United States or French Southern Territories ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There was a savage roar from the beachcomber, and as Bostock hurried along the quarter-deck and descended to the cabin entrance two shots were fired in rapid succession. "Big Dan go mumkull kill a feller," whispered Jackum, as the exchange of words came to where they stood listening. "Drop that! D'yer hear?" roared Bostock. "Drop it, before I come and finish you off." "Yes; come!" snarled Mallam.
Brief reference to each of the satellites and neighbours of Dunk Island may not be out of place; if only to preserve distinctions which were current long before the advent of white folks, and to make clear remarks in future pages upon the different features of the domain over which the Beachcomber exercises jurisdiction.
"I wish I'd never heard of you," Grief answered. "Same here," was the response. "At first, before I knew who it was, I thought I had to deal with an ordinary trading captain. That's why you've got me bottled up." "And I am ashamed to say that I underrated you," Grief smiled. "I took you for a thieving beachcomber, and not for a really intelligent pirate and murderer.
"'Might I suggest another rum? says Wainwright. "'Cigar for me darker brand, says I. "Well, sir, the president sent me and Wainwright back to the town in a victoria hitched to two flea-bitten selling-platers but the best the country afforded. "I found out afterward that Wainwright was a regular beachcomber the smartest man on the whole coast, but kept down by rum. I liked him.
"Since when has Fitu-Iva come to be run by a Levuka beachcomber? He says my schooner has been seized. Is it true?" "It is true," Uiliami boomed from his deep chest. "Have you any more silk shirts like Willie Smee's? Tui Tulifau would like such a shirt. He has heard of it." "'Tis all the same," Fulualea interrupted. "Shirts or schooners, the king shall have them."
Melton was a man with an elastic conscience. Without troubling his head as to the right or wrong side of this quarrel among savages, he promptly complied with the request of the beachcomber, and called for volunteers; the whole of the ship's company responded.
Anyway, this beachcomber carried the woman and her daughter all over the shop, but mostly to out-of-the-way islands, where there were no police, and he thought, perhaps, the soft job hung out. I've my own view of this old party; but I was just as glad he had kept Uma clear of Apia and Papeete and these flash towns.
Something about the fellow suggested covert insolence; he had the air of a beachcomber who had unexpectedly fallen into a soft berth, and it had gone to his head. He had been standing watch at the ladder head, and against positive orders he had permitted a visitor to pass him. To Cleigh this was the handle he had been hunting for. He summoned the man. "Get your duffle," said Cleigh.
The most brazen sophistry could not dignify by the name of "loan" the coin contemptuously flung to a beachcomber who slept on the bare boards of the public market. But on this morning no beggar would have more thankfully received a charitable coin, for the demon thirst had him by the throat the drunkard's matutinal thirst that requires to be slaked at each morning station on the road to Tophet.
But it had not the slightest effect upon the beachcomber, who stood looking on while Black Jack and a companion heaved together and tried to overturn the oldest tub, but without result. A yell to the other two brought them up, and with their aid the tub of malodorous thick water was gradually overturned, and the foul water poured off, to sink at once into the thirsty sand.
Word Of The Day