FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  
e behind me, and as I turned I became aware of a face peering out at me from a dense bank of creepers, as a voice whispered: "Is your gun loaded, Mas'r Harry?" "You here, Tom!" I exclaimed. "Course I am!" said Tom indignantly. "What else did I come out here for if it wasn't to take care of you? And a nice game you're carrying on-- playing bo-peep with a fellow! Here you are one minute, and I says to myself, `He won't go out this morning.' Next moment I look round, and you're gone! But this here sort of thing won't do, sir! If you're going on like this I shall give notice to leave, or else I shall never get back alive." "Why not?" I said, laughing at his anxious face. "'Cause of these here rambling ways of yours, sir." "And if I take care, pray what danger is there in them, Tom?" "Care--care!" echoed Tom. "Why, that's what you don't take, sir. I'm `Care,' and you leave me at home. You don't say, `Come and look after me, Tom,' but go on trusting to yourself, while all the time you're like some one in a dream." "But what is there to be afraid of, Tom?" "Sarpints, sir!" "Pooh, Tom! We can shoot them, eh?--even if they are a hundred feet long! Well, what else?" Tom grinned before he spoke. "Jaggers, sir!" "Seldom out except of a night, Tom." "Fevers, sir!" "Only in the low river-side parts, Tom. We're hundreds of feet above the river here." "Snakes in the grass, sir!" "Pooh, Tom! They always glide off when they hear one coming." "Not my sort, Mas'r Harry," said Tom in an anxious whisper. "They're a dangerous sort, with a kind of captain, and he's a half-breed. If you will have it, and won't listen to reason, you must. Mas'r Harry, there's snakes in the grass--Indian-looking chaps who watch your every step, sir. You haven't thought it; but I've always been on the look-out, and as they've watched you, I've watched them. But they got behind me to-day, Mas'r Harry, and saw me; and I don't know what to think--whether Muster Garcia has sent 'em, or whether they think you are looking for anything of theirs. You don't think it, Mas'r Harry, but at this very minute they're busy at work watching us." I started slightly at one of his remarks, but passed it off lightly. "Pooh, Tom!" I said. "Who's dreaming now?" "Not me, Mas'r Harry. I was never so wide awake in my life. I tell you, sir, I've seen you poking and stirring up amongst the sticks and stones in all so
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

watched

 

anxious

 

minute

 
stirring
 
poking
 

Fevers

 
whisper
 

sticks

 

coming

 

Snakes


dangerous
 

captain

 

hundreds

 

stones

 

dreaming

 
Muster
 

Garcia

 

remarks

 

slightly

 
started

passed

 
watching
 

lightly

 

Indian

 

snakes

 

reason

 

thought

 
listen
 

fellow

 

playing


carrying

 

moment

 

morning

 

creepers

 

peering

 

turned

 

whispered

 

indignantly

 

Course

 

exclaimed


loaded

 

notice

 

afraid

 

Sarpints

 

Jaggers

 

Seldom

 
grinned
 

hundred

 

trusting

 

rambling