Frank Fowler

“ The tower toppled and fell, carrying many with it.
"Hurrah!" cried Billie. "Give it to them!" and, firing his rifle as he went, he rode right down into the main street.
"He'll be killed by our own men!" cried Donald.
But he was not. Instead he dashed into the open space in front of the custom house, just as the marines swept by, his hat off and his rifle cracking as fast as he could fire.
Seeing that the danger from the marines was past, Donald and Adrian fell in behind Billie, just as an officer came around the corner at the head of another company. ”

“ They say he’s gone into the mountain to talk with Manitou; and from time to time queer sounds are heard that set the Indians almost wild—strains of sweet music come out of cracks in the rocks, and then a strange voice like the rumbling of thunder follows. And at such times every Zuni will be sure to flatten himself, face downward, on the ground, listening with all his might, but not daring to look, for fear he might see too much, and be struck blind; because that’s what the Witch Doctor has warned them might happen if they got too curious. ”

“ For example, in drawing or painting a landscape we look at the tone of the trees against the sky and observe which is the darker. If a stormy, heavy sky is seen behind light, feathery, green trees we see that the sky is darker in value.
If, on the contrary, trees with dark, rich foliage are observed to be strongly relieved against a bright, sunny sky, we perceive at once that the sky is lighter in value than the trees. ”

“ It is only when the great meteorological staple of English conversation derives a certain freshness and novelty from a sudden attack of winter upon the rear of autumn, or when a hurricane has torn up a tree in the park and blown an old woman into the river or a child into the canal, that our inland world begins to feel that the universe is not absolutely done to order yet. ”

“ Black, with almost superhuman strength, picked up the cannon itself, just as Billie had picked up the ball, and hurled it down the stairs.
Half a dozen men fell beneath its weight, while the others, frightened at such an exhibition of strength, fell back in dismay. ”

“ It would be useless to delay this Narrative for any further particulars from Molfra. One knows so well what the nature of those particulars will be—fresh bodies, more tattered rags, more copper bolts and bars twisted like wire, more iron plates and beams gnawed by the sea as dogs gnaw bones, more recognitions by disconsolate friends of those whom, long ere this, they had hoped to welcome at an English fireside! ”

“ Those who have observed the dances of savage people in many far distant parts of the earth have noticed a strange similarity in the methods and customs of different nations. Men and women seem to dance pretty much the same, whether it be among the Zulus of South Africa, the Bontoc Igorottes of the Philippine Islands, the Hottentots of Darkest Africa, or the Indians of our own West. There is the same crouching attitude, the bending of the knees, a springy step like unto that of the tiger or panther, and very much the same monotonous chant that rises and falls in a thrilling cadence. ”

“ Santiago eyed him suspiciously, but finally laid his rifle across a table in the center of the room and approached nearer the lad.
"Listen!" he said in a whisper. "I am the guardian of the treasure of Montezuma. It is to be used to free Mexico from the Spaniard. He must be driven out. The land belongs to the Aztec."
"But where is the Aztec?" queried Billie. "I know him not."
"I am he. The peons are my people. The Spaniard—bah! He owns the houses and he owns the lands; but he must be driven out." ”

“ It were a miserable task, while the bodies of the poor castaway people are still awaiting Christian burial, to look about for whom to blame, when all but a score are beyond the reach of blame or praise. It is easy for us to wonder and regret that the “Royal Charter” should ever have passed on from Queenstown and sailed up the Irish Channel without a pilot in wild and threatening weather—that without a pilot, and with a northerly gale coming on, she should have passed by Holyhead, and kept hugging a dead lee shore at night along the most dangerous line of all our coast. ”

“ Plenty of signs pointed that way—they could hear loud voices, and the laughter of children, just as though they might be approaching a village of white people; for after all, children do not differ very much, whether they be white, black, copper-colored or yellow; it is only when they grow older and copy the characteristics of their parents that they change, and follow the groove of their species.
“I can see the cliff, all right!” announced Billie, in some little excitement, as he stretched his fat neck to a dangerous degree, “rubbering,” as he himself described it. ”

“ Funston to find the mountebank for me. He said you boys would do better than any one else."
"But why us? Why not a Mexican policeman?"
"Because the mountebank was an American. He may even have been a soldier and have hidden himself among your men."
"Oh, he was an American, was he?" laughed Donald. "Then I believe we can put our finger on him with ease. But the man we have in mind always carried with him an ape."
"Then it may not be the same," replied Don Esteban, "for this one had no ape with him either time."
"It certainly does look like a mystery," was Adrian's comment. ”

“ Children and parents, husbands and wives, were clinging to each other in despairing embraces. The captain endeavoured, hoping against hope, to reassure those under his charge. Mr. Hodge, a missionary from New Zealand, did his best to administer religious consolation, but the victory was on that black Wednesday morning with the demon of the storm. A succession of tremendous waves swung the “Royal Charter” from the rocks, and she parted, first amidships and then longitudinally, and was soon but a mass of shapeless spars, eddying about in a briny maelstrom. ”

“ CHAPTER XV.—A MEETING WITH THE MEDICINE MAN.
“There, what do you say to that now, Billie?” exclaimed Donald, as he turned to see the fat chum staring at the snake, with whitened cheeks, and a horrified expression on his plump face.
“Gosh! it ain’t so that they take out the poison sack, is it?” muttered Billie; “and that stuff must be the deadly thing they push into a fellow when they strike! Oh! ain’t they the limit, though, them rattlers? And I ought to be thankful every day I live that I didn’t go all the way down into that hole when I slipped.” ”

“ Then, single file, they slowly descended into the quarry.
Billie recognized them the minute he laid eyes upon them. They were the remnant of the bandit band, and the bodies carried across the pommels of the saddles were three of their wounded companions.
"This is no place for me," commented Billie as he kept himself well hidden behind a giant cactus. "It reminds me of Ali Baba and the forty thieves. I hope I have better luck than Ali Baba." ”

“ The ship was hove to, and drifting helplessly into Dulas Bay. Here she let go her anchors, “keeping her screw working to ease the cables.” One after the other the cables parted with the strain; at half-past two she struck, the tide ebbing, and with the flood she went broadside on to the shelving beach, literally split in two amidships, and was smashed to pieces on the rocks. We are guilty of no presumption in drawing one conclusion, and that is, the worse than uselessness, the absolutely fatal mischief of the so-called “auxiliary” screw. ”

“ Billie shut off his electric torch and waited.
Then on the steps there appeared a foot, then another, until a whole human body was in sight. Then "click, snap!" and the light disappeared.
"By George!" exclaimed Billie under his breath, "there's a man on the stairs right opposite to me. Who on earth can it be?"
His first inclination was to turn on the light, but on second thought he decided not to.
"I'll let him set the copy," thought Billie. "It's a mighty good thing to be able to spring the surprise." ”

“ Billie was the only one to snatch up a gun, which he happened to have alongside at that particular moment.
“Look there, will you?” called out Donald; “see him scuttle off into the darkness, of the shadows? An Injun as sure as you live. Oh! if only I had my gun in my hands. Give him a shot, Billie, why don’t you?”
But Billie, although he half raised his Marlin rifle, failed to shoot. Possibly the thought of hurting a human being did not appeal to him in the same sense as it did these boys of the plains. ”

“ The dweller in cities, on the other hand, with all his habitual scepticism and indifference, who peeps at the moon as at a raree show, and takes a return ticket to go and gape at an eclipse from some distant hill in the country—your acute, hard-headed, practical man on Change, in the Law-court, in the Club, stares and marvels like a mere baby when he is brought face to face with the terror and mystery of Nature in any of her sublimer moods. ”

“ Without wasting more words the boys put spurs to their horses and were soon out of the basin and on their way to Pachuca.
"It seems like a year since we came down here," remarked Adrian to Billie as they galloped along.
"It sure does," was the reply as Billie rubbed his stomach suggestively. "I'll never go out again as long as I'm in this revolutionary republic without a haversack full of grub."
"Who said grub?" called back Donald.
"What a question," laughed Adrian. "Who is it that's always hungry? It's all he thinks about." ”

“ Billie panted, as he still yanked at the stout bridle of the snorting mule.
“It’s the panther skin, more than the venison, though I have known horses to object to carrying home meat,” Donald told him. “You see, they don’t like the smell of the fresh blood; and that skin just gets poor old Bray wild. He knows just by his instinct that it came from a terrible wild beast, that would jump on his back, and claw him, if it ever had the chance. And the mule isn’t intelligent enough to understand that it’s dead now, and couldn’t hurt him.” ”

“ At nine o’clock the hot water is served, when each brews his glass of toddy—baling out a wine-glass of the smoking liquor for his lady neighbour—and jollity holds sway for the remainder of the evening. Those who don’t understand Hoyle—who are dummies at whist, dull at dominoes, and regularly thrown on their backs with regard to all-fours—who think draughts dry, and see no point in backgammon—generally retire to the poop after tea, to get up their little music and dancing parties, and warble and waltz gaily enough ’neath the light of the glistening stars. ”

“ Who and what do you suppose he is?"
"An animal trainer from a circus," replied Adrian.
"There are no circuses in this part of the world," commented Billie.
"If he only had a hand organ instead of a gun, I could place him," laughed Donald. "What do you make out of him, Pedro?"
"It's a saltimbanco."
"What is that?"
"A man who goes about making people laugh."
"Oh!" from Adrian. "You mean a mountebank?"
"I think so."
"And this chap," ventured Billie, "isn't satisfied with making a monkey of himself, but carries a real one with him."
Pedro laughed. "That seems to be it." ”

“ His whole time during my sojourn on the ship was spent in looking after the engines, and entering into amusing discussions with the purser on the right pronunciation of words. Poor fellow!
The purser (Mr. Lewis) was one of the best men that ever walked the earth. He did justice to passengers and owners, and at the time when we ran short of food, I knew him, with all the ship’s stores at his command, to abstain from dinner, that the children of the intermediate and steerage passengers might in turn receive his share of the slender stock of dainties left to us on board. ”

“ Am I right there, Pard Donald?”
“You’re cleaving close to the line, let me tell you, Chum Adrian; and you’ll find that money talks even among the Zuni and the Hopi Indians, just as it does, they say, over in Switzerland or Italy, where every blessed person, young and old, has the itching palm as they call it, so you can’t ask a civil question without fishing around in your pocket for a tip. But let’s forget all that, now, and mingle with the crowd.”
“First of all,” suggested Adrian, wisely, “don’t you think we’d better be making a camp for ourselves? ”