LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 408, 2 October 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A CUT IN THE DARK

( Concluded.)

‘ ‘ Well, they gave me a’great welcome, and told me to sit down and make myself comfortable ; and we had a regular jollification. The Yankee spun some queer yarns that made us all laugh, and I sung ’em one or two of my mate’s songs ; and, altogether, we were as thick as thieves. At last the sun began to go down ; and then I thought it was about time for me to be stirring. “ Gammon ! ” says the big sandy-haired chap. ‘ The bush ain’t run dry yet ; what the blazes are you in such a hurry for ?’

“You stop a little bit yet, Johnny,” says the Greek (these heathens always call everybody Johnny, you know), ‘ by-by we hab supper, little game cards play—eh ?’ ‘ ‘ And with that he gave me a tap on the side with the back of his hand, as if in play. It was no more than any man might have done ; but it struck me all at once that he did it to feel if I wore a belt; for in that climate, men don’t wear thick leathern belts under their clothes for the fun of it ; and, if I had one, there was safe to be something in it.

“ Well, this put me more and more on my guard, and I began to think I’d better not have come at all, as one always does when it’s too late. However, to make the best of a bad job, I up and said I’d had a very jolly evening, and must have another soon ; but that now I’d get to go and see if my partner had turned up yet ; for I thought they wouldn’t be so game to play any tricks if they fancied they’d got two men to deal with. So then Master Greek says to me. “ ‘Well, Johnny, you take parting glass before you go—that much proper.’ “And with that he opens a fresh bottle, turning his back while he did it. I guessed directly what he was up to, but I never let on that I spotted him ; and I pretended to smack ray lips over it, and think it very good, but in reality I managed to spill most of it into my beard, which was a good thick un. But by the drop or two I did swallow, I tasted that it was drugged, just as I thought. “So then I said good night, and came away, wishing very much that my partner would turn up ; for I didn’t much like the idea of having these three beauties on my hands all at once, However, when I got to the tent there was no sign of him ; so I lighted a candle (for it was pretty dark by this time), and sat down to tailor-up my clothes a bit, by way of passing the time. “ I’d been working about an hour, as near as I could guess, when I bethought myself that if I kept the light burning, they might pot me through the canvas ; for, with a light behind you, your shadow shows through a tent just like through a blind; so I lay down on my blanket, took off my jacket, and put it under my head, and then blew out the light and waited. “ I don’t know how long I lay there in the dark (it seemed long enough to me, I know that) when, all at once, I heard somebody breathing close by the tent. I had heard no footstep, nor anything of that sort ; but my ears are pretty sharp (especially when my life depends on keeping ’em cocked), and I was sure I heard this breathing. “ ‘ Here they come !’ thought I, and fisted hold of my revolver, when—blest If I had’nt forgotten to load it ! “There was no time to think about it. The very next moment I heard the canvas quietly ripped, aud a hand came sliding in, right towards the place where my head had been a minute before, and where my clothes (and the belt with ’em) ought to be. “ Now, there was a big log on that side of the tent, aud I’d nailed the canvas to it to keep it firm, and over this log the hand came creeping. I watched till the wrist showed white in a stray gleam of moonlight that came through the hole, aud then grabbed my hatchet and came down with one good blow that chopped the hand clean off!

“ Then came a yell that I never heard the like of, and a sound of feet pattering away. I ran to the door and looked out; but the fellow’s screech had roused the whole camp, and there was such a rush from all the tents —some in their shirt-sleeves, some in their stocking feet, and many with nothing on at all—that I had no chance of seeing which way my man went. In the crowd I caught sight of a man I knew, and sang out to him —

“ ‘ Sam, my boy, come into my tent for the rest of the night, and I’ll stand you a quart! “ Done with you,’ says he, and in he came ; and we kept watch till sunrise. But nothing came near us, and about daybreak my partner turned up. So then I took my revolver, and went to look after my three beauties ; but, just as I had expected, they and their tents were clean gone, and I never saw any more of ’em. “Now then, here comes my relief ; so I’ll just go down and turn in.”