The Kidnapping of Peter Cray Author:Robert Leighton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE SEVERED ROPE. " TTALLO, Mr. Shannon, what is the whaleboat towing JL astern for? Nobody's going to be put ashore at any of these islands, ... more »are they ?" The mate shook his red head and smiled at the boy through his bushy red beard. "No," he responded, as he bit half an inch off a twist of very black tobacco. " I don't reckon anyone would relish being marooned on the Gilberts—not on any of the miserable atolls at this end of the group, anyhow. The natives hereabout have no fancy for strangers, except when they're nicely cooked. They ate up the whole crew of a pearling schooner three years ago, and we always give them a wide berth. No! You see, the boat's planks were getting a bit warped by the heat, so we've put her in the water to cool her down and prevent her from leaking." Peter watched the white-painted whaleboat as it rose and fell on the swell of the barque's wake, and he thought how enjoyable it would be were he lying at her bow with the cool, refreshing spray splashing about him. " Mayn't I get down aboard of her, Mr. Shannon ?" he pleaded. But the mate had already gone out of hearing. There was a dispute going on forward among some of the hands on the main deck. The two chief disputants were the Malay cook and a Kanaka seaman. Sinclair, the Scotch carpenter, was vainly trying to arbitrate between them in whaleship English. " What's all that row down there ?" demanded the mate. "Jim, what are those two niggers quarrelling about?" Jim Trinder was one of the ship's boys—a cockney waif, who had been making the voyage to Van Dieman's Land in a convict ship, and had somehow been cast adrift on one of the Phoenix Islands, thence to be rescued by Captain Cray. He stepped to the foot of the poop-ladder and looked up at the mate. " Wy, si...« less