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diff --git a/2798.txt b/2798.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..599859f --- /dev/null +++ b/2798.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1088 @@ +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] + +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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