The Lady and the Pirate - Emerson Hough (lightweight ebook reader .txt) š
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A shudder was my only answer. I think the two portraits of my young bullies did the business.
āVery well, then,ā I resumed, āit is plain, Messieurs, that there is many a slip between the reward and the pocket, voyez vous? Bien! But hereāā and I thrust a hand into my pocketāāis a reward much closer home, and far easier to attain.ā
Their eyes bulged as they saw two or three thousand dollars in big bills smoothed out.
āEcoutez, Messieurs!ā said I. āBehold here not enemies, but men of like mind. I speak of men who live by the sea, men of the old home of Jean Lafitte, that great merchant, that bold soldier, who did so much to save his country at the Battle. Even now he has thousands of friends and hundreds of relatives in this land. You yourself, I doubt not, Messieurs, are distant cousins of Jean Lafitte? Nāest-ce pas?ā
They crossed themselves, but murmured āBa-oui!ā āEst ees the trutā! How did Monsieur know?ā asked the tender.
āI know many things. I know that any cousin descended from those brave days loves the sea and its ways more than he loves the law. And if money has come easyāas this didāwhat harm if a cousin should take the price of a rat-skin or two and carry out a letter or so to the railway, and keep a close mouth about it as well? To the good old days, and Messieurs, my friends!ā I had seen the neck of a flask in Petersonās pocket, and now I took it forth, unscrewed the top, and passed it, with two bills of one hundred dollars each.
They poured, grinned. I stood, waiting for their slow brains to act, but there was only a foregone answer. The keeper drank first, as ranking his tender; the other followed; and they handed the flaskānot the billsāback to Peterson and me.
āMerci, mes amis!ā said I. āAnd I drink to Jean Lafitte and the old days! Perhaps, you may buy a mass for your cousinās soul?ā
āAh non!ā answered the keeper. āHees soul sheās hout of Purgatoire long hago eef sheāll goinā get hout. Me, I buy me some net for sārimp.ā
āAnā me, two harpent more lanā for my farm,ā quoth the tender.
āAlas! poor Jean!ā said I. āBut he was so virtuous a man that he needs no masses after a hundred years, perhaps. As you like. You will take the letters; and this for the telegraph?ā
āCertainā! Iāll took it those,ā answered the tender. āYouāll stayed for dish coffee, yass?ā inquired the keeper, with Cajun hospitality.
āNo, I fear it is not possible, thank you,ā I replied. āWe must be going soon.ā
āAnā where youāll goinā, Monsieur?ā
āAround the island, up the channel, up the old oyster-boat channel of Monsieur Edouard. The letters are some of them for Monsieur Edouard himself. And you know well, mes amis, that once we lie at the wharf of Monsieur Edouard, not the government even of the state will touch us yonder?ā
āMy faith, non! I should say itācertainā not! No man heāll mawnkey witā Monsieur Edouard, heem! Youāll was know him, Monsieur?ā
āWe went to school together. We smoked the same pipe.ā
āMy faith! Youāll know Monsieur Edouard!ā The keeper shook my hand. āHāIāll was work for Monsieur Edouard manny tam hon hees boat, hon hees plantation, hon hees āouse. When Iāll want some leetle money, sāpose those hrat heāll wasnāt been prime yet, hall HāIāll need was to go non Monsieur Edouard, hask for those leetle monny. Heāll hanā it on me, yass, heem, ten dollar, jusā like as heasy Monsieur has gave it me hondred dollar now, yas, heem!ā
āYes? Well, I know that a cousin of Jean Lafitteāwho no doubt has dug for treasure all over the dooryard of Monsieur Edouardāāā
āBut not behinā the smoke-houseānevair on dose place yet, Iāll swear it!ā
āāVery well, suppose you have not yet included the smoke-house of Monsieur Edouard, at least you are his friend. And what Acadian lives who is not a friend of the ladies?ā
āCertainā, Monsieur.ā
āVery well again. What you see in the paper is all false. The two ladies whose pictures you see here, and here, are yonder at our camp. You shall come and see that they are well and happy, both of them. Moreover, if you like another fifty for the mass for Jean Lafitteās soul, you, yourself, my friend, shall pilot us into the channel of Monsieur Edouard. Weāll tow your boat behind us across the bay. Is it not?ā
āCertainā! oui!ā answered the tender. āBut youāll had leetle dish coffee quite plain?ā once more demanded the lonesome keeper; and for sake of his hospitable soul we now said yes; and very good coffee it was, too: and the better since I knew it meant we now were friends. Ah! pirate blood is far thicker than any water you may find.
āBut if we take you on as pilot, my friend,ā said I to the pilot as at length we arose, āhow shall we get out our letters after all?ā
āThass hall right,ā replied he, āmy cousin, Richard BarriĆØreāsheās cousin of Jean Lafitte too, heemāsheāll was my partner on the sārimp, anā sheāll was come hon the light, here, heem, to-morā, yas, heem.ā
āAnd would you give the letters to Mr. Richard BarriĆØre to-morrow?ā I inquired of the lighthouse keeper.
āOui, oui, certainā, assurement, witā plaisir, Monsieur,ā he replied. So I handed him the little packet.
It chanced that my eye caught sight of one of the two letters Mrs. Daniver had handed me. The address was not in Mrs. Daniverās handwriting, but one that I knew very well. And the letter, in this handwriting that I knew very well, was addressed to Calvin Horace Davidson, Esquire, The Boston Club, New Orleans, Louisiana: all written out in full in Helenaās own scrupulous fashion.
I gave the letter over to the messenger, but for a time I stood silent, thinking. I knew now very well what that letter contained. But yesterday, Helena Emory had finally decided, there on the beach, alone with me, the salt air on her cheek, the salt tears in her eyes. She had gone far as woman might to tell me that she was grieved over a hasty wordāshe had given me a chance, my first chance, my only chance, my last chance. And, I, pig-headed fool, had slighted her at the very moment of moments of all my lifeāI who had prided myself on my āpsychologyāāI who had thought myself wiseāI had allowed that woman to go away with her head drooping when at last sheāoh, I saw it all plainly enough now! And now indeed small psychology and small wit were requisite to know the whole process of a womanās soul, thus chilled. She had been hesitant, had been a little resentful of this runaway situation, had not liked my domineering ways; but at last she had relented and had asked my pardon. Then I had spurned her. And then her mind swung to the other man. She had not yet given that man his answer, but when I chilled her, rejected her timid little desire to āmake upā with meāwhy, then, her mind was made up for that other man at once. She had written his answer. And nowāoh! fiendlike cruelty of womanās heartāshe had chosen me as her messenger to carry out that word which would cost me herself forever! She had done that exquisitely well, as she did everything, not even advising me that I was to be her errand boy on such an errand, trusting me to find out by accident, as I had, that I was to be my own executioner, was to spring my own guillotine. She knew that, none the less, though I understood what the letter meant thus addressed, I sacredly must execute her silent trust. Oh! Helena, yours was indeed an exquisite revenge for that one hour of a dour manās hurt pride.
CHAPTER XXXVI IN WHICH WE FOLD OUR TENTSBY consent of the lighthouse keeper, we left the Belle HelĆØne moored at the wharf in the channel, with Williams in charge, while Peterson and I, towing the tenderās sailing skiff, its piratical lateen sail lowered, started back for our encampment in our long boat. It was only a half mile or so alongshore around the head of the island, although we had to keep out a bit to avoid going aground on the flats where the Belle HelĆØne had come to griefāand had, moreover, to wade ashore some fifty yards or so, now that the sea was calm, since the keel of the motor-boat would not admit a closer approach in the shallows.
We found our party all assembled, John having but now issued his luncheon call; and, such had proved the swift spell of this care-free life, none expressed much delight at the announcement of my decision to strike camp and move toward civilization. Helena only looked up swiftly, but made no comment; and Mrs. Daniver, to my surprise, openly rebelled at leaving these flesh-pots, where canvasback and terrapin might be had by shaking the bushes, and where the supply of ninety-three seemed, after all, not exhausted. Of course, my men had nothing to say about it, but when it came to my partners and associates, Lafitte and LāOlonnois, there was open mutiny.
āWhy, now,ā protested LāOlonnois, his lip quivering, āOā course we donāt want to go home. Aināt our desert island all right? Where you goinā to find any better place ān this, like to know? Besidesāāand here he drew me to one sideāātheyās a good reason for not goinā just yet, Black Bart!ā
āWhat, Jimmy?ā I inquired.
āWell, I know somethinā.ā
āAnd what is it?ā
āWell, Jean Lafitte knows it, too.ā
āWhat is it then?ā
āWell, it aināt happened yet, but itās goinā toāor anyhow maybe.ā
āYou interest me! Is it a matter of importance?ā
āāSay it was!ā
āTo whom?ā
āWhy, to youāanā besides, to my Auntie Helena. āNā you canāt pull off things like that just anywheres. Jean Lafitte anā me, we frame up how to handle yon heartless jade, the fair captive, ānā here you butt in ānā spoil the whole works. It aināt right.ā
I bethought me now of the conversation I had unwillingly overheardāand my heart was grateful to these my friendsābut the next instant I remembered the note to Cal Davidson.
āI thank you, Jimmy, my friend,ā said I, āand I believe I know what you mean, but it canāt be done.ā
āWhat canāt, anā why canāt it?ā
āWhy, theāthe frame-up that you have just mentioned. In shortābut, Jimmy, go on and roll up the blankets.ā
āBut why canāt it, and what do you know about it? Tell me,ā he demanded with sudden inspiration, āis yon varlet a suitor, too, for yon heartless jade?ā
āI decline to answer, Jimmy. Donāt letās get into too deep water. Go on and get your bundles ready.ā
āYouāre a fine pirate, aināt you, Black Bart!ā he broke out. āDo you hold yerself fit to head a band oā bold anā desprit men, when you let yerself be bluffed by yon varlet, anā him a thousand miles away? You try me, just you gimme a desert island, or even
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