Dunnage

“ DUNGARREN.
The sound of their spades and their mattocks. O my brave miners! they will do their work nobly at last.
VIOLET.
A way to escape under ground! my ears ring and my senses are confounded. Escape and deliverance?
DUNGARREN.
Yes, love, and friend, and dear human creature! escape and deliverance are at hand.
VIOLET.
How good and noble thou art to provide such deliverance for me, believing me unfaithful!
DUNGARREN.
Come, come; that is nothing: be what thou wilt, if I can but save thee!—Life and death are now on the casting of a die.——The ground moves; it is life! ”

“ Some feel of draught from the entrance gave him its direction and he made his way uncertainly towards it. She saw him outlined against the dying light, his fingers making sure of the exit. Then he blocked it.
"Come down," he cried again. "Curse you for a jade, speak up!" His voice faltered, whimpered like a child in the dark. Even if she obeyed him, unless he was guided by the sound of her voice he could not find her. So she prayed and believed. Bound as her ankles were, she could not do more than wriggle from the niche to the floor and this she determined not to do. ”

“ Enter Dungarren, who stops and looks round him, then mutters to himself in a low voice, then speaks audibly.
DUNGARREN.
The lily, and the rose, and the gillyflower; things the most beautiful in nature, planted and cherished by a hand as fair and as delicate as themselves! Innocence and purity should live here; ay, and do live here: shall the ambiguous whisper of a frightened night-scared man, be his understanding and learning what they may, shake my confidence in this? It was foolish to come on such an errand. ”

“ She told him so, and her low voice was steady.
“You can do horrible things to me,” she said, “because you are stronger, because you are evil, but your sin cannot prosper, any more than the night can keep away the sun. I am not afraid of you. There is a hell for men like you, and I think you are very close to it.” Her eyes, so like those of the drowned woman, made his own flicker—even as Strong's had made them. ”

“ Ye can pilot us out as the sun drops and return in the shallop. They will never see us in the shore haze until the dark covers us. There is no moon until long after midnight. And, a word in your ear.
“Cultivate a more cheerful look on that black face of yours. The men will have it ye are a Jonah. Your face would sour the water casks. Learn to smile against we get back. A good jest is the best purge for sorrow. If ’tis the matter of a faithless lass, forget it. Look not so sullen, man.”
“I shall be smiling when we meet next time,” said Todd. ”

“ As she straightened up from her meal, she saw something that made her shrink back against the wall of the cave, horror tingling over her scalp and down her spine, seeming to bristle the soft hairs of her neck. Two greenly lambent eyes glowed in the dark entrance, she caught the inquisitive sniff of some wild beast that had scented the bacon, or her. Her hands were tied. She was utterly defenceless against claws and fangs. The eyes lowered and she imagined the head of a mountain lion sinking as the brute crouched for a spring. To move was to invite destruction. ”

“ Dunbar’s chief allegorical poems are The Goldyn Targe and The Thrissil and the Rois. The motif of the former is the poet’s futile endeavour, in a dream, to ward off the arrows of Dame Beautee by Reason’s “scheld of gold.” When wounded and made prisoner, he discovers the true beauty of the lady: when she leaves him, he is handed over to Heaviness. The noise of the ship’s guns, as the company sails off, wakes the poet to the real pleasures of a May morning. Dunbar works on the same theme in a shorter poem, known as Beauty and the Prisoner. ”

“ And with her smile the dread that had stiffened the face of the quartermaster passed and he grinned at her with yellow teeth. The witch had turned siren and his vicious blood responded.
"I'll spin the yarn," he said. "I am not so timid as others." And he glanced sneeringly at Pugh who had sat down and was shading his eyes with his hand.
"No?" she asked. "Then why do ye make the holy symbol?" For the pirate's bundled fingers still touched his tunic above his heart. "He who woos Death does not always win. Yet Death is kind." ”

“ Did you see any signs of them?”
“Neither sight nor sound.”
“Well, we've got all the spare ammunition. That shoe that pinched is on their foot now.
“What did you do with your pearls last night?” he asked later, as they ate their breakfast.
“I buried them in the cave. I've got them on now.” She pointed to the ribbon about her neck. “If dad hadn't worked so hard to get them and planned what they were going to mean for me, I'd give them up if they'd only go away and give us a chance to follow later. I'm a little afraid of this island after that earthquake.” ”

“ Again the stick rose in the air, but did not fall, for round about his body Dunn laid such a grip as he had never felt before and as would for certain have crushed in the ribs of a weaker man. The lantern crashed to the ground, they were in darkness. ”

“ Once on a time fell upon evil days.
From hearing oft herself discussed with praise,
There grew within her heart the longing rare
To see herself; and every passing air
The warm desire fanned into lusty blaze.
Full oft she sought this end by devious ways,
But sought in vain, so fell she in despair.
For none within her train nor by her side
Could solve the task or give the envied boon.
So day and night, beneath the sun and moon,
She wandered to and fro unsatisfied,
Till Art came by, a blithe inventive elf,
And made a glass wherein she saw herself. ”

“ He's holding me!"
"Release her arm!" shouted Pere Lactance in a rage. "How can the convulsions take place if you hold her that way?"
"If she is really possessed by a demon," answered Duncan aloud, "he should be stronger than I; for it is stated in the ritual that among the symptoms of possession is strength beyond one's years, beyond one's condition, and beyond what is natural." ”

“ DUNGARREN.
And the moor was at times one blaze of fiery light, like returning bursts of mid-day, giving every thing to view for an instant in the depth of midnight darkness. (A pause.) One who was there told me so. (Another pause, and she seems uneasy.) And more than that, a strange unlikely story. (A still longer pause, and she more uneasy.) But thou hast no desire to hear it: even natural curiosity has forsaken thee. What is the matter?
VIOLET.
Nothing is the matter: tell me whatever you please, and I will listen to it. Were witches on the moor? ”

“ And in vain, in his turn, did he try to bend Dunn backwards to crush him to the earth, it was an effort before which one might have thought that iron and stone must have given away, but Dunn still sustained it.
Thus dreadfully they fought, there in the darkness, there in the silence of the night.
Dreadfully they wrestled, implacable, fierce, determined, every primeval passion awake and strong again, and slowly, very slowly, that awful grip laid upon the big man's body began to tell. ”

“ The hollow noise became plainer and suddenly he paused on the edge of a clearing and gazed, unseen, at an old hag, shrunken to sexlessness, her skin like shagbark, white hair over her eyes, mumbling as she struck feebly but steadily at a strip of bark-cloth on a hollow log. ”

“ DUNGARREN.
God forbid! God help and deliver us!
(Runs impatiently to a corner of the dungeon, and puts his ear close to the ground.)
I do not hear them yet: if they should fail to reach it in time, God help us!
VIOLET.
What dost thou there? What dost thou listen for? What dost thou expect?
DUNGARREN.
Means for thy deliverance,—thy escape.
VIOLET.
Say not so; it is impossible.
DUNGARREN.
It is possible, and will be, if there's a Providence on earth—if there's mercy in heaven. ”

“ My head is bursting, and since from the heights of my supernatural love a thunderbolt thus hurls me down, since, nothing, nothing henceforth, from this moment on, can give me joy, since, cruel woman, when thou couldst throw me a rope, thou leavest me, in dismay, to drink the bitter current—let death come, black hiding-place, bottomless abyss! ”

“ Once, when the mischievous wind whipped a perfumed strand of her hair across his face, he deliberately went away from her on the idle pretense of looking for more driftwood, though the raft was then complete, and stood dizzily facing the lagoon to fight it out.
“You came pretty close to being a cad,” he told himself. “Another second and you would have kissed her. A fine protector you are for a lonely girl.” ”

“ Pugh ordered as a stronger gust set the Scourge to shivering where she swung in the eye of the wind, uneasy and restive, her keen bows pawing the waves. "Give them the usual provender and set them on the cay."
For the first time something like anxiety showed in the faces of the trio.
"Ye would not maroon us on yon cay?" said the eldest Graeme. "'Tis waterless. Man, 'twill be worse than murder. It means——"
"A fig for what it means," said Pugh. "Ye will shortly find that out. And I am a merciful man, Graeme. I am sending meat and drink." ”

“ From the curse of a guiltless man.
And ever the judge rides by, rides by,
And goes to hunt the deer,
And ever another rides his soul
In the guise of a mortal fear.
And ever the man he rides me hard,
And never a night stays he;
For I feel his curse as a haunted bough,
On the trunk of a haunted tree.
This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ This gift or power of Dunn's he had acquired in far-off lands, where life may easily depend on the snapping of a twig or the right interpretation of a trampled grass-blade, and he was using it now, almost unconsciously, so as to make his presence near Ella and Clive as unobtrusive as possible, when his keen eye caught sight of a bush, of which leaves and branches were moving against the wind. ”

“ AGMAR So you would forsake the calling.
OOGNO The city is unworthy of our calling. The gods are drowsy, and all that is divine in man is dead. (To third Beggar) Are not the gods drowsy?
ULF They are drowsy in their mountains away at Marma. The seven green idols are drowsy. Who is this that rebukes us?
THAHN Are you some great merchant, Master? Perhaps you will help a poor man that is starving.
SLAG My Master a Merchant! No, no. He is no merchant. My Master is no merchant.
OOGNO I perceive that he is some lord in disguise. The gods have woken and have sent him to save us. ”

“ And be thine honest self again indeed.
There was a time when even slavery's chain
Held in some joys to alternate with pain,
Some little light to give the night relief,
Some little smiles to take the place of grief.
There was a time when, jocund as the day,
The toiler hoed his row and sung his lay,
Found something gleeful in the very air,
And solace for his toiling everywhere.
Now all is changed, within the rude stockade,
A bondsman whom the greed of men has made
Almost too brutish to deplore his plight,
Toils hopeless on from joyless morn till night. ”

“ Dunn read “worship” in every lineament of the other's face. It was as honest veneration as his nature could compass, and, sooth to say, the great man liked it, and sniffed his incense with the-air of Jove himself.
“I mean to take care of you, Hankes,” said he, with a bland protectiveness. “I do not readily forget the men who have served me faithfully. Of course we must draw out of all our enterprises here. I intend at once to realize—yes, Hankes—to realize a certain comfortable sum and withdraw.” ”

“ Dunbar as she went down. Then there was a long delay, after which Mrs. Dunbar returned and entered the room. She appeared troubled, and there was on her face a larger share than usual of that anxious, fearful watchfulness which made its wonted expression. There was also something more—something that seemed like utter consternation and bewilderment; she was as white as ashes; her hands clutched one another convulsively; her eyes were fixed in an abstracted gaze on vacancy; and when she spoke it was in a low voice like a whisper, and in scarcely articulate words.
“Some one—to see you.” ”

“ And when we recur to the part where the priest tells the Lord to seek his friends and servants in the mountains, "below the dung-hills," and raise them to riches, it is difficult to understand it otherwise than as an allusion to those who had been buried under the falling slime, clay, and stones. Even poor men do not dwell under dung-hills, nor are they usually buried under them, and it is very possible that in transmission from generation to generation the original meaning was lost sight of. ”

“ Mr Dunning spent the time pleasantly enough with the doctor (a rather recent settler) , and returned to his lonely home at about 11.30. The night he passed is not one on which he looks back with any satisfaction. He was in bed and the light was out. He was wondering if the charwoman would come early enough to get him hot water next morning, when he heard the unmistakable sound of his study door opening. No step followed it on the passage floor, but the sound must mean mischief, for he knew that he had shut the door that evening after putting his papers away in his desk. ”

“ My guardian’s gray head rose before me. My heart tightened. The finest, straightest old chap who ever took a forlorn little tike in out of the wet, and petted him, and frolicked with him, and filled his stocking all the year round, and made his holidays things of rapture, and taught him how to ride and shoot and fish and swim and cut his losses and do pretty much everything that makes life worth living—that was Dunny. ”