A Jolly Fellowship

F >> Frank R. Stockton >> A Jolly Fellowship

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

We fastened the rope to the grapnel, and then Rectus stood back while I
made ready for the throw. It was a pretty big throw, almost straight up
in the air, but I was strong, and was used to pitching, and all that
sort of thing. I coiled the rope on the ground, took the loose end of it
firmly in my left hand, and then, letting the grapnel hang from my right
hand until it nearly touched the ground, I swung it round and round,
perpendicularly, and when it had gone round three or four times, I gave
it a tremendous hurl upward.

It rose beautifully, like a rocket, and fell inside of the ramparts,
making only a little thud of a sound.

"First-rate!" said Rectus, softly; and I felt pretty proud myself.

I pulled on the rope, and found the grapnel had caught. I hung with my
whole weight on it, but it held splendidly.

"Now, then," said I to Rectus, "you can climb up. Go slowly, and be very
careful. There's no hurry. And mind you take a good hold when you get to
the top."

We had arranged that Rectus was to go first. This did not look very
brave on my part, but I felt that I wanted to be under him, while he was
climbing, so that I could break his fall if he should slip down. It
would not be exactly a perpendicular fall, for the wall slanted a
little, but it would be bad enough. However, I had climbed up worse
places than that, and Rectus was very nimble; so I felt there was no
great danger.

Up he went, hand over hand, and putting his toes into nicks every now
and then, thereby helping himself very much. He took it slowly and
easily, and I felt sure he would be all right. As I looked at him,
climbing up there in the darkness, while I was standing below, holding
the rope so that it should not swing, I could not help thinking that I
was a pretty curious kind of a tutor for a boy. However, I was taking
all the care of him that I could, and if he came down he'd probably hurt
me worse than he would hurt himself. Besides, I had no reason to suppose
that old Mr. Colbert objected to a little fun. Then I began to think of
Mrs. Colbert, and while I was thinking of her, and looking up at Rectus,
I was amazed to see him going up quite rapidly, while the end of the
rope slipped through my fingers. Up he went, and when I ran back, I
could see a dark figure on the wall, above him. Somebody was pulling him
up.

In a very few moments he disappeared over the top, rope and all!

Now, I was truly frightened. What might happen to the boy?

I was about to shout, but, on second thoughts, decided to keep quiet;
yet I instantly made up my mind that, if I didn't see or hear from him
pretty soon, I would run around to the gate and bang up the people
inside. However, it was not necessary for me to trouble myself, for, in
a minute, the rope came down again, and I took hold of it. I pulled on
it and found it all firm, and then I went up. I climbed up pretty fast,
and two or three times I felt a tug, as if somebody above was trying to
pull me up. But it was of no use, for I was a great deal stouter and
heavier than Rectus, who was a light, slim boy. But as I neared the top,
a hand came down and clutched me by the collar, and some one, with a
powerful arm and grip, helped me over the top of the wall. There stood
Rectus, all right, and the fellow who had helped us up was the big
Indian, "Maiden's Heart."

I looked at Rectus, and he whispered:

"He says there's a sentinel down there in the square."

At this, Maiden's Heart bobbed his head two or three times, and,
motioning to us to crouch down, he crept quietly over to the inner wall
of the ramparts and looked down.

"What shall we say we came for?" I whispered, quickly.

"I don't know," said Rectus.

"Well, we must think of something," I said, "or we shall look like
fools."

But before he had time to think, Maiden's Heart crept back. He put his
finger on his lips, and, beckoning us to follow him, he led the way to a
corner of the fort near one of the lookout towers. We followed as
quietly as we could, and then we all three slipped into the narrow
entrance to the tower, the Indian motioning us to go first. When we two
stood inside of the little round tower, old Maiden's Heart planted
himself before us in the passage, and waited to hear what we had to say.

But we couldn't think of anything to say. Directly, however, I thought I
must do something, so I whispered to the Indian:

"Does the sentry ever come up here?"

He seemed to catch my meaning.

"I go watch," he said. "Come back. Tell you." And off he stole, making
no more noise than a cat.

"Bother on him!" said Rectus. "If I'd known he was up here, I would
never have come."

"I reckon not," said I. "But now that we have come, what are we going to
do or say? That fellow evidently thinks we have some big project on
hand, and he's ready to help us; we must be careful, or he'll rush down
and murder the sentinel."

"I'm sure I don't know what to say to him," said Rectus. "We ought to
have thought of this before. I suppose it would be of no use to mention
my poster to him."

"No, indeed," said I; "he'd never understand that. And, besides, there's
a man down there. Let's peep out and see what he's doing."

So we crept to the entrance of the passage, and saw Maiden's Heart,
crouched near the top of the inclined plane which serves as a stairway
from the square to the ramparts, and looking over the low wall,
evidently watching the sentry.

"I'll tell you what let's do," said Rectus. "Let's make a rush for our
rope, and get out of this."

"No, sir!" said I. "We'd break our necks if we tried to hurry down that
rope. Don't think of anything of that kind. And, besides, we couldn't
both get down before he'd see us."

In a few minutes, Maiden's Heart crept quickly back to us, and seemed
surprised that we had left our hiding-place. He motioned us farther back
into the passage, and slipped in himself.

We did not have time to ask any questions before we heard the sentry
coming up the stairway, which was near our corner. When he reached the
top, he walked away from us over toward the Indian barracks, which were
on the ramparts, at the other end of the fort. As soon as he reached the
barracks, Maiden's Heart took me by the arm and Rectus by the collar,
and hurried us to the stairway, and then down as fast as we could go. He
made no noise himself, but Rectus and I clumped a good deal. We had to
wear our shoes, for the place was paved with rough concrete and
oyster-shells.

The sentry evidently heard the clumping, for he came running down after
us, and caught up to us almost as soon as we reached the square.

"Eugh!" said he, for he was an Indian; and he ran in front of us, and
held his musket horizontally before us. Of course we stopped. And then,
as there was nothing else that seemed proper to do, we held out our
hands and said "How?" The sentinel took his gun in his left hand, and
shook hands with us. Then Maiden's Heart, who probably remembered that
he had omitted this ceremony, also shook hands with us and said "How?"

The two Indians now began to jabber to each other, in a low voice; but
we could not, of course, make out what they said, and I don't think they
were able to imagine what we intended to do. We were standing near the
inner door of the great entrance-way, and into this they now marched us.
There was a lamp burning on a table.

Said Rectus: "I guess they're going to put us out of the front door;"
but he was mistaken. They walked us into a dark room, on one side of the
hall, and Maiden's Heart said to us: "Stay here. Him mad. I come back.
Keep still," and then he went out, probably to discuss with the sentinel
the nature of our conspiracy. It was very dark in this room, and, at
first, we couldn't see anything at all; but we soon found, from the
smell of the bread, that we were in the kitchen or bakery. We had been
here before, and had seen the head-cook, a ferocious Indian squaw, who
had been taken in the act of butchering a poor emigrant woman on the
plains. She always seemed sullen and savage, and never said a word to
anybody. We hoped she wasn't in here now.

"I didn't know they had Indian sentinels," said Rectus. "That seems a
little curious to me. I suppose they set the innocent ones to watch the
guilty."

"I don't believe that would work," said I, "for the innocent chaps
would want to get away, just as much as the others. I guess they make
'em take turns to stand guard. There has to be a sentinel in a fort, you
know, and I suppose these fellows are learning the business."

We didn't settle this question, nor the more important one of our reason
for this visit; for, at this moment, Maiden's Heart came back, carrying
the lamp. He looked at us in a curious way, and then he said:

"What you want?"

I couldn't think of any good answer to this question, but Rectus
whispered to me:

"Got any money with you?"

"Yes," said I.

"Let's buy some sea-beans," said Rectus.

"All right," I answered.

"Sea-beans?" said Maiden's Heart, who had caught the word; "you want
sea-beans?"

"Yes," said Rectus, "if you have any good ones."

At this, the Indian conducted us into the hall, put the lamp on the
table, and took three or four sea-beans from his pocket. They were very
nice ones, and beautifully polished.

"Good," said I; "we'll take these. How much, Maiden's Heart?"

"Fifty cents," said the Indian.

"For all?" I asked.

"No. No. For one. Four bean two dollar."

We both exclaimed at this, for it was double the regular price of the
beans.

"All right," said Maiden's Heart. "Twenty-five cents, daytime. Fifty
cents, night."

We looked at each other, and concluded to pay the price and depart. I
gave him two dollars, and asked him to open the gate and let us out.

[Illustration: "ANOTHER BEAN."]

He grinned.

"No. No. We got no key. Captain got key. Come up wall. Go down wall."

At this, we walked out into the square, and were about to ascend the
inclined plane when the sentinel came up and stopped us. Thereupon a low
conversation ensued between him and Maiden's Heart, at the end of which
the sentry put his hand into his pocket and pulled out three beans,
which he held out to us. I did not hesitate, but gave him a dollar and a
half for them. He took the money and let us pass on,--Maiden's Heart at
my side.

"You want more bean?" said he.

"Oh, no!" I answered. "No, indeed," said Rectus.

When we reached the place where we had left our apparatus, I swung the
rope over the wall, and, hooking the grapnel firmly on the inside,
prepared to go down, for, as before, I wished to be under Rectus, if he
should slip. But Maiden's Heart put his hand on my shoulder.

"Hold up!" he said. "I got 'nother bean. Buy this."

"Don't want it," said I.

"Yes. Yes," said Maiden's Heart, and he coolly unhooked the grapnel from
the wall.

I saw that it was of no use to contend with a big fellow like that, as
strong as two common men, and I bought the bean.

I took the grapnel from Maiden's Heart, who seemed to give it up
reluctantly, and as I hooked it on the wall, I felt a hand upon my
shoulder. I looked around, and saw the sentinel. He held out to me
another bean. It was too dark to see the quality of it, but I thought it
was very small. However, I bought it. One of these fellows must be
treated as well as the other.

Maiden's Heart and the sentry were now feeling nervously in their
pockets.

I shook my head vigorously, and saying, "No more! no more!" threw myself
over the wall, and seized the rope, Rectus holding the grapnel in its
place as I did so. As I let myself down from knot to knot, a thought
crossed my mind: "How are we going to get that grapnel after we both are
down?"

It was a frightening thought. If the two Indians should choose, they
could keep the rope and grapnel, and, before morning, the whole posse of
red-skins might be off and away! I did not think about their being so
far from home, and all that. I only thought that they'd be glad to get
out, and that they would all come down our rope.

These reflections, which ran through my mind in no time at all, were
interrupted by Rectus, who called down from the top of the wall, in a
voice that was a little too loud to be prudent:

"Hurry! I think he's found another bean!"

I was on the ground in a few moments, and then Rectus came down. I
called to him to come slowly and be very careful, but I can't tell how
relieved I was when I saw him fairly over the wall and on his way down.

When we both stood on the ground, I took hold of the rope and shook it.
I am not generally nervous, but I was a little nervous then. I did not
shake the grapnel loose. Then I let the rope go slack, for a foot or
two, and gave it a big sweep to one side. To my great delight, over came
the grapnel, nearly falling on our heads. I think I saw Maiden's Heart
make a grab at it as it came over, but I am not sure. However, he poked
his head over the wall and said:

"Good-bye! Come again."

We answered, "Good-bye," but didn't say anything about coming again.

As we hurried along homeward, Rectus said:

"If one of those Indians had kept us up there, while the other one ran
into the barracks and got a fresh stock of sea-beans, they would have
just bankrupted us."

"No, they wouldn't," I said. "For I hadn't much more change with me. And
if I had had it, I wouldn't have given them any more. I'd have called up
the captain first. The thing was getting too expensive."

"Well, I'm glad I'm out of it," said Rectus. "And I don't believe much
in any of those Indians being very innocent. I thought Maiden's Heart
was one of the best of them, but he's a regular rascal. He knew we
wanted to back out of that affair, and he just fleeced us."

"I believe he would rather have had our scalps than our money, if he had
had us out in his country," I said.

"That's so," said Rectus. "A funny kind of a maiden's heart he's got."

We were both out of conceit with the noble red man. Rectus took his
proclamation out of his pocket as we walked along the sea-wall, and,
tearing it into little pieces, threw it into the water. When we reached
the steam-ship wharf, we walked out to the end of it, to get rid of the
rope and grapnel. I whirled the grapnel round and round, and let the
whole thing fly far out into the harbor. It was a sheer waste of a good
strong rope, but we should have had a dreary time getting the knots out
of it.

After we got home I settled up our accounts, and charged half the
sea-beans to Rectus, and half to myself.

CHAPTER VI.

THE GIRL ON THE BEACH.

I was not very well satisfied with our trip over the walls of San Marco.
In the first place, when the sea-beans, the rope and the grapnel were
all considered, it was a little too costly. In the second place, I was
not sure that I had been carrying out my contract with Mr. Colbert in
exactly the right spirit; for although he had said nothing about my
duties, I knew that he expected me to take care of his son, and paid me
for that. And I felt pretty sure that helping a fellow climb up a
knotted rope into an old fort by night was not the best way of taking
care of him. The third thing that troubled me in regard to this matter
was the feeling I had that Rectus had led me into it; that he had been
the leader and not I. Now, I did not intend that anything of that kind
should happen again. I did not come out on this expedition to follow
Rectus around; indeed, it was to be quite the other way. But, to tell
the truth, I had not imagined that he would ever try to make people
follow him. He never showed at school that such a thing was in him. So,
for these three reasons, I determined that there were to be no more
scrapes of that sort, which generally came to nothing, after all.

For the next two or three days we roved around the old town, and into
two or three orange-groves, and went out sailing with Mr. Cholott, who
owned a nice little yacht, or sail-boat, as we should call it up north.

The sailing here is just splendid, and, one morning, we thought we'd
hire a boat for ourselves and go out fishing somewhere. So we went down
to the yacht-club wharf to see about the boat that belonged to old
Menendez--Rectus's Minorcan. There were lots of sail-boats there as well
as row-boats, but we hunted up the craft we were after, and, by good
luck, found Menendez in her, bailing her out.

So we engaged her, and he said he'd take us over to the North Beach to
fish for bass. That suited us,--any beach and any kind of
fish,--provided he'd hurry up and get his boat ready. While he was
scooping away, and we were standing on the wharf watching him, along
came Crowded Owl, the young Indian we had always liked--that is, ever
since we had known any of them. He came up, said "How?" and shook hands,
and then pulled out some sea-beans. The sight of these things seemed to
make me sick, and as for Rectus, he sung out:

"Do' wan' 'em!" so suddenly that it seemed like one word, and a pretty
savage one at that.

Crowded Owl looked at me, but I shook my head, and said, "No, no, no!"
Then he drew himself up and just stood there. He seemed struck dumb; but
that didn't matter, as he couldn't talk to us, anyway. But he didn't go
away. When we walked farther up the wharf, he followed us, and again
offered us some beans. I began to get angry, and said "No!" pretty
violently. At this, he left us, but as we turned at the end of the
wharf, we saw him near the club-house, standing and talking with
Maiden's Heart.

"I think it's a shame to let those Indians wander about here in that
way," said Rectus. "They ought to be kept within bounds."

I couldn't help laughing at this change of tune, but said that I
supposed only a few of them got leave of absence at a time.

"Well," said Rectus, "there are some of them that ought never to come
out."

"Hello!" said old Menendez, sticking his head up above the edge of the
wharf. "We're ready now. Git aboard."

And so we scrambled down into the sail-boat, and Menendez pushed off,
while the two Indians stood and watched us as we slowly moved away.

When we got fairly out, our sail filled, and we went scudding away on a
good wind. Then said old Menendez, as he sat at the tiller:

"What were you hollerin' at them Injuns about?"

"I didn't know that we were hollerin'," said I, "but they were bothering
us to buy their sea-beans."

"That's curious," he said. "They aint much given to that sort of thing.
But there's no tellin' nothin' about an Injun. If I had my way, I'd
hang every one of 'em."

"Rather a blood-thirsty sentiment," said I. "Perhaps some of them don't
deserve hanging."

"Well, I've never seen one o' that kind," said he, "and I've seen lots
of Injuns. I was in the Seminole war, in this State, and was fightin'
Injuns from the beginnin' to the end of it. And I know all about how to
treat the rascals. You must hang 'em, or shoot 'em, as soon as you get
hold of 'em."

This aroused all the old sympathy for the oppressed red man that dwelt
in the heart of young Rectus, and he exclaimed:

"That would be murder! There are always two kinds of every sort of
people--all are not bad. It is wrong to condemn a whole division of the
human race that way."

"You're right about there bein' two kinds of Injuns," said the old
fellow. "There's bad ones and there's wuss ones. I know what I've seen
for myself. I'd hang 'em all."

We debated this matter some time longer, but we could make no impression
on the old Minorcan. For some reason or other, probably on account of
his sufferings or hardships in the war, he was extremely bitter against
all Indians. "You can't tell me," he replied to all of our arguments,
and I think he completely destroyed all the sympathy which Rectus had
had for the once down-trodden and deceived Minorcans, by this animosity
toward members of another race who were yet in captivity and bondage. To
be sure, there was a good deal of difference in the two cases, but
Rectus wasn't in the habit of turning up every question to look at the
bottom of it.

The North Beach is the seaward side of one of the islands that enclose
the harbor, or the Matanzas River, as it is called. We landed on the
inland side, and then walked over to the beach, which is very wide and
smooth. Here we set to work to fish. Old Menendez baited our lines, and
told us what to do. It was new sport to us.

First, we took off our shoes and stockings, and rolled up our trousers,
so as to wade out in the shallow water. We each had a long line, one end
of which we tied around our waists. Menendez had his tied to a
button-hole of his coat, but he thought he had better make our lines
very safe, as they belonged to him. There was a big hook and a heavy
lead to the other end of the line, with a piece of fish for bait, and we
swung the lead around our heads, and threw it out into the surf as far
as we could. I thought I was pretty good on the throw, but I couldn't
begin to send my line out as far as Menendez threw his. As for Rectus,
he didn't pretend to do much in the throwing business. He whirled his
line around in such a curious way that I was very much afraid he would
hook himself in the ear. But Menendez put his line out for him. He
didn't want me to do it.

Then we stood there in the sand, with the water nearly up to our knees
every time the waves came in, and waited for a bite. There wasn't much
biting. Menendez said that the tide was too low, but I've noticed that
something is always too something, every time any one takes me out
fishing, so I didn't mind that.

Menendez did hook one fellow, I think, for he gave a tremendous jerk at
his line, and began to skip inshore as if he were but ten years old; but
it was of no use. The fish changed his mind.

Then we stood and waited a while longer, until, all of a sudden, Rectus
made a skip. But he went the wrong way. Instead of skipping out of the
water, he skipped in. He went in so far that he got his trousers
dripping wet.

"Hello!" I shouted. "What's up?"

He didn't say anything, but began to pull back, and dig his heels into
the sand. Old Menendez and I saw, at the same moment, what was the
matter, and we made a rush for him. I was nearest, and got there first.
I seized Rectus by the shoulder, and pulled him back a little.

"Whew-w!" said he; "how this twine cuts!"

Then I took hold of the line in front of him, and there was no mistaking
the fact--he had a big fish on the other end of it.

"Run out!" cried Menendez, who thought there was no good of three
fellows hauling on the line; and out we ran.

When we had gone up the beach a good way, I looked back and saw a
rousing big fish flopping about furiously in the shallow water.

"Go on!" shouted Menendez; and we ran on until we had pulled it high and
dry up on the sand.

Then Menendez fell afoul of it to take out the hook, and we hurried back
to see it. It was a whopping big bass, and by the powerful way it threw
itself around on the sand, I didn't wonder that Rectus ran into the
water when he got the first jerk.

Now, this was something like sport, and we all felt encouraged, and went
to work again with a will, only Menendez untied the line from Rectus's
waist and fastened it to his button-hole.

"It may pull out," he said; "but, on the whole, it's better to lose a
fishin'-line than a boy."

We fished quietly and steadily for some time, but got no more bites,
when suddenly I heard some one say, behind me:

"They don't ever pull in!"

I turned around, and it was a girl. She was standing there with a
gentleman,--her father, I soon found out,--and I don't know how long
they had been watching us. She was about thirteen years old, and came
over with her father in a sail-boat. I remembered seeing them cruising
around as we were sailing over.

"They haven't got bites," said her father; "that's the reason they don't
pull in."

It was very disagreeable to me, and I know it was even more so to
Rectus, to stand here and have those strangers watch us fishing. If we
had not been barefooted and bare-legged, we should not have minded it so
much. As for the old Minorcan, I don't suppose he cared at all. I began
to think it was time to stop.

"As the tide's getting lower and lower," I said to Menendez, "I suppose
our chances are getting less and less."

"Yes," said he; "I reckon we'd better shut up shop before long."

"Oh!" cried out the girl, "just look at that fish! Father! Father! Just
look at it. Did any of you catch it? I didn't see it till this minute. I
thought you hadn't caught any. If I only had a fishing-line now, I would
like to catch just one fish. Oh, father! why didn't you bring a
fishing-line?"

"I didn't think of it, my dear," said he. "Indeed, I didn't know there
were any fish here."

Old Menendez turned around and grinned at this, and I thought there was
a good chance to stop fishing; so I offered to let the girl try my line
for a while, if she wanted to.

It was certain enough that she wanted to, for she was going to run right
into the water to get it. But I came out, and as her father said she
might fish if she didn't have to walk into the water, old Menendez took
a spare piece of line from his pocket and tied it on to the end of mine,
and he put on some fresh bait and gave it a tremendous send out into the
surf. Then he put the other end around the girl and tied it. I suppose
he thought that it didn't matter if a girl should be lost, but he may
have considered that her father was there to seize her if she got jerked
in.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16