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said, but there they took him up and asked if he

were sure.

"I say I am the longest man in the island,' he said, and on that I'll bet my substance.'

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"They laid down the bed-plates of a big drink then and there, and put it aside while they called Jock Coan from his house, near by among the fireflies' winking.

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"How's a' wi' you?' said Jock, and came in by the side o' the Sacramento profligate, two inches, or it may have been one, taller than he.

"You're long,' said the man, opening his eyes. But I am longer.' An' they sent a whistle through the night an' howkit out Sandy Vowle from his bit bungalow, and he came in an' stood by the side o' Jock, an' the pair just fillit the room to the ceiling-cloth.

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"The Sacramento man was a euchre-player and a most profane sweerer. You hold both Bowers,' he said, but the Joker is with me.'

"Fair an' softly,' says Nailor. 'Jock, whaur's Lang Lammitter?'

"Here,' says that man, putting his leg through the window and coming in like an anaconda o' the desert furlong by furlong, one foot in Penang and one in Batavia, and a hand in North Borneo it may be.

"Are you suited?' said Nailor, when the hinder end o' Lang Lammitter was slidden

through the sill an' the head of Lammitter was lost in the smoke away above.

"The American man took out his card and put it on the table. Esdras B. Longer is my name, America is my nation, 'Frisco is my resting-place, but this here beats Creation,' said he. 'Boys, giants -side-show giants — I minded to slide out of my bet if I had been overtopped, on the strength of the riddle on this pasteboard. I would have done it if you had topped me even by three inches, but when it comes to feet yards—miles, I am not the man to shirk the biggest drink that ever made the travellers'-joy palm blush with virginal indignation, or the orang-outang and the perambulating dyak howl with envy. Set them up and

continue till the final conclusion.'

"O mon, I tell you 'twas an awful sight to see those four giants threshing about the house and the island, and tearin' down the pillars thereof an' throwing palm-trees broadcast, and currling their long legs round the hills o' Larut. An awfu' sight! I was there. I did not mean to tell you, but it's out now. I was not overcome, for I e'en sat me down under the pieces o' the table at four the morn an' meditated upon the strangeness of things. "Losh, yon's the breakfast-bell!"

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"BRUGGLESMITH"

"BRUGGLESMITH "1

This day the ship went down, and all hands was drowned but me.-Clark Russell.

THE first officer of the Breslau asked me to dinner on board, before the ship went round to Southampton to pick up her passengers. The Breslau was lying below London Bridge, her fore-hatches opened for cargo, and her deck littered with nuts and bolts, and screws and chains. The Black McPhee had been putting some finishing touches to his adored engines, and McPhee is the most tidy of chief engineers. If the leg of a cockroach gets into one of his slide-valves the whole ship knows it, and half the ship has to clean up the mess.

After dinner, which the first officer, McPhee, and I ate in one little corner of the empty saloon, McPhee returned to the engine-room to attend to some brass-fitters. The first officer and I smoked on the bridge and watched the lights of the crowded shipping till it was time for me to go

1 Copyright, 1893, by D. Appleton & Co.

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