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I don't know's I know your name, though I cal'late I have seen you somewhere afore," added Captain Boomsby. "I reckon you have seen me here before," replied Cornwood, taking his card from his pocket and presenting it to the captain. "I can't read it without my glasses," said the saloon-keeper, holding the card off at arm's length. "My name is Kirby Cornwood," added the Floridian. "Well, Mr.
I know I'm a liar; but I told that lie for a dollar Boomsby gave me for telling it, so that I need not be turned out of my room. If I had that Judas dollar, I would send it back to Boomsby, and die with a clean conscience." "It never pays to do wrong," I added, deeply moved by the invalid's story. "I told Gavett I had no snake; but he turned me out, all the same.
"I should like to follow that lodger's history, if Captain Boomsby had any such person in his house, which I do not believe," added the mate. "When I go on shore I will try to find out whether or not he had any lodger, and I think I can get at it." "It is hardly worth the trouble," I replied. "I think it is.
"That's just the business for Captain Boomsby: it is just mean enough for him," I added. "The porter spoke of the Boomsby saloon as a new one opened a few weeks before. The keeper had a bar for colored customers in a back room, with an entrance from the lane in the rear. When he said this, I began to pump him in regard to Boomsby. I finally asked if the captain took boarders or lodgers.
"Do you know Captain Parker Boomsby, Chloe?" "Never heard of him before." "You had better go to the cabin now. As long as you remain on board, I will see that you are protected," I said, rising from my stool, for it was about time for the pilot to come on deck. "Thank you, Captain Garningham.
Taking the outside of the sidewalk, and looking intently at the other side of the street, where the retail dry-goods and curiosity shops were located, I attempted to get by the saloon without being seen by its proprietor. "Why, Sandy, how are you?" demanded Captain Boomsby, rushing out to me and seizing me by the hand. In spite of my hanging back, he dragged me to the door of the saloon.
Cornwood will not get drunk when he has a heavy job of iniquity on his hands. Boomsby is a wolf: this fellow is a snake. Cornwood reminds me of a kind of reptile they have in these parts, called the small rattlesnake. He is a little fellow, and you can't hear his rattle; but his bite will kill you as quick as that of a five-footer.
He had retreated to the corner of the room opposite the closet-door and coiled himself up, with his head in the centre. He kept his eyes fixed on me, or I fancied he did. He looked as ugly as sin itself. He seemed to me to be as near like Captain Boomsby as one pin is like another. They both did business on the same principle. Mentally I bade him an affectionate adieu.
I had hardly succeeded in making a breach in the door, before I heard the most lusty screams in the lower part of the house. I had no difficulty in recognizing the voice of Mrs. Boomsby. She heard the noise of my bombardment, and was calling her husband in her usual affectionate manner. But I was not at all disturbed by the outcry.
"Allow no one to come on board," I said to the mate, who had told me of the coming of the boat, and who were in it. I went aft. The gangway steps had been taken in-board, and stowed away after Cornwood came. Captain Boomsby was rather more than half full of whiskey. I found there was a third person in the boat, who proved to be an officer.
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