Spilett

“ At an Island to the Westward, the Pyrates clean’d their Ship, and sail’d towards the Island of St. Christophers, to wait for one Captain Moor, who commanded the Eagle Sloop, when she took Lowther’s upon the Careen, at Blanco; Spriggs resolved to put him to Death, whenever he took him, for falling upon his Friend and Brother, but instead of Moor, he found a French Man of War from Martinico upon the Coast, which Spriggs not thinking fit to contend with, run away with all the Sail he could make, the French Man crowded after him, and was very likely to speak with Mr. ”

“ Two hours and a half later he returned, and met Killett, Stark and Rouse in the inspector's office.
"I am very glad indeed to find you here," he said. "I was afraid I might have to leave without seeing you."
"Why, what do you mean?" asked Killett, in a tone of wonder.
"I'm going to Connecticut," replied Spicer.
"What, and give up the chase for Bissell, Hawks and Bunce?"
"They will all be there by the time I am," said the old man, quietly.
"How's that?" asked Killett, in great surprise. ”

“ It won’t pay you to look for trouble, I promise you that. You can take it from me that I’ll bash the first man to powder that tries it. Get that? Well then, wiggle them picks a bit an’ get busy!”
“The man that hits first,” said Spirlaw to himself, as he walked away, “is the man that usually comes out on top. I guess them there few kind words of mine ‘ll give ‘em a little something to chew on till Carle-ton sends that hardware down, I guess they will, h’m?”
The camp was pretty quiet that night—quieter than usual. ”

“ From the camp down the line he could see the lights in the bunk-houses, hear drunken, chorused shouts. He crept to Spirlaw, called him, shook him—the big road boss never moved. The Polacks had evidently left both of them for dead—and one, it seemed, was. He slid his hand inside the other’s vest for the heart beat. So faint it was at first he could not feel it, then he got it, and, realizing that Spirlaw was still alive he straightened up and looked helplessly around—and, in a flash, like the knell of doom, Spirlaw’s words came back to him: “There’s the trestle gone!” ”

“ He set his shoulder to the pole and twisted it, and then the other boy took hold and together they pried.
Catching the imprisoned leg by the knee, Sib suddenly felt it ease out, and with a cry he caught Jep up on his shoulder and started for the shanty-boat over the floating island. The other boy followed him.
"Keep hold of the rope!" Sib warned. "Hold the lantern so we’ll see where to step!"
"She’s strainin’!" the stranger gasped, as the rope rose from the drift ahead of him. ”

“ Spiller, returning to her side. “So sustaining. Not one? Won’t you share one with me now?” he whispered facetiously, bending towards her.
[54] The girl drew back proudly. There was no mistaking the gesture.
“That girl of Ruan’s is too big for her boots, as the saying is,” whispered Mrs. Jenkins to a friend.
“Is she? She’s quiet, I noticed, but she’s pleasant mannered enough, I thought.”
“Look at ’er with young Spiller. I don’t call that pleasant.”
“Perhaps he’s offended her,” Mrs. Walker returned comfortably. “Young men nowadays are very free, I fancy. ”

“ After supper he put Jep and the baby into a hunting cabin-launch, and drove up Ash Slough. Two hours later he left them in a fisherman’s cabin-boat moored in the woods along the banks of Beef Island Chute.
"Si Drury here’ll take care of you, and I’ll keep you posted about them tryin’ to find you," Crimson assured the boy. "Us river folks takes care o’ one another, for if we didn’t stand by one another, the Up-the-Bankers’d drive us off the river, and then where’d we be? ”

“ A telephone message had summoned them there with word that Crimson and Jimmy wanted them to come to the rescue of Jep and the baby.
"Oh! What a darling baby!" Mrs. Carruth cried when she saw Driftwood in Jep’s lap, looking about with wide owl-eyes. Then Jep yielded the small refugee to Mrs. Carruth with a smile that was a little wan.
"They were with a fisherman," Crimson said. "We found ’em directly. Jep said it’d be the best way to come and face the music. He’s the doctor!"
"It is, too!" Mr. Carruth declared. "What have you heard? What do they want him for so strong?" ”

“ I’m a bit spoony, Jim. Let’s try and cut Spiller out.”
“Done,” returned Jenkins, with emphasis. “I’ll have first go. Give me that plate of tongue.”
“Let me give you some tongue, Miss Ruan,” he implored, elbowing Spiller aside, as he stood sulkily in the background.
“Look here,” he whispered, as he put the plate down in front of her. “Spiller’s had too long innings by a good bit. Give some other feller a chance, won’t you, Miss Ruan? We’re goin’ to have dancin’ after supper. May I have the first valse? Come now.”
“Thank you. I don’t dance,” murmured Bridget, untruthfully. ”

“ The size of the flood, the vastness of the surface, made the fugitive boy feel trivial and insignificant, and hidden from every one’s sight—as indeed he was. When Driftwood had had his supper, and was sound asleep in warm night-clothes which the shanty-boat women had given him, Jep turned the light in the brass lamp low, and, putting on a heavy woolen shirt, stepped outside to keep vigilant watch and guard.
There was no shore in sight that night—just the faintly glimmering, drift-shadowed gloom of wide surfaces and dark-softened, half-submerged woods. ”

“ Any one with half an eye could tell that he had to be kept out of doors. Thought he might be able to help Spirlaw out a little as assistant, h'm? Guess he'll pick up the work quick enough. He don't look strong."
"Mabbe it's just as well," grinned the master mechanic. "He won't be able to batter the gang any. One man doing that is enough—when it's Spirlaw."
Spirlaw heard about it before he saw Keating, and he swore fervently. ”

“ The ordinary voice of the ordinary man on the Hill Division was not weak—it was assertive. Spitzer suffered thereby because everybody crawled over him. Nobody thought anything of Spitzer. They all knew him, of course, that is, those whose duties brought them within the zone of Spitzer's orbit, which was restricted to Big Cloud or, rather, to the roundhouse at Big Cloud. Nobody ever gave him credit for courage enough to call his soul his own. ”

“ And the trouble was that, as far as Spitzer could see, the master mechanic wasn't sprouting out with any visible signs of premature decay. Furthermore, as he had suspicioned and now discovered, Regan wasn't the last word on women; not, perhaps, that Merla put firing before love, only she was uncommonly strong on firing. Spitzer was unhappy.
All things come to those who wait, they say. So they do, perhaps; but the way of their coming is sometimes not to be understood or fathomed. ”

“ Ah! dear Major Strickland, how much I owe to you and other kind friends! Had it not been for your efforts in my behalf, I should never have known what you have told me to-day."
"It would perhaps have been as well for your peace of mind if you never had known it."
"Indeed, dear Major Strickland, you must not say that. The truth can never injure us. But now you will tell me, will you not, all that you know or have heard respecting this father whom I shall never see on earth?"
But it was not the major's intention to tell Janet all that he knew respecting Captain Ducie. ”

“ Detective Killett became very thoughtful.
At length he asked:
"How did you gain this much information?"
Old Spicer informed him.
"Oho!" exclaimed Killett, when he had finished, "that was the way of it, eh? Then your men are as good as bagged."
"How's that?" asked Spicer, eagerly.
"It's plain enough," was the answer. "You will know Barney Hawks and Jake Klinkhammer whenever and wherever you see them again, I suppose?"
"Most decidedly, yes."
"Well, trust me, they will be making for this city as soon as they've had an interview with that Sadie Seaton. ”

“ Spitzer wasn't much to look at, neither was he of much account on the Hill Division. Some men rise to occasions, others don't; as for Spitzer—well, he was a snubby-nosed, peaked-faced, touzled-haired little fellow with washed-out blue eyes that always seemed to carry around an apology in their depths that their owner existed, and this idea was backed up a good bit by Spitzer's voice. ”

“ Father Spiridion and I are both old men. George is young, active, and energetic, and imbued with a thorough zeal for the furtherance of your interests. Have you sufficient confidence in him to entrust your cause into his hands?"
"My cause could not be in safer keeping," said Janet with a blush and a smile. "I already owe my life to Captain Strickland. ”

“ Occasionally, Spirlaw, sitting out as usual in front of his own shanty, that was between the trestle and the gang's quarters, saw a Polack or two skulk from one of the bunk-houses to the other—and he scowled savagely as he divided his glances between them and the sky. It looked like a storm in the mountains, and a storm in the mountains is never by any possibility to be desired—least of all was it to be desired just then. The men at work was one thing ”

“ It's an ill wind that blows nobody good. Dutchy Damrosch did the business of his life—he did more business than he had ever dreamed of doing in his wildest flights of imagination, for Dutchy had the lunch counter rights at Big Cloud. What's that got to do with Spitzer and his marital ambition? Well, a whole lot! Merla Swenson was second girl in Dutchy's establishment, and Merla was the "fee-ancy" of Spitzer—which was a rotten bad pun of Spider Kelly's, the conductor, and due more to the brogue-like twist of his tongue than to any malice aforethought. ”

“ Seth Strickett and George Morgan stepped forward.
"Barney—Bill Bunce—Pete—Clarky, will you be taken and strung up like so many slaughtered hogs? Stand by me, now, and fight to the death!" and whipping out a revolver, he fired point-blank at Old Spicer's heart.
But the attenuated detective was not a very good mark for a weak and excited man to aim at, and so the ball sped by, and the next instant a howl went up, as though all the witches of Macbeth were yelling in concert. ”

“ Spiser's ideals were no higher than himself, and Spiser was merely a crafty, masterful brute.
Nan's clear eyes, her air of good breeding, her manner with its mixture of girlish candor and reserve, her conversation and dress, which bore every earmark of education and refinement, conveyed nothing to him beyond the fact that an unusual and uncommonly attractive young woman had arrived within his field of activities ready to walk into a properly constructed web. ”

“ That Torkly kid’s got black eyes, yellow cheeks, and a yell like a parrot. Driftwood’s worth two-three o’ that kind."
He eased his shanty-boat out into the current. The wind had blown the flotsam off the channel, and there was hardly any drift in midstream. Standing at his sweeps, Jep looked into the darkness down the river. He glanced up at the reflection of New Madrid’s lights on the sky. Then he laughed aloud.
"When them women see the baby the marshal requisitioned! I wish I could be there to hear ’em! Laws! lawsy! If I can find Sib and Jimmy, they’ll sure holler. Hey, Driftwood!" ”

“ Wise and learned in the ways of men—and Polacks—was Spirlaw. Spirlaw was not dealing with the possibility of trouble—it was simply a question of how long it would be before it started. He folded the letter, sealed it in one of the company's manilas, and, as he watched Number Twelve disappear around the bend steaming east for Big Cloud with Keating aboard her and the epistle reposing in Keating's pocket, he stretched out his arms that were big as derrick booms and drew in a long breath like a man from whose shoulders has dropped a heavy load. ”

“ Crimson, that night, had seen something that he would always tell about—a river lad who would not be daunted, and who turned to face whatever a reward of eleven hundred dollars might mean, for that sum was too large to have been offered for some whim, as a mere hundred dollar reward had seemed to be.
Quietly they drove down the long bend, turned safely into Ash Slough, and dropped down to Crimson’s boat. But Jep would not stop there, even to have a cup of coffee.
"We’ll go straight to headquarters!" he declared, now that his mind was made up. "You’ll get Mr. Carruth, won’t you?" ”

“ Or maybe he had a hard time pulling the door open; it does stick when it’s almost shut. Anyhow, by the time he catapulted himself into the plot of this piece you were on your way down Mister Rattler’s gullet—which was just as well for friend Spit, maybe. He could maul Mister Side-Winder then without a come-back. Glad of it, too. Spit’s manners have been neglected, but he’s a regular fellow, and I’m glad he didn’t have to go out by the same route as Jake and Nat. ”

“ Driftwood cried out, reaching toward the shore. "Da-da-da!"
It was a victrola, and Jep’s breath caught as he realized the significance of the baby’s desire to get ashore. He thought of running in there, but he knew that New Madrid would send word there to intercept him and capture the baby.
"If they was only his own folks!" Jep exclaimed. "But he ain’t from there! He’s from up in Illinois somewhere. Those buggy wheels were run on stone pavements, the way they’re worn. Dirt roads and wood walks don’t wear a buggy the way stone does." ”

“ It so happens they are in this neighborhood. Excuse me a moment, and I'll telephone for them," and Detective Killett left the room.
In a few moments he returned, and ten minutes later Silas Stark and Reuben Rouse entered the apartment.
Old Spicer minutely described Barney and Jake, and both Silas and Reub thought they should recognize them without the slightest trouble.
But Killett suddenly started a possible difficulty.
"These fellows are cunning rascals," he said; "ten to one, when they land, they will be disguised." ”