FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36  
37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   >>   >|  
n in the end." "But I've got their goat," the captain insisted. "When trouble's hatching, I go straight to them and tell them what. They can't get the hang of it. Think I've got some powerful devil-devil medicine." Tom Haggin thrust out his hand in abrupt good-bye, resolutely keeping his eyes from dropping to Jerry in the other's arms. "Keep your eye on my return boys," he cautioned, as he went over the side, "till you land the last mother's son of 'm. They've got no cause to love Jerry or his breed, an' I'd hate ill to happen 'm at a nigger's hands. An' in the dark of the night 'tis like as not he can do a fare- you-well overside. Don't take your eye off 'm till you're quit of the last of 'm." At sight of big _Mister_ Haggin deserting him and being pulled away in the whaleboat, Jerry wriggled and voiced his anxiety in a low, whimpering whine. Captain Van Horn snuggled him closer in his arm with a caress of his free hand. "Don't forget the agreement," Tom Haggin called back across the widening water. "If aught happens you, Jerry's to come back to me." "I'll make a paper to that same and put it with the ship's articles," was Van Horn's reply. Among the many words possessed by Jerry was his own name; and in the talk of the two men he had recognised it repeatedly, and he was aware, vaguely, that the talk was related to the vague and unguessably terrible thing that was happening to him. He wriggled more determinedly, and Van Horn set him down on the deck. He sprang to the rail with more quickness than was to be expected of an awkward puppy of six months, and not the quick attempt of Van Horn to cheek him would have succeeded. But Jerry recoiled from the open water lapping the _Arangi's_ side. The taboo was upon him. It was the image of the log awash that was not a log but that was alive, luminous in his brain, that checked him. It was not reason on his part, but inhibition which had become habit. He plumped down on his bob tail, lifted golden muzzle skyward, and emitted a long puppy-wail of dismay and grief. "It's all right, Jerry, old man, brace up and be a man-dog," Van Horn soothed him. But Jerry was not to be reconciled. While this indubitably was a white- skinned god, it was not his god. _Mister_ Haggin was his god, and a superior god at that. Even he, without thinking about it at all, recognized that. His _Mister_ Haggin wore pants and shoes. This god on the deck beside him was
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36  
37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Haggin

 

Mister

 
wriggled
 

attempt

 

months

 

succeeded

 

recoiled

 

possessed

 

happening

 

related


vaguely
 

sprang

 

terrible

 

quickness

 

awkward

 

recognised

 

unguessably

 

expected

 

repeatedly

 

determinedly


reconciled

 

indubitably

 

soothed

 

skinned

 

superior

 

recognized

 

thinking

 

dismay

 

luminous

 
checked

reason

 
Arangi
 

inhibition

 

muzzle

 

golden

 

skyward

 

emitted

 

lifted

 

plumped

 

lapping


caress

 

return

 

cautioned

 

dropping

 

mother

 

happen

 

nigger

 
keeping
 

resolutely

 

trouble