The Perils of Certain English Prisoners | Page 9

upon the Island, without any exception. I
took no particular notice of more than a few, but I found it very
agreeable in that little corner of the world to see the children, who were
of all ages, and mostly very pretty--as they mostly are. There was one
handsome elderly lady, with very dark eyes and gray hair, that I
inquired about. I was told that her name was Mrs. Venning; and her
married daughter, a fair slight thing, was pointed out to me by the name
of Fanny Fisher. Quite a child she looked, with a little copy of herself
holding to her dress; and her husband, just come back from the mine,
exceeding proud of her. They were a good-looking set of people on the
whole, but I didn't like them. I was out of sorts; in conversation with
Charker, I found fault with all of them. I said of Mrs. Venning, she was
proud; of Mrs. Fisher, she was a delicate little baby-fool. What did I
think of this one? Why, he was a fine gentleman. What did I say to that
one? Why, she was a fine lady. What could you expect them to be (I
asked Charker), nursed in that climate, with the tropical night shining

for them, musical instruments playing to them, great trees bending over
them, soft lamps lighting them, fire-flies sparkling in among them,
bright flowers and birds brought into existence to please their eyes,
delicious drinks to be had for the pouring out, delicious fruits to be got
for the picking, and every one dancing and murmuring happily in the
scented air, with the sea breaking low on the reef for a pleasant chorus.
"Fine gentlemen and fine ladies, Harry?" I says to Charker. "Yes, I
think so! Dolls! Dolls! Not the sort of stuff for wear, that comes of poor
private soldiering in the Royal Marines!"
However, I could not gainsay that they were very hospitable people,
and that they treated us uncommonly well. Every man of us was at the
entertainment, and Mrs. Belltott had more partners than she could
dance with: though she danced all night, too. As to Jack (whether of the
Christopher Columbus, or of the Pirate pursuit party, it made no
difference), he danced with his brother Jack, danced with himself,
danced with the moon, the stars, the trees, the prospect, anything. I
didn't greatly take to the chief-officer of that party, with his bright eyes,
brown face, and easy figure. I didn't much like his way when he first
happened to come where we were, with Miss Maryon on his arm. "O,
Captain Carton," she says, "here are two friends of mine!" He says,
"Indeed? These two Marines?"--meaning Charker and self. "Yes," says
she, "I showed these two friends of mine when they first came, all the
wonders of Silver-Store." He gave us a laughing look, and says he,
"You are in luck, men. I would be disrated and go before the mast
to-morrow, to be shown the way upward again by such a guide. You
are in luck, men." When we had saluted, and he and the lady had
waltzed away, I said, "You are a pretty follow, too, to talk of luck. You
may go to the Devil!"
Mr. Commissioner Pordage and Mrs. Commissioner, showed among
the company on that occasion like the King and Queen of a much
Greater Britain than Great Britain. Only two other circumstances in that
jovial night made much separate impression on me. One was this. A
man in our draft of marines, named Tom Packer, a wild unsteady young
fellow, but the son of a respectable shipwright in Portsmouth Yard, and
a good scholar who had been well brought up, comes to me after a spell
of dancing, and takes me aside by the elbow, and says, swearing
angrily:

"Gill Davis, I hope I may not be the death of Sergeant Drooce one
day!"
Now, I knew Drooce had always borne particularly hard on this man,
and I knew this man to be of a very hot temper: so, I said:
"Tut, nonsense! don't talk so to me! If there's a man in the corps who
scorns the name of an assassin, that man and Tom Packer are one."
Tom wipes his head, being in a mortal sweat, and says he:
"I hope so, but I can't answer for myself when he lords it over me, as he
has just now done, before a woman. I tell you what, Gill! Mark my
words! It will go hard with Sergeant Drooce, if ever we are in an
engagement together, and he has to look to me to save him. Let him say
a prayer then, if he knows one, for it's all over with him, and he is on