Shanklin

“ Slavens left him standing there and entered the tent, feeling that Shanklin was as irresponsible morally as a savage. Evidently the inconsequential matter of an attempt at murder should not be allowed to stand between friends, according to the flat-game man’s way of viewing life. It appeared that morning as if Shanklin had no trace of malice in him on account of the past, and no desire to pursue further his underhanded revenge. Conscience was so little trouble to him that he could sit at meat with a man one hour and stick a knife in his back the next. ”

“ Shanklin leaned toward the Governor’s son never so little, his left hand lifted to point his utterance, and opened upon Boyle the most withering stream of blasphemous profanity that Slavens had ever heard. If there ever was a man who cursed by note, as they used to say, Hun Shanklin was that one. ”

“ Slavens and his backer arrived.
Shanklin was running off about the same old line of talk, for he was more voluble than inventive, and never varied it much. It served just as well as a new lecture for every occasion, for the memory of suckers is even shorter than their judgment.
Gents were invited to step up and weigh the honesty of those dice, and gaze on the folly of an old one-eyed feller who had no more sense than to take such long chances. If anybody doubted that he took long chances, let that man step up and put down his money. Could he throw twenty-seven, or couldn’t he? ”

“ How are you, too, Mr Shanklin, pretty well?”
“Pretty fair,” said Mr Shanklin. “Come and have a drink, Durfy. You look all in the blues. Gone in love, I suppose, eh? or been speculating on the Stock Exchange? You shouldn’t, you know, a respectable man like you.”
“He looks as if he’d been speculating in mud,” said Mr Medlock, pointing to the unfortunate overseer’s collar and hat, which still bore traces of his recent calamity. “Never mind; we’ll wash it off in the Bodega. Come along.”
Durfy felt rather shy at first in his grand company, especially with the consciousness of his muddy collar. ”

“ Messrs Medlock and Shanklin greeted this announcement with a laugh of genuine amusement.
“I’m glad you told us,” said Mr Shanklin. “We should have forgotten to take a ticket for you.”
“You may grin,” said Durfy. “I’m going, for all that.”
“You’re a bigger fool even than you look,” said Mr Medlock, “to think so. You can consider yourself lucky to get a supper out of us this last night.”
“You forget I can make it precious awkward for you if I like,” growled Durfy.
“Awkward! You’ve a right to be a judge of what’s awkward after the neat way you’ve managed things,” sneered Shanklin. ”

“ Ross Shanklin scrambled to his feet and stood watchfully and awkwardly. The little girl took the mother's hand, and she, in turn, looked at him frankly and pleasantly, with a recognition of his humanness that was a new thing to him. In his mind ran the thought: the woman who ain't afraid. ”

“ Shanklin had picked up a club of his own, and grinned fiercely.
"No. Let me go, and I leave without having to be whipped out of camp. Mob me, and I promise to die fighting, right here." He stamped a foot on the ground. "I'll crack a skull or two before I wink out. That's a solemn statement of fact."
"Let him go," said Varina Pemberton again, this time with a ring of authority. "He wears that armor, and he'll put up a fight. We can't spare any more men."
"Thank you," Parr told her bleakly. ”

“ Hun Shanklin, and a man called Jerry, and Peterson, the Swede. But Shanklin, who sent telegrams assuring somebody that Peterson was Number One–Shanklin most of all. Slavens passed his hand with tentative pressure over the soiled bandage which bound his brow, feeling with finger and thumb along the dark stain which traced what it hid from sight. Shanklin! That would explain some things, many things. Perhaps all things.
He stood there, counting on his fingers like a schoolboy, frowning as he counted. One–two–three. 168 The third day–that was the third day. And he was Number One. ”

“ For, according to all the signs, the poison was so deep in the supposed sheep-herder’s blood that nothing but the loss of all his hoard would cool it again.
Slavens nervously counted down twenty-five dollars again, keeping the remainder of his winnings in his hand, as if ready to take chance on the jump.
A man must have it given to him both ways in order to key him up to the right place, Hun Shanklin knew. All winning would no more do than all loss. So this time the loaded dice were switched into the box, and the charmed number came out again. ”

“ Shanklin is such a dull and sleepy place! It has only one advantage, you can’t spend money there. The worst of the place is that [247] there is nothing to do in the evenings; at nine o’clock all the houses close their shutters, and one can only go to bed. My pleasure-loving temperament revolted against this life, and I was very pleased when the day of our departure arrived. We went by train to Cowes, where we took the boat to Southampton. Before leaving British soil, we entered a druggist’s shop and bought some homeopathic medicine against sea-sickness, for each crossing makes me horribly ill. ”

“ Some hosses knows lots more 'n' you think."
For half an hour Ross Shanklin rambled on with his horse reminiscences, never unconscious for a moment of the supreme joy that was his through the touch of his hand on the hem of her dress. The sun dropped slowly into the cloud bank, the quail called more insistently, and empty wagon after empty wagon rumbled back across the bridge. Then came a woman's voice.
"Joan! Joan!" it called. "Where are you, dear?"
The little girl answered, and Ross Shanklin saw a woman, clad in a soft, clinging gown, come through the gate from the bungalow. ”

“ What will the world be like when you are twenty? Very frightful, I fear. This is progress, they say?
But what of the little Earl? you ask.
Well, the little Earl knew Shanklin as I knew it,—when the blackbirds and thrushes sang in the quiet chine, and the sense of an infinite peace dwelt on its simple shores. His grandmamma had taken for the summer the house that stands in its woods at the head of the chine and looks straight down that rift of greenery to the gray sea. I know not what that house is now; then it was charming, chalet-like, yet spacious. ”

“ But Slavens would not permit him to quit the tent until he could no longer be of assistance.
It was not the wounded body of Jerry Boyle that the pot-bellied peace officer feared, but the stiffening frame of Hun Shanklin, lying out there in the bright sun. Every time he looked that way he drew up on himself, like a snail. At length Slavens gave him permission to leave, charging him to telephone to Meander for the coroner the moment that he arrived in Comanche, and to get word to Boyle’s people at the earliest possible hour. ”

“ They continued their conversation as though no third party had been near, and except that Mr Medlock nodded when the waiter said “For three?” seemed to see as little of him as Hamlet’s mother did of the Ghost.
However, for the time being that nod of Mr Medlock’s was all Durfy particularly coveted. He was hungry. Time enough to stand on his dignity when the knife and fork had done their work.
“Yes,” said Mr Shanklin, “time’s up to-day. I’ve told him where to find us. If he doesn’t, you must go your trip by yourself; I can safely stay and screw my man up.” ”

“ Slavens directed the nerveless chief of police.
Ten-Gallon set about his employment with alacrity while Slavens went over to Shanklin, turning his face up to the sky. For a little while he stooped over Hun; then he took the gambler’s coat from the saddle and spread it over his face. Hun Shanklin was in need of no greater service that man could render him.
Dr. Slavens took off his coat and brought out his instrument-case. He gave Boyle such emergency treatment as was possible where the gun-fighter lay, and then called Ten-Gallon to help take him into the tent. ”

“ Governor Boyle approached Ten-Gallon and pointed to Hun Shanklin’s body.
“You must do something to get that carcass out of camp right away,” he said. “Isn’t there a deputy coroner at Comanche?”
“The undertaker is,” said Ten-Gallon, drawing back at the prospect of having to lay hands on the body of the man whom he feared in death as he had feared him in life. ”

“ In fact, things were looking up all round for the precious confederates. With Reginald to supply them with honesty, with easy-going spendthrifts, like Blandford and Pillans, to supply them with money, and with a cad like Durfy to do their dirty work for them, they were in as comfortable and hopeful a way as the promoters of such an enterprise could reasonably hope to be.
The trio at the Shades soon forgot Reginald in the delights of one another’s sweet society. They played billiards, at which Mr Shanklin won. They also played cards, at which, by a singular coincidence, Mr Shanklin won too. ”

“ Slavens straightened up and gave his backer two gentle prods in the ribs, which was the signal agreed upon to let the other know that the scheme was in working order, and that something was due to happen. He counted down one hundred dollars and stood expectant, while Shanklin held his hand over the mouth of the dicebox and looked at him with contemptuous reproach.
“No, you don’t! No, you don’t!” said Hun. “If you want to play this man’s game you got to shove up some money of your own. ”

“ Once the little Earl heard that said, and understood what it meant, and thought to himself, “I shouldn’t mind dying if I could take Ralph: perhaps there would be somebody to play with there.”
It was May, and there were not many folks at Shanklin: still, there were two or three children he might have played with, but his grandmamma thought them vulgar children, not fit playmates for him ”

“ Reginald smiled.
“I work for my living,” said he, keeping his eye steadily fixed on Mr Pillans, as if waiting to catch the first sign of an insult on his part.
“That’s what we all do, more or less,” said Mr Shanklin. “Blandford here works like a nigger to spend his money, don’t you, old man?”
“I do so,” said Blandford, “with your valuable assistance.”
“And with somebody else’s assistance too,” said Mr Pillans, with a shrug in the direction of Reginald. ”

“ Reginald said “Thanks!” drily, and in a way so cutting that Mr Shanklin and Blandford both laughed this time.
“Look here,” said the unwholesome Pillans, looking very warm, “what do you say that for? Do you want to cheek me?”
“Don’t be a fool, Pillans. It doesn’t matter to you where he lives,” said Blandford.
“Thank goodness it don’t—or whether he pays his rent either.”
“It’s a pity you had to leave Garden Vale,” said Blandford, apparently anxious to turn the conversation into a more pacific channel; “such a jolly place it was. What do you do with yourself all day long in town?” ”

“ He was caught in his own trap by a sharper man than himself, a being that up to that minute he had believed the world could not produce.
Dr. Slavens quickly gathered the money. The others around the table, blazing now in their desire to get a division of fortune’s favors, put down their bets and called loudly for the gamekeeper to cover them. 162
“Game’s closed,” Shanklin announced, shutting up his valise, into which he had tossed both dice and box.
He made a move as if to part the tent-wall behind him.
“Hold on!” said the doctor, snatching off his goggles and pushing up the brim of his hat. ”

“ It will do him a great deal of good, or it might be harm. He misses mamma more than you think."
"We none of us know what each other feel," said Ada; "that's the way with people living in the same house."
"But love and sympathy help us to understand, Ada," answered Nellie.
CHAPTER XXVI. CONCLUSION.
FOUR years after the events recorded in the last chapter, two young ladies were sitting in a sunny room at Shanklin, looking out on to the sea. ”

“ M. E. Roy Severn Bridge Morrison Muskoka O James H. Jackson Sevigné Hartwell Ottawa Q Hercule Chenier Shag Harbor, W. O. Shelburne N S S. W. Nickerson Shakespeare South Easthope Perth, S. R. O George Brown Shamrock Admaston Renfrew, S. R. O Shanick Marmora Hastings, N. R. O James Bailey Shanklin, W. O. St. ”

“ Jeremy cried, “they will be into London at once. Haven’t you made any preparations? Won’t you send the Lady Burney and the Lady Eva somewhere in the south where they will be safe? I met the Lady Eva just now—she is still here——” He stopped and gulped.
“I will not,” said the Speaker, his voice deepening and taking on the resounding, the courageous, the mournful tones of a trumpet. “If we are beaten, then it is all over, and there is no need for us to look beyond defeat. If we are beaten, I do not care what happens to me or to you or to any one that belongs to me. ”

“ Shanks, the attorney, entered the room, booted, spurred, and dusty as if from a long ride. He was a man to whom Sir Philip had a great objection; but he said nothing, and the attorney with a tripping step advanced towards Mrs. Hazleton.
The lady looked confused and annoyed, and in a hasty manner put back the papers into Mr. Marlow's hand. But Mr. Shanks was one of the keen and observing men of the world. He saw every thing about him as if he had been one of those insects which have I do not know how many thousand pair of lenses in each eye. He had no scruples or hesitation either ”

“ In spite of the counter petitions of Shanks—in one of which he complains that his fellows not only refused him satisfaction, but restrained him from the stage, and in another declared that in his long time he had made no provision for himself in his old age, nor for his wife, children, and grandchild—the application was granted, and the shares of Shanks in the Globe were reduced to two instead of three, and in the Blackfriars to one instead of two. ”