Commodore Junk Part 22

"It would not be wise to go near the sh.o.r.e now," said Mary, in a whisper to her brother. "You have nothing to fear from him."

Abel glanced at the happy, contented face before him, and then turned to Bart.

"What do you say?" he asked.

"There's no harm in him," said Bart, with a suspicious look at the Irishman.

"Sure, an' ye'll find me very useful," said Dinny. "I was at say before I 'listed, so I can steer and haul a rope."

"Can you keep faith with those who trust you?" said Mary, quickly.

"An' is it a Kelly who can keep faith, me lad? Sure, an' we're the faithfullest people there is anny where. And, bedad! but you're a handsome boy, and have a way wid you as'll make some hearts ache before ye've done."

Mary started, and turned of a deep dark red, which showed through her sun-browned skin, as she flashed an angry look upon the speaker.

Dinny burst into a hearty laugh.

"Look at him," he said, "colouring up like a girl. There, don't look at me, boy, as if ye were going to bite. I like to see it in a lad. It shows his heart's in the right place, and that he's honest and true.

There, take a grip o' me hand, for I like you as much for your handsome face as for the way you've stood thrue to your brother and his mate.

And did ye come all the way from your own counthry to thry and save them?"

Mary nodded.

"Did ye, now? Then ye're a brave lad; and there ar'n't many men who would have watched night after night in that ugly bit o' wood among the shnakes and reptiles. I wouldn't for the best brother I iver had, and there's five of 'em, and all sisters."

Mary smilingly laid her hand on Dinny's, and gazed in the merry, frank face before her.

"I'll trust you," she said.

"And ye sha'n't repent it, me lad, for you've done no harm, and were niver a prishner. And now, as we are talking, I'd like to know what yer brother and number noinety-sivin did to be sint out of the counthry. It wasn't murther, or they'd have hung 'em. Was it--helping yerselves?"

"My brother and his old friend Bart Wrigley were transported to the plantations for beating and half-killing, they said, the scoundrel who had insulted and ill-used his sister!" cried Mary, with flas.h.i.+ng eyes and flaming cheeks, as she stood up proudly in the boat, and looked from one to the other.

"Wid a shtick?" said Dinny, rubbing his cheek as he peered eagerly into Mary's face.

"Yes, with sticks."

"And was that all?"

"Yes."

"They transported thim two boys to this baste of a place, and put chains on their legs, for giving a spalpeen like that a big bating wid a shtick?"

"Yes," said Mary, smiling in the eager face before her; "that was the reason."

"Holy Moses!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Dinny. "For just handling a shtick like that.

Think o' that, now! Why, I sent Larry Higgins to the hospital for sivin weeks wance for just such a thing. An' it was a contimptibly thin shkull he'd got, just like a bad egg, and it cracked directly I felt it wid the shtick. And what did you do?" he added sharply, as he turned to Mary. "Where was your shtick?"

"I struck him with my hand," said Mary, proudly.

"More sorrow to it that it hadn't a shtick in it at the time. Sint ye both out here for a thing like that! Gintlemen, I'm proud of ye. Why didn't ye tell me before?"

He held out his hands to both, and, intruder as he was, it seemed impossible to resist his frank, friendly way, and the escaped prisoners shook hands with him again.

"And now what are ye going to do?" said Dinny, eagerly.

"We don't know yet," said Abel, rather distantly.

"That's jist me case," said Dinny. "I'm tired of sogering and walking up and down wid a mushket kaping guard over a lot of poor divils chained like wild bastes. I tuk the s.h.i.+lling bekase I'd been in a skrimmage, and the bowld sergeant said there'd be plinty of foighting; and the divil a bit there's been but setting us to shoot prishners, and I didn't want that. Now, ye'll tak me wid ye, only I must get rid o' these soger clothes, and--look here, what are ye going to do wid thim chains?"

"Get rid of them," said Abel, "when we can find a file."

"I did not think of a file," said Mary, with a disappointed look.

"There's plinty of strange plants out in these parts," said Dinny, laughing, "but I never see one that grew files. Only there's more ways of killing a cat than hanging him, as the praste said when he minded his owld brogues wid a glue-pot. Come here."

He took off his flannel jacket, folded it, and laid it in the bottom of the boat, but looked up directly.

"Ye've got a bit o' sail," he said, "and there's a nice wind. Where are you going first?"

Mary looked at her brother, and Abel glanced at Bart.

"Ye haven't made up yer minds," said Dinny, "so look here. About twenty miles out yander to the west there's a bit of an island where the overseer and two officers wint one day to shute wild pig and birds, and I went wid 'em. Why not go there till ye make up yer minds? It's a moighty purty place, and ye're not overlooked by the neighbours' cabins, for there's n.o.body lives there at all, at all, and we can have it our own way."

"Wild pig there?" said Abel, eagerly.

"Bedad, yis, sor; nice swate bacon running about on four legs all over the place, and fruit on the trees, and fish in the say for the catching.

Oh, an' it's a moighty purty little estate!"

"And how could we find it?" cried Mary.

"By jist setting a sail, and kaping about four miles from the sh.o.r.e till ye see it lying like a bit o' cloud off to the south. Sure, and we could hang our hammocks there before night, and the mushket here all ready to shoot a pig."

"Yes," said Mary, in response to a glance from her brother.

"Then I'll hoist the sail," said Bart.

"Nay, let the boy do it," said Dinny, "and you come and sit down here.

I'll soon show you a thing as would make the sergeant stare."

Dinny drew a large knife from his pocket, and a flint and steel. The latter he returned, and, taking the flint, he laid his open knife on the thwart of the boat, and with the flint jagged the edge of the blade all along into a rough kind of saw.

"There!" he said; "that will do. That iron's as soft as cheese."

This last was a slight Hibernian exaggeration; but as Mary hoisted sail, and Abel put out an oar to steer, while the little vessel glided swiftly over the sunlit sea, Dinny began to operate upon the ring round one of Bart's ankles, sawing away steadily, and with such good effect that at the end of an hour he had cut half through, when, by hammering the ring together with the b.u.t.t of the musket, the half-severed iron gave way, and one leg was free.

"Look at that, now!" said Dinny, triumphantly, and with an air of satisfaction that took away the last doubts of his companions. "Now, thin, up wid that other purty foot!" he cried; and, as the boat glided rapidly toward the west, he sawed away again, with intervals of re-jagging at the knife edge, and soon made a cut in the second ring.

"Keep her a little farther from the sh.o.r.e, Abel," said Mary, in a warning tone, as the boat sped westward.