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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2798-0.txt b/2798-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92f0816 --- /dev/null +++ b/2798-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1089 @@ +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 + +Release Date: May 27, 2006 [EBook #2798] +Last Updated: March 5, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE + +by Bret Harte + + + +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 humor, 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? + +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 sunbonnet 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. + +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 licorice 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. + +Doubt and skepticism 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 tablespoons and a +thimble, in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose. + +“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--s'pose 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! Alee same clothes-horse 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 tomorrow.” + +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. +S'pose you lun away longside Chinee boy--Chinee boy make you Pilat.” + +Hickory softly scratched his leg; while a broad, bashful smile almost +closed his small eyes. “Wot?” he asked. + +“Mebbe you too flightened to lun away. Melican boy's papa heap lickee.” + +This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair's blood. “Dy'ar think +we daresen't?” 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 movable 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 Queens 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. + +The eventful day dawned without any unusual sign of importance. It was +one of the cloudless summer days of the Californian foothills, 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 canyon, 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 +wagon, miles away, crossing the pebbles of a dried-up watercourse. Here, +too, the prevailing colors 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 color 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 colored 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. + +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 +neighbor, 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 endeavor 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. This 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.” + +“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!” + +“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. + +“It's orful far off!” said Patsey with a sudden look of dark importance. +“Pap says it's free miles on the road. Take all day ter get there.” + +The bright faces were overcast. + +“Less go down er slide!” said Hickory boldly. + +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 gully +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. + +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 chamisal 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. + +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 pigtail 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 pigtail 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 a sudden alarm. “No frighten Spillits! You +waitee! Chinee boy he talkee Spillit not to frighten you.” * + + * 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 he likee Chinee; try talkee him.” + +The Pirates looked at Wan Lee, not without a certain envy of this +manifest favoritism. 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 extemporize 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 +flavor 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. + +Hickory at once recognized 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 pigtail 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 till 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. + +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 stagecoach, 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. + +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 favorite 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 around. 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 of 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. + +Presently, the lids of the round eyes began to droop, the landscape +beyond began to be 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 that 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 bandana 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 Pirates' 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 +humorist losing his balance! + +“Oh, 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 honor.” 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!” + +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 Rovers 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 wintergreen, +peppermint, rose, or acidulated 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 +labeled “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 dispatched +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!” + +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 +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 color 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. + +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. + +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 anything, John; the idea of those +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.” + + + + + +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 2798-0.txt or 2798-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/9/2798/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +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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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 + +Release Date: May 27, 2006 [EBook #2798] +Last Updated: March 5, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3"> +<tr> +<td> +THERE IS AN ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THIS TITLE WHICH MAY VIEWED AT EBOOK <big><b><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17168"> +[# 17168 ]</a></b></big> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Bret Harte + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + 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 humor, 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? + </p> + <p> + 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 sunbonnet 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. + </p> + <p> + The origin of the title of the Queen of the Pirate Isle may be briefly + stated as follows:— + </p> + <p> + 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 licorice 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. + </p> + <p> + Doubt and skepticism 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! + </p> + <p> + 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 tablespoons and a + thimble, in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose. + </p> + <p> + “Melican boy pleenty foolee! Melican boy no Pilat!” said the little + Chinaman, substituting “l's” for “r's” after his usual fashion. + </p> + <p> + “Wotcher say?” said Hickory, reddening with sudden confusion. + </p> + <p> + “Melican boy's papa heap lickee him—s'pose him leal Pilat,” + continued Wan Lee doggedly. “Melican boy Pilat INSIDE housee. Chinee boy + Pilat OUTSIDE housee. First chop Pilat.” + </p> + <p> + 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.” + </p> + <p> + “Yald-alm—heap foolee! Alee same clothes-horse for washee washee.” + </p> + <p> + It was here necessary for the Pirate Queen to assert her authority, which, + as I have before stated, was somewhat confusingly maternal. + </p> + <p> + “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 tomorrow.” + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + “Me no shabbee Pilat INSIDE housee; me shabbee Pilat OUTSIDE housee. + S'pose you lun away longside Chinee boy—Chinee boy make you Pilat.” + </p> + <p> + Hickory softly scratched his leg; while a broad, bashful smile almost + closed his small eyes. “Wot?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Mebbe you too flightened to lun away. Melican boy's papa heap lickee.” + </p> + <p> + This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair's blood. “Dy'ar think we + daresen't?” said Hickory desperately, but with an uneasy glance at Polly. + “I'll show yer to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + 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 movable 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 Queens 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. + </p> + <p> + The eventful day dawned without any unusual sign of importance. It was one + of the cloudless summer days of the Californian foothills, 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 canyon, 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 wagon, miles away, crossing the pebbles + of a dried-up watercourse. Here, too, the prevailing colors 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 color 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 colored 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 neighbor, + 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 endeavor to give the colloquy + exactly as it occurred:— + </p> + <p> + Patsey: “Hallo, fellers.” + </p> + <p> + The Pirates: “Hello!” + </p> + <p> + Patsey: “Goin' to hunt bars? Dad seed a lot o' tracks at sun-up.” + </p> + <p> + The Pirates (hesitating): “No—o—” + </p> + <p> + Patsey: “I am; know where I kin get a six-shooter?” + </p> + <p> + The Pirates (almost ready to abandon piracy for bear-hunting, but + preserving their dignity): “Can't! We've runn'd away for real pirates.” + </p> + <p> + Patsey: “Not for good!” + </p> + <p> + 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!” + </p> + <p> + Patsey (bursting with excitement): “No-o! Sho'o! Wanter know.” + </p> + <p> + The Pirates (a little frightened themselves, but tremulous with gratified + vanity): “The Perleese is on our track!” + </p> + <p> + Patsey: “Lemme go with yer!” + </p> + <p> + Hickory: “Wot'll yer giv?” + </p> + <p> + Patsey: “Pistol and er bananer.” + </p> + <p> + Hickory (with judicious prudence): “Let's see 'em.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + As yet they had resolved on no definite nefarious plan. Hickory, looking + down at Patsey's bare feet, instantly took off his own shoes. This 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. + </p> + <p> + “Let's go to the Slumgullion.” + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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!” + </p> + <p> + “And take perseshiun,” said Hickory. + </p> + <p> + “And hoist the Pirate flag,” said Patsey. + </p> + <p> + “And build a fire, and cook, and have a family,” said Polly. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “It's orful far off!” said Patsey with a sudden look of dark importance. + “Pap says it's free miles on the road. Take all day ter get there.” + </p> + <p> + The bright faces were overcast. + </p> + <p> + “Less go down er slide!” said Hickory boldly. + </p> + <p> + 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 gully 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 + chamisal to which she clung! + </p> + <p> + “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. + </p> + <p> + 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 pigtail 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. + </p> + <p> + “Darned ef I ever want to cut off a Chinaman's pigtail again, boys,” said + one of the tunnel-men as he went back to dinner. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Mebbee a wicked Joss backside holee, he catchee Pilats,” said Wan Lee + gravely. + </p> + <p> + Hickory began to whimper, Patsey drew back, Polly alone stood her ground, + albeit with a trembling lip. + </p> + <p> + “Let's say our prayers and frighten it away,” she said stoutly. + </p> + <p> + “No! no!” said Wan Lee, with a sudden alarm. “No frighten Spillits! You + waitee! Chinee boy he talkee Spillit not to frighten you.” * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * The Chinese pray devoutly to the Evil Spirits NOT to + injure them. +</pre> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “He's made the Evil Spirit orful sick,” said Hickory in a loud whisper. + </p> + <p> + A slight laugh, that to the children seemed demoniacal, followed. + </p> + <p> + “See!” said Wan Lee. “Evil Spillet he likee Chinee; try talkee him.” + </p> + <p> + The Pirates looked at Wan Lee, not without a certain envy of this manifest + favoritism. 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 extemporize 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 flavor 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. + </p> + <p> + “Lady Mary's hair's gone!” she cried, convulsively grasping the Pirate + Hickory's legs. + </p> + <p> + Hickory at once recognized the battered doll under the aristocratic title + which Polly had long ago bestowed upon it. He stared at the bald and + battered head. + </p> + <p> + “Ha! ha!” he said hoarsely; “skelped by Injins!” + </p> + <p> + For an instant the delicious suggestion soothed the imaginative Polly. But + it was quickly dispelled by Wan Lee. + </p> + <p> + “Lady Maley's pigtail hangee top side hillee. Catchee on big quartz stone + allee same Polly; me go fetchee.” + </p> + <p> + “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 till morning.” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 stagecoach, 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 favorite 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 around. 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 of 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. + </p> + <p> + Presently, the lids of the round eyes began to droop, the landscape beyond + began to be 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. + </p> + <p> + The next thing that 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 bandana 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. + </p> + <p> + “Welcome!” said the leader,—“welcome to the Pirates' 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 humorist + losing his balance! + </p> + <p> + “Oh, 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?” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “I think we must be going,” hesitated Polly, yet by no means displeased + with the recognition of her rank. + </p> + <p> + “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 honor.” 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!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Will Your Majesty see the Red Rovers dance?” + </p> + <p> + “No, if you please,” said Polly, with gentle seriousness. + </p> + <p> + “Will Your Majesty fire this barrel of gunpowder, or tap this breaker of + grog?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I thank you.” + </p> + <p> + “Is there no command Your Majesty would lay upon us?” + </p> + <p> + “No, please,” said Polly, in a failing voice. + </p> + <p> + “Is there anything Your Majesty has lost? Think again! Will Your Majesty + deign to cast your royal eyes on this?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “If you please, sir, it's Lady Mary's. She's lost it.” + </p> + <p> + “And lost it—Your Majesty—only to find something more + precious. Would Your Majesty hear the story?” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “Enough. Bring refreshments. Will Your Majesty prefer wintergreen, + peppermint, rose, or acidulated 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 + labeled “Gunpowder” and handed to the children. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + “Why,” said Polly, jumping up and clapping her hands, “it was a Dolly.” + </p> + <p> + “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 dispatched 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!” + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + “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!” + </p> + <p> + 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!” + </p> + <p> + 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 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!” + </p> + <p> + “Your father! Then you are NOT the Queen!” + </p> + <p> + 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 color 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.” + </p> + <p> + “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?” + </p> + <p> + “He shall die!” roared the others, with beaming cheerfulness. + </p> + <p> + “And what say you—shall we see them home?” + </p> + <p> + “We will!” roared the others. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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:— + </p> + <p> + “It really seems too ridiculous for anything, John; the idea of those + grown men dressing themselves up to play with children.” + </p> + <p> + “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.” + </p> + <p> + “And that,” murmured Polly sleepily to her doll as she drew it closer to + her breast, “is all that they know of it.” + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +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 2798-h.htm or 2798-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/9/2798/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + +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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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 + +Release Date: May 27, 2006 [EBook #2798] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE + +by Bret Harte + + + +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 humor, 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? + +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 sunbonnet 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. + +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 licorice 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. + +Doubt and skepticism 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 tablespoons and a +thimble, in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose. + +"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--s'pose 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! Alee same clothes-horse 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 tomorrow." + +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. +S'pose you lun away longside Chinee boy--Chinee boy make you Pilat." + +Hickory softly scratched his leg; while a broad, bashful smile almost +closed his small eyes. "Wot?" he asked. + +"Mebbe you too flightened to lun away. Melican boy's papa heap lickee." + +This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair's blood. "Dy'ar think +we daresen't?" 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 movable 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 Queens 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. + +The eventful day dawned without any unusual sign of importance. It was +one of the cloudless summer days of the Californian foothills, 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 canyon, 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 +wagon, miles away, crossing the pebbles of a dried-up watercourse. Here, +too, the prevailing colors 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 color 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 colored 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. + +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 +neighbor, 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 endeavor 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. This 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." + +"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!" + +"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. + +"It's orful far off!" said Patsey with a sudden look of dark importance. +"Pap says it's free miles on the road. Take all day ter get there." + +The bright faces were overcast. + +"Less go down er slide!" said Hickory boldly. + +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 gully +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. + +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 chamisal 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. + +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 pigtail 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 pigtail 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 a sudden alarm. "No frighten Spillits! You +waitee! Chinee boy he talkee Spillit not to frighten you."* + + * 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 he likee Chinee; try talkee him." + +The Pirates looked at Wan Lee, not without a certain envy of this +manifest favoritism. 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 extemporize 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 +flavor 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. + +Hickory at once recognized 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 pigtail 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 till 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. + +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 stagecoach, 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. + +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 favorite 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 around. 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 of 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. + +Presently, the lids of the round eyes began to droop, the landscape +beyond began to be 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 that 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 bandana 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 Pirates' 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 +humorist losing his balance! + +"Oh, 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 honor." 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!" + +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 Rovers 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 wintergreen, +peppermint, rose, or acidulated 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 +labeled "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 dispatched +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!" + +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 +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 color 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. + +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. + +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 anything, John; the idea of those +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." + + + + + +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 2798.txt or 2798.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/9/2798/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +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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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE + +by Bret Harte + + + +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 humor, +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? + +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 sunbonnet 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. + +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 licorice 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. + +Doubt and skepticism 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 +tablespoons and a thimble, in the corner of the closet, when Wan +Lee stolidly rose. + +"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--s'pose 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! Alee same clothes-horse 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 tomorrow." + +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. S'pose you lun away longside Chinee boy--Chinee boy make +you Pilat." + +Hickory softly scratched his leg; while a broad, bashful smile +almost closed his small eyes. "Wot?" he asked. + +"Mebbe you too flightened to lun away. Melican boy's papa heap +lickee." + +This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair's blood. "Dy'ar +think we daresen't?" 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 movable 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 Queens 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. + +The eventful day dawned without any unusual sign of importance. It +was one of the cloudless summer days of the Californian foothills, +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 +canyon, 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 wagon, miles away, crossing the pebbles of a +dried-up watercourse. Here, too, the prevailing colors 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 color 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 colored 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. + +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 neighbor, 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 endeavor 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. This 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." + +"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!" + +"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. + +"It's orful far off!" said Patsey with a sudden look of dark +importance. "Pap says it's free miles on the road. Take all day +ter get there." + +The bright faces were overcast. + +"Less go down er slide!" said Hickory boldly. + +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 gully 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. + +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 chamisal 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. + +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 pigtail 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 pigtail 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 a sudden alarm. "No frighten +Spillits! You waitee! Chinee boy he talkee Spillit not to +frighten you."* + + +* 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 he likee Chinee; try talkee +him." + +The Pirates looked at Wan Lee, not without a certain envy of this +manifest favoritism. 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 extemporize 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 flavor 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. + +Hickory at once recognized 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 pigtail 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 till 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. + +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 stagecoach, 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. + +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 favorite 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 around. 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 of 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. + +Presently, the lids of the round eyes began to droop, the landscape +beyond began to be 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 that 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 bandana 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 Pirates' 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 humorist losing his balance! + +"Oh, 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 honor." 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!" + +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 Rovers 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 wintergreen, +peppermint, rose, or acidulated 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 labeled "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 dispatched 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!" + +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 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 color 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. + +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. + +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 anything, John; the idea of +those 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." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Queen of the Pirate Isle, by Bret Harte + diff --git a/old/qotpi10.zip b/old/qotpi10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c78ee87 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/qotpi10.zip |