Marline spike

“ All this time the brig was moving ahead.
“A man, Barlow!” exclaimed Spike, in the way one a little bewildered by an announcement expresses his surprise. “A man! that can never be. There is no one at the light-house, you know.”
“There he stands, sir, with his back to the tower, and his face this way. His dark figure against the white-washed stones is plain enough to be seen. Living, or dead, sir, that is the mate!”
“Living it cannot be,” answered Spike, though he gulped at the words the next moment. ”

“ Sometimes I begin to wish I had not left my mate on that naked rock.”
“There is still time to repair the last wrong; we shall go within a few miles of the place where the Señor Enrique was left; and I can take the yawl, with two men, and go in search of him while you are at work on the wreck.”
“Do you believe it possible that he can be still there?” demanded Spike, looking suddenly and intently at his companion, while his mind was strangely agitated between hatred and dread. ”

“ Trapes, "a bit of a hole in his arm, that's all."
"Well, I wish you got it, 'stead o' me—it smarts like sixty!"
"Shows it's healin'. Doctor said as it'll be well in a week."
"Doctor!" sniffed Spike, "he don't know what I suffer. I may be dyin' for all he knows."
"You are!" sighed Mrs. Trapes, with a gloomy nod.
"Eh—what?" exclaimed Spike, sitting up.
"So am I—we all are—by the minute. Every night we're a day's march nearer home! So now jest set right there an' go on dyin', my b'y!"
"Say, now, cut it out," said Spike, wriggling. "That ain't no kind o' way t' cheer an invalid."
"It's th' truth." ”

“ But it is not surprising men should misunderstand terms, when they make such sad confusion in the acts which these terms are merely meant to represent. Spike had his Providence as well as a priest, and we dare say he often counted on its succour, with quite as rational grounds of dependence as many of the pharisees who are constantly exclaiming, “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these.”
Sail was made on board the Swash with great rapidity, and the brig made a bold push at the Stepping-Stones. Spike was a capital pilot. ”

“ Spike uttered a terrible malediction on the miserable carpenter, one we do not care to repeat; then he cast the light of the lantern full in the man’s face. The quivering flesh, the pallid face, and the whole countenance wrought up almost to a frenzy of terror, astonished as well as alarmed him.
“What ails you, man?” said the captain in a voice of thunder. “Clap in the chisel, or I’ll hurl you off into the water. There is nothing here, dead or alive, to harm ye!” ”

“ Spike is a man of more art than he appears to be to superficial observers. On my first acquaintance with him, I mistook him for a frank, fearless but well-meaning sailor, who loved hazardous voyages and desperate speculation—a sort of innocent gambler; but I have learned to know better. His means are pretty much reduced to his brig, and she is getting old, and can do but little more service. ”

“ And speed it was, truly; both vessels fairly flying; the Molly Swash having at last met with something very like her match. Half an hour satisfied both Spike and Mulford that, by giving the cutter the advantage of one point in a freer wind, that she would certainly get along side of them, and the alternative was to keep off.
“A starn chase is a long chase, all the world over,” cried Spike—“edge away, sir; edge away, sir, and bring the cutter well on our quarter.” ”

“ Now, Spike, it was you who put it into my head from the first that a swell cracksman from Philadelphia, Lannigan, cracked the crib and took that case.”
“Dat’s right,” repeated Spike.
“Then you give it me that when you ran against Lannigan he wouldn’t cough up and let you in.”
“Dat’s right,” repeated Spike.{82}
“Now I’m goin’ to speak a little piece,” said Patsy. “Spike, you have seen Lannigan since I saw you last, and you’ve got into the job.”
“You’re away off, Patsy,” said Spike.
“I don’t think I am,” said Patsy. ”

“ Light of foot, and resolute of spirit, the beautiful girl, handsomer than ever perhaps, by her excited feelings and disheveled hair, had sprung on the rock, as Spike stepped into the boat forward, and when the latter turned round, after loosening the sail, he found he was drifting away from the very being who was the object of all his efforts. Mulford, believing that Rose was to be abandoned as well as himself, received the noble girl in his arms, though ready to implore Spike, on his knees, to return and at least take her off. ”

“ Flowers; you need some one to tread on you a little. Step outside and let me try."
While M'Ginnis stared from his swelling, bloody wrists to Ravenslee's face—a face quite as fierce and determined as his own—steps were heard and Spike's voice called:
"Hermy come in yet, Geoff?"
"Not yet—but our friend Mr. Flowers has dropped in—socially, I fancy."
"Mr. Who?" enquired Spike at the door, but beholding M'Ginnis's angry face, he paused there, staring aghast. "Why—hello, Bud!" said he nervously. "What's wrong?"
"Nothin' much—yet, Kid, only it's kinder lucky for this guy as you happened in. ”

“ Rose was silenced, though she had too much tenderness in behalf of her own youthful and manly bridegroom to dread a fate similar to that which had overtaken poor Jack. Spike now seemed disposed to say something, and she went to the side of his bed, followed by her companion, who kept a little in the back-ground, as if unwilling to let the emotion she really felt be seen, and, perhaps, conscious that her ungainly appearance did not aid her in recovering the lost affections of her husband.
"I have been a very wicked man, I fear," said Spike, earnestly. ”

“ It is scarcely necessary to add that Stephen Spike, conscious of his vigor and strength, in command of his brig, and bent on the pursuits of worldly gains, or of personal gratification, was a very different person from him who now lay stretched on his pallet in the hospital of Key West, a dying man. ”

“ But I like his eyes! And his smile! And he looks a man—and honest! Well, well!"
CHAPTER VI HOW SPIKE INITIATED MR. RAVENSLEE INTO THE GENTLE ART OF SHOPPING
"Gee!" exclaimed Spike, as they descended the many stairs, "she sure gave you the frosty-face, Geoff, but it didn't seem to joggle you any!"
"No, it didn't joggle me, Spike, because you see—I like her."
"Like Mrs. Trapes? You 'n' Hermy are about the only ones then; most every one in Mulligan's hates her an' gets scared stiff when she cuts loose! But say, you do keep on rubbing it in, I mean about—about thieving!" ”

“ Ravenslee, starting. "Oh—yes—anything will do!"
"Why, hello!" exclaimed Spike, reappearing with a cup and saucer, "still piping off Hermy's photo, Geoff?"
"I'm wondering why she looks so sad?"
"Sad?" repeated Spike, setting down the crockery with a rattle, "Hermy ain't sad; she always looks like that. ”

“ By the time we did catch him, Spike was awful sore. He busted the kid flat with a punch on the jaw, but the kid got up, kinda white, spiffin’ blood. And when Spike grabbed him by the arm, the kid knocked Spike plumb cold with an uppercut to the jaw. [’]
‘Oh, it was a complete knockout. That tenderfoot kid may be crazy, but don’t never let anybody tell yuh he can’t hit. He took all the fight out of Spike. Why, he hit Spike so damn hard that Spike got on his horse from the wrong side.’
‘Is he any relation to Dave Morgan?’ asked Hashknife. ”

“ Half an hour later a young fellow, rather jauntily dressed but, nevertheless, one in whom the east-side tough showed, came down the street and turned into the saloon where Spike was awaiting the return of Lannigan and his companion.
Arriving in the center of the barroom he gave a flip to the brim of his hat with a snap of his finger, sending it back on his head, gave a characteristic hitch to one shoulder and, with a protruding chin, walked over to the table where Spike Thomas sat.
“Say, Spike, I’ve been lookin’ for youse,” said the newcomer. ”

“ Spike stared in wide-eyed amaze, for seldom had he seen his sister thus, but now, beholding the droop of that brave head, seeing how her strong white hands gripped each other, he tossed the paper aside, and flinging himself on his knees clasped her in his arms.
"Don't cry, Hermy!" he pleaded. "Oh, don't cry, I—I can't bear it. You know I love you best in the world—ah, don't cry, dear. I—I'll hunt up a job first thing—honest I will—"
"But your clothes are so very shabby!" she sobbed, "and oh, boy dear, I have only just enough to—pay our rent this month—so I can't get you any more—yet, dear!" ”

“ This spot Spike understood perfectly, and it was not likely that he should pass it without communicating a portion of his knowledge to Rose.
“There, Miss Rose,” he said, with a didactic sort of air, pointing with his short, thick finger at the little bay which was just opening to their view; “there’s as neat a cove as a craft need bring up in. ”

“ Spike,” he said—“a craft better fitted to go in a fleet, as a look-out vessel, than to chase a smuggler in-shore.”
“And no goer in the bargain! I do not see how she gets along, for she keeps all snug under water; but, unless she can travel faster than she does just now, the Molly Swash would soon lend her the Mother Carey’s Chickens of her own wake to amuse her.”
“She has the tide against her, just here, sir; no doubt she would do better in still water.”
Spike muttered something between his teeth, and jumped down on deck, seemingly dismissing the subject of the revenue entirely from his mind. ”

“ Spike stared in mute amazement, then flushed painfully.
"You mean—you an' me—ain't goin' t' be pals no longer?" he asked wistfully.
"That's what!" nodded the Spider, without lifting his scowling gaze from the sponge. "Kid, I ain't no Gold-medal Sunday-school scholar nor I ain't never won no prizes at any Purity League conference, but there's some guys too rotten even f'r me!" ”

“ However, anybody, I fancy, is at liberty to speculate upon the fate of the late Professor Smawl and William Spike, and upon the mules and the gentle dingue. Personally, I am convinced that the suggestive silhouettes I saw on that ghastly curtain of fog were cast by beatified beings in some earthly paradise—a mirage of bliss of which we caught but the colorless shadow-shapes floating 'twixt sea and sky.
[75] At all events, neither Professor Smawl nor her William Spike ever returned; no exploring expedition has found a trace of mule or lady, of William or the dingue. ”

“ M'Ginnis whirled upon the speaker, snarling, but Soapy, having lighted another cigarette, nudged Spike with a sharp elbow.
"Kid," said he, "Bud's goin' t' remind ye of little Maggie Finlay—you remember little Maggie as drowned herself." Spike lifted a pale face and stared from the placid Soapy to scowling Bud and shrank away.
"Yes," he whispered hoarsely, "yes—I'll never forget how she looked—pale, so pale an' still, an' th' water—runnin' out of her brown curls—I—I'll never forget—"
"Well," growled M'Ginnis, "watch out Hermy don't end th' same way."
"No!" cried Spike. "Oh, my God—no!" ”

“ But Spike's eyes were wet, his mouth quivered, and instead of answering he buried his face in the pillow again.
"Say, Hermy," he mumbled, "take him away before I do th' tear-gushin' act! Take him down-stairs—give him a drink—light him a cigarette—kiss him! Only take him away before I get mushy. But, say—when I'm in bed, you'll—you'll come an'—say good night like—like you used to, Hermy dear?" ”

“ Josh educating a Pig
Philadelphia 1847
“A body is apt to know a shipmate. Stephen Spike and I sailed together twenty years since, and I hope to live to sail with him again.”
“You sail with Stephen Spike? when and where, may I ask, and in what v’y’ge, pray?”
“The last time was twenty years since. Have you forgotten little Jack Tier, Capt. Spike?”
Spike looked astonished, and well he might, for he had supposed Jack to be dead fully fifteen years. Time and hard service had greatly altered him, but the general resemblance in figure, stature, and waddle, certainly remained. ”

“ Nat'rally that yell startled me an' Spike sum, bein' that we both had been sound asleep; an', maybe, for a minute we sot a-lookin' intew each other's eyes, doin' nuthin'. Then Spike says: 'Sounded human, Bill. Like sumone had got his,' an' I seed that he was a-shiverin'; for 'tain't none pleasant tew be waked out of a sound sleep by th' death-cry of a human. 'An' it sounded as if it comed from right ayond that leetle clump of bushes,' an' he pointed a shakin' finger toward a leetle clump of bushes, 'bout a rod away, that shut out our view of th' valley. ”

“ Spike, who knew nothing of such matters, undertook to direct every thing, and, instead of having recourse to warmth and gentle treatment, he ordered the bodies to be rolled on a cask, suspended them by the heels, and resorted to a sort of practice that might have destroyed well men, instead of resuscitating those in whom the vital spark was dormant, if not actually extinct. ”

“ No, no, child; fanciful folk may see imaginary beings, but solid folk see solid beings.”
Even Spike was dumfounded at this, and there is no knowing what he might have said, had not an old sea-dog, who had just come out of the fore-topmast cross-trees, come aft, and, hitching up his trowsers with one hand while he touched his hat with the other, said, with immovable gravity,
“The revenue-steamer has brought up just under the Fort, Capt. Spike.”
“How do you know that, Bill?” demanded the captain, with a rapidity that showed how completely Mrs. ”

“ There isn’t a policeman in New York who doesn’t know Spike Mullins. Even if I knew nothing of this Pitt that would be enough. What’s an innocent man going round the country with Spike Mullins for, unless they are standing in together at some game? ”