Beadle

“ If there is anything that is not to be tolerated on any terms, anything that is a type of Jack-in-office insolence and absurdity, anything that represents in coats, waistcoats, and big sticks our English holding on by nonsense after every one has found it out, it is a beadle. You haven’t seen a beadle lately?’
‘As an Englishman who has been more than twenty years in China, no.’
‘Then,’ said Mr Meagles, laying his forefinger on his companion’s breast with great animation, ‘don’t you see a beadle, now, if you can help it. ”

“ A lizard progressed in suspicious darts across the earthen floor, reached the calabash of goat abandoned by the doctor and feasted most lizardly upon the swarming flies. Suddenly a streak of cobalt blue struck the empurpled lizard like dulled lightning, and a small snake, startled by a throttled gurgle, slithered into a hollow in the wattle and daub wall. From the southern end of the glade parrots streamed, screeching a pessimistic warning.
Warren-Dukely stirred and arose as his keen ears caught a distant chanting. He awoke the slumbering doctor. ”

“ IV "HALLUCINATION!" muttered the doctor and pawed at his damp face again. But the image remained. The head was sunk forward slightly; the brown beard straggled over the shirtfront; one black-sleeved arm hung listlessly outside the chair, the other upon the right knee. In the moonlight the eyes glinted blue as the man stared at the fire.
"But a white man in evening kit!" whispered the doctor incredulously. "Here! Good God! No, no," he added after peering at the outline of a square hut built beneath the enormous boughs of the giant tree. "It is. I'm not crazy. The feller's crazy. ”

“ The duties of the beadle (Saxon, bydel or bædel) , in ancient times, lay more on the farm than in the law-court, the state procession, or in the parochial duties of punishing petty offenders, as in the present day. [58] In many places, the bedelry and the haywardship were held together by one person. The beadle was the verger of the manorial court; he likewise overlooked the reapers and carried his rod into the [Pg 234] harvest-field. At Darent, near Rochester, the beadle held five acres as beadle, shepherd, and hayward; he had eighteen sheep and two cows in the lord's pasture ”

“ Beadle books, in their day, were as countless as the bison of the plains or the passenger pigeon of the air. Yet to-day only a few hundred bison are alive, and are carefully protected, while not one passenger pigeon is known to exist.
After the Civil War—to a much greater extent than before that struggle—Beadle and Victor turned their attention to the Far West and enlisted the aid of numerous western explorers, Indian fighters and plainsmen in portraying that part of the country. Erastus Beadle, himself, made a trip across the plains in order to study, at first hand, the life in those regions. ”

“ With the hot kiss upon the dew-tipped crest of the giant tree the two white men hustled the last of the empty pods into the latrine behind the hut. Just as a bird raucously announced the capture of his prey to his nearby mate, Warren-Dukely, peering through the fence, saw the first of the six young girls who daily brought his food, for to a layman or woman of the age of puberty was it worse than death to come within the orbit of the sacred magician's sight, the husband of the Tree of Life, arbiter of fecundity in crops and women, mother of all, potent and terrible. ”

“ Kicking up a Breeze, or Barrow-women Basting a Beadle. Published by T. Tegg (310) .—The beadle of a provision market, who has laid hands on the barrow of a seller of black puddings, has been seized by the nose, in a fashion to blind both eyes at once, by a muscular female, to whom the overturned barrow belongs; her stalwart right arm and massive fist at the same time are making energetic play on the person of the discomfited functionary, who has [275] become, from some act of interference on his part, the centre of a general attack ”

“ The social popularity which many beadles enjoyed not unfrequently encouraged them to take certain liberties, which, nowadays at all events, would not be permitted either within or without the ‘sphere’ in which they lived and worked. What would be thought of a beadle, for instance, who would presume to correct the precentor in announcing from his box a proclamation of marriage between parties, as once did a beadle of a parish near Arbroath? ”

“ As suddenly as if indeed a magic wand had been waved above them, the drums ceased—the screeches died away. Five leaping warriors turned in amazement and stared. A yell was turned into a gasping sob.
Astonished the doctor stood up. Every savage except the six holy maidens was lolling about in the grass, holding his sides and gasping with laughter. The chief beside his son was kicking his fat legs like a baby hippopotamus. Into the moonlight stepped the ivory figure of the bridegroom. Several figures ceased to struggle. They lay quietly in the grass. ”

“ Two little boys run to the beadle as fast as their legs will carry them, and report from their own personal observation that some neighbouring chimney is on fire; the engine is hastily got out, and a plentiful supply of boys being obtained, and harnessed to it with ropes, away they rattle over the pavement, the beadle, running-we do not exaggerate-running at the side, until they arrive at some house, smelling strongly of soot, at the door of which the beadle knocks with considerable gravity for half-an-hour. ”

“ Young ladies and unprotected females were found in abundance, dressed in all the engaging variety of light spring dresses; and, as may be supposed, our hero attracted a great deal of their attention, and afforded them no small amusement. But the unusual and terrific appearance of a spectacled gownsman with a cane produced the greatest alarm among the juveniles, who imagined our freshman to be a new description of beadle or Bogy, summoned up by the exigencies of the times to preserve a rigorous discipline among the young people ”

“ He landed without mishap, dragged the canoe up as far as possible and stopped to listen for the drum. He could hear nothing save the weep of the jungle. The curtain of the trees cut off the vibrations. He hesitated a moment before plunging into the dense shadows. The ground became firmer; it began to rise. On and on he struggled, scarcely conscious of the mosquitoes. ”

“ Then his left arm sagged; he found himself leaning gasping against the doorpost and was conscious that the night was filled with a strange, hoarse screaming.
Intermittent flashes of guns came from small groups, about which black gnomes leaped in a fantastic dance, flourishing flat things that flashed dully in the moonlight. ”

“ An oath lurid and lewd enough to shock the morals of the forest beasts preceded an elephantine spring toward the tree, where, still rumbling curses, he stood glaring about him. The expression of balked greed and wounded vanity was so comic that both the silent watchers nearly choked with suppressed laughter.
The seeking ape eyes caught sight of the belt. The non-thinking reaction was a grab like a starving monkey at a nut. Then at the feel of the softness within a ludicrous expression of dreadful anguish shot into the eyes as with frantic fingers Sawyer tore open the belt. ”

“ And, bending, he caught her arms and almost lifted her on to her feet.
“Oh, you are clumsy!” she complained. “You've nearly crushed what blood I've left out of my arms.”
“Come on!” he laughed. “I'll carry you all the way there if you like.” ”

“ He lumbered heavily out of the slough, covered in green slime from head to foot—but slime which had broken his fall and saved his bones. Around him was the gentle rustle and drip of the jungle.
"Good!" said he, sitting on a root, "but what's happened?"
He peered about. Near at hand was the elephant tusk sticking upright in the swamp; but there was no sign of the pigmies nor the apes. He sighed and wiped some more slime out of his eyes. Bending forward she pulled his green beard and laughed delightedly as he smiled.
"Good for you," he commented, "but where are your friends? ”

“ Scrambling along the rugged crest, they came soon to the jointure of the cape and the hill, where there was an indubitable trail made by human footseps.
“W’ites, them blokes,” pronounced Plessons. “And by cripes, look at that! He must be ten feet high!”
He stood pointing to the spoor of a boot a little off the track, which was blurred by many feet—a fresh mark that was at least twenty-odd inches long.
“Giants!” exclaimed Tony. “Oh, rot! There aren't any white giants; and if they were natives they’d be barefoot.” ”

“ The doctor waited for him, trying to catch a glimpse of the face. The man returned with great eager strides and to the doctor's amazement caught him by the shoulders and spun him around face to the moon.
"Good God Almighty!" he exclaimed. "That's good!" He dropped him as suddenly. "I say, I beg your pardon! You must forgive me, I—er—I'm a little off my chump, y'know. I—well, as a matter of fact, I haven't seen a white man for years. I don't know, I—but come and sit down." He strode forward to the hut, his swallow tails flirting in the moonlight, and emerged, dragging another camp-chair. ”

“ Between the station and the main jungle, which ended as abruptly as a fence, was a low, open space looking like the bed of a dried-up river pocked with pits from which ran wires, gleaming like a spider’s web, up to the lip of the plateau. Unable to guess what they could be, Tony handed the Zeiss to Plessons, who after one look exclaimed:
“Sufferin’ Moses, if that ain’t the ruddy limit!”
“What? What?”
“W’y, look, gov’nor! Them holes yer see in the grahnd’re di’mond pits! Them blokes must have half a hundred or more black fellas working for ’em. Must be blue clay or I’m a liar! Blimey! ”

“ He sat up abruptly at her "no good—oh damns." The moon was full and high. Around in the tree the little folk were clicking away as softly as a Spring shower upon a roof. Then his ear caught a peculiar sound—a distinct drumming as of native tom-toms.
A village must be near, he thought joyfully. But the girl kept whispering:
"No good, oh damn! No good, oh damn!"
She pushed a cartridge into his hand as she tugged at his shirt sleeve. He crawled to the edge of the nest platform noticing that her eyes registered extreme terror as she pointed downward. ”

“ After the ant style, but five feet thick, two columns of the spiders were advancing under cover of the outer scrub and grass, like the claws of pincers, behind the party.
As Tony and Plessons turned to follow, Bodiker, losing his nerve, misjudged the distance and landed right into the middle of them. Beneath his boot squirted red blood. He shrieked and leaped madly for safety, dropping his rifle and scrambling up the cliff, never stopping his cries nor his speed until he had passed Sawyer on the crest. Then, plumping down, he began madly to unlace his left boot. ”

“ Of course, you're a doctor an' used to carvin'—but, God, it would have made you sick." Again he moved restlessly in his chair. "They cut him alive—screeches—poor devil—then they—they put it up there." He actually pointed to the exact spot. "Up there in the fork of that bough. See? I vomited."
The hum of the insectile anthem continued remorselessly to the beat of the invisible baton. A cricket sang a shrill solo and ceased. Far away was the effect of sorrow in a hyena. Only one cigar glowed like the fierce eye of a dragon. From the doctor came an inarticulate noise. ”

“ Owing to Bodiker’s persisting in taking a long rest in the shade of the bamboo, which appeared as impenetrable as the wall of China, and to the painfully slow process of wriggling through the dense canes, they emerged just in time to get a glimpse of a bare and rugged pile of rocks against the vermilion and orange glow of sunset.
While the boys were lighting a fire and pitching the tent in the dark, Bodiker grouched sourly that it was Plessons’ fault; he ought to have known this and known that. ”

“ She led him through the jungle to a swamp where an elephant, hamstrung by the little people, lay wallowing and trumpeting in death agony with half a dozen tiny arrows in the soft of the joints.
The professor demanded his rifle. But the girl replied that the beast would "sleep." When the elephant did "sleep" the little folk were soon crawling over and in the vast carcass like ants over a chunk of meat. They camped immediately and forthwith gorged themselves to repletion—to sleep, to wake, to eat again. The professor was in despair; yet he was weak and thin and the meat food was strengthening. ”

“ During the hottest hours, when man and beast and bird, but not woman, made obeisance to the sun, the heart-throb of the drum continued mercilessly until the doctor in his sudorific bath struggled with an impulse to seize his Express and make an end of the tormentor.
At about four he suddenly grabbed the gun and, summoning Yamagulu, decided that he would seek something upon which he could wreak his exasperation. ”

“ He heard the phtt of arrows and much rustling of undergrowth from which arose savage grunts. Then immediately beneath him appeared a dim face with small, vicious eyes, black holes of nostrils and a cavern of a mouth set with wolf's teeth. Clicking violently the girl tugged at his shirt anew; but the professor, realizing that he could not compete with a gorilla in speed at the top of a tree, clutched the bough with his legs as he swung the useless rifle by the muzzle at a hairy squat body propelled upward with the ease and swiftness of an elevator. ”

“ However, they learned that to pass unprotected, even at night when the pests might be less active, would entail being bitten from head to foot as had been the old man and the dumb Swahili, for the spiders attacked in incredible numbers—they seemed to have the power to signal to their fellows far in advance to mass in readiness—swarming over the glass faces of the headpieces. ”