Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader by R. M. Ballantyne (guided reading books txt) 📕

can laugh at a fellow-creetur in such an hour. You had better get the murder over as soon as ye can. I am ready—Stay! one moment more. I had a’most forgot it. There’s a letter here that I want one o’ you to take charge of. It’s the last I ever got from my Susan, an’ if I had taken her advice to let alone havin’ to do with all sandalwood traders, I’d never ha’ bin in such a fix as I am this day. I want it sent back to her with my blessin’ and a lock o’ my hair. Is there an honest man among ye who’ll take in hand to do this for me?”

As he spoke, a young man, in a costume somewhat resembling that of a sailor, pushed through the crowd, leaped upon the deal table on which Jo stood, and removed the noose from his neck.

An exclamation of anger burst from those who surrounded the table, but a sound something like applause broke from the crowd, and restrained any attempt at violence. The young man at the same time held up his hand and asked leave to address them.

“Ay! ay! let’s hear what he has got to say. That’s it; speak up, Dan!”

The youth, whose dark olive complexion proclaimed him to be a half-caste, and whose language shewed that he had received at least the rudiments of education, stretched out his hand and said—

“Friends, I do not stand here to interfere with justice. Those who seek to give a pirate his just reward do well. But there has been doubt in the minds of some that this man may not be a pirate. His own word is of no value; but if I can bring forward anything to shew that perhaps his word is true, then we have no right to hang him till we have given him a longer trial.”

“Hear! hear!” from the white men in the crowd, and “Ho! ho!” from the natives.

Meanwhile the young man, or Dan, as some one called him, turned to Bumpus and asked for the letter to which he had referred. Being informed that it was in the inside pocket of his jacket, the youth put his hand in and drew it forth.

“May I read it? Your life may depend on what I find here.”

“Sartinly, by all manner of means,” replied Jo, not a little surprised at the turn affairs were taking.

Dan opened and perused the epistle for a few minutes, during which intense silence was maintained in the crowd, as if they expected to hear the thoughts of the young man as they passed through his brain.

“Ha! I thought so,” exclaimed Dan, looking up and again addressing the crowd. “At the trial yesterday you heard this man say that he was engaged at San Francisco by Gascoyne on the 12th of April last, and that he believed the schooner to be a sandalwood trader when he shipped.”

“Yes, yes, ho!” from the crowd.

“If this statement of his be true, then he was not a pirate when he shipped, and he has not had much time to become one between that time and this. The letter which I hold in my hand proves the truth of this statement. It is dated San Francisco, 11th April, and is written in a female hand. Listen, I will read it, and you shall judge for yourselves.”

The young man then read the following letter, which, being a peculiar as well as an interesting specimen of a love-letter, we give verbatim et literatim:—

“Peelers farm near Sanfransko Aprile 11.

“For John bumpuss, aboord the Skooner fome

“my darlin Jo,

“ever sins you towld me yisterday that youd bin an gaged yerself into the fome, my mind has bin Onaisy. Ye no, darlint, from the our ye cald me yer own Susan—in clare county More betoken—iv bin onaisy about ye yer so bowld an Rekles, but this is wurst ov all. Iv no noshun o them sandlewood skooners. The Haf ov thems pirits an The other hafs no beter. Whats wus is that my owld master was drownded in wan, or out o wan, but shure its All the Saim. Down he wint an that wos the Endd.

“now Deer jo don’t go to say in that skooner i beseech ye, jo. Ye towld me that ye liked the looks o the cappen an haited the looks o the Krew. Now deer, take warnin, think ov me. Think ov the words in the coppie book weev writ so often together at owld makmahons skool, eevil emunishakens Krupt yer maners, i misrember it, but ye no wot id be sayin’ to ye.

“o jo Don’t go, but cum an see me as soon as iver ye can

“yours til deth.

“Susan.

“P.S. the piggs is quite livly but ther not so hansum heer as in the owld country. Don’t forgit to rite to your susan.”

No one can conceive the indignation that swelled the broad chest of honest John Bumpus when he listened to the laughter with which some parts of this letter were received.

“Now,” said Dan, “could any man want better proof than this that John Bumpus is not a pirate?”

This question was answered by a perfect yell from the crowd.

“Set him free; cut his cords!” cried a voice.

“Stop, friends,” cried a big coarse-looking man, leaping on the table and jostling Dan out of the way. “Not quite so fast. I don’t pretend to be a learned feller, and I can’t make a speech with a buttery tongue like Dan here. But wot I’ve got to say is—Justice for ever!”

“Hurrah!” from some of the wild spirits of the crowd. “Go on, Burke,” from others.

“Yes, wot I say is—Justice for ever! Fair play an’ no favour: That’s wot I say!”

Another cheer greeted the bold assertion of these noble sentiments.

“Now, here it is,” continued Burke, becoming much excited, “wot’s to hinder that there letter bein’ a forgery?—ay, that’s the word, a forgery? (Hear! hear!) got up a-purpose to bamboozle us chaps that ain’t lawyers. D’ye see?”

Burke glanced at Dan and smote his thigh triumphantly as he said this.

“It does not look like a forgery,” said Dan, holding up the letter and pointing to the writing. “I leave it to yourselves to say if it sounds like a forgery—”

“I don’t care a farthin’ dip for yer looks and sounds,” cried Burke, interrupting the other. “No man is goin’ for to tell me that anybody can trust to looks and sounds. Why, I’ve know’d the greatest villain that ever chewed the end of a smuggled cigar look as innocent as the babe unborn. An’ is there a man here wot’ll tell me he hasn’t often an’ over again mistook the crack of a big gun for a clap o’ thunder?”

This was received with much approval by the crowd, which had evidently more than half-forgotten the terrible purpose for which it had assembled there, and was now much interested in what bid fair to be a keen dispute. When the noise abated, Dan raised his voice and said—“If Burke had not interrupted me, I was going to have said that another thing which proves the letter to be no forgery is, that the post-mark of San Francisco is on the back of it, with the date all right.”

This statement delighted the crowd immensely, and caused Burke to look disconcerted for a few seconds; he rallied, however, and returned to the charge.

“Post-marks! wot do I care for post-marks? Can’t a man forge a post-mark as easy as any other mark?”

“Ah! that’s true,” from a voice in the crowd.

“No, not so easily as any other mark,” retorted Dan, “for it’s made with a kind of ink that’s not sold in shops. Everything goes to prove that the letter is no forgery. But, Mr Burke, will you answer me this—if it was a forgery, got up for the purpose of saving this man’s life, at what time was it forged? for Bumpus could not know that he would ever need such a letter until yesterday afternoon, and between that time and this there was but little time to forge a letter from San Francisco, post-mark and all, and make it soiled and worn at the edges like an old letter. (‘Hear!’ and sensation.) More than that,” cried Dan, waxing eager and earnest, “if it was a forgery, got up for this purpose, why was it not produced at the trial? (‘Hear! hear!’ and cheers!) And, last of all, why, if this forgery was so important to him, did John Bumpus forget all about it until he stood on this table; ay, until the rope was round his neck?”

A perfect storm of cheers and applause followed this last sentence, in the midst of which there were cries of “You’re floored, Burke! Hurrah for Bumpus! Cut the ropes!”

But although John’s life was now safe, his indignation at Susan’s letter having been laughed at was not altogether allayed.

“I’ll tell ye wot it is,” said he, the instant there was a lull in the uproar of voices. “If you think that I’ll stand here and see my Susan’s letter insulted before my eyes, you’re very far out o’ your reckoning. Just cut them ropes an put any two o’ ye’r biggest men, black or white, before me, an’ if I don’t shew them a lot o’ new stars as hasn’t been seed in no sky wotiver since Adam was a little boy, my name’s—”

Up to this point Jo was heard, but the conclusion of his defiance was drowned in roars of laughter.

“Cut the ropes,” shouted the crowd.

Dan drew a clasp-knife from his pocket, and with one stroke set Bumpus free.

“Shoulder high,” yelled a voice; “hurrah!”

A wild rush was made at the table. Jo’s executioners were overturned and trampled under foot, and the table, with himself and his young advocate sprawling on it, was raised on the shoulders of the crowd and borne off in triumph.

Half-an-hour later, Bumpus was set down at the widow’s door. Mrs Stuart received him with a scream of surprise and joy, for she had given him up as a lost man.

“Now, then, Mrs Stuart,” said Jo, throwing himself on a chair and wiping the perspiration from his forehead, “don’t make such a fuss about me, like a good creetur. But do get me a bit o’ bacon, and let’s be thankful that I’m here to eat it. Cut it fat, Mrs Stuart; cut it fat; for it’s wonderful wot a appetite I’ve got after such a mornin’s work as I’ve gone through. Well, well, after all that yer friends have said of ye, Jo Bumpus, I do believe that yer not born to be hanged?”