Russell Thorndike

“ Yes, she was all that I had to love for fifteen years, and when she was taken I was so desperately lonely that in a weak moment I married that foolish Mister Whyllie, who is really very kind-hearted and quite a good man, but, oh! how dull! Indeed, my dear, he would never have been in the position he is now if I hadn't pushed him there. You see, my dear, he hasn't much brain. Why, he cannot boast a third of my power, but on the whole I am glad that I married him, because he has given me such a lot to do helping him deceive other people that he isn't a born fool. ”

“ It was fortunate indeed for Jerry that he was a good rider, and had a knowledge of the Marsh, for the cavalcade immediately set out across the fields, breaking into a high gallop, leaping dykes and sluices in such a reckless fashion that it was a marvel indeed to the boy that his old scragbones could keep pace with them; for Beelzebub rode at his side on a strong farm horse and kept urging him to a higher speed. ”

“ At ten o'clock that morning a coach rolled up to the door of the Ship Inn and out stepped Antony Whyllie, Esq., attorney-at-law from Rye, a man of sixty-five years, but upright and alert as any young man. He was attired in a bottle-green coat, black satin breeches, silk stockings, silver-buckled shoes, and faultless linen. His gray wig, tied concisely with a black ribbon, completed a true picture of the law: a man to desire for one's defence, a man to dread for one's accusation. ”

“ You're very young, you know, Jerry lad, but smart's the word that describes you, and no mistaking. You're smart and bright—as bright as the buttons on that sea captain's coat—as bright as a thousand new guinea bits just served from the mint—that's what you are, and no mistake! ”

“ But again Job Mallet lost his head. He arose in the ditch and sang out bravely: "You and the rest of you are damned cowards in silencing the mouth of our captain. Had he his voice you know what he'd say—'Shoot and be damned to you!' and well you know it. Why don't you meet us in fair fight, you damned cowards, instead of using such devil's tricks?"
"'Cos we ain't so bloody-minded as the good King's bo'sun," answered Hellspite in a piping voice, which drew forth a great laugh from the devils. ”

“ Thus they were cut off on both sides: at their back the devils with flaming faces, on horses of alarming proportions, and in front, their captain, waiting for them to shoot, to meet his own death by the little demon's blunderbuss:
"'If you fire, you good King's men,
Then the devil shall blarst your captain.'"
"And you as well, you good King's men!" shrieked and howled the terrible demons at the back, who covered with pistols or blunderbuss every Jack Tar in the ditch. ”

“ A rough man he was, certain, and none rougher, reckless, too, and brave, a lawbreaker on land as well as sea, pitiless to his enemies, staunch to his friends, but contemptible he never was; and so, Mister Rash, you can afford to respect him, and I say again that I wish he were here to make you."
"Shouldn't care if he was," replied the schoolmaster, "for there's always the law to look after a man." ”

“ You could buy anything, from a bottle of pickles to a marlin spike in that dirty little store, and get a horrible anecdote thrown in with your bargain from the ready lips of the old fellow, who would continue to hammer away at an unfinished coffin as he talked to you.
But the burning passion that smouldered in the breast of the Ship landlady was in no way shared by the little sexton.
"Missus Waggetts," he would say, "folk in the death trade should keep single; they gets their fair share of misery, Lord above knows, in these parts with the deaths so uncommon few." ”

“ A BOTTLE OF ALSACE LORRAINE
LEFT to himself, the captain rapidly examined the kitchen; then going to the door that led to the bar-parlour, he called out: "Bo'sun, come in here, and bring that mulatto with you."
The bo'sun answered with alacrity, pushing before him into the kitchen an altogether horrible apparition: a thin mulatto in the dress of a navy cook. His skin was cracked like parchment and drawn tightly over the prominent cheekbones. His black eyes shone brightly, and the lids turned up at the corners like those of a Chinaman. ”

“ Rash, the schoolmaster, tells me that he likes riding," went on the girl mischievously; "he also likes books; he reads very fast, much faster than you do."
"Not Latin books, I'll be bound," said young Denis, starting up scarlet with rage, for he hated the schoolmaster, in whom he saw a possible rival to the girl's affection. "And as for riding," he cried, "a pretty fellow that to talk of riding, when he doesn't know the difference 'tween a filly and a colt. He sits on an old white scrag-bones, jogs along the road at the rate of dyke water, and calls it riding. ”

“ God bless my soul, why he's no more respect for me than a five-barred gate. He's always doing something to jar me. Why, do you know, that the cool-faced young malefactor announced the other day in the most insolent manner that he was going to marry a barmaid? Yes, I assure you he did. He announced to me, sir, in the most condescending tones, as if he were conferring an inestimable favour upon my head, that he thought I ran a very good chance of having that girl Imogene for my daughter-in-law. You know Imogene, that serves and waits and does innumerable dirty jobs at the Ship Inn ”

“ What minx wouldn't be only too damned willing to marry my son—old Cobtree's son; and not so old either, sir, eh? Why, any woman would jump at the chance! And as for a bargirl, the daughter of a dirty pirate hanged in that silly conceited little town of Rye, why, pooh-pooh, my dear Doctor! Laughable!"
"Well, I think differently in this case, Squire," said the Doctor. "I should call Denis a lucky dog. I might even stretch a point and, at the risk of being unfrocked, say a damned lucky dog if he succeeded in marrying that girl Imogene." ”

“ Besides which I can see no earthly reason for the schoolmaster committing the crime. As yet I really don't know what to say, my boy. I'm beat, I confess it. I must think things over for an hour or so. In the meantime I must strongly urge you to keep this adventure to yourself. It is very dangerous to make accusations that you have no means of proving, and certainly you can prove nothing, for there is nothing to go on but what you thought you saw. Well, a nightmare has upset better men than you before now, Jerry, and it is possible that your rich imagination may have supplied the whole thing. ”

“ Will you behave yourself now, you truly terrible old man?"
"Certainly, my love," meekly replied the lawyer, "but do look at this young lady."
"Sakes alive!" she exclaimed when she did look at Imogene, "for if she hasn't got a pistol in her hand, you're no fool, Antony!"
"She has got a pistol in her hand, my love, and I'll not only be a fool, but a dead fool, if you don't find some way out of the difficulty."
"And what is the difficulty, pray?" she asked, looking from her terrified husband to the extraordinary girl. "Oh, keep that pistol down, will you, my dear? ”

“ CLEGG THE BUCCANEER
THERE was one man who knew Romney Marsh as well as the squire. This was Sennacherib Pepper, and, what's more, he knew the Marsh by night as well as by day, for he was the visiting physician to the Marsh farms, and his work called him to patients sometimes at night. He had seen curious things upon the Marsh from his own account, hinting darkly about the witches and devils that rode on fiery steeds through the mists. ”

“ Straight at the shutter stared the demented Doctor; straight into Jerk's eye at the jagged hole, and suddenly his hand shot out over the table; he picked up the great plated candelabra, and hurled it, lighted candles and all, full at the window. Jerk started back to the rattle of glass, and at the same time a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder, and another was passed over his mouth, while a familiar voice whispered in his ear: "For God's sake be quiet!" ”

“ A half-finished coffin reposed on trestles in the centre of the floor, and around the room hung every conceivable article that had to do with coffins. The atmosphere of coffins spread over everything in the store, and whether young Jerk looked at the bottles of preserves on this shelf or the loaves of dark bread on that, to him they meant but one thing: Death! And he was quite satisfied that any one bold enough to eat of the food in that grizzly shop well deserved to be knocked up solid in one of Mipps's boxes. ”

“ Outside the door sat Sexton Mipps with his blunderbuss lying across his knees, ready to hand. But he appeared quite calm, and was enjoying his short clay pipe.
"Good evening. Captain," he said. "Coming out fishing with us, are you?"
"Lay that blunderbuss of yours on the deck," answered the captain, "and step aboard the cutter after your pals."
"I should like to know what you be," said Mr. Mipps, "to order a respectable parish sexton about."
"You won't make it easier for yourself, my man, by lagging back," said the captain. "I know quite enough about you to send you to the gibbet." ”

“ When I feels regular out and out, and gets fits of the morbids, you know, the sort of time when you feels you may grow up to be the hanged man and not the hangman, I always takes to myself a thimble of neat rum. Rum's the drink for Britons, Mister Cobtree. Rum's wot's made all the best sailors and hangmen in the realm."
"If you go on drinking at this rate," replied Denis, "you'll never live to hang that schoolmaster."
"Oh," answered Jerry thoughtfully, "oh, Mister Denis, if I thought there was any truth in that, I'd give it up. ”

“ Upon this table, flat down on his face, indeed in the very position that Morgan Walters had appeared upon the vestry table, was Doctor Syn.
"My God!" cried the captain. "Look at the face!" The dead face pressed against the table was indeed a face of horror, for driven right through the neck was Clegg's harpoon, and the hideous grin on the Doctor's usually benign old face was entirely abominable to look upon.
"It's Doctor Syn! It's Clegg!" ejaculated the three seamen who had entered the cabin. "Then, in God's name, what did we shoot out there?" ”

“ And if young men won't join the navy—well, we have to make 'em, you see, and that's what the press gang's for, don't you know? If you cannot get a thing done for love, you know, you must get it done by force. Do you follow me?"
"Perfectly, my dear Captain," said Mrs. Whyllie. "That little maxim of yours is most admirable, I declare, and we shall put it to most instant practice." Thereupon the old lady got up from her chair and pointed a pistol at the captain's head. ”

“ Once, indeed, did the bo'sun nearly lose his head, and that was when Hellspite lowered his blunderbuss and produced a clay pipe which he lit. The bo'sun saw a chance, spat in his hand, grasped his cutlass, and clambered from the dyke. But instantaneously came the ominous noise of cocking pistols, and the old seadog grabbed the bo'sun's leg and pulled him back swearing into the mud. Hellspite chuckled and smoked his pipe, the horsemen covered every man in the ditch with cocked weapons, and so another hour passed over the curious group. ”

“ If ever a man deserved to be buried at sea, Clegg did, for rascal though he was, he was a wonderful seaman, so a seaman's grave he shall have, or I'm no sailor."
Suddenly a cry arose from the man who had gone from the cabin in search of the sailcloth.
"What is it?" called the captain.
"My God!" cried the sailor, dashing back into the cabin, "the sexton! the sexton!"
"What of him?" demanded the captain.
"He's not dead! He's not dead!" yelled the man.
"All right! all right!" said the captain. "Will he live to hang?" ”

“ Whenever a traveller loses his way on the Marsh and disappears, folk say that the Marsh witches have taken him. When the harvests are bad, when the wool is poor, when the cattle are sickly, oh, it's always the Marsh witches that are blamed. They set fire to haystacks, they kill the chickens, they blast the trees, they curdle the milk, and hold up travellers and rob them of their purses. In fact all the vices of the Marsh, really performed by Master Fox, or Master Careless, or Master Footpad, are all put down to the poor Marsh witches, who don't exist except in the minds of the people. ”

“ Damned bad, upon my soul it is!"
"Ah, sir," sighed the valet, "you will become a great orator, a very great orator."
"I might, my dear fellow, I really might, although I am positive that I shan't, because, you see, I know that I shall go most damnably to sleep. I shan't be able to help myself."
"You must really make an effort, sir, to keep awake, for the sake of your country, you really must, sir, for you will make as great a statesman as you have a soldier. You cannot help it, sir. Talent such as yours, genius such as yours, is like murder, sir—it will out." ”

“ No vegetation; far from the beat of ships; not even registered upon the mercantile maps. As well be the man in the moon as a man on that reef for all the chance you'd have to get off."
"But he got off," said the squire. "How?"
"That's just it," said the captain, "how? If you can find that out you're smarter than Job Mallet, who seems the only man who can get things out of him."
"By Gad! I'm quite eager to look at the poor devil!" cried the squire. ”

“ He felt a power and chuckled in his heart when he saw his audience swallowing his exaggerations for gospel as easily as he himself could swallow rum, for Mipps liked rum—he had served for a great part of his life as a ship's carpenter and had got the taste for it—and so as a seasoned traveller they respected him, for what he hadn't seen of horrors in the far-off lands—well, the whole village would have readily staked their wigs was not worth seeing. ”

“ Rash, for he stopped talking suddenly and gripped the post of the gate with one hand and with the other pulled Imogene roughly into the denser black of the bushes; and then the noise grew louder and louder. What at first could only be described as a gibbering moan rose into shriek after shriek of mortal terror: a man's voice, a man scared out of all knowledge; and then over the gate leaped a dark form, agile and quick, that went bounding away through the ghostly churchyard. There was something familiar in that figure to Jerk. ”

“ We were all three chatting here quite pleasantly, when in leaps that mulatto of yours, attacks my friend the schoolmaster and all but kills him. I picked up a bottle and landed the brute a crack over the head. The bottle broke, and the madman turned on me, clapped a bit of broken glass in my mouth, which I expect is cut about a bit, and got away. I asked the girl to hold the light, and when she saw the schoolmaster's face, why, over she went, candle and all, into a dead faint. ”

“ Whether to let in the refreshing sea sir, or whether he had also heard the horses and wanted to locate them, Morgan Walters couldn't say, but Bill Spiker had got to the broken window and unbolted the shutters. He felt the cold air come into the room with a great gasp, and then he seemed to have dozed off again, but the next thing he heard was a great scream of agony, and turning over he beheld Bill Spiker embracing the wall, and the wall held him up, for there was a weapon transfixed to it through his companion's neck. ”

“ I've men behind me that I can trust, and they're pretty hardy fighters. If your demon riders are not of this world, then they'll do our good steel no harm; but if they are just men playing hanky-panky tricks to frighten fools from the Marsh, well, all I've got to say to them is, if they relish British cutlasses in their bowels, let them continue with such pranks as they played upon poor Pepper, and they'll get Pepper back and be damned to them, for it's Jack Ketch or the cold steel and nothing else. ”

“ He knew that he could make him victim, he was, in fact, sure of his guilt, and, knowing all he did of the man's character, he fell to wondering how it had been possible for him to fall under the spell of his fascination, for apart from Doctor Syn, whose personality had strongly appealed to him, he would rather have had Mipps for his friend than the rest of the village put together, for that odd little man had a rare way of making you like him, for over all his astute cunning hung a veil, an imperceptible something, that was nearly if not altogether lovable. ”

“ Mister Whyllie, a handsome face indeed, refined yet rough, but then again rough yet refined, take it how you will, but Lord love you again, Mister Whyllie, she has positively the most obnoxious clothes you could wish for to meet, and no shoes, neither has she stockings, sir, but shapely legs, sir, good legs indeed, though you need not embarrass the child by quizzing them, Mister Whyllie. ”

“ Whyllie with a great show of decorum, "you must not take for gospel what the captain says. He is a very prince of dandies; indeed, he is second only to the Regent and Mister Brummel in all manners of deportment. I never trust dandies myself entirely."
"Oh, Madam, pray, pray, make me the exception."
"No, Captain, for you are not only a dandy, but a soldier, and soldiers are another class I distrust." ”

“ I'm a man of Kent, I am, and I'm going to be a hangman sooner or later, but above all I belongs to the Marsh and understands her, and them as understands the Marsh—well, the Marsh understands them, and this is what she says to them as understands her: 'Hide yourself like I do under the green, until you feels you're ready to be real mud'. ”