The Island School — page 110: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MORSE ON THE DEFENSIVE. ‘The bear!” shrieked a voice behina him from one of the men of the group. They faced about, and beheld Charley approaching at a lumbering trot, with his big tongue lollmg out and his eyes fixed upon the men with an expression the very reverse of friendly. They broke away to the right and left, each man for himself. One essayed to climb a tree, but slip- ping, fell upon his back, where he lay, yelling im alarm. Another plunged his head into the thick of a | cluster of bushes and prayed to the saints to protect him. | him, for Charley, happening to pass close by the would-be hidden man, gave him a smack with his huge paw that extracted from him a shriek of fear- ful intensity. Others boltedinto the wood and were seen no more for hours. But Charley was not on murder bent. He had been lingering in the wood in search of food, and was in a hurry to rejoin his friends. So he pursued his way and went lumbering down the slope. Giuseppo, who had managed to keep fairly cool, watched Charley’s progress with interest, for he thought, and fondly hoped, that the beast was bent on attacking the boys. But wnen he saw him over- take the sroup and caper about like a pleased dog, he grasped the real position. “ A tame bear,” he muttered, and then cursed his own cowardice. He now felt more humiliated than ever, but drew some satisfaction from the belief that in the City of the Dead the boys would meet their fate. He saw them pass through the gates at.the bottom of the slope, and momentarily expected to see the curse work upon them. But although he lost sight of the boys a few moments he presently saw them again climbing up a flight of steps that led toa higher thoroughfare. So far from suffering from any curse, they appeared to be in the highest spirits, and squatting downon the summit of the steps, they proceeded to partake of breakfast, served out to them by Romeo. “The legend is a le,” muttered Giuseppo. “ Fool that I have been to be scared by a tame bear, and to be held back by a belief in an idle tale! But I have them now. Let them but linger till the night comes, and then my time of revenge will have come.” Turning to one of his men, he bade him go with a comrade to gather such fruit and herbs as they could find, with which they could make a shift for food. “ Why not return to the sea ?” they asked discon- tentedly. “Our way lies across the island,’ he answered, Af but we rest here until to-morrow.” The saints either did not hear or refused to heed eh) The men obeyed him unwillingly enough, but they knew his disposition to resent anything approaching insubordination, and refrained from openly rebelling ~ against his authority. | Giuseppo conceived a plan of watching through the day, and when the night came down, if the boys were still there, stealing into the city and avenging the death of his men and his own discomfiture. | The old superstitious dread.of the city was gone. He saw at last it was but a legendary fraud. The boys who had played such havoc with his plans should clie. AS CHAPTER XLIV. MORSE ON THE DEFENSIVE. {/fHEN Giuseppo conceived in ‘| his mind that he and his men had followed the boys without their suspecting it, he originated a very errone- ous idea. Morse and his friends were fully aware of having an enemy on their Cr all They expected it to be so from the outset, as the reader is aware. Jim, ere he went for the launch, was certain it would be so. Therefore, when Morse led his party through the wood he was on the alert for signs of the Spainards being in pursuit. It was Charley, the bear, that seemed to have an in- stinctive idea all through of something being wrong, and by that same instinct became aware of the ap- proaching foe. By choice the intelligent brute lingered in the rear, and at intervals turned to scan the backward route with critical eye, and ears bent at a listening angle. At length it took to lingering behind for a time and then trotting back to the boys, and it was on one of these occasions it staggered Giuseppo by awaiting his coming, seated on its haunches, and its huge paws raised in the air. No doubt in that attitude it was a most formidable- looking beast, and coming as a surprise to the smug- cler, his fear was very natural. It was a yell he uttered that, reaching the ears of Morse, told him that the enemy in verity had followed them. From that moment Morse was on the alert, without betraying the fact. “Goon ahead as quickly as you can,” he said to his friends, “ and don’t look back. I can see what is going on behind me without turning my head.” “Have you eyes all over your cranium?” asked Terry. ad; 1” eS pair LST Te Z aa) 00 aa cS (@( @) (el @)