Jack and His Seven Foes — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

JACK AND HIS SEVEN TOES, No food eased the craving of hunger, or water passed his parched hps. His agony cannot be described, and only faintly imagined. He hoped for a time that some pass- ine vessel would see the ‘ Albatross,” and come to his rescue, and one indeed, unseen by the villains, did cross his * track. But the “ Albatross” was not a wreck. She had all her sails set, and, with lashed helm, kept in her course; and with an anguish that can only be faintly imagined, he saw the stranger pass y: That night he despaired, and wept bitterly ; in the morning he was light- headed, and had visions of men walking on the sea. He saw his father, his brother, and Bob Stubbles, the mate, walking hand- in-hand, and cried out to them aloud. They smiled upon him, and beckoned, but kept away, and by-and-by faded in the distance. “Deserted by all,” cried Jack, “I am left to die.” The events of the past hours never entirély left him. They were felt to the end until he became insensible. He had been as one dead for five hours when the ‘‘ Albatross”’ grounded. His rescuers succeeded in restoring him to consciousness, but at first he did not speak. They were no more real to him than the shadowy forms he had seen upon the sea. “ Tt is all a dream,” the boy thought, ‘‘and by-and-by I shall awake on board the ‘‘ Albatross,’ and find father and Whulhe alive and well.” Vain hope! all was too real. They laid him in one of their huts that opened seaward, and the cool, re- freshing breeze gradually restored his lost wits. By degrees everything came back, and with it a trembling that threatened dissolution: hey had brought some spirit from the ‘ Albatross,” ‘and Jacob Sturmby gave him a little diluted with water. He swallowed it slowly, and then spoke jor the first time; but he did not know his own voice, so changed was it. “ Whete am 1?” he asked. “On the southern neck of California,” replied Jacob Sturmby. “ This place is known as Tallow Bay, at least, that’s the 23 name we give it.” ‘And you saved my life,”’ Jack said. “My lad, we ve done our best.” “T thank you.” He lay back, and closed his cyes to think. So it was all real. The mite death of his father and brother were not thines he had dreamed of, but the sad,. terrible reality. The sufferings he had endured were not the offspring of fancy, and he had lived through it all. lor what ? Vengeance ! So strong a hold upon him had the thirst to avenge, that ere he could par- take of food, he was thinking of his” foes. One and all should die. He would be the medium of the earthly retribution, and as they had meted out suffering, so should it be measured to them acain. “T will live,” he ‘said, and with that resolve, forced Remseld into calmness, lest his passion should kill him, and his foes live triumphant. He knew nothing of their being 80. near him, and it was owing to “the wisdom of Jacob Sturmby that he was kept in ignorance of it. ‘‘Tf the lad heard of it,” he said to his comrades, ‘he might die of mortal terror.” It was a natural thought, but he under-estimated Jack’s spirit. He would not haye died of terror, but the feeling of impotent fury that would have laid hold of him might have been fatal. When the seven were retreating, Jack heard their happily fruitless firing, and unmusical yelling. His eyes asked what was going on, and Jacob Sturmby answered him— ‘“Tt’s only a birthday we're keeping, and when we get on high jinks, we are rather noisy.” “Tt is my birthday,” said Jack; “yesterday I was dead—to-day I live again.’ * His recuperative powers were marvel- lous. When evening arrived, he could sit up a little, and he told them the story of the ghastly mut iny and murder on ia d the “‘ Albatross.’ It was a strange, impressive scene. conmicoookks (CO)