Part 27 (2/2)
”O Susan, Susan,” cried the poor man in an agony of intense feeling, ”it's little ye thought your Jo would come to such an end as this when ye last sot eyes on him--an' sweet blue eyes they wos, too!”
There was something ludicrous as well as pathetic in this cry. It did more for him than the most eloquent pleading could have done. Man, in a crowd, is an unstable being. At any moment he will veer right round and run in an opposite direction. The idea that the condemned man had a Susan who would mourn over his untimely end, touched a cord in the hearts of many among the crowd. The reference to her sweet blue eyes at such a moment raised a smile, and an extremely dismal but opportune howl from poor Toozle raised a laugh.
b.u.mpus started and looked sternly on the crowd.
”You may think me a pirate,” said he, ”but I know enough of the feelin's of honest men to expect no mercy from those wot can laugh at a fellow-creetur in such an hour. You had better get the murder over as soon as ye can. I am ready--Stay! one moment more. I had a'most forgot it. There's a letter here that I want one o' you to take charge of.
It's the last I ever got from my Susan, an' if I had taken her advice to let alone havin' to do with all sandalwood traders, I'd never ha' bin in such a fix as I am this day. I want it sent back to her with my blessin' and a lock o' my hair. Is there an honest man among ye who'll take in hand to do this for me?”
As he spoke, a young man, in a costume somewhat resembling that of a sailor, pushed through the crowd, leaped upon the deal table on which Jo stood, and removed the noose from his neck.
An exclamation of anger burst from those who surrounded the table, but a sound something like applause broke from the crowd, and restrained any attempt at violence. The young man at the same time held up his hand and asked leave to address them.
”Ay! ay! let's hear what he has got to say. That's it; speak up, Dan!”
The youth, whose dark olive complexion proclaimed him to be a half-caste, and whose language shewed that he had received at least the rudiments of education, stretched out his hand and said--
”Friends, I do not stand here to interfere with justice. Those who seek to give a pirate his just reward do well. But there has been doubt in the minds of some that this man may not be a pirate. His own word is of no value; but if I can bring forward anything to shew that perhaps his word is true, then we have no right to hang him till we have given him a longer trial.”
”Hear! hear!” from the white men in the crowd, and ”Ho! ho!” from the natives.
Meanwhile the young man, or Dan, as some one called him, turned to b.u.mpus and asked for the letter to which he had referred. Being informed that it was in the inside pocket of his jacket, the youth put his hand in and drew it forth.
”May I read it? Your life may depend on what I find here.”
”Sartinly, by all manner of means,” replied Jo, not a little surprised at the turn affairs were taking.
Dan opened and perused the epistle for a few minutes, during which intense silence was maintained in the crowd, as if they expected to _hear_ the thoughts of the young man as they pa.s.sed through his brain.
”Ha! I thought so,” exclaimed Dan, looking up and again addressing the crowd. ”At the trial yesterday you heard this man say that he was engaged at San Francis...o...b.. Gascoyne on the 12th of April last, and that he believed the schooner to be a sandalwood trader when he s.h.i.+pped.”
”Yes, yes, ho!” from the crowd.
”If this statement of his be true, then he was not a pirate when he s.h.i.+pped, and he has not had much time to become one between that time and this. The letter which I hold in my hand proves the truth of this statement. It is dated San Francisco, 11th _April_, and is written in a female hand. Listen, I will read it, and you shall judge for yourselves.”
The young man then read the following letter, which, being a peculiar as well as an interesting specimen of a love-letter, we give _verbatim et literatim_:--
”Peelers farm near Sanfransko Aprile 11.
”For John b.u.mpuss, aboord the Skooner fome
”my darlin Jo,
”ever sins you towld me yisterday that youd bin an gaged yerself into the fome, my mind has bin Onaisy. Ye no, darlint, from the our ye cald me yer own Susan--in clare county More betoken--iv bin onaisy about ye yer so bowld an Rekles, but this is wurst ov all. Iv no noshun o them sandlewood skooners. The Haf ov thems pirits an The other hafs no beter. Whats wus is that my owld master was drownded in wan, or out o wan, but shure its All the Saim. Down he wint an that wos the Endd.
”now Deer jo don't go to say in that skooner i beseech ye, jo. Ye towld me that ye liked the looks o the cappen an haited the looks o the Krew. Now deer, take warnin, think ov me. Think ov the words in the coppie book weev writ so often together at owld makmahons skool, eevil emunishakens Krupt yer maners, i misrember it, but ye no wot id be sayin' to ye.
”o jo Don't go, but c.u.m an see me as soon as iver ye can
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