Compton MacKenzie

“ Ecod, I don't like being my Lord Cannebrake, with ghosts thick as seagulls round about. I was happier before; I was happier in the pleasant Isle of Thanet with the sea-wind singing day and night round my cottage. I used to do nothing mostly, except sight the craft beating round the Foreland, and think of 'em so white and handsome in the Downs, a-stroking all the while my little daughter's light-brown hair. And now look at me, stuck in a low, dirty swamp ten miles from the sound of breakers, wi' nothing to think of but ghosts. That's bad for a man who, mark you, was a-seafaring once. ”

“ And I was took, Dicky. I was took all right and sold five hundred miles up country, to a Frenchman whose throat I slit so as he died quicker nor ever you'd think a man could die."
"Mr. Tripconey," said his lordship to me, "I think you'll find your bedroom prepared. Springle, show Mr. Tripconey to his chamber."
The butler, with many a backward glance to where the two sea-captains sat facing one another in the firelight, led me up the wide stairs and parted from me by the door of my room without so much as a good night. ”

“ The shrubbery planted round the gates did not extend far, and the drive soon unfolded its direction, running straight and bare over a wide, undulating grassland populated with the shadowy forms of cattle, to the doors of Cannebrake—a long, low building of the undistinguished architecture which I had already learned to associate with Cornish houses. ”

“ Springle almost screamed. "Let the swab come! We're too many for him, with pleasant talk of old ships and a knife that goes in easy and quick like."
I confess I was amazed by the coolness with which the rascal proposed to murder a fellow-creature, and was relieved to hear his lordship discourage the notion.
"None of that," he commanded. "None of that. If 'tis Matthew Swall, 'tis him; and maybe there's a reckoning, and maybe there isn't, but none of that. If 'tis man to man, him and me, 'tis out in the moonlight with ship's cutlasses and you and Mr. Tripconey here to see fair play. ”

“ Then Lord Cannebrake and I looked at each other with two bodies between us.
"Her ladyship?" I said.
"We'll have to tell her."
I felt sorry for the old man who had kept his secret so many years. But the hall was now running with Conrad's blood, and I thought we should do well enough to escape the law.
Her ladyship came along the gallery, very pale and beautiful.
"What is it, father? I heard a shot."
"A bad night's work, my lady-love," said the father gently. "But Mr. Tripconey here has saved Cannebrake."
"And his lordship has saved me," I cried. ”

“ By the Lord," shouted Captain Swall, "Black Flag's more the lay."
"Be careful, Matthew. You know I'm a hot-blooded man. You know I won't stand too much."
"Aye, by the plague, and you know mine, Dick Starling, and it ain't lost nothing these twenty years of waiting. Look 'ee here, it comes to this. You've got a darter. Well." Again he swore that fearful oath. "If you don't give me your darter—for I won't be put off with no fine words after Jamestown, Dicky; I'll have something of yours as you vally—I'll have your young maid, or you swing for piracy." ”

“ But it was impossible to advance, and I was beginning to regret the inn and rail at myself for objecting to the idiot's company, when I saw above a black hill-top the yellow rim of the full moon, whose light, increasing every moment, was presently strong enough to show me I was not fifty yards from the great gates of Cannebrake. ”

“ Below deck, you swab!" he roared, and, picking up one of the heavy cut-glass goblets, flung it between the butler's legs as he hurried from the hall. Lord Cannebrake laughed and made me fill up my glass, while he poured out for himself an extra strong allowance of rum.
"Master Springle thinks he can do as he likes because I give him a moderate amount of freedom, seeing that we were shipmates once."
"It is indeed a condescension on your side, my lord, for which the fellow shows himself monstrous ungrateful. I drink your lordship's very good health." ”

“ Ignorant of luxury through the exigencies of a nomadic existence, I owned nevertheless a very fastidious taste which often led me to despise the miseries of my situation—so much so that I believe I would rather a thousand times depend on the hard ground than sacrifice my sensibility in the endurance of an uncongenial bedfellow. ”

“ But even while he threatened, shaking the pistol. Lord Cannebrake struck hard with his stick and Captain Swall fell forward among the glasses on the table.
"Springle," his lordship gasped. "Springle, I've killed him, ha'n't I?"
Then I saw that the butler was standing in the corner, a plate of beef in his hand. He came forward and, setting down the plate, shook the sprawling figure.
"Aye, aye, he's dead as his beef," said Springle.
"We'll bury the body quick, Conrad. Wait. I'll see he has no friends outside." ”

“ There was neither barking of dogs nor any sign of human life until I observed the shadow of a man carrying from room to room of the second story a circle of candlelight increasing and diminishing with each entrance and exit. ”

“ Lord Cannebrake and his visitor were still seated facing one another, while Springle was standing, well out of the way of both, at the farther end of the hall.
"But I don't want to fight, Dicky," Captain Swall was saying. "I done with fighting long ago. This here pop I holds in my hand so pretty, that's not for fighting; that's for protection, Dicky, in case you was to leave me once again on a lee-shore. No, I don't want no revenge nor nothing, Dicky. ”

“ You become quite a handy lad arter that. Quick and handy with that 'ere clasp-knife of yourn, Conrad, when you done for the crew of the True Love what was lying on their backs off Calabar a-waiting for you to obey orders. Come, look alive, my lad, or you'll find yourself in Bodmin Gaol, and 'tis Cap'n Swall who says so."
Springle, cowed by the fierce intruder, gave up defiance and went to fetch the victuals.
"That's a nice little place Conrad's got himself," continued Swall, with one eye cocked very wickedly at Lord Cannebrake.
"Do you want to be my butler?" demanded the latter. ”