Derringer

“ I shore wonders it don't exhaust them none, the way they hustles around," observed the cowboy to Jack Derringer, as they reclined lazily on the foc's'le head one afternoon watch below.
"A good time? Not much! Why, the albacore and bonita chase them out of the water, and the bosun-birds swoop down upon them in the air; they spend all their time flying from one enemy into the clutches of another."
"You don't say? It's shore some mean the way Providence cold-decks them fish that-away ”

“ In those days everyone carried a derringer, which looked like a sort of toy pistol, but was really one of the most deadly close-range emergency weapons ever invented by the evil genius of man. Each person had a pet place for keeping his derringer secreted, but handy. ”

“ It was a loaded Derringer, which Frank sometimes took with him when he went round the slums on dangerous business connected with his journalistic work. On the present occasion it was taken merely to intimidate Starth should he have arranged a trap.
"The man's a coward," thought Frank, as he issued forth into the July sunshine, "so if he threatens in any way I can show him the pistol if necessary. I'd rather use my fists as I did last night, but for all I know he may have a revolver handy. It's as well to be on the safe side." ”

“ I feels plumb useless an' no account when that 'ere squall rounds up on us, an' I near cuts loose a howl; but when I sees how she's playin' the game so ca'm an' easy, I cinches up my paltry feelin's an' whirls into the play with renewed sperit."
"Poor ole Jack, too," observed Bill. "That blindness o' his cuts him to the quick for sure. I watches 'im balin' with the blood runnin' from his lips where he's bitin' of 'em. 'E's an old bird, is Jack Derringer; keeps a stiff upper lip an' don' show much, but that blood lets out how fretted 'e is an' gouged up in 'is innards." ”

“ The district attorney unlocked the kitchen door and opened it.
A tall man pushed in at once. The tall man had a sardonic gleam in his gray eyes, a ragged brown beard, and a derringer. The twin-barreled firearm was pointing directly at the stomach of the district attorney. The district attorney's gun arm hung up and down. The tall, brown-bearded man shot out a quick left hand and deftly twitched away the district attorney's weapon.
"You won't need that," he remarked in a hoarse whisper, tucking the six-shooter into his waistband. "Have you any other weapon on your person? ”

“ Yet he does, notwithstanding his colour."
[Pg 67]
"But Sam do shine be-e-autiful when he's hot," declared the boy.
This last was too much for Jack; he lay back and roared, whilst Jim's big brown eyes watched him in wonder.
But the men forward were rather huffed by Jack's friendship with the boy.
"Fust time h'I ever see'd the cock o' the foc's'le pal up with the ship's boy," grunted the cockney one day.
"You just be keerful what you say, Hollins," said Red Bill. "I just gave the little nipper a clout on the jaw t'other day for giving me sauce, when up jumps Derringer. ”

“ Two forms lay on the floor, Dyke Darrel and Nell, both apparently dead.
Nick's companion, who had screamed so lustily at the fire from Nell Darrel's derringer, still leaned against the stairs seeming little the worse for wear.
"Mike, where are you hit?"
"Don't know. I FELT the bullet goin' through my brains."
A brief examination showed that the man had only been grazed by the shot from the girl's pistol. When this discovery was made Professor Ruggles became very angry.
"You made more fuss than a man shot through the neck ought to. The girl has been killed in consequence. Hades! ”

“ The mate now appeared, followed by the old man and the steward.
"What in hell er yew been doin' with my ship, bosun?" roared the old man, and the bosun started in to explain.
Meanwhile, with tender hands, the senseless form of the rover was unlashed from the wheel and carried forward to the foc's'le, and the old man, on hearing what had happened, had the grace to send the steward along with a stiff glass of grog.
In the foc's'le Jack quickly regained his senses, [Pg 142] the men contending eagerly for the honour of attending upon him. ”

“ Jack turned calmly back to his work under the superintendence of the bosun, and Barker, scrambling to his feet, wisely decided to leave the "durned Britisher" alone, turning to wreak vengeance instead upon an undersized dago.
Presently a tall lean man was seen approaching from aft. ”

“ What is to be, will be, let us strive and struggle how we will. And ’twill soon be dark, so ha’ your pistol ready——”
“I—I do not fear the dark!” she answered, quite forgetting to yawn.
“Nay, ’tis not of the dark I warn you but of myself, child!” he sighed. “Great pity is it you should ha’ found me out so soon, for as John Derwent I was in every sense a gentle, worthy and reverent soul, but—as Sir John Dering, ’tis a vastly different matter, for [66] the censorious world expects me to live up to, or down to, my reputation, so ha’ your pistol ready, girl!” ”

“ Derrick swore again with less violence and greater resolution.
"And who, in wonder, may you be?" he broke off to enquire. "I'm a war correspondent myself."
There was a vein of humour in the quiet reply.
"Oh, I'm a non-combatant, too. It's always the non-combatants that do the work. Have you got a revolver? Good! Any cartridges? That's right. Now, look here, it's out of the question to remain in this place till moonrise."
"I won't go back," said Derrick doggedly. "I'll see Carlyon hang first." ”

“ Derrick gave vent to a sound resembling a grunt, and muttered a few words containing seemingly some disparaging reference to the ‘king over the water.’
‘Hush, you fool!’ exclaimed his master in a low whisper; ‘you should know better than to speak of what does not concern you. Be wise, and hold your tongue.’
‘Your pardon, Sir Carnaby,’ replied Derrick; ‘it shall not be spoken of again.’
‘And mind, Derrick, in case we should be inquired after, let the rustic boors know that I am Mr Morton, a landowner from somewhere or other. You, Derrick, are John Jones; so mind and answer to your name. ”

“ He could only cut him in society, and cut down a very little more timber, and Lady Eveline's penniless condition became as great a grief to him as to his lady. The only thing that could be done under the circumstances was, to take a leaf out of Herbert's book, and ally his daughter to wealth, if not to birth; so that when the gout drove Lord Darlington to Brighton, and he found himself placed in the next house to Mr. Anthony Derrick the cotton lord, he determined to cultivate the acquaintance, very much to the satisfaction of Lady Darlington and to the delight of the whole family of Derricks. ”

“ Do you understand that?"
"Why?" flashed Derrick.
"Why?" echoed Carlyon, striking him abruptly on the shoulder. "Tell me your own opinion of a hot-headed, meddling young fool who not only got into mischief himself at a most critical moment, but led half-a-score of valuable men into what was practically a death-trap, for the sake of, I suppose he would call it, an hour's sport. On my soul, Derrick," he ended, with a species of quiet vigour that carried considerable weight behind it, "if you weren't such a skeleton I'd give you a sound thrashing for your sins. ”

“ Meanwhile I am, as ever, thy wholly devoted, loving
“John Derwent.
“P.S.—I have taken the girl Rose with me.”
Having duly sealed and directed which missive, he arose, took up his pistols, examined flint, charge and priming and thrust them into the capacious pockets of his riding-coat; then he enveloped himself in the cloak, softly unbarred and opened the door and, hat in hand, bowed his companion out of the silent inn.
“Come, child,” said he, “let us, confident in Fate and each other, seek the unknown together, nothing doubting.” ”

“ It was from the far side of the island that he saw the faint blot of smoke on the horizon, saw a black hull rise, saw, sunk on his knees and praying with every quivering nerve of his body, the big ocean tramp loom up, big and bigger, on the level floor of the sea. Nearer she came, and more near. The sharp coral-trash cut Dering's knees as he knelt; the sun, flaring out of a speckless sky, poured over the little dab of coral rock and bleached earth and grey drooping palms. But Dering heard only the truth that battered his brain with triumphant shouts. ”

“ Is not that simple enough?"
"An example, please, Goddess," demanded John Derringham with a cynical smile.
"The dark is an example," she went on quietly. "People fill the dark with their own frightening images and fear it because they themselves have turned it into evil. The dark is as kind as the day."
John Derringham laughed. He was amused at this precocious wisdom and he suddenly remembered that his old master had mentioned some clever child when writing to him first about the place, two months before. This was the creature, then, who was learning Greek. ”

“ Derrick still sat forward. He was staring at the ground heavily, silently Carlyon had given him a shock. Somehow he had not expected from him this cool acknowledgment of an action from which he himself shrank with unspeakable abhorrence.
To leave a friend in the lurch was, in Derrick's eyes, an act so infamous that he would have cut his own throat sooner than be guilty of it. It did not occur to him that Carlyon might have urged extenuating circumstances, but had rather scornfully abstained from doing so. ”

“ Deering stepped lightly to the edge of the piazza and peered through the honeysuckle screen. At a distance of twenty feet from him stood a man looking up at the house, at Millicent's window. His face was hidden by a muffler and a broad hat pulled low over the brows. Deering drew his revolver and cocked it. The click of the lock evidently reached the intruder's ears, for he turned and fled toward the orchard. Deering sprang from the piazza, and shouting, "Who are you? Stop, or I 'll fire!" ran down the path. ”

“ Derrick turned swiftly at the touch of a hand on his shoulder, and nearly tumbled into the roadway. He had been sauntering somewhat aimlessly down the Strand till pulled up in this rather summary fashion. He now found himself staring at a tall man who had come up behind him—a man with a lined face and drooping eyelids, and a settled weariness about his whole demeanour which, somehow, conveyed the impression that, in his opinion, at least, there was nothing on earth worth striving for. ”

“ He is but the heartless Sir John Dering after all!”
“The question being,” said Sir John within himself, his gaze yet uplifted to the firmament, “is she truly——”
The stars seemed to shoot wildly from their courses, the earth to sway giddily beneath his feet, then to plunge horribly down and down into a roaring blackness.
He awoke to a sense of pain, jolting and strangulation; slowly he became aware that he lay bound hand and foot across the withers of a horse, and with his mouth crammed almost to suffocation with a thing he took to be a neckerchief. ”

“ O John.... O lad—is this the end——”
[5]
Sir John Dering’s eyes opened, and he stared up into the square, bronzed face above him with a faint smile.
“Hector ... is’t you, Hector?” he whispered. “Tell her ... the lady ... that I think ... her vengeance will end ... to-night! Which is ... very well—”
“Woman,” cried the man Hector, lifting agonised face, “if ye be true woman run for the surgeon quick, ere he die!” ”

“ When Arabella Clinker and her mother were settled together at Wendover, a strange peace seemed to fall upon the place. John Derringham was conscious of it upstairs as he lay in his Louis XV bed. By the time he was allowed to be carried to a sofa in the sitting-room which had been arranged for him, July had well set in.
He had parted from his Cecilia with suitable things said upon either side. Even in his misery and abasement, John Derringham was too assured a spirit and too much a man of the world to have any hesitation or awkwardness. Mrs. Cricklander had been all that was sympathetic. ”

“ But the glory of earth was poor to the glory in her eyes and on her trembling mouth, and Dering looked away hurriedly. This girl's holy of holies was not for such as he to meddle with. Then he grew angry—with himself and with her.
"There's land of some sort ahead," he said. "We'd best try for it while our strength lasts. We are inside the reef, anyhow, for the sea is calm as a lagoon, and the sharks have let us alone so far."
Ten minutes later he staggered up the trend of the coral beach, dragged her after him, and fell on his face, exhausted. ”

“ He leaned back and smiled one of his old cynical smiles.
"Yes," he said, "it is extremely rich for me; my personal wants are not great."
"That is splendid, then," she went on, "because I shall not feel I am really depriving you of anything by doing what I intend to do in throwing you over—otherwise I should have been glad to settle something upon you for life!"
As he listened, John Derringham's eyes flashed forth steel, but the pith of her speech had in it such divine portent, as it fell upon his ears, that the insult of its wording left him less roused than she hoped he would have been. ”

“ Mr Derrick himself did not speak like an aristocrat either; his voice, though rich in song, had in speech a strong northern burr, which rescued it from any such imputations. “Why, if a man in my country,” continued he, “should venture to warn another off his land—unless, of course, it was a mining claim—as Sir Richard Lisgard”——
“Mr Derrick,” interrupted the captain firmly, “I am sure that it is not the custom in any country in the world to abuse a man's brother to his face. ”

“ It makes me squint horribly, and I never admired squints much."
Dering slid the coral chips through his fingers in silence. Five times he had tried to scale the rough palm-boles for the crown of green cool leaves at the top. Then, in wrath and desperation, he had chipped the bark until his knife snapped. Now, strong man though he was, he could do nothing. And the spirit of this young brave-eyed girl was not his to thank God for. The stars were big in the purple plush of the sky. Somewhere a fish flopped, and the wet splash gave Dering a thought. ”