Poison Island

lodgings. It was painted in spirals of scarlet and blue, and at the

rplexing. To the right of the alley the barber had affixed his signboard, close above the base of his pole; to the left a flanking slo

Carpenter and Ho

ecuted. Instructi

hortest Notice. S

kiss me, kiss me, kiss me! Oh, you nasty ima

p with a pannikin of water for the parrot's cage, which he lowered very deftly by means of a

the cage-door, and caresse

said I, "it's Captain

ed the bird. "Damn my

in, and that's a fa

pear to, sir

The barber eyed me doubtfully. "He's sober enough, just now; been swearin off

but was too far c

h the brass knocker. He's out at the back, hammering at his ship,

d thoroughfare; from the entrance the parrot vociferated after me as I went down the passage beneath an open window whence an invisible violin repeated the opening phrase

in Coffin. He wore a dirty white jumper over his upper garments, and held a formidable mallet. I observed that either his face was unnaturally white or the rims of his eyes were unnatura

y Brooks! Glad to see y

se to bolt as he shook me by the hand, so hot wa

d ye here?" he asked, as h

the head of the passage. I

such a bird-" Captain Coffin broke off. "I had a two-three nails in my mouth wh

elf was clean, almost spick and span, with a seaman-like tidiness in all its arrangements-a small room, crowded with foreign odds-and-ends, among which I remember a walking-stick even more singular than the one Captain

end Coffin." He leaned back, still eyeing me, and tapped me twice

k you

his shoulder at the tulip-painted cupboard. "Brooks," he went on earnestly, "you and me being met on a matter of busi

n the table and brimmed them with neat spirit before I had finished protesting. The bott

his eyes. "Well, so be it-if you've kept off it at your age. But at mine"- he drank off the second glassful and wiped his

holding the glass, yet so tremulously

em lyin' tossed in a heap like mullet in a ground-net. Ay, and blazin' on the beach, with the gulls screamin' over 'em and flappin', and the sea all around. I seen it with these eyes, boy" He stood

wistful hope-fairly frightened me, and I stammered stupidly that death was the common lot, and there couldn't be a doubt of it; that or something o

way and stretched out both hands, crooking h

But you were talki

in the sand- Did ever you hear, boy, of a poiso

, s

ead. They knew. And the sea and the dreadful loneliness around us all the while. There was three of us, Brooks-I mention no names, you understand-three of us, and him. Three to one. Yet he got the better of us all-as he got the better of the first lot, and they must ha' been a dozen. Four of them we uncovered

, and, glancing about him, p

nd maybe from half a mile to three-quarters off the shore, which shoals thereabout-sand, all the lot of 'em, and nothin' but sand; sand and sea-birds, and-w

d his breast, and wagged his

an oldish man, anyway, and life on that cursed island can't be good for his health. We won't go in a crowd this time, neither; not a dozen, nor yet four of us, but o

rway behind the dresser, but halted and came back to the t

ch-an'-six, with nothing to do but loll on cushions for the rest o' your days, an' pick your teeth at the crowd. And look ye here." He waved a hand around the room. "I'm old Danny Coffin, ain't I? poor old drunken Danny Coffin, eh? Yet cast an eye about ye. Nice fittin's, ben't they? Hitch down my coat off the peg there; feel the cloth of it; take it between finger and thumb. Ay, I don't live upon air, nor keep hou

fell in two slanting rays, one on either side of a dark object which all but filled the

in shape very like a whaleboat, and in measurement-so Captain Coffin informed me, with a proprietary wave of the hand-some twenty-nix feet over all, with a beam of nine feet six inc

on my lines, lad. Climb up and cast your eye over the well I've put in her. That's for the treasure; and there'll be side-lockers round the stern-sheets, and a locker forward big enough to hold a man. The fellow don't guess their meanin', an' I don't let him guess. He thinks they're for air-compartments, to keep her

with an extremely good-natured face nodding at us across the coping of the party-wall. "Avast th

nce," answered Captain Coffin, pate

leg over the wall, heaved himself over and into the back yard. "But it's taking advan

said Captain Coffin. "By the way, Brooks, t