Part 30 (2/2)
He inquired of Sharpe, in very broken English, whether he spoke Hindostanee.
”Not I: nor don't act it neither,” said Sharpe.
At this confession Ramgolam looked down on him with pity and mild contempt.
Mr. Tickell was put forward as interpreter.
_Ramgolam (in Hindostanee)._ He whom Destiny, too strong for mortals, now oppresses with iron hand and feeds with the bread of affliction----
_Mr. Tickell (translating)._ He who by bad luck has got into trouble----
_Ramgolam._ Has long observed the virtues that embellish the commander of this s.h.i.+p resembling a mountain, and desired to imitate them----
_Tickell._ Saw what a good man the captain is, and wanted to be like him----
_Vespasian._ The darned old cuss.
_Ramgolam._ Seeing him often convey his hand to his bosom, I ascribed his unparalleled excellence to the possession of some sovereign talisman. (Tickell managed to translate this sentence all but the word talisman, which he rendered--with all a translator's caution--”article.”) Finding him about to depart to the regions of the blessed, where such auxiliaries are not needed, and being eager to emulate his perfections here below, I came softly to the place where he lay----
_Tickell._ When I saw him going to slip his cable, I wanted to be as good a fellow as he is, so I crept alongside----
_Ramgolam._ And gently, and without force, made myself proprietor of the amulet and inheritor of a good man's qualities----
_Tickell._ And quietly boned the article, and the captain's virtues. I don't know what the beggar means.
_Ramgolam._ Then a traitor with a dark skin, but darker soul----
_Tickell._ Then another black-hearted n.i.g.g.e.r----
_Ramgolam._ Came furiously and misappropriated the charm thus piously obtained----
_Tickell._ Ran in and stole it from me.
_Ramgolam._ And bereft me of the excellences I was inheriting: and--
Here Sharpe interrupted the dialogue by putting the misappropriator of other men's virtues in irons, and the surgeon insisted on the cabin being cleared. But Dodd would not part with the three friends yet; he begged them to watch him, and see n.o.body else came to take his children's fortune.
”I'll sink or swim with it; but oh! I doubt we shall have no luck while it is aboard me. I never had a pirate alongside before, in all these years. What is this?--here's something in it now--something hard--something heavy: and--why, it's a bullet!”
On this announcement, an eager inspection took place: and, sure enough, a bullet had pa.s.sed through Dodd's coat and waistcoat, &c., and through the oilskin and the leather pocketbook, and just dented the ”Hard Cash;”
no more.
There was a shower of comments and congratulations.
The effect of this discovery on the sick man's spirits was remarkable.
”I was a villain to belie it,” said he. ”It is my wife's and my children's, and it has saved my life for them.”
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