midst, but, with the exception of Tollemache and the Chilean marksman, the main body of the defenders took no part in the fray and saw but little of it And it is one of human nature's queer proclivities that it seeks rather than shi+rks a co
Walker, though eager to return to his lathe, was no exception to the rule He looked a trifle discontented when the captain found hiine-room hatch
”That was a pwetty poo-aap, sir,” said he ”I did expect to have a spies, if only for the sake of washi+n' the paint an' feath-ahs off 'eh to be pleasant, Walker Their flank es had succeeded in reaching the decks--well, we o”
”Mebbe you-aight, cap'n 'Best look at a bull ov-ah a fence,' as they say in the Canny Toon Eh, but I'll have a fine tale to tell when next I meet my butties on the Quay-side Did ye ev-ah see such faces as yon, all daubed wi' black an' white! Talk about Chirgwin--”
Courtenay s: the death of the Chilean fireh spirits The _Kansas_ bore tokens in plenty of the battle Many bullets and arrows had struck the shi+p; the canvas was torn in several places; a nuhts were broken, and the open decks fore and aft, as well as the spar deck, were littered with stones He picked up some of these missiles, man's earliest and latest projectile They were round and heavy; a few bore the red streaks of oxidized iron; soh the action of water had made them ”smooth stones out of the brook” He showed one to Tolleood deal of out-of-the-way knowledge, and the latter instantly pronounced the specimen to be al!” he commented ”You find the worst rotters in any country squatted over the richest ht heed to this bit of crude philosophy It was not until he called to mind the Kaffir, the Australian black, the Alaskan Indian, the primeval nomads of California, Colorado, and Northern Siberia, that he sa extraordinarily true was his friend's dictum Then he looked on the shores of Good Hope Inlet with a new interest Would a city ever spring up in that desolate land, a city builded of those pebbles which had clattered against the solid walls of the _Kansas_? Who could tell?
The long roer chapters
But the captain had s hich to bother his brains than the fanciful laying out of corner lots on the co Otter Creek He saw to the reverent burial of poor Pietro Ga, and helped Walker to search the suspected coal for a further supply of dynamite, as the utility of the surface ht it possible, given the necessary ti a device which would be practically invisible A fresh set of dummy poles, which the Indians would probably avoid in the event of a second attack, ht deflect the canoes into the area of new ht to light no further supply of the explosive Evidently, the prepared lu a stick of dyna the bunker at Valparaiso, had been conveyed on board by one man, so it was more than likely there was not another ounce of the stuff on the shi+p except the three specimens first discovered These, water-soaked and useless, were locked in a drawer in the chart-house
While scrutinizing the bunker, Courtenay found a grialue, or other substance, which had been used forthe bombs intended for the destruction of the furnaces He exa it had the appearance and texture of cartridge paper He placed it in his pocket, and, while changing his clothes before joining the others at supper, caed it into a basin of hot water, and it yielded its secret It was the outer wrapper of a stick of dynamite; it bore the circular stamp of the manufacturers, the ”Sociedad Anony The same company probably supplied hundreds of mines with the five-pound boxes in which dynamite is packed, and, if the stamp were the only clue, none could possibly say when or where it had been issued for use
But miners are apt to be careless;disregard for danger And here was a case in point Some Spanish overseer, evidently at a loss for a lyphics with an indelible pencil on this particular wrapper It was clear that the figures and abbreviated words referred to the develop and the position of certain lodes, but Courtenay was quick to see that the official who nize thee had been stolen or bought could be identified Such evidence was of high circumstantial value Courtenay put the wrapper in the sa the time and manner of its discovery, and forthwith dismissed it from his mind
It was almost dark when he went on deck The as keen and chilly
It whistled through the broken s of the wheel-house, and seelance aloft and at the sky beyond the southern headland--Point _Kansas_, as it was called on board--reassured hi arc overhead was cloudless The stars of the southern heh less familiar than those of the north, were reflected in the black water
The shi+p was so still, the surroundings so peaceful, save for the plash of tiny waves created by the breeze, that he was almost startled when a soft voice came from the lower deck:
”Where in the world have you been, Captain Courtenay? Joey is fretting for you, and I have carried him all over the shi+p in vain search”
His heart ju him at the foot of the companion Be sure he was by her side without needless delay The dog wriggled in her arht to run about His dear little paw is rather badly cut, and there lass on the deck”
”I hope not, for our Chileans' sake,” laughed Courtenay ”I heard Mr