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diff --git a/17168.txt b/17168.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d629eb --- /dev/null +++ b/17168.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1262 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Queen of the Pirate Isle, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Queen of the Pirate Isle + +Author: Bret Harte + +Illustrator: Kate Greenaway + +Release Date: November 27, 2005 [EBook #17168] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE QUEEN + +OF THE + +PIRATE ISLE + + +BY + +BRET HARTE + + +ILLUSTRATED BY + +KATE GREENAWAY + + +A FACSIMILE FROM THE ORIGINAL PUBLICATION OF 1885 + +[Illustration] + +UNIVERSAL BOOKS LTD, LONDON, ENGLAND + +Harte, Bret, 1836-1902. + +ISBN 0 86441 018 2. + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + PAGE + +MRS SMITH 7 + +POLLY 10 + +BEGGAR CHILD 12 + +SCHOOL MISTRESS 12 + +INDIAN MAIDEN 13 + +PROUD LADY 14 + +CHINESE JUNK 15 + +SWIMMING FOR HIS LIFE 16 + +A TENT 17 + +CAPTURE OF MERCHANTMAN 18 + +AT SUPPER 20 + +POLLY IN THE BRANCHES 23 + +PATSEY 25 + +SLUMGULLION 28 + +EACH OTHER'S HANDS 30 + +EDGE OF CLIFF 31 + +SLIDING DOWN HILL 32 + +PIG TAIL ROPE 34 + +FIREWORKS IN CAVE 37 + +LADY MARY'S HAIR GONE 39 + +INVISIBLE MEDICINE 42 + +CLAD IN DEEPEST MOURNING 44 + +BROTHER STEP-AND-FETCH-IT 48 + +WAN LEE 54 + +NOT ALWAYS PIRATES 56 + +POLLY BROUGHT HOME 58 + +ASLEEP WITH DOLL 60 + + +[Illustration] + + + + +THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE. + + +I first knew her as the Queen of the Pirate Isle. To the best of my +recollection she had no reasonable right to that title. She was only +nine years old, inclined to plumpness and good humour, deprecated +violence and had never been to sea. Need it be added that she did +_not_ live in an island and that her name was "Polly." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +Perhaps I ought to explain that she had already known other +experiences of a purely imaginative character. Part of her existence +had been passed as a Beggar Child--solely indicated by a shawl +tightly folded round her shoulders and chills,--as a Schoolmistress, +unnecessarily severe; as a Preacher, singularly personal in his +remarks, and once, after reading one of Cooper's novels, as an +Indian Maiden. This was, I believe, the only instance when she had +borrowed from another's fiction. Most of the characters that she +assumed for days and sometimes weeks at a time were purely original +in conception; some so much so as to be vague to the general +understanding. I remember that her personation of a certain Mrs. +Smith, whose individuality was supposed to be sufficiently +represented by a sun-bonnet worn wrong side before and a weekly +addition to her family, was never perfectly appreciated by her own +circle although she lived the character for a month. Another +creation known as "The Proud Lady"--a being whose excessive and +unreasonable haughtiness was so pronounced as to give her features +the expression of extreme nausea, caused her mother so much alarm +that it had to be abandoned. This was easily effected. The Proud +Lady was understood to have died. Indeed, most of Polly's +impersonations were got rid of in this way, although it by no means +prevented their subsequent reappearance. "I thought Mrs. Smith was +dead," remonstrated her mother at the posthumous appearance of that +lady with a new infant. "She was buried alive and kem to!" said +Polly with a melancholy air. Fortunately, the representation of a +resuscitated person required such extraordinary acting, and was, +through some uncertainty of conception, so closely allied in facial +expression to the Proud Lady, that Mrs. Smith was resuscitated only +for a day. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +The origin of the title of the Queen of the Pirate Isle, may be +briefly stated as follows:-- + +An hour after luncheon, one day, Polly, Hickory Hunt, her cousin, +and Wan Lee, a Chinese page, were crossing the nursery floor in a +Chinese junk. The sea was calm and the sky cloudless. Any change in +the weather was as unexpected as it is in books. Suddenly a West +Indian Hurricane, purely local in character and unfelt anywhere +else, struck Master Hickory and threw him overboard, whence, wildly +swimming for his life and carrying Polly on his back, he eventually +reached a Desert Island in the closet. Here the rescued party put up +a tent made of a table cloth providentially snatched from the raging +billows, and from two o'clock until four, passed six weeks on the +island supported only by a piece of candle, a box of matches, and +two peppermint lozenges. It was at this time that it became +necessary to account for Polly's existence among them, and this was +only effected by an alarming sacrifice of their morality; Hickory +and Wan Lee instantly became _Pirates_, and at once elected Polly as +their Queen. The royal duties, which seemed to be purely maternal, +consisted in putting the Pirates to bed after a day of rapine and +bloodshed, and in feeding them with liquorice water through a quill +in a small bottle. Limited as her functions were, Polly performed +them with inimitable gravity and unquestioned sincerity. Even when +her companions sometimes hesitated from actual hunger or fatigue and +forgot their guilty part, she never faltered. It was her _real_ +existence--her other life of being washed, dressed, and put to bed +at certain hours by her mother was the _illusion_. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +Doubt and scepticism came at last,--and came from Wan Lee! Wan Lee +of all creatures! Wan Lee, whose silent, stolid, mechanical +performance of a Pirate's duties--a perfect imitation like all his +household work--had been their one delight and fascination! + +It was just after the exciting capture of a merchantman with the +indiscriminate slaughter of all on board--a spectacle on which the +round blue eyes of the plump Polly had gazed with royal and maternal +tolerance, and they were burying the booty--two table spoons and a +thimble in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose. + +[Illustration] + +"Melican boy pleenty foolee! Melican boy no Pilat!" said the little +Chinaman, substituting "l's" for "r's" after his usual fashion. + +"Wotcher say?" said Hickory, reddening with sudden confusion. + +"Melican boy's papa heap lickee him--spose him leal Pilat," +continued Wan Lee, doggedly. "Melican boy Pilat _inside_ housee; +Chinee boy Pilat _outside_ housee. First chop Pilat." + +Staggered by this humiliating statement, Hickory recovered himself +in character. "Ah! Ho!" he shrieked, dancing wildly on one leg, +"Mutiny and Splordinashun! Way with him to the yard arm." + +"Yald alm--heap foolee! Allee same clothes hoss for washee washee." + +It was here necessary for the Pirate Queen to assert her authority, +which, as I have before stated was somewhat confusingly maternal. +"Go to bed instantly without your supper," she said, seriously. +"Really, I never saw such bad pirates. Say your prayers, and see +that you're up early to church to-morrow." It should be explained +that in deference to Polly's proficiency as a preacher, and probably +as a relief to their uneasy consciences, Divine Service had always +been held on the Island. But Wan Lee continued:-- + +"Me no shabbee Pilat _inside_ housee; me shabbee Pilat _outside_ +housee. Spose you lun away longside Chinee boy--Chinee boy makee you +Pilat." + +[Illustration] + +Hickory softly scratched his leg while a broad, bashful smile, +almost closed his small eyes. "Wot!" he asked. + +"Mebbee you too frightened to lun away. Melican boy's papa heap +lickee." + +This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair's blood. "Dy'ar +think we daresent," said Hickory, desperately, but with an uneasy +glance at Polly. "I'll show yer to-morrow." + +The entrance of Polly's mother at this moment put an end to Polly's +authority and dispersed the pirate band, but left Wan Lee's proposal +and Hickory's rash acceptance ringing in the ears of the Pirate +Queen. That evening she was unusually silent. She would have taken +Bridget, her nurse, into her confidence, but this would have +involved a long explanation of her own feelings, from which, like +all imaginative children, she shrank. She, however, made preparation +for the proposed flight by settling in her mind which of her two +dolls she would take. A wooden creature with easy going knees and +moveable hair seemed to be more fit for hard service and any +indiscriminate scalping that might turn up hereafter. At supper, she +timidly asked a question of Bridget. "Did ye ever hear the loikes uv +that, Ma'am," said the Irish handmaid with affectionate pride, +"Shure the darlint's head is filled noight and day with ancient +history. She's after asking me now if Queen's ever run away!" To +Polly's remorseful confusion here her good father equally proud of +her precocious interest and his own knowledge, at once interfered +with an unintelligible account of the abdication of various Queens +in history until Polly's head ached again. Well meant as it was, it +only settled in the child's mind that she must keep the awful secret +to herself and that no one could understand her. + +[Illustration] + +The eventful day dawned without any unusual sign of importance. It +was one of the cloudless summer days of the Californian foot hills, +bright, dry, and as the morning advanced, hot in the white sunshine. +The actual, prosaic house in which the Pirates apparently lived, was +a mile from a mining settlement on a beautiful ridge of pine woods +sloping gently towards a valley on the one side, and on the other +falling abruptly into a dark deep olive gulf of pine trees, rocks, +and patches of red soil. Beautiful as the slope was, looking over to +the distant snow peaks which seemed to be in another world than +theirs, the children found a greater attraction in the fascinating +depths of a mysterious gulf, or "canon," as it was called, whose +very name filled their ears with a weird music. To creep to the edge +of the cliff, to sit upon the brown branches of some fallen pine, +and putting aside the dried tassels to look down upon the backs of +wheeling hawks that seemed to hang in mid-air was a never failing +delight. Here Polly would try to trace the winding red ribbon of +road that was continually losing itself among the dense pines of the +opposite mountains; here she would listen to the far off strokes of +a woodman's axe, or the rattle of some heavy waggon, miles away, +crossing the pebbles of a dried up water course. Here, too, the +prevailing colours of the mountains, red and white and green, most +showed themselves. There were no frowning rocks to depress the +children's fancy, but everywhere along the ridge pure white quartz +bared itself through the red earth like smiling teeth, the very +pebbles they played with were streaked with shining mica like bits +of looking-glass. The distance was always green and summer-like, but +the colour they most loved, and which was most familiar to them, was +the dark red of the ground beneath their feet everywhere. It showed +itself in the roadside bushes; its red dust pervaded the leaves of +the overhanging laurel, it coloured their shoes and pinafores; I am +afraid it was often seen in Indian like patches on their faces and +hands. That it may have often given a sanguinary tone to their +fancies, I have every reason to believe. + +[Illustration] + +It was on this ridge that the three children gathered at ten o'clock +that morning. An earlier flight had been impossible on account of +Wan Lee being obliged to perform his regular duty of blacking the +shoes of Polly and Hickory before breakfast,--a menial act which in +the pure Republic of childhood was never thought inconsistent with +the loftiest piratical ambition. On the ridge they met one "Patsey," +the son of a neighbour, sun burned, broad-brimmed hatted, red +handed, like themselves. As there were afterwards some doubts +expressed whether he joined the Pirates of his own free will, or +was captured by them, I endeavour to give the colloquy exactly as it +occurred:-- + +_Patsey._ "Hallo, fellers." + +_The Pirates._ "Hello!" + +_Patsey._ "Goin' to hunt bars? Dad seed a lot o' tracks at sun up." + +_The Pirates_ (hesitating). "No--o--" + +_Patsey._ "I am; know where I kin get a six-shooter." + +_The Pirates_ (almost ready to abandon piracy for bear hunting, but +preserving their dignity). "Can't! We've runn'd away for real +pirates." + +_Patsey._ "Not for good!" + +_The Queen_ (interposing with sad dignity and real tears in her +round blue eyes). "Yes!" (slowly and shaking her head). "Can't go +back again. Never! Never! Never! The--the--eye is cast!" + +_Patsey_ (bursting with excitement). "No'o! Sho'o! Wanter know." + +_The Pirates_ (a little frightened themselves, but tremulous with +gratified vanity). "The Perleese is on our track!" + +_Patsey._ "Lemme go with yer!" + +_Hickory._ "Wot'll yer giv?" + +_Patsey._ "Pistol and er bananer." + +_Hickory_ (with judicious prudence). "Let's see 'em." + +Patsey was off like a shot; his bare little red feet trembling under +him. In a few minutes he returned with an old fashioned revolver +known as one of "Allen's pepper boxes" and a large banana. He was at +once enrolled and the banana eaten. + +As yet they had resolved on no definite nefarious plan. Hickory +looking down at Patsey's bare feet instantly took off his own shoes. +The bold act sent a thrill through his companions. Wan Lee took off +his cloth leggings, Polly removed her shoes and stockings, but with +royal foresight, tied them up in her handkerchief. The last link +between them and civilization was broken. + +"Let's go to the Slumgullion." + +[Illustration] + +"Slumgullion" was the name given by the miners to a certain soft, +half-liquid mud, formed of the water and finely powdered earth that +was carried off by the sluice boxes during gold washing, and +eventually collected in a broad pool or lagoon before the outlet. +There was a pool of this kind a quarter of a mile away, where there +were "diggings" worked by Patsey's father, and thither they +proceeded along the ridge in single file. When it was reached they +solemnly began to wade in its viscid paint-like shallows. Possibly +its unctuousness was pleasant to the touch; possibly there was a +fascination in the fact that their parents had forbidden them to go +near it, but probably the principal object of this performance was +to produce a thick coating of mud on the feet and ankles, which, +when dried in the sun, was supposed to harden the skin and render +their shoes superfluous. It was also felt to be the first real step +towards independence; they looked down at their ensanguined +extremities and recognized the impossibility of their ever again +crossing (unwashed) the family threshold. + +Then they again hesitated. There was a manifest need of some well +defined piratical purpose. The last act was reckless and +irretrievable, but it was vague. They gazed at each other. There was +a stolid look of resigned and superior tolerance in Wan Lee's eyes. +Polly's glance wandered down the side of the slope to the distant +little tunnels or openings made by the miners who were at work in +the bowels of the mountain. "I'd like to go into one of them funny +holes," she said to herself, half aloud. + +Wan Lee suddenly began to blink his eyes with unwonted excitement. +"Catchee tunnel--heap gold," he said, quickly. "When manee come +outside to catchee dinner--Pilats go inside catchee tunnel! Shabbee! +Pilats catchee gold allee samee Melican man!" + +[Illustration] + +"And take perseshiun," said Hickory. + +"And hoist the Pirate flag," said Patsey. + +"And build a fire, and cook, and have a family," said Polly. + +The idea was fascinating to the point of being irresistible. The +eyes of the four children became rounder and rounder. They seized +each other's hands and swung them backwards and forwards, +occasionally lifting their legs in a solemn rhythmic movement known +only to childhood. + +"Its orful far off!" said Patsey, with a sudden look of dark +importance. "Pap sez its free miles on the road. Take all day ter +get there." + +The bright faces were overcast. + +"Less go down er slide!" said Hickory, boldly. + +[Illustration] + +They approached the edge of the cliff. The "slide" was simply a +sharp incline zigzagging down the side of the mountain used for +sliding goods and provisions from the summit to the tunnel men at +the different openings below. The continual traffic had gradually +worn a shallow gulley half filled with earth and gravel into the +face of the mountain which checked the momentum of the goods in +their downward passage, but afforded no foothold for a pedestrian. +No one had ever been known to descend a slide. That feat was +evidently reserved for the Pirate band. They approached the edge of +the slide hand in hand, hesitated--and the next moment disappeared! + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +Five minutes later the tunnel men of the Excelsior mine, a mile +below, taking their luncheon on the rude platform of _debris_ before +their tunnel, were suddenly driven to shelter in the tunnel from an +apparent rain of stones, and rocks, and pebbles, from the cliffs +above. Looking up, they were startled at seeing four round objects +revolving and bounding in the dust of the slide, which eventually +resolved themselves into three boys and a girl. For a moment the +good men held their breath in helpless terror. Twice, one of the +children, had struck the outer edge of the bank and displaced stones +that shot a thousand feet down into the dizzy depths of the valley! +and now, one of them, the girl, had actually rolled out of the slide +and was hanging over the chasm supported only by a clump of chimasal +to which she clung! + +"Hang on by your eyelids, Sis! but don't stir for Heaven's sake!" +shouted one of the men, as two others started on a hopeless ascent +of the cliff above them. + +[Illustration] + +But a light childish laugh from the clinging little figure seemed to +mock them! Then two small heads appeared at the edge of the slide; +then a diminutive figure whose feet were apparently held by some +invisible companion, was shoved over the brink and stretched its +tiny arms towards the girl. But in vain, the distance was too great. +Another laugh of intense youthful enjoyment followed the failure, +and a new insecurity was added to the situation by the unsteady +hands and shoulders of the relieving party who were apparently +shaking with laughter. Then the extended figure was seen to detach +what looked like a small black rope from its shoulders and throw it +to the girl. There was another little giggle. The faces of the men +below paled in terror. Then Polly--for it was she--hanging to the +long pig-tail of Wan Lee, was drawn with fits of laughter back in +safety to the slide. Their childish treble of appreciation was +answered by a ringing cheer from below. + +"Darned ef I ever want to cut off a Chinaman's pig-tail again, +boys," said one of the tunnel men as he went back to dinner. + +Meantime the children had reached the goal and stood before the +opening of one of the tunnels. Then these four heroes who had looked +with cheerful levity on the deadly peril of their descent became +suddenly frightened at the mysterious darkness of the cavern and +turned pale at its threshold. + +"Mebbee a wicked Joss backside holee, He catchee Pilats," said Wan +Lee, gravely. + +Hickory began to whimper, Patsey drew back, Polly alone stood her +ground, albeit with a trembling lip. + +"Let's say our prayers and frighten it away," she said, stoutly. + +"No! No!" said Wan Lee, with sudden alarm. "No frighten Spillits! +You waitee! Chinee boy he talkee Spillit not to frighten you."[A] + +[Footnote A: The Chinese pray devoutly to the Evil Spirits _not_ to +injure them.] + +Tucking his hands under his blue blouse, Wan Lee suddenly produced +from some mysterious recess of his clothing a quantity of red paper +slips which he scattered at the entrance of the cavern. Then drawing +from the same inexhaustible receptacle certain squibs or fireworks, +he let them off and threw them into the opening. There they went off +with a slight fizz and splutter, a momentary glittering of small +points in the darkness and a strong smell of gunpowder. Polly gazed +at the spectacle with undisguised awe and fascination. Hickory and +Patsey breathed hard with satisfaction; it was beyond their wildest +dreams of mystery and romance. Even Wan Lee appeared transfigured +into a superior being by the potency of his own spells. But an +unaccountable disturbance of some kind in the dim interior of the +tunnel quickly drew the blood from their blanched cheeks again. It +was a sound like coughing followed by something like an oath. + +"He's made the Evil Spirit orful sick," said Hickory, in a loud +whisper. + +A slight laugh that to the children seemed demoniacal, followed. + +"See," said Wan Lee, "Evil Spillet be likee Chinee, try talkee him." + +[Illustration] + +The Pirates looked at Wan Lee not without a certain envy of this +manifest favouritism. A fearful desire to continue their awful +experiments, instead of pursuing their piratical avocations, was +taking possession of them; but Polly, with one of the swift +transitions of childhood, immediately began to extemporise a house +for the party at the mouth of the tunnel, and, with parental +foresight, gathered the fragments of the squibs to build a fire for +supper. That frugal meal consisting of half a ginger biscuit, +divided into five small portions each served on a chip of wood, and +having a deliciously mysterious flavour of gunpowder and smoke, was +soon over. It was necessary after this, that the Pirates should at +once seek repose after a day of adventure, which they did for the +space of forty seconds in singularly impossible attitudes and far +too aggressive snoring. Indeed, Master Hickory's almost upright +_pose_, with tightly folded arms, and darkly frowning brows was felt +to be dramatic, but impossible for a longer period. The brief +interval enabled Polly to collect herself and to look around her in +her usual motherly fashion. Suddenly she started and uttered a cry. +In the excitement of the descent she had quite overlooked her doll, +and was now regarding it with round-eyed horror! + +"Lady Mary's hair's gone!" she cried, convulsively grasping the +Pirate Hickory's legs. + +[Illustration] + +Hickory at once recognised the battered doll under the aristocratic +title which Polly had long ago bestowed upon it. He stared at the +bald and battered head. + +"Ha! ha!" he said, hoarsely; "skelped by Injins!" + +For an instant the delicious suggestion soothed the imaginative +Polly. But it was quickly dispelled by Wan Lee. + +"Lady Maley's pig-tail hangee top side hillee. Catchee on big quartz +stone allee same Polly, me go fetchee." + +"No!" quickly shrieked the others. The prospect of being left in the +proximity of Wan Lee's evil spirit, without Wan Lee's exorcising +power, was anything but reassuring. "No, don't go!" Even Polly +(dropping a maternal tear on the bald head of Lady Mary) protested +against this breaking up of the little circle. "Go to bed," she +said, authoritatively, "and sleep until morning." + +Thus admonished, the pirates again retired. This time effectively, +for worn by actual fatigue or soothed by the delicious coolness of +the cave, they gradually, one by one, succumbed to real slumber. +Polly withheld from joining them, by official and maternal +responsibility sat and blinked at them affectionately. + +[Illustration] + +Gradually she, too, felt herself yielding to the fascination and +mystery of the place and the solitude that encompassed her. Beyond +the pleasant shadows where she sat, she saw the great world of +mountain and valley through a dreamy haze that seemed to rise from +the depths below and occasionally hang before the cavern like a +veil. Long waves of spicy heat rolling up the mountain from the +valley brought her the smell of pine trees and bay and made the +landscape swim before her eyes. She could hear the far off cry of +teamsters on some unseen road; she could see the far off cloud of +dust following the mountain stage coach, whose rattling wheels she +could not hear. She felt very lonely, but was not quite afraid; she +felt very melancholy, but was not entirely sad. And she could have +easily awakened her sleeping companions if she wished. + +[Illustration] + +No! She was a lone widow with nine children, six of whom were +already in the lone churchyard on the hill, and the others lying ill +with measles and scarlet fever beside her. She had just walked many +weary miles that day, and had often begged from door to door for a +slice of bread for the starving little ones. It was of no use +now--they would die! They would never see their dear mother again. +This was a favourite imaginative situation of Polly's, but only +indulged when her companions were asleep, partly because she could +not trust confederates with her more serious fancies, and partly +because they were at such times passive in her hands. She glanced +timidly round; satisfied that no one could observe her, she softly +visited the bedside of each of her companions, and administered from +a purely fictitious bottle spoonfuls of invisible medicine. Physical +correction in the form of slight taps, which they always required, +and in which Polly was strong, was only withheld now from a sense of +their weak condition. But in vain, they succumbed to the fell +disease--(they always died at this juncture)--and Polly was left +alone. She thought of the little church where she had once seen a +funeral, and remembered the nice smell of the flowers; she dwelt +with melancholy satisfaction on the nine little tombstones in the +graveyard, each with an inscription, and looked forward with gentle +anticipation to the long summer days when, with Lady Mary in her +lap, she would sit on those graves clad in the deepest mourning. +The fact that the unhappy victims at times moved as it were uneasily +in their graves or snored, did not affect Polly's imaginative +contemplation, nor withhold the tears that gathered in her round +eyes. + +[Illustration] + +Presently the lids of the round eyes began to droop, the landscape +beyond began to grow more confused, and sometimes to disappear +entirely and reappear again with startling distinctness. Then a +sound of rippling water from the little stream that flowed from the +mouth of the tunnel soothed her and seemed to carry her away with +it, and then everything was dark. + +The next thing she remembered was that she was apparently being +carried along on some gliding object to the sound of rippling water. +She was not alone, for her three companions were lying beside her, +rather tightly packed and squeezed in the same mysterious vehicle. +Even in the profound darkness that surrounded her, Polly could feel +and hear that they were accompanied, and once or twice a faint +streak of light from the side of the tunnel showed her gigantic +shadows walking slowly on either side of the gliding car. She felt +the little hands of her associates seeking hers, and knew they were +awake and conscious, and she returned to each a reassuring pressure +from the large protecting instinct of her maternal little heart. +Presently the car glided into an open space of bright light, and +stopped. The transition from the darkness of the tunnel at first +dazzled their eyes. It was like a dream. + +They were in a circular cavern from which three other tunnels like +the one they had passed through, diverged. The walls, lit up by +fifty or sixty candles stuck at irregular intervals in crevices of +the rock, were of glittering quartz and mica. But more remarkable +than all were the inmates of the cavern, who were ranged round the +walls; men, who like their attendants, seemed to be of extra +stature; who had blackened faces, wore red bandanna handkerchiefs +round their heads and their waists, and carried enormous knives and +pistols stuck in their belts. On a raised platform made of a packing +box, on which was rudely painted a skull and cross bones, sat the +chief or leader of the band covered with a buffalo robe; on either +side of him were two small barrels marked "Grog" and "Gunpowder." +The children stared and clung closer to Polly. Yet, in spite of +these desperate and warlike accessories, the strangers bore a +singular resemblance to "Christy Minstrels" in their blackened faces +and attitudes that somehow made them seem less awful. In particular, +Polly was impressed with the fact that even the most ferocious had a +certain kindliness of eye, and showed their teeth almost +idiotically. + +"Welcome," said the leader. "Welcome to the Pirate's Cave! The Red +Rover of the North Fork of the Stanislaus River salutes the Queen of +the Pirate Isle!" He rose up and made an extraordinary bow. It was +repeated by the others with more or less exaggeration to the point +of one humourist losing his balance! + +"O, thank you very much," said Polly, timidly, but drawing her +little flock closer to her with a small protecting arm; "but could +you--would you--please--tell us--what time it is?" + +"We are approaching the Middle of Next Week," said the leader, +gravely; "but what of that? Time is made for slaves! The Red Rover +seeks it not! Why should the Queen?" + +"I think we must be going," hesitated Polly, yet by no means +displeased with the recognition of her rank. + +"Not until we have paid homage to your Majesty," returned the +leader. "What ho! there! Let Brother Step-and-Fetch-It pass the +Queen around that we may do her honour." Observing that Polly shrank +slightly back, he added: "Fear nothing, the man who hurts a hair of +Her Majesty's head, dies by this hand. Ah! ha!" + +[Illustration] + +The others all said, ha! ha! and danced alternately on one leg +and then on the other, but always with the same dark resemblance +to Christy Minstrels. Brother Step-and-Fetch-It, whose very long +beard had a confusing suggestion of being a part of the leader's +buffalo robe, lifted her gently in his arms and carried her to +the Red Rovers in turn. Each one bestowed a kiss upon her cheek +or forehead, and would have taken her in his arms, or on his +knees, or otherwise lingered over his salute, but they were sternly +restrained by their leader. When the solemn rite was concluded, +Step-and-Fetch-It paid his own courtesy with an extra squeeze of +the curly head, and deposited her again in the truck--a little +frightened, a little astonished, but with a considerable accession +to her dignity. Hickory and Patsey looked on with stupefied +amazement. Wan Lee alone remained stolid and unimpressed, regarding +the scene with calm and triangular eyes. + +"Will Your Majesty see the Red Rover's dance?" + +"No, if you please," said Polly, with gentle seriousness. + +"Will Your Majesty fire this barrel of Gunpowder, or tap this +breaker of Grog?" + +"No, I thank you." + +"Is there no command Your Majesty would lay upon us?" + +"No, please," said Polly, in a failing voice. + +"Is there anything Your Majesty has lost? Think again! Will Your +Majesty deign to cast your royal eyes on this?" + +He drew from under his buffalo robe what seemed like a long tress of +blond hair, and held it aloft. Polly instantly recognized the +missing scalp of her hapless doll. + +"If you please, Sir, it's Lady Mary's. She's lost it." + +"And lost it--Your Majesty--only to find something more precious! +Would Your Majesty hear the story?" + +A little alarmed, a little curious, a little self-anxious, and a +little induced by the nudges and pinches of her companions, the +Queen blushingly signified her royal assent. + +"Enough. Bring refreshments. Will Your Majesty prefer winter-green, +peppermint, rose, or accidulated drops? Red or white? Or perhaps +Your Majesty will let me recommend these bull's eyes," said the +leader, as a collection of sweets in a hat were suddenly produced +from the barrel labelled "Gunpowder" and handed to the children. + +"Listen," he continued, in a silence broken only by the gentle +sucking of bull's eyes. "Many years ago the old Red Rovers of these +parts locked up all their treasures in a secret cavern in this +mountain. They used spells and magic to keep it from being entered +or found by anybody, for there was a certain mark upon it made by a +peculiar rock that stuck out of it, which signified what there was +below. Long afterwards, other Red Rovers who had heard of it, came +here and spent days and days trying to discover it; digging holes +and blasting tunnels like this, but of no use! Sometimes they +thought they discovered the magic marks in the peculiar rock that +stuck out of it, but when they dug there they found no treasure. And +why? Because there was a magic spell upon it. And what was that +magic spell? Why, this! It could only be discovered by a person who +could not possibly know that he or she had discovered it, who never +could or would be able to enjoy it, who could never see it, never +feel it, never, in fact know anything at all about it! It wasn't a +dead man, it wasn't an animal, it wasn't a baby!" + +"Why," said Polly, jumping up and clapping her hands, "it was a +Dolly." + +"Your Majesty's head is level! Your Majesty has guessed it!" said +the leader, gravely. "It was Your Majesty's own dolly, Lady Mary, +who broke the spell! When Your Majesty came down the slide, the doll +fell from your gracious hand when your foot slipped. Your Majesty +recovered Lady Mary, but did not observe that her hair had caught in +a peculiar rock, called the 'Outcrop,' and remained behind! When, +later on, while sitting with your attendants at the mouth of the +tunnel, Your Majesty discovered that Lady Mary's hair was gone; I +overheard Your Majesty, and despatched the trusty Step-and-Fetch-It +to seek it at the mountain side. He did so, and found it clinging to +the rock, and beneath it--the entrance to the Secret Cave!" + +Patsey and Hickory, who, failing to understand a word of this +explanation, had given themselves up to the unconstrained enjoyment +of the sweets, began now to apprehend that some change was +impending, and prepared for the worst by hastily swallowing what +they had in their mouths, thus defying enchantment, and getting +ready for speech. Polly, who had closely followed the story, albeit +with the embellishments of her own imagination, made her eyes +rounder than ever. A bland smile broke on Wan Lee's face, as, to the +children's amazement, he quietly disengaged himself from the group +and stepped before the leader. + +"Melican man plenty foolee Melican chillern. No foolee China boy! +China boy knowee you. _You_ no Led Lofer. _You_ no Pilat--you allee +same tunnel man--you Bob Johnson! Me shabbee you! You dressee up +allee same as Led Lofer--but you Bob Johnson--allee same. My fader +washee washee for you. You no payee him. You owee him folty dolla! +Me blingee you billee. You no payee billee! You say, 'Chalkee up, +John.' You say, 'Bimeby, John.' But me no catchee folty dolla!" + +[Illustration] + +A roar of laughter followed, in which even the leader apparently +forgot himself enough to join. But the next moment springing to his +feet, he shouted, "Ho! ho! A traitor! Away with him to the deepest +dungeon beneath the castle moat!" + +Hickory and Patsey began to whimper. But Polly, albeit with a +tremulous lip, stepped to the side of her little Pagan friend. +"Don't you dare to touch him," she said, with a shake of unexpected +determination in her little curly head; "if you do, I'll tell my +father, and he will slay you! All of you--there!" + +"Your father! Then you are _not_ the Queen!" + +It was a sore struggle to Polly to abdicate her royal position, it +was harder to do it with befitting dignity. To evade the direct +question she was obliged to abandon her defiant attitude. "If you +please, Sir," she said, hurriedly, with an increasing colour and no +stops, "we're not always pirates, you know, and Wan Lee is only our +boy what brushes my shoes in the morning, and runs of errands, and +he doesn't mean anything bad, Sir, and we'd like to take him back +home with us." + +"Enough," said the leader, changing his entire manner with the most +sudden and shameless inconsistency. "You shall go back together, and +woe betide the miscreant who would prevent it. What say you +brothers? What shall be his fate who dares to separate our noble +Queen from her faithful Chinese henchman?" + +"He shall die!" roared the others, with beaming cheerfulness. + +"And what say you--shall we see them home?" + +"We will!" roared the others. + +[Illustration] + +Before the children could fairly comprehend what had passed, they +were again lifted into the truck and began to glide back into the +tunnel they had just quitted. But not again in darkness and silence; +the entire band of Red Rovers accompanied them, illuminating the +dark passage with the candles they had snatched from the walls. In a +few moments they were at the entrance again. The great world lay +beyond them once more with rocks and valleys suffused by the rosy +light of the setting sun. The past seemed like a dream. + +But were they really awake now? They could not tell. They accepted +everything with the confidence and credulity of all children who +have no experience to compare with their first impressions and to +whom the future contains nothing impossible. It was without +surprise, therefore, that they felt themselves lifted on the +shoulders of the men who were making quite a procession along the +steep trail towards the settlement again. Polly noticed that at the +mouth of the other tunnels they were greeted by men as if they were +carrying tidings of great joy; that they stopped to rejoice +together, and that in some mysterious manner their conductors had +got their faces washed, and had become more like beings of the outer +world. When they neared the settlement the excitement seemed to +have become greater; people rushed out to shake hands with the men +who were carrying them, and overpowered even the children with +questions they could not understand. Only one sentence Polly could +clearly remember as being the burden of all congratulations. "Struck +the old lead at last!" With a faint consciousness that she knew +something about it, she tried to assume a dignified attitude on the +leader's shoulders even while she was beginning to be heavy with +sleep. + +[Illustration] + +And then she remembered a crowd near her father's house, out of +which her father came smiling pleasantly on her, but not interfering +with her triumphal progress until the leader finally deposited her +in her mother's lap in their own sitting room. And then she +remembered being "cross" and declining to answer any questions, and +shortly afterwards found herself comfortably in bed. Then she heard +her mother say to her father:-- + +"It really seems too ridiculous for any thing, John, the idea of +these grown men dressing themselves up to play with children." + +"Ridiculous or not," said her father, "these grown men of the +'Excelsior' mine have just struck the famous old lode of Red +Mountain, which is as good as a fortune to everybody on the Ridge, +and were as wild as boys! And they say it never would have been +found if Polly hadn't tumbled over the slide directly on top of the +outcrop, and left the absurd wig of that wretched doll of hers to +mark its site." + +"And that," murmured Polly sleepily to her doll as she drew it +closer to her breast, "is all that they know of it." + +[Illustration] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Queen of the Pirate Isle, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE *** + +***** This file should be named 17168.txt or 17168.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/1/6/17168/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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